Affiliate Marketing - An Introduction - Part 1

Introducing Affiliate Marketing

I have many friends who have told me of friends, of friends, of friends, that have made loads of money selling something on the Internet. In fact, a friend told me her father had started selling “mosquito coil holders’ (basically a triangle made out of steel, I kid you not!) using ebay.

She is now racking her brains: “What can I sell on the internet”.

I told the answer: “Anything you feel like”.

She, like many others, believed that you need to invent something new, and manufacture it. Or buy loads of stock from a wholesaler (I have another friend who was intent on buying 1000’s of Ugg boots to sell on the internet, I kid you not again!), in the hope to turn a profit on the Internet.

Unless you have experience in this kind of business in the ‘offline world’ it is probably a bad move to take it to the online world.

Instead, Affiliate Marketing is a great introduction to the world of Internet Marketing, simply because the internet is practically made for this type of marketing. Affiliate Marketing is simply the means for you to ‘introduce’ other people’s products to your audience.

There is NO OUTLAY.
There is no need to buy any goods upfront.
You do not need to provide customer service.

In fact it is so simple, the actual ‘selling’ side of it is a cinch.  The difficult side to Affiliate Marketing is the ‘audience bit’.  You need to find an audience who will listen to you, and think to themselves ‘Hey, this guy seems to know his stuff. I trust him’. And then you can suggest he try this, or buy that. That is Affilaite Marketing in a nutshell: ‘suggest’ to an audience what to buy to answer their problem/question.  The rest is all done for you and results in a cheque delivered to your door automatically.

In a way, we are all affiliate marketers, without even knowing it.

EXAMPLE: Myself, I like to horse-ride.  And I have been riding quite a bit in my life. I have never taken a course, or obtained a qualification in horse-riding, but I enjoy it. Recently, I was at a friend’s house when she had visitors.  The visitor had noticed my riding hat in my car parked outside and started asking me questions about my experience with horses. I enthusiastically told her as much as possible, and answered as many of her questions as possible.  It turned out she had a problem with her horse.  I suggested she buy a certain piece of tack to solve the problem, and gave her directions to the shop where she could buy the item.

Voila! I just did an affiliate sale.

The only difference is, I did not get paid for my advice.  If we take the whole conversation to the online world it would go like this:

I set up a website on the topic of ‘horse-sense’ and start writing lots of articles and interesting bits of information about horses.  I research popular questions people search the Internet for. “How do I stop my horse bucking”. “Is there a product which will make my horses coat more shiny”.  I then start answering those questions, using those very same keywords.

I also pop in a little link to an ‘affiliate product’ such as an e-book which explains how to re-train the horse to stop bucking, and “super-glow”, the shiny shampoo for horses.

My audience thinks my advice is great so far, and will likely click on the link to check out the product I am ‘recommending’. That link will magically monitor what that ‘customer’ does. If they buy the product I suggested, then a commission will be awarded to me and I will receive a cheque.  In some cases, even if the customer does not buy straight away, but then comes back a few weeks later, I will still get a commission if they buy!

I have done nothing other than ‘suggest’, just like I did in my friend living room a few weeks ago.  But this time I am earning money.

Affiliate Marketing is simple, however, that does not mean easy.

In the next couple of weeks, keep an eye out on this blog for some more insights into affiliate marketing and some plain advice and tips on

How to Get Started
Choosing Products to Promote
Affiliate Links
Getting an Audience
Converting to Sales
Building Lists
Use of Opt-in Affiliate Marketing
PPC in your Affiliate Business
Increasing your Affiliate Cheques
Affiliate Mistakes to Avoid

Meanwhile, please feel free to leave comments on this blog with any specific questions or feelings on this subject, so I may be able to address them.