So you’ve decided to try your hand at affiliate marketing?
If so, congrats! Making the decision to build a profitable online business is the first step to achieving it! Fortunately, there are a ton of great resources out there to help you figure out how to learn affiliate marketing, and in this post I’ll walk you through many of the best options available.
If you’d rather have a step by step guide, you might want to check out my free beginning affiliate marketing course.
In the rest of this post I’ll look at the best ways to learn affiliate marketing, and how to decide which method is right for you.
How To Learn Affiliate Marketing Basics
The first task you’re going to want to do before creating your first affiliate website is to learn affiliate marketing basics.
By learning the basics, I mean that you need to understand how affiliate marketing works and how to find a good opportunity to earn affiliate income online. You’ll want to know the basic characteristics of what makes a topic a high potential niche, and how to choose a website topic that both interests you, has the ability to generate a real revenue stream, and doesn’t have too much competition.
You can check out the free email course I have offered here on this site, or else see one of my top ranked options, like Wealthy Affiliate or Affilorama.
How To Learn Affiliate Marketing Fast
The second thing to consider when you’re setting out to learn affiliate marketing is how fast you need and/or want to dive in.
It’s important to realize that affiliate marketing is (with rare exceptions) not an overnight route to success. You’re not going to start making hundreds of thousands of dollars by the end of the month. You can, however, build up a real second income over time, and it’s very realistic to grow your business to provide a full time income in less than a year.
That said, there are ways to speed up the process. The best advice I have to you is to choose a reputable program, and follow along with the tasks provided step by step. This will save you a ton of time browsing through blogs and getting conflicting advice and opinions about how best to proceed.
The reality is that there’s more than one way to be successful with affiliate marketing, but learning a single, comprehensive route to success first is going to be your quickest way to meet your income goals.
How To Learn Affiliate Marketing for Free
Another consideration that is at the top of many new affiliate’s minds when they first start out is what type of budget they need to have in order to learn the skills they need to be successful.
The reality is that there are two answers to this question.
The first answer is that yes, you can master affiliate marketing using only free resources. I offer a free course right here on this site, and many of the other top beginner options have free courses that can get you started. You should read this post for information about free affiliate marketing programs beginners should join, or watch the video below for a sneak peek of what’s included in the 10 free classes you’ll get when you sign up for the free course offered here at Affiliate-101.
The second, more complicated answer is that it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to launch your entire business for free. Even the barest budget needs to account for domain and hosting costs, which are usually around $50-70 a year. But, aside from that, you’re also probably going to want to invest in your education.
Many of the top programs are available for less than $50 a month, with significant (up to 50%) discounts if you commit to the platform for a full year. In my view, the cost is definitely worth it, because by following a clear and consistent program, you’ll be able to start making money with your website sooner. The difference in your earnings will more than pay for the cost of your investment.
How To Start Your First Affiliate Marketing Website
Another point to consider is that the act of learning affiliate marketing can be as simple as starting your first website and figuring it out for yourself. While I don’t recommend you go it 100% solo, I do strongly recommend that you take a learning by doing approach to your affiliate business.
There are very few mistakes you could make that would mess up your business in the long term, and by getting the hands on, active experience, you’ll be able to apply the information you’ve learned from other blogs and courses.
The secret here is to take action. Far too many people think about starting their first affiliate marketing website, invest their time in money into learning about how to succeed, but never actually take the steps necessary to ensure their success. In other words: they think about doing it, but they never actually get started!
That’s why I think simply starting your first site is so important. Chances are, it won’t be your last, nor your most successful, but it will be the first step towards your success! Read this post to learn more about how to start a new website.
The Best Way To Learn Affiliate Marketing
So, what’s the best way to learn affiliate marketing?
To me, it’s really quite simple:
- Get the information you need
- Follow a clear plan and course of action
- Take consistent action and work on a real site.
The best way to learn is to take action. Find a course. Follow the steps outlined. Achieve success. It’s that simple.
If you follow these three steps, and commit to building your business, I guarantee you will succeed with affiliate marketing.
To get started and learn more about the free resources available to you right here on this site, click the link below:
