Affiliate Marketing for Beginners

So much content shared on social media, newsletters, and blogs are recommendations. Experiences, hobbies, interests, and popular culture have become curated, each of us supporting or linking to businesses or products we enjoy. For creators with an audience who take their recommendations seriously, there’s a low-effort, low-risk way to monetize that effort: affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to passively make income by earning a commission from posting about other business’ products. For many, it’s a side hustle—another way to diversify income streams. For creators and influencers of all kinds with a sizable audience, partnering with brands or businesses through affiliate marketing links is a valuable way to bring in money and potentially broaden their reach. 

This guide will explain what affiliate marketing is for content creators new to the opportunity. It will explore where it shows up, how creators can benefit from affiliate marketing, and some best practices to make the most of it. 

What is affiliate marketing? 

Affiliate marketing is a marketing and sales model where a brand will tap a third-party—often a content creator or other public person—to promote a product or service. In exchange for promoting something from a brand on their personal social channels, creators or influencers get a commission of sales made from their referral link. This link is specific to the person using it and is individually tracked. 

For example, if a creator shares a post about an housewares brand with a link, and a follower clicks the link, that unique link will take them to the website where they can make a purchase. After the purchase, it’s recorded in an affiliate network. Once the transaction’s complete, the creator earns a commission. 

Where does affiliate marketing show up? 

The majority of affiliate marketing occurs wherever the creator or influencer may be posting or sharing content. Usually it’s social media, a personal website, newsletter, or blog. Often, it’s a mix, because creators may use multiple channels to reach a wide audience.

If you’ve ever clicked through an influencer’s posts about a specific product from a specific brand, the link they share to shop for it is likely an affiliate marketing link. Likewise, if you click links in an article or newsletter recommending products, those links are probably earning the publisher or creator some affiliate income.

Benefits of affiliate marketing

There are a number of benefits to trying affiliate marketing. If you’re a beginner to it, there are a few top advantages to the marketing tactic. 

Easy to set up

It’s relatively straightforward to get started with affiliate marketing. Once you’ve decided what brand or business fits as a partner for you, the most you need to do is submit an application or inquiry to an affiliate network or business. 

After you’re approved, you only need your unique link for the product. The content creation for the affiliate link is usually up to the creator or influencer, so you can build your links into your existing content plan. 

No product development

For many creators and influencers, there’s a conundrum of what to do with the audience power they’ve amassed. Some make their own products. Others continue to share information, curate recommendations, or post about their lives. 

Affiliate marketing is a low-risk, low-barrier to entry option for anyone with a following to make some money. If your audience already trusts your taste, making the jump to promoting products you already like is a good alternative to the long process of developing your own products and cultivating trust in them. 

Passive income, high earning potential

Once you’ve posted your affiliate link and you have a solid strategy to get traffic to your content, your commission from published content becomes a passive income source. As long as people continue to discover the content and buy from your links, you’ll keep earning commission. 

Without the responsibility of creating, storing, or shipping products, everything you earn is profit. The key is to choose partners that speak to your particular niche or audience. Depending on your audience, the income ceiling is high. 

7 steps to start affiliate marketing

Now that you know the principles of affiliate marketing, you can try it yourself. Start by considering your niche and content, then test and adapt as you go. 

1. Define your niche

Trying to appeal to everyone may mean you appeal to no one. Lean into the hobbies, interests, and ideas that helped bring in your audience. Consider where you can offer a certain level of authority that your audience will trust. Followers and users are much more likely to buy a product promoted by someone who embodies what they’re marketing rather than marketing it for the sake of it.

For example, a creator with a ceramics background may be interested in hand-crafted housewares like pinch pots. Partnering with a ceramics brand will offer a better chance of success because there’s an established connection between the category, brand, and their niche.

2. Find your partners

There are a couple of ways to join an affiliate marketing program with a brand. The first option is approaching brands you like that have affiliate marketing programs you can join. They’re usually free to join, but many have an application and approval process.

The next option is to join an affiliate marketing marketplace. Marketplaces are networks where you can browse popular brands and products with affiliate programs and apply. For beginners, this may be the best way to explore what’s available to you right away. 

When looking at the marketplace, consider your earning goals, especially from the outset, and see how much the earn-per-click (EPC) rate is before signing up. New creators may not see massive commission earnings right away, but you don’t want to be paid less than standard rates either. 

3. Choose your platform

There are a number of social media platforms, websites, and blogging platforms to choose to start your affiliate marketing opportunity. Choose a platform that suits your content and niche and is where you have an audience.

You’ll likely have the best success by tapping into types of content that your audience already watches and responds to. For example, a lot of lifestyle and fashion creators and influencers will add affiliate links to their content on social channels like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. Creators known for their writing might weave links into newsletters on channels like Substack or Squarespace Email Campaigns. Your own personal website is a good way to host links without having to manage social media algorithms or to collect past links for easy reference. 

4. Create interesting, quality content

High-quality content is a must for any brand or business. Even when we post on personal social media channels, we naturally seek out content that will entertain, interest, and engage our friends. It’s imperative to create affiliate marketing content that speaks authentically to you as a creator or influencer and what your audience is interested in seeing. 

For example, if a minimalist fashion-oriented creator starts creating content for an affiliate marketing opportunity with a brand focused on maximalism, users will likely be confused and not click the link. They may trust that creator’s future recommendations less, because the off-brand post could send a message that the creator will promote things that they don’t believe in themselves. 

The better your content blends your aesthetic and tastes with the brand you’re supporting, the more your audience will trust your recommendations and be interested in your affiliate content. 

5. Drive traffic and nurture your audience

Major affiliate marketing success depends on an abundance of traffic. The more clicks to your affiliate links, the higher chances of sales through your links. Consider how you can send traffic to your links on each platform you use.

Affiliate links don’t need a special callout, but that’s a fine approach if you take it. They can also be naturally integrated into your existing content pieces. Let’s consider the minimalist fashion creator again. If this creator shares monthly reviews or product tutorials on how to wear certain accessories, an affiliate link can easily be slotted in there. Year-end best-of-fashion lists are another great spot to add links.

Consider what your content looks like as is and whether there are natural ways to include links for your audience.

6. Track results

No marketing strategy is complete without performance reporting. Your affiliate program partner will track the stats needed to generate your commission, but make sure you’re monitoring your traffic, engagement, and link clicks yourself. Most platforms help you track this information on a dashboard to understand how often users are engaging with your content, if they’re clicking it, and how often. 

This data gives you immediate insight into what content or products your audience is most interested in. More purchases is a good indicator, but data from before a purchase is valuable too. Views can guide what kind of content you create, while a higher number of clicks that don’t end in a purchase might be a sign to rethink a product you’re promoting. 

7. Adapt

Affiliate marketing will require some trial and error, just like any other type of content. If you find certain affiliate marketing links aren’t getting clicked on often or the content isn’t as popular as your prior, non-marketed posts, it’s time to adapt.

Start by creating a baseline of performance. For example, you can use the last six months of engagement data, like opens, clicks, likes, and views, to compare with your affiliate marketing content. For clicks and conversion on your links, start with one month of data as a baseline and grow your timeline for comparison as you continue. Then, use the data available to you to compare and change your affiliate marketing strategy if you need to.  

Best practices for your affiliate marketing strategy

Over time, you’ll develop some personal best practices specific to your style of content and your audience. But these tips can offer some guidance for developing your own affiliate marketing strategy. 

Understand earnings and set expectations for monetization goals 

Not every affiliate marketing link is going to earn you thousands of dollars. Keep your expectations reasonable, especially if you’re starting out and if you’ve never tried to advertise to your audience before. 

A survey of content creators with large followings showed that 23% earned $100-500 in affiliate commission and 28% earned $1,000-5,000. Commission rates can also vary by brand. For example, if one person buys one pair of jeans that cost $70 and your commission is 1% on all sales of that product, you’d get $0.70 in commission. Set goals based on what seems realistic for your affiliate agreements and audience size. 

Build trust with your audience

People are marketed to all of the time. Ads are very nearly everywhere. Remember why your followers decided to follow you in the first place. Maintain their trust and provide value to show that you respect their time and support. 

Nearly 81% of consumers have embraced influencer or creator marketing. Users trust the recommendations from those they follow. Ensure you’re keeping and strengthening that trust and not providing hollow posts with links just for the sake of it. A good rule of thumb is to avoid recommending anything that you wouldn’t use yourself.

Know regulations for your platform

If you’re using affiliate links, it’s important to keep tabs on your own role and responsibility in what, if any, regulations or concerns there are for each platform you’re using. Regulations may also vary based on your location, especially around privacy and consumer data.

Disclosing to your audience that you’re posting an ad or in a partnership with a brand is also crucial. Check the guidelines for your platforms, but generally you’ll need ad disclosure to:

• Feature prominently so followers know that they’re looking at an ad

• Be consistent on every sponsored or affiliate post

• Have clear language about who the partner or brand is