There’s a lot of money in the affiliate marketing industry. On average, you can earn $8,038 per month.
An average ROI of $15 for every dollar invested in affiliate marketing is 1400%. So, how do you start with affiliate marketing from scratch?
Building a profitable affiliate business as a beginner can be a challenge.
In this guide, you will learn how and where to start your affiliate journey, especially if you don’t have a budget to begin with.
Why should you start an affiliate marketing business?
If you are still wondering what affiliate marketing is, it’s a popular marketing method to earn money by promoting products or services through affiliate links that generate sales, leads, or clicks.
There are numerous benefits of affiliate marketing for both participating parties—an affiliate and a company that runs an affiliate program.
Affiliate marketing can be a very profitable business model, and here are the main reasons you should start it:
1. The risk is low.
If you’re an affiliate, the only thing you lose if you don’t make people buy the things you promote is your time. There’s no fee to pay for not hitting your sales mark, just like there’s no fee for signing up for an affiliate program.
In the same way, businesses don’t have to pay a fee to an affiliate if they don’t generate traffic, clicks, leads, or land sales. In contrast, social media influencers charge a fee for a partnership with brands no matter how many or little sales they make.
2. Passive income.
Your goal is to create a vast selection of affiliate marketing content that will generate commissions months and years after creation.
Throughout the years, your affiliate content builds up into a solid platform that gives you credibility, domain authority, and reputation.
3. Flexibility.
As an affiliate marketer, you can work from anywhere in the world at any time. As long as you have internet connection, you can create content and live the life of digital nomad.
4. Win-win and win!
Not only do businesses make money from the sales you help to make, but you also make money through the affiliate programs you sign up for. Customers also benefit from well-crafted affiliate marketing.
Since affiliate content is very customer-centric and focuses on delivering as much value to your audience as possible, it helps them make informed purchases.
How to start with affiliate marketing: Your Step-by-step Guide
1. Choose a niche
When you’re just starting out, you need to think of the fundamentals of affiliate marketing. The basis on which you build your affiliate business is a niche.
A niche in affiliate marketing is a specific subject or set of topics in which you build your affiliate business.
The niche should be a combination of your expertise, knowledge, and skills, together with earning potential. Not all niches in affiliate marketing are paid equally.
The most profitable affiliate niches in 2024 are:
1. Money:
Products like credit cards, insurance, and investment services often have high commission rates.
Your content topics can include things like Bitcoin, mortgage, debt settlement, personal finance, credit cards, investing, and so on.
2. Fashion and luxury:
Beauty and fashion affiliate marketing is booming, and you need one look at TikTok and Instagram content to prove that.
Premium beauty and luxury fashion (handbags, watches, footwear) are particularly profitable since they are high-ticket items. It means that even a small commission percentage can bring you high earnings.
3. Beauty:
The beauty industry is enormous and continually growing, and it’s worth almost $430 billion in revenues across the globe.
What’s particularly appealing about this segment is the fact that the beauty industry is resistant to economic recession, known as the “lipstick effect.”
It’s due to the psychological motivation: as income declines during a recession, women purchase lipstick instead of clothing or jewelry in order to “treat” themselves in a more frugal way, the research shows.
The products you can promote with affiliate links typically include skincare products, cosmetics, beauty tools, and hair care. Product reviews and makeup tutorials are particularly popular content in this niche.
4. Health and lifestyle:
Products related to fitness, nutrition, and personal care have a strong demand and offer good affiliate opportunities. Your content topics can include weight loss, fitness, yoga, organic and vegan lifestyle, nutrition, and so on.
5. Travel:
Valued at $9.9 trillion, the travel and tourism industry accounts for 9.1% of the global GDP.
It’s also one of the highest paying niche in affiliate marketing. Products to promote include booking platforms for flights, hotels, travel insurance, tours, travel gear are known to have competitive commission rates, especially during peak travel seasons (summer and winter holidays.)
6. Home:
The home and garden market has seen significant growth, especially with more people spending time at home. Remote work is becoming a norm which further pushed this niche into popularity.
Common home niche products are home security devices, furniture, coffee, baby products, dogs, gardening.
7. Technology:
According to statistics by Statista, the global technology industry achieved a market value of approximately $5 trillion in 2021. Moreover, the global smartphone market alone is expected to reach $431.7 billion by 2022, which shows the rapidly growing industry.
This niche is very profitable because you can expect recurring commissions.
Many tech services, especially SaaS and VPNs, operate on a subscription model, offering recurring commissions as long as the customer remains subscribed.
What’s more, tech products often have high retention rates due to the essential nature of the services (e.g., SaaS tools). Customers are less likely to switch once they’ve integrated a service into their workflow.
Technology and software is a niche relevant to the global market unlike some other niches that are very localised. As a result, they have a consistent demand from around the world, making it a steady stream for potential customer.
Moreover, it typically has high customer retention rates.
Technology and software niche can include these products:
- SaaS Products: Cold outreach tools, project management tools, CRM software, email marketing platforms
- Gadgets: Smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, and other consumer electronics
- Online Courses: Tech-related tutorials, coding bootcamps, certifications
- Web Hosting: Hosting services, domain registrars, cloud services
- VPN Services: Virtual private network subscriptions
- Cybersecurity: Anti-virus software, firewalls, security audits
- Gaming
What is the best affiliate niche for you?
While some niches can generate more revenue than others, it’s crucial to chose a niche that has a long-term potential.
Which niches are the most sustainable in the long-run? The ones that you are:
- Genuinely interested in,
- Have expertise in,
- Have a good understanding of,
- Excited to keep up with its newest trends,
- Excited to be in for a long time (and don’t get bored).
The affiliate marketers who earn the most are all the experts in their niches, since they job requires consistent effort and sustained motivation.
Passion for a topic makes you create compelling and informative content. High-quality content attracts more traffic, keeps visitors engaged, and improves conversion rates.
2. Choose your affiliate program
Now that you know your niche, you can apply for an affiliate program.
Make sure there are no red flags that we covered in this article about whether the affiliate marketing is legit.
For example, if you are asked to pay for a sign up fee—it’s a scam. Also, before signing up make sure you carefully read through terms and conditions.
There are three main types of affiliate programs you can choose from:
1. Pay-Per-Sale (PPS): Affiliates earn a commission each time a referred customer makes a purchase. This is the most common type of affiliate program.
The main benefit is the potential for higher commissions because payouts are based on sales.
Examples: Amazon Associates, Shopify Affiliate Program, ClickBank.
2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC): Affiliates earn a commission each time a referred visitor clicks on a merchant’s link, regardless of whether the person makes a purchase.
The major benefit is the fact that it’s easier to achieve since clicks are simpler to generate than sales. Useful for websites with high traffic but lower conversion rates.
Examples: Google AdSense (though primarily an advertising program, it works on a PPC model).
3. Pay-Per-Lead (PPL): Affiliates earn a commission each time a referred visitor takes a specific action, such as:
- filling out a form,
- signing up for a newsletter,
- registering for a trial,
or any other measurable conversion that doesn’t involve a direct sale.
The good thing about this model is that it’s easier to achieve than sales since it involves a broader range of actions.
It can be particularly profitable if the leads are in high-demand sectors like finance, insurance, or education.
Examples: Affiliate programs for online services like credit score checks, insurance quotes, and educational course enrolments.
The highest paying affiliate programs in 2024 are:
1. Wishup
Commission: $2K for every hire.
Cookie duration: 90 days.
Niche: remote job marketplace.
2. SEMrush
Commission: $200 for each sale, 10% from trial activation.
Cookie duration: 120 days.
Niche: digital marketing.
3. Coursera
Commission: 15% to 45%, with bonuses for strong performance.
Cookie duration: 30 days.
Niche: e-learning.
4. TripAdvisor
Commission: Pay per click payout depends on factors like the given booking partner, hotel, seasonality, and length of stay.
For example, you can earn $60/month for 170 clicks sent to Tripadvisor, or $550/month for 870 clicks.
Cookie duration: 14 days.
Niche: traveling.
Commission: 1% to 10% depending on the product category.
Cookie duration: 24 hours.
Niche: lifestyle goods.
Commission: 1% to 4% of the sale.
Here’s the full rate card of eBay Partner Network where you can see how much you can expect to earn as an eBay affiliate:
Cookie duration: 24 hours.
Niche: lifestyle goods.
7. CJ Affiliate
Commission: from a few percent to over 50%.
Cookie duration: varies depending on the merchant.
Niche: broad.
8. Shopify
Commission: $150 for every referral to a full-priced plan.
Cookie duration: 30 days.
Niche: e-commerce.
9. lemlist
Commission: 10% to 20% on average revenue share commissions
For standard affiliate partners:
- 18% on monthly plans
- 20% on quarterly plans
- 22% on yearly plans
Niche: SaaS
10. NET-A-PORTER
Commission: up to 6% on net sales.
Cookie duration: 30 days.
Niche: luxury fashion.
3. Choose your affiliate channel
Affiliate marketing can be done on any platform:
- Website/blog
- YouTube
- Social media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok)
- Newsletter
- Podcast
- e-Book
However, if you’re just starting out as an affiliate marketer, we recommend first creating a blog (or a website).
It’s super useful for beginners because you can SEO optimize it to rank high on Google. As a result, you’d get passive organic traffic and consistent clicks on your affiliate links.
Here’s how to build an affiliate marketing blog:
1 Step: Choose a content management system, like WordPress or Wix.
WordPress is user-friendly, highly customizable, and has many themes that can help you create a professional-looking blog.It’s widely supported and used by both beginner and experienced bloggers.
Key Features: SEO-friendly, large community support, easy-to-use plugins like Yoast SEO for optimization, and WooCommerce for adding e-commerce functionalities.
2 Step: Get a web hosting service, like Bluehost, to host your files and organize your domain.
Bluehost is one of the most recommended hosting providers for WordPress, offering excellent uptime, customer support, and affordability.
Key Features: 1-click WordPress installation, free domain for the first year, 24/7 customer support, and a strong uptime track record.
3 Step: Get a keyword research tool, like Ahrefs or Semrush.
Alternatively, if you don’t have a budget for that, use Google Search Console, which also provides very solid insights into your blog’s traffic, including keyword analysis and rank tracking.
4 Step: Get an email marketing service or an email automation tool.
After your blog is running, you have to build an email list to directly communicate with your audience.
Direct emails are proven to work very well in nurturing leads, promoting your affiliate products, and keeping your potential customers in the loop.
For example, ConvertKit is designed specifically for bloggers and content creators, making it easy to segment your audience and automate email campaigns.
But if you want a more powerful tool for lead capturing that makes sure that your emails reach inboxes and get you replies, use lemlist.
It’s an all-in-one tool that builds your lead list with verified emails, writes personalized emails at scale, and uses multi-channel outreach for the biggest impact.
Among many affiliate marketing strategies, the most common one is to use various platforms at once. It can be a blog, a newsletter, an Instagram account, and email marketing to generate new potential customers.
Whatever communication channel you choose, the most important aspect to make it successful comes down to the content you make.
Learn how to create affiliate marketing content that makes people click on your affiliate links and convert in our in-depth guide.
4. Get traffic to your affiliate site
If you build your website or blog according to our guidelines, it must already be SEO optimized. But SEO by itself won’t do all the work for you.
To get constant traffic to your site, you must incorporate your affiliate links naturally in the content. This can be done through product reviews, product comparisons, how-to guides, best-of lists, and tutorials.
For a quick boost in traffic, you can run pay-per-click (PPC) ads. PPC Ads can be good for high-paying affiliate programs where you need high numbers, but that’s about it.
They can be a quick fix, but our advice is not to rely on them, since the costs add up and they dig into your revenue.
The most important thing is to make your site genuinely relevant. Address your audience’s problems and concerns, and make sure you answer their search intent.
Remember that in order to build trust and authority with your audience, you have to use a customer-centric approach. That means your blog’s interests should align with the interests of your followers.
If your blog is relevant, helpful, insightful, SEO optimized, entertaining, visually appealing, problem-solving, and engaging, you will surely get a lot of people coming to your page.
5. Be transparent
This one is the backbone of all affiliate marketing.
You have to disclose your affiliate links on all the platforms where you include them, no matter if it’s a YouTube video, a blog, or an Instagram post.
This is required by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since you receive income from an endorsement.
The FTC conducts investigations and brings cases involving endorsements made on behalf of an advertiser under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which generally prohibits deceptive advertising. (FTC)
According to FTC guidelines, “you should disclose your relationship to the retailer clearly and conspicuously on your site so readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement. You could say something like, ‘I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.'”
Moreover, “in some instances – like when the affiliate link is embedded in your product review – a single disclosure may be adequate.As for where to place a disclosure, the guiding principle is that it has to be clear and conspicuous.”
The rule of a thumb is – the closer the disclosure is to your recommendation, the better.
Here’s how to disclose your affiliate links:
1. In a website or a blog: you can write a disclosure in various places, including the top of the home page, the footer of a page, the dedicated affiliate disclosure page, the beginning of the article, and so on. Here are some examples:
2. On YouTube: add your disclosure in the description of the video:
3. On Instagram: you must include your disclosure in the post:
However, transparency about your affiliate relationships is not just a legal thing. Honesty builds trust in you, which is crucial for a sustained affiliate marketing career.
How much can you make as a new affiliate marketer?
Commission rates vary widely among affiliate programs.
High-ticket programs typically have higher rates and large commissions. Programs for lower-value products usually offer anywhere from 1% to 20% commissions on sales and are more frequent.
According to Niall Roche from Authority Hacker, here’s what you can earn depending on the affiliate marketer category you are in:
- Beginner – $0 to $1,000 per month
- Intermediate – $1,000 to $10,000 monthly
- Advanced – $10,000 to $100,000 per month
- Super affiliate – over $100,000 monthly
Based on that, we can conclude that when starting affiliate marketing you can make up to $1K per month.
Let’s take a look at another source.
The Influencer Marketing Hub ran a survey and found out that 3.78% of respondents earn more than $150,000 annually in affiliate income.
This is followed by 7.94% who made $100,000 to $150,000.
The majority of respondents (57.55%) were able to generate less than $10,000 of income from affiliate marketing.
The most important thing every beginner in affiliate marketing should know
There are many crucial tips you want to implement early in you affiliate career. Most of the affiliate marketers who generated big revenue went through trial and error.
But these days, we have plenty successful affiliate marketing examples to look at and learn from.
The most useful affiliate beginner tips are:
- Get to know your audience from the inside out and think like them.
- Stick to your niche, even if other niches may appear more tempting.
- Always aim for long-term goals (building trust, enhancing authority) rather than short-term fixes (paid ads, commission rates, etc.)
- Keep your eyes open for better affiliate programs all the time.
- Create and share your content on multiple channels.
- Aim for products that pay high commissions (but never promote products you don’t like or you don’t believe in!)
- Include a clear CTA, and use smart pop-ups, coupons, and deals.
- Negotiate your commission rate as soon as you have proven results.
- Learn from the best affiliate marketing examples but always keep it authentic.
Key Takeaways
Start your affiliate marketing business by:
- Choosing a niche
- Signing up for an affiliate program
- Choosing your affiliate channels
- Create content
- Drive traffic to your website
- Disclose your affiliate links at all time
How well you perform in these six steps determines how much money you will make as an affiliate. In the beginning, you shouldn’t expect to earn more than 1000$ per month.
