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Looking to learn how to start an online marketing business that will hopefully get you out of your 9 to 5 job or that will just earn some extra income for you and your family?
There are certain things you have to understand before starting an online marketing business or any business for that matter.
People make money because they get paid to solve problems. But if a problem is easily solved by many people, then the compensation to solve it will be small.
For example: Serving in a restaurant, Cleaning houses, Making coffee.
If there’s a big problem that most people don’t know how to solve, then the person who can solve it will get paid very well.
For example: Performing surgery, Winning a lawsuit, Acquiring new customers or Driving targeted traffic.
Now that last example doesn’t come to most people’s minds right away, but think about this…
Think of any business whether it’s B2B, B2C, physical products, digital products or non-profits… they all need customers. Because without customers, they go out of business.
Without their business, they can no longer to provide for their families.
When something means so much to someone, they’re willing to pay a lot of money to preserve it.
So, since there are hundreds of thousands of businesses both starting and failing each year, if someone had the ability to bring customers to those businesses and save them… how much do you think they could charge?
I’ve worked with different companies and brands that happily pay me because I can make them more money!
It is the law of reciprocal. You deliver value and bring in new customers to companies you want to work with and you get paid for your efforts. This business model is called affiliate marketing.
Most people like to grip and complain about how competitive the market is.
But they tend to forget that it’s not about competition. It’s all about how well you can do your part.
I have come to learn that the biggest competitor is myself. Strive every single day, to beat your own record!
Everybody’s aiming for the top but few are willing to climb the stairs.
How to start an online marketing business depends entirely on YOU and your determination to succeed.
How much work are you willing to put in?
In this article, I’m going to discuss the elements of how to start an online marketing business with simple bite size pieces that I believe will give you tons of ideas.
If you’re just starting out, pay close attention because this is going to be so helpful to you.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Earlier on, I mentioned something about affiliate marketing.
Reason being, it is the best marketing business model that anyone can start off with minimum effort and investment.
Affiliate marketing is actually my favorite model of business and is what I’ve used to build a 4 figure monthly online income.
So what is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is performance based type of online marketing in which money is earned in a form of commission after a purchase of a given product or service is made from your promotional efforts.
And according to me, it is the best way to start an online marketing business. It is free to start and doesn’t require complications such as support, refunds, product creation, inventory, cold calling, or even selling.
The affiliate marketing process involves 3 parties.
The Merchant (i.e. Target, Amazon, etc) – Responsible for the general advertisement of products and services through the affiliate marketing networks.
The Affiliate (i.e. You or Me) – They are also called partners or publishers. They’re responsible for promotion of the merchant’s products or services in a variety of ways on the internet.
The Affiliate Network (i.e. CJ.com, ShareASale, etc) – These are websites that host the merchant’s product and services (offers). They act as middlemen who connect the advertiser to the affiliate.
Affiliates are free to sign up to these networks or private affiliate programs (affiliate programs that are not available on any affiliate network and are offered directly from the company itself) with the aim of identifying promotional products to promote.
Affiliate networks offer a wide variety of products from thousands of companies in many market segments and there are thousands of affiliates who can promote these products.
The Final Consumer (i.e. Visitors You Promote to) – This is the visitor who’s lured to the merchant’s offer by the affiliate. When the visitor makes a purchase, the affiliate is rewarded for his/her efforts by means of earning a commission.
Commissions vary depending on the merchants terms of agreement. They offer from 1% to 100% commissions to affiliates, it just all depends on the company offering it, the products involved, etc.
However, there are some merchants who like to evade affiliate networks and instead create their own in-house affiliate program (private affiliate programs as mentioned).
By doing so, they create a circle of trusted partners/affiliates and eliminate any issues associated with affiliate networks and fees.
Being an affiliate is so awesome. You literally get to own rights to promote products and services that you never created. A lot of online marketers including myself use this business model to generate daily passive income.
However, many people who start an online marketing business fail within the first couple of months. This is mainly because of one simple thing: “Wrong approach”.
If you do not focus on one thing you are going to be lost in the maze. And trust me; this online maze is very hard to get out of.
There are many latest shiny object programs being launched on a daily basis promising to help you become a millionaire.
So if you’re not careful, you could end up jumping from program after program with nothing solid to show for it. I’ve been there too and tasted the bitterness. But I never let hope deter from my heart! And neither should you!
The right approach to Affiliate marketing?
Like I mentioned earlier, I leverage the power of affiliate marketing to make passive income online. It’s not that I’m anything special.
In fact I’m the least of these. I don’t have a day job; I’m simply a stay-at-home mother of two living with a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection.
Anyway I had only one responsibility and that was to learn the ABC’s of affiliate marketing. This business model might seem easy on paper because the concept is indeed easy and easy for anyone to get started in.
With an earnings calculator, you can see yourself as a millionaire in a couple of months. However, this isn’t the case at all.
You have to be able to perform in the field to see any kind of results and a huge part of that is having the right approach for long term success.
Let’s take it deeper…
PICKING A NICHE
Why is picking a niche important? So as to do your job to the best of your ability.
A niche is always something you are absolutely comfortable with. A topic you can work on all day, everyday!
The word focus and niche are much related.
Focus: “the centre of interest or activity”.
The ability to pick a niche for your business depends on focusing on the centre of your interests.
If you cannot do that, think of millions of interests out there. Still can’t find one? Okay let’s back up a little bit.;
Can you identify problems you can solve? That shouldn’t be so hard!
Remember, people get paid to solve problems!
Are you passionate? (passion always destroys competition)
Can you assess the profitability of your niche by examining trends and markets like Amazon, Clickbank, Facebook?
Consider this…
Google Search
This is the simplest and free to use feature that few people know of and utilize.
It is as easy as going to Google and typing in your idea of a niche, i.e “dogs” or “dogs” then space and then a typing letters A to Z, simultaneously until you find a keyword or phrase that you like.
Google will bring up random selection results by adding keywords and phrases.
I was blown away by results that I saw and even had never thought of.
This is how easy it is to find a niche in any market.
So after you get your preferred niche idea or keyword, I usually note them down so as not to forget them.
CREATE A WEBSITE
After picking your niche and crafting a nice domain name from it, the best way to move forward is creating a website around your niche.
Affiliate marketing model of business always cries out for a website to go alongside it, contrary to popular belief.
That is why many fail to achieve long term success in their business.
Right up to this time, I’m still building websites and making tons of money putting affiliate marketing in between. It is a no brainer really. A website is foundation for long term business success and I’m living proof it works!
So how does a website create long term business success?
With a website, you have multiple ways to make money such as;
- Affiliate Marketing
- Display Ads
- Banner Ads
- Memberships
- Sponsored Posts
- Guest Posts
- Consulting
- Your Own Products
- Sponsored Links
Content
How do you start creating content?
Order: “the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern or method” or “an authoritative command or instruction”.
View content like the merchandise in your store. Without content, you’re toasted! because you don’t have visitors.
But what kind of merchandise is in your shop? Before starting to create content for your business, you need order.
There’s need for precise arrangement and structure of your content to make it appealing to your customers. Just like you’d expect good service when you visit a restaurant.
Whether it’s writing a great article, making a YouTube channel, creating videos, sending an email, writing an ad copy or social media post.
You want to have an orderly array of properly laid out content that will prompt a one time visitor to return to your website (business).
Additional business points to consider; (How to attract customers)
When dealing with affiliate marketing, you want to be as creative as you can be. Customers are important to your business because they are potentially the source of your commissions.
You’ve done your niche research, created a beautiful website, and created content. So how do you attract customers to your business?
I’m going to explain how to attract customers with 2 simple marketing strategies:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When you first create your website, it is not visible on the internet. But when you optimize it for SEO, you are boosting its presence within organic search results.
If you master this skill, there’s no need to pay advertising fees to attract customers to your business.
You can set your on-page SEO as well as installing relevant plugins like All in One SEO. And you can also create your content with a specific structure and targeting specific keywords.
This is the best strategy to learn if you’re a beginner and on a budget.
- Scarcity
If you can master the art of scarcity, this strategy is “checkmate” in business.
Why is this?
It’s because you’ll be preying on human nature and psychology (not maliciously of course).
It is said that the less available something is, the more valuable people perceive it to be, and the more they want to have it.
People especially do not like to miss out on something that other people have, and this forces them into taking action quickly.
This always happens especially if a product or service is only available for a very brief period of time.
This is proven human nature and as an affiliate, using this strategy can lead to incredible sales and profits in a short period of time.
How does it work?
It is very simple. As you consider marketing your business opportunity whether it’s through email, social media or blog, the less available you portray a given product or service, the more it proves to work in your favor.
Prelaunch
As you march further into your online marketing business, you’ll want to use this strategy in your business as well, just like scarcity.
Consider this…
Samsung, Apple or Marvel do not just put a new product on sale just out of nowhere.
They spend weeks and even months, “pre-selling” – meaning, they release tiny pieces of information like demos, teaser videos, trailers, images.
This is done so as to build hype and buzz until the target audience is ripe and ready to take action and purchase.
The “online marketing encyclopedia” states that most people generally need to see an offer at least 3 times before making a purchase decision.
This make it easy to sell to them as they are primed and convinced to buy because pressure is been taken off of them.
This is called pre-launch phase.
You must note that this strategy isn’t ideal for beginners because you do not have an audience yet.
However, later on you are going to build a list of subscribers. It can be an email list, a Facebook group or page, a YouTube channel, name it… this is when implementing a pre launch strategy works effectively.
HOW I STARTED MY ONLINE MARKETING BUSINESS
If you have been following me for sometime you would know that I scream from the rooftops that one of the keys to success is training, then hard work, then consistency, and finally taking action at the right time and not letting it pass by.
I would say success loves speed, but what I really believe is success loves people who are decisive and follow through until the end.
You have to understand that there’s no such thing as get rich quick… there’s no such thing as something for nothing either and there’s definitely no such thing as overnight success.
Success takes continual commitment, and showing up daily. I know I’m saying this a lot but it’s worth repeating! People hardly get this.
For me, it took 18 months of showing up daily, and doing the work to start seeing real results.
Like I said, I make four figures passive income every month with affiliate marketing, but I didn’t achieve it overnight.
However, I had to be disciplined enough to get the education and training to have my dream business come to reality.
I had to learn that it’s better to learn how to fish than to be given fish.
Everything I’ve learned and write on all my websites today is credited entirely to training.
I would like to offer you a starting point in your online career. I want to help you reach the heights I’m on and even higher.
I want to offer you the same exact affiliate marketing training platform that I use still to this day as I help others learn how to start an online marketing business as a Coach.
You can find where this training platform is right here in my free guide:
My free guide will show you everything about that training platform as well as the bonuses I offer to you if you were to sign up with me.
You’ll certainly get me, a Super Affiliate, as your coach if you sign up with me.
I hope I can help you in the near future!
For any questions or inquiries on how to start an online marketing business or anything else, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below. I always answer my readers ☺
Let’s make money online!
