Without a doubt, the thing that I enjoy the most about my business is that I can work from home. As a matter of fact, I can work from anywhere in the world! For the past several years, I’ve built and grown my business from the comfort of an RV as I traveled the United States. Just recently, I finally decided to call San Diego my home base.
With the ability to run my affiliate business from home, I don’t have to deal with rush hour traffic, office politics, and most importantly, it gives me more time to spend doing the things that I truly love to do. Making the lifestyle change from working the brutal hours I was working as a long-haul truck driver meant everything to me, which is why I am passionate about helping others run their affiliate business from home. Trust me, if I was able to start earning a full time living through affiliate marketing, so can you. No, it won’t be quick and no, it won’t be easy, but it can work for anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort required.
Anyone can run an affiliate business from home if they have a computer, internet connection, develop some very basic technical skills, and are willing to learn about internet marketing. Here are some tips on how to get started.
Realize That This Is A BUSINESS
You’re not just “starting a blog” or “building a website”. You are starting a business! You have to go into it with this mentality if you are serious about succeeding. It’s fine to “test the waters” so to speak and see if this is right for you as the risks are extremely low. However, if you are truly serious about earning a full-time living through affiliate marketing, you must treat it as a business. No business is quick or easy to build and affiliate marketing is no exception. There are plenty of people who will tell you that it’s easy to make money with affiliate marketing, but I’m not that guy. Is it possible? Yes, but it’s going to be hard work.
Set Up Your Home Office
This sounds like a simple enough task, but I cannot recommend it more when you are looking to run an affiliate business from home. Setting up a home office gives you the space to differentiate from your home life and your work life. If you have a spare room to turn into an office, great, but even if you live in a small apartment, or in my case a small RV, pick a quiet corner, a special table or desk, or any area that can be used to establish the routine of running your business. Also, make sure that your household members understand that when you are in your workspace, you are at work and are not to be disturbed. This includes your pets, who, believe me, can be the biggest distractions in the house. Running an affiliate business from home can come with the pitfalls of distraction, from that pile of unwashed laundry to your children playing loudly. So make sure that you establish clear boundaries so you can work and really build your business.
Figure Out Your Niche
I think the most important thing to decide when you are just starting building your affiliate business from home is figuring out your niche. We all have special knowledge that can be shared with the world. Whether you can offer great parenting advice, explain to people how to rebuild a carb, or love watching sci-fi movies, no matter your interest, you have an expertise. Figuring out how that expertise applies to a market niche will not only give your brand authority and help you sell related products, but you’ll enjoy what you do every single day. I have a range of affiliate websites that delve into my different interests and expertise areas, so I’m always excited to get to work and share my knowledge with my audience.
Create A Website Or Blog
Next, is kind of a no brainer. You can’t be an affiliate marketer without a website or a blog. I mean, is it possible to have an affiliate marketing business based entirely on social media or YouTube or some other source? Sure, you could even technically earn a living through affiliate marketing without ever going onto the internet! But setting up a website is the absolute best way to earning a living online and it’s the main way I earn my living. Starting your first affiliate marketing website can be really intimidating if you have no web design skills and are just starting out. Luckily there are plenty of programs that can help you if you’ve never built a website. I worried quite a bit about this before starting my affiliate business from home because I was not a web designer at all, so I can certainly relate. If you have the time and resources to dedicate to it, sign up for a great training program like Wealthy Affiliate. They don’t only help you build your website, but they help with niche selection, market research, web hosting, domain registration, and everything else that goes into growing an online business. So don’t be intimidated, check them out to see how they can help you build and manage your first website. Once you learn the basics, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can build more and more sites to extend your reach and have a higher chance of making money as an affiliate. Otherwise, if you’re just looking for a free step-by-step way to build a great looking website from scratch, check out the video below!
Learn About Different Affiliate Programs
Once you have your website, you’re going to have to learn about the different affiliate programs available to pick which one is right for you. Most popular online stores have an affiliate program, so you should really think about what brands best represent your niche market. Another option is to partner with a large retailer like Amazon, Target, or Walmart. Then you can have a wide range of products to offer with your website. Once you’ve decided on your affiliate partner, you just have to seamlessly integrate these advertisements into your content and encourage your readers to check them out. Again, if you want more advanced training on how to properly sell products and services online through your website, check out Wealthy Affiliate for the best training.
Create Engaging Content
Once you have your niche and your products figured out, you’ll need to start creating tons and tons of content. Your content can be anything from photographs to videos to blog posts, but what I recommend most is good ol’ fashion written content. Without a doubt, content creation is key to your success. Without great content on your site, you’ll never gain enough visitors to earn any sort of significant living online. You want to make sure that any content you create is high quality, interesting, and relevant to your audience. You also need to create as much content as possible and keep updating the content on your website routinely. For more advice on this, check out my article on how to create great content for your website or blog.
Market Your Affiliate Website
The best way to market your affiliate website is actually free! You want to rank highly in search results where people will find your site and visit at no cost. Preferably, these visitors will be highly targeted and “ready to buy” visitors that you can refer to earn commissions. The best way to promote your site in search engines is to use something called SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. However, you shouldn’t just rely on search engines to bring you traffic. There are tons of ways to diversify traffic sources and while search engines are probably the best, other methods work well, too. The most popular is through social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest, but you can also look into things like Google Adwords and the Yahoo Bing Network located at Media.net. While paid advertising can be a bit risky and expensive, a working paid advertising campaign can make you a ton of money. In order to sell the affiliated products, you need to have readers one way or another. Attracting readers requires a lot of dedication and is as important as creating high quality content. My highest recommended way to achieve a huge number of website visitors over time is to use the CTPM process.
Measure Your Success
Next, you’ll need to measure your success, and quite honestly, your failures, too (some of the best lessons learned are through our failures). First look at the success of your content. Are there certain pieces of content that had higher viewership and lead to more conversions than others? What made those different than the pieces of content that had less viewers? Once you understand that you can create more content that is successful. It’s possible to get a glimpse into this if you start searching for things in your niche. For example, “top lists” are extremely important such as “the top 20 ways to make your dog happy” or “the top 12 places to travel in Europe” and things like that. In other niche industries, “how-to” articles are huge such as “how to make your own garden” or “how to jump start a car” or things like that. Just look at sites like tie-a-tie.net. Even a site about properly tying a tie can be a success if done right! You also want to look at how your marketing campaigns have worked. Do your posts on Instagram drive more traffic than your Twitter updates? If so, you should focus more on marketing with Instagram. The more you measure your success, the more you will understand what is and what is not working for your business.
Manage Your Business
Finally, and most importantly, remember that your affiliate business from home is like any other business. Meaning there will be taxes, routine work tasks, and some accounting work. So if you are looking to start an affiliate business from home, it’s also important to brush up on the basics of running a small business. Even though the overhead is low compared to a brick and mortar business, it’s easy to overlook the realities of running a business. At some point, you may find that one day you’ll have to hire people, find new avenues for profit, determine the best tax status, and all the other things any other traditional small business will do as they grow. So it’s a great idea to also learn the basics of running a small business while you build your affiliate business from home.
I really believe that starting an affiliate business from home is a great idea for everyone interested in making money with their passions. Whether you’re like me and go sick of the daily grind and want to find some freedom and independence, or you are just looking to make a little extra money on the side, starting an affiliate business from home is a great idea. So follow my tips and seek out the help of some experts like Wealthy Affiliate and you’ll be on your way to success in no time!
