Affiliate Marketing Tutorial For Beginners 2024 (Step by Step)

Summary

In this comprehensive affiliate marketing tutorial, Greg Gottfried guides viewers through the basics of affiliate marketing, sharing personal insights and strategies. He explains the concept of partnering with companies to earn commissions through unique referral links. The video covers beginner-friendly methods like leveraging search engine optimization and YouTube, building social media audiences for product promotion, and the advanced 'spend' strategy involving paid advertising. Gottfried emphasizes the importance of choosing the right strategy based on one's skills and lifestyle, providing a detailed overview for those looking to start in affiliate marketing.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video is a comprehensive affiliate marketing tutorial aimed at teaching viewers everything they need to know to start their own affiliate marketing business.
• 🔍 The tutorial will cover strategies and examples on-screen, providing a practical understanding of affiliate marketing.
• 👋 The presenter, Greg Gottfried, introduces himself as a seasoned YouTuber and affiliate marketer, sharing his knowledge gained through trial and error.
• 🤝 Affiliate marketing involves partnering with a company, using a unique referral link to earn commissions on sales made through that link.
• 💰 Commissions can vary, offering either a percentage of the sale or a flat rate, with many large companies offering affiliate programs that are free to join.
• 🛠️ The tutorial will break down the business model of affiliate marketing and explore various strategies, including beginner-friendly options and advanced techniques.
• 💡 Examples of affiliate programs from companies like Best Buy, Amazon, and Bluehost are given to illustrate how these programs work in practice.
• 🆓 Starting in affiliate marketing requires no prior experience and is completely free, with the potential to start earning within the first month.
• 💻 The video addresses common questions about affiliate marketing, including payment methods, the need for a business entity, and the time investment required.
• 📈 The three main strategies for affiliate marketing discussed are 'search', utilizing SEO to rank content high in search results; 'social', building an audience on social media; and 'spend', investing in advertising to promote affiliate products.
• 🎯 The presenter recommends starting with the 'search' strategy for its low risk and organic traffic, while cautioning that the 'spend' strategy involves higher stress and financial risk.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is a comprehensive tutorial on affiliate marketing, teaching viewers how to start their own affiliate marketing business.

Who is the presenter of the video?

The presenter of the video is Greg Gottfried, a YouTuber with experience in affiliate marketing.

What makes Greg's approach to teaching affiliate marketing unique?

Greg's approach is unique because he shares knowledge he gained the hard way through trial and error, which may not be common on YouTube or other platforms.

What are the different strategies for affiliate marketing discussed in the video?

The video discusses three main strategies for affiliate marketing: search, social, and spend.

How does affiliate marketing work in the simplest terms?

In simplest terms, affiliate marketing involves partnering with a company, sharing a unique referral link, and earning a commission on sales made through that link.

What is an example of a commission structure for affiliate marketing?

An example commission structure could be earning a 25% share of the money spent by a customer or a flat rate like $50 for each product purchased through the referral link.

What are some common platforms that offer affiliate programs?

Some common platforms with affiliate programs mentioned in the video are Best Buy, Amazon, and Bluehost.

How does the attribution or cookie window work in affiliate marketing?

The attribution window is the timeframe after a person clicks an affiliate link during which any purchases they make will still earn the affiliate a commission. This can range from 24 hours on Amazon to 365 days on some other platforms.

What are the payment methods typically used by companies to pay affiliate commissions?

Common payment methods include PayPal and direct deposit into a bank account.

What is the advantage of using videos for affiliate marketing over written articles?

Videos can take advantage of both YouTube and Google search traffic, potentially reaching a wider audience. Additionally, videos are less susceptible to AI-generated content, which is becoming more prevalent in written articles.

What is the 'spend' strategy in affiliate marketing and why is it considered advanced?

The 'spend' strategy involves using paid advertising to promote affiliate products. It's considered advanced because it requires a good understanding of ad platforms, audience targeting, and involves a higher risk due to the costs associated with advertising.

What is the recommended starting point for beginners in affiliate marketing according to the video?

The video recommends starting with the 'search' strategy as it is beginner-friendly and involves creating content that answers what people are already searching for, with low risk involved.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Affiliate Marketing Tutorial

Greg Gottfried introduces an affiliate marketing tutorial aimed at teaching viewers everything they need to know to start their own affiliate marketing business. The video promises a fast-paced yet detailed walkthrough filled with valuable information. Greg shares his unique insights gained from years of experience in affiliate marketing, highlighting that his knowledge comes from a trial-and-error process not commonly found on YouTube. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding the concept of affiliate marketing before diving into strategies and examples.

05:01

🔗 Understanding Affiliate Marketing and Its Business Model

This paragraph delves into the basics of affiliate marketing, explaining it as a partnership with a company where you promote their products using a unique referral link. When someone makes a purchase through this link, you earn a commission. The commission structure varies, with some companies offering a percentage of the sale while others pay a flat rate. Greg provides examples of affiliate programs from Best Buy, Amazon, and Bluehost, illustrating how these companies offer unique referral links and how the commission process works. He also clarifies that no prior experience is needed to start and that affiliate marketing is free to join, with the potential to earn money within the first month of starting.

10:04

💰 Common Questions and Getting Paid in Affiliate Marketing

Greg addresses several frequently asked questions about affiliate marketing. He covers how affiliates get paid, typically through PayPal or direct deposit, and clarifies that a business entity is not required, although it might be considered once annual profits reach around $50,000. He also touches on the time investment needed for affiliate marketing, highlighting the potential for creating content that earns passive income for years. The paragraph reassures viewers that they can participate in affiliate marketing from anywhere in the world, emphasizing the global accessibility of the business model.

15:05

🎥 The Power of Video Content in Affiliate Marketing

The paragraph discusses the growing preference for video content in affiliate marketing, especially on platforms like YouTube. It contrasts with text-based articles, which can now be easily generated by AI tools, making it harder for individual creators to stand out. Videos, however, can take advantage of both YouTube's and Google's traffic, as Google often features YouTube videos in its search results. This dual exposure can significantly increase the visibility of affiliate marketing efforts. The paragraph also explains how to include affiliate links in video descriptions to earn commissions from viewer purchases.

20:07

📱 Social Media Affiliate Marketing Strategy

This section introduces the social media strategy for affiliate marketing, where an audience is built on platforms like Instagram and then presented with affiliate products. It uses the Instagram page 'toponlinefinds' as an example, showing how followers can be directed to an Amazon storefront through a link in the bio. The strategy relies on consistently posting product photos and descriptions to engage the audience and drive sales. The paragraph also explains that affiliates can join multiple programs and that the commission structure can vary, including the concept of attribution windows, which determine how long a referral remains valid for a commission after a click.

25:09

💼 Advanced 'Spend' Strategy in Affiliate Marketing

The final paragraph introduces the most advanced affiliate marketing strategy, which involves spending money on advertising to promote affiliate products. This strategy carries more risk and requires a deeper understanding of advertising platforms like YouTube and Facebook. It involves creating ads that, when clicked, direct potential customers to purchase products, with the affiliate earning a commission. The strategy demands careful management of ad performance and budget to ensure profitability. Greg also discusses the potential for scaling up successful ads and the high-stress nature of this approach due to its reliance on continuous ad spending and optimization.

🛣️ Choosing the Right Affiliate Marketing Strategy

In the concluding paragraph, Greg summarizes the three main affiliate marketing strategies: search, social, and spend. He advises beginners to start with the search strategy due to its low risk and organic traffic generation. He also outlines the increasing stress levels associated with each strategy, from the passive income potential of search to the high-stress nature of the spend strategy. Greg encourages viewers to choose a strategy that aligns with their lifestyle and skillset, and offers further guidance through linked resources in the video description.

Keywords

💡Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based advertising model where an individual or company earns a commission for promoting another company's products or services. In the video, Greg Gottfried explains that it involves partnering with a company, receiving a unique referral link, and earning a commission for sales made through that link. This concept is central to the video's theme, as it is the primary focus of the tutorial.

💡Commission

A commission is the payment made to an affiliate marketer for driving sales to a company's products or services. In the context of the video, the term is used to describe the earnings affiliates receive, which can be a percentage of the sale or a flat rate, depending on the affiliate program's terms. The script mentions that commissions are the incentive for affiliates to promote products and is a key aspect of the affiliate marketing business model.

💡Referral Link

A referral link is a unique tracking link provided by a company to its affiliates for the purpose of attributing sales to the affiliate's marketing efforts. In the video script, Greg discusses how affiliates receive these links from companies they partner with, and when someone makes a purchase through this link, the affiliate earns a commission. The referral link is a fundamental tool in the affiliate marketing process.

💡Best Buy

Best Buy is used in the script as an example of a company that offers an affiliate program. Greg explains that by joining Best Buy's affiliate program, one can obtain a unique referral link to promote their products. The mention of Best Buy serves to illustrate a real-world application of affiliate marketing and the availability of such programs in traditional retail.

💡Amazon

Amazon is highlighted in the video as a prominent company with an affiliate program. The script describes how Amazon provides affiliates with unique referral links to a vast range of products, allowing affiliates to earn commissions on sales. Amazon's affiliate program is used to demonstrate the potential breadth of products one can promote through affiliate marketing.

💡Bluehost

Bluehost is mentioned in the script as an example of a company with an affiliate program that pays a flat rate commission. Greg explains that for each new customer referred to Bluehost, the affiliate receives a $65 commission. This example is used to show an alternative commission structure in affiliate marketing, where affiliates receive a fixed amount rather than a percentage of sales.

💡Search Strategy

The search strategy in affiliate marketing, as described in the video, involves creating content that ranks on search engines like Google or YouTube, aiming to appear in search results when potential customers are looking for products to purchase. The script explains that this strategy is beginner-friendly and involves leveraging organic traffic to earn commissions. It is one of the three main affiliate marketing strategies discussed.

💡Social Strategy

The social strategy refers to using social media platforms to build an audience and promote affiliate products to them. In the video, Greg uses Instagram as an example, showing how an affiliate can post photos of products and direct followers to their affiliate links in the bio. This strategy is more advanced and requires consistent engagement with the audience to maintain interest and drive sales.

💡Spend Strategy

The spend strategy in affiliate marketing involves investing money in advertising to promote products. As explained in the script, affiliates who use this strategy pay for ads on platforms like YouTube or Facebook to drive traffic to their affiliate links. This approach is considered the most advanced and carries higher risks due to the costs associated with advertising, but it can also offer higher potential rewards if the ads perform well.

💡Cookie Window

The cookie window, also known as the attribution window, is the time frame during which an affiliate can earn a commission on a sale made by a referred customer. Greg mentions that this window can vary, with Amazon having a 24-hour window, while other programs may offer 30 days or even a year. This concept is important as it defines the duration for which an affiliate's referral remains valid for earning commissions.

💡Passive Income

Passive income in the context of the video refers to the ongoing earnings affiliates can receive from content they have published online, even without actively working on it. Greg emphasizes that once content is live, it can continue to generate commissions for years, making it a source of passive income. This concept is used to highlight one of the appealing aspects of affiliate marketing.

Highlights

Introduction to a comprehensive affiliate marketing tutorial for beginners.

Greg Gottfried's credibility as an experienced YouTuber and affiliate marketer.

Learning affiliate marketing through trial and error and sharing unique insights.

Affiliate marketing defined as partnering with a company and earning commissions on sales through a unique referral link.

Commission variations: percentage-based or flat rate payments for sales.

The prevalence of affiliate programs among large companies and the ease of joining them for free.

Examples of affiliate programs from Best Buy, Amazon, and Bluehost, with unique referral link generation.

The concept of flat rate commissions, illustrated with Bluehost's $65 commission for each referral.

Frequently-asked questions about affiliate marketing, including the need for prior experience and the startup costs.

Timeframe for starting to earn money in affiliate marketing and the potential for quick results.

Explanation of payment methods for commissions, such as PayPal and direct deposit.

Clarification on the necessity of a business entity for affiliate marketing and the option to use personal accounts.

The time investment required for affiliate marketing and the potential for passive income from evergreen content.

Introduction of the three main affiliate marketing strategies: search, social, and spend.

Details on the search strategy, leveraging Google and YouTube searches to promote affiliate products.

The social strategy, utilizing social media platforms like Instagram to build an audience and showcase affiliate products.

The advanced spend strategy, involving paid advertising on platforms like YouTube and Facebook to drive sales.

The impact of chosen strategies on lifestyle, ranging from stress-free search strategies to high-stress spend approaches.

Recommendation for beginners to start with the search strategy due to its low risk and organic growth potential.

Transcripts

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another video.

In today's video, I'm going to be walking you

through step-by-step a full affiliate marketing tutorial.

So by the end of this video, you will know everything

you need to know about affiliate marketing

to start the business for yourself.

Now, this is going to be one of those videos

that moves at a rather quick pace,

but it's going to go through everything in detail.

There's going to be a lot of high-value information

in this video, totally for free here on YouTube.

And what's going to make this one unique

is that I'm going to take you through on screen recording

on my computer and show you real examples

and show you things on my screen

so that you can see what this looks like in practice.

Now, before we get into this video, if you don't know me,

just to give you some credibility,

my name is Greg Gottfried.

I've been making videos here on YouTube

for a couple years now, and I've been doing

affiliate marketing for a couple years as well.

I learned how to do affiliate marketing kind of the hard way

before there was much information on it.

So I learned a lot of things from trial and error.

That's what I'm going to share with you in this video.

A lot of the things that I've learned in the process

still are not common knowledge.

They're not shared very commonly on YouTube

or anywhere else where you learn

how to do affiliate marketing.

So I think I have some very unique things to bring

to the table, and I think you're going to get value from it.

Now, with all of that being said,

I do wanna spend a little bit of time in the beginning here

to go over affiliate marketing so that,

as we get into real examples of this

and different strategies and how you can do it,

you have a great understanding of why these

different strategies work and why some of them don't work

because you understand the concept

of affiliate marketing very well.

Now, after breaking down the business model

of affiliate marketing, then I'll break down

some of these strategies that you can use

to do affiliate marketing.

You'll see the pros and cons to these different avenues

of doing affiliate marketing, and you can see which one

you would be the most comfortable doing

based on what skills you already have.

Now, when it comes to the different strategies

for affiliate marketing, in this video I'm going to share

with you the most basic affiliate marketing strategies

that would be the easiest for a beginner,

and I'll work my way all the way up

to the most advanced strategies just so you know

what's out there and you know the different ways

that you could do this business.

So sit back, relax, this should be a very helpful video.

And if you have any questions along the way

that aren't covered in this video,

just let me know down in the comments.

So first things first,

let's break down what is affiliate marketing.

And I wanna break it down in a way that's actually relatable

and what affiliate marketing really is,

not the complicated explanation of it.

So in the simplest terms, what affiliate marketing means

is you partner with a company,

they give you a unique referral link,

you then share that link with other people,

and when anyone clicks on that link

and makes a purchase from that company,

you get paid a commission on that sale.

Now, you may be wondering,

"What is a commission on the sale, what does that mean?"

Well, this will vary for different companies.

So for instance, you may get 25% of however much money

they spent at the company,

or you might just get a flat rate.

So you might get something like $50

for any time anyone makes a purchase of a product.

So essentially you are a commission-based salesman

for a company, but the beauty of affiliate marketing

is that a ton of big companies out there,

almost every big company has an affiliate program,

and they're all free to join, no strings attached.

You don't have to actually be an employee for that company.

It's basically like a freelancer where anyone can join

for free and then they get their unique referral link,

and if they don't generate any sales, they don't get paid,

no harm, no foul.

But if they do generate sales,

they'll just get paid out their commissions.

So I'll start with a couple examples here

to show you what this looks like in the real world.

So starting with a company called Best Buy,

which is a big electronic store

that you can physically walk into here in the United States,

if you go to their homepage and you scroll all the way

to the bottom, you'll see that they have

all these different buttons that go to like Contact Us

or different places on their website.

Almost every big company out there has a button

that says Affiliate Program.

So all you have to do is click on this button,

and you can literally join their affiliate program for free.

You literally just click Sign Up,

fill out a little bit of information about yourself,

and they will give you your unique referral link

that you can start sharing with people

and automatically getting commissions

on anything that they purchase.

So that's one example that would be Best Buy

that's kind of a big box in-person store.

But once you get into affiliate marketing,

you'll find that there are even better affiliate programs

that you can join.

I'll talk on this a little bit more as we get further along.

But an example of this would be Amazon.

So if you go to Amazon, scroll to the bottom,

as you can see right here, they have Become an Affiliate.

And then the same concept here,

you just hit Sign Up and then you can create an account

and you can be an affiliate for Amazon.

Now, what's cool about this is when you join these programs,

you can get unique referral links to any product

that that company sells.

So when you think about Amazon,

Amazon sells so many different products.

So you could literally be an affiliate

for any different hobby or passion that you have,

any different topic, any niche,

all through the Amazon affiliate program.

Now, one more to show you before we keep moving on here,

this is a more unique one, and as we get further into this,

you'll start to see why I'm showing you

some of these obscure companies.

So this for instance is a website called Bluehost.

Bluehost is one of the biggest online software products.

It's basically, if you wanna create a website online,

most of the times you're going to be using a host,

basically someone to make your website live,

and Bluehost is one of the biggest ones out there.

So with that being said, you scroll to the bottom here

and you can see again, they have Affiliates.

So you might see that it says Affiliate Program,

it might say Affiliates, it might say Referral Program.

We're looking for something like that.

But you click on here, and same concept,

you click the button to join now

and you can get your unique referral link.

And this is a case where they're paying a flat rate

instead of a commission, and I'll show you why.

This is actually really cool before we move on.

So you'll see here it says you'll get $65

for each signup or referral.

So every time you send them a buyer,

you're getting $65 as a flat rate commission.

But what I love about this

and what starts to get really cool in affiliate marketing

is that, if you go to one of their products here,

if you were to refer someone over here on your link

and they go ahead and they say,

"Okay, I wanna start with this plan,

this is the cheapest hosting that they have."

So what's awesome about this is that the person

that you referred here can literally spend $35.40,

they can check out, and then you are going to get

a $65 commission.

It seems kind of weird when you're just hearing

about affiliate marketing, how this can happen.

How can someone spend $35, and then the company Bluehost

is going to pay you a $65 commission?

Well, the reason for that is something like website hosting,

traditionally speaking, when someone signs up

to have their website hosted with a company,

they typically keep their hosting with that company

for three to five-plus years.

So Bluehost is going to get that $35

over and over and over again,

and they only have to pay us the $65 once.

So it's kind of like a win-win.

Someone only has to spend $35 and then you,

for sending them there, is going to get a $65 commission.

So I just wanted to show you that,

just a couple different examples of affiliate programs

before we start getting into different strategies

and moving on from here.

Okay, so before we get into these strategies,

a couple little rapid-fire, frequently-asked questions

that are probably going to be really helpful for you

if you're just getting into this business.

So the first question here is do you need

any prior experience if you're going to start

affiliate marketing today?

The short answer here is no.

There are so many different routes or avenues,

different ways that you can do affiliate marketing,

that even if you're starting as a complete beginner,

you've never had an online business before,

you can start today and you can have success.

Another fun fact about this,

while we're talking about getting started,

affiliate marketing is 100% free to start.

As you can see with these different programs,

you can join the programs totally for free.

And then the different ways that I'll show you,

you can do the marketing to get people to click

on your links for free as well.

Okay, the next question, if you are to start

affiliate marketing today,

how soon can you start making money?

Now, this is going to depend on your pace

of how quickly you are creating marketing content

and sharing that online, but I would say

that it's safe to say that you should start making money

from this in the same month that you start.

This is not one of those business models where you start

and you have to wait and wait and wait a year

until you start making any money.

This is one of those business models

where you can start seeing results very quickly.

So if you are someone who's in a position

where you want to start an online business

but you don't really know if it's going to work yet,

this would be one that I would recommend starting.

And then within a month, you're going to see

that it's starting to work, and basically you can then

just start working on it more and more and putting out

more content and then you'll start making more income.

Okay, another really common question here

is how do you get paid?

So how do these companies,

when you join their affiliate programs,

how do they pay you your commissions?

Well, there's a couple different ways.

I would say the two most common ways are PayPal.

So if you have a PayPal account already,

you can literally just send the companies

your email address to your PayPal account.

And then typically every month at the end of the month,

for whatever sales that you sent them

and whatever commissions you are due,

they will automatically send to your PayPal account.

Now, speaking of the PayPal account,

you don't need a business account for this.

You literally just need a personal PayPal account,

totally free to create, and then you just share your email

with them for the PayPal account.

You don't have to share any other information.

Now, the second most common way I would say

that you are paid is by direct deposit.

So the same concept, once a month,

the companies will automatically pay your commissions,

but this way it just goes directly into your bank account.

Now again, you don't need to have

a business bank account for this.

This is something something where you can literally

just use your personal bank account.

Now with that being said, whether you're getting paid

through PayPal or you're getting paid

through direct deposit, you can do affiliate marketing

from anywhere in the world.

You don't need to be located in the United States.

You literally be in any country

and you can still do affiliate marketing.

You'll see what I mean by this when we talk

about the different strategies of doing affiliate marketing.

It doesn't matter where you are based.

All right, the next thing I think you'll find helpful

is do you need a business entity?

I know we talked about personal PayPal account

and your personal bank account to get paid,

well, do you need a business entity for affiliate marketing?

The answer here is no, you don't need to set up

a business entity for this.

I would say once you start to make about $50,000 per year

in profit, then you might wanna consider

starting a business entity for yourself.

It's just going to make all your commission payments

coming in a lot more organized than having it mixed

into your personal bank account.

Okay, and the last question that I'll put

in these rapid-fire questions is how much time

do you need to invest in this business model?

This is one of my favorite benefits to affiliate marketing.

The affiliate marketing business model is one

where you can create content and you can put time in upfront

and you publish that content onto the internet,

and that content lives on the internet for years to come.

So it's literally going to make you

passive income commissions for years in the future

where you don't have to keep updating that content,

you don't have to keep publishing more content.

Once you get that out there and you've put in a lot

of work up front, it's literally going to keep

making you money for years.

This is something that I can absolutely say from experience.

I've been doing affiliate marketing for a couple years now.

And without lifting a finger, there's content that I've made

a few years ago that's still making me hundreds

or thousands of dollars every month

from a single piece of content.

All right, so now that we've gone over

what affiliate marketing is, we've answered a bunch

of these common questions, hopefully we're on the same page

about the business model.

Now let's move on to the fun part here,

which is what are the different strategies

for doing affiliate marketing,

just so you can see which one fits best for you

and then you can get started doing it.

Okay, so there's three main categories

that affiliate marketing strategies fit into.

Now, this is where some of my personal experience

is going to come into.

What I'm about to share with you

in these three different categories is not commonly shared,

especially this way.

So hopefully this is very valuable.

So the first overall strategy

on how to do affiliate marketing,

which happens to be the most beginner friendly here,

is what I call search.

So basically when someone goes to Google

or they go to YouTube and they are making a search

about a product that they want to purchase,

we want to show up in that content as the results

and make a recommendation on the best product

that we think would fit them with our affiliate link.

So for instance here, if we type in best dirt bike helmet,

you can see in the results here we're going to get

kind of these suggested products

that you can make a purchase right away.

We have Google suggesting us an article,

which is the "5 Best Dirt Bike Helmets

For Track and Trail."

And then just to show you what else

is on this search results page,

we have videos that are coming from YouTube,

as you can see right here, they all say YouTube on them.

And then we have different links to things like Reddit,

which is a forum.

We have different articles or individual articles

that we could read, and this is where we want to show up.

So when someone searches for the best item

or they're about to make a purchase,

they're coming and they're searching for something,

we wanna show up in these results.

Now, I'll start with an article result

just to show you what that looks like.

So any of these, basically, websites that we're seeing here,

you can click on this, and it'll bring you to their website

where essentially they're going to give us

their recommendation of what they think

is the best product for us,

and then they're going to put their affiliate link.

This is common practice on almost all websites,

but you'll see things like this.

So number one we recommend is this helmet,

and here's the link to that product, and it's on Amazon.

So if we click on that link,

it instantly redirects us to Amazon.

So for me as a buyer, this looks like I'm just on Amazon,

nothing's different.

But when you look at the actual link

that it sent us on right here,

you can see that the tag is dirtbikeplanet.

So you can see that this is actually a referral link

from Dirt Bike Planet, which is this website.

So to us as the buyer, when we come in

and we're reading this article, and we click on that link

and we go make a purchase, it makes no difference to us

that that's an affiliate link.

The price of the helmet is the same price on Amazon.

But since I clicked on this affiliate link,

anything that I go purchase on Amazon right now,

they are going to get a commission on.

So you'll see as you go down here,

you'll see kind of the perks to this helmet,

and then they'll go on to their next helmet,

which is number two, again, another link.

It's the same concept here.

So that would be the first

of these kind of search results here.

Basically you're writing an article that's going to show up

on Google for when people are searching for something

that they want to purchase.

Now, the second way that you can take advantage of search

is with videos.

Now, this is quickly becoming my favorite way

of doing affiliate marketing.

And without getting into too much detail here,

the reason why is that these articles that I just showed you

down here that are text-based,

well, there's artificial intelligence tools

that are coming out just in the last year now,

and they're getting more and more powerful,

where basically you can go in and you can say,

"Write me a blog post about the best dirt bike helmet."

You hit Enter, and this is a free

artificial intelligence tool that's basically

going to write you an entire blog post

or an entire text-based article

that you can then essentially copy and you can go paste it

on your website and publish that to Google.

Now, this is going to keep writing here,

but just to show you here,

this is why I'm not a huge fan of creating

the affiliate marketing websites

and creating the written articles anymore

because anyone can come in here and they can write

a hundred of these different articles per day,

and they can basically just take

what are these recommendations, go to Amazon,

find the affiliate link and just paste it into here,

and basically go publish that all over Google.

And with that being totally free to do

and so easy for people to do nowadays,

it's making it a lot harder for us to show up

on this first page here with our written article

because Google's just getting so many more people

sending in articles.

So that's why I like these videos.

So basically videos show up here on Google as well.

So for those of you who don't already know,

Google is the number one most visited website

on the internet.

If you look at just these crazy numbers,

there's about 99,000 searches every single second on Google.

So we just typed in best dirt bike helmet,

that's happening 99,000 times a second on the internet.

So there's a ton of traffic going

to all of these search result pages.

Now with that said, YouTube is the second most popular

website on the internet.

Now, it doesn't say how many searches are on YouTube

per second, but there's more than three billion searches

a month on YouTube.

So that's totally separate from Google.

Those are in addition to each other.

But coming back to this example

of the best dirt bike helmet,

if instead of creating a text article and posting that

on your website and showing up here on Google,

if you instead create a video,

and you don't even have to be in the video,

you can be showing with the camera

what that dirt bike helmet is or what that product is

you're talking about without you physically being on camera.

If you create that video and you publish that to YouTube,

you are going to be taking advantage of all of the traffic

that comes to YouTube, the three billion searches per month.

But also, and this is kind of the secret here,

you're also going to be able to take advantage

of the Google traffic of 99,000 searches per second.

Because, what not many people know,

is that Google and YouTube,

they're owned by the same company.

So Google is now showing these YouTube videos

on Google's search results.

So you're kind of getting double the traffic

or double the people to potentially see your content.

Now, when you click on any of these videos,

it's going to take you back to YouTube,

and then you can see right here,

this is the affiliate link right here.

So you click on this, it's going to take you to the website,

and you can make your purchases right here,

and you earn your commission the same way

as if you had a text article.

So without getting too much into the nitty gritty here,

those are the first two options.

They both fall into the search strategy

for affiliate marketing.

So that brings us into the second overall strategy

on how to do affiliate marketing.

This one is called social.

So rather than using the search approach

where people are searching for content regularly

and we are creating that content as an answer

to their search, this is using social media

to build an audience and then present

our affiliate products to people.

So to show you an example of this,

let's come over to Instagram.

This is just a run of the mill Instagram page

that is a perfect example of affiliate marketing.

So this is called toponlinefinds.

They actually have 487,000 followers.

So in order to do this strategy,

you kind of do have to build an audience

or already have an audience

on some kind of social media channel.

That's why I say that this one's a little bit more advanced.

But if you are someone who has that,

this could be a good fit for you.

And basically you are just showing photos

of different products that you are an affiliate for.

So in this case, it is most likely Amazon,

and she can be creating posts on any product

that's on Amazon or even any product elsewhere

'cause you can join multiple different affiliate programs.

And then rather than writing an article about that product

or creating a video about that product,

you're literally taking a photo of that product

and then writing in the description what that product is.

And then, although a little bit of a nuance here

on Instagram specifically,

you can't put clickable links in each one of these posts.

So she's going to say, "Click the link that's in the bio,"

which is right here.

You click on this link, it's going to say,

"Okay, what are you looking for here?"

I came in here, I'm looking for the Amazon storefront.

And then before you know it,

you're on Amazon on her affiliate link,

and here's all the products that you see

on her social media page.

So if you come into here, you click on something

that you're looking for, something you saw on her page,

now you can go purchase one of these products,

and she's going to get her commission that way.

So think of this one as kind of

the opposite approach from search.

The reason that I like Search for beginners

is because you can create content that's kind of responding

to what people are already searching for.

With this social method, you're kind of building an audience

and then you're continually presenting new products to them.

Now, as you continue to grow your audience,

every time you make a post,

you're going to get more and more people seeing that post.

And if they like that product that you posted about,

they'll click on your link,

they'll go over and make a purchase,

and you get your commission.

Now, something else that would be good to note here

is that you can join as many different affiliate programs

as you want.

You're not limited to just Amazon, for instance.

You can join 10, 20, 30 different affiliate programs

all at once.

And then you can share those links simultaneously.

It's not something that's exclusive.

You don't have to be an affiliate for just one company.

And also, with that being said,

each company has their own kind of affiliate terms.

So we already talked about the commission.

You could get paid a percentage of the sale

or the percentage that the person spends

on the website after they've clicked your link,

or you could get paid the flat rate as a commission

for anything that they purchase.

But something that we haven't talked about yet

is the cookie window or the attribution window.

Basically what that is is a timeframe

from when someone clicks your link,

how long after they've clicked that link

are you still going to get the commission for?

Now on Amazon, specifically,

it's a 24-hour attribution window.

So when someone clicks on your link,

like I just clicked on her link and now I'm on Amazon,

anything that I purchase in the next 24 hours on Amazon,

she's going to get the commission for.

This could be something totally unrelated.

So I could close out of Amazon, I could go make lunch,

I could come back and I could purchase something tonight,

something that I just needed to buy anyways.

She's still going to get the commission

because it's within the 24-hour window.

However, on some of these other programs out there,

the attribution window is 30 days,

or even 365 days, a full year.

So when someone clicks on your link,

if they come back in 25 days,

or if they come back on some of these programs

in five, six, seven months from now

and they decide that they wanna make a purchase

on their own, they don't even have to come back

and click your link again,

you are still going to get that commission.

That's kind of the beauty of affiliate marketing.

What makes it so passive is that when someone clicks

on your link, they have a timeframe after that

where they can come back on their own and make a purchase

and you're still going to get that commission.

So that is the second overall strategy

for affiliate marketing.

We've covered search, we've covered social,

and now let's get into the last strategy,

which is the most advanced, and this is what I call spend.

So in this strategy, you are going to be finding

affiliate programs and you're going to be spending

your own money on advertising to get those products

in front of the right people

when they're ready to make a purchase.

Now, this strategy is by far going to be the most advanced

strategy for affiliate marketing.

Many people that I know that do affiliate marketing

and have been doing it for years

still haven't even gotten into this strategy

of affiliate marketing, just because it is so technical,

it's so hard, there's a lot of risk here.

But I want you to be aware of what this strategy is

so that if you do have this skillset,

you can absolutely do it this way.

Now, the most common example for this is found on YouTube

or on Facebook.

So basically, if you type in anything on YouTube,

basically using the search approach,

so if we started with best electric bike,

you can see two things here.

So first, there's an advertisement at the top here

that says, "Best Electric Bike of 2023."

If we click on that, it's going to bring us

right to a company that sells electric bikes.

Now, this ad is actually being run by the company,

they're selling their own products,

but you as an affiliate could be running that ad.

And knowing that, let's say that you make $100

as your flat rate commission,

as long as you can get people to click on this ad

and make a purchase with you spending less than $100

on that advertising,

you are going to have somewhat of a profit margin there.

Now, another way you're going to see this

is with an actual video.

So if you click on the first video that shows up here,

or any of these real videos that are here on YouTube,

this ad that's going to show up here and play

before this video is being paid for by someone else.

So in most cases, what you're going to see here

is an advertisement about electric bikes.

So it's targeting someone who is coming in

trying to find the best electric bike,

trying to get you to click on their links

so that you go make a purchase from the website.

And then again, the same concept here.

The person running that ad is hoping that they're spending

less money than the amount of flat rate

or percentage commission that they're going to make

when people do make a purchase.

Now, you will see these video ads on YouTube

and you will also see them on Facebook.

That is the number one and number two most common places

that you're going to see these ads.

When you are on Facebook, the way you're going to see it

there is just as you're scrolling through your feed,

you're going to see an advertisement, and it's a video.

That's where this is coming into play.

So with that being said, the reason that this strategy

is so advanced is, when we look at the other strategies,

basically creating written articles or videos

and posting those on Google or posting them on YouTube,

and even the next strategy of social where you are building

an audience and you're creating posts to them,

both of those are entirely free to do.

You don't have to pay anything to create that content

and put it out there for people to see.

And then people will find that content on their own.

When you get into this spend category

where you're spending money on advertising,

every time you're trying to get someone to see that content,

you have to pay.

So when you look at these other two strategies,

there is really no risk to them.

Anytime someone comes and they decide to make a purchase,

you get paid a commission.

But when you look at this advanced strategy,

right off the bat, you have to spend money

and you have to hope that your ad is good enough

and it's targeting the right people, that one out of every,

let's say, 100 or 1,000 people actually makes a purchase.

So as your costs start to build up,

you wanna make sure that you're getting a sale

that has a commission bigger than the amount

that you've spent.

Now, just for reference here, when you are doing

this spend approach, the margins are typically,

if you're doing this right, about 20%.

Now, I say that just so you are aware

of what that looks like,

although that is a very advanced way

to do affiliate marketing.

You will typically see the people that are doing

that approach are spending 5, 10, 15, $20,000 per day

in advertising, and they have everything

kind of dialed in here and they're making a 20% margin.

Now, with that being said,

something that I've absolutely learned that I think

you should know before you get started

with affiliate marketing is whatever strategy

you choose here is really going to have a big impact

on your lifestyle as you're doing affiliate marketing.

So for instance, if you are doing the search strategy

and you are creating content,

whether that is a written article or that is a video,

and you're posting that on the internet,

that is stress free.

You have no risk there, once you post that on the internet,

it'll live on the internet for years to come,

and people are just organically going to find it.

It's basically you are answering what people

are already searching for.

Also, every dollar that you make in commission

is just straight profit

because you don't have to be paying for any advertising.

Now, as you move into the social approach

for affiliate marketing,

there's a little bit more stress here

because you have to consistently be posting

and giving your audience a reason to stay subscribed

or stay followed to your social account.

Also, you're not going to be getting that steady flow

of organic traffic like you do on the search.

It's more of you're building an audience

and then you continually share posts with them.

So the lifestyle starts to become a little bit

more stressful there because you have to keep up

and stay on top of it.

And then once you get into the spend strategy

for affiliate marketing,

that comes with a very stressful lifestyle.

You only have a 20% margin there.

And in order to make money, you have to be spending money.

So you're always going to be thinking about your ads.

How are they performing? Do I have to create new ones?

Are they starting to perform worse?

Do I need to optimize things?

There's a lot that comes with that for just a 20% margin.

Now, you're probably saying, "Why do people even do that one

if it's so high stress?"

Well, the reason is, once you've created a really good ad

and a really good video, you can scale that up.

So you can go from $500 a day to 5,000,

in some cases, $50,000 of ad spend per day,

and you're just going to get 20% of that,

as long as everything stays the same.

So there you have the three strategies

for doing affiliate marketing.

You've got the search, you've got the social,

and you've got the spend.

If you are just starting affiliate marketing,

I highly recommend starting in the search.

Search is simply going to be the easiest way

for you to get started as a beginner,

and it's super low risk.

So I know this is already a really long video,

but if you wanna learn more details

on how to do the whole search strategy,

I'll put a link down in the description.

So guys, that's it for this video.

If you have any questions

or anything that you're still wondering,

let me know down in the comments,

and I'd be happy to help you out.