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How to Get a Job in Affiliate Marketing: An In-Depth Guide

How to Get a Job in Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting another company’s products or services.

In return, you receive a commission from the sales you generate.

So, how do you get started in affiliate marketing? And, how does affiliate marketing work?

As an affiliate marketing expert and founder of The Affiliate Lab, I’m here to tell you all about it.

In this article, you’ll find out how it works, what you can expect, and how to get an affiliate marketing job.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

The merchant (brand) provides each affiliate with a unique link (affiliate link), so they can track who was liable for a sale.

Affiliate Marketing Links

When someone clicks on the link, a small file (affiliate cookie) gets stored on their device.

An affiliate cookie helps the merchant credit the sale to the right individual. It also holds an expiration date, so you receive payment even if the buyer reschedules their purchase.

Here is an instance of how this works. Imagine a reader visiting your post about the best travel suitcases. They click your affiliate link and are redirected to an Amazon product.

However, they realize they have to do grocery shopping or walk their dog. So they leave their home, run their errands, have dinner, and finally head back to Amazon, where they get their product.

Since they are already shopping here, they also buy some attire or shoes.

Here is the good news. Beforehand, the visitor clicked on your affiliate link, and a cookie was stored on their device.

Since Amazon has a 24-hour cookie period, you receive compensation for the travel suitcase and attire/shoes – even if you did not promote the latter.

How Do Affiliate Marketers Earn Money?

As an affiliate marketer, there are various ways through which you can earn money:

  • Pay-per-click – redirect a customer(s) from your marketing channel or blog to the seller’s website where the product or service is listed originally.
  • Pay-per-sale – receive a small percentage of the product’s sale price.
  • Pay-per-lead – get paid depending on the number of conversions from the leads on going for a product’s free trial, downloading a guide, or subscribing to a newsletter.

How Much Money Can I Make As An Affiliate Marketer?

There is no limit to the amount of money you can make as an affiliate marketer.

How Much Does An Affiliate Marketer Earn

It all depends on your niche and your affiliate marketing efforts.

The most successful affiliate marketers, such as Pat Flynn and Ryan Robinson, make six or seven monthly figures.

We polled members of The Affiliate Lab, and while there are many just starting, most people earn over five figures a month.

Monthly Revenue Poll

Remember, affiliate marketing success doesn’t happen overnight. These people have devoted themselves to building their websites and brands. It has taken them hard work and commitment to reach this level.

Affiliate Marketing Jobs

Are you looking to break into digital marketing, but not ready to start your own online business? There are a plethora of jobs that you can do:

Affiliate Marketing Manager

Affiliate Marketing Manager

An affiliate marketing manger works for the company or affiliate network, that recruits and manages affilaites to promote the companies products or services. In this role, you will:

  • Research competitor activity and marketing policies
  • Provide day-to-day support to the affiliates and clients via email and phone.
  • Prepare marketing reports by assembling, evaluating, and reviewing performance data.
  • Build strong relationships and help boost performance with existing and new marketing partners.

Performance Marketing Manager

As a performance marketing manager, you will:

  • Assess commission structure to ascertain affiliate partners are incentivized according to key business objectives.
  • Use the affiliate platform to report, contract, and manage assets.
  • Work with the affiliate agency to scale the program and drive affiliate traffic and business revenue growth.

Affiliate Marketing And SEO Associate

As an affiliate marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) associate, you will:

  • Uphold communication strategy with content-focused affiliate partners to help secure further exposure.
  • Establish affiliate channel budget pacing and recommend the necessary optimizations.
  • Assess quarterly paid placement opportunities with crucial affiliate partners.
  • Assist in creating and commending publisher newsletters.

How Can Affiliate Marketing Jobs Launch Your Digital Marketing Career?

An affiliate marketing job can teach you various crucial marketing elements that will eventually help you advance in digital marketing.

Launch Digital Marketing Career

As one of the fastest-growing forms of performance-based marketing, you, as an influencer, can create content and shift individual recommendations to income.

If you choose to work within a company, you will have the opportunity to supervise an affiliate marketing team and oversee marketing campaigns as a manager.

This is an ideal form of getting started in the digital marketing industry, as you will gain experience in partnership development and campaign management.

Moreover, you will have the opportunity to work with various influencers, giving you a comprehensive outlook of the industry.

So, how can affiliate marketing jobs launch your career in the digital marketing realm?

Allow You To Learn About Online Marketing

As a marketing associate for an affiliate program, you can gain practical experience and learn from some of the experts in the business.

Online Marketing

You will work closely with skilled and experienced online marketing veterans and learn from their mentorship.

Build An Affiliate Network Of Contacts With Your Marketing Team

Irrespective of your industry, building a strong network of contacts with your wider affiliate marketing team and network enables you to stay informed on the latest industry news, receive help when necessary, and find new opportunities when they arise.

Learn How To Negotiate And Close Deals

To succeed in business, you should know how to negotiate.

Effective negotiations can differentiate between getting the best terms and losing out entirely. New business development teams are often looking for individuals with strong negotiation experience.

Use your position to hone your negotiation skills.

Work With Various Successful Individuals

Working with many people, whether influencers or digital marketing colleagues, is one of this job’s most rewarding and entertaining parts.

Influencer Collaboration

When you work closely with people to develop unique strategies, you establish competency in convenience and flexibility and partnerships that will substantiate their valuability in the future.

Types Of Affiliate Marketing

There are different types of affiliate marketing.

Understanding each one of them can show you the distinct ways people earn money online in this realm, irrespective of their moral compass.

Unattached

In the unattached business model, you have no authority in the niche of the product/service you are marketing.

There is no association between you and the customer.

No Association Between You And Customer

Typically, you run pay-per-click advertising campaigns using your affiliate link and hope people will click it, purchase the product/service, and earn a commission.

Related

In the related model, you promote the products and services you do not use. However, they are related to your niche. As an affiliate, you have an audience through social media marketing, blogging, or another affiliate channel.

You have an influence that makes you a trusted and reliable source for recommending products, even though you have never utilized them before.

Involved

Unlike other business models, in involved marketing, you recommend products and services you have used and honestly believe in. You use your power to promote products and services that your audience may need rather than pay to get clicks on a banner ad.

How To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Website?

Do you want to become an affiliate marketer but do not have a website? Do not worry.

Google Ads Logo

An efficient way to pursue this career is by utilizing paid ads such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads to send targeted traffic directly to a seller’s page.

Unlike an organic affiliate program, how you generate traffic through unpaid search traffic or content creation, a paid affiliate effort will cost money for each click.

Reasonable ad budget and sharp ad targeting are vital.

Affiliate Marketing For Free

Wondering how you can get a job in digital marketing at a low cost or for free?

Various marketing techniques do not necessitate you to spend more money.

Some of the most popular strategies include:

Incorporating Affiliate Links In Email

Do you have an email list?

Email List

If so, this affiliate network is your best bet to share links without charge.

Insert product links that redirect individuals to the merchant’s site in your newsletters.

The more sought after your email list is, the high demand your affiliate offers receive.

Posting In Facebook groups

Join Facebook groups related to your niche.

Build relationships by viewing and commenting on other people’s posts. Once they trust you, recommend your affiliate products/services to earn commissions.

Incorporating Affiliate Links In YouTube Videos

YouTube is an excellent platform for social media marketing and does not cost anything to utilize.

YouTube Logo

You can start receiving commissions by creating a YouTube video featuring the products or services you enjoy.

Ensure you include affiliate links in the description, so people know where to make a purchase.

FAQs

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing incorporates referring a product or service by sharing it on a blog post, website, podcast, or through social media marketing.

The marketer receives a commission each time someone purchases a product through their link.

Affiliate Marketing diagram

How To venture Into Affiliate Marketing

  • Find the right niche (the one you are passionate about and has low competition).
  • Assess market demand using tools like Google Trends.
  • Analyze the level of competition using tools like Ubersuggest.
  • Research affiliate programs to join: one with high commissions, the right balance of good fit, and strong support.
  • Decide how you will run your affiliate program.
  • Publish great content in your niche.

How To Do Affiliate Marketing For Free?

To do affiliate marketing for free, post content on other platforms such as YouTube or Facebook, then include links or calls to action for readers or viewers to click through the product pages.

Instead of asking visitors to click through immediately to purchase, ask them to sign up to an email list.

Mailing List

This allows you to build an affiliate relationship and nurture them until they are ready to buy.

Is It Easy To Be An Affiliate Marketer?

Becoming an affiliate marketer is not easy since everyone does not have the mindset to succeed. It requires skill, hard work, experience, and devotion to thrive.

How Much Do Affiliate Marketing Beginners Make?

Commission rates vary depending on the company you are working with.

Amazon associates program offers anywhere between 1% and 10% commission on sales.

Other affiliate programs offer recurring commissions as high as 30% per sale. How much you earn as a marketer is entirely up to you.

It will depend on your website traffic, how well you assess which affiliate product or service your audience will respond to, and the programs you get to be a part of.

amazon associates landing page

Is It Hard To Become An Affiliate Marketer?

Affiliate marketing has been one of the fastest-growing forms of performance-based advertising.

While influencers and bloggers create content and turn personal recommendations into income, it is not easy to get a job in it.

Also, not everyone has the mindset to succeed. Becoming a marketer necessitates skill, experience, hard work, and commitment.

Affiliate marketing is not a smooth road to success. Nonetheless, when done correctly, it can generate remarkable affiliate income.

How To Get Started With Affiliate Marketing

Becoming a successful affiliate marketer is not as easy as many individuals would presume it to be.

Finding merchants to partner with, a profitable affiliate marketing job, or high commission affiliate programs pivots on the steps discussed in this article.

Furthermore, do not expect the freedom to quit your 8-4/9-5 or life-changing income overnight.

Affiliate marketing demands your time, hard work, skill, marketing efforts, and commitment. Focus on making your first affiliate sale.

As your affiliate site grows, set new objectives, and continue experimenting.

Want to leverage the best strategies to attract an audience and build strong relationships with them? Find out everything you need to know in our free webinar on affiliate marketing.

You’ll learn about different monetization strategies, and SEO tips to get your content in front of potential buyers.

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Article by

Matt Diggity

Matt is the founder of Diggity Marketing, LeadSpring, The Search Initiative, The Affiliate Lab, and the Chiang Mai SEO Conference. He actually does SEO too.

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