How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2024 – Your First 7 Essential Steps

If you’ve found this blog, that tells me you are someone who wants more out of life. You’re someone who wants to spend more time with family and not have to ask a boss for time off. It tells me you have dreams, but don’t know how to make them a reality and it tells me you know enough to Google ‘How to Start Affiliate Marketing’, but are not sure how to actually get started or what’s involved? And if you are anything like I was, you’re probably (and quite legitimately) super sceptical of scams and all the BS you hear about affiliate marketing.

I’d never actually heard of it, when I stumbled across the concept a few years ago. I needed to find a way to work from home so I could spend more time with my kids, and be the mum I’d promised to be when I left the Military. You’re about to discover not only the steps involved in getting started, but I’m going to share the exact same free training, that I stumbled on, which ultimately led me to creating a life where I don’t have to ask anyone for time off to spend with my family.

Did you recommend that movie or restaurant to a friend?

You did?

Fab – you’re almost there!  This is how to start affiliate marketing. Find a product you love, tell others about it, and get paid if someone buys it.  Clearly, there are a few more working parts in between, but in a nutshell, this is how to start affiliate marketing.

how to start affiliate marketing

Back to the restaurant….. (this is my Mum & Dad at our fave pizza place in Carlsbad, CA.)

Now imagine you’ve had that brilliant meal, and you ask the owner for a code-word that you could tell your friends.  Now every time your friends have a meal and use that code-word when they book, the owner will give you a % of their bill, and it won’t cost your friend any extra money at all.  This commission-based business is how affiliate marketing works.  The owner is reaching new clientele through you, that they have not had to market to (I think Pizza Port owes me a few $$ !! (not an affiliate link!))

This example above is clearly a basic one, so how do we start to make the big bucks and turn this income generator into a business that could ultimately give you time and financial freedom?  It’s time to jump online friends. The place where billions of people are hanging out and spending trillions of $£$£$£$£

It’s exactly the same: find products and companies you love and get paid when you refer people to them.  More and more businesses are setting up affiliate programmes to enable their products to be seen by a wider group of people. How do you think the top influencers earn so much? When you click a link on their social media or website, they’ll be getting paid (if you actually buy the product!). If like me, you have absolutely no tech skills, and the thought of setting all the ‘stuff’ up is scary, then investing in the education to learn how to do it right from the start will save you a whole ton of time and money!

My biggest tip has to be to only market things you have bought and LOVE!  Maybe it’s my Military background (23 years in the Royal Air Force), but Integrity is a cornerstone of my life.  I will only ever recommend a product, that I am a product of – something I have used and that has made my life better!

Many people start an Affiliate Marketing Business searching for and marketing High Ticket Affiliate Products that they haven’t even used themselves, just because they’ll earn more. However, if you haven’t learned how to set up the right systems first or if that company doesn’t have a good affiliate programme and if you haven’t bough the product itself, you could be wasting a lot of time and money before you make it work. Personally, I want to have a relationship with my prospects and be able to honestly chat with them about the product if they reach out with questions.  I became a product of THIS PRODUCT as it was the one that started to show me how to become a successful affiliate marketer.

Before you even start to think about the how, why, where, what, and when, of starting an affiliate business, I want you to think about the things you love doing.  Are you a keen cyclist, runner, reader, photographer, cook, entrepreneur, swimmer, moviegoer, knitter, or animal lover?  Are you passionate about the environment, politics, community, travel, the outdoors, charity, or family? 

I’m passionate about all the things above, except maybe knitting & politics!

Now think about the ‘things’ associated with those passions.  Courses, events, holidays, gadgets, gizmos, clothing and accessories; these are the products you could build an affiliate business around.  Wouldn’t you rather build a website, blog, YT channel, Pinterest board, Instagram account or FB group around the things you love?  It’s so easy to see the insincerity of marketers who are just looking at the bottom line. When you love what you do, people start to know, like, and trust you, and are then more likely to buy anything you recommend (quick caveat – you do not need to be posting on social media all day/or at all, if that’s not your thing (in the free training you’ll find out how to market without the need to put your face all over socials)).

laptopmums open water swimming

When you start affiliate marketing, it’s important to think about who you are trying to reach.  One of the first exercises you should consider is figuring out who your ideal customer is.  This activity forms the foundation of the course I started with.  If you try to market to everyone, your message will be too generic.  Most people start with themselves.  If you are a middle-aged parent, my messaging is working!  If you’re not, it just shows you how effective a good message can be outside of your target ‘demographic’ – after all, most products can be used by most people!

Your job is to be a problem solver.  People ask friends or family and jump online when they are looking for a solution.  With this step it’s your job to communicate how the problem they have, can be solved with the product you are marketing.  Again, with complete integrity.  I would not market anything I wouldn’t give to my mum!  Through placing an ad or through the list you have started to build with people who know, like, and trust you, you can put the solution in front of them.

How you communicate that problem and solution—with knowledge, empathy, and sincerity—will ultimately lead to your prospect ignoring or buying! 

And don’t forget, the best thing about affiliate marketing is the fact that YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE A PRODUCT – no stock to buy and post, no course to build, no buildings to maintain, no staff to worry about, all you are doing is putting a solution (in the form of an affiliate hyperlink) in front of the person with a problem to solve (for more pro’s & cons of Affiliate Marketing – check out this blog post).

The next thing to consider is, how are you actually going to ‘get in front’ of the people you want to help.  This is why the power of the internet is so incredible.  You have access to just about THE WHOLE WORD online.  But, you might as well be stuck in the desert if you don’t get your message right.  This is why it’s so important to learn how to do it the right way! (click the button below if you want to learn more about how to get started the right way – these workshops were exactly how I got started).

Love Instagram? Start a <<insert thing you love to do>> channel.

Already got a ton of Facebook friends?  Perfect, set up a page on there.

Love to write? Brilliant, start a blog.

Love creating videos?  Awesome, jump onto YouTube.

I’m always all about “How would this look if it was easy” so pick something you love and pick a platform you are comfortable with.

“How would this look if it was EASY?”

This step is important.  Clearly, without an audience, you will not have a business, and we are here to build a business, yes?  If you have read this far, I’m assuming this is something you are interested in!  There are 2 routes to take at this point. 

Organic and Paid

Organic means that you start putting your content out on your chosen platform and basically rely on ‘the universe’ (otherwise known as the algorithms!) to show your stuff to the people you are hoping to reach.  If you already have a good following, this could be enough to get started and even sustain your business.  This is basically free, and whilst most people would love for their stuff to go viral or be able to market at no cost, even the biggest ‘stars’ struggle to get consistent results. And to be honest most people just don’t have the time or the inclination to be putting themselves ‘out there’ all day!

Paid is just that.  You pay the platform to show your content to an audience you choose.  How many people see that content will depend on how well you have chosen your audience and how much you are willing to pay.  This is quite an art to get right (which is why I invested in the training to get me there quicker!) But when you do get it right, it’s magic!  It’s very easy to scale and quickly be earning an income 24/7 from whatever content you have an ‘ad’ attached to. And the best part – no need to be putting yourself out all over social media!

how to start affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing is a growing business model and to that end, there are countless courses out there and numerous ‘get rich quick’ scams too.  Like most things in life, you get what you pay for!  If I’m honest, I was quick to chase shiny objects with empty promises, and I wasted a ton of money and time.  Eventually (and with some skepticism—my ex-military BS detector is always on high alert!) I decided to check out some free training recommended through a YouTube ad I saw.  I don’t know what made me go for it, but it just seemed to ‘stand apart’ from everything else I was seeing.  Through the free training, I was able to see all the different opportunities to work online (not just Affiliate Marketing) and from there, it really was a no-brainer to check out the programmes on offer.

I’d love to send you the free training too.  If nothing else, it will answer all your questions about what is possible.  If you are here, you want to know how to start affiliate marketing, and hopefully this post has given you some pointers.  If you now want to know how this is possible for you even if you are rubbish on computers, are not a fan of Social Media or have NO IDEA about anything online (much like I was), you could not find a better next step than to click on the button below and check these workshops out.

Having learned how to be an affiliate, I also set up my own e-commerce online business around another passion of mine, all using the coaching and education available.  It’s not just education though, there’s a world-wide community of amazing go-getters who are building businesses around their passions, from spirituality to motor biking!

I’d urge you to watch these workshops as they will answer a ton of questions, not just how to start affiliate marketing, but also you will learn about other online income opportunities. I’m here too if you want to reach out to me; just drop me a line to jennie@laptopmums.com or comment below.

I promise to reply, although sometimes it might take a few days! I built my businesses so I could spend more time with my family and the passions I have, so I may be out wild swimming, walking the dog, mountain biking, baking cakes with Holly, or driving Rosie to her next party!!

Hope to see you soon! 🙂

how to start affiliate marketing
jennie edmondson

3 thoughts on “How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2024 – Your First 7 Essential Steps”

    1. Hi Nkiru – therein lies the biggest challenge for us all!! It’s not easy. If you want to do it organically, that will involve an understanding of Search Engine Optimisation and posting very frequently. Also speaking directly to a niche audience. You could also pay google to put your blog in front of an audience you chose. If you want to learn more about both of those strategies, start with the free training linked to this post 🙂

    2. Hey Nkiru,
      It depends!
      If you are prepared to pay for Google to show it, you can set up an Ad to the blog.
      If not, you will need to ensure it is fully optimised for search engines – that takes some knowledge!
      (you can learn that if you check out the courses here)
      You website will also need to be fully optimised too.
      Best wishes,
      Jennie

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