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.

So……… when was the last time you watched a great movie or had a brilliant meal out?

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.

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!

In this article, we are going to look at the First 7 Steps I believe are essential when you want to know How to Start Affiliate Marketing, including how I started (I’m now a ‘top 3’ earner for my fave High Ticket Affiliate Marketing product)

How to Start Affiliate Marketing – Step 1: Be a Product of the Product

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.

How to Start Affiliate Marketing – Step 2: What do you LOVE?

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!

Do me a favour – stop reading and write your passions down now… I’ll wait!

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)).

How to Start Affiliate Marketing – Step 3: Who are you talking to?

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!

How to Start Affiliate Marketing – Step 4: What do they need?

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).

How to Start Affiliate Marketing – Step 5: How are you going to reach them?

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).

You can have multiple ‘outlets’, but when you are starting out, KISS (Keep It Stupidly Simple!).  Choose something you are happy with and start there. 

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?”

Affiliate Marketing – Step 6: How quickly do you want to grow?

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!

Affiliate Marketing -Step 7: Do it RIGHT from the START!

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!

The post How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2025 – Your First 7 Essential Steps first appeared on Laptopmums.

Of course there is, in fact, I reckon it’s over 40 that life starts getting better.  We tend to worry less about pleasing others, about conforming or about so much of the trivia that seemed to dog earlier years.  Like so many things in life, it’s never too late and it’s certainly not too late to be starting a new career at 40 and beyond!.  If you still haven’t found that thing that makes you leap out of bed in the morning, then don’t stop until you do.  There are thousands of ideas and resources to help you, so I implore you, stop ‘settling’ for life; get out there and find your purpose. (This is who and what inspired me).

I know it all sounds a bit ‘happy clappy‘ this ‘purpose’ thing, but I so believe each one of us has something to offer this amazing world, to make it a better place, to make others happy or to pay something forward.  By 40 and beyond, you will have a mountain of experience to draw upon, to share, to guide and to learn from and you can earn an income from this! Discovering your purpose might be something that will take a good bit of ‘work’ to do or it might be something you’ve known all along.  It might even be something you discover by accident when you take a different path, talk to someone new, go somewhere different, catch a later train (did you ever watch Sliding Doors?) or discover in a blog!

When you discover your purpose, it is your responsibility (to yourself and to others that care for you) to follow it, no matter what your age and starting a new career with that purpose driving you is easier than you might think.

Your current situation

It might be that you fell in to something when you left school, college or Uni and you have just remained in your comfort zone ever since – but that does not mean that that is where you should stay, in fact, if you are ‘comfortable’ you will never be growing (and for my money, if I’m not growing, I’m not happy).  It might be that you have been raising and running a family, getting temporary work or never had to work, but whatever your current situation, if you are thinking about starting a new career at 40, 50 and beyond, you must not settle for anything that does not inspire you.

Starting a new career sounds pretty daunting at any age, let alone past 40, but it is rapidly becoming a normal progression in this ever changing world for someone to have several jobs throughout their working life or even at the same time – multiple income streams is definitely a more secure option! As traditional jobs fall by the wayside, people that don’t keep up will be out of work quicker than you can say “Dole Queue” (would have been fun to be in this one though!).  It’s crazy, but there are hundreds of jobs around today that didn’t even exist 20, 10 or even 5 years ago.

Here’s a few jobs that never or barely existed 10 years ago….

• App developer
• Content creators
• Social media managers
• Sustainability managers
• Data scientist
• Cloud computing specialist
• Driverless car engineer
• Uber driver
• Millenial Generation expert! 
• Drone operator

The latest studies are suggesting that 2/3 of kids in primary schools today will be doing jobs we can’t even conceive of at the moment – crikey! So if you are thinking about a starting a new career, especially one that creates freedom in your life, with an untapped income potential and joining what is known as the ‘Modern Wealthy’, it’s all about not being left behind. That means getting Online!

The digital world is moving pretty fast, and it’s leaving a lot of people in it’s wake, but if you are prepared to invest some time and effort into your future by learning some new skills, it’s so much easier than you would think to start leveraging the power of the internet. You could stick your head in the sand, perhaps sign up to a soul crushing MLM ‘opportunity’ (been there!) or trawl though sites like Indeed, trying to fins a ‘job’ that still means you have to ask a boss for time off in the school holidays, or you could ‘earn while you learn’ in the online world and build something you love that could pull in cash flow every day on autopilot.

The pain of staying the same

So, if you are thinking about starting a new career at 40 and beyond, or adding an additional source of income, learning to take your passion online is the only smart choice.  Now I hadn’t planned to look for a new career; since leaving the RAF I thought I had found my purpose in Personal Training. However, as much as I love training and am hugely satisfied helping others to improve their lives through health and fitness, I’ve realised that my purpose is so much bigger than that.  To be honest, I’d really dug myself into a hole of self doubt, self criticism and unworthiness (I’ll save that story for another blog!!) before I discovered I could do what I loved without compromising my physical and mental health. I’d suffered years of pain after back to back injuries and I nearly let life crush me. I knew I had to get me a spade and dig myself out and that’s when I met Landria. Talk about INSPIRED!!!I I knew I was in the right place (despite initial scepticism) and after getting stuck in to the education I soon launched Laptopmums and then took my fitness business online.

“Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change”

Tony Robbins

Remembering that pain, and having seen how others like Landria have succeeded late in life, gives me the drive to help others rise out of similar holes.  I’ve spoken to so many women who are ‘settling’, who are in pain, who are unfulfilled, who are unsatisfied or just ‘meh‘.  Women who are run ragged juggling, jobs, kids, husbands, admin, cleaning and cooking.  Women who are just ‘waiting’ for a good time to start their own business, take a training course or hire a cleaner (I wrote a bit about the perfect moment in my last blog HERE).  These women aren’t necessarily unhappy and often have a loving family, but just feel that something is missing or that they are capable of so much MORE.  So at the grand old age of 53, here I am pushing out of my comfort zone getting to grips with the Digital Age and discovering my bigger purpose. It’s not easy – nothing worth having is, but I’m laying the foundations for 2 businesses that I love , building digital assets that bring in income 24/7/365.

My purpose

I love my business GO Health and Fitness, I’m proud of it and I love my clients, but I now know I can help my people not only to lose weight, move better and get healthier, but to take it a few steps (or a giant leap) further to develop themselves personally and professionally too.  If health and fitness is your goal, I’m certainly your girl and what I have learned from my online community has driven me to serve my clients from an online platform which enables me to work with clients all over the world (from anywhere in the world!)

If you too are also feeling lost, overwhelmed, left behind or a bit ‘meh’, you should at least take a look at the FREE Training to see if there’s anything for you in the online world (even if you have NO IDEA right now or are crap on the computer).  My purpose with Laptop Mums is to introduce every woman to the same opportunity I took that really has changed my life. To develop themselves further than they ever thought possible; to never stop learning, growing, laughing and living and find their passion to share with world.

My absolute purpose is to be a force for good, a force for change, and a force to be reckoned with! 

Stop making excuses  – it’s YOUR life, get curious and don’t get left behind!

It all starts with this FREE Training. I’d say life changing, but I know how cheesy that sounds! By all means, be sceptical, I was, but if I hadn’t taken the first step, I’d still be in that hole.

Yours in health, growth and happiness,

Jennie x

PS. Here’s that link again to the Training that changed my life 

PPS.  If you have any questions at any time, please reach out to me here –  jennie@laptopmums.com – I’m happy to jump on a zoom

The post Starting a New Career first appeared on Laptopmums.