Getting Started- Step 3- Product Research

After you have picked a niche and found some good keywords, you are almost ready to start the real work.  The next step is to decide what to actually promote.  As an affiliate marketer, you must become an affiliate for a person or a merchant/company to get your affiliate links.

The first option is to check specific websites to see if they have affiliate programs.  For example, if you want to make a website that promotes dog food, check a popular site in that niche.  Go to Petsmart.com and see if they have an affiliate program you can join  (in this example, they do).

The next option is to join the affiliate program for Amazon.com.  They have almost any physical product you can imagine.  But they do have a fairly small commission rate (4%), so focus on high priced items to make decent commissions.

Next you could join an affiliate network.  These are networks that help connect affiliates with large well-known companies.  This makes it easy to be an affiliate for lots of companies and promote many products without having to be in lots of different affiliate programs.  Some of the most popular choices are Commission Junction, Share a Sale, and LinkShare.  Commission rates vary from about 3% to 10%.

For beginners, the best option though is to go to ClickBank.  This is an affiliate marketplace that has lots of individual merchants instead of big companies.  These vendors often sell digital products like computer software, membership to websites, or downloadable ebooks.  Clickbank has the highest commission rates anywhere.  Some of their products have a 75% commission rate, so you can make money more easily.

There are thousands of products on Clickbank, and not all of them are good, so you want to choose a good product that will sell well.  You want to try to promote products that will give you at least a $15 commission, and you want to promote products that have a high gravity (popularity).

I found a short video to help you find products on Clickbank.  It’s not the greatest video, and the sound quality is poor, but it should still help you figure out how to find some good products.

After you find a product (or two or three) to promote, you need to make your affiliate link, or hoplink as Clickbank calls them.  Write your affiliate link down somewhere since you will need it later.

Ok, now you picked a niche, you picked some websites or products to promote, and you know what keywords you can use to start targeting.  You are finally ready to start putting content online and start making money.

On to… Step 4- Make a Website

Related posts:

1. Getting Started- What is Affiliate Marketing?