Affiliate Marketing for Dummies

Get Your Piece of the Hottest Business Online Today! 

Affiliate marketing is your route to earning some serious bucks. Thousands of companies both large & small like Amazon, Sears, Best Buy, Overstock, Lowe’s, Priceline & others have programs so you can profit from the thousands of products they offer.

Affiliate marketing is ideal for bloggers looking to monetize their work. This is a multibillion-dollar market, and there are 10+ million people involved in the biz worldwide. There’s always room for more because the opportunity keeps growing as more and more companies offer affiliate programs. Affiliate Marketing For Dummies shows you how to get a slice of the pie! 

• Choose the right affiliate product or service for you
• Find the best affiliate programs for you
• Find the best affiliate marketing strategies

Affiliate Marketing for Dummies is your friendly step-by-step guide to getting in on this moneymaker—big time.  

Ted Sudol is a longtime affiliate marketer who has developed and sold several affiliate marketing websites over the years. His current sites focus on affiliate marketing and precious metals investing.

Paul Mladjenovic is the bestselling author of Stock Investing For Dummies. He's a Certified Financial Planner as well as a national speaker and home business specialist.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 3

Part 1: Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing 5

Chapter 1: What is Affiliate Marketing? 7

Getting a Handle on How Affiliate Marketing Works 7

Profiting from Internet Promotion 8

Multiplying opportunities 9

Automating the money flow 9

Distinguishing affiliate marketing from other internet businesses 11

Preparing to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business 12

Setting expectations 12

Laying the groundwork 13

Walking through the process 14

Chapter 2: Why Should You Be an Affiliate? 17

Surveying the Requirements of Starting a Traditional Business 18

Assessing the Advantages of Affiliate Marketing 19

You can start your business instantly 20

You can choose your own path and lifestyle 20

You can offer a diverse range of products 21

You have no product development and fulfillment 21

You don’t have to be a technical genius 22

Payment and accounting are automated 23

You get company-supplied marketing materials 24

You can take advantage of tax deductions 24

Setting Expectations 24

Chapter 3: Pitfalls and Risks for Beginners 27

Looking Out for Personal Pitfalls 27

Lacking focus 28

Managing time poorly 29

Making few (if any) content updates 32

Avoiding Internet Risks 32

Stay away from instant businesses 33

Don’t fall for the next bright shiny object 34

Don’t follow others too closely 34

Chapter 4: Steps to Take Before Becoming an Affiliate 37

Setting Your Goals 38

Assessing the Skills You Have and Need 38

Where are you now? 39

How do you move ahead? 40

Strengthening Your Ability to Focus 40

Deciding what is (and isn’t) important 40

Setting your priorities 41

Seeing the magic of massive action 43

Making time to play 43

Ridding yourself of time wasters 44

Chapter 5: Surveying the Affiliate Landscape: Programs and Networks 49

Digging into Affiliate Programs 49

Assessing the advantages of affiliate programs 50

Finding and evaluating affiliate programs 51

Joining an affiliate program 54

Looking at Affiliate Networks 56

Checking out the advantages of affiliate networks 56

Finding and evaluating affiliate networks 57

Joining an affiliate network 58

Understanding the Dangers of Getting Banned 59

Part 2: Building on the Basics 61

Chapter 6: Keyword Research and Product Selection 63

Combining Passion and Profit 64

Analyzing Product Keywords 65

Looking at long tail keywords 66

Golden keywords 70

Sifting through Keyword Analysis Tools 71

Market Samurai 72

KeywordRevealer 74

Google Keyword Planner 75

Examining Markets 76

Focusing on evergreen markets 77

Sizing up seasonal markets 77

Chapter 7: Using a Website for Affiliate Marketing 79

Beginning with the Benefits of a Website for the Affiliate Marketer 80

Establishing a Domain Name for Your Website 81

Choosing a name 81

Using a registrar 82

Checking out the aftermarket 83

Comparing Self-Hosting to Free Hosting 84

Self-hosting 85

Free hosting 87

Going with WordPress Software 88

Installation 89

Themes 90

Plug-ins 91

Monitoring Your Website 94

Totaling the Costs of Starting and Running an Affiliate Marketing Website 95

Asking a Few Important Questions about Websites 96

Chapter 8: Niche Marketing 97

Understanding the Basics of Niche Marketing 97

Finding Your Niche 99

Following the head and the heart 100

Considering market size and competition 100

Reviewing Keyword Analysis Tools for Niche Marketing 101

Market Samurai 102

KeywordRevealer 103

Google tools 104

Keywords Everywhere 104

Spying on the Competition 105

Surveying Seasonal Niches 107

Chapter 9: Affiliate Marketing Without a Website 109

Getting Started When You Have Followers (And When You Don’t) 110

Leveraging the followers you already have 110

Taking action when you have no social media presence 112

Surveying Strategies for Different Social Media Platforms 113

Facebook 114

LinkedIn 115

YouTube 115

Instagram 116

Reddit 117

Quora 117

Guest blogs 118

Checking Out the Cons of Affiliate Marketing Without a Website 119

Your web presence is limited 119

You’re not building asset value 120

You don’t own the ground you’re building your business on 120

Your content doesn’t last long in front of your followers 121

You’re always fighting the competition 121

You have to adjust your approach for a different audience 122

You must keep on top of social media limitations and restrictions 122

Social media isn’t necessarily less complicated than having a website 123

Having a website isn’t as expensive as you may think 124

Chapter 10: SEO: Search Engine Optimization 125

Taking Care of Some Issues Before You Focus on SEO 126

Selecting the right niche 126

Understanding the elephant in the room: Google 127

Distinguishing On-Page and Off-Page SEO Factors 130

On-page SEO factors 131

Off-page SEO factors 138

Setting Up Your Site to Be SEO Friendly 139

Tags and categories 140

Posts and pages 140

Building a silo 143

Trying Out SEO Tools 144

Yoast 144

Market Samurai 144

Google Webmasters 145

Chapter 11: Email Marketing 147

Assessing the Advantages of Email Marketing 148

Building Your List with Different Types of Email 149

Marketing emails 149

Autoresponders 149

Transactional emails 150

Email campaigns 151

Hosting Your Own Emails 152

The pros of hosting 152

The cons of hosting 154

Playing by the Rules 156

CAN-SPAM 156

The opt-in 158

The double opt-in 158

Unsubscribing 159

Understanding Email Screening 159

Soft bounces and hard bounces 161

Beware of buying a list of emails 161

A risk of probation if email addresses aren’t checked 161

Email throttling 163

Considering Different Email Senders 163

Sendinblue 164

Amazon SES 164

SendGrid 165

Mailchimp 165

Constant Contact 166

Part 3: Advanced Affiliate Strategies 167

Chapter 12: Multitier, Passive, and Other Offbeat Commissions 169

Getting a Handle on Multitier Affiliate Marketing 170

Trying two-tier marketing 170

Watching out for the third tier and beyond 171

Finding affiliates for your multitier program 172

Picking Out Passive Income Opportunities 174

Profiting Even When No Sale is Made 175

Cost per action/pay per lead 175

Cost per click 176

Cost per view 177

Chapter 13: Affiliate Platforms, Directories, and More 179

Assessing Affiliate Platforms 179

JVZoo 180

ClickBank 181

CJ Affiliate 183

Amazon Associates 184

Digging into Affiliate Directories 185

Checking Out CPA Networks 186

Looking at Advertising Networks 187

Chapter 14: Opt-In and Landing Pages 189

Examining the Elements of an Opt-In Page 190

Videos versus text 190

The layout 192

Other considerations for success 192

Checking Out the Elements of a Landing Page 193

The visuals: Colors and images 193

The headline and the subheadline 193

Ad/sales copy 194

Testimonials 196

Bonuses 197

The “what’s inside” element 197

The bio 198

Payment buttons 198

Guarantees 198

Frequently asked questions (FAQs) 199

Legal notices and disclaimers 200

Focusing on Other Factors for Success 200

Testing with the A-B split 200

Considering SEO 201

Using an exit pop-up 201

Benefiting from others’ wisdom 202

Trying landing page templates and software 202

Judging results 202

Chapter 15: Sales Funnel Strategies 203

Selling Your Prospect on Multiple Offers 203

Starting with the front end 204

Moving to the main or core offer 206

Continuing with the back-end offer 207

Using upsells and downsells 207

Putting everything together 208

Setting Up Your Sequence of Offers 210

Looking at the tools you need 210

Modeling a merchant funnel 211

Assessing an affiliate funnel 212

Building a structure for passive income 213

Part 4: Going Professional 217

Chapter 16: The Legal Stuff 219

Following the Federal Trade Commission 220

Knowing the main guideline 220

Avoiding unrealistic claims 220

Retaining records about testimonials 221

Watching your language 222

Keeping your pricing consistent 222

Having a clear refund policy 222

Being aware of the rules about business opportunities 223

Getting the Scoop on the General Data Protection Regulation 224

Safely Using Images and Other Content 225

Getting permission in writing 225

Understanding special content rights 226

Addressing Legal Matters on Websites 227

A privacy policy 227

Disclaimers 228

Terms of service 228

Other sites’ rules 229

Chapter 17: The Merchant Side of Affiliate Marketing 231

Knowing Whether You’re Ready to Be a Merchant 232

Is your product conducive to an affiliate marketing program? 233

Is your compensation plan attractive? 235

Can you service affiliates? 236

Becoming an “undercover affiliate” 236

Choosing Your Technology 237

Considering an in-house affiliate program 237

Using an external affiliate platform 238

Outsourcing 239

Recruiting and Working with Affiliates 239

Knowing where to find affiliates 239

Making offers they can’t resist 240

Providing affiliate tools 240

Chapter 18: Taxes for the Affiliate Marketer 245

Setting Up Your Business for Taxes 245

The simplest business structure: You! 246

The second simplest business structure: The DBA 246

The next level: LLCs, corporations, and partnerships 247

Handling Taxes on Affiliate Marketing Commissions 247

Federal income taxes 248

Federal self-employment taxes 248

State and local taxes 249

Sales tax 249

Digging into Powerful Tax Deductions 250

Deducting home office expenses 250

Looking at the most common affiliate deductions 251

Checking out other common business deductions 252

Keeping Good Records 253

Researching Pension Tax Benefits 253

Reviewing Resources to Help You with Your Taxes 254

Part 5: The Part of Tens 255

Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) of the Biggest Pitfalls for Affiliate Marketers 257

Looking to the Next Bright Shiny Object 257

Battling a Lack of Focus 258

Not Investing in Yourself and Your Education 259

Making the Transition from Content Consumer to Content Producer 260

Having Unrealistic Expectations 260

Spreading Yourself Too Thin 261

Not Sticking It Out Until You Achieve Success 261

Not Spending Money to Save Time 262

Not Protecting Your Trust Flow and Reputation 262

Chapter 20: The Ten Best Free Tools for Affiliate Marketers 267

WordPress 268

Elementor 268

Yoast 269

Keywords Everywhere 270

SpyFu 270

Blog Ideas Generator 270

Market Samurai 271

GTmetrix 271

SimilarWeb 272

Buffer 273

Chapter 21: The Ten Best Paid Tools for Affiliate Marketers 275

Market Samurai 276

Keyword Revealer 276

SpyFu 277

Elementor, Astra Pro Theme, and Ultimate Addons 277

Content Samurai 278

WP Robot 280

CleanTalk 280

Sendinblue 281

Amazon SES 281

Mailster 282

Chapter 22: The Ten Best Marketing Strategies for Affiliates 285

Guest Blogging 285

SEO Strategies 286

Social Media Marketing 286

YouTube Marketing 287

Email Marketing 288

Content Marketing 289

E-book Publishing 289

Joint Ventures 290

Media Interviews 290

Smartphone Apps 291

Appendix: Tools and Resources For Affiliates 293

Index 307

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.