Affiliate Marketing For Beginners – The Dark Side – Part 1

Affiliate marketing for beginners guides usually show you where to start and how to do it – but this one is different. It will show you the dark side of affiliate marketing and question your decision to join it.

Consider this online affiliate marketing for beginners guide as a questionnaire or a checklist you’ll use to see if you really want to get into the affiliate marketing business or not.

This is for all of you who don’t know where, or if you should even start with an affiliate marketing career in the first place.

In this article you’ll learn things that other bloggers and marketers rarely write about, what’s it really like to be an affiliate marketer.

Being a WordPress user for over 15 years, a blogger for a bit longer, and an affiliate marketer basically from the start, I know a thing or two because I’ve done it myself.

*If you want to learn more about my online journey check my About page.

The real reason why you are reading this article

You probably already Googled how to start with affiliate marketing, how to make money with affiliate marketing, or just searched for affiliate marketing tips.

If you have, you’ve come across a ton of great articles with lots of useful information.

And then, you did nothing with it…

I know why you didn’t – because it was just too much to take.

Even if you had that spark, even if ideas started flowing inside your head after you read them, maybe you even bought your domain or designed a logo, but I bet you haven’t even published your first article.

That damn information overload causing analysis paralysis.

So many options, so many niches, ideas, hostings, domains, logos, products, services, gurus… I mean, what if you choose wrong and lose all the money and time you invested?

The world would end, surely.

All jokes aside, I want to help you overcome that initial fear that’s stopping you from doing the next step, and I’m going to do that by zooming out.

You know when you are looking so closely at something that you can’t see the bigger picture?

You need to ZOOM OUT to see how everything is connected to understand how it all works together. In this article, I’m going to do just that.

“Whenever you feel overwhelmed by something, take a step back and zoom out to see the big picture to clearly understand what’s going on.”

Here’s what you will learn today…

And many more insightful things in between the lines.

Let’s begin…

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer

To be an affiliate marketer is to be a teacher, a content creator, a salesman, a marketer, an SEO specialist, and an interesting storyteller – all at once. 

It’s a daunting and exhausting job, as it is exciting and pleasing.

Your main goal, however, is to help people solve their problems, answer their questions, help them find solutions, and point them in the right direction.

By helping people you’ll not only receive gratification in terms of praise in the comments area and email replies, but also in commissions from all the products and services your customer will buy because of you.

To be honest, you’ll also sometimes get free things for review purposes. Let neither the free stuff nor the extra money be your main motivator.

Keep in mind that if you do good, good things will come back to you – as with everything in life. So do everything with good intentions and help others, and financial success will follow soon enough.

In everyday life as a new affiliate, you’ll mostly spend your time on Google doing research, writing notes and ideas for your future articles, actually writing some articles, then editing those same articles, then promoting them, and finally, checking your affiliate commissions multiple times per day hoping you made some money 🙂

Yes, it can be fun, and it will be, as long as you have realistic expectations of what you can expect in return.

It will all come from the amount of effort you put into it, the time, and the actual writing skills and knowledge you possess.

To succeed as an affiliate marketer or blogger you need to think things through, plan methodically, start your creative juices flowing, do your research, check your competitors, read some books, watch YouTube videos, connect with other affiliates, learn new things, develop new skills and have time and inspiration to execute and write good articles.

Being an internet marketer means being your own boss. If you never did that, it means doing everything on your own, from planning to execution and everything in between.

Most importantly, making yourself do the job that needs to be done within the timeframe you’ve set for yourself – even when you don’t feel like doing anything!

Does this sound like something you’d like to get into?

If so, keep reading…

Are You A Good Fit To Be Working In Affiliate Marketing Business?

That’s a weirdly positioned question, isn’t it?

Most people would ask if affiliate marketing is a good choice for you at this time and point of your life and career, not vice versa.

But I don’t think affiliate marketing is the problem here, it’s you.

If you’re in debt, if you need cash and you need it fast – then no, it’s not.

Know this, affiliate marketing is a long-term play, not a get-rich-quick scheme. Anyone telling you otherwise is most likely trying to sell you something.

When is the perfect time to start your affiliate marketing hustle?

When you already have a regular job, a huge amount of savings, or something else that brings you a steady income every month.

Only when you don’t need the money so badly and urgently, and when you can invest some amount of time and financial resources in all of this without regretting it later, that’s when it is a good time to start with affiliate marketing, especially if you’re completely new to this world.

No one speaks of this, but the state of your mind is very important.

If you’re desperate, stressed, and constantly running for something, you’ll be rushing things here as well – skipping crucial steps, having unrealistic expectations, and giving up very, very quickly because there won’t be instant gratification or prize to comfort you.

I’m not saying this to discourage you, I’m saying this so you can prepare for what’s coming.

Prepare to think about your new affiliate venture every day.

Prepare for at least 1 hour of research daily.

Prepare for writing notes on paper, on your phone, at work, or in the bathroom. Whenever and wherever you get a good idea – write it down!

Most importantly – prepare to have some “me” time where you’ll be able to sit down and do all that and write your articles with as few distractions as possible.

Easier said than done, but you can do it.

If you are serious about it, let your family and friends know that you’ll be working on something new that’s very important to you, and hold your ground.

Prioritize it, plan it, schedule it!

That’s the only way if you want to take it seriously and make some good money out of it.

You’ll need to sacrifice something else from your daily schedule too, to make this work.

Are you ready to do that?

Bullshit alert: Please don’t lie to yourself by saying you don’t have enough time, you know that’s not true. If you really want it you’ll find the way to do it.

You have time, you just have other priorities. Is watching Netflix Disney+ worth wasting your precious time?

I don’t think so.

What Set Of Skills Should You As An Affiliate Marketer (Blogger) Have?

This is a tough question.

I think a better one would be this:

What is the ONE skill you absolutely need to have to start your affiliate journey?

Just 1 that you can’t do this without.

I’d say it’s either writing or speaking the English language fluently or as close to it as you can.

Yes, you can become an affiliate in your country in your language, but that largely depends on the country you are from. 

Italy? Sure.

Croatia? Not so much.

So I’ll keep it simple and make this all about the world as one big potential market with English as a universal language.

Without knowing English it will be practically impossible for you to succeed.

Everything else can be learned.

*English can be learned as well of course, but much slower compared to, for example, learning how to use WordPress.

Ok, you know English, now what, what else will you need?

Not much in terms of preparation. You can learn everything you’ll be needing along the way at the time you’ll actually need it. 

What is that exactly and when will you need it?

You’ll discover it when you start following instructions from my blog, some online affiliate courses, Zoom meetings with a mentor (coach), and when you start doing the work.

But ok, for everyone reading this who wants to know what skills you need to have, here’s a list (in no specific order) of things you’ll often do as an affiliate blogger:

• Write and edit articles
• Find (or create), edit, and optimize images
• Use WordPress editor, WordPress admin area, install/uninstall plugins and themes
• Buy a domain name and hosting and connect them
• Install WordPress
• Install SSL (or ask your host to do it)
• Use cPanel (to set/access emails, add new domains, etc.)
• Learn and use basic HTML and CSS
• Search on Google (still amazed at how many people don’t know how to use Google properly)
• Create and track your affiliate links
• Learn to “read” traffic reports and other important analytics data
• Learn and use On-page and Off-page SEO
• Outsource work and hire freelancers
• …and many more

Don’t be discouraged by this, most of these things I mentioned above you’ll use very rarely.

However, writing and editing articles is very important to know how to do + how to publish them on a self-hosted WordPress blog.

For everything else, you can easily find solutions on YouTube or on blogs like this one.

*Don’t take any big online courses just yet, most of these things can be learned much faster than you think with free information that’s already available online.

One thing is sure, you will learn new things and get a new set of skills you’ll always be able to use no matter how your affiliate marketing career ends up.

How Long Does It Take to make money with affiliate marketing?

Ah, the question everyone wants to know the answer to 🙂

Expect at least a few months to pass before you see any money in your hands.

Even if you do everything in a single day and you make your first commission that same day and by some luck that commission is also eligible for payout, you’ll still need to wait 30-45-60 days in most cases till the vendor you are promoting sends money to your PayPal (or bank) account.

That’s just the way it works because in most cases for most companies there’s a 30-day refund period for every purchase. 

Also, most companies have a specific payout date for all their affiliates.

To give you an example, let’s say you make a commission on Jan 5th. There’s a 30-day refund period, and your vendor sends payouts every 1st of the month. That means your refund period ends on Feb 5th, but you’ll have to wait for the next 1st of the month to get paid, so you’ll be paid your commissions on March 1st in this case.

Some vendors do have instant payouts, but those are rare these days and quite often they need to manually approve you first (good luck with that if you’re just starting out).

How about some realistic expectations?

If you know what you are doing – if you have a good mentor or follow a good guide – the best case scenario is that you’ll make your first commissions within 3-6 months.

That’s if you are a blogger and your new website gets indexed fast on Google. 

There are ways of getting traffic to your blog other than Google but let’s be real, you probably aren’t a social media expert or a good salesman at this point. For all of you who are, kudos to you, you’re already one step ahead of all other newbies.

If you try to do it via YouTube, it could possibly be faster, depending on how fast your videos will rank on Google or get cross-promoted by YouTube algorithm from other videos.

*There’s a chance to hit that golden nugget by going viral on TikTok but don’t count on it.

Then, depending on your commissions and minimum payout limit, it will probably take you a minimum of 1-3 months to get there until you can actually receive the money.

All in all, don’t expect anything for the first 6 months money-wise.

To be fair, it’s probably going to take one year for most of you who don’t give up in the meantime, although that’s not a rule applied to everyone.

Still, don’t give up, you need to keep pushing and working on your content and marketing all that time. And then, when the ball of commissions starts rolling you’ll be glad you put that extra effort in.

How much money can you make with an affiliate marketing blog?

Personally, I’ve made anywhere from $500 to $2000 per month from affiliate marketing with my previous blogs. And most of that income came from just 20 or so articles I’ve published on a single blog.

I know people out there who make tens of thousands of dollars from their blogs. There’s no rule or limit on how much you can make.

Unfortunately, around 95% of people (maybe more) never make any money.

Why?

In 99% of cases, it’s because they give up too quickly and they don’t want to do the work that’s needed to be successful.

So ask yourself, are you a winner or will you give up easily?

By answering that question alone you can predict your affiliate blogging career right this second before you even start.

How much time and money do you need to invest to start an affiliate blog?

Around $400 and 100 hours, more or less.

• $10-$15 for a domain
• $300 for hosting (3-year plan)
• WordPress theme (free WordPress themes available, premium optional)
• Premium plugins (optional)

Why 100 hours? That’s 1 hour per day for 3 months on average.

If you can’t invest at least that much time or money don’t even start.

Why $300 for hosting, isn’t that a lot?

I know, I know…some will say that’s too much money, you can find a cheaper host, you can pay monthly, bla bla… Sure, that’s all true.

I’m talking here about good hosting companies and those all have the best deals when you buy for a longer period.

Plus, since you’ll be making a bigger investment from the get-go you’ll hopefully take all this more seriously and actually get your hands dirty.

If you want to start your affiliate journey on YouTube exclusively then you’ll need some video equipment and software. You could maybe pull it off with just your phone if it has a good camera and some free screen recording tools.

Eventually, you’ll need something more professional to use and that costs money. And the level of knowledge to record and edit videos is higher (and more complex) compared to writing and blogging.

Since I’m not a successful affiliate YouTuber (yet) I’ll focus on affiliate blogging in this article and on this blog in general.

My advice, go with blogging first, and do YouTube later.

Is being an affiliate marketer lonely?

It can be, especially in real life where not a lot of people will understand what you are doing and how it all works.

And then when you start making money… they’ll either think you’re some kind of a hacker or a scammer xD

Luckily there are a ton of other affiliates out there you can connect with and/or follow. And that’s super important.

Connecting with your peers and affiliates and bloggers will help you build valuable business connections, open the paths to future business partnerships, JVs, cross promotions, and if you’re really lucky you might even find a new friend for life there.

So join Twitter, find other affiliates who are doing what you do, and don’t be afraid to reach out, comment, and ask questions. 

Follow other bloggers, comment on their blogs, share their articles, send them an email, and say a few nice words.

Go to WordPress meetups or organize your own blogging meetup if you live in a bigger city.

Join Reddit, and various community boards, start a podcast or your own YouTube channel, and put yourself out there.

Just don’t be alone and isolated, you don’t have to be.

There are great people out there who are in the same position as you are, looking for other people to hang out and share their blogging and affiliate journeys so they can learn from each other.

Shouldn’t all this affiliate blogging generate some kind of passive income?

By passive income you mean for you to do nothing and the money keeps coming in?

Yeah, there’s one kick-ass song I like from a thrash metal band Artillery, called Delusions of Grandeur. I think you get the point.

Just the other day someone asked the same question on Twitter and someone replied this: “A passive income blog is another word for a dead blog”.

Ok, to be honest, there’s a certain passive income that’s possible, but it’s short-term.

Once you get your blog to $500/mo, $1000/mo, or more regularly, yes you can take a month or two off and money will most likely keep coming in on autopilot.

But the longer you leave it unattained, that income will slowly start to decline until it’s finally gone.

Don’t let that happen. Work on your blog or sell it, but don’t let it die.

Is affiliate marketing worth it? Isn’t there already too much competition?

It is, but that just means there’s money to be made.

Keep in mind that new blogs are made every day, and older blogs disappear too.

Sometimes Google wipes them down with a core update, the owner stops writing, domains expire, the blog is sold to someone else, content becomes obsolete, or any other reason that can make some room for your new blog.

Even if that wasn’t the case, you as a person are unique. Your point of view, your experience, and your knowledge are different from anyone else’s, you just need to show it in an exciting and useful way to the world.

Your blog and you as an individual can still stand out and succeed even with dozens of other blogs in the same niche as yours!

What separates successful affiliate bloggers from unsuccessful ones is consistency.

Not giving up, doing the work that needs to be done, every day, every week, and every month. 

It’s hard, but if you keep doing it regularly you’ll eventually succeed. 

If you don’t, you won’t – simple as that.

Are you ready to start your affiliate marketing career?

Yes? So happy to hear that! 🙂

Your next step is to check my Part 2 of the Affiliate Marketing For Beginners series where this time I zoomed in a bit to make sure the next first step you take is the correct one.

Don’t do this alone, share your new decision to become an affiliate blogger with the world, and feel free to start with me 🙂

Connect with me on Twitter and let’s follow each other’s journeys, help, and learn from each other.

Interested in what else I have to say?

Join the Affiliate Firestarter newsletter and I’ll notify you of my next articles and super useful tools, services, and information I find and use on my own business.

And finally, please comment below, just to say Hello or what you think about this article. Any feedback and suggestions are always welcome – I read them all and reply to everyone personally!

Have a kick-ass affiliate journey – can’t wait to see you succeed!