The Beginner's Guide to Affiliate Marketing The Sensible Approach by Priest D. Willis, Sr AffiliateMission.com

Dedication: This e-book is dedicated to you the reader! Thank you for trusting me enough to take the time out and read this guide. Thank you for giving me a chance to serve.

The information contained in this guide is for informational purposes only. I am not a lawyer or an accountant. Any legal or financial advice that I give is my opinion based on my own experience. You should always seek the advice of a professional before acting on something that I have published or recommended. Any amount of earnings disclosed in this guide should not be considered average. Please understand that there are some links contained in this guide that I may benefit from financially. The material in this guide may include information, products or services by third parties. Third Party Materials comprise of the products and opinions expressed by their owners. As such, I do not assume responsibility or liability for any Third Party material or opinions. The publication of such Third Party Materials does not constitute my guarantee of any information, instruction, opinion, products or services contained within the Third Party Material. The use of recommended Third Party Material does not guarantee any success and or earnings related to you or your business. Publication of such Third Party Material is simply a recommendation and an expression of my own opinion of that material. No part of this publication shall be reproduced, transmitted, or sold in whole or in part in any form, without the prior written consent of the author. All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing in this guide are the property of their respective owners. Users of this guide are advised to do their own due diligence when it comes to making business decisions and all information, products, services that have been provided should be independently verified by your own qualified professionals. By reading this guide, you agree that myself and my company is not responsible for the success or failure of your business decisions relating to any information presented in this guide. ©2016 Network Capital, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

I’m Priest Willis, Sr., President of Affiliate Mission.com , the fastest growing affiliate management startup in the Southeast and host of ‘Missions & Marketplace’ podcast. I started in affiliate marketing in the early 2000’s building a few niche affiliate sites and eventually started managing affiliate programs for Lenovo, Atomicpark.com, BuyCostumes.com and Celebrate Express. I love to learn, share and teach when it comes to anything digital marketing and tech. I hope it’s something you can use. Look forward to hearing about your affiliate marketing journey. Enjoy! .

How Affiliate Marketing Works Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people's (or company's) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.

The Players: Merchant - A website owner who facilitates a specific sale Affiliate NetworkSource of merchant banners and links and where you would transact as an affiliate. Affiliate Manager and or OPM (outsourced program manager – Typically works for the merchant Works with Affiliate Networks and/or managing InHouse Affiliate Program

Types of Affiliate Sites        

Coupon Affiliates Niche Affiliates Blog Affiliates Email Affiliates Video Affiliates Data feed Affiliates Webmaster Affiliates Social media Affiliates Published by Affstat.com 2015

Finding a Niche That Works! A niche affiliate product refers to any product that is related to your blog topics and would thus interest your readers. If, for example, you write a blog on topics within the health niche, you would want to promote a product related to the niche of your blog, that being the health niche.

An example is…it would be one thing to promote “subscription box” but that could be very competitive. Going for “subscription box + gamers” will make it even more focused. So you could be an affiliate with Loot Crate and then decide to even niche down further then that. Maybe you’ll just promote “star wars” in gaming. This will mean less visits possibly but the potential of your conversions rise because of niche the focus is. You could even buy a domain with star wars and or subscription box in it to help. Here’s an example of how that might look http://www.subscriptionboxr.com/. My advice for you is to select the hottest selling products in your niche, and start writing about them. This will help you to boost your conversion rate. The difference between successful affiliate campaigns and those that fail are the conversion rates involved. If you’re getting 500 clicks on your affiliate campaign, for instance, but you have a low conversion rate, you need to redesign your strategy. Become the authority in the space. See the book above that goes with the site mentioned.

Finding The Right Merchants Searching Alexa and Compete.com Website traffic volume is a good indicator of potential earnings, and you will want to use this to prioritize your recruiting efforts. Alexa indexes millions of websites, conveniently listed by category, which you can browse and cherry-pick the best. This will give you an idea outside of well known merchants, how some sites perform.

Cost Per Action (CPA) Broad term, could mean: Sale

Registration lead

Monitoring Google Alerts Whereas Alexa is a great tool for finding high-traffic partners, Google Alerts can be used to find potential merchants that may be creating buzz within your niche. Just add relevant keywords here http://www.google.com/alerts, choose frequency and result type, and enjoy latest web updates delivered right to your inbox or RSS reader.

Common Payment Structure

Payment can be a percentage of sale or flat amount Cost Per Lead (CPL) Completes lead form generally a fixed payout

Google search “___ affiliate programs”

Cost Per Click (CPC) Check footer of favorite merchants for affiliate program link

Clicks on ad Generally a fixed payout

Study competitor’s sites

Affiliate Networks Top 5 Industry Leaders in 2016

1

Rakuten Affiliate Network wins again, but this time by a clear margin. The consistent investment in technology and people seems to be a winning formula.

2

Moving up in the ranks, ShareASale is proving to be a stable network with a solid history.

3

eBay Partner Network is incredibly wellrespected by people who know the performance marketing industry. A great network.

4

Avangate has been growing fast over the last few years and is our most popular “digital downloads” network by some margin.

5

Honorable Mention A terrific range of trusted brands and a focus on proprietary technology has bumped LinkConnector up on *our list

.

Run by legends of the industry, with top-class technology and great results. Well worth their inclusion.

A top tier network that dropped back a little this year. We hear grumblings about their tracking even though technology is normally a CJ strong suit. *Published on http://mthink.com/ 2016

Relationships are Key Work with the affiliate manager and consider them a resource too grow your business. They can support you in getting;  Recommend keywords  Restricted keyword list  Best selling items, seasonal sellers  Special links  Customized banner ads And more….

Let me Leave This with You Find relevant industry information blogs , videos to start learning about affiliate marketing Find a niche you would enjoy promoting and create and create a site to practice what you learn. Don’t join even Do first thing first establish your how and why.  How are you going to earn?  How much will you earn?  How will you start earning?  How much are you going to get paid? Start playing with different digital marketing tactics (PPC, SEO, etc…). A/B test everything. Find a Long term strategy start finding what lane works the best for you as an affiliate marketer. There’s multiple flavors (email database, PPC, etc…) Step outside your comfort zone and network go to conferences and be willing to pay for courses. Invest in yourself. Stay focused online can offer so many shining products, and options…stay focused on your plan.

Thank You!

Find me on My Twitter username is @priestwillis and let me know what you thought. Want to stay on top of Affiliate Mission or Mission & Marketplace podcast news? Join our monthly email and you’ll be in the know.

Thanks again and I look forward to sharing more with you soon! Priest