There are no official requirements, but there are certain things you want to know before starting affiliate marketing.
First of all, you need to realize that it may take months until you start making consistent income.
It all depends on the niche you choose and how you enjoy certain topics within the niche.
Let’s break it down so, by the end of this post, you know, what are the requirements to start affiliate marketing.
Even though I mentioned there are no official requirements, let me break down a few aspects that one must be clear about (on a personal level).
Personal Requirements to Start Affiliate Marketing
What is Your “Why”?
First of all, you need to know why you want to do this.
Have you asked yourself, why do you want to become a successful affiliate marketer?
Have you gained enough knowledge to realize that this is the proper business model?
I am glad that you want to learn new skills and my guess is that you are interested in SEO as well.
But in case this is some shiny object (another one) that you have heard of, I would think twice before getting into this game.
Maybe you can even look at some of the 20+ questions regarding Affiliate Marketing.
Be Helpful
Every successful affiliate marketer wants to help people. He or she wants to inform people about certain products, and services.
- What are the issues
- What are the Pros
- Specifications
- Price Range
- How To questions
Basically, solve an issue that your audience might have.
If you are willing to help others with something you know more about, I am sure you can succeed.
I understand that many newbies are getting into this game to make money – and fast.
But this is a long-term business model.
That brings us to the next one:
Patience
As mentioned, you need to be patient, because if you are new to this starting with a brand new website, you need to be consistent for a few months.
Expect to see some traction (in terms of traffic) not earlier than in 6 months.
The screenshot above shows data from a website created in October 2021.
Proper Niche – For You
So before you start, you want to be sure about your niche.
If you don’t know what is the proper niche for you, take a deep breath and think about your previous career – experience, or hobby.
What is it that you like and enjoy telling/helping others?
- Is it related to fishing?
- Jogging?
- Bodybuilding?
- Some diet?
- Relationships?
- There are so many categories and sub-categories – Only you know which one is the best niche.
These are basically the personal requirements, you need to have.
Other than that, below you are going to find “technical” requirements.
And as you see some of them overlap with the personal ones.
Choose a Niche
This is your field of industry.
Make sure to choose wisely, because if the wrong niche you might end up burning out soon.
Not only you won’t get any traction, but you end up forcing yourself to create content. As a result, the content won’t be interesting and therefore no one will read it.
So bear in mind to choose a niche or even a micro-niche that you are passionate about.
Or at least you have experience with it. You will become an authority soon because you will inform and teach others about specific topics.
Note:
Make sure to come up with informational content. Don’t try to sell the stuff within your niche.
Have at least 40 articles that educate and help people.
Only then you can add product reviews, that will point your audience in the right direction. when the buy you get a commission.
Have a Blog
Create a website, ideally a blog where you will be crafting articles about the topic you have chosen.
You can also do affiliate marketing as Youtuber.
But is always advantageous to have a website – even a simple one or 2 pages website that you direct people from youtube to.
On this page, you can offer something in return for their email.
Once you have their email, you better stay in touch with them, offer value, and eventually sell something. Engage, and “listen” to what your prospects have in mind.
In other words, what is it you can help them with?
Competition
This might be challenging since you want to work within a niche that you are interested in and at the same time you don’t want too much competition.
What is Competition?
Competition is any website within your niche that tries to rank on the same keyword as you do.
In this specific case, you would outrank all other websites, which is a great achievement.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way forever.
Is Competition Too Tough?
Let’s be clear on this.
Currently, there is competition in every single niche.
That could be tough to outrank the other websites.
Ranking on the 2nd page on Google is the same as not ranking at all.
I am going to show you how to beat the competition but let me say one more thing:
Being in a competitive niche can be a good thing.
Why?
Because you know that there is a demand for such information, products, or services.
In other words, you do not have to do research to find out what people search for, or what they want.
How to “Beat” the Competition?
The good news is that you can always dig deeper and choose a micro-niche where the competition isn’t that high.
Google Trends is a great place to learn about what people search for.
Also, it is interesting to find out what’s trending. And based on the information you can come up with topics/articles that your competition is not aware of.
That is very advantageous.
For such a purpose, the Exploding Topic tool is great.
So be one step ahead of others.
Sure a lot of websites do follow these trends as well.
But believe me, many don’t.
- Some are too busy maintaining their huge website(s)
- Others get complacent or want to change the niche
And how about people that are just starting out?
- Most of them quit too early
So by the process of elimination, if you are consistent you can be an authority within your niche in a year.
3 Useful SEO Tips
Make sure to apply these 3 simple tips, that give you a great chance to rank on the 1st page of Google:
1) Google Autocomplete
This is a straightforward and powerful technique.
Start typing your seed keyword and you will see that Google gives you some suggestions.
Let’s take Herbs as a niche example.
Basil belongs to Herb’s family, and based on the image above, we see that many people ask different questions.
That means you get a lot of ideas.
Let’s say your seed keyword is “Basil”:
In case you want more here is another great technique you should apply:
Alphabet technique
After the “why basil” use the alphabet technique.
Meaning, start typing:
why basil a…
why basil b…
why basil c…
….
why basil z…
You get my point.
Obviously, not all make sense, that’s why here is another great sub-tip:
Questions (Phrases)
Instead of “Why” you can ask different questions. In combination with the Alphabet technique, you get tons of new ideas.
Here are the phrases you can add to your seed keyword:
- How
- Are
- Where
- Is
- Don’t
- Aren’t
- Why Do
- Where Do
- What
- When
- Which
- Do
- Have
- Can
- Would
- Could
- Will
- Prevent
- Difference
- Bad
- Help
- Fix
- Broken
- On
- In
- On a
- In a
- A
- Has
- Does
- With
- Questions
- Easy
- Hard
- What Makes
- Was
- Must
- Did
- If
- Who
- Should
- Best
- Under
- Isn’t
- Can You
- Vs.
- Get
- Fast
- To Avoid
- Worth It
- Cheap
Remember, we have mentioned one type of Herb so far, the Basil.
How many types of Herbs are out there?
OK, but how do I know that the article based on that phrase/keyword will rank?
Let’s check Tip #2:
2) SERP (Search Engine Result Page)
Once you come up with a lot of keywords, go to Google and “test” them, to see what the competition is.
In the search result, if you spot user-generated content, you can go ahead and write the articles.
By user-generated-content, I mean websites like:
- Social Media (Facebook, Twitter…)
- Forum sites (Reddit, Quora…)
That means, that Google doesn’t have any good quality posts/articles to show. So these are the results he is able to come up with.
In case you search for the keyword and see at least 2 such websites (user-generated), you can go ahead and use that keyword for your new article.
And the last tip:
3) People Also Ask
Google shows you what people ask.
Leverage the info and use these questions inside your article as H3 or H2.
– Of course only if it makes sense.
– And you don’t want to use the same questions twice (sometimes the same question is asked in 2 different ways)
Do you see only 3 or 4 questions?
Just hover over that arrow pointing down (next to each question) and click on each one of them. The list gets bigger and bigger.
OK now, we know how to craft an article… Now – how to make money?
Join Affiliate Program(s)
There are tons of affiliate programs and many have a lot of different products in their portfolio.
Affiliate programs are websites (companies) that operate as a middleman between the merchant (sellers) and affiliates – you.
It is very convenient as you don’t have to contact each seller (vendor) and apply for the partnership.
Most affiliate programs are easy to join and probably the most famous one and also easy to join is Amazon Associate Program.
There are not many requirements, to become an Amazon Associate (or affiliate).
Join the affiliate programs with easy access and as you build your website, you will have more traffic and also higher chances to apply for other affiliate programs with more restrictions.
Create Useful and Readable Content
This is the core of your business.
The more valuable content you have, the more traffic (potentially) you get.
The secret?
Make the content Readable.
Content on a blog post is not a book. That’s why it is important to have a lot of paragraphs and not to have a big chunk of content.
Most searches are done on mobile phones, so once you are done with your article, check what it looks like on the mobile phone.
And here are two examples:
Which one do you prefer?
- Example
Or
2. Example
Which article, do you find more readable?
#1?
Or
#2?
Let me know in the comment section below, please.
Actual Content Creation
And when it comes to content, it is actually easier than you think.
Keyword
Use the keyword wisely.
That means, make sure to use it in the title, as H1.
Make sure to use the keyword in your intro, preferably within the first 100 words.
Talking about the intro, here is the structure you want to have:
Intro
Write about 150 words about what to are going to write about.
Content
Divide the topic into 5 headlines (at least).
For each headline write about 200 words.
Conclusion
Again about 150 to 200 words where you sum up what you have covered.
Use images, preferably your own, or use free stock images but make them your own:
- Add some text
- Edit them
- Use 2 or 3 images to make one
There is a free tool called Canva, where you can do all the modifications mentioned above.
It is also recommended to embed a video, for example, from Youtube. The video must be relevant to your article.
That’s it.
You have at least 1,200 words of an article with images and videos. Nicely optimized.
In case you are a total newbie, this might feel overwhelming.
In case, you have some experience and have created at least dozens of articles this shouldn’t be so difficult to follow the “requirements”.
Conclusion
We have learned that there are really no requirements when one wants to become an affiliate marketer.
It is about willingness and choosing the proper method.
Also by now, you know how to craft an article so you can rank well – ideally in the 1st top results.
I believe you have tried affiliate marketing already.
Which part do you find the most challenging?
- Niche selection?
- Content creation?
- Keyword (phrase) research?
Hopefully, you have found some answers to your questions, but feel free to use the comment section below and raise the questions.
I will be more than happy to provide you with the answer, within 24 hours.
Thank You For Reading,
Mike
