What is Affiliate Marketing?

Have you seen those guys driving sports cars on YouTube and claiming they do affiliate marketing?

The truth is, you can make a lot of money with this business model, but you need a proper plan or you will fail.

I’m going to tell you exactly how I got started, and reveal the 5 steps you need to master to become super successful.

Then you can film yourself in your own sports car, or just become what I call a basement millionaire:

Grow your bank account while staying hidden behind your computer.

Hint:

That’s what most successful affiliate marketers do!

Exclusive Bonus: Please download the 5 Step Blueprint for Beginners which outlines all the steps you need to build a successful affiliate marketing business. Get access to free training videos and a full 30 page PDF report you can print and read later.

This Applies to Everything:

Learn from someone who has failed a bunch of times, so YOU don't have to!

I’m really bad with dates.

I can’t remember when I graduated, or how long I’ve been building online businesses.

But I figured I would do some digging and find the exact date for this report.

It turns out I started my first website in 2007.

So I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for over 10 years!

But doing does not mean succeeding. I’ve made a bunch of mistakes in the past, and have failed many times.

This is why I’m sharing this information:

I want you to make money with affiliate marketing in the fastest way possible.

I wish I found someone who could explain exactly how to succeed in affiliate marketing 10 years ago. I would have saved so much time.

But I finally figured it out, and my tutorials are really the information I wish I found when I was first getting started.

I truly believe that if you follow my advice, you too can be successful with affiliate marketing.

So let's review what affiliate marketing actually is, and talk about how you can get started.

My First Website - Examples of How Affiliate Marketing Works

My first website was wealthy-choices.com.

The headline was: Your Guide to Health Supplements and Optimal Health

Wow, talk about going after a HUGE topic right off the bat.

The site grew into a pretty good resource for health supplements. But I made a bunch of mistakes along the way, and it doesn’t exist anymore. I think I ended up making almost $3000 dollars one month.

Here are some screenshots:

I started this website because I was passionate about health and fitness back in college, and because I was involved with a MLM company called USANA.

Have you heard of Network Marketing, or Multi Level Marketing?

Yeah, well I got sucked into that.

In case you don’t know what it is, Network Marketing (MLM) a business model where you sell products and build a “downline”. It looks like a pyramid scheme, but in fairness, many companies require that you actually sell products to make money, so it’s not a scheme.

Amway is a big company you might have heard of.

MLM is basically a business in a box, and a lot of  wannabe entrepreneurs get involved. I certainly did.

I actually really liked the people who were involved in this business, because they were nice, passionate and had that entrepreneurial spirit!

The main problem for me is that I’m a total introvert!

I’m not going to go and talk to people in-person and sell them products, or try and recruit them for a business opportunity. Yuck!

I recruited zero people and made no money.

But I came up with a brilliant idea:

Instead of selling supplements to people face to face, I will just sell them online! And thus my health supplement website was born.

I eventually ran into another problem:

I wasn’t allowed to sell my MLM company's products on my website, or at least it wasn’t an easy process at all.

So this is how I stumbled on to affiliate marketing:

• I was passionate about health and supplements.
• I built a website about the topic which was very informative.
• And I wanted to make money by recommending the products I reviewed, researched, and used myself.

And this is what affiliate marketing is:

Recommending someone else’s products, and getting paid a commission for it.

I’m not going to build my own supplement company. I don't’ know how, and I don’t have the money for that.

But I can build a website and explain why Optimum 100% Whey Protein is my favorite brand right now, and recommend that you click here to buy it at BodyBuilding.com to save the most money.

See what I did there...

I just did affiliate marketing.

I recommended a product (Optimum 100% Whey Protein), and I told you where to click and go buy it (BodyBuilding.com).

BodyBuilding.com has what’s called an affiliate program:

If you have a website related to bodybuilding supplements you can recommend your website visitors to shop at their online store.

So if one of my website visitors buys a supplement from BodyBuilding.com based on my referral, then I get a commission.

So I don’t need to physically sell anything!

I just recommend my website visitors various products, and tell them where to buy them.

There are thousands of established businesses which sell health supplements, and many of them have affiliate programs.

My Second Website - The Power of Passive Income

After my first website failed, I didn't give up.

I started a second website about another topic I was interested in: Shaving.

So I registered the website electric-shaver-guide.com

This site is actually still alive, and it still makes me money, but I made more bad mistakes with it.

I don’t work on this website anymore because I have a beard now, so I can’t really review electric shavers anymore, haha.

But the real reason is that I have several other more lucrative websites which I’m working on.

At the time of writing this, I have not updated the website in 3 years, and it still makes me thousands of dollars every year.

When it WORKS, affiliate marketing can be a great source of passive income.

I haven’t worked on this site in years and it still makes money every month.

The website makes money in the exact same way as I outlined in the first example:

• The website is a great resource for electric shavers.
• I review them, I research them, and I recommend the brands and models that I like.
• I am perceived as an expert when it comes to electric shavers, and people trust me.

I don’t own an electric shaver company. I would never go out and design a new shaver.

I just recommend the Braun Series 7 because it’s the best shaver for all skin types, and it offers the best value.

You can find a great deal on the Braun Series 7 at Amazon.com. Click here to see the latest price.

See what I did there...

I just did affiliate marketing again.

I recommended a product (Braun Series 7), and I told you where to click and go buy it (Amazon.com).

Amazon.com has one of the most popular affiliate programs for people like you and me:

You can build your own affiliate business around almost every single product that is sold on Amazon.

I was interested in electric shavers, so I started a website about them.

I offered really good value for people who were researching electric shavers. I reviewed them, I answered common questions, and I recommended my favorite brands and so on.

But I didn’t start my own electric shaver company.

I just recommend the best shaver on the market, the Braun Series 7, and I told people to buy it on Amazon. When they did, Amazon would give me a commission:

I built a useful website about electric shavers.

I have not touched it in years, and people still find it and listen to my recommendations.

And more importantly, Amazon still pays me commissions.

More Examples of Affiliate Marketing Websites and Platforms

The above examples are two of my very first businesses.

They are great examples for beginners:

Most people should start a website about a topic they love and are passionate about.

This is usually the best advice for beginners. It's what I did, and what so many others have done successfully.

But let's quickly look at a few more examples so you can see how big affiliate marketing is.

Let's do some searching on YouTube. Just search any type of product review.

You will find a ton of affiliate marketers!

YouTubers

Search "Braun Series 9 Review" on YouTube

At the time of writing this, you will find my video which is almost 3 years old in the top spot:

If you scroll down to the YouTube description, what do you see?

Yep, those are affiliate links!

If someone watches my review, clicks that link to Amazon and purchases something, I get a commission.

Search "Canon ES m50 Review" on YouTube

I have been researching cameras recently and found so many people who are doing affiliate marketing.

Search for any type of product with the word "review", and you will find tons of examples on YouTube.

Just look at the YouTube description or the pinned comment:

You will find many marketers who are using this business model to make money online.

If you click on the links in these video descriptions and make a purchase, the YouTuber will make a commission.

Big Companies

Have you ever purchased something from a coupon code website? You know like Groupon or Retail Me Not.

Well these are big businesses who promote offers as affiliates.

You save 30% with a coupon code, and they earn a commission.

There are other huge businesses which have a team of writers and editors which make money with affiliate marketing.

Both PC Mag and The Wirecutter are just two examples:

Both of these websites review various products and earn commissions when you purchase something based on their recommendations.

The Wirecutter was recently bought by the New York Times for 30 million dollars!

So in case you didn't know, a lot of people buy stuff online, and you can make a lot of money as an affiliate.

But Wait! How are YOU Going to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?

The truth is, anyone can become a successful affiliate marketer.

You can pretty much build a business about any topic that sells a product or a service.

And remember:

• You don't need a team of editors or an office to be successful.
• You don't need to put yourself in-front of the camera either.

You can start your online business from your personal computer in your basement.

I started in my parents' basement, and now I work from my own basement.

And if you do it right, you can make a lot of money which can become a very powerful passive income stream.

The challenge is doing it right without failing a bunch of times.

This is why I created Affiliate Marketing That WORKS.

Here's Your Next Step:

Download the 5 Step Blueprint for Beginners.

This is a blueprint on how you can actually get started right now.

It will explain the easiest way for beginners to make money with affiliate marketing.

I would also encourage you to join my Private Facebook Group.

You can ask any questions you want and I'll be happy to help you out there. Join the Affiliate Marketing That WORKS Private Facebook Group here.