How To Make Passive Income With These Affiliate Marketing Tips

5 Tips for Getting More Sales With Affiliate Marketing

So today, we’re gonna talk about passive income and affiliate marketing. This is a topic that I’ve covered in the past but I wanted to get into five tips that can help you guys with your affiliate marketing because a lot of you told me in my video about it, and my video about Amazon affiliate marketing, that it’s something that you guys were struggling with and that you weren’t able to be successful at.

I think that with the tips that I’m gonna give you and the strategies that I’ve used, you can be more effective at it but it’s going to take some work. It’s not gonna be overnight success and this isn’t limited to Amazon.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 1 – Establish Authority and Credibility

Tip number one for affiliate marketing is that whatever you’re advocating for, you actually have to have some authority and people have to think that you’re credible in order for you to recommend it.

One of the things that I have an advantage in is that I have a career in design and photography and creative services and in business and marketing and technology. I have a lot of actual experience but before I ever got into affiliate marketing I was making a ton of content that made me credible in those things to people who are not familiar with me, so it gave them an opportunity without me pitching them anything or selling them anything or recommending them anything to trust my information and to trust my advice.

The other thing is in my content. They’ve seen me use these things every day. They’ve seen me use these in my business and in my career or for fun or whatever it is that I’m doing, so they can trust that I’m being genuine and authentic when I decide to recommend these things, because they are things I’ve bought with my own money.

So whatever you’re going to do affiliate marketing for, you should be an authority in it. If you are a fitness instructor and a trainer then again, recommending the supplements and recommending the workout programs that you bought, or recommending the workout equipment that you use regularly. But also showing people, whether it’s showing them through your Instagram account or your Snapchat or your YouTube videos, that actually really matters a lot.

People need proof that you believe in this thing and you’re not just selling out for money. So that actually is a really important factor of it. So number one is be an authority in the thing you’re talking about and be credible. And I’d say that content is a big part of it because it is your proof. So before you ever do any of this affiliate marketing, I would say build up some content and build up an audience and a relationship with them so that they feel comfortable to buy from you.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 2 – Start With Your Friends

Number two, start with your friends and family. Maybe you don’t have a big following in social media. Maybe you don’t have an email list or a YouTube channel or a large following in Instagram or Facebook. That’s okay, you have family and you have friends. You have people who are going to buy things at some point anyway. So if you’re putting them in a situation where they’re not spending any extra money and they can help you out,
they’re usually more than happy to do it.

So if you have an Amazon affiliate link, if they’re gonna buy stuff from Amazon anyway, they might as well use your link so make sure that they have it. Make sure you put them in a position to be able to utilize it every time, and that can definitely help you out.

And this works beyond Amazon. Anything else that you want to recommend. So you can recommend this to friends, family, coworkers, colleagues, classmates and that’s where you can start to grow your affiliate marketing. And just depending on what it is that you’re referring and selling, that could be more than enough for you.

Obviously, there is more of an advantage if you have a following of some kind, but back in step number one, you will grow that and there are a ton of videos on YouTube to help you grow your email list and the other social media platforms as well.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 3 – Diversify

Tip number three is a very important one at least from my perspective and that is to diversify your affiliate marketing revenue. I don’t just do affiliate marketing with Amazon even though I do believe it is where I make the most affiliate money. On average, I do about 1500 to two thousand dollars in Amazon affiliate marketing alone. Amazon lets you disclose those numbers so I’m okay to tell you guys that.

But again, that’s on average. There could be an up month. There can be a down month. But it’s still really decent money as far as affiliate marketing goes. And a lot of people don’t make that much with Amazon affiliate marketing, but I think it has to do with the category of what you’re selling. In my case, I do reviews for some high end products. That includes laptops. Some of those I bought. Some of those were sent to me by sponsors. But I also review all the camera gear that I use for my setup here, and all the components and things like monitors and everything I use to build my desktop computer.

So I have a lot of opportunities there for affiliate marketing, and there are a lot of people that are curious in my setup and wanna build something of their own. Certain product categories in Amazon will just make you more money. The electronics category is a primary example of that.

But it’s not even just Amazon. There are other platforms that would make you more money faster as well. I have a background in web design and I also used to be in the web hosting industry so I know a lot about web hosting and I’ve built websites, so I’m able to recommend those things to other people and when I do tutorials around coding or websites or how to start an online business.

I can recommend things like Bluehost or HostGator or Wix to people and there’s a lot of affiliate revenue in that. Even a three to five dollar a month web hosting plan has like a 65 to 100 dollar bounty on it, and sometimes there are specials and contests where that money is increased. And so there’s a lot of opportunity for you to, by diversifying the affiliate programs that you’re a part of to make a lot more money.

Another tool that I use here on the YouTube channel to help do better SEO and for my videos to reach more people is TubeBuddy,  and because I use it and because people see that I’ve been able to grow a substantial YouTube following, they’re willing to buy that with my affiliate link to help grow their YouTube channel. And I’ve done some content around that and so that definitely helps me and I probably do like five to 600 dollars a month
in commissions on that.

So when you add all these things up, you can be successful at affiliate marketing. I still wouldn’t quit your day job to do it but I do think that you can build a great passive income system that definitely helps you.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 4 – Build a Website System

And so let’s talk about tip number four, building a system. In general a passive income, one of the things I’m looking at, is moving a lot of it from being exclusive to YouTube and social media. I still think that websites themselves are a very strong platform for generating passive income and they still might overall be the best one.

So I’m looking at developing niche microsites. And so since I have a lot of web hosting accounts for testing and for demos and for other things, I’ve actually decided to start building microsites on them that do very specific things like a laptop buyers’ guide so that I can put all my laptop review videos embedded on that site, write more articles, put together some computer build logs. And I can do a lot more affiliate marketing that way
around computers and electronics, and I can probably double the Amazon money that I make from that category.

I can do the same thing for stuff for video editors as far as putting together stuff around all the things that I did to build my PC, some PC build logs, my video editing equipment, my video production setup, all of that. And again, I would make more money there as well. And also, for video editors,
they would care about TubeBuddy so then I have multiples on top of that.

I could obviously put up ads from Amazon and make more money there, that’s not necessarily affiliate marketing money. Some of it would be but then they also do PPC ads, kind of like Google Adsense so that’d be another angle for me to play. The list goes on.

And then I’m also developing some websites that will have tutorials around building websites and starting online businesses, and you need a website and web hosting to do that. So that means that if people want to use Bluehost then I can get a commission. If they wanna use Namecheap, I can get a commission for that. If they wanna use HostGator, I can get a commission for that. If they wanna use Wix and don’t wanna code anything, I can get a commission from that.

So by having multiple affiliate programs giving yourself multiple opportunities to make revenue, then you definitely have more shots. And by having these micro niche websites that are very specific, that only talk about one topic that lets you do affiliate marketing and content around that, and be an authority, then that definitely can help you and that’s something that works for you.

So instead of having to get up and post something in Facebook or social media or Twitter all the time or make a Youtube video, you have a website that has articles. You might only need 20 or 30 of them just to get started and it’s not that hard, and then you have something that’s in there generating revenue for you all the time, at least potentially.

Affiliate Marketing Tip 5 – Patience and Persistence

The fifth and final tip that I have for it is to just keep doing it and to be patient. I think that if you use what I talked about and use a content strategy
and talk about the things that you know and you’re consistent about it, maybe you don’t make a lot of money your first month. Maybe you’ll make a lot of money your first three to six months, but over time as you build up this content and you build up authority (that’s how you build a following in social media anyway).

And as you build a following and as you get subscribers to your email list or your YouTube channel or to Twitter or Facebook or wherever you’re doing, your affiliate marketing and you’re marketing in general, as people relate to you, as people trust your information… you have a better shot of converting them… and that’s going to really help you in the long run.

So the more product reviews that I do on YouTube, obviously the more affiliate money that I stand to make, the more YouTube videos I make in general. Since I find a way to work affiliate marketing from one platform or another, for one product or service or another into them, the more money I stand to make. The more websites I build that have affiliate marketing links in them, the more money I stand to make.

So building a stack, being consistent, playing the long game, putting in the time, that adds up and that matters.

So those are my five tips for affiliate marketing and I think that that’s gonna really help you with passive income in general. I think it’s gonna help you really take affiliate marketing to the next level for you, and this is why I don’t think affiliate marketing is hokey or a scam.

I think it’s just hard for people to figure stuff out, because sometimes you’re trying to go for the shiny object, or you’re trying to go for the thing for the money. But if you focus on hey, I can solve a problem and I’ve used something that solves this problem, and you’re trying to use your information as a resource that helps people with their problem… You’re doing them a favor and it’s not costing them anything extra. It just means that you can remove some of their anxiety before they commit to buying something.

So primary example, I’ve used those web hosting companies I told you about so I can recommend them. There are web hosting companies that I’ve used that I don’t like and even though they have affiliate programs, I don’t recommend them. I could recommend 10 web hosting companies that have affiliate programs but guess what? Six of those guys, I wasn’t satisfied with the service. I felt the interfaces were too clunky and I don’t like them so I’m not recommending them.

I’m sticking with the ones that I really actually believe in and that I think would be good for you and I have different reasons for using all of them and I’ll probably do reviews on all of them and thus make more affiliate money. So it’s totally practical and it’s fine to be up front about something.

And again, only recommend things that you believe in, and that you either are using or that you would use and show your audience the evidence that you are using these things and they’re part of your every day life or your business or whatever.

Bonus Affiliate Marketing Tip 6…

I think that as a sixth tip, I would say that it should go without saying to just be authentic and be real with people and explain to them exactly why you’re recommending this. And of course, just let them know that if they use your link, it helps you. If you provide them with valuable information, I think that a lot of times people are more than happy and they want to help you. It’s not like it costs them anything extra.

Create something awesome today!

Here’s Roberto’s video which is the original source for this article, How to Make Passive Income with Affiliate Marketing: