A Beginner’s Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
February 1, 2013 Posted by Tyler CruzSince I’ve been doing better in affiliate marketing lately, I’ve been getting a lot of comments, e-mails, and tweets from readers asking for information on how they can learn about affiliate marketing and get started.
And so last night I recorded a 30-minute screencast video which does exactly this. I had to do a lot of preparation before recording, and actually ended up re-recording a new video after starting over halfway through my first take, as there is so much to cover and keep track of.
I’m happy with how it came out though – I think it’s a really good reference for people who want to get started in affiliate marketing, but really don’t know where to start or how it works. I’ll definitely be linking to and referencing this video for years to come whenever somebody asks me how they can get started.
Below is the screencast video. You may want to watch in HD and view full-screen:
(Note: You may need to visit the post directly at TylerCruz.com if you’re reading this via e-mail or RSS in order to see it.)
Links and References
Below are the links referenced in the video (yes, most of them are my referral links):
Affiliate Networks:
- PeerFly
- Clickbooth
Traffic Networks:
Tracking Software:
- CPVLab (Paid, but highly recommended)
- Tracking202 (Free, good if you’re on a tight budget)
Affiliate Marketing Blogs and Forums:
- Affposts (Not referenced in the video, but a good aggregator of affiliate marketing blogs)
- IMGrind
43 Responses to “A Beginner’s Introduction to Affiliate Marketing”
Finally, a reason to read (watch). Hope there will be more of these as you just touched the surface. I’d like to see how you create landing pages that work.
Appreciate the affposts link Tyler! 🙂
EXCELLENT truly useful… keep these type of training videos coming!
Tyler moves away from the mic to SIP TEAAAA, not breathe.
(Affiliate Rain)
I’m not a noob, but I read all your emails ahahah 😛
From the video, a new person getting into PPC, will need money. That is not much money to start off, but I would still like to know how a person can get into Affiliate Marketing who has very little.
There are many people out there who would love to do this, but I am betting many of those who asked you, how did you do it? Probably do not have a few hundred upfront to start. I had nothing- pretty much still with nothing lol.
You would not believe how hard it is just to get some people to even buy a domain name and hosting 🙁
The people who want most to do this, are one paychek away from being homeless.
I was homeless and never thought about Marketing, until I stumbled on a blogger, who was excited that John Chow visited her blog and that is when I learned what Affiliate Marketing was. ( Chow had that turtle neck sweater on ) lmao
Still I had no money. Time passes slow and then I start a campaign on Facehook. If I had disposable income it would have been profitable. I had to stop it ( no money) Majority of my ads would be approved, because I never went an pushed offers everyone else did. at the time it was weight-loss and re-bills I just didn’t touch that with a 50 ft pole. My vertical at the time was gaming and it was good targeting Farmville players 🙂
To make a long comment short. How can someone who is on their last unemployment check, start with no money and just their dusty desktop?
Maybe I missed something in the video.
Maybe creating free traffic would have to be the first thing.
ok I answered my question , by rambling ….:)
If you have no money, I’d highly recommend getting a job and then taking a small portion of your savings to use to fund your campaigns.
If you’re struggling to find money even just for domains/hosting, then you’re going to have a really hard time. Yes, you could technically work your way from the bottom up through free hosting and whatnot, but it’ll take SO much longer… like maybe a year just to have some money to fund your campaigns, whereas if you had a job you’d have that initial seed money within a week or two.
Well Tyler I was not speaking of me personally, Only that I have very little to really to full speed ahead.
I have 7 domains, hosting and access to Amazon, to buy enough books to read on starting a business.
I do not have anywhere near the amount it takes to have a facebook campaign. Nor any ppc campaign.
I am currently stuck with domains that I will create websites for, that will be passive income. Except for my coupon/deal website, that will be a fulltime job ( I hope )
To be clear what i meant was. Majority are not going to put in more than a few bucks, because that’s all their is.
There are thousands of lost souls like this on warrior for ( coughing) um.
😛
If you’re on your last unemployment check, then you’re not ready for affiliate marketing. Get a job and get your life together first. Whatever money that goes towards aff marketing should be disposable income and not money that comes from the food or rent bill.
I started 5 years ago and LOST over $4,000 before I started making money. I’ve seen Tyler do this off and on for years now and he’s finally start doing decent with this.
Take care of yourself first and get things together.
HI, well I never said it was me. I just made a scenario…of a lo of people who may be withut extra money to create their own online Buisness.
My life is together(kinda) and I am not homeless.
Who said you have to be rich to start in Marketing?
Majority of failures I know online are in Affiliate Marketing, pushing stank products to people for a rebill. ( they too need to get their act together )
I AM ready for Affiliate Marketing. The very first action I took in the make money arena was in 2005 or 2006. I had gaming blog and used Adsense.
So I’m not new, not a kid, not homeless and just being realistic.
I have been around so long, I cannot be sold a dream for a ClickBank product lol
TY DR_Ngo u made me feel worthless hahhah
TY for the advice though. I really do need to just save
sorry about the typos, cannot edit
forgot to add tracking202 has a 14day trial. Not free
Oh – didn’t know when they added that. Used to be free.
Anyhow, you can use Prosper202, which is basically a self-hosted Tracking 202 on your own server, which is preferable anyway. http://www.prosper202.com
Excellent video thanks for making this.
Why did you choose the affiliate route over the PPC?
PPC arbitrage you mean? As in, buying traffic and sending to your site, monetizing via CPM/CPC ads on the site?
If so, a number of reasons. Can’t negotiate higher payouts, slower cashflow, even higher variance (due to different payouts per click), and generally smaller margins.
Excellent video! I’m like you to the extent that I’ve dabbled in and out of affiliate marketing, except I’ve rarely even broken even on a campaign. I still hope to find some time to devote to it regularly to at least continue growing as a marketer in addition to my technical business.
One question: With regard to Facebook campaigns, do you have any trouble with direct linking from Facebook ads, or would you always recommend a custom lander? I suppose it would be a way to get around many of the exit pop, rebilling, etc. issues, but as a busy (REALLY busy) guy, it’s a lot of extra work (even if the net is worth it).
Regardless, I look forward to seeing more!
It’s really not that much extra work to use a landing page. Even split testing multiple landing pages isn’t really all that bad…
And the nice thing is, once you have a landing page done, you can use it “forever” for that particular offer/campaign. You can also use elements of it in the future when you create other landing pages, such as buttons, CSS styles, etc.
The main point of using landing pages is to increase your conversion rate.
Hey Tyler,
Awesome post! Quick question, when should a beginner in affiliate marketing start negotiating higher payouts? Obviously you’d have to be bringing in significant leads to do so, but do you just email your affiliate manager at Peerfly / Clickbooth?
Also, do you recommend using Facebook to start off, or would DirectCPV be a better route?
Regards,
Joe
Hi Joe,
I just ask my AM on AIM/Skype. One of my AM’s actually automatically bumps me whenever a new offer comes in.
Even if you don’t bring in much traffic, you can try getting a bump. Your chances are still pretty good you’ll get one. Very good if you can find a higher payout anywhere else.
However, the fact is that unless you’re doing any real volume, a 10% bump here and there won’t really affect you.
I’d recommend Facebook to start… only because you can really microtarget and also because you’ll rarely have to worry about quality (Facebook is very high quality traffic).
[…] Link to blog post […]
Affiliate marketing using paid traffic comes across as a risky venture – it sounds like you’re almost guaranteed to lose money while you work things out. I’d be interested to hear what you’re doing differently now your making real money compared to when your net profit was negative.
What makes the difference between making money and losing money? Is it the offers you market? Is it using landing pages instead of direct linking? Is it using different traffic sources? Is it better market targeting?
Yeah, unless you get really lucky, you’re going to lose money. If it was guaranteed profit, everyone would be doing it.
As for your second question – from my experience so far, it just comes down to testing everything until you finally find winning campaigns. The mechanics of affiliate marketing are very basic, you just need to be relentless in your split-testing.
Tyler,
Really enjoyed the video. I’ve had some success before with affiliate marketing, but it was about 6 years ago when I was using Adwords to send direct traffic to email and zip submits. I’d really love to learn how to do Facebook ads. I’m all ears and looking forward to your future videos.
Mike
I’ve had some achievements before with online marketing, but it was about 6 years ago when I was using For each to deliver immediate traffic to e-mail and zip gives up. I’d really love to learn how to do Facebook or myspace ads. I’m all hearing and awaiting your upcoming video clips.
Good Post..Had a lot to think through while setting up our In-House Affiliate Program. Tracking Methods are very important, and testing to see if they work is even more.
a very fine video for all those who are new to affiliate marketing. I followed every bit of it.
Great video definitely a must watch video for every newbie out there looking to learn about affiliate marketing . Great work keep it coming 🙂
Very very very useful video, thank you so much Tyler.
We can’t wait to see more videos like this one 🙂
~ Nicola
Hi Tyler, sorry for the double comment, anyway I’d want to thank you again for the superb video.
If I may ask the next video, you could perhaps focus on campaign settings & targeting. Since your strategie(s) are mostly based on PPC/PPV traffic (aka = purchasing traffic through PPC/Media Buys) and directing that traffic to merchant offers, you could enter in details how you conduit those operations: network choosing (like the above mentioned DirectCPV), split testing, how many ads x offer(s) running simultaneously, how to properly setup Tracking202, and how much money (clicks) is needed to “declare” winners/losers, and so on.
Thanks a lot, again.
With much respect, Nicola
Wow. That was some extremely helpful information. I read a book on affiliate marketing that touched on some of the areas but you really broke it down into a half hour seminar. Thanks.
Thanks for the helpful seminar. Good stuff.
Very..very interesting video Tyler! I certainly got the little bug wish to start doing affiliate promotion. For when a ebook with all your wisdom? (it can and should have a golden price on it 😉 )
You can buy cheap websites from flippa.com and host them on godaddy.com. some sites are only 1$.
Promote a website/product from clickbank and host it on godaddy.com.;)
I will first take a chance with Tracking202, if get success then I will upgrade.
Interesting and useful video. Every affiliate marketer should view this.
This is obviously a great video. Affiliate marketing could be very difficult without the necessary strategies in place. Having the required knowledge makes you standout from the crowd. Thanks.
Hi Tyler, i really enjoyed your video, i am just starting off in affiliate marketing, you seem to be a very real person explaining everything in the simplest way possible, and with this you made me think that making money with affiliate marketing is real and anyone could do it, it just takes effort and an open mind to learn everyday. wish you success! Looking forward to follow you !
I am also trying to figure out how to do all of this. I am limited with cash. I do I pay for product to promote
Hello. How do I get started by using Facebook as a traffic network?
When PeerFly asks what marketing methods will I be using, should I say direct linking if I plan on using Facebook?
Hi im use facebook looking to join and be a team player help marketing and do travel
Hi is blessings I will be promoting your offers through Facebook trafficking.
2.I expect to be a publisher or any other affiliate platforms you give me to deal with
3.I was invited by a successful affiliate within the network
Hi is blessings I will be promoting your offers through Facebook trafficking.
2.I expect to be a publisher or any other affiliate platforms you give me
3.I was invited by a successful affiliate within the network
[…] This video is meant as a follow-up to my screencast “A Beginner’s Introduction to Affiliate Marketing” at https://www.tylercruz.com/a-beginners-introduction-to-affiliate-marketing/. […]