Ready to build an affiliate marketing website?
Wondering where to start?
How do you choose the right niche?
What about picking products to promote?
Overwhelmed by the thought of designing and launching your site?
Don’t worry.
This guide will walk you through every step, making it simple to get started with affiliate marketing.
Let’s get started!
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a popular online business model where you promote someone else’s product or service through a unique affiliate link.
When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
The global affiliate marketing industry was valued at $17 billion in 2023, with over 80% of brands leveraging this strategy to drive sales.
It’s a vast marketplace where nearly every product or service can be promoted.
Blogging is particularly effective in affiliate marketing, with 64.48% of bloggers using it as their primary method to generate affiliate income.
Why is affiliate marketing lucrative?
Affiliate marketing is incredibly lucrative because it eliminates the complexities of product fulfillment.
As an affiliate, you don’t need to worry about developing, manufacturing, or even storing products, which frees up your time to focus purely on marketing and content creation.
Your sole responsibility is driving traffic to the merchant’s site.
Moreover, affiliate marketing offers the potential to earn quickly.
Instead of building a blog or website from scratch, you can further speed this up by purchasing an already established, revenue-generating site from marketplaces like Empire Flippers, Flippa, and many more.
This allows you to step into a profitable business with minimal upfront effort.
Find your niche
When it comes to finding your niche in affiliate marketing, it’s not just about selecting a profitable area.
It’s about aligning with your passions and skills.
Rather than merely focusing on niches that seem profitable for promoting affiliate products, choose a niche that you are genuinely passionate about.
Remember, you won’t always be writing product reviews.
You’ll also be creating other types of content like informational content.
That’s why it’s crucial to choose a niche that fulfills the 3 P’s: Passion, Profit, and Proficiency.
Here are three deep exploratory questions to look into for each of these three Ps:
- Passion: Can I see myself writing about this topic day in and day out for years to come?
- Profit: Is there a solid demand for products or services in this niche that can generate consistent affiliate income?
- Proficiency: Do I have, or can I acquire, the necessary expertise to offer value and build authority in this niche?
If you’re still unsure about your niche, consider identifying your core life values through a value determination exercise or consulting a coach to gain clarity.
For more guidance, refer to my earlier blog post to get clarity.
Once you’ve aligned the three Ps, it’s time to conduct real market research to ensure your niche is profitable for affiliate marketing.
This involves analyzing competition, potential traffic, and affiliate opportunities within the niche.
Choose profitable affiliate products to promote
Before choosing affiliate products, check out your competition. If there are established players in your niche, that’s a good sign – it means there’s money to be made. If there’s no competition might mean high risk and low demand.
Make a list of your competitors and study their blogs. This will show you what products work well in your niche and how they’re being promoted.
Next, look into affiliate marketplaces that fit your niche. The products often have specific marketplaces where you can find affiliate programs.
Here is a handy list:
| Marketplaces | Products to promote |
| Amazon Associates | All products available on Amazon (wide variety) |
| PartnerStack | SaaS B2B products |
| ShareASale | Various product categories from 3,900+ merchants, including exclusive offers like WP Engine and OptinMonster |
| Clickbank | Digital products only |
| Avangate | Digital products (owned by 2Checkout) |
| CJ (Commission Junction) | Wide range of products, includes CJ Performer Program (CJP) |
| FlexOffers | Products from 12,000+ merchants in 25+ categories |
| AvantLink | Outdoor niches (sporting, camping, adventures) |
Additionally, you can use Google to search for niche-specific affiliate programs.
Simply search for keywords like “your niche + affiliate programs,” and Google will display relevant affiliate programs.
When evaluating potential affiliate products, ask yourself these key questions:
- Does this product solve a real problem in my industry?
- Is there a significant need for this product in the marketplace?
- How sustainable is the demand for this product? Could I earn recurring commissions if people buy it repeatedly?
- How well does the product owner market the product? Are the landing pages effective?
- Are there other competitive products that might offer better results?
These questions will guide you in selecting products that not only resonate with your audience but also offer consistent income.
Choose your domain name
When choosing your domain name, many people suggest including a keyword related to your niche.
However, there’s no solid research that shows significant SEO benefits from having a keyword in your domain.
Instead, your focus should be on making the domain name relatable to your target audience.
It’s more important that your domain/blog name resonates with the people visiting your blog, rather than cramming in keywords like “reviews” or “coupons” in them.
You need to keep in mind that around 80% of the content you publish should be informative articles, with only 20% affiliate blog posts.
So, a domain name with “review” in it doesn’t make much sense for brandability or to spread your wings in the future.
Tools like Instant Domain Search or other domain search tools can help you brainstorm brandable domain names.
Once you’ve settled on a domain name, you can use a domain registrar like Namecheap to purchase it.
Choose your hosting and platform
When it comes to blogging, WordPress is the go-to platform.
It’s the most popular CMS out there, and for good reason.
Now!
For hosting, you need to go with providers that are optimized for WordPress. The best ones I recommend are WPX and Rocket.net
Both are excellent.
Check my reviews of WPX and Rocket.net for more information.
If you’re looking for something more affordable, Hostinger is a solid choice.
When choosing a host, make sure they’ve optimized their infrastructure for fast page loads.
This is critical. It can make or break your entire SEO strategy.
WordPress also offers a variety of plugins that are incredibly useful.
For affiliate marketing, a link cloaking plugin is a must.
I recommend BetterLinks, or ThirstyAffiliates.
And to boost your SEO, Link Whisper is a great plugin that automatically helps you find internal linking opportunities on your site.
Design your website
Once your hosting and platform are set, it’s time to design your website.
Start by installing a WordPress theme or page builder.
I recommend the Astra theme (review) or GeneratePress for a clean, professional look.
If you prefer using a page builder, Elementor paired with the default Hello theme is a great option.
There are plenty of YouTube tutorials out there to guide you through the technical setup.
Once you have your theme and plugins installed, you’ll need to create essential pages like About, Contact, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and Affiliate Disclosure, and others.
Your About page is also very important. This is where you establish experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
Share your story, build credibility, and show readers why they should trust you on the topics you cover.
Transparency is key in affiliate marketing.
Consider creating a “How We Review” page to outline your review methodology, whether you use the products hands-on or ensure your reviews are unbiased.
Be upfront about any partnerships you have with brands, and always include an affiliate disclaimer at the top of every blog post to comply with FTC guidelines.
🧠 Pro tip: Your website shouldn’t look like just another affiliate blog. Showcase your in-depth guides and informational posts on the homepage instead of cluttering it with affiliate links and reviews to build trust and authority with your audience.
Creating affiliate content
When it comes to creating content for your affiliate blog, there are several formats that work particularly well:
Listicles
These are popular and highly engaging.
For example, you can create posts like “Best VPN Software for Gaming” or “Canva Alternatives” if you’re focusing on software.
Listicles are great for giving readers a broad overview of options.
Individual product reviews
It is another powerful tool where you focus on a single product, discussing its features, pros, cons, and overall value.
This format allows you to dive deep into the specifics of one product and is perfect for readers who are closer to making a purchasing decision.
Product comparisons
These posts provide value for readers as they compare two or more similar products.
For instance, a post comparing Mailchimp and ConvertKit (if they offered affiliate programs) would help readers decide which product suits their needs best.
Product alternatives
These are similar to listicles but focus on alternatives to a specific product.
For example, if ConvertKit isn’t right for someone, they might look for “ConvertKit Alternatives.” This type of content appeals to users who are exploring other options.
Discount, coupon, or deal posts
These posts target users who are ready to buy and are looking for the best deal.
Because these readers are at the bottom of the funnel, these posts tend to have high conversion rates.
When writing these blog posts, it’s crucial to adopt a transparent and experiential tone.
👉 You should actually use the product, document your observations, and then convert those observations into content. Writing from a first-person, first-hand experience perspective adds credibility, especially since Google now values experience in their E-E-A-T guidelines.
And!
Optimize your content for conversions.
Place affiliate link buttons higher up on the page, above the fold, to capture early clicks.
🌟 For listicles, include a product comparison table at the top for quick reference (offers good conversions). See an example in my online course platforms post.
In short, you need to do proper conversion rate optimization for maximizing affiliate revenue!
Remember, writing having experience in the product, coupled with a conversion-focused approach can significantly boost the effectiveness of your affiliate content.
SEO
When reviewing a product, it’s essential to ensure that people are actively searching for it on Google.
You can do this by using keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Semrush.
However, sometimes these tools may not provide the most accurate search volume and competition data.
In such cases, rely on Google’s own data.
If Google is suggesting a keyword higher up in its search suggest dropdown, it indicates there’s some search volume you can target.
And!
Google Trends is a powerful tool for determining the popularity of products over time.
For instance, if you have a productivity blog and are reviewing products like Notion and Trello, you can type these into Google Trends to see how they compare in terms of search volume.
👉 Also read:10+ Clever Ways to Use Google Trends for Blogging
This can help you decide which products are worth reviewing based on their ongoing popularity.
Along with proper keyword research, building backlinks is crucial for your blog’s SEO.
The more high-quality backlinks your blog earns, the more authority it gains in the eyes of Google, improving your chances of ranking higher.
✅ The best way to attract backlinks is by publishing informative blog posts that other authors want to link to. As I’ve mentioned before, 80% of your content should be informational, with the remaining 20% being commercial.
These informational posts should be data-rich, featuring statistics, original case studies, and unique content that act as link magnets.
Here’s what happens:
When other sites link to your informational content, the “link juice” flows to your commercial posts as well.
To maximize this effect, implement a silo structure, organizing your website content topically.
This not only improves Google’s ability to crawl your site but also ensures the efficient distribution of link equity across your pages.
By focusing on both keyword targeting and a strategic content structure, you can enhance your SEO efforts, driving more organic traffic to your affiliate content.
Double down and scale
As you grow on your affiliate website, some products that you’re promoting in some measures may be earning you good money.
So you need to properly track the earnings that you’re getting from these products, the conversion rates and create more informational blog posts that will be supporting the content that you have published around this profitable affiliate products.
All you need to do is to promote 5 to 7 really good high quality affiliate products and focus on the depth instead of the breadth and it matters a lot than spreading yourself thin across your niche, losing your credibility.
Conclusion
Building an affiliate marketing website requires careful planning, from choosing the right niche, products to promote, and creating valuable content.
By focusing on transparency, user experience, and SEO, you can create a successful affiliate site that resonates with your audience and generates income.
Remember, success in affiliate marketing comes by providing genuine value to your readers.
