Affiliate Marketing, or Internet Marketing is a great opportunity to start earning money online and the premise is very simple. The problem with that is that people then assume it is easy and they will make money straightaway with little effort.  Having this attitude can lead to you becoming disheartened and giving up, or not bothering.

However, if you keep the 5 qualities for affiliate marketing online in mind you can be very successful at affiliate marketing. But let’s start with what affiliate marketing is…

What is Affiliate Marketing?

The simple explanation for affiliate marketing is a process to sell someone else’s product or service online and earning a commission. There are many affiliate programs out there, with Amazon being one that most people will know and being the biggest marketplace online is a great partner for being successful.

You then build a niche website, writing articles and product reviews that link to these products in Amazon.  If they go on to buy the product, you have just earned a commission.

Your niche can be on any subject, but preferably a subject you will want to keep on writing about and hopefully know lots about.

For example, a photographer might have a website showing people how to use a dslr type camera, all the different functions and capturing different types of photography.  That builds trust.  He then teams it with reviews of different dslr type cameras, or lenses, etc.  His readers would follow these links as he has recommended them and he earns commission from them.

There are many factors or qualities that are needed to become successful and start earning thousands a month.  Many affiliate marketers or display these qualities are earning on a regular basis.

Let’s go through the 5 qualities for affiliate marketing online success

5 Qualities for Affiliate Marketing Online

1.        A Desire to Learn

Even though the function of affiliate marketing is relatively simple, there is a lot of factors to becoming successful.  From building a website, to applying to affiliate programs. Areas such as SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) are vital to having people find your website.  If people cannot see your website in their google search you cannot earn anything.  You need visitors for affiliate marketing to work.

When I started, I never realised how much there was to learn.  Getting a website is really simple, but the other factors I have to learn – but learning them was easy with our No.1 recommended product.

Some of the factors you will need to learn – keyword research, SEO, WordPress, affiliate marketing products, email marketing, etc. the list is endless.

2.        Willing to Invest Time and Effort

There are a lot of websites out there telling you that if you invest in ‘this program’ you will be sitting by a pool whilst the money rolls in.  Ironically, people find that they have been scammed out of their money.

True Affiliate Marketers will tell you that the more time and effort you can give to your websites, niches and communities the more likely you will earn a full-time wage from it.

When you start out, your website will not have the trust from the search engines, this builds up over time with regular posts (3 a-week seems to be the ultimate goal) and people engaging with our website.

Typically, anyone stating that you will earn a full-time wage straightaway is probably promoting a scam.  You can earn commission in the first month, but not to those levels.

3.        Determination

Determination to become successful, determination that the information you provide is both useful to the reader and engaging so that they read it and take action from it.  Consumers are wary of things online, so they need to feel like you are a real person and that they can trust your opinions as it has come from thorough research and you are trying to help.  If you try and sell, they will back away.  Try and help and they start to trust you, this leads to sales.

Start a niche website on a subject, you know you will still feel determined to build after a year, if you don’t you will lose the vibe quite quickly, and it will show in your content.

4.        Discipline

How disciplined are you? Can you treat this like a business? The single most important fact about affiliate marketing is: if you play at it, you will never be successful.  You need to run it like a business, even if you start it on the side, you need to be disciplined to be able to do what you set out to achieve.

You need to set aside time to learn the information you need, research and write content on a regular basis.  If you can only write one post a week, keep that going, don’t let it drop down.  This will help with building trust with the search engines.  Many affiliate marketers started their business on the side of their full-time job and have achieved their goal of making it their full-time job.

I started my website as a part-time career, on the side of a full-time job that had me working 50-60 hours a week.  I set-up a week in the life style calendar for when I would complete a lesson, research a particular topic, keyword research, writing an article, social media engagement, google analytics.  It is entirely possible to make that into a full-time gig. That will mean all the time you spend at your main job, becomes time to spend on your business growing it into an empire, but also a lot more time to spend with the family.

5.        Some Optimism

The last quality is perhaps the most important thing to keep in your mind – Optimism. A lot people search online for ways to earn money online and will see a lot of ‘Quick Win’ ways to earn money.  Typically, these will end up being scams.  So, when someone starts researching affiliate marketing, they will learn that it takes learning new skills, time and effort, determination, discipline and optimism and then think that it is too much hard work.

But, this can become the most rewarding way of earning money.  Think about it, you have a major passion about a subject, mine is photography, you start a business about it.  You are researching about subjects, you have a genuine interest in and sharing it with like-minded people.  You are probably already engaging with this population anyway, so all of a sudden you are earning money from something you are already engaged, albeit in a slightly different way.  The optimism comes in as you will not earn a full-time wage from it straight away.  I saw an inspirational post from a fellow member, stating that he went from earning $0 a month to the first month he earned $10k.  It took some patience and optimism as it took 3 years to being earning that a month, but he persevered at it and succeeded. Read about it here.  Yet he could have given up after 6 months when he still wasn’t earning anything. That is why I feel optimism is so key to succeeding.

In Summary

Affiliate Marketing is a very rewarding and the success it can bring is great, providing you can harness these 5 qualities to produce the results you are after.  Success, can be found in varying degrees depending on what you are after.  Nevertheless, it can also mean you can be financially ok to work it as a full-time job and have no boss but yourself.

I have used our No.1 Recommended product for over a year and have been amazed at how much I have learned in that time and how far I have come as an affiliate marketer.  I would recommend them to anyone who wants to get started, and more importantly, not spend anything until you are happy to…

My Personal Recommendation

There are many techniques and things you need to learn to become a successful affiliate marketer and finding ways to learn it correctly, without falling into the pitfalls or spending a load of money on the wrong techniques.  That is why you need a program that helps you and isn’t leading you into all of those pitfalls.

Wealthy Affiliate is an awesome platform that, not only teaches you all these techniques, but also has all the tools to do it.  Unlike a number of other platforms, you can become a starter member without handing over any credit card details and you can be a free member.

If you genuinely want to earn an income from a website like thousands of people are, this is the people to try. Check out my honest review here.  I hope you at least try them for free, and if you do, find me here where I can help you around the platform to help you make up your mind or answer any questions you may have.

Thanks for reading this article, if you have any comments or questions, then please put them in the comments below and I will respond.  thanks