Starting out in affiliate marketing can be a daunting challenge. Not least because of the research and the avenues of information you will travel to get to your chosen destination. Below is a list of the best ways to get an audience. Choose a profitable niche, know the audience, stick with products you know and track your results.
Choose a Profitable Niche you are interested in
The first thing to do is find your niche. This can be something that you enjoy, think about everyday or have a wealth of information that you can share. Don’t choose a subject that is the most profitable that you know little about, especially if you want to get an audience.
When looking for a niche to tap into, think of it as a problem you can help solve. Some of them include Japanese knotweed. You could make YouTube videos, downloads and tips on the best actions to help treat it. If you are making content for a niche, try and find out what problems they have and also type of questions they might need to answer.
Do you find something in your daily life really interesting? Is there something that you spend a lot of time reading about, learning or improving? We all have an interest of some kind. Turn that interest, hobby or favourite pastime to a profitable niche. You can follow steps like writing about it to see if this is something you can become an affiliate.
Know the Audience
Who is your audience? It may sound like a broad question, but in reality this is the best way to speed up the process of targeting. You will see from Facebook Ads and Google Ads, that you can target demographics. These demographics include location, age, language, interests and lifestyle to name but a few.
Using this level of information helps you test different audiences. If you test 18-24 age group that are interested in Hockey in London for example, you might see that it can be pretty broad. That is where you will need to target even further. Having the knowledge behind what other factors make them interested in your blog can help determine the scale of your audience. This will help you increase your reach, finding those who might not be on social media for example and what they look for.
It is also useful to search via websites such as ubersuggest. You can search the keywords of your niche and see how many searches they get. It also has tools that allow you to find other words that might be suitable.
Similar websites that already exist, search through their twitter followers. Follow them back and look at the type of followers they have. Are they similar to what you had in mind?
Stick With Products You Know
The niche you have chosen will need to be part of what you are interested in and that you have a passion for. You might also be very knowledgeable about a niche such as a sport. This sport will already have a large following of like minded people. Setting your audience will help because the audience might be like you. Affiliate marketing is all about reading the room and finding out where to get interest for your blog or links.
- Could you stand up and talk to a group of people about this subject?
- Do you spend hours upon hours talking, watching video about it?
If yes to those questions, then this is a niche that could be the best for you. You afterall, are going to be putting the effort in. If this is something that you are doing just because it is profitable, then you’ll get bored. The thing is, affiliate marketing is a longer term goal rather than a shorter one.
Using google you can search to find the questions your customers are asking. This is a simple and effective way to understand what kind of blogs, social media posts and youtube videos you can make. Click on those searches and keep going, see how many questions there are related to this and list them all in a spreadsheet.
Track Your Affiliate Stats and Results
Understanding how to get an audience is one thing, but seeing how you are doing is critical. Afterall, if you don’t think it is working, how do you improve? Big companies have entire departments dedicated to continuous improvement. With affiliate marketing, this is another crucial step. You have found your audience, managed to target them via email, paid ads and social media. Once you have built a campaign and sent it, how do you know it has worked?
Google Analytics is a must for any blog out there. Let’s face it, Google are the biggest search engine, but they are more than that. It allows you to see just how many visitors come to your blog.
Google Campaign URL builder is another must-have. This can also be used to give you much more data on what links are clicked. This is especially good if you are sending emails. You can use this to track each and every visit through the Campaign section of analytics.
Of course, Clickbank, JVZoo etc will also have methods of tracking sales, they are great, but do consider other methods too. You can track sales, yes, but if it is not a sale and visitors drop off at certain points, you then ask yourself why. This can be down to many things such as the button not being visible, wrong images etc. Tweak those things until they start converting.
