Truth bomb time:
Having a killer affiliate marketing strategy is key to smashing your online income goals.
It’s like having a map that guides you straight to the treasure chest of commissions you’ve been dreaming of.
Without one, you’ll just end up wasting time and energy on ineffective tasks that don’t move the needle.
Lucky for you, I’ve got the best affiliate marketing strategy of 2024 broken down into seven simple steps, with a free affiliate marketing crash course to boot.
What Makes For A Killer Affiliate Marketing Strategy?
Put simply, it’s one that gets results.
It’s a strategy that’s been proven to work.
I’ve tried, tested, fine-tuned and earned $1 million+ with the affiliate marketing strategy I’m about to share with you since I got into the affiliate marketing game, told my old boss where to stick it and booked a one-way ticket to Thailand.
And essentially, this strategy works because it’s all about matching the right people with the right products in a way that’s sustainable yet infinitely scalable.
Winning niche + winning traffic + winning products = winning affiliate marketing strategy.
So if you’re serious about earning big money online as an affiliate, you’ve landed at the right place.
Let’s begin!
The Best Affiliate Marketing Strategy For 2024
- Step 1: Define What Success Looks Like (Don’t Skip This)
- Step 2: Nail Down Your Niche
- Step 3: Pinpoint Your Buyer Persona
- Step 4: Build Your Website (It’s Not Hard!)
- Step 5: Unearth Money Keywords
- Step 6: Find Winning Products
- Step 7: Formulate An Action Plan
Why You Need A Killer Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Imagine you’re in a race.
On the one side, there’s Matt, who’s frantically running around trying to figure out which way to go.
On the other side, there’s Steve, who’s calmly following a well-planned route to the finish line.
Matt is sweating, panting, and looks like he’s about to collapse. Steve, on the other hand, is running effortlessly and with purpose.
In affiliate marketing, Matt is like the majority of affiliates out there:
He has no real strategy, no direction and no idea how to get to the finish line. Steve, on the other hand, has a killer affiliate marketing strategy that’s designed to take him straight to the top.
Steve uses keyword research (and the right keyword tool) to drive buyer-ready traffic to his site. He knows who his target audience is and what makes them tick.
He knows what products they’re interested in and is consistently putting out amazing content that speaks directly to them. He even has plans to level up his income with Google Ads.
Who do you think is going to win the race?
Obviously, it’s Steve.
And that’s why you need a strategy just like his. With a well-planned and executed affiliate marketing strategy, success is virtually guaranteed.
So let’s get started!
The Ultimate 7-Step Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Step 1: Define What Success Looks Like (Don’t Skip This)
You need to clarify the “why” before we dive into the “how”.
So before you do anything else, you need to set clear-cut goals that paint a clear picture of what affiliate marketing success looks like in your life.
Your affiliate marketing goals will have a direct impact on what strategy you take.
Maybe it’s your mission to:
- Generate $10,000 in revenue in the next 6 months
- Build an email list of 20,000 subscribers
- Get 30,000 people per month coming to your site
- Increase your conversion rates by 5% across the board
- Replace your full-time income by this time next year
All of these are great goals and perfectly realistic if you follow the strategy I lay out here.
You can check out how much you can make as an affiliate and how long it takes to make money with affiliate marketing if you like.
☑️ Task: Write out your #1 goal for getting into affiliate marketing and put it up somewhere you’ll see it every day to help you stay focused. Get as specific as you can and set a target date.
Step 2. Nail Down Your Niche
Now you know exactly what you want, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty of how you make it happen.
Whether you want to turn affiliate marketing into a lucrative side hustle or go all in and earn $150k a year, your next step is to choose a niche that’s easy to monetise.
A niche is just a topic you focus on when you’re promoting products as an affiliate marketer.
Your niche could be:
- Marathon running
- Learning an instrument/language
- Homebrewing
- Paddleboarding
- Poker
- The keto diet
- Welding
- Baking
- Gaming
- Gardening
Check out my list of hot and profitable affiliate marketing niches to get the ideas flowing.
But before you go ahead and pick a niche based solely on its profit potential. You’re going to be writing about this topic so it’s important to choose something you’re genuinely interested in.
After all, who wants to write about something that bores them to tears?
Not me, and certainly not you.
And you don’t want to be peddling products you know nothing about – people will pick up on the fact you’re winging it and that’s a surefire way to kill your chances of making those sweet commissions.
If you’re stuck and need help figuring out your niche, no worries, I’ve got you covered. Check out my detailed 3-step guide on how to pick the perfect affiliate marketing niche:
☑️ Task: Make a list of topics you love to talk about, pick your favourite and run with it!
Step 3: Pinpoint Your Buyer Persona
Now it’s time to narrow in on exactly who your target audience is.
And you do this by creating a buyer persona.
To do this you really want to put yourself in their shoes because if you can get in their headspace, you’ll unlock the key to their wallet.
You’ll be able to offer them exactly what they’re looking for, speak their language and generate an avalanche of sales that’ll skyrocket your income.
“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.“
Meredith Hill
Let’s say your niche is travel. Yes, your target market is clearly people who want to travel, but you’ll want to go deeper than that.
Ask yourself questions like:
- Are you targeting men or women primarily?
- What age are they?
- What country do they live in?
- What’s their average yearly income?
- What keeps them up at night?
- What are their biggest hopes and dreams?
- What motivates them?
For example, you could say you wanted to target gap-year students planning to visit Cambodia who are looking for an experience of a lifetime.
Now give this information to ChatGPT and ask it to create a buyer persona for you like this:
The buyer persona you come up with is going to directly impact the topics you cover, the products and services you recommend and even the way you give calls to action.
It’ll also influence things like your logo and branding and what social media sites you use.
☑️ Task: Use my ChatGPT for affiliate marketing guide to come up with your buyer persona.
Step 4: Build Your Website (It’s Not Hard!)
Building a website is a vital component of any successful affiliate marketing strategy because it allows you to attract buyer-ready traffic to your site (which we’ll cover in the next step), instead of you having to constantly chase them via social media or paid ads.
And don’t worry, building a website is easier than you think!
Let’s go through it click by click.
Pick A Name
You need to pick a website name (like yourwebsite.com). This is what visitors will see first so you want to pick something that’s short, catchy and will resonate with your target audience.
You could incorporate words that reflect your niche so it’s clear what your website is about, like:
- cookwithkate.com
- photographybychuck.com
- thaiboxingwithnathan.com
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to register your domain name and set up web hosting.
Set Up Hosting & Launch
There are a ton of domain and web hosting options out there, but by far the best choice for new affiliate marketers is Wealthy Affiliate.
With their easy-to-use SiteBuilder, building your website will take just 30 seconds, you’ll have 1,000s of beautiful WordPress themes to choose from and 24/7 support.
You can get all the details in our in-depth Wealthy Affiliate review.
Go to Wealthy Affiliate and enter your best email to create your free account:
Once inside, click Websites in the top menu then click SiteBuilder and Register a Domain.
Type in your desired domain name to see if it’s available then hit the Add to Cart button.
At this point, you’ll be asked to choose a hosting plan.
Wealthy Affiliate have 3 plans:
- Starter
- Premium
- Premium Plus
I’d recommend you go for Premium at $49/month for now but choose the best plan for you.
Next, enter the name of your website and pick a theme:
Now hit the green Build My Website button and you’ve done it – you’ve built your very own website!
Add a logo and play about with the customisation options until you’re happy and then you’re ready to move on to step 5.
☑️ Task: Go to Wealthy Affiliate, register your domain and launch your website.
Step 5: Unearth Money Keywords
Now, let’s dive into the exciting world of keywords.
Don’t worry – it’s just a fancy way of saying the words and phrases your potential customers are typing into search engines.
With a handy keyword tool like Mangools, you can unearth a treasure trove of money-making keywords you can target to have hordes of daily traffic flooding your website for free from Google.
Go back to your buyer persona and think about what kinds of terms and questions they would search for.
For example, if our niche is backpacking in Cambodia on a budget, some good keywords could be:
- Things to do in Cambodia
- Is Cambodia safe
- Cheapest hotel in Phnom Penh
- Flights to Cambodia
- Siam Reap tours
… and so on.
We can see the keyword “Things to do in Cambodia” gets searched on average 5,300 times a month:
That’s a lot of potential traffic headed your way! 🤯
And here’s a pro tip:
Target keywords with buyer search intent (aka money keywords) and you’ll triple your income because these are the types of keywords people search for when they’re planning on buying something.
Just imagine, with some strategic targeting and killer content, you could be raking in commissions 24/7.
And if you build out your website with content, it’s like having an army of salespeople that never sleep with each post getting ranked, attracting traffic and generating clicks to your affiliate links!
☑️ Task: Use Mangools to create a list of 20 money keywords you’re going to target.
Step 6: Find Winning Products
Now that you’ve created your website, found your money keywords and started creating high-quality content, it’s time to monetise that bad boy!
And that means finding winning products to promote.
But, how do you do that?
First off, you’ll make more money as an affiliate if you give people what they want.
(See why I harped on so much about creating a buyer persona earlier?! 😉)
So yeah, keep that in mind as you search for affiliate programs to join.
And how do you find products for your niche?
Google it.
That’s right, Google it!
Type in your niche and add “affiliate program” at the end and you’ll likely find a bunch of relevant programs you can sign up for.
Watch this video for 5 more genius ways to find affiliate products that convert:
So for my Cambodia backpacker example, I’d be searching for affiliate programs like:
- Flight affiliate programs
- Travel affiliate programs
- Hostel affiliate programs
- Luggage affiliate programs
You get the idea!
And if you want to increase how much you make per sale, think about what products or services in your niche you could promote that offer monthly or yearly recurring commissions so you 10x your lifetime customer value.
☑️ Task: Find at least one affiliate program in your niche and apply to join as an affiliate.
Step 7: Formulate An Action Plan
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the final step!
Now you know the unbeatable affiliate marketing strategy, it’s time to put your money where your mouth is and create a schedule for taking action.
It’s not enough to just dream of earning a six-figure income, you need to put in the work and create a plan to achieve it.
But let’s be real, life can be unpredictable and busy and it’s easy to get sidetracked by the latest dog rescue videos on YouTube…
That’s why it’s important to set aside dedicated time for working on your affiliate marketing business.
Whether it’s waking up an hour earlier in the morning or carving out time in the evening, find a time that works for you and make it a non-negotiable part of your day.
Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day and your affiliate marketing success won’t happen overnight.
But follow this strategy up with consistent action and you’ll master affiliate marketing, unlock your potential, smash your income goals and start living the laptop life on your own terms.
☑️ Task: Make an actionable daily schedule and stick to it.
Want Help To Execute This Affiliate Marketing Strategy?
The key to success is not only having a strategy but also the right tools and support to get you over the finish line.
Join Commission Academy now and you’ll get an instant all-access pass to our step-by-step training, tools, expert support and weekly live hangouts that’ll have you executing this affiliate marketing strategy like a pro and seeing massive results
And if you hit a snag? No worries – Dale and I are here to help you every step of the way.
So, are you ready to take the leap?
Let’s do this thing.
