How to Start Affiliate Marketing in 2024 (Ultimate Beginner’s Guide) — Silicon Valley Girl Podcast

Marina Mogilko: Global affiliate marketing revenue is projected to reach 12 billion by 2025 and a lot of people think this niche is overcrowded. I thought the same way before I joined it. I joined it a couple years ago and I started taking it seriously this year. So if you're starting affiliate marketing from day one, you're in the right place. I'm about to reveal the full step-by-step guide to start making money on affiliate marketing from scratch. Let's start with basics. What actually is affiliate marketing and how are people making money on it?

Affiliate marketing is a process where you, the affiliate, earn a commission by promoting a company's product or service. Here's how it works step by step. There is a merchant or advertiser. This is the brand or company that owns the product or service. Merchants create affiliate programs to expand their reach by leveraging affiliates to promote their offerings. For example, my company Lingua Trip has an affiliate program for people who took the course and want to recommend it to their friends. Another example is Amazon, and it's probably the most well-known merchant with a massive affiliate program called Amazon Associates. I am part of their program, and what's interesting about that program is you have to register in every single country separately. So I sat down—I think it was five years ago when I was starting to research affiliate marketing—and I registered with Amazon Associates in Canada, Germany, United States, like everywhere. Then you use an app called Genie.us to create links that will automatically send the buyer to the Amazon store of the country where they're from. Because if you give them, for example, an American affiliate link and they click it and they're in Germany, they will be sent to the German store and you might not end up getting the commissions. So in order to maximize your commissions, if you know that your audience is international with Amazon Associates, use Genie.us. I'm going to give you more tips throughout this video. I've been doing this for years now and there are so many nuances, but I feel it's just much more exciting to be on social media when you know that you have these affiliate links and they work for you for years instead of just, you know, giving a shout out to a company for a flat fee. After that, the video doesn't have any long tail anymore. When you have affiliates, all the videos have a long tail.

Basically, those companies that have affiliate programs pay affiliates a percentage of sales made through affiliate links. Then there is an affiliate, and this is actually you. Affiliates can be individuals, influencers, or businesses that choose products to promote and earn commission when someone makes a purchase through their link. The final link in the chain are customers. They browse the content, see a recommendation, and make a purchase through your affiliate link. Affiliate links do not add any extra cost to their purchase, but merchants will pay you commission.

Tracking links are what make the entire affiliate system work. When an affiliate joins a program, they receive a unique affiliate link for each product. These links contain data that tracks where each sale comes from, ensuring the right affiliate receives credit. What's important to understand is that sometimes these links track people for 24 hours, sometimes they track people for a month, which means you could have promoted a product once, somebody clicked your link, and then they end up buying something in two weeks and you still get paid for it. That's exciting.

Another thing that's interesting about affiliate links—for example, with Amazon—they don't track your affiliate for a long time. But if an affiliate uses your affiliate link for a particular product, like if you were promoting a lip gloss on Instagram, they click to your affiliate link and then they go ahead and buy a TV, you get commission for that TV as well. I've seen that because it's Amazon affiliate, I can go and check what people actually bought. I see that I was promoting a GMAT book, but people bought a TV, they bought makeup, they bought mattresses, and I get commission on that. Not a lot, but we're going to talk about how much I'm actually getting when people make those purchases.

To understand how affiliates get paid, let's briefly look at the three main models. You'll see them when you start browsing through different affiliate programs. The most popular model is PPS, pay-per-sale. You earn a commission whenever somebody makes a purchase through your affiliate link.

Pay-per-lead is where you get paid for every lead that you generate, even if no purchase is made. This is actually one of the best things you can get as a creator or affiliate because you're not responsible for actually making them buy the product. You're responsible for generating leads. It's so much easier because you're only responsible for the part of the funnel where people leave their contacts. But of course, you get paid less. Leads could be email signups, free trials, or completed forms.

There's another one and a lot of ad networks operate on it. It's called pay-per-click. You earn money for each click on your affiliate link regardless of whether it results in a sale or a lead. Let me give you some quick understanding. People are willing to pay differently. I remember there was this time when this app—I will not name the app, but it was a brokerage app—and they paid $300 for everyone who signed up and invested. So $300 if you convert someone. If it's a lead, it's $5 to $10. If it's pay-per-click, it's a few cents. It's a different type of effort from your side, but it's also different money.

Now we've covered the basics. Let's dive into the practical part. How to get started as a beginner. First of all, choose your niche. What I noticed as a creator—I have my Instagram, which is more beauty and fashion. I have my Silicon Valley Girl channel, which is more business and finance. I have Lingua Marina, which is exam prep—I see that education and business affiliate links generate so much more. But I have a creator who's in beauty and she creates three short videos in beauty every day. YouTube Shopping is also an affiliate program where you get paid from five to I think five to twenty-five percent when you promote something. She promotes beauty products and she makes $200,000 a month in sales, but she gets ten to twenty percent of it depending on what she sells. That's amazing. Her videos don't get a lot of views. Her videos get maybe five to ten thousand views for sure. But because she's so on point—like if you have this problem with your skin, get this. If you're traveling, get this. She's very purchase intent. Her videos are very purchase intent. So that really works.

Selecting a niche allows you to focus on a specific area, making it easier to connect with an engaged audience. My beauty creator is making that amazing volume because she's been doing this for a while and she's known in beauty. I also interviewed Charlie Chang on this channel. He makes over 100K a month as an affiliate. That's not in sales—that's how much he makes. And he's been doing it for years in niches like business. You need to understand and identify your interests, where you want to focus. My focus is business and education. I'm also stepping a little bit into fashion and beauty, but I'm still starting out there. With business, education, and finance, I was able to make a steady affiliate income. Basically, choose something that you're passionate about and niches where you can provide value.

Other popular niches include health and fitness, technology, personal finance, beauty, and lifestyle. My tip here is to look for niches that are trending or have steady demand because payouts in affiliate programs in different niches can vary significantly.

Let's see the rundown of average affiliate marketing payouts across some of the most popular niches. Health and wellness average commission rate is five to ten percent per sale, and popular products include Amazon Associates, Thrive Market, Hum Nutrition, and iHerb. If you're a doctor, you can use FullScript. And again, I would ideally just reach out to a brand if you like them and ask them, "Do you guys have an affiliate program? Because I want to promote you." It's always worth asking. Sometimes they don't have it publicly, but some people told me—I think Nate O'Brien, who was a guest on this channel—he told me that if they don't have an affiliate program, you can still start promoting the brand and then come back and tell them, "Hey, we made this video about you guys and got this traction and we promoted you for free, but we're wondering if maybe for the next videos you'll provide us with an affiliate link."

Let's go back to the markets we were discussing. Commissions are not the highest in health and wellness, but that niche tends to have relatively steady demand. People are worried about their health and people are constantly talking about the state of health here in the US.

Personal finance and investment is one of my favorites. Average commission rate is $50 to $200 per lead. It's crazy—it's the highest paying niche, but it's hard to get into. Programs like Credit Karma, Robinhood, and Betterment have affiliate links. For example, Wealthfront used to have an affiliate link, but then they kicked out a lot of creators and you just can't get it as a regular creator. You have to be someone known in the niche. So for these markets, it's not as easy. Robinhood you can sign up for, but they're all capped. If you show good results, you need to start networking. We're not going to include that in this class, but networking is also a huge part of this market. People who network, people who go to conferences, people who meet other people get the best deals. I guess this is how the whole world works anyway.

Investment niche has one of the highest payouts, especially for leads generated through financial services. Some programs, particularly in the insurance and investment sectors, pay high commissions for successful signups. Life insurance is so generous because once they have the lead, they know the conversion rates, and then somebody who converts pays them for the rest of their life. Literally, the average commission rate if you actually make a sale is five to twenty percent per sale, again depending on the product.

Beauty and fashion average commission rate is five to twenty percent per sale, depending on what you're selling. As I mentioned, YouTube Shopping—if you're on YouTube Shorts, definitely try YouTube Shopping for anything. They have everything there. But sometimes the commissions are really low. I did a video for Apple AirPods and tagged them only to realize that they pay zero percent commission if you get them through Target, and that was the only affiliate program available through YouTube Shopping.

Anyway, we're talking about makeup. You have Sephora, Glossier, Nordstrom. Beauty brands tend to offer mid-range to high commissions. Luxury brands might offer higher percentages or flat rate commissions for a higher-end item.

Technology and software average commission rate is the highest—twenty to fifty percent per sale. I've seen seventy-five percent commission. I think it was ClickFunnels. When they sell a digital product that doesn't really cost anything to produce, like an extra item, they tend to give you very large commissions. Also, if you're selling software, popular programs like Microsoft, Shopify, Adobe, and Bluehost are great. This is actually another favorite niche because I'm passionate about technology, especially AI. Later in this video, I'll share my experience with AI affiliate programs.

Home and lifestyle average commission rate is five to twelve percent. Popular programs are Wayfair, Home Depot, and Amazon Home Category.

Education and online courses also offer high commissions—ten to fifty percent per sale. Popular programs include Udemy, Coursera, Skillshare, and Masterclass. Online learning platforms typically offer higher percentages, particularly for premium courses or subscriptions. Affiliates promoting educational products may earn $15 to $200 per referral.

Now, once you've selected your niche, you need to set up your platform. If you're not ready to commit to a website, I recommend starting with social media. This is a great platform for affiliate marketing. Be sure to create content on major platforms like YouTube. YouTube Shorts or YouTube long form are perfect places for affiliate marketing because YouTube now has a shopping program. Instagram—there you will need to link products that you sign up for. TikTok has affiliate shopping within the app, and there's Pinterest as well.

Step number three is research and join affiliate programs. I've already given you the most popular affiliate programs to start with in the previous point, but you can really look for any affiliate programs. Like this microphone—go to the Shure website and see if they have an affiliate link. If they don't, then you can get on Amazon or B&H Photo, right? Think about the products that you're excited about and see how you can make money by recommending them to your followers.

Some programs like Amazon Associates are beginner-friendly and offer a wide range of products, while others like ShareASale and CJ Affiliate give access to thousands of brands, but you need to go through an approval process. Please make sure you have enough time to sign up for all the programs and track whatever is going on there. Generally, you can just Google the most popular affiliate programs in your niche and check if your favorite brands have affiliate programs.

When choosing a program, compare the commission structures and pay thresholds for different programs. Some programs offer high commissions but may require more volume, while others offer lower payouts but pay per lead signups or trials.

Step four is create quality content. You have to do your research. You have to have your own experience. Content like top-ten product lists or how-to guides are especially effective. If you're a makeup artist, create something like "This is only Dior Beauty makeup." I love testing AI apps and I'm always recommending the new ones to my followers and my friends and teams, so it's easy for me to put together a list of AI apps that I've tried and I can confidently recommend them to others.

Think about the types of products you're always recommending to friends, the new things that you try, things you're passionate about, and the things you just love to talk about. Start by creating product recommendations around those topics. It could be a talking head video like mine, images on Pinterest, quick beauty or fashion life hacks on Instagram or TikTok or YouTube Shorts, or an article on a website. Go with whatever you find the easiest and most enjoyable to create.

Step number five is don't forget to disclose affiliate partnerships. Transparency builds trust. Always disclose your affiliate relationships to stay compliant with FTC guidelines and maintain audience trust. A simple disclaimer such as "This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you." You can also see this disclaimer in all of my videos.

Step number six is start generating traffic. If you post on social media, that goes automatically. The more you post, the more the algorithm learns about you. But don't forget to experiment. There are many ways to attract traffic, not just by going viral on a platform. You can focus on SEO—search engine optimization. You can do paid ads. You can optimize your content. You can buy ad spots in people's newsletters. And of course, SEO has become so easy these days. ChatGPT can help you with optimization in seconds.

Paid ads can also accelerate traffic generation, though they require budget and careful targeting. Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and Pinterest Ads are popular platforms. Here you have to get creative. Honestly, as a business owner, I realized that working with cold traffic—and this is what you'll be doing—just targeting people who aren't really interested right now in what you're doing and having to sell them. This is one of the hardest parts of the business. If you crack that part, then you know it's easy to start any business. For me, it's easier to go viral on social media and that's what I'm doing every day trying to do. But you have to choose whatever works for you.

Make sure the commissions from conversions cover your ad spend. This is like beginner stuff—I'm not a specialist here, but this is a beginner thing. Many beginners start with a small budget and test low-cost campaigns before scaling up.

If you decide to pursue affiliate marketing on social media, I recommend focusing on content marketing, creating viral content that taps into current trends on your chosen platform. It's essential to stay on top of trends and content formats in your niche. For each platform, they're different. Unfortunately, I know TikTok is different, YouTube Shorts are different, Instagram is different. I focus on Instagram personally. All my videos are Instagram-first when it comes to shorts, not long form. Long form is YouTube. All of my shorts are Instagram-first. I still repost them to every single platform, but I know I created them for Instagram. If I created videos for YouTube, they would be different.

For fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, prioritize visually appealing aesthetic content. While in finance, tech, and education, focus on delivering valuable and informative content. Affiliates who use content marketing see seventy-three percent higher conversion because audiences are more engaged with helpful content.

Step number seven is testing and optimizing performance. Data is key. While affiliate marketing is considered a passive income, it's still important to constantly analyze what people are buying. I know that on Amazon, my recommendations on TOEFL, GMAT, and my tech recommendations are in the top, but my beauty and makeup not really, just because people see me as a tech person and business person more than a beauty person. So I know where my focus should be.

Make a habit of reviewing your performance monthly. Update underperforming content. Remove non-performing products. Sometimes we will discontinue a program, so just remove the link. Why would I keep it? Replace the apps that are no longer paying you affiliate commission with their competitors or somebody else. Optimize SEO on posts that could perform better. Affiliates who review and optimize monthly can see a fifteen to twenty percent increase in earnings because they're constantly refining their approach to meet audience preferences.

Step number eight is don't give up. It's a long-term play. It's very competitive and it's very tempting to just give up if your video doesn't get views or doesn't generate sales. I see that the most successful people are the ones who have been doing this for months and for years and they never give up. They just become more and more excited about their niche. If you were just here for money, it wouldn't really work. You have to be really passionate, or you have to be a great entrepreneur who can delegate and figure out the strategy on how to make money without being too passionate about their business.

But in fact, over fifty percent of new affiliates quit within six months due to lack of early results, while those who stick with it are often the ones making the best deals. As with any venture, I recommend setting an initial goal for yourself to decide whether to continue or move on. Choose a goal that's achievable within one or two months and that helps you understand how this business works. For example, aim for your first ten sales or your first $100 in earnings.

Let's talk about the potential of earning. I wanted to wrap up this video by giving you some rough numbers on what you can realistically expect to earn through affiliate marketing. The best part about this income stream is that over time, your efforts and potential build up because your videos—if you post on YouTube—are evergreen. They keep generating affiliate links. I posted a video about GMAT in 2018 and people are still buying GMAT products from that video and I still make money as an affiliate.

Beginner level earnings are $100 to $1,000 a month. For beginners, earnings tend to be modest, and most new affiliates spend time learning about content creation, SEO, social media marketing, audience building, etc. Income at this level generally comes from easy access programs like Amazon, which may offer lower commission but allow affiliates to get started quickly.

Another quick tip here—it's very important to have all these numbers also because once you decide, if you're a creator or even if you have a website, if you decide to go and reach out to brands directly and do a deal with them that has higher numbers, it's good to show them that, like, "Hey, as an affiliate I was able to do this, this, and that. Could we stop doing it through a platform and make our relationship official and make it direct?" I do it all the time. I don't think I can name the app, but I use it myself. I became an affiliate, I made so much in sales, and we just reached out to them. We're like, "Guys, let's work together." They're like, "Yes, Marina, we've been waiting for you. Let's work together. Prove that you're worth it."

Oh my god, I talked to a Dior guy. I was at the Cannes Film Festival. I talked to a guy from Dior. I'm already into fashion, but I'm still a beginner. So he said, "If you want to get into Dior fashion, start with Dior beauty and sign up for an affiliate. Show us sales and if your sales are good, we're going to consider you for campaigns." This is how it works in the industry.

A goal of earning the first $100 to $500 monthly in the first six months is realistic.

Intermediate level earnings are in the range of $1,000 to $10,000 per month. Your experience starts to grow. Your following starts to grow. People trust you more in a particular niche. You start joining higher paying programs. You build email lists, and email lists are super helpful. You leverage SEO. You do paid ads. With consistent effort, you might start earning $1,000 per month, $5,000 per month, or even more. Charlie Chang, Nate O'Brien, Graham Stephan—who else do I know? Jake Tran, they make a lot of money with affiliate programs and you can watch their interviews. Even Carlton Dennis, a tech consultant, makes money as an affiliate by recommending law firms. It's always about thinking about what people want from you. On my educational channel, I make money as an affiliate by recommending lawyers for immigrants. You need to identify that niche.

Advanced level income range is $10K to $100K a month. Advanced affiliates tend to have a well-established presence. You probably know their names. High traffic, significant influence within their niche. They might run multiple websites, multiple YouTube channels in multiple languages. This is what we're trying this year—translating my videos that have affiliate programs into Spanish and other languages to see how those affiliate programs are going to work. We're also working on optimized funnels. Some advanced affiliates use paid ads exclusively and invest in courses or software that enhances their reach and conversions.

I hope this video gave you a solid start with affiliate marketing and realistic expectations on earning potential.