How to make money with affiliate marketing

Here's a question I am often asked, and the answer is so simple.

Yet, too many marketers get so confused and stumble along the way.

Q. How do you make money with affiliate marketing?

A. You need 3 things:
1- An audience (your list) who wants to buy what you’re selling or promoting.
2- Something to sell/promote (items created by others who allow you to promote these items to your list and in turn, receive a commission when sales are made).
3- A way to communicate with the masses (your autoresponder).

#1 An audience (your list) who wants to buy what you’re selling or promoting

You've heard successful marketers talk about their “lists”. They're referring to their email lists.

No, not on Gmail or Yahoo.

I'm talking about their autoresponders. More on that later.

You see, without an audience – a group of people interested in what you're interested in – you're severely hampered. Of course, your challenge is to find these people in the first place. The easiest and fastest way is to buy “traffic”. We will talk about that in a separate post.

#2 Something to sell/promote (items created by others who allow you to promote these items to your list and in turn, receive a commission when sales are made).

This is actually the easiest of the 3.

Depending on your niche (the topic you're working in, such as weight loss, make money online/work from home, dog training, etc.), you can find thousands of products to promote and earn commissions.

#3- A way to communicate with the masses (your autoresponder).

In the affiliate marketing/email marketing/internet marketing world, you just cannot function without an autoresponder. An autoresponder is the system by which you send out your marketing messages. These can be automated or sent at the time of writing, or scheduled for a specific date and time. Within these messages you'll include your affiliate “link” that takes the reader to a web page where they can learn more about the product you're promoting. When they purchase, you get credit for the sale and earn the commission for that product.

These are the basics you need to earn a pretty nice income with affiliate marketing.