Affiliate Marketing With WordPress: Your Guide To Getting Started

Are you looking for a way to make some extra money? Affiliate marketing may be the answer! But what is affiliate marketing exactly and what does it entail? That's a good place to start, actually.

Affiliate marketing is a type of online marketing in which businesses promote their products or services through affiliates. The affiliates receive a commission for every sale they generate.

This can be a great way for businesses to reach new customers, while also providing an opportunity for people to earn some extra money.

But how do you get started implementing affiliate marketing into your WordPress site? That's what we'll be discussing here today, along with a few suggestions for platforms to explore when you're first starting out. Let's get started!

There are three main parties involved in affiliate marketing: the business, the affiliate, and the customer. It works as follows:

1. The business creates a product or service that they want to promote and then recruits affiliates who will agree to promote their product or service. In return for their promotional efforts, the affiliates receive a commission whenever someone they've referred makes a purchase.

2. The customers are the people who ultimately end up buying the product or service. They may be driven to the business's website by an affiliate's promotion, or they may find the business on their own.

3. Businesses can create their own affiliate programs or sign up with an affiliate network. Affiliate networks are platforms that connect businesses with affiliates. They often have a wide variety of affiliates to choose from, as well as tools and resources to help businesses get started with their affiliate programs.

When a business signs up with an affiliate network, they'll create a profile for their business and list the products or services they want to promote. Affiliates can then browse through the businesses and products listed on the affiliate network and decide which ones they want to promote.

If they find a business or product they're interested in, they'll apply to become an affiliate. The business will then review the application and decide whether or not to approve the affiliate. Once an affiliate is approved, they'll be given a unique link that they can use to promote the business or product.

Whenever someone clicks on their affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate will receive a commission.

There are two main types of affiliate programs: pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead.

• Pay-per-sale affiliate programs are the most common type of affiliate program. With this type of program, affiliates receive a commission whenever they refer someone who ends up making a purchase. For example, let's say you have an affiliate link for a pair of shoes. If someone clicks on your link and buys the shoes, you'll receive a commission.

• Pay-per-lead affiliate programs are less popular than pay-per-sale ones, but they may still be a good method to supplement your income. Affiliates get a commission every time they refer someone who signs up for a free trial or provides their contact information through this type of program. An example would be if you have an affiliate link for a subscription service. If someone clicks on your link and joins the free trial, you will receive a payment.

Which type of affiliate program is right for you will depend on your business and your goals.

If you're looking for a quick and easy way to make some extra money, pay-per-sale programs can be a good option. However, if you're hoping to build long-term relationships with your affiliates, pay-per-lead programs might be a better fit.

There are several benefits of affiliate marketing, both for businesses and affiliates, as you might've guessed.

For businesses, affiliate marketing can be a great way to reach new customers and promote your products or services. With an effective affiliate marketing program, businesses can reach a larger audience than they would be able to on their own.

And because affiliates are only paid when they refer someone who makes a purchase, businesses only have to pay for results.

For affiliates, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn some extra money. And because there are so many different types of affiliate programs available, affiliates can choose the ones that best fit their needs and interests.

We bet you were wondering when WordPress was going to factor in here, weren't you? Let's rope the CMS in now as we discuss how to get started with becoming an affiliate marketer.

1. Create a Website

To begin, you'll need to have a WordPress website with content on it. If you don't have a website yet, we recommend checking out our guide on how to start a WordPress blog. Once you have a site up and running, it's time to start creating content.

2. Make Content

Your affiliate marketing journey will begin with creating great content that promotes the products or services you want to promote. The best way to do this is by writing helpful and informative blog posts, tutorials, or product reviews.

3. Join an Affiliate Program

In order to start earning commissions, you'll need to join an affiliate program. This is usually pretty easy to do and only requires a few minutes. Once you're approved for the program, you'll be given an affiliate link that you can use on your website.

You have a wide range of affiliate programs to choose from that you can promote on your website. While there are several programs you can join, we obviously can’t recommend our own enough:

Verpex Affiliate Program

Yes, we have our own affiliate program and it’s definitely worth checking out. Our program provides a long cookie duration of 60 days, which makes it easier to earn income. It also provides some of the highest commissions on the market, paying up to $150 per sale.

Signing up is easy and since sales, clicks, and the link are all tracked for you, the entire process is very hands-off. Just insert the links we provide and promote your content as normal. Over time, the affiliate income should start to roll in.

Other Programs

Here are a few other programs WordPress users can get a lot of mileage out of as well:

1. Clickbank: Clickbank is an affiliate network with a wide variety of products to promote, including digital products such as ebooks and courses.

2. ShareASale: ShareASale is an affiliate network with a wide range of physical and digital products to promote.

3. Amazon Associates: Amazon Associates is the affiliate program for Amazon.com. If you're promoting physical products, this is a great option.

4. CJ Affiliate: CJ Affiliate is an affiliate network with a wide range of physical and digital products to promote.

5. Bay Partner Network: The eBay Partner Network is the affiliate program for eBay. If you're promoting physical products, this is a great option.

6. GiddyUp: GiddyUp is an affiliate network focused on promoting outdoor gear and products.

4. Promote Your Affiliate Links

Now that you have your website up and running and you've joined an affiliate program or two, it's time to start promoting your affiliate links. As we mentioned before, the best way to do this is by writing helpful and informative blog posts, tutorials, or product reviews.

Be sure to include your affiliate links whenever possible so that visitors to your site can click through and purchase the products or services you're promoting. If you're writing product reviews, be sure to include both the pros and cons of the product you're reviewing. You should also include your affiliate link in your review so that readers can click through to learn more or make a purchase.

And make full use of the tools your affiliate program provides for you, such as banner ads, text links, and email templates. These will help you to promote your affiliate links in a variety of ways so that you can reach the widest audience possible.

5. Track Your Sales and Earnings

Next, you should track your sales and earnings. Most affiliate programs will provide you with tracking tools to help you do this. And if they don't, there are plenty of third-party options available, specifically as WordPress plugins, but more on that in a moment.

Tracking your sales and earnings is important because it will help you to see what's working and what's not. This information will be invaluable as you continue to grow your affiliate marketing business

6. Use WordPress Plugin(s) to Streamline Your Efforts

Speaking of plugins, there are actually several WordPress plugins that can help you with your affiliate marketing efforts. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Easy Affiliate Links
  This plugin makes it easy to manage your affiliate links and add them to your posts and pages. With this plugin, you can also cloak your affiliate links, making them more palatable for your readers.

• Affiliate WP
  This plugin is designed to help businesses manage their affiliate programs. It includes features like automatic commission payments and affiliate registration forms.

• WP Affiliate Manager
  As the name suggests, this plugin helps you manage your affiliate program from within WordPress. It includes features like ad tracking and coupon codes for affiliates.

7. Generate More Traffic

One of the best ways to generate more affiliate sales is to get more traffic to your website. There are a number of ways you can do this, including:

• SEO
  Improve your website's search engine optimization so that it ranks higher in search results. This will help you get more organic traffic from people who are searching for the products or services you're promoting.

• Social media
  Use social media to drive traffic to your website. Share your blog posts and affiliate links on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

• Email marketing
  Send email newsletters to your list of subscribers with links to your latest blog posts and affiliate products.

• Paid advertising
  Use paid advertising to drive traffic to your website. This can be done through Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, or other forms of paid advertising.

If you want to be successful with affiliate marketing, you need to keep your affiliate program active. This means regularly promoting your affiliate links, adding new products and services to your website, and keeping your website up-to-date.

If you do all of these things, you'll be well on your way to generating a healthy income from affiliate marketing.

We hope this guide has been helpful in getting you started with affiliate marketing on WordPress! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below. And if you need a solid place to host your website so you can get started, our WordPress hosting is top-notch.

Happy promoting!