Introduction 1 About This Book   1 Foolish Assumptions   2 Icons Used in This Book   2 Beyond the Book   3 Where to Go from Here   3 Part 1: Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing 5 Chapter 1: What Is Affiliate Marketing?   7 Getting a Handle on How Affiliate Marketing Works   7 Profiting from Internet Promotion   8 Multiplying opportunities   9 Automating the money flow 9 Distinguishing affiliate marketing from other internet businesses   11 Preparing to Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business   12 Setting expectations   12 Laying the groundwork   13 Walking through the process   14 Chapter 2: Why Should You Be an Affiliate?   17 Surveying the Requirements of Starting a Traditional Business 18 Assessing the Advantages of Affiliate Marketing   19 You can start your business instantly   20 You can choose your own path and lifestyle   20 You can offer a diverse range of products   21 You have no product development and fulfillment   21 You don’t have to be a technical genius   22 Payment and accounting are automated 23 You get company-supplied marketing materials   24 You can take advantage of tax deductions   24 Setting Expectations   24 Chapter 3: Pitfalls and Risks for Beginners   27 Looking Out for Personal Pitfalls   27 Lacking focus   28 Managing time poorly   29 Making few (if any) content updates 32 Avoiding Internet Risks   32 Stay away from instant businesses   33 Don’t fall for the next bright shiny object 34 Don’t follow others too closely 34 Chapter 4: Steps to Take Before Becoming an Affiliate   37 Setting Your Goals   38 Assessing the Skills You Have and Need   38 Where are you now?   39 How do you move ahead?   40 Strengthening Your Ability to Focus   40 Deciding what is (and isn’t) important   40 Setting your priorities   41 Seeing the magic of massive action   43 Making time to play   43 Ridding yourself of time wasters   44 Chapter 5: Surveying the Affiliate Landscape: Programs and Networks   49 Digging into Affiliate Programs   49 Assessing the advantages of affiliate programs   50 Finding and evaluating affiliate programs   51 Joining an affiliate program   54 Looking at Affiliate Networks   56 Checking out the advantages of affiliate networks 56 Finding and evaluating affiliate networks   57 Joining an affiliate network 58 Understanding the Dangers of Getting Banned   59 Part 2: Building on the Basics 61 Chapter 6: Keyword Research and Product Selection 63 Combining Passion and Profit   64 Analyzing Product Keywords   65 Looking at long tail keywords 66 Golden keywords   70 Sifting through Keyword Analysis Tools   71 Market Samurai   72 KeywordRevealer   74 Google Keyword Planner   75 Examining Markets   76 Focusing on evergreen markets   77 Sizing up seasonal markets   77 Chapter 7: Using a Website for Affiliate Marketing   79 Beginning with the Benefits of a Website for the Affiliate Marketer   80 Establishing a Domain Name for Your Website   81 Choosing a name   81 Using a registrar 82 Checking out the aftermarket   83 Comparing Self-Hosting to Free Hosting   84 Self-hosting   85 Free hosting   87 Going with WordPress Software   88 Installation   89 Themes   90 Plug-ins   91 Monitoring Your Website   94 Totaling the Costs of Starting and Running an Affiliate Marketing Website 95 Asking a Few Important Questions about Websites 96 Chapter 8: Niche Marketing   97 Understanding the Basics of Niche Marketing   97 Finding Your Niche 99 Following the head and the heart   100 Considering market size and competition   100 Reviewing Keyword Analysis Tools for Niche Marketing   101 Market Samurai   102 KeywordRevealer   103 Google tools   104 Keywords Everywhere   104 Spying on the Competition 105 Surveying Seasonal Niches 107 Chapter 9: Affiliate Marketing Without a Website   109 Getting Started When You Have Followers (And When You Don’t)   110 Leveraging the followers you already have   110 Taking action when you have no social media presence 112 Surveying Strategies for Different Social Media Platforms   113 Facebook   114 LinkedIn 115 YouTube   115 Instagram   116 Reddit 117 Quora 117 Guest blogs   118 Checking Out the Cons of Affiliate Marketing Without a Website   119 Your web presence is limited   119 You’re not building asset value   120 You don’t own the ground you’re building your business on   120 Your content doesn’t last long in front of your followers   121 You’re always fighting the competition 121 You have to adjust your approach for a different audience   122 You must keep on top of social media limitations and restrictions   122 Social media isn’t necessarily less complicated than having a website 123 Having a website isn’t as expensive as you may think   124 Chapter 10: SEO: Search Engine Optimization   125 Taking Care of Some Issues Before You Focus on SEO   126 Selecting the right niche   126 Understanding the elephant in the room: Google   127 Distinguishing On-Page and Off-Page SEO Factors 130 On-page SEO factors   131 Off-page SEO factors   138 Setting Up Your Site to Be SEO Friendly   139 Tags and categories 140 Posts and pages   140 Building a silo   143 Trying Out SEO Tools 144 Yoast   144 Market Samurai   144 Google Webmasters   145 Chapter 11: Email Marketing   147 Assessing the Advantages of Email Marketing   148 Building Your List with Different Types of Email   149 Marketing emails   149 Autoresponders   149 Transactional emails   150 Email campaigns   151 Hosting Your Own Emails   152 The pros of hosting   152 The cons of hosting   154 Playing by the Rules 156 Can-spam 156 The opt-in   158 The double opt-in 158 Unsubscribing 159 Understanding Email Screening   159 Soft bounces and hard bounces   161 Beware of buying a list of emails 161 A risk of probation if email addresses aren’t checked   161 Email throttling 163 Considering Different Email Senders   163 Sendinblue   164 Amazon SES   164 SendGrid   165 Mailchimp   165 Constant Contact   166 Part 3: Advanced Affiliate Strategies   167 Chapter 12: Multitier, Passive, and Other Offbeat Commissions   169 Getting a Handle on Multitier Affiliate Marketing   170 Trying two-tier marketing   170 Watching out for the third tier and beyond   171 Finding affiliates for your multitier program   172 Picking Out Passive Income Opportunities   174 Profiting Even When No Sale Is Made 175 Cost per action/pay per lead   175 Cost per click 176 Cost per view   177 Chapter 13: Affiliate Platforms, Directories, and More   179 Assessing Affiliate Platforms   179 JVZoo   180 ClickBank   181 CJ Affiliate   183 Amazon Associates   184 Digging into Affiliate Directories   185 Checking Out CPA Networks   186 Looking at Advertising Networks 187 Chapter 14: Opt-In and Landing Pages   189 Examining the Elements of an Opt-In Page   190 Videos versus text   190 The layout   192 Other considerations for success   192 Checking Out the Elements of a Landing Page   193 The visuals: Colors and images   193 The headline and the subheadline   193 Ad/sales copy   194 Testimonials   196 Bonuses 197 The “what’s inside” element   197 The bio 198 Payment buttons   198 Guarantees   198 Frequently asked questions (FAQs) 199 Legal notices and disclaimers   200 Focusing on Other Factors for Success 200 Testing with the A-B split   200 Considering SEO 201 Using an exit pop-up   201 Benefiting from others’ wisdom   202 Trying landing page templates and software   202 Judging results   202 Chapter 15: Sales Funnel Strategies   203 Selling Your Prospect on Multiple Offers   203 Starting with the front end   204 Moving to the main or core offer 206 Continuing with the back-end offer 207 Using upsells and downsells   207 Putting everything together   208 Setting Up Your Sequence of Offers   210 Looking at the tools you need   210 Modeling a merchant funnel   211 Assessing an affiliate funnel 212 Building a structure for passive income   213 Part 4: Going Professional 217 Chapter 16: The Legal Stuff 219 Following the Federal Trade Commission   220 Knowing the main guideline 220 Avoiding unrealistic claims   220 Retaining records about testimonials 221 Watching your language   222 Keeping your pricing consistent   222 Having a clear refund policy 222 Being aware of the rules about business opportunities   223 Getting the Scoop on the General Data Protection Regulation   224 Safely Using Images and Other Content 225 Getting permission in writing 225 Understanding special content rights 226 Addressing Legal Matters on Websites 227 A privacy policy 227 Disclaimers   228 Terms of service   228 Other sites’ rules   229 Chapter 17: The Merchant Side of Affiliate Marketing   231 Knowing Whether You’re Ready to Be a Merchant   232 Is your product conducive to an affiliate marketing program?   233 Is your compensation plan attractive?   235 Can you service affiliates? 236 Becoming an “undercover affiliate” 236 Choosing Your Technology 237 Considering an in-house affiliate program   237 Using an external affiliate platform 238 Outsourcing   239 Recruiting and Working with Affiliates   239 Knowing where to find affiliates   239 Making offers they can’t resist   240 Providing affiliate tools   240 Chapter 18: Taxes for the Affiliate Marketer   245 Setting Up Your Business for Taxes   245 The simplest business structure: You!   246 The second simplest business structure: The DBA 246 The next level: LLCs, corporations, and partnerships 247 Handling Taxes on Affiliate Marketing Commissions   247 Federal income taxes   248 Federal self-employment taxes   248 State and local taxes   249 Sales tax 249 Digging into Powerful Tax Deductions   250 Deducting home office expenses   250 Looking at the most common affiliate deductions   251 Checking out other common business deductions   252 Keeping Good Records   253 Researching Pension Tax Benefits 253 Reviewing Resources to Help You with Your Taxes   254 Part 5: the Part of Tens   255 Chapter 19: Ten (Or So) of the Biggest Pitfalls for Affiliate Marketers   257 Looking to the Next Bright Shiny Object   257 Battling a Lack of Focus 258 Not Investing in Yourself and Your Education   259 Making the Transition from Content Consumer to Content Producer   260 Having Unrealistic Expectations   260 Spreading Yourself Too Thin   261 Not Sticking It Out Until You Achieve Success   261 Not Spending Money to Save Time   262 Not Protecting Your Trust Flow and Reputation   262 Chapter 20: The Ten Best Free Tools for Affiliate Marketers   267 WordPress 268 Elementor   268 Yoast   269 Keywords Everywhere 270 SpyFu   270 Blog Ideas Generator 270 Market Samurai   271 GTmetrix   271 SimilarWeb   272 Buffer 273 Chapter 21: The Ten Best Paid Tools for Affiliate Marketers   275 Market Samurai   276 Keyword Revealer   276 SpyFu   277 Elementor, Astra Pro Theme, and Ultimate Addons 277 Content Samurai   278 WP Robot 280 CleanTalk 280 Sendinblue   281 Amazon SES   281 Mailster   282 Chapter 22: The Ten Best Marketing Strategies for Affiliates   285 Guest Blogging   285 SEO Strategies   286 Social Media Marketing 286 YouTube Marketing   287 Email Marketing   288 Content Marketing 289 E-book Publishing   289 Joint Ventures   290 Media Interviews   290 Smartphone Apps   291 Appendix: Tools and Resources for Affiliates   293 Index   307

Make money promoting products you love Earn income from what you are already doing! Leverage your existing interests and expertise into a money-making business. Want to monetize your blog? This book was tailor-made for you! Affiliate marketing pays you a commission for promoting products from hundreds of major companies online. This guide explains the process, what to look for in an affiliate program, how to write content that sells, what you should know about SEO, legal and tax strategies, and just about everything you need to succeed. Inside... Discover your niche and perform keyword researchCompare programs to find the right ones for youFind great tools to save you time and effortAvoid potential pitfallsLearn advanced strategies for more profit