Affiliate marketing for beginners: how to get started in 2021

Welcome to our guide to affiliate marketing for beginners. We’ll answer questions such as:
❓ How do you start affiliate marketing as a complete beginner?
❓ What do you need to know to get started?
❓ Do you actually need a website? 
❓ How often can you expect to get paid?

If you want to learn how to earn extra income in 2021, you’ll love this article. Let’s get started.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of digital marketing, where an affiliate (also known as a partner or publisher) promotes the product or services of another business. The affiliate receives a commission for every sale produced through the affiliate’s efforts.

Broadly speaking, affiliate marketing consists of four parties:
1. Advertiser - The company that owns the offer.
2. Affiliate/publisher - The person (you) promoting the product or service.
3. Customer - The audience that buys the product or service, through the affiliate’s referral links.
4. (Optional) Network - The network that manages affiliate marketers and acts as a marketplace for advertisers.

Here’s an example:
You (the affiliate) have written a review about a new grill on your brand-new blog. You notice Amazon (the advertiser) sells this exact grill on their website. By signing up for Amazon’s affiliate program, you get a referral link for this grill that you place in your review. Every time one of your readers purchase the grill from clicking on your link, you get a commission. The actual commission percentage varies depending on the advertiser.

Why do people choose affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a great source of additional income for beginners and can also become a primary source of income in the future. For this to happen, generally speaking, you need to have a large following (think Twitter followers, website visits, YouTube subscribers, etc.).

If you don’t have any of these at the moment, don’t get discouraged. These aren’t mandatory in any way. In fact, some affiliates don’t rely on a following at all. Instead, they provide a service so valuable that people flock to them anyway. A great example of this is pcpartpicker.com. Many people choose to pursue affiliate marketing because of its simplicity and potentially high rewards.

Let’s say you run a blog for car enthusiasts. Promoting a car-related service to your followers is a no-brainer, as they’re likely to be interested in the product. In these cases, there are only winners. You inform your followers about a new service they’ll love, receive a commission for all sales you generate, and the service gets an increase in sales and customers.

Where to start with affiliate marketing?

👉 First, find a product you like and want to promote.

Find a product you know will improve the lives of your followers. If you don’t like what you’re promoting, you won’t put as much effort in, resulting in poor results (your commissions). This will discourage you further, and you might throw in the towel at this stage already. It’s a vicious circle. Focus on finding a product that you love, and you’ll never have this problem.

👉 Next, become an expert in that product.

How can you promote something you don’t completely understand yourself? How can you explain the benefits to someone without knowing what they are? Many affiliate marketers choose to buy and use the products and services they promote. Partly to learn more about the product, but also because they love using it. This isn’t mandatory, however, and you’re free to promote products and services without ever investing a dime in them.

👉 Next, find an affiliate marketing program for the product.

Remember that it’s in the best interests of the business to help you succeed as an affiliate. As such, finding an affiliate program for the product is the easiest part of the process. Simply Google terms like “[product or service you want to promote] affiliate”. In our case, searching for “carVertical affiliate” will return our affiliate site as the first search result.

If you don’t find anything on Google, you can always contact the company directly by email or through social media. Remember that affiliate marketing is a win-win for all parties involved and that most companies will love hearing from you. After all, you want to promote their products and make them money.

👉 When you’ve found the affiliate marketing program of your dreams, it’s time to join.

Usually, you’ll find detailed instructions on the company’s website, informing you of the steps to take. When done right, it’s as easy as signing up for any platform on the internet. 

👉 At this point, you’re all set and ready to go.

Start promoting the product to your followers and watch the money pile up.

Can I do affiliate marketing without a website?

Is it even possible to do affiliate marketing without a website? Yes, without a doubt. Websites are only a tool to reach your audience. All you need to succeed in affiliate marketing is a product or service to promote, and an audience to promote the service to, through some medium. The most obvious medium to promote on is your website, true, but in 2021 that is just one out of a hundred other valid alternatives.

What you need is an audience. It doesn’t matter if you reach this audience through Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, a website, or even offline (this is unusual, but there’s no “rule” stating all affiliate marketing has to be online).

Here are some ideas for alternative platforms to use:
⚡️ Facebook
⚡️ Quora
⚡️ Reddit
⚡️ Pinterest
⚡️ Niche-specific forums
⚡️ YouTube
⚡️ Twitter

In short, anywhere people can follow you is a place you can promote your offers on.

How do I join the carVertical Partners’ Program?

Here’s how the carVertical Partners’ Program works:

1. Sign up to the program and get unique referral links & banners.
2. Start spreading the word, send people to carVertical using your referral links.
3. Get paid for your efforts! Commissions are paid out every month.

What is carVertical?

carVertical is the first blockchain-based decentralised car history register in the world.

carVertical is a platform that provides a car history report by VIN, and in some markets, by license plate numbers. It is extremely useful to know a car's condition when buying a used car in terms of price negotiation and safety concerns. Our aim is to bring more transparency into the global automotive industry. carVertical Partners’ Program is a new way to build a side revenue stream by recommending carVertical online. Partner with us, and we’ll share what we earn. 

Why should you join the carVertical Partners’ Program?

We’re here to help you succeed. As our partner, you’ll get free access to all the tools you need to promote carVertical and earn top commissions.

✅ Unlimited commissions 

The commission rate increases accordingly with the number of sales you make per month. There's no cap on commissions.

✅ Reliable real-time tracking ‍

We use Post Affiliate Pro, one of the most reliable tracking solutions, which allows you to monitor your commissions in real-time. Cookie duration is 90 days. 

✅ Monthly payments ‍

You will be paid for each vehicle history report bought via your affiliate link. Payments are processed on the 15th of each month for the previous month’s period through PayPal or bank transfer. Minimum payout 50 EUR.

✅ Dedicated account manager ‍

Once you join the carVertical Partners Program, you will be assigned a dedicated account manager who will help you to start with the program and will answer all your questions.

✅ All the resources to succeed ‍

Free access to the vast high-quality promo material and consultations with the experienced partnership team. Track your performance in a real-time dashboard.

✅ Free-to-join program ‍

Join the leader of transparency. Strengthen your brand and give more value to your audience by associating with the first global car history registry based on blockchain. And it’s totally free!

To conclude

Affiliate marketing is a great option for beginners to earn their first side income in 2021. With all the thousands of free ways to gain a following online nowadays, your own creativity and work-ethic are the only limits to what you can achieve online.

In this article we’ve established everything you need to know about affiliate marketing to get going. The rest is up to you. Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing, we hope you’ll enjoy your stay!