Affiliate Marketing As a Side Hustle

As a side hustle, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn extra income. To be successful, you’ll need to put in some time and effort to build up your audience and find good affiliate programs to promote.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

In its most basic terms, affiliate marketing is selling or promoting a product or service created by someone else and receiving a commission for selling that product or service.

For example, let’s say you sell a product made by a friend. The product sells for $100. Once you sell that product to a potential customer, your friend will pay you an agreed-upon percentage of the sale price.

For instance, your friend says he’ll pay you 35% for every one of the products you sell. You sold one product for $100. He pays you $35 as a commission.

You marketed the product and received a commission for the sale.

It Sounds Easier Than It Is

Affiliate marketing can be an excellent option for making money online. However, there are some potential downsides that you should be aware of before getting started.

First of all, affiliate marketing can be a bit tricky to get the hang of. There are many moving parts, and getting lost in the details can be easy.

Additionally, affiliate marketing requires you to have a fair amount of traffic before you start seeing any actual results. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time.

Finally, affiliate marketing can also be competitive. If you’re not careful, you could spend more on advertising than you make in commissions.

Tip: When deciding on how much to spend on marketing, it’s wise for beginners to use the 3:1 Rule. Never spend more than three times the amount of the commission you’ll earn.

For example, if you’re going to earn $50 per sale, you shouldn’t spend more than $150 on marketing costs. This is advice for beginner affiliate marketers.

School of Affiliate Marketing Hard Knocks!

I started affiliate marketing twenty-five years ago, in 1997. The internet was just in its infancy. So, every single one of the tactics used today didn’t even exist.

Back then, we called it Multi-Level Marketing or Network Marketing, which were a bit different because we would build entire organizations of downlines and had to sell a specific amount of product to qualify for bonuses or even a commission. It was a pain!

Digital content back then was reserved for the techies that knew how to code and build websites and blogs using HTML. If you didn’t know how to code, it could cost thousands of dollars to even get an online presence.

It wasn’t until social media platforms started showing up that the individual was capable of generating any kind of actual income.

Facebook and YouTube were absolute game changers. Along with blogging sites and software like WordPress and Blogger.

The invention of the affiliate link

Okay, I don’t know who or where the first affiliate links were used. Marketing platforms like Clickbank have been around since 1998. But as I mentioned earlier, if you didn’t already have a blog or website, then having access to affiliate products didn’t do you any good.

My first real introduction to the affiliate marketing business happened in 2012, with a blogging platform that doesn’t exist anymore.

You had to pay a monthly fee, and with that fee, you received ongoing training on turning your blog into an online business that would generate untold amounts of wealth.

How did we accumulate such wealth, you ask? By recruiting others to join the business. We would receive a percentage of their monthly dues. Also, a percentage of the people they brought in.

It was like the MLM/Network Marketing I was doing nearly a decade earlier. Only now, I didn’t have to go door to door. I just went to different online forums, wrote a quick paragraph about starting a blog and how to make money online, and then posted my affiliate links.

My Early Failures

When I was getting into the affiliate marketing business, a few “gurus” around had seen quite a bit of success.

Of course, everyone was selling their own affiliate marketing program about how anyone could make more money by simply becoming a part of their affiliate network.

And I purchased every single one in every niche I could possibly get my hands on!

I was promoting products and services I wasn’t using or purchasing myself. All I wanted was to make sales. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I was known as the “scam” king in some circles! But not for the reasons you’re thinking!

I discovered I could create a fast, simple affiliate site for any popular affiliate product. I would buy the URL of the product or service and add the word “scam” to the URL.

When looking to find if a product or service is worth the cost, people tend to respond well to sites claiming it’s a scam. At least, the vast majority do.

At one point, I had twenty-two websites from a dozen different affiliate networks, all earning me a passive income.

I put this under Early Failures for a simple reason. Every single one of the sites wasn’t about how the product or service was a scam. I just used the word to get people to click on my website links and hopefully read through the content pieces, and then purchase the product so I could earn money.

I also had every product’s original owners contact me and ask me not to use that tactic anymore. I also started seeing in new affiliate offers that the work Scam cannot be used to help sell or promote the relevant products.

My Successes

After the embarrassing failure mentioned above, I decided I wanted and needed to create a successful affiliate marketing business. I wanted to create real passive income, educate myself, and help others do the same.

I was looking for an affiliate website company interested in educating its affiliates on how to start affiliate marketing.

That’s when I came across Clickbank.

What Is Clickbank?

ClickBank is a digital marketing platform that allows affiliate partners to promote and sell products and services to customers.

The affiliate program provides affiliate partners access to various affiliate content, including text, images, and video. Affiliate partners can also use ClickBank’s tools and services to track their progress and performance.

ClickBank’s affiliate program is designed to help affiliate partners succeed by providing them with the resources and support they need to grow their businesses. As an affiliate partner, you can access ClickBank’s vast network of customers and build your brand by promoting relevant products and services to your audience.

About Clickbank

ClickBank is one of the internet’s oldest and most established affiliate marketing platforms. It was founded in 1998 by Tim and Eileen Barber, and it has since become a leading global retailer and distributor of digital products.

Today, ClickBank boasts over six million registered users, making it one of the largest affiliate networks in the world. The company is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, offering its customers a wide range of products and services.

ClickBank is a trusted platform for merchants and affiliates and is easy to use. The company’s mission is to help people make money online, and it has helped thousands of people realize their dreams of financial independence.

Clickbank Teaches You How To Become a Successful Affiliate marketer.

At the time, I was learning how to become an affiliate marketer; Clickbank offered a course called Clickbank University.

It was an entire course on using all the tools available to create valuable, sustained revenue with affiliate marketing.

The course was done all online, but the material was very personalized. They knew most affiliates taking their course were brand new to the industry.

The course covered everything you could imagine: finding the right affiliate product and marketing and promoting the product to the appropriate audience, creating a Squeeze Page, and collecting the information of potential customers so you can start to build an ongoing business relationship with them.

They taught me how to set up an email autoresponder and the importance of following up with customers. How to effectively use a blog as an affiliate. How to advertise on YouTube, FaceBook, and other platforms.

Most importantly, I learned that the best way to generate real, sustained passive income was by creating an audience and how to keep them engaged.

Since then, Clickbank has changed its training course and upgraded it to something even better!

What is Clickbank Spark?

ClickBank’s official affiliate marketing education platform is Spark. They educate people like you about affiliate marketing so that you can start an effective online business!

Students in this program began their college careers in October 2020, and they’ve already made a lot of progress. Take a look at these statistics:

• 500 Spark students have gone on to make money on the platform!
• Spark students have collectively earned $2.9M on ClickBank!
• There are 14.1K active members in Spark’s VIP community!
• Spark students have watched more than 40K hours of Spark educational content so far!
• We have 10+ course packages on offer in your membership!

What You Will Learn With Spark

One thing distinguishing Spark is our ability to tap into our direct response industry connections to offer students the most up-to-date marketing ideas.

We ensure that every topic addressed in our courses is taught by subject matter experts, including those within and outside of ClickBank, so you can be confident you’re receiving instruction from marketers who live and breathe what they’re teaching.

A Few of The Experts Include:

• Perry Belcher – writing affiliate content
• Ben Harris – affiliate marketing
• Robby Blanchard – Facebook Ads
• Max Finn – Facebook Ads
• Ian Stanley – email marketing
• Anik Singal – copywriting
• Paul Counts – organic traffic
• Rachel Pedersen – TikTok

Spark is an instructional tool that teaches you how to start making money online step-by-step. It’s primarily directed at novices, but there’s still helpful information for more seasoned affiliate marketers.

The monthly Spark Certification membership includes:

• 17 video courses with 70-value packed lessons (getting started with affiliate marketing)
• The Spark VIP Community Facebook Group (ongoing lectures and Q&As)
• The 7-Day Challenge with Ben Harris (paid ads)
• The Producer’s Playbook (entrepreneurship)
• Perry Belcher’s Secret Selling System (offer creation and copywriting)
• Robby Blanchard’s $100/Day Formula (Facebook Ads)
• Free Traffic Academy (SEO, YouTube, Pinterest)
• How to Grow & Monetize TikTok (TikTok)
• Future Spark 200 courses

How Much Does Spark Cost?

$47/month

$564/YEAR

You’ve got 30 days to put Spark to the test. If our industry-leading coursework doesn’t meet your expectations, we’ll guarantee your purchase a full refund.

Annual Plan

$397/yr

3 MONTHS FREE

You’ve got 30 days to put Spark to the test. If our industry-leading coursework doesn’t meet your expectations, we’ll guarantee your purchase a full refund.

You can check out Spark by Clickbank Here.

Final Thoughts

If you want to start an affiliate marketing side hustle to generate extra cash, I highly recommend checking out Clickbank. They have been an industry leader for twenty-four years and know their stuff. Comment below with any questions you may have! 

FAQs

Q: Is the content on Spark easy to learn?

A: Yes! Each course is presented in video format, with run times ranging from 3-7 minutes.

Q: What if I don’t like Spark?

A: Your Spark enrollment comes with a 30-day, 100% guarantee that allows you to purchase in confidence.

Q: How long does it take to complete all Spark courses?

A: Spark is designed to accommodate various schedules and lifestyles. If you work through a few courses daily, you can expect to finish the program within two weeks.

Q: Will Spark help me become a digital marketer?

A: Each and every one of our 70+ courses is designed to expertly lead you through the foundational elements of the digital marketing industry. These courses cover: how to use industry tools, how to launch a digital product online, how to get started as an affiliate, and much, much more.

Q: Do Spark courses ever expire?

A: Nope! Your purchase of Spark locks you in for life. As long as you are a paying member – every video, piece of instructional content, and download is yours to keep and reference forever.