5 Tips and Tricks to Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing

Finding success making money online with affiliate marketing is not hard. It just requires a solid knowledge base, some hard work, and a lot of consistent effort.

You can also read our article What is Affiliate Marketing – And How Do I Get Started?

We’ve been making money online with affiliate marketing since 2018. Today it allows us to be full-time digital nomads!

We’ve made mistakes, learned a lot, and want to share our experience and recommendations for being a successful freelance affiliate marketer.

So, here are our 5 tips and tricks to success with affiliate marketing.

1. Affiliate Marketing is a Business, not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme
2. How to Make Money Online Promoting Products Genuinely and Effectively
3. Creating Quality Content that Provides Value
4. Building Trust with Your Audience to Make Money Online
5. Embracing Mistakes and the Importance of Learning
Bottom Line
Resource Guide

1. Affiliate Marketing is a Business, not a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

Affiliate marketing is a business venture. It demands the same dedication, persistence, and strategic thinking as any other entrepreneurial endeavor.

While its flexible nature and potential for passive income might paint a rosy picture of an easy way to make money online, the reality is that success in this field doesn’t come overnight. You’ll need careful planning, continuous learning, and consistent content creation.

Many enter the realm of affiliate marketing lured by tales of rapid riches, only to find themselves overwhelmed and unprepared for the challenges ahead. That was definitely us!

It’s crucial to dispel the myth of it being a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. Like any business, it requires patience, resilience, and hard work.

Those willing to invest the time and effort, however, will discover a rewarding avenue that offers both financial gains and unparalleled autonomy.

The good news is that you don’t have to go it alone.

In fact, one of our strongest recommendations is a 15-day challenge that you can use to decide if affiliate marketing is right for you.

And best of all, the challenge only costs $7. More about that below!

2. How to Make Money Online Promoting Products Genuinely and Effectively

Promoting products in a manner that’s both genuine and effective requires a balance of authenticity and strategy.

First and foremost, it’s crucial to choose products or services you personally believe in or have experience with. This authenticity is palpable to your audience and makes your recommendations more compelling.

Pair this with a deep understanding of your audience’s needs, and you can tailor your promotional methods to resonate more profoundly.

Whether it’s through detailed reviews, how-to guides, or personal anecdotes, sharing real experiences and results helps bridge the gap between skepticism and trust.

Some of our highest converting affiliate partners are World Nomad Travel Insurance and Airalo eSIMs for travel.

That’s because we actually use AND love both of these products.

For World Nomads, we’ve not only written articles about our analysis of the product, we’ve also written about our personal experience with the World Nomad insurance claims process.

We also promote the Blogging Fast Lane course because we took the course and found it invaluable in terms of creating the blog you are reading right now!

The key is to create content that resonates with your niche. And then use it to promote products that align with you niche and that you have had personal experience with. Preferably, promote products that you are passionate about!

Make money online - Digital nomads working in a campervan — Make Money Online from Anywhere!

3. Creating Quality Content that Provides Value

Which brings us to content.

Quality content is the cornerstone of making money online in affiliate marketing.

Instead of merely pushing for sales, the content should aim to educate, inform, entertain, or solve a problem for the audience.

This means thorough research, clear and engaging writing or presentation, and ensuring that the information is up-to-date and relevant.

Never let content get stale. That means both constantly creating new content and constantly updating old content.

Visual elements, such as images or infographics, can enhance comprehension and retain interest.

Again, the key is to create content about things you genuinely care about and do yourself. Sure, you can write about surfing even if you don’t surf. But it’s not going to come across as genuine and passionate as it would from someone passionate about surfing.

By consistently delivering valuable content, you not only drive traffic to your content and eventually your affiliate links. You also establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

4. Building Trust with Your Audience to Make Money Online

Trust is the bedrock of any successful affiliate marketing venture.

Without it, even the most strategic promotional efforts will fall flat.

To build and maintain trust, transparency is key. This includes disclosing affiliate partnerships and being honest in reviews, even if it means highlighting negative aspects of a product.

This last point is important because there are some affiliate partners who will get upset if you ever post anything negative at all about their product or company. That leaves you with a choice: short term gain from the company or long-term trust from your followers.

For us it’s a no-brainer. Our readers deserve honesty. That’s how trust is built.

Engaging with your audience, whether through comments, emails, or social media, also helps humanize your platform and shows that you value their feedback and queries.

Providing consistent and reliable content, being responsive, and rectifying mistakes when they occur also play pivotal roles.

Over time, by demonstrating reliability and genuine concern for your audience’s best interests, you solidify a bond of trust, which not only boosts conversions but also encourages repeat visits and referrals.

5. Embracing Mistakes and the Importance of Learning

When we first tried to make money online with affiliate marketing, we tried to go it alone.

We figured we were smart enough to put some content together, apply for some affiliate links, and have a thriving business.

We were wrong. In our first six month of affiliate marketing, we spent hundreds of dollars on content platforms and earned exactly zero dollars.

Eventually we started earning some commissions from Amazon and a few other retailers. But it wasn’t even covering our costs, much less generating a profit. We were bringing in pennies per transaction.

That’s when we took the 15-day affiliate marketing business challenge – and it blew our minds.

The answer was simple: stop wasting dollars chasing pennies.

Focus on high ticket items that people already want and/or need. Earn tens or even hundreds of dollars per transaction rather than a few pennies.

We realized that we had the drive and the desire, but we lacked the knowledge, tools, and guidance to be successful.

If you are anything like us, you need to get those things before you start. I just wish that we had known that before we threw a bunch of money away to earn under $10!

Best of all, the 15-day affiliate marketing challenge only costs $7!

For $7 you can find out if affiliate marketing is for you AND gain a solid understanding of the basics of the business of affiliate marketing.

Wondering how we are able to travel in luxury full time? Lisa wrote an e-book about it! Tap or click here to check out her free e-book about how we make money online.