- Joined
- May 3, 2018
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Hey guys,
If you’re trying to learn affiliate marketing from scratch, you might have already stumbled upon one of the prominent names in the AM industry. (I mean.. you are reading this forum...
)
Affiliate marketing veterans often share their success stories, case studies, and strategies on various platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or personal blogs. If you want to learn from their mistakes, it might be worth following their entries.
So, if you’re wondering who are the best affiliate marketing influencers to follow in 2021, read on and find out how to learn from the best!
Even though these two terms are largely overlapping, it’s good to know the difference between influencer marketing and paid self-serve marketing.
Online advertising takes on many forms. You can create a website and optimize it for SEO. You can use social media channels and promote affiliate links in a form of recommendations. But you can also join a CPA affiliate network, pick an offer, choose a traffic source, and promote it whichever way you feel works best.
The difference is simple. In affiliate marketing, you choose when, what, and how you’re promoting. You follow the trends and it doesn’t matter who you are as long as you learn the basic principles of media buying and have a budget to invest in.
Influencer marketing is based on popularity – you need to have a prosperous social media presence or a popular, high-ranking blog. That way, you can either choose to sign up to an affiliate program or you can enter into a partnership directly with a brand. This is how content creators get to make money by earning a commission every time they successfully market a product or service to one of their followers.
Blogging can be a form of affiliate marketing in which affiliate marketers generate a passive income by producing content and promoting products and services in exchange for a commission. If you’re already a blogger or a social media enthusiast with a large following, you might want to reach out to affiliate programs to start monetizing your content.
However, blogging, despite having the same potential for making money, requires a lot of slow-paced work which cannot be fast-tracked. That’s why if you’re considering becoming a blogger to make money, you might want to think about how much time and effort you are willing to put into that project.
Blogging also involves search engine optimization which forces the owner or the contributor to pay close attention to changes in the Google algorithm. While there are many affiliate programs that have a high success rate for website owners and content creators, keeping your website relevant is an important ongoing task that will be the driving force behind your earnings.
However, if you are starting from scratch, affiliate marketing through an ad exchange platform is your best bet. It requires an investment but the learning curve isn’t steep and you should be able to start turning profit within the first couple of weeks as compared to months in the case of blogging (and the SEO that comes along with it).
Additionally, you’ll need ideas for your blog posts. And the time to create content. You might be wondering why so many affiliates who made it big have their own blogs and websites. It’s because sharing their journeys and creating training programs is not only a great way to share the news about affiliate marketing and train the future generation of media buyers but also to earn some extra bucks.
Luckily for you, there are tons of free content about affiliate marketing on the internet. You can pick a traffic source or affiliate network and learn from their blog. Or you can visit YouTube and search for relevant tutorials. You can join a community and learn together with other beginners. If you have no idea what affiliate marketing even is, Google will help you with a number of quality search results.
Lastly, if you feel like it would be best to learn from someone who clearly knows the ropes, there are a lot of affiliate marketing pros turned bloggers/coaches. And apart from the free resources they offer, you can often find more exclusive, paid programs. If that’s your preferred way of learning then you are certainly in the right place.
Not every affiliate marketer has a successful career. Beginners who get started hoping for quick and easy results end up quitting before they get any return on their investment. Making money with digital marketing is easy to learn but that doesn’t mean you’ll just magically know what to do. When a language is easy to learn it doesn’t mean you’ll start speaking it right away, it just means it’s doable for anyone who is willing to put in the effort.
Many people who made it in affiliate marketing have decided to share their strategies online. Hence, you can find an affiliate marketing course with no hassle. As long as you have the money, of course. People with limited budgets, however, can find plenty of value in free PDFs, open Facebook groups, or blogs.
Without further ado, here are the affiliate marketing gurus who chose to share their affiliate marketing strategy online through various mediums. We’ve asked some of them questions on what resources they used when they were just starting.
Read on to find out!
The affLIFT community is the most affordable and beginner-friendly affiliate marketing forum on the market. Being only $20 per month, it’s not only accessible for everyone, regardless of their budget, it also doesn’t offer any less than the competitors.
Guides, case studies, follow alongs, and a helpful and responsive community are the biggest benefits of the platform. Additionally, Luke frequently hosts affiliate
marketing contests with cash prizes for any affiliate who is willing to take on the challenge.
One extra benefit of joining that community is that the board of moderators and community leaders consists of many big industry names and pro affiliates. Hence, by joining one forum you can reach a whole committee of talented marketing gurus.
Here’s how Luke answered our questions:
But seriously, it’s very important to stay up-to-date with affiliate marketing. Things are changing all the time. I would not necessarily use the resources that someone used 3 years ago starting affiliate marketing.
The best resources will be the ones that are recent and update-to-date. I recommend checking affiliate marketing forums like affLIFT and industry blogs like this one.
The most important thing for someone learning affiliate marketing to know is that the only way to really learn is to take action. You can read great content like this article, but you will learn a lot more simply by setting up your own affiliate marketing campaign and learning through your own experience.
Good luck! Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions
Ian’s website gathers together all the resources in one place. If you want to find his content, that’s the place to look. An affiliate marketing course, a blog post on investments, an affiliate program review, and a list of social media channels where you can reach him are the core of his site.
Apart from his personal website, Ian is one of the head affiliates in the Affiliate Business Club networking community. If you want to reach out to him, he’s the leader of ABC’s Slack group where he frequently engages in conversations and strategizing with other members.
Here’s what Ian had to say:
Nowadays which forums can you trust? There is more information nowadays than there was when I first started, you have access to Udemy, more bloggers than ever, and chat communities. Affiliate Business Club is a community chat and forum we operate that helps with direct content and video access from summits and events, think of us as the app sumo for affiliates.
Besides our community, multiple private Facebook groups are a great place to start and read up on what affiliate marketing is, then there are chat communities where you can directly ask questions, receive a direct answer.
The best is utilizing video content and just consuming it all, this is the best way I learn and absorb information in a faster manner.
Create a website, send traffic, then ASK WHAT IF. This is critical because it opens your mind to creativity, which is important in marketing. What if I change the color of the landing page? What if I speed up my website? What if I shortened my funnel? What if I change the ad to a video ad instead? etc. These are important as it allows you to expand and understand your demographic more.
Other than that, a few FB groups also helped me back in the day but most of them are dead or hard to navigate due to the lack of organization.
Set up realistic expectations because this business requires effort as any other and it’s not a 3 click solution to a gold mine. If you come with unrealistic expectations you’ll think this is a scam and quit.
On top of that, if you choose to share your email address with Nick, you can gain access to additional affiliate marketing training materials.
Here are Nick’s answers to our questions:
Another great investment I made was in private forums. I’ve learned so much in them when first starting out that I recommend everyone joins one.
Instead of using your small budget testing many things, you’ll be much better off if you:
– What other bloggers and influencers are worth following?
– What are Attila O'dree has to say about his beginnings?
– What are some tips and tricks for beginners from Colin Dijs?
If you’re trying to learn affiliate marketing from scratch, you might have already stumbled upon one of the prominent names in the AM industry. (I mean.. you are reading this forum...
)Affiliate marketing veterans often share their success stories, case studies, and strategies on various platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, or personal blogs. If you want to learn from their mistakes, it might be worth following their entries.
So, if you’re wondering who are the best affiliate marketing influencers to follow in 2021, read on and find out how to learn from the best!
️ Is affiliate marketing the same as influencer marketing?
Even though these two terms are largely overlapping, it’s good to know the difference between influencer marketing and paid self-serve marketing. Online advertising takes on many forms. You can create a website and optimize it for SEO. You can use social media channels and promote affiliate links in a form of recommendations. But you can also join a CPA affiliate network, pick an offer, choose a traffic source, and promote it whichever way you feel works best.
The difference is simple. In affiliate marketing, you choose when, what, and how you’re promoting. You follow the trends and it doesn’t matter who you are as long as you learn the basic principles of media buying and have a budget to invest in.
Influencer marketing is based on popularity – you need to have a prosperous social media presence or a popular, high-ranking blog. That way, you can either choose to sign up to an affiliate program or you can enter into a partnership directly with a brand. This is how content creators get to make money by earning a commission every time they successfully market a product or service to one of their followers.
️ Which is better blogging or affiliate marketing?
Blogging can be a form of affiliate marketing in which affiliate marketers generate a passive income by producing content and promoting products and services in exchange for a commission. If you’re already a blogger or a social media enthusiast with a large following, you might want to reach out to affiliate programs to start monetizing your content.However, blogging, despite having the same potential for making money, requires a lot of slow-paced work which cannot be fast-tracked. That’s why if you’re considering becoming a blogger to make money, you might want to think about how much time and effort you are willing to put into that project.
Blogging also involves search engine optimization which forces the owner or the contributor to pay close attention to changes in the Google algorithm. While there are many affiliate programs that have a high success rate for website owners and content creators, keeping your website relevant is an important ongoing task that will be the driving force behind your earnings.
Simply put, if you are already a blogger then earning an affiliate commission from promoting an occasional offer here and there will be perfect for you. Signing up for affiliate programs such as Amazon Affiliates can give you a low-effort passive income.However, if you are starting from scratch, affiliate marketing through an ad exchange platform is your best bet. It requires an investment but the learning curve isn’t steep and you should be able to start turning profit within the first couple of weeks as compared to months in the case of blogging (and the SEO that comes along with it).
Additionally, you’ll need ideas for your blog posts. And the time to create content. You might be wondering why so many affiliates who made it big have their own blogs and websites. It’s because sharing their journeys and creating training programs is not only a great way to share the news about affiliate marketing and train the future generation of media buyers but also to earn some extra bucks.
️ How to learn affiliate marketing?
Luckily for you, there are tons of free content about affiliate marketing on the internet. You can pick a traffic source or affiliate network and learn from their blog. Or you can visit YouTube and search for relevant tutorials. You can join a community and learn together with other beginners. If you have no idea what affiliate marketing even is, Google will help you with a number of quality search results.Lastly, if you feel like it would be best to learn from someone who clearly knows the ropes, there are a lot of affiliate marketing pros turned bloggers/coaches. And apart from the free resources they offer, you can often find more exclusive, paid programs. If that’s your preferred way of learning then you are certainly in the right place.
️ Best affiliate marketing coaches and bloggers
Not every affiliate marketer has a successful career. Beginners who get started hoping for quick and easy results end up quitting before they get any return on their investment. Making money with digital marketing is easy to learn but that doesn’t mean you’ll just magically know what to do. When a language is easy to learn it doesn’t mean you’ll start speaking it right away, it just means it’s doable for anyone who is willing to put in the effort.Many people who made it in affiliate marketing have decided to share their strategies online. Hence, you can find an affiliate marketing course with no hassle. As long as you have the money, of course. People with limited budgets, however, can find plenty of value in free PDFs, open Facebook groups, or blogs.
Without further ado, here are the affiliate marketing gurus who chose to share their affiliate marketing strategy online through various mediums. We’ve asked some of them questions on what resources they used when they were just starting.
Read on to find out!
Luke Kling
Luke Kling (@Luke) is a programmer and web designer who has spent over 10 years working for PeerFly – a no longer existing but almost legendary affiliate network. Before it shut down, he brought all of his experience and skills with him to his new project, the affLIFT forum. Although you can find Luke on social media, the best way to reach him and learn from him is through the forum.The affLIFT community is the most affordable and beginner-friendly affiliate marketing forum on the market. Being only $20 per month, it’s not only accessible for everyone, regardless of their budget, it also doesn’t offer any less than the competitors.
Guides, case studies, follow alongs, and a helpful and responsive community are the biggest benefits of the platform. Additionally, Luke frequently hosts affiliate
marketing contests with cash prizes for any affiliate who is willing to take on the challenge.
One extra benefit of joining that community is that the board of moderators and community leaders consists of many big industry names and pro affiliates. Hence, by joining one forum you can reach a whole committee of talented marketing gurus.
Here’s how Luke answered our questions:
The resources I used would be extremely dated by now (20 years later)What resources did you use when starting affiliate marketing?
But seriously, it’s very important to stay up-to-date with affiliate marketing. Things are changing all the time. I would not necessarily use the resources that someone used 3 years ago starting affiliate marketing.The best resources will be the ones that are recent and update-to-date. I recommend checking affiliate marketing forums like affLIFT and industry blogs like this one.
There are 3 things that are critical for being successful with affiliate marketing:
- A good tracking tool.
- Access to good affiliate offers.
- Understanding the fundamentals of how to run an affiliate campaign.
The most important thing for someone learning affiliate marketing to know is that the only way to really learn is to take action. You can read great content like this article, but you will learn a lot more simply by setting up your own affiliate marketing campaign and learning through your own experience.
Good luck! Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you have any questions
Ian Fernando
Ian Fernando is one of the affiliate marketing influencers who are not afraid of stepping on a stage and speaking in front of hundreds of people. Known on the forums as @Ianternet he’s one of the best media buying strategists out there.Ian’s website gathers together all the resources in one place. If you want to find his content, that’s the place to look. An affiliate marketing course, a blog post on investments, an affiliate program review, and a list of social media channels where you can reach him are the core of his site.
Apart from his personal website, Ian is one of the head affiliates in the Affiliate Business Club networking community. If you want to reach out to him, he’s the leader of ABC’s Slack group where he frequently engages in conversations and strategizing with other members.
Here’s what Ian had to say:
When I first started there weren’t many resources besides forums and the basic world wide web, remember this was 15 years plus ago. The internet was young and I was just starting to just buy media on Google and Facebook. I learned from the old heads in internet marketing, but forums have helped me a lot in the past, and I think they are still a huge resource especially all the old content they have.
Nowadays which forums can you trust? There is more information nowadays than there was when I first started, you have access to Udemy, more bloggers than ever, and chat communities. Affiliate Business Club is a community chat and forum we operate that helps with direct content and video access from summits and events, think of us as the app sumo for affiliates.
Besides our community, multiple private Facebook groups are a great place to start and read up on what affiliate marketing is, then there are chat communities where you can directly ask questions, receive a direct answer.
The best is utilizing video content and just consuming it all, this is the best way I learn and absorb information in a faster manner.
Start a campaign, fail at a campaign. Simple but truthful. A lot of started think affiliate marketing is easy, in concept it is, throw up a website send traffic profit.. but there are multiple attributes you need to understand and they are variables. They all range from website speed to colors on your landing page. The best way to understand each segment is to do it and then fail at it.
Create a website, send traffic, then ASK WHAT IF. This is critical because it opens your mind to creativity, which is important in marketing. What if I change the color of the landing page? What if I speed up my website? What if I shortened my funnel? What if I change the ad to a video ad instead? etc. These are important as it allows you to expand and understand your demographic more.
Servando Silva
Servando Silva (@servandosilva) started out as a blogger and then moved on to affiliate marketing later in his career. Apart from blogging and dropping knowledge gems on his affiliate marketing blog, he is also a community leader on the affLIFT forum. He is a humble expert on mobile traffic and despite being very successful, he didn’t choose to become a coach and launch a paid training course. All the knowledge he provides is free and easily accessible and therefore ideal for every beginner.When I started affiliate marketing my main resources were blogs and forums in the space. There was a ton of info available, mostly in forums such as STM or AffiliateFix, but also in some great blogs that don’t exist anymore or were abandoned. Many blogs are kind of dead now but forums are still vibrant as you can see with Afflift
Other than that, a few FB groups also helped me back in the day but most of them are dead or hard to navigate due to the lack of organization.
I think it pays a lot to join a forum and commit for at least 3 months. Also, one of the best recommendations every affiliate does is to keep focused on 1 traffic type and preferably 1-2 traffic sources and networks as well. Don’t spread too thin or you’ll eventually give up.
Set up realistic expectations because this business requires effort as any other and it’s not a 3 click solution to a gold mine. If you come with unrealistic expectations you’ll think this is a scam and quit.
Nick Lenihan
Nick Lenihan (@Nick) is an expert affiliate marketer and a community leader on affLIFT. On his website, supplemented with a blog and a section on affiliate marketing tools, he offers all kinds of internet marketing knowledge bits and plenty of solid recommendations. Additionally, as an expert on push ads, he offers paid comprehensive affiliate marketing training on running sweepstakes offers with push.On top of that, if you choose to share your email address with Nick, you can gain access to additional affiliate marketing training materials.
Here are Nick’s answers to our questions:
When I first started affiliate marketing I used the bare minimum – a tracker. I quickly found out that wasn’t enough so I caved in and got a spy tool. Many people make this mistake; don’t be like me.
Another great investment I made was in private forums. I’ve learned so much in them when first starting out that I recommend everyone joins one.
I think one of the most important things as a new affiliate is that you have focus.
Instead of using your small budget testing many things, you’ll be much better off if you:
- Pick 1 vertical
- Pick 1 traffic source
- Pick 1 traffic type (push/pop/etc.)
- Pick 1 (max 2) affiliate networks
If you want to find out:
– What other bloggers and influencers are worth following?– What are Attila O'dree has to say about his beginnings?
– What are some tips and tricks for beginners from Colin Dijs?
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Magda
