Affiliate marketing is an area that experienced marketers predict will rapidly develop in the Ukrainian market. In this article, we want to lay out the basic concepts related to affiliate marketing: who is a webmaster, what is an offer in affiliate marketing, the main verticals in affiliate marketing, and what affiliate programs are. Additionally, we will explain how to get started in affiliate marketing from scratch.

If you have already delved a little into the topic, we recommend reading our article on: “10 Mistakes at the Beginning of the Journey in Traffic Arbitrage.”

How to Earn in Affiliate Marketing?

Imagine that you are already a webmaster (traffic arbitrager). You must know how to drive traffic. Your earnings will consist of the difference between the price of the traffic you buy and the payment for this traffic from the advertiser (i.e., the company that provides the product for advertising and pays for your services). And to make good money in this, initially, you need to clearly understand the structure of this field.

The main goal is to set up advertising so that its cost is much lower than the amount advertisers are willing to pay. However, remember that the traffic must be high-quality and directly generate income for the advertiser. Yes, working with traffic is not about stability, but it opens up many opportunities.

Now let’s move on to the key concepts without understanding which you will have nothing to do in affiliate marketing. We have decided to outline a short action algorithm with 5 main steps and consider affiliate marketing terminology based on them.

First Stage: choose a traffic source and learn to work with it. 

A traffic source is the place from where you lead clients to the required offers. It should be chosen according to the functionality you are interested in and the audience you need.

The main sources of traffic are Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube, TikTok, and, as an option, targeted advertising with bloggers in various public pages. By the way, we have a great article on whether TikTok is really R.I.P. from our partners at Skywalker’s Force.

Currently, there are many courses and even free materials from FB where you can learn more about targeted advertising in Facebook/Instagram. At the beginning, you may want to focus on this source, as the advertising is set up through the official AD (advertising account), and these social networks have a truly huge audience.

TikTok is also worth considering, but you need to be very flexible and have some experience with it. As for Google/YouTube, you can set this source aside for later when you have the opportunity to operate with larger budgets.

Second Stage: determine the vertical we will work with, register in the Affiliate Program (AP), and choose an offer for advertising. Now let’s explain the new terms.

A vertical is a specific niche or category of goods/services for which you will set up advertising. 

As with traffic sources, there are also niches in the affiliate marketing sphere that are popular for various reasons.

  • Number one — gambling. This is the niche of gambling and betting offices. People’s attitudes toward this niche are ambiguous, but it brings in the most money. Casinos, for example, pay for each new player who comes to spend their money there. The payment level varies from a few tens to several hundred dollars. It would be appropriate to give an example from this niche.

You have definitely seen what Instagram targeting looks like. From the FB advertising account, you can launch ads for display in stories/feed. The math is simple: if the advertiser pays $50 for the arrival of a client to an online casino, and they come there for $25, then you earn the $25 difference.

With integrations with influencers (bloggers), the scheme is similar. Your profit depends on how cool bloggers you find and how attractive integration with them will be. They pay you $50, the client came for $5, so you already got a whole $45 for your work. 

Conclusion: with the availability of flexibility and the ability to generate approaches for the needed verticals, your earnings will keep hitting the ceiling.

  • Number two — ecommerce. Everything that can be sent by mail. Most businesses on Instagram are built on this scheme, where you place a wholesale order and then resell this product with a huge markup. You bring clients who place orders — you take your money.
  • Number three — nutra. This vertical can be called a subtype of ecommerce, but with specifics. Here we promote everything that addresses users’ health-related pains. Weight loss pills or miraculous anti-aging cream — a gold mine for an arbitrager. As with all ecommerce, expect payment within tens of dollars.
  • Number four — dating. Correctly addressing the pains of lonely and not only users — we earn well. The popularity of dating apps and similar sites does not decrease, so you can always benefit from it. 
  • And the last example — the finance sector, i.e., everything related to money circulation. These are loans, fast money (quick loans), credit and debit cards. The customer received an approved loan, and you got your money. On average, payment reaches up to a hundred dollars.

We’ve talked about verticals, now it’s time for affiliate programs. Affiliate programs (APs) act as intermediaries between advertisers and webmasters. They help with choosing offers, consult when needed, and handle payments. By the way, you can choose an affiliate program on the page with affiliate programs, or in our community on Telegram.

Third Stage: after you have decided on a vertical and chosen a suitable affiliate program, it’s time to choose an offer.

An offer, in turn, is the product or service that needs to be promoted. Usually, offers clearly prescribe the conditions under which traffic will need to be directed. For example, methods of work, the desired type of clients, and traffic sources, payment level. Never neglect these conditions, as your work quality and, consequently, income depend on their understanding.

Don’t worry, the manager of your affiliate program will help you with this. He uses his experience and statistics to select the best offers for you, recommend approaches and creatives. Technical issues are also part of his competence. 

Fourth Stage: Time to launch the traffic. If you’re struggling with creatives and approaches, pay attention to spy services. They help track how your colleagues are pouring. There are plenty of them, so you’ll have a choice. 

Fifth Stage: Direct launch of advertising. Here we want to clarify a few more terms that will frequently be encountered on your journey.

We hope you have already grasped the concept of a webmaster, or simply, web, as you will be referred to. After the launch, you will need to monitor the conversion — an indicator of the effectiveness of your advertising, calculated according to the number of leads, that is, applications left by users on the site.

Landing page (land) — the site to which you will direct traffic. Statistics (stats) — a section in the affiliate program with information about your funds.

At this stage, you will need to test different approaches and creatives. Depending on the results, you will then need to select the most successful ones and scale them up. 

A significant advantage of affiliate marketing is the ability to work remotely and drive traffic to any country where people use the internet and install apps on their smartphones. In this case, you will need to thoroughly analyze the market specifics of the chosen country and adapt your approaches and creatives, also considering the language.

To drive traffic more effectively, we recommend reading our article with useful tips for marketers.

If you have any questions, we will be happy to answer them in our Telegram community.

More interesting insights to come. Don’t miss out!

With respect, Your Geek!

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