For today’s post, I sat down beside Ben Harris at the ClickBank headquarters in Boise, Idaho.  We compiled our knowledge on how to help out anybody who wants to get into affiliate marketing.  

I first ran into Ben about a year and a half ago.  He used to work at ClickFunnels and was the head of the affiliate program there.  Ben came across me as one of the top affiliates, checked out my social media stats, and we’ve been friends since! 

Follow along as Ben answers some of the most commonly asked questions about affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

“Affiliate marketing is essentially having your own custom link on the internet that you can use to promote someone else’s product or service.  In turn, you get paid via commission.  Somebody once explained affiliate marketing to me as one giant party.  Your main job is to invite the people to the party.  Once you get the people into the party, you know they are going to have a good time.  All you have to do is hand out the invitations.  When I heard it explained like this, affiliate marketing seemed so much more doable.”

How Do You Get Started?

“To get started, you have to focus on a niche, category, or area of interest that you're into.  Keep in mind your end goal and work backwards until you find products that are currently selling well.  You can then look into whether you want to get started organically or if you want to start scaling with paid traffic.”

Do You Need a Website?

“In my opinion, no.  With the way social media is blowing up right now, a website isn’t needed to make money from affiliate marketing.  This is a great place to start.”

What Do You Need to Learn?

“I would learn the act and science behind affiliate marketing; it's all about traffic and conversions.  If you are spending money on ads, you need to know how to track that spending.  You have to know your numbers and become analytical.”

How Much Money Do You Need to Spend to Make a Dollar?

“You learn who you are through the art of execution.  Our content director, Taylor, and I had the idea that instead of teaching the process of affiliate marketing, let’s just do it and have our students follow along.  We rolled the cameras, scrolled through the marketplace, and selected an offer.  As for spending on ads, etc., I never spend more than $200 without getting a sale.  This is a great way to learn what works and what doesn't.”

What Are Some Common Mistakes People Make?

“The first mistake people make is believing in market saturation.  The internet is so big and it exists in all countries across every different walk of life.  I don't think any product on ClickBank has ever been saturated; there's never enough people promoting — ever.

There's this thing called a runner’s high that I think is very similar to affiliate marketing.  A runner's high is where a runner gets past the period of pain and is brought into a phase of euphoria.  In order to get this feeling, they have to chase and accept the pain because they know it's better on the other side.  Yes, it sucks to not make money at first.  But if you adopt the mentality of it all working out in the end, I promise you’ll make it to the other side of the fence.”

What Happens If I Run An Ad and Nothing Happens?

“Chances are you either are in the wrong place or you targeted the wrong audience.  If you're promoting a weight loss supplement, it wouldn't make sense to share the offer in a gardeners FaceBook group.  Always check to see if you targeted your audience correctly before switching offers; you may have simply invited the wrong person to the party.” 

Spark by ClickBank

Just last year, ClickBank released a new program called Spark geared towards teaching affiliate marketing.  Spark provides the foundational education that goes through all of the nerdy numbers and data points you need to know to be a successful affiliate marketer.  Everything from definitions and acronyms to running and scaling paid traffic is covered.  

If you want to know more about this awesome, transparent program that’s great for beginners, click here!  

Peace and God bless.  

I make new content every single week, so be sure to subscribe to my Youtube and follow my Instagram @brambilabong and TikTok at @AdrianBrambila. I also have tons of resources and courses on my website that you won’t want to miss. Head over to www.adrianbrambila.com to learn more about what I do and how I live a financially free life.