You can make money on the Internet in different ways: if you have no experience, surf sites and perform various tasks. If you're an upgraded professional with an impressive skillset, set up an advertising campaign, try SEO or marketing on social networks. You can choose one option and work with it or... apply your skills to affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing, a.k.a traffic arbitrage, implies that you attract buyers to goods and services. In exchange for the attracted users, you will receive a payment when clients perform the target action. Beginners are already frightened, which is understandable: no one wants to waste the budget and lose all the money at once.
To prevent that, we're releasing this guide for first steps in web traffic arbitrage, so you'll enter the business up in arms, prepared to face and address any challenge getting in the way. So, shall we dissect traffic arbitrage for beginners? Let’s do it.
Pick a Niche
Niches, or verticals, include certain groups of products and services, so the speed of moneymaking depends on your choice. Actually, this is your first-ever step in the business.
Conventionally, niches are divided into three categories:
Always on Top
We will enumerate a few options for you here, but if you need more information on it, you check out an article dedicated to the topic entirely.
Nutra
Nutra includes all products related to health, beauty, and dietary supplements.
Advantages: the target audience is easy to find, and the demand for goods is inexhaustible. The niche prospers in absolutely any GEO. All you need to do is select an offer that fits your advertising budget, and you’re ready to launch.
Disadvantages: not all products are easy to advertise. For example, it's nearly impossible to promote libido enhancement products openly, and we can't recommend cloaking to beginners. Another flaw of the vertical is that the competition is quite high.
E-commerce
E-commerce consists of various products, from gadgets to clothing and accessories.
Advantages: E-commerce has profitable offers from small local businesses and giants such as Aliexpress.
Disadvantages: competition; everyone is driving traffic to these products.
Mobile subscriptions
These are subscriptions to services with just one click. The user is charged to get access to the content.
Advantages: large selection of offers, all profitable.
Disadvantages: too difficult for a beginner and requires huge promotional investments.
Perfect (with the Right Approach)
That's where you need to understand your audience to get traffic.
Dating/webcams
Dating services are available in almost all countries and can be divided into two categories: regular dating, or mainstream, and adult (sex dating, webcam). This is where a newbie can start.
Advantages: good offers both in RuNet and abroad. Offers have high stakes, especially for adult dating.
Disadvantages: Adult and webcam are more difficult to deal with. Read more about adult dating here.
Gambling
This vertical consists mainly of online casino games such as slots, lotteries, roulette, and card games.
Advantages: high revenue.
Disadvantages: tricky to work with, as there are constant restrictions, and affiliates have to always look for alternative sources of traffic.
Seasonally Perfect
Tourism and some types of goods, for example, warm underwear or Christmas trees. There are also seasonal products in the nutra niche. For example, anti-fungus remedies are more profitable during the spring-summer period. In summer, demand for products for psoriasis also increases.
Advantages: launching advertising campaigns during the season or before the start will give a good profit.
The disadvantage is obvious: limited advertising campaign time.
Find the Best Affiliate Program
If you have already clarified which product you will promote, compare the payouts and hold periods in different affiliate programs. For example, you choose libido enhancement products, and you can get 10 bucks from one affiliate program, and, say, 20 bucks from another. High rates do not guarantee the transparency and honesty of the affiliate program. Explore several platforms and make a choice.
- Chat with the manager. Managers are links between an affiliate and a network. Make sure this is a qualified specialist ready to help you with the tasks.
- Check the call center. You can make perfect creatives that hit home, but if the call center is sluggish and barely responds, it will ruin the best combinations possible. Employees often do not know how to address objections, which affects conversion.
- GEO. You shouldn’t choose a complex GEO at the very beginning of your journey without understanding the audience. A newcomer may not be able to cope with the existing competition.
Where to begin? Choose a GEO you are confident in. As you develop, you will move to more profitable countries.
Be wary of new niches. Yes, there are situations when you can be the first and milk the incipient vertical, but there are many disadvantages. Nobody knows how to work with a new niche, so it’s risky. Even experienced affiliates make mistakes while testing; the audience’s interest in something new needs to be stirred up.
In verified ones, there is demand and cases; you can get recommendations and understand what works best.
TOP 10 Niches
Here we've drawn up a list of profitable niches for beginners to test out.
Weight Loss Offers
These offers are always on the rise. They have a wide target audience. Covers women from 20 to 55 years old. The demand for weight loss is high, peaking in the spring-summer season. You can use different traffic sources.
Anti-Aging Offers
Anti-aging products are increasingly popular in the Nutra niche. Self-care products.
The advantages are the same as in the weight loss option: a wide target audience, so you can get cheap leads from a niche.
Loan Offers
White niche with high payouts. The market is constantly growing, but pushing a person to accomplish the target action is getting more difficult.
Breaking Bad (Habits)
The Nutra subcategory aimed at combating addictions.
The target audience consists of men and women 35+. Men want to get rid of bad habits, and their wives want to help them.
Traffic can be brought by teaser networks, banners, and thematic resources.
Libido
The audience includes men 18-25 years old.
Advantages: always popular; average payouts.
Disadvantages: advertising restrictions imposed on such products. Push mailings, teasers, social networks, and communities are suitable for advertising.
Joints
This nutra category is aimed at retired people with chronic diseases.
Advantages: such products are always popular. The niche is well-developed; there are ready-made creatives and recommendations on how to work profitably. All you need to do is set up advertising.
Gambling & Betting
Online casinos are a popular trend. The audience is huge, and the stakes are high. The advertiser pays for the first deposit or a percentage of the amount the client spent on the game.
The disadvantage is the ban on advertising in AdWords and Facebook.
Dating & Webcam
Regular dating and 18+. The audience consists of men from 18 to 60 years old.
Dating offers work for any location and audience: there are dating sites, video chats with erotica, etc. Dating is where beginners can start.
Gadgets (saving electricity, fuel)
These are offers for the target audience of men 30+. There is no connection to GEO or social status, and it provides many opportunities for creating advertising campaigns.
Did you choose your offer? If so, let's speak about the financial aspect.
Payment Models
Before you decide which model to work with, study all the options, examine their differences, and note their advantages, and disadvantages.
CPL/Cost Per Lead
This is a reward for the user who filled out a questionnaire, signed up on a website, or left a request. It’s easier to convert a person into a lead using a CPL share; no complex actions are required from the user.
The downside is that the payouts are small. In our affiliate system, you can get from 0.5 to 4 dollars for registering a person. It’s easy for a beginner to start using this model and doesn’t require a lot of expenses.
CPA/Cost Per Action
Payments here are higher than in CPL, but it is more difficult to convince a person to make a purchase.
Target actions according to the CPA model:
- registration on the advertiser’s website;
- a conversion action;
- purchase of goods.
Sales Percentage
Depends on the price of the product. The cheaper it is, the easier it is to sell it. “Impulse” goods are easy to sell, as the client does not dwell on the purchase. They are satisfied with the price and place an order.
If you choose a more expensive product, the percentage of sales will be higher, but it will also be more difficult to lead a person to purchase.
Revshare
In this model, you receive a reward for the profit you bring. Beginners can be transferred to Revshare to check the quality of traffic.
The network manager will help you choose a model to work with and, depending on the source, will suggest the best option.
What is the best way to start making money in affiliate marketing? For beginners, it's the CPL model. For webmasters who have their own platform and those who use Facebook, the CPA format will be the perfect fit.
How To Choose an Advertiser and Offer
There are three types of advertisers:
Direct
Work directly with the company or manufacturer. In this case, you don’t pay any commission; you get pure profit.
There are many disadvantages, though: payouts aren't guaranteed, as well as the terms and conditions, both may change. Not exactly the best option for beginners. There is no personal manager who can explain how to optimize your campaign. You cannot be sure of the business when you don't know what the advertiser is thinking about.
Affiliate networks
The best option for beginners. In one place, you get a large selection of offers, advertisers, a guarantee of payments, assistance from managers, and ready-made schemes for profitable creatives.
The only drawback is that you need to be careful when choosing the affiliate network, otherwise, you may come across a shady player.
The affiliate network is a solution for those wondering how to start from scratch and make money on your own.
Affiliate Programs on Large Platforms
Amazon, Aliexpress, you name it. Yes, there are many offers, but choosing a profitable one is difficult. These are already well-known products, they are all sold, it will be difficult to arouse interest. And selling what everyone sells is not so profitable. The competition is too high.
Pay attention to the following aspects when you choose an offer in an affiliate program:
- Payment model. A mistake beginners often make is that they neglect the payment model. They are interested in the payouts. The most expensive offer is not always the best. Such offers are harder to promote, so the rewards are higher.
- Top-offers. Analyze the offers at the top. You can request all necessary information from your personal manager. Affiliates often make selections of the best offers, and the information is available.
- Restrictions. Define if there are restrictions on your offer. These may be based on traffic type, age, region, or GEO. Read the types of prohibited traffic carefully. If you miss something, you risk losing profits.
- Statistics. Do not forget to examine the statistical readouts of your campaign.
EPC (Earnings Per Click) represents average earnings per click. Affiliate programs display an average by type of traffic.
How to calculate EPC?
Divide your total revenue by the number of ad clicks.
CTR (Click-Through Rate) shows the ratio of all people who clicked on the advertisement to those who performed the target action. Numerically, it looks like this: 1:25. This means that out of 25 people who clicked on the ad, 1 made an order, and you received royalties for it.
ROI (Return On Investment) illustrates the profitability of an advertising campaign.
(Income − Costs) / Costs × 100, where
income is the reward from an advertising campaign, and costs are expenses associated with an advertising campaign.
Traffic Sources & Target Audience
Study the target audience of the selected offer. Who are these people, where do they live, what interests them, and what are their pains? Create a portrait of your typical buyer. Your manager already has this information. Request statistics on the offer you are interested in and get detailed information about traffic types, age, and gender.
Attracting Traffic
The main option is paid advertising. People click on the ad and go to the website, landing page, or prelander. It is important to set it up correctly, so advertising will give results and quickly pay off. Highlight keywords and monitor which creatives convert better. The drawback is that such advertising is expensive.
Paid Sources
There are several options for sources that you need to pay to work with.
Landing page
In 90% of cases, you will need a landing page. This is promotional material with a description of the product and its advantages. The landing page contains bait for the client in the form of promotions, discounts, and other information that encourages quick action.
You can create a landing page with a designer or write to the manager and choose a ready-made, working landing page.
Advertising on social networks
One of the most popular channels. The quality of traffic is the best, but there are many disadvantages for beginners. If the offer is not white, you will not be able to set up targeted advertising; you will not be able to do so without additional software (target hunter). This is where mobile apps and dating come in. It’s not a good idea to drive traffic to casinos or Nutra from Facebook or TikTok since you can’t do it without cloaking: you’ll instantly get banned.
GoogleAds and other search engines
They can offer better traffic quality, but it is an expensive and complex channel. It is important to acknowledge the GEO and pay attention to competition. When properly configured, it gives excellent results. It’s a little difficult for beginners and requires skill and expertise.
Remember, if you choose this, ads are strictly moderated; in case of violations, the account will be blocked without a refund. You can advertise a limited number of offers here. It is better to work with this traffic source if you already have experience. Beginners should not start with it.
Native advertising
Native advertising demonstrates bits of useful information with unobtrusive advertising. In affiliate marketing, pre-landing and landing pages are used to make high-quality native advertising. You need to push a person to purchase gently and unobtrusively. For native advertising, you need to have experience and know the target audience. Therefore, it is difficult to recommend this source to beginners.
Push
Suitable for beginners. All you need to do is learn how to create catchy short headlines that people will read. Push notifications are easy to set up and inexpensive. The costs are worth it, although the quality of traffic here is not the best. Effectiveness also depends on the relevance of the ads and the knowledge of the audience. To receive push traffic, you need to select a push network.
Teaser networks
A good option for beginners. An inexpensive source with an easy setup. The main requirement is to be creative so that people want to click on the ad. The headlines here should be vivid, even shocking. Use fresh creatives; the user will not click on what he has already seen before.
Popunder/Clickunder
The cheapest, most intrusive type of advertising. You need to work with it carefully because if you overdo, you won’t get a profit. Well-suited for gray offers and 18+ themes.
For Beginners
Beginners should choose a source that does not require huge investments. First, you should figure out what works best and how it operates. With experience, you will move on to complex types. Starting with complex sources often ends in a wasted budget and complete disappointment in the field.
Shareware Sources
In theory, you can create a popular group, channel, or website for free, but in reality, there are many nuances. First, you invest money in the project, then monetize the free traffic.
Website and Contextual Advertising
You buy a domain and hosting, create content, and spend time getting to the top. It is important to take care of all the nuances of the search engine.
Blogging
Write articles first, build a reputation, and become an expert. Then carefully promote the offer. Products from affiliate marketing should fit organically into your blog and fit the topics on which you write articles.
The financial part is the cost of creating content. Not everyone writes articles on their own; most people order them.
Social network
Here people spend a lot of time creating content. Publish at least 1-2 posts daily so that people want to read and follow you. To monetize pages, you need to have at least 5 of them. This is time-consuming, and posts need to be purchased. If you have groups with a loyal audience, start embedding advertising. Select suitable offers in our affiliate system and generate traffic.
YouTube
The costs are high, from equipment to an assistant who can maintain the channel. Advertising also costs money because you need a written script. Important: choose your offer carefully! Do not advertise every single thing you come across. The audience won’t believe you, and you won’t make any profit.
Telegram
It’s possible to create a popular channel, but promotion may require investments. Collect the required number of subscribers and implement advertising. Native advertising works perfectly well in tow with ad posts published in other channels works well here. You can barter with admins if you have a similar target audience and the same number of subscribers.
Crowd marketing
Communication on forums where advertising is presented under the mask of a regular message. To receive traffic, create a reputation for yourself, become familiar with the topic, and only then implement offers. The traffic is high quality, but you'll have to sit there for days.
How To Understand That You Are Going in the Right Direction
The answer is in detailed statistics. Analyze your work to see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Advertising analysis methods depend on the selected traffic source. Turn the information received from analytics into experience and knowledge. With experience, profits will increase.
Conversion
Shows how effective and profitable your advertising is. Formula:
number of buyers/number of visitors*100%.
It is necessary to track indicators at all stages of the sales funnel.
Analytics for Beginners
Start with Google Analytics. Unlike other services, it is easier and faster to understand. Over time, master other programs. If you have the opportunity, you can expand your knowledge about arbitration with the help of special courses taught by experienced marketers.
FAQ
