How to become an affiliate marketer!
So what is an affiliate marketer? Wikipedia will tell you.
For a successful career as an affiliate marketer you will need:
The first thing you need is somewhere to promote the products and services you’re selling. There are many web hosting companies that will do the job – we use Bluehost – they’re cheap and reliable.
When you have set up your site and decided what type of markets you wish to appeal to (research these carefully – you need something with enough queries each month, but not too much competition) then it’s time to join up with some affiliate programs. There are hundreds of affiliate programs available to you and it’s a good idea to do some research before joining any site that pops up. Think carefully about what you feel comfortable promoting to people, would you buy it yourself? If you would, write an honest review explaining why. If not then don’t feature it.
As well as setting up your site and joining affiliate programs, you will need to devote some time promoting yourself, as you need to create as much traffic to your site as possible. There are several ways to do this and include paid advertising such as through Google Adwords, which can ultimately become expensive. Free advertising through social media accounts and internet 
forums is a good way to increase traffic but requires patience and dedication. Your site will need good content that makes people want to keep coming back, and hopefully helps to convince them that they need to buy the products you’re marketing.
It’s advisable to sign up with a few different merchants to ensure that any possible disputes about payment from one will not affect your business, and to allow you to build a diverse selection of products! To ensure a long run as an affiliate marketer you must be willing to constantly learn and embrace new forms of internet marketing. Take the time to research new trends and platforms.
Training/qualifications
None! There are no formal training or qualifications requirements to become an affiliate marketer, although it is useful to have basic knowledge of website building, an understanding of SEO, and knowledge of the products you are promoting. Self help e-books are available as are a seemingly endless list of blogs telling you how to make $50,000 a month, I can’t say for sure that they’re rubbish but if I were making that much money a month I personally wouldn’t be giving all my secrets away for free! It’s almost like they’re trying to advertise something? There are many online forums full of advice on the subject and offering detailed advice about SEO and other helpful hints and tips. YouTube is also full of videos offering free advice, and may be worth 10 minutes of your time.
One site I do recommend is Affilorama. They have tons of resources (check out the lessons section) and fantastic tools. (some of which are paid, but worth it.)
Hardware/software
The bare minimum in the way of hardware that you will need is a laptop and internet access.
Where to find work online?
There are thousands of affiliate marketing programs available online and which ones you join will be relevant to the type of site you are running, some of the most popular programs are:
www.linkshare.com
www.cj.com
www.affiliate-program.amazon.com
How much to charge?
Unfortunately, you won’t really have a say in this as the job is purely commission based, it is, however, fair to say that the more effort you put in the more likely you are to see larger profits. The work and profits are very closely connected to how much effort you’re willing to put in. If you are publishing one piece a month you are likely to find it tragically slow going, if you manage to pop off a piece every other day attracting more and more traffic to your site you’re definitely improving your chances of success!
Affiliate programs offer different rates of commission so it is important to take time to find out which are right for you. Good luck!
How well does it suit the Digital Nomad Lifestyle?
As a digital nomad travelling the world there really isn’t anything stopping you, as long as you can carry a laptop with you and pick up internet connections along the way you can work from anywhere. Affiliate marketing can take time to get going but if done with the right attitude and commitment can ultimately become a rewarding career. The one overriding benefit of affiliate marketing is that once you have a system up and running, you will be able to essentially leave it alone, lay back and enjoy the residual income!
Further reading:
Fancy creating your own products to sell?
Affiliate marketing is a lot tougher these days since half the world seems to be doing it!
Very true 🙂
Thank you. Useful article!
Good post Thomas. I’m currently doing this and it’s a pretty tough road requiring a fair amount of investment. Affiliates make their money via SEO, and it takes quite a bit of cash and effort to rank well against the big established guys out there. But it’s definitely a great option because you don’t have to worry about maintaining physical inventory!