2 affiliate marketing business models for beginners are as follows:
- Build a blog with a loyal readership and audience
- Create a review website
Pros and cons of each affiliate marketing model:
1. Build a loyal readership with a blog:
Pros
- Inexpensive
- If you succeed, you’ll have a solid foundation for an online business
- Build authority in your niche
- Become a celebrity (if you hit it big)
- Make friends
- It can be a lot of fun writing on a variety of topics you enjoy.
- If you build an audience, it’s an excellent model for building a list of subscribers.
Cons
- Takes time.
- You’ll have to write a lot of unique and interesting blog posts.
- You need to network and get social with social media (may be a plus if you like social media).
- You must be very careful about what you promote because your reputation is on the line.
- You might never build an audience.
- Not easily scalable. However, you can build a huge audience which in itself can be leveraged.
- Can be difficult coming up with a niche or topic on which you can provide unique insight.
2. Build review websites
Pros
- Inexpensive.
- Review sites is an extremely simple online business model.
- Is a proven model if done correctly.
- Earn profits relatively quickly.
- Many products to promote as an affiliate.
- Use creative selling techniques.
- Your job can be more along the lines of suggesting and directing rather than recommending
- You only need traffic, not a loyal audience.
- Scalable – once you have a system in place you can do it over and over.
- If you get creative, you can build a list of subscribers (not quite as easy to do so as with a blog designed to build a following).
- Easy to find products and a niche to get started.
Cons
- You won’t earn profits within 24 hours. You’ll need to build up your site.
- Some of the writing is tedious, but much of the information you need is readily available.
- You may have to invest money in buying products in order to get detailed.
Which affiliate marketing model is best for beginners?
It really depends on you.
For example, if you’re new to affiliate marketing and want to get some income going fairly quickly (it still won’t happen overnight), a review website is a simple model you can use to get your online business going quickly.
If you prefer to engage with a group of people and build up a following and are a more of a risk-taker, then working on building a following may be best for you.
Both affiliate marketing for beginners models can be used in the same site
It’s possible to do both models in the same site. For example, you can create a review website with a blog where you work on building an audience.
Likewise, you can start a blog where you build an audience, but include reviews of products.
What about building a list?
Even if you’re an affiliate marketing beginner, you’ve probably heard about the importance of building a list of subscribers. I believe this is true. The good thing about both models, is you can build a list.
However, if you create a review website, you’ll have to be a little more creative about it because review sites don’t necessarily build up a following. You’ll need to create an offer that appeals to the group of people who visit your site.
What have I done with affiliate marketing?
I do both models. In fact, I’ve incorporated both models in the same website. One site may be review-oriented, but I add a great deal of unique content that merely informs rather than promotes or pre-sells.
I also publish a blog that is devoted to building an audience, but on that blog I review related products and promote those products.
Again, both models worked for me, and in fact were the very models that got me started earning a nice income as an affiliate marketer.
How did I earn my first decent income online?
Pure review sites generated my first consistent income. The reason for this is once reviews start attracting traffic (and this is pretty simple to do), I started earning commissions.
Once I had consistent income, I could expand into building an audience and invest re-invest my affiliate commissions into building a list.
Therefore, my experience was to generate affiliate commissions as quickly as I could with review sites and then use that money to expand my business.
That said, I love the pure review website model and am working on launching another review site because it works. The consistent income enables me to re-invest into other long-term revenue generating activities such as building a list and expanding a readership.
How do you build profitable review sites to start your business?
There are many ways to build a profitable review site. In fact, I incorporate many techniques to pre-sell and promote products on my review websites.
Because review sites were the foundation to my affiliate marketing business, I’m excited about them. I decided to put together a guide on how to build effective review sites. It’s called the “Definitive Guide to Affiliate Review Websites.”
In my free “Definitive Guide to Affiliate Review Websites” I cover the following:
- 4 types of review sites and strategies.
- Review blueprint including tips for easily dressing up your reviews.
- Tips on how to target and attract “buyers”.
- 7 tips for choosing products and services to review.
- Tips and techniques for creating web pages other than reviews that generate sales.
- How to avoid building a “thin” affiliate site hated by the search engines.
- Access to one of my highest earning reviews and other high-earning money pages for you to check out and replicate for your site.
- Step-by-step tutorial for setting up a review site (delivered via e-mail).
I don’t stop there, because that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
When you get my free guide, you’ll also receive e-mail tutorials as well as niche and product ideas (ideas I wish I had time to promote … many of which I’ve researched and are in my view viable and exciting review site opportunities).
Read what one reader has to say about my guide:
“Hi, I just finished reading your review sites guide and I want to thank you for it. I found it very helpful because I don’t know much about setting up review sites.” – Charley C.
How do you get the Definitive Guide to Affiliate Review Websites?
Simple. Fill in the form below.
If you’re looking for affiliate marketing tips and a sound business model for beginners, then this guide should help you get started. Like I said before, it’s the very affiliate marketing model I used to start my online business when I was an affiliate marketing beginner.
Click here for more information on the “Definitive Guide to Affiliate Review Websites.“