Affiliate Disclosure: Some links in this article are affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products, services, and resources I believe may genuinely be useful.

(*taps mic and gets huge feedback)

Ahem…ok, can you hear me OK out there? Yeah? How about in the way back…we good?

OK, well listen up, because I’m about to drop some real knowledge that you likely would not be taught anywhere else (not even college).

Are you sitting down?

There is a decent chance you are already doing something like 80% of the basic behavior behind affiliate marketing.

You just aren’t getting paid for it.

Yet.

Think about it.

You buy something online. You like it. A friend asks you about it.

“Yeah, I got this one. I really like it and it works great.”

You send them the link so they can learn more about it and, if they want, buy one themselves.

Or somebody on Facebook asks what website builder you use.

You tell them.

Somebody else may want to know:

• what HVAC CRM software you use
• what HVAC company you recommend that services The Bronx and Westchester County, New York
• what online dark psychology course you took
• what “build-your-own” AI chatbot service provider you would recommend

You share your experience.

Congratulations.

You have just performed most of the intellectual heavy lifting behind affiliate marketing.

The difference is that an affiliate marketer may use a special tracking link that tells the company who referred the customer.

If somebody purchases through that link, the affiliate may earn a commission or some other reward.

That’s the basic idea.

No rented Lambo required.

No shared “content house” in LA.

No laptop dramatically positioned next to a swimming pool.

And definitely no need to put ENTREPRENEUR in your Instagram bio six minutes after receiving your first affiliate link.

Are you still with me?

Great, because we are just getting into the nitty-gritty good stuff when it comes to learning how to earn additional income online with an affiliate marketing business.

Once you learn the effective marketing solutions that can make it profitable, the really interesting part begins:

The content and affiliate links you create can keep working for you 24/7/365.

• While you’re sleeping.
• While you’re at work.
• While you’re on vacation.
• While you’re doing something considerably more entertaining than staring at an analytics dashboard.

Those online assets can still be out there attracting visitors, generating clicks, earning commissions and potentially putting a little more cash-ola (cash register ringing noise) in your pocket.

Capisce?

Welcome to the Affiliate Marketing Cave

Millions of people spend hours every day online recommending products and services for free.

They post about the things they just bought and the experiences they just had.

They answer questions in Facebook groups.

They recommend mobile apps.

They tell people where they booked a trip.

They share their favorite products on Instagram.

They tell coworkers which piece of software they use.

Then they go right back to scrolling.

It reminds me a little bit of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

Except instead of people staring at shadows on a cave wall, we’re staring at Instagram Reels and Facebook posts while advertising products and services for companies without getting paid a dime for their efforts and resources.

Then somebody turns around and says:

“Wait…companies will sometimes PAY me for referring customers?”

Yep.

Thousands of retailers, software companies, service providers, marketplaces, and online businesses operate affiliate or referral programs. 

Many are free to join or apply to, although approval requirements vary from company to company.

That means affiliate marketing can be one of the easiest ways to get your first taste of online entrepreneurship.

You don’t necessarily need to: 

• Invent a product
• Hire employees
• Stock inventory
• Rent a warehouse
• Organize the employee appreciation summer BBQ

You can start by learning how to create useful content around things you already know, use, and recommend.

But there is one gigantic catch.

You have to understand why people would want to click your link in the first place.

And that brings me to “Movie Ticket Guy”.

Do Not Become “Movie Ticket Guy”

More than ten years ago, I knew somebody who stumbled into what was essentially an affiliate or referral offer involving movie tickets.

I don’t remember the exact promotion anymore, so I’m paraphrasing, but the basic deal was something like this:

If he could get a certain number of people to purchase future movie tickets using his special referral link, he could earn free tickets to see a movie that evening.

I remember seeing his first Facebook post about this and thinking:

“Oh, cool! Buddy just discovered affiliate marketing as a way to earn simply by making a recommendation. Right on!”

He explained the deal.

He posted the link.

Fair enough.

Then he posted again less than 2 hours later.

And again maybe that same hour.

And as the deadline approached, the posts became increasingly desperate.

The message eventually felt something like:

HEY. YOU LIKE MOVIES, RIGHT? 

BUY SOME MOVIE TICKETS THROUGH MY LINK RIGHT NOW SO I CAN GET FREE MOVIE TICKETS. 

IF YOU ARE REALLY MY FRIEND YOU WILL DO THIS.

Again, I am paraphrasing.

But you get the idea, right?

By the end of the day, affiliate marketing had somehow turned into a digital hostage negotiation involving two movie tickets.

And that illustrates one of the most important lessons a new affiliate marketer can learn:

Nobody Cares About Your Commission (Or What’s In It For You)

I don’t mean that in a cold way.

I mean it in a useful way.

Your audience generally does not care that you need five more sales to win a contest.

They don’t care that you are trying to hit an affiliate bonus.

They don’t care that you want free movie tickets.

They care about one thing:

What’s in it for them?

Bad affiliate marketing says:

“Buy this (because I benefit when you buy it).”

Good affiliate marketing says:

“I used this. Here’s what I learned. Here’s who I think it could help. If you’re interested, here’s where you can find it.”

See the difference?

And conveniently, that same principle appears throughout the affiliate guidance my Web hosting provider of choice (Bluehost) provides its partners. 

Bluehost encourages its marketing affiliates to: 

• create useful “how-to” resources
• promote those resources through email
• use an authentic voice on social media rather than simply relying on banner advertisements

In other words, create something useful first by:

1. Earning the reader’s attention
2. Helping them solve a problem
3. Giving them a reason to trust your recommendation
4. Then give them the affiliate link.

Do that consistently and you’re practicing “affiliate marketing”.

Post the same link seven times before end of day because you desperately need two free movie tickets for that night?

You have become “Movie Ticket Guy”. 

Post Mortem:

Also, obviously nobody took him up on his “offer.” 

He did not get his free movie tickets that evening and, for at least one night…he felt very alone in this world.

How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing in 10 Simple Steps

You can make this enormously complicated if you want.

The internet would be delighted to sell you a 47-module course explaining why you need eleven funnels and seventeen pieces of software before you can recommend a free pre-recorded Webinar.

Or you can start simple.

Here is the basic 10-step process I would recommend for a beginner just getting started in affiliate marketing:

Step 1: Choose an audience or subject you genuinely understand.

What do people already ask you about?

What hobbies, professions, problems, products, or experiences do you know better than the average person?

Step 2: Identify products and services that genuinely fit that audience.

Search for companies you already use and trust.

Look for an “Affiliate Program,” “Partner Program,” or “Referral Program.”

Be sure to read the rules before applying.

Step 3: Create somewhere to publish useful information.

Your own website gives you a home base that you control.

If you don’t have your own website yet, read my guide, How to Start a Blog With Bluehost, where I walk through getting your own website and starting your online business from scratch.

Step 4: Create content that solves actual problems.

Tutorials, comparisons, reviews, FAQs, case studies, resource pages, videos, and personal experiences all give somebody a reason to discover your recommendation.

Step 5: Add affiliate links where they naturally make sense.

Don’t jam them into every third sentence.

Let the product become part of the solution you’re explaining.

Step 6: Build an email list.

Email gives you another way to stay connected with people who already find your information useful.

Use email newsletters and blasts to promote useful pages and resources rather than simply blasting naked affiliate links by themselves.

I personally recommend GetResponse, which I have been using for this blog’s email newsletter for many years.

Step 7: Promote your content.

Share the article, video, tutorial, or resource through the social platforms where your audience already spends time.

Step 8: Track what people actually click and buy.

Affiliate dashboards generally provide trackable links and reporting so you can learn which content and offers produce results.

Bluehost specifically instructs its affiliates to create tracking links and monitor performance through its affiliate dashboard.

Super helpful!

Step 9: Do more of what works.

Affiliate marketing becomes a business when you stop guessing and start paying attention to what your audience actually responds to.

Step 10: Have fun!

Yes, it’s a “business” that could earn you additional income.

So treat it seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously.

Be your authentic self in your content and marketing outreach.

Don’t be afraid to show your personality and have fun sharing your knowledge and experience to help other people overcome problems similar to ones you faced in the past…but eventually solved with the product or service you’re now promoting as an affiliate marketer.

That’s it.

You can add complexity later.

But for now?

Get started today in hopes of unlocking a better tomorrow.

Don’t Forget Your Affiliate Disclosure

There is one more important thing you need to know before you start sprinkling affiliate links throughout the internet like digital Parmesan cheese:

Tell people when you may earn money from their purchase.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) expects affiliate marketers and other online endorsers to clearly disclose financial relationships that could affect how somebody evaluates a recommendation.

In plain English:

If I recommend a product and may earn a commission when you purchase it through my link, I should tell you that.

You have probably noticed disclosures like this throughout TheIdeaHunters.net:

Disclosure: Paid link(s). If you choose to use the digital marketing tools I recommend, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

That is not there because I enjoy adding more words to the bottom of webpages.

It is there because transparency matters.

Your readers should know when you have a financial interest in something you are recommending.

And quite frankly?

I think that is just plain good business anyway.

Because if you genuinely believe in the product, there is no reason to hide the fact that you may get paid for referring somebody to it.

So the affiliate disclosure process looks something like:

• Make the recommendation via social media, blog post, email newsletter, etc.
• Explain why you recommend it.
• Clearly disclose the affiliate relationship somewhere your audience is likely to see it, preferably close to the recommendation or affiliate link itself.
• Then let the reader decide what to do next.

Pretty simple guidelines to follow to potentially earn some additional income online doing something you’re probably already doing anyway (i.e., recommending products and services you genuinely like and use on the regular).

Only now…you’re FINALLY getting compensated for it.

That, to me, sounds like a really good deal…would you agree?

Content First. Affiliate Link Second.

This might be the most important sentence in this entire article:

The affiliate link is not the business.

Your audience is the business.

Your content is the business.

Your credibility is the business.

Your ability to solve somebody’s problem is the business.

The affiliate link is simply a way to monetize the value you created with your content.

That is why somebody with 2,000 highly engaged followers who trust their recommendations can sometimes build a better affiliate business than somebody with 200,000 random followers.

Trust matters.

Relevance matters.

Intent matters.

A person actively searching “How to start a blog” is dramatically more valuable to a hosting affiliate than somebody randomly watching dog videos who gets ambushed with a web-hosting link.

Which is exactly why I created my own step-by-step guide to starting a blog.

If building your own website is the next logical step for you, you can read:

How to Start a Blog with Bluehost: The Ultimate How-To Guide to Start a Blog the Right Way (Step-by-Step)…and Avoid the 7 Rookie Mistakes!

And if Bluehost makes sense for what you are building, you can check out their current hosting offers by clicking here.

That is affiliate marketing working the way it is supposed to.

You searched for information.

I gave you useful information.

If a product naturally helps you accomplish what you came here to do, I show you where to find it.

…and nobody needs to threaten anybody over movie tickets. (Ohhh…too soon?)

You Probably Already Know Something You Can Monetize

This is the part people underestimate.

You don’t necessarily need to become an “influencer.”

You need to become useful.

Maybe you know:

• HVAC
• Disc golf
• Bowfishing
• Accounting 
• Haunted travels
• Air fryer cooking
• Ultramarathon training
• Cats
• Flipping houses
• How to play bass like Steve Harris from Iron Maiden
• Parenting tips
• Mens league baseball equipment
• Website tools 
• Glamping
• Demolition derbies
• Life hacks
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
• Showing people how to get started in affiliate marketing

Somewhere out there is a person who knows less about that subject than you do.

Help them.

And if there are products or services that genuinely make their life easier, see whether the companies behind those products offer an affiliate or referral program.

It’s always good practice to also add a personal element to your recommendations by explaining your experience with the product, why you use it, or why you believe it could help somebody else rather than merely presenting the link by itself.

That is how you avoid becoming another person screaming:

CLICK MY LINK!!!

into the digital void.

Can Affiliate Marketing Become Passive Income?

Eventually, as you get more content in rotation and the clickety clacketies begin collecting in the flywheel, then parts of your affiliate marketing business can become more passive.

But I don’t love the phrase “passive income” because it makes people imagine money materializing as they catch a snooze under a palm tree while on vacation at their second beach house.

Useful content helping people overcome issues with your recommended solutions takes work.

Building an audience who trusts, engages, and follows your advice takes work.

Learning what people even need takes work.

But something interesting happens after the work is published:

• A blog post you wrote six months ago can still appear in search.
• A video tutorial can continue being shared.
• An old email subscriber can discover something you recommended months earlier.
• A resource page can continue receiving visitors.
• And an affiliate link inside that useful content can potentially continue producing commissions long after you originally created it.

That is where affiliate marketing starts becoming really interesting.

You are building assets, not merely posting links.

Your First Affiliate Marketing Experiment

Here’s something you can do today.

Think about three products, tools, or services that you genuinely use and recommend.

Search the company name plus the words:

“affiliate program”

or:

“referral program.”

See what is out there.

Read the terms.

Apply to one affiliate program that makes sense for you.

Then resist the overwhelming urge to immediately post your affiliate link seventeen times and annoy everyone you went to high school with.

Instead, ask:

“What useful piece of content could I create that would naturally lead somebody to this recommendation?”

That question alone puts you ahead of a surprisingly large percentage of aspiring affiliate marketers.

Want Some Help Actually Doing This?

Reading about affiliate marketing and earning an additional income stream online with your useful content is one thing.

But actually: 

• Choosing an idea
• Starting your website
• Building your online presence
• Creating useful content
• Joining affiliate programs

And sticking with the process long enough to see what actually earns money.

That is exactly why I created the Entrepreneur 101 Bootcamp.

It’s completely FREE and designed for new and aspiring online entrepreneurs who want straightforward guidance, a little handholding, and some accountability while getting their business off the ground.

I use many of these same principles through James K. Kim Marketing, the digital marketing business I use to grow my own online properties including: 

• TheIdeaHunters.net

• JimKHVAC.com

• JamesKKimMarketing.com 

I’m not teaching this from a theoretical whiteboard.

I’m doing it alongside you.

Join the FREE Entrepreneur 101 Bootcamp now

• Learn the basics of starting your own online business in affiliate marketing (or even promoting your own products and services).
• Choose an issue you can solve.
• Build the solution.
• Publish it.
• Monetize it.
• Then improve it.

You do not need permission to become an online entrepreneur.

Sometimes you just need to turn around and realize there was a whole world outside the cave the entire time.