The True Role of an Affiliate Marketer is not what you think.

ft you want to become a successful affiliate marketer and expect to make money online then a change of plan is needed along with the way you think and do.

This is mainly intended for newbies getting into affiliate marketing so you can learn and understand what is really involved and the best way to go about it with what you have here in Wealthy Affiliate.

Yet I have noticed there are still some people still struggling in making sales and or commissions for the products or services relating to their niche.

Why?

Because some of you are going around it the wrong way, despite all the answers you have been given constantly along the way and still you haven’t changed your way of thinking.

I will explain this part further below.

Let’s get this out once and for all!

Affiliate Marketing is not a get-rich-quick way to make money if you are not prepared to learn the right way here then this is not for you.

Warning to the get-rich-quick mindset people

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I do not apologize here for those types as I won’t pussy foot about here.

This is for the lazy ones looking for quick money, and fast success with little to do or no effort on their part.

If you are just chasing money and don’t want to change the way you go about it, forget it.

If you are looking for that shiny object syndrome, it is a fake fantasy it doesn’t exist despite what you hear online plus you won’t find it here.

Should you continue to just think about money and not be ready to learn the right way then you deserve to fail it is your fault and no one else.

It takes time, lots of commitment, and definitely lots of patience.

If you are not prepared to make the effort and not willing to learn and apply what you are taught, then be prepared to fail.

Better still you might as well leave and not waste any more time.

If you are ready to learn and make the commitment then welcome.

Affiliate Marketing and Your Role as an Affiliate Marketer.

Affiliate Marketing in a nutshell,.

Affiliate marketing is basically about promoting a product or service on your website.

When a confirmed sale is made you will get a commission from the affiliate program you have joined via your affiliate link your reader clicks.

That part is the true concept regarding affiliate marketing and how a commission is made.

However, this post is about you as an affiliate marketer.

The role you play involves more than you may realize and is not as simple as the concept of what affiliate marketing is.

Even before you even get to the stage of making a commission as an affiliate there is work to do.

Affiliate marketing is increasing each year and the opportunities to do well online can bring some awesome results for your online business and yourself financially.

You can do this as a side hustle, preparing for retirement or during retirement, for some, even becoming a full-time affiliate.

You have that opportunity here at Wealthy Affiliate where you learn to be the boss for a change and make your own income.

Now as I said being affiliate marketing can indeed be a rewarding opportunity to be successful and have your own online business.

Yes, doing affiliate marketing and making money is one thing but the way you go about it is vital which can determine your success or failure.

Sure, you want to make money and have a thriving business online for whatever reasons you may have.

Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, well most of you anyway.

But you may be heading the wrong way if you are just thinking about making money.

If so, your plan of action needs to change along with the way you look at money and what you do online with your website.

Your Role as an Affiliate Marketer.

It is not what you think but more of what and how you approach your website that will bring in the rewards you originally wanted to find.

I will explain certain points along the way and why.

Let’s start with point 1.

Point 1: Treat it as a business.

If you are looking to have a hobby or passion you wish to share online then great, you can blog about it till the cows come home and there is nothing wrong with that.

But if you want to earn an income with the same hobby or passion then you must treat it as a business and not a random pastime.

There is a difference.

There are many people interested in what you do and would love to learn more and even find new ways and ideas to how to be better just like you.

So, if you are serious then always treat it as a business and when you take the correct approach which will be discussed below along the way always put your business cap on and treat it as such.

Point 2: Stop Chasing Money When Starting Out!!!

So now you might be saying, yeah but that is why I am here to learn how to make money online with a website!

Of course, you want to make money but your attitude to money needs to be changed first if you want to become successful online.

Being successful as an affiliate marketer should not be focused on money.

Making money online falls under the concept of affiliate marketing I gave you above but you are not the concept but the affiliate marketer.

Earning money comes from the end result of your actions when building your online business and continues with the same process as you keep creating content based on your niche.

Any business, even a brick-and-mortar business, is not expecting money to arrive first.

What is needed in any business, be it offline or online is customers,

In your case, readers coming to your website, who will become regular followers will continue to visit your site to learn more along with new visitors as you build your online business.

To do that there are certain steps that needs to be taken first along with hard work and effort, along with having a positive mind frame.

Money is and always will be the end result of the efforts you put int not the other way around.

It is not the beginning to the end but doing it wrong will be the end to your beginning.

Again, stop chasing money when starting out in fact, at any time of your online journey.

If you want to learn to be successful and prepared to do the work as stated above along with the training, tools, and resources Wealthy Affiliate provides, that is great you are on to a good thing.

Happy to see you here and you are most welcome.

Also note:

Just realize no matter how great the training, the tools, and resources can be, no matter how much help and support you get here from your fellow community members.

If you are not prepared to put in the work needed it will do you no good.

If you fail don’t blame the system or anyone else. Time to start taking responsibility for your own actions or lack of action with why you failed and own up to it.

For the other awesome people

One of our wonderful and awesome members here has a saying that relates to what is stated in this blog.

It comes from none other than our Cassi of Troy with three simple words that is.

“Change your Script”

If you started out thinking about money then you need to change your script and start learning how to do this properly in order to seek the success you are looking for.

Perhaps you tried before but are willing to get back on your feet and ready to learn from your failures or mistakes.

If so congrats as it shows you are willing to do what it takes to be an affiliate marketer. And doing so is one step closer to reaching and even going beyond the goals you set.

Now the first part of changing your script has already been stated above in stop chasing money next is the second part.

I am not going to talk about your niche as you should already have done that at the beginning of your training regardless of how long you have been here.

Point 3: Helping Not Selling

This is the game maker or game breaker.

You are not the salesperson, if the product or service is that good and does what your readers want it will sell for itself.

Your role, which is the true role of an affiliate marketer is to be the helper not the seller.

People don’t like to be sold to, they want advice, guidance and helpful support to help them understand more on what they are seeking.

Your readers want to know what is best for them and if you provide useful, relevant and unique content you will gain not only their trust but also gain regular followers.

One that will benefit you down the track so how can you gain followers when you are ready to join affiliate programs which is the next point.

Your role is to help them find what they are looking for that will benefit them not you.

In other words what is best for them not for you.

Why?

This has been said many times but one you need to accept.

They don’t really care about you but care about what is best for them.

They don’t care if you are a newbie or one that has done this for years, they just want the information they need that will make them happy.

Your part is to do just that, by giving what they are looking for in a helpful way so you can gain their trust, and be able as best as you can to show your authority, expertise, and even experience.

Don’t worry if you don’t have it all at the beginning stage you will gain that with the training you here as you grow along the way.

Plus, you also have added help with Google’s helpful content guidelines to understand more which is below.

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2022/08/helpful-content-update

While you are there take time to read other guidelines that Google has to share to help you further understand what they are looking for with your website and your role as the affiliate marketer.

There is much to learn and much to gain from there alone.

One that will not only benefit you as the content creator but will help benefit your readers if you follow the advice they give.

In the end, it is always about that old saying “Customers always come first”.

That is what it always is and has been about helping and not selling to your readers.

You will be providing useful, relevant, and helpful content to address what your readers are looking for

It is all about helping and not selling.

Point 4: Information content with no selling intent.

The first and most important way especially when first starting out is to create content (at least around the 20-30 postmark) that is based on your chosen niche that has no selling intent and is informational only.

That means no affiliate links of any kind.

There are many readers who are not ready to buy but want further information on what they are seeking and looking for, this is your information content.

Why no affiliate links:

There is a simple answer to this when first starting to create your website and the content within.

The answer is you have no following so how can you promote a product or service with an affiliate link if you have no one following you let alone finding you online?

If you want to do affiliate marketing then you need to gain followers and the best way and also what Google will love you for is to create content with no selling intent at the start just posts that is helping your readers instead.

Yes I know you may feel but I may miss on a sale if I am only writing informational content.

Remember this:

If you don’t have any followers and are not ranking high in the search engines with the aim on page 1 of Google then no one knows you even exist so you are not missing out.

Always focus on creating informational content first, gain a following and as you build out and expand on your website with more useful content you will gain a decent amount of monthly followers.

When you have followers then think about finding affiliate programs to join.

Besides these days most affiliate programs you want to be part of will inspect your website first and find out how many followers you have.

They want marketers that a a fit for their products and services not just anyone who has no value for them.

Another reason why you need to provide useful and relevant informational posts first as this will show more knowledge, expertise, and experience and gradually gain more authority not just for your readers but gain more trust with the programs you wish to be part of.

In my personal opinion and I know many others share this.

The training part in the first level on getting affiliate links is far too early for a beginner and should be in level 2 at least along with where creating content is as they go hand in hand together.

Hopefully with the overhaul of the core training Kyle mentioned this will change for the better.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/change-is-coming-to-wa-our-most-ambitious-yet

Remember you are building a long-term business online and it does take time.

How long?

Well that depends on how much work and effort you make and, in the beginning, stage, can take some time.

You don’t need to slave over the computer day in, day out 24/7.

Be smart about it, take breaks when you need to, use a timer, and do small 20 to 30-minute portions, you do have a life so don’t make your life slaving over it otherwise you might as well just have a 9-5 job and slave for your boss instead.

There are many posts here along with many pieces of training available to you along with some amazing guidance from fellow members one such member is Partha, and gives his all, more than he should but he has a golden heart and wants to help his fellow members do well.

Here is some tough love

I will give you his username https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/parthab but you can do the work and look up his blog posts as there are too many to mention.

While you are at it take some time to look around the WA platform and see what is available to learn more.

Treat this as your introduction to research to learn the right way.

Understanding what the platform has will help you learn more down the track when you need it most.

Of course, you can ask the community questions about where to find things but if you actually take the time yourself you learn more by doing than just asking.

This will serve you well as you can then know what and where something is available to you and how to find it when you need it later

Of cours,e for starter members some parts are locked until you upgrade then again if you are serious, upgrading is your best option to learn properly along with unlocking all the added training, tools, and resources you have.

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There is much more that can be covered but for now, this will do.

Perhaps there will be another time for more.

So to sum it up:

This is not a quick-fix way to make money online,

Affiliate marketing is a long-term commitment so if you want to succeed then treat it as a business.

Change your attitude to making money online by stop chasing the money first.

Your role as an affiliate marketer is be be the helper not the seller.

The best way to gain followers is to create informational content based on the help and with no selling intent at the start.

As you continue to build your site you will gain not only the trust of your readers but as you follow and apply the guidelines Google has to share will also gain Google's trust that will give you a greater opportunity to rank on page one.

Of course, learning more within the training modules relating to SEO, and understanding how and when to use keywords properly along with the many other features you have available here within Wealthy Affiliate will help you further.

The best way to approach this when first starting out is to create informational content aimed a helping and not selling in order to build up a following.

The body of affiliate marketing is about promoting products or services but the heart of the affiliate marketer (you) is about providing value to your audience.

Don’t go chasing after affiliate programs at the start.

You need to build up a following first plus that is what various affiliate programs will want to see and what your website is about that will benefit them before accepting you in their program.

Google will also want to see based on the guidelines they provide and doing so will increase your opportunities to rank high in the search engines so people can find you.

Always remember, the true aspect of affiliate marketing lies in helping your readers to make informed decisions, when you as the affiliate marketer, sales will naturally follow.

Money is the end result.