Now obviously I’ll have to get into more detail about it and I most definitely will, but if for some other-worldly reason you only had time to read one paragraph of this post, the takeaway about cracking the affiliate marketing code is this: market and sell things that people are already buying and do so by discussing and exploring things which form a natural part of your own life.

What is affiliate marketing?

I’m only briefly touching on what affiliate marketing is because quite frankly I believe anyone with an interest in reading further about this topic would at least know how it works. I mean you wouldn’t click to read a full blog post about cracking the code if you didn’t know that affiliate marketing is basically just earning money selling products and services as an affiliate, which means you earn commission on the sales of products and services you don’t own yourself.

Stuff people are already buying

Prospective affiliates complicate the game they’re enticed into playing by the prospect of discovering some high-converting new product that has only recently been introduced to the market and so they make the fundamental mistake of trying to market and sell products which appear to be groundbreaking and pioneering. Don’t do it man!

If you want to make money as an affiliate you’ll need to focus your marketing on trying to sell products and services which people already buy. This means that you’re going after an existing market, after which decision all you really need to do is try to get them to buy what they’re already interested in buying from you so that you can earn the affiliate commissions.

It’s a no-brainer – if your neighbors all buy four pairs of socks every single year, why not have them buy those socks through you? What this implies is that since most affiliate marketing happens online, you’ll need to become neighborly and create content which compels people to want to reward you for your efforts by simply completing their purchases with your affiliate links!

What’s passion got to do with it?

Most of the affiliate marketing content you’ll find online by way of advice will tend to push you in the direction of trying to monetize your passion. “Create a blog about a topic you truly love,” they’ll say “and then embed affiliate links in the content you’ll never be short on motivation to create since it is indeed your passion you’re discussing.”

Don’t! Unless of course you want your passion to turn into s a source of pain for you when things aren’t going too well and the sales are not rolling in.

What you need to focus on by way of your niche are elements of your life which you’re already investing your time and money into, such as the products you use, the services you use on a daily basis and even what you do for fun. Next, think about the challenges you encounter trying to complete these daily tasks you engage in and find ways to solve them through products and services which can be sold by affiliates – affiliates such as yourself.

Trust me, you’ll be well on your way to true affiliate marketing success if you take this approach.