How to Start Affiliate Marketing Business (the right way)

You have heard about affiliate marketing but you don’t know what exactly it is, or maybe you have the idea but you don’t know how to start making money from it.

In this blog post, I will be explaining in detail what it means and how you can start the right way.

Although there are many ways to make money online today, affiliate marketing is a faster and stress-free way to start cashing out if done well.

But before I start showing you the guide, let me remind you what affiliate marketing is.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a type of strategic business based on performance where you are paid a specific percentage for each visitor or customer brought to a business.

Do not confuse this for referral marketing, Affiliate marketing is based on the motivation to make money but referral marketing has to do with trust from the customer.

Because of its low profile in comparison to search engines, emails, and site syndication, advertisers often overlook affiliate marketing, but it plays a very important role in e-commerce today.

In today’s world of e-commerce, companies prefer the use of affiliates to advertise their products because they pay no fee for adverts unless a purchase is made.

How Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria Works

Let’s say you’re an affiliate marketer with Jumia (we’ll talk about the best affiliate marketing program in subsequent posts). If you wish to market a product and get paid, the process is pretty much easy.

After getting your affiliate account you’d be given an affiliate link for recognition purposes. With this in place, anyone who buys a product using your link earns you a commission.

The commission you get is dependent on the popularity of the product, the more popular a product is the lower the commission, and if the product is less popular, the commission would be higher.

The percentage of the commission of the various products provided by the merchant is usually specified. So if you want to earn more you should go for products with a high commission rate.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, we have;

• Pay per click: You gain commission for each visitor or customer who visits the site through your affiliate link.
• Pay per sale: In this form, you are paid for each item purchased using your affiliate link.
• Pay per lead: You get paid when a visitor using your affiliate link visits a site and fills up the contact form. This is like a pay-per-click in which the customer doesn’t need to purchase anything.

Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

• About 95% of affiliate marketing programs are free to join
• No loss or shortage
• Portability! You can work from any location
• Little to no experience in marketing is required

Having that in mind, let go to how you can really make money with affiliate marketing programs in Nigeria

Step-by-Step Guide to Start Affiliate Marketing In Nigeria

If you want to start this form of marketing in Nigeria, follow the steps below;

1. Pick a specific Niche

Before getting into affiliate marketing you have to define your niche.

Your niche should be an area in which you’re well versed. It makes it easier to market products you have good knowledge of.

Choosing a specific area to focus on will make you target a specified audience which will increase your conversions, instead of promoting to a wide public.

Some niches have their sub-niche which you can also choose from. In fashion, we may have sub-niches like make-up, skincare, etc. You can choose to focus on sub-niches too.

Why is picking a niche important?

It’s pretty much easier to market a product to a specific group, this is because your audience is interested in your products, and this will be much easier for them to patronize you since they’ve got interest in what you’re marketing.

This is the most important step to carry out before starting an affiliate marketing in Nigeria.

2. Create a Blog or Social Media Account

This is one of the steps to take when you wish to start Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria.

The reason for owning a blog or social media account is that it’s the easiest way to advertise your products as an affiliate marketer.

How is this possible?

As a blog owner, you have the ability to post banners and links to your products, whenever someone visits your site, the person may see your banners, if interested, they make the purchase and you earn your commission, and that’s very convenient.

The same applies to social media users but in this case, a website or blog is more advisable.

Getting any of these is pretty easy these days, this is why I’m advising you to own a blog or social media account before moving to the next step.

3. Register for an Affiliate Program

With the two points mentioned above, you can now register for an affiliate program and start making money.

There are numerous platforms that you can join when starting an affiliate in Nigeria.

But before you join any affiliate program you have to consider some things that should convince you that such an affiliate program is legit and high-paying.

The essence is to run away from being scammed by hungry Ad networks or income program owners in Nigeria.

What to Consider Before Starting Affiliate Marketing

• The Company’s Reputation – The reputable nature of the company will make it easier to get customers to buy. Is their payment option as prompt as possible?

You can find out about a company’s reputation by asking those who’ve used them, reviews, and personal research.

• Payments Options – What is the minimum withdrawal balance? How fast are their payments? What’s the commission percentage?

You should know all these. The commission percentage for various products should be known, because the higher the percentage, the higher you earn.

The minimum withdrawal balance should be okay with you, Most companies offer a minimum of N5000, and some offer lesser amounts, whichever suits you, the choice is yours to make.

Remember that PayPal payment gateway isn’t reliable but most affiliate programs make sure of it.

I will advise you to choose a program that pays directly to your local bank account.

• Available Promotion Options – As said earlier, a social media account, a blog or a website simplifies the processes you can make sales out of the affiliate marketing business.

Your objective when trying to start an affiliate marketing business in Nigeria is to check if these options are available. Some may offer all, others will give you fewer options.

Some companies will prefer online while some may be against it.

• Sales Support – In a situation where a customer complains about a product, or delay in delivery, who do you as an affiliate marketer turn to?

Sale support! As an aspiring affiliate marketer in Nigeria, you need to check if this is supported by the company you choose to work with.

After taking these things into consideration and you’re convinced enough to start, don’t hesitate again.

As a tip, the following should be supported; the ability to use social media accounts or blogs for marketing, and the ability to market online since the world is a global village.

With this in place, you can begin making money as an affiliate marketer in Nigeria.

4. Start Promoting!

After achieving all the above, it’s high time you start promoting, you can do it with either your social media account, blog, website, or whatever means are provided in the contract agreement.

Here are a few ways you can promote your affiliate links or products in Nigeria and anywhere you may be:

• Blogging: This is a super method to promote your affiliate links or products as mentioned earlier. Write reviews about the affiliate products and optimize them for SEO, for them to rank higher on search engines.
• Social Media Marketing: You can share the link to your affiliate products directly on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

But I recommend Facebook and Instagram. In fact, Instagram is a very sure way to make money online through affiliate marketing.

• Email Marketing: You can as well get active Email addresses related to the products you’re affiliated with.

The main option here is to create a highly attractive title for the Email’s subject, an attractive body of content, and a good CTA for the recipient to patronize the products you’re promoting.

• Recommendation: Apart from these methods of promotion aligned above, you can recommend the products to your friends, family, and anybody who might be interested.

Guide those who are convinced enough to buy from your affiliate link(s) and tell them to tell more people like them.

UPDATED: Check here for the Best Affiliate programs in Nigeria

Rounding OFF – Starting Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria

Starting an affiliate marketing in Nigeria is a lot easier and you too can start. It’s one of the best ways to make money online.

You have nothing to lose in the business, all you have to do is to sign up and promote the affiliated products.

There are many Nigerians who are currently cashing out monthly on some of these affiliate programs available in the country.

It’s very convenient as you can earn while asleep.  

In my next article, I’m going to discuss about top 10 affiliate programs for Nigerians.

Before then, please don’t forget to comment below and share this interesting article with your friends on social media who might be interested in starting an affiliate marketing in Nigeria.