Affiliate Marketing On YouTube: Beginner Tips To Make Money

Have you ever heard about affiliate marketing on YouTube? I’m sure you did. YouTube has been recognized as the bottomless well of income and this marketing is one of the most common methods for YouTuber to earn extra income. 

It’s no surprise that you want to affiliate your channel. Our job is to show you how to begin the process in the most effective and successful way. We shouldn’t waste no more time, let’s dive in!

What is Youtube Affiliate Marketing?

What is so special about marketing on YouTube and does it work out for all YouTubers?

Just in case you don’t know, according to scientific research, YouTube videos are currently dominating the world of marketing where a product has a very high chance of being noticed and responded to. 

The diverse and enormous audience that the platform has will connect more people from the internet through Bing and Google – the two most popular search engines. 

Therefore, instead of promoting products in your blogs or on other social platforms, it’s way better to introduce them on your YouTube videos directly. This method is called YouTube affiliates marketing. 

It is when the brands or the businesses you’re working with reward one or more affiliates for each visitor or consumers brought when they use your video description links.

But can all YouTubers do affiliate marketing to earn money? Yes! Everyone can if they’re determined about what they’re doing. Determination is critical since life never leads you to a straight and easy-going path. You will have to keep striking obstacles and hardship to grow yourself and get wiser. Therefore, be confident and consistent on your project if you want to become a successful influencer. 

Now, let’s get to know more about the steps to kick start your affiliate program!

How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing On YouTube?

Step 1. Understand the potential of your YouTube channel

Indeed, everyone can try to enter into the affiliate program; however, you have to understand your channel’s current position. You won’t want to start cooperating with a brand when your views and followers are not significant. After all, the money you get from the affiliate program depends on the number of times visitors click on the links in the descriptions. 

Besides, no brand would agree to work with a YouTuber who has no unique video content and shows no channel development.

So what should you do now? 

The first thing you have to do is setting up a plan for your channel. Listing out all the details and steps to develop your videos.

Then, continue to create video content that is associated or has a certain connection to the affiliate products. Depending on the type of items, creating videos contents can vary from product reviews to how-to-guides, unboxing, gear list, etc.

For example, if your channel is more about makeup, you can go for the product review or how-to guides content like Michelle Phan or Denitslava Makeup. On the flip side, when your video is mostly about vlogging, you can drive your content to the unboxing ideas.

Step 2. Know the tips to grow views

How can the beginners grow their channel views and followers? Here are the tips.

You have to create as much traffic as possible for viewers to watch your video. To achieve this, affiliate marketers often use End Screen and Cards. When viewers click on the Cards or End Screen, they can direct the target audience to their other videos, increasing the number of visitors.

Despite using the tools above, you can engage more audiences by creating an attractive YouTube banner. It’s the first thing viewers see when they click on your channel which will act as a visual dynamic. Invest more of your time on designing the cover and you will get the result you want.

YouTubers can also add more target keywords in video descriptions and arrange a playlist to encourage viewers watching their other videos.

In our opinion, the key to earn followers is consistently releasing videos on a schedule. You won’t want your followers to lose their interest while waiting for other videos.

Step 3. Research and pick out the suitable niche

Here comes the critical part. Most YouTubers often fail at following affiliate marketing plans because they choose the unsuitable content for their channel’s market. 

The content you’re going to invest your days and nights in must be something you’re passionate about. Don’t just create videos to attach affiliate links and earn money. This way of thinking will totally ruin your intentions of creating YouTube in the long term. After some time, followers will lose interest in your content since it’s nothing but just a product-mentioning video.

Our advice for you is to choose something compatible with your character and habits. If you like discovering and exploring nature, you’ll have a high chance of associating with brands that sell rope, hiking bags, must-have accessories for diving, etc.

Step 4. Decide the affiliate networks

Yes! Choosing your partner (in crime) is essential as well. But don’t go around and choose randomly among your favorite brands. You have to consider at least 4 factors while choosing your affiliate partners.

The first factor lies in its products. Having a certain knowledge about the brands and its outcomes will determine your duration of cooperation. Imagine you’re a travel Youtuber. Would you cooperate with a makeup brand and promote eyeliner while hiking on the mountain? Absolutely no! It sounds so ridiculous, right?

Next is the requirement to join in. You wouldn’t want to work with unprofessional brands where there are even no proof documents of the cooperation. The same goes with brands demanding too much unnecessary information and requirements.

The number of merchants is the third factor.  Don’t go for too many goods at one time. The amount of items that you promote must be relevant.

Last but not least, it is timely payouts or affiliate commission. Note the date, time and bills for the payment. 

There are plenty of options for you to decide out there, but by far the most common one to get started with is the Amazon Associate program. 

Since Amazon has various goods and brands, content creators can choose the most applicable for their YouTube channel without worrying if the products are different from their niche. 

In your videos, you only have to review each of the items and select your most favorite. After that, input the link below the descriptions, and you’re set!

Apart from the Amazon program, you can look for more affiliate programs here.

Step 5. Add the affiliate links

You must have understood which is the best position to input affiliate links by now. Exactly! On the descriptions of videos!

Along with other Facebook, Instagram links and email, you can add these affiliate links in the last or on the top of the description. Besides, it’s better to add several emojis or dash before and after this section.

Step 6. Promote the products to viewers

As we’ve mentioned above, promoting products has many forms, including review, how-to-use guides, unboxing, tutorials, etc. Your job is to choose the suitable marketing strategy for your YouTube channel.

We believe comparing two or more goods and teaching people how to use them is the type of content that will gain lots of views. There are so many unique products on the market and newly releasing goods. You’ll never run out of ideas and content while reviewing things.

On the other hand, working with other influencers who promote the same brand seems like a fantastic idea! In doing so, you can enhance your virtual social status and expand your networking. 

Before promoting products to viewers, keep in mind that your thumbnails, title and headlines must contain keywords and well-designed to attract audiences. Without those three factors, you won’t even earn a click from the viewer.

Step 7. Consider the commission rate for affiliate marketing program

When someone clicks on the affiliate links and buys the products, you will earn a commission. Undoubtedly, there are many YouTube content creators revolving around its ability to harvest successful affiliate commissions.

An average commission for an affiliate marketing program can be varied from 5%-30%. This rate is significantly affected by the industry, the price of product, the company’s value in affiliate marketing, and so on.

For example, health is the industry with high commission up to 50%, namely Market Health and Sell Health. But keep in mind, heath is a severe category that not everyone can cope with for their channels. That’s the reason why most YouTubers choose to affiliate for smartphones or electronic devices, which have lower commissions of up to 7% only.

It would be best if you also consider your audience factor while deciding the commission rate for yourself. So the question you have to put in mind is: Would you rather receive high commission rates on cheap items or low commission rates on expensive products? 

Either of the choices, go for the one that you think your audience will actively respond to.

4 Mistakes Every Affiliate Marketer Should Avoid

Promote too many products

Don’t be too greedy or overconfident that you can promote all the products equally. Not only you, but your audience will soon grow tired of non-stop marketing in your video content.

You should focus on the products that you’re really interested in. Promoting too many products at the same time will make you look like bragging on how great the products are without understanding their functions and features.

Ignore the audience’s needs

We know how tempting it is to have a product that can be sold easily and quickly, not to mention its great commission. But if the product is not compatible with most of your audience, we recommend not affiliating it. 

The audience loves watching your video because they can find joy and useful information in your content. Do not go for the money option and neglect your followers.

Neglect to boost SEO

Keywords must be listed in the title, headlines and description to maintain visitors’ numbers through search engines. Your video might remain undiscovered if your SEO for video is poorly done.

As a result, no matter how many or what type of videos you create, your affiliate links won’t be worth a click from viewers.

Spam viewers with affiliate links

Listen to us! 2-3 affiliate links are enough per video. You don’t have to make your viewers feel like they’re swamped in spam while clicking on your descriptions. Too many links will tangle the audiences, resulting in a wrong impression of your YouTube channel.

You won’t want it to happen, so before imputing the fourth link on your description, rethink first!

The Bottom Line

Joining the affiliate marketing on YouTube is undoubtedly a reason to earn extra income. But don’t lose yourself and your purpose of making YouTube while chasing after money. Overall, your goal is to experience, to discover your potential, to know and get in touch with different types of people and have fun with them.

After reading this article, we hope you will successfully affiliate your channel and develop yourself to become a more powerful YouTuber!