So you’ve picked your niche, set up your website, and figured out which affiliate programs you want to work with. The next step is simple, right? Just grab some links and plaster them all over your site? If only it were that easy. The hard truth is that building an audience—and getting them to trust you enough to buy something—takes time. This is where the real work begins: filling your website with genuinely great content.
At its core, affiliate marketing is a simple idea: a business rewards you for sending them a new customer. It’s a performance-based model that has become a cornerstone of the modern . But long before the internet, this concept existed in a much simpler form.
Looking out my hotel window at Times Square, I can see the city is taking a breather this morning. It’s Monday, February 20th, and the usual stream of yellow cabs is just a trickle. The streets below are quiet. With U.S. markets closed for the holiday, the usual financial buzz is on pause, even as the rest of the world keeps trading.
It’s pretty simple: people who already know you are far more likely to buy something from you than a total stranger. This holds true for your social media audience. Every day, they’re bombarded with messages from people they don’t know, connect with, or care about, and they’ve gotten really good at ignoring the noise. They don’t have time to figure out why your product is worth their attention. That’s not their job—it’s yours.