Start Affiliate Marketing Without Money and Website in Nigeria

To learn how to start affiliate marketing in Nigeria is very profitable as people legitimately make money online from the comfort of their homes daily.

All you’d need is a blog, your commitment, a marketing strategy, and an eye for valuable online affiliate marketing programs.

Today, you are going to learn about affiliate marketing basics, benefits, and how to get started in Nigeria.

Are you ready? Let’s get started.

Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria

Affiliate marketing is a marketing arrangement where a business pays you for every visitor or customer you get them through your marketing efforts.

You get paid every time you generate a lead or drive a sale for the business, depending upon the agreement.

In affiliate marketing, you basically have to recommend a product or service to your audience and readers using custom tracking links, and then get a referral commission every time someone makes a purchase using your link.

Affiliate marketing is a high-paying online business to learn and do in Nigeria.

With affiliate marketing, there’s no limit to how much you can make.

Becoming an affiliate marketer in Nigeria is easy.

You just need to choose a niche, register for an affiliate program, choose an offer, and start promoting it.

Difference between CPA Marketing and Affiliate Marketing

Both affiliate marketing and CPA marketing involve the same visitor-affiliate-business relationship.

However, in CPA marketing, you don’t have to make a sale to earn a commission.

The users only have to take a specific action like filling out a form, submitting an email, signing up for a free trial, downloading an eBook, creating an account, signing up for a newsletter, taking a survey, etc.

Second, in CPA marketing, the commission is mostly a flat rate, or a fixed price.

In other affiliate marketing models, you get a percentage of the conversions you drive.

For example, 10% of the purchase the customer made.

In affiliate marketing, you’re going to get paid after the potential customer actually makes a purchase.

CPA may be considered easier to affiliate marketing, but the commission is usually very low, while the affiliate marketing commission can be very high.

CPA payout is as low as $0.10, while affiliate marketing pays up to $1k as a commission on a single sale.

Most of the work done in CPA is to send leads, the work of the affiliate company is to convert the prospect into their actual buyer.

Difference between Affiliate Marketing and Network Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to a sales model that uses affiliates to increase product or service awareness using online platforms and earn a commission from sales or leads made.

Network marketing refers to a business model based on person-to-person sales by a network of distributors.

How Affiliate Marketing Works in Nigeria

Here is how affiliate marketing works in Nigeria:

For example, I want to sell a course on mini-importation for ₦30k, so I list the course on an affiliate network (program) hoping I’ll see affiliate marketer that will sell it for 40% commission agreed by me and the affiliate network.

If you being an affiliate marketer, then join this affiliate network, market the course and sell it through your link, you’ll receive ₦12k per sale (i.e., 40% of ₦30k as commission).

If you make 10 sales, you’ll get paid ₦120k (₦12k x 10).

Me, as the course creator, will receive ₦18k as payment.

From my ₦18k payment, I’ll still have to pay the affiliate network based on the agreement I had with the network earlier for making it possible to make sales.

Mind you, I can choose to create my personal affiliate program myself, and if you register for my affiliate program and market the course directly, you’ll still get your commission based on the percentage I stated on the course that you will make.

Now let’s look at all parts of a successful affiliate marketing system.

Affiliate Marketing Terminologies

Affiliate marketing works in a very simple and interesting way.

But to understand the entire process, let’s first understand a few terms associated with it.

1. Affiliates or Publishers

Bloggers, influencers, or marketers who recommend the products on affiliate platform to people using their affiliate links and when any of the person they refer buys, they get a commission.

2. Advertisers (Merchants)

They are businesses that want to promote their products by using the affiliate’s network and audience.

3. Affiliate Networks (Programs)

These are websites that bring the affiliate and the advertiser together.

Affiliates can sign up on these platforms to market physical or digital products while businesses and course creators post their offers here.

4. Visitors

They are the people to whom the affiliate promotes the products to (customers that buy) and helps them earn commissions by fulfilling the action (sales).

5. Affiliate Link

This is a unique tracking link got from your merchant or affiliate network to track the progress of your affiliate promotion.

6. Affiliate ID

Similar to the affiliate link, many affiliate programs offer a unique ID or HTML code, which you can add to any page on your site where the product is advertised.

7. CPC Affiliate Program

CPC (Cost Per Click) or PPC (Pay Per Click) Affiliate program is an affiliate model whereby you get paid based on the clicks you generate to your affiliate merchants.

8. PPL Affiliate Program

Pay Per Lead Affiliate Program is also similar to CPC, however, this time around you’ll get paid for generating leads.

These could be emails or phone numbers. Here, all your referral needs to do is simply enter their email address or phone and you’ll get paid for it.

Why is Affiliate Marketing popular?

Affiliate marketing owes its popularity to the many benefits it offers, like:

1. It’s Easy to Get Started

All you practically need to get started with affiliate marketing is a website that gets considerable traffic.

Sometimes, you can even start without a website — by promoting products through channels like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube.

To earn commissions, the main thing here is to have an audience interested in products you promote.

2. You Do Not Need to Create or Own a Product

As an affiliate marketer, you don’t need to own or create any product.

All you need to do is to join good affiliate programs, select the products to sell, get the affiliate links and market already created products that are owned by the merchants.

3. Low Risk

You don’t need a substantial monetary investment to get started as an affiliate.

As for businesses, they only have to pay when the visitor completes the action (purchase products).

Unlike the per click or per impressions model like Google AdSense, they only pay when a visitor converts.

4. Low Investment

Affiliate marketing is not only profitable for affiliates but also businesses.

Instead of spending a vast sum on their marketing efforts, business owners advertise their products through their affiliates.

The only major cost involved is the commission they pay, and that too is paid after they get the desired result.

5. Simple to Manage

This high-income skill can take time to understand how it works and get the ball rolling.

But once you’ve established yourself, affiliate marketing doesn’t require a lot of effort and is simple to manage.

6. Passive Income

You don’t need to work always before you make your income.

Affiliate marketing is like an income funnel that makes you money for a long time even while sleeping or after you’ve stopped working.

Once you have your affiliate links strategically placed on your high traffic website(s), people can visit your site and links whenever and from wherever they are, without you even being online.

If they like the product, they can easily buy it by just clicking the links.

The only difficult thing to do is to check your inbox to know whether sales have been made via your link or whether commissions have been paid. I bet that doesn’t sound difficult for you.

7. Multiple Income Source

As an affiliate marketer, you can join and work with as many affiliate programs as you want because you’re the boss of yourself.

Here, you don’t have to depend on one particular network before you get paid.

Steps to Starting Affiliate Marketing in Nigeria Fast 

This is what it takes to become a high-earning affiliate marketer in Nigeria.

1. Choose Your Niche

Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s a business you have to nurture.

You must be passionate about this business and ready to put in work.

Before even setting up your blog or marketing strategy, define your affiliate niche according to:

• Your expertise
• Your skills
• Your experience
• Your passion
• Interest on the topic
• Profitability of the niche
• Niche competition
• Availability of affiliate programs

Your niche is the market you would like to step into and the products you offer your audience.

Your niche is very fundamental to what affiliate program you want to join.

It determines what affiliate programs to focus your attention on and what you want your business to be known for.

There are multi-niche and sub-niches.

For example, a multi-niche could be SPORTS BETTING.

Here, assuming you’re a sport lover or gambler, you’ll be promoting upcoming football games, basketball games, tennis and boxing games using your affiliate links to your blog visitors or social media fans.

An example of a sub-niche is FOOTBALL BETTING.

Here, instead of promoting all sporting events, you’ll only focus on promoting football bets in any of the leagues in the world.

A multi-niche can also be TECHNOLOGY.

Here, you’ll be promoting the latest electronic gadgets such as phones, laptops, TVs etc. to your blog visitors or social media fans.

An example of a sub-niche is LATEST ANDROID PHONES.

Here, instead of promoting all technology gadgets and appliances, you’ll only focus on promoting the latest android phones to your audience (targeted customers).

Focusing on a sub-niche will help you attract leads from the people that have the tendency to buy your affiliate products, not those who will land on your website and walk away.

When you’re talking about soccer, swimming, car races, boxing and wrestling, it confuses your audience.

That will affect your turnover.

Examples of lucrative affiliate niches to consider include:

• Sports Betting
• Travel Abroad
• Study Abroad
• Make Money Online
• Weight Loss (Slim Teas, Meal Plans etc.)
• Cooking Guide and Healthy Eating
• Electronic Gadgets
• Skincare and Beauty Products
• Natural and Herbal Remedies
• Web Hosting
• Fertility Products
• General Health
• Personal Development
• Security

In affiliate marketing, choose a niche, product or service that is problem solving and many people will be interested in buying.

The health niche is very profitable to join as an affiliate because anybody, including you, will spend the last money in their purse, wallet, or bank to ensure that they get rid of any health challenge.

For security niche, you and I will spend a lot to ensure that we are secured, our family, cars, house, shops and businesses are safe.

For the health, fertility and beauty niche, a lot of women will buy a product that will help them give birth (e.g., fertility tea), eliminate diseases (e.g., ulcer treatment, arthritis pain relief), look more beautiful (e.g., bone straight wig, stretch mark remover) despite the price.

The men will also invest their money in products that will enable them to look more handsome (e.g., beard growth oil) or improve their sperm count and make them last longer in bed.

Parents will also like to purchase any product and services that will enable their kids to become intelligent, neat, healthy.

Benefits of focusing on a Niche

• To help consumers identify your business in the crowd.
• Targeting and maintaining good customer relations.
• To help establish authority in your niche.
• To help find the best affiliate marketing program that supports your niche.

2. Start a Blog

Now that you’ve done your research on your affiliate niche.

The next thing you have to do is set up a blog to promote products in your chosen niche.

Building a blog around your affiliate business makes it a recurring income.

A blog makes it possible for you to make money from the previous works you’ve done even while you’re not working again.

Building a blog is now very easy using WordPress and Namecheap.

To have your blog site up and running today, follow these few steps:

Get a Domain Name

First on your list should be getting a domain name for your affiliate business.

Your domain name is going to be the name of your website. A good example is mine (siwesbeginner.com)

Try to look for a unique name and mind you, the first name on your mind might have been taken already, so make sure you have several alternatives.

There are various places you can get a suitable domain name like Namecheap.

Here are some tips for choosing a suitable domain name:

• Pick something that defines you and your niche. It’s always a good idea to self-title or include your name. That way, readers can build a relationship with the person behind the blog.
• Make your domain name easy to spell and pronounce. Don’t use misspelled words, numbers, or hyphens in your domain name. These things will make your name a lot harder for people to remember.
• Make sure that the .com of your chosen name is available. Try to avoid endings like .net or .org because they are less common and harder to remember.
• Make your domain name related to your affiliate niche. This way people will instantly know what your blog is about. For example, spotless.com or skinmagic.com is perfect for a skincare blog, and healthyliving.com for a health blog.
• Add changing words. If the domain name you want is not available, consider changing words. For example, if skinmagic.com isn’t available to purchase for your skincare blog, you could use magicskin.com.
• If you can’t think of a catchy name for your blog, using your own full name as your domain name is always a safe bet.

Just in case you have a domain name in mind, check if it’s available below and secure it today before other affiliates do!

Buy and Set Up Hosting for Your Website

Just like a domain name is the address of your website, hosting is like the actual house your website is living.

If you don’t already have one, the best I can recommend is Namecheap.

A good hosting determines how your website is going to respond on the internet and they are also responsible for how fast your website loads.

If you must get anything right, it should be your hosting company because a bad hosting can cause downtime for your website at any moment.

WordPress Installation

After you’ve set up your web hosting with your domain name, the next thing in line is to install WordPress on your website.

The good thing is, if you’re using Namecheap, WordPress is pre-installed.

So, you won’t have to bother yourself with the installations.

3. Drive Traffic to Your Blog

Now that you’ve set up your blog, the next thing is to get significant traffic on your blog by creating problem solving content for people to read on your blog.

To be successful at affiliate marketing, you have two (2) options:

• Use free traffic from your blog and social media accounts (WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
• Run paid ads.

As a beginner without money to run paid adverts, you need to learn Search Engine Optimization and use targeted keywords in the content you create.

This takes time to take off, but you can get good organic traffic once ranking for these keywords.

Readers won’t stop by your site unless you create quality content that keeps them coming back for more.

You need to learn how to write good content for your blog.

Here are qualities of a great content:

• It is useful and has keywords in all the right places.
• It must answer a key question (or one key question and a couple of related questions).
• A great content must be unique, easy to read and understand, and includes images when necessary.

Note: Content is not necessarily just articles and text and images. Content includes videos, infographic, slideshows, podcast, webinar, etc.

I recommend choosing a consistent frequency for your articles.

You can start by adding a few posts per week and then gradually increase your frequency to daily updates.

For you, to create good content, you need to do extensive research.

You need to constantly read for other blogs similar to your niche.

But that doesn’t mean you should copy them word for word else you’ll face a penalty from Google.

You just need to gather topics, collect ideas, and get inspiration.

After that, use those ideas on your blog by adding your own unique voice, style, and flavor to it.

Assuming you’re in the SKINCARE NICHE, you can write a detailed article on “7 Best Creams for Stretch Mark Removal in Nigeria”.

Assuming you’re in the ANDROID PHONE NICHE, you can write a detailed article on “10 Best Android Phones under ₦100k to Buy in Nigeria”.

If you want to get quality articles written and delivered to you, I recommend HIREWRITERS.COM

You can get your article written with as low as 3–5 dollars.

4. Find an Offer and Join Affiliate Programs

Once your website gets good traffic, you should now search for affiliate programs you can sign up for and get your custom links.

When you find a suitable offer, check whether it’s available for your country and traffic type.

Check out the product or company’s landing page — make sure it looks neat, presentable, and attractive. Don’t take up offers that look shady.

After you find an offer you like, join the network where it is posted.

For this, you’ll need to fill out application forms.

Choosing the right program will make your affiliate marketing career worth your while.

Keep in mind the relationship between your niche and the affiliate program, the type of merchants and their offerings, the marketability of their products and services, and how valuable their commission is.

Once you get accepted into the network, you can promote the offer on your website.

Ensure you insert your affiliate links at the right place in your content that can generate clicks and sales.

Market the product in a way that doesn’t look very sales and doesn’t put off your audience.

To succeed in affiliate marketing, ensure that your niche, content and products apply to your target audience.

5. Start Building an Email List

The biggest mistake many new and existing affiliates make is they don’t start building an email list from day one.

Most people will visit your blog once and never return, because they already have somewhere else they get information on the type of content you’re offering.

The only way to get them back is to prompt them to sign up for your newsletter.

And every time they get an email from you on a new post, they’ll click to read, and overtime, come to trust your blog enough to visit it directly.

If you don’t build a mailing list from day one, your chances of becoming a successful affiliate marketer would be slim, because all your marketing expenditure could go down the drain when Facebook ads or pages, Google SEO, or any other marketing platform either goes down or blacklists you.

A great tool you can use to collect and send emails to your newsletter subscribers, manage your marketing campaigns and keep track of your leads is GetResponse.

GetResponse empowers businesses to do what they do better, because solutions are made for customers whose needs are as diverse and multifaceted.

You can use GetResponse FREE plan to get started today. 

And when you’re ready to take your affiliate business and marketing to a new level, upgrade to one of the premium plans.

I equally use them, and their service is outstanding.

6. Promote Your Blog and Grow Your Audience

Promoting your blog is essential if you want to develop an audience and, eventually, monetize it to earn money.

Some are easy to set up and do, while others require a little more investment of your time (and maybe your money.)

These are ways you can use to promote your blog:

• Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.)
• Guest Posting
• Paid advertising
• Sending emails to subscribers

If your visitors, readers and fans notice that you’re only interested in their money without providing answers to their problems, they will leave you behind and move to someone that really wants to help them.

If you run a sport betting blog and use it to promote Bet9ja, 1xBet and BetKing, it’s expectable that you’d generate a lot of sales and commissions.

Similarly, if you run a phone blog and monetize it by marketing good and affordable android phones, you stand the chance to make a lot of money because you’re promoting products that your visitors will most likely be interested in.

To make good money by promoting digital or physical products, you need to run a blog that will attract people who will most likely be interested in buying such products.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both businesses and affiliates.

The former gets to increase their profits by cutting down on marketing costs and getting sales, while the latter gets commissions when their visitors make purchases through their unique affiliate link.

Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative source of passive income, provided you understand the basics well, get started the right way, create quality (problem solving) content on your blog and social media accounts to attract interested customers that are likely to purchase the products you recommend.

Many product companies, such as fashion, web-hosting, etc., usually run affiliate programs.

You can simply sign up for their program, get your unique tracking link, write reviews about their products or any other marketable content, then strategically input your custom link in the post.

You will get paid once anyone visits their website from yours and makes a purchase using your link.

I wish you success as you learn and start affiliate marketing in Nigeria.