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YouTube Affiliate Marketing Guide | 6 Steps To Earn Commissions By Promoting Products With Videos

March 29, 2024

1. Choose a YouTube affiliate marketing niche

The first step when starting YouTube affiliate marketing is to choose a niche. Choosing a niche is essential to your success as a YouTube affiliate because it allows you to specify your target audience, create relevant content for them, and promote the right products that they are most likely to buy. The make money online niche is the best niche for YouTube affiliate marketing because it’s one of the highest paying niches and it consistently has immense search volume. 

make money online niche search volume youtube

According to data from YouTube tool suite Tubebuddy, the most profitable YouTube niches are:

  • Make money online
  • Digital marketing
  • Personal finance
  • Education
  • Tech, cars, and gadgets

Although these niches offer the highest income potential, they are not the only niches you should consider. One affiliate marketer on Reddit suggests choosing a niche that you're passionate about because it's more likely that you'll follow through on your channel idea if you're interested in the topic. Additionally, the niche should be trendy because it's easier to attract views and subscribers. 

youtube affiliate marketing niche tips reddit

2. Create a YouTube channel

Once you know which niche you want to publish affiliate content for, create a YouTube channel with a relevant channel name. You can either create a personal YouTube channel that displays your own name and profile picture or create a branded YouTube account if you want to use a different name from your Google account. For example, Greg Gottfried and Isabella Kotsias are two affiliates making content around the online business niche. Greg Gottfried operates his business under a personal channel, while Isabella Kotsias uses a branded YouTube account called Baddie In Business. 

personal vs branded youtube account online business niche example

3. Sign up for affiliate programs 

To make money with YouTube affiliate marketing, you need to sign up for affiliate programs. Affiliate programs, such as Commission Junction, provide you with affiliate links that you can use to promote an affiliate product. An affiliate link is a custom URL that a brand uses to track your performance in promoting their product so they can compensate you for your marketing work. Affiliate marketing platform Authority Hacker created a list of the best affiliate marketing programs for YouTube based on factors like commission rate and cookie duration. The best affiliate programs for YouTubers are:

  • Amazon Associate (Amazon affiliate program)
  • eBay Partner Network
  • Etsy Affiliate Program
  • Shopify Affiliate Program
  • Clickbank
  • ShopStyle
  • ShareASale
  • RewardStyle
  • MaxBounty

Make sure to enroll in affiliate programs that are relevant for your niche so that you can naturally promote products in your content that your audience will be interested in buying. 

4. Publish YouTube content on a consistent schedule 

To start getting views and subscribers, start publishing YouTube video content on a consistent schedule. Although there’s no set rule, most YouTubers recommend posting at least once per week for long-form videos. YouTube Shorts typically perform best within the first 24 hours, so e-learning platform Teachable recommends a posting frequency of at least 3 videos per week for these short-form videos to optimize reach. 

The types of content that are most effective for affiliate marketing on YouTube are:

  • Product reviews - Video content that focuses on reviewing a specific product. 
  • Tutorials - Video content that shows the viewer how to use a specific product. 
  • Unboxing - Video content that involves opening a new product and providing first impressions. 
  • Best of videos - Video content that compares or reviews a variety of similar products to help the viewer make a purchase decision.

Tech YouTuber Marques Borwnlee is a good YouTube affiliate to take inspiration from. He typically posts 1- 2 videos per week and creates mostly review and unboxing style videos.

5. Place affiliate links in YouTube video descriptions

On YouTube, you put affiliate links in the YouTube video description. When you promote or discuss an affiliate product in your videos, you should direct your audience to the YouTube video description to find your link if they are interested in learning more about the product. Affiliate links are allowed in a YouTube channel. However, you need to disclose that the links you are promoting are affiliate links and that you can earn a commission if the viewer purchases through the link. This is a legal requirement in many countries, including the United States and countries of the European Union. 

6. Qualify for and join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program 

To truly optimize your affiliate marketing operations through YouTube, you should qualify for and join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program. The YouTube Shopping affiliate program, which was introduced in 2023, has created a more seamless transaction flow for YouTube affiliates. The YouTube Shopping affiliate program allows you to tag products featured in your videos to generate a shopping button that appears directly on the video content, allowing viewers to browse affiliate products while simultaneously viewing the video. Instead of the traditional YouTube affiliate strategy of pushing viewers to open the video description and click your affiliate link, the YouTube Shopping affiliate program makes affiliate links more accessible by putting them alongside video content. 

When a viewer clicks on your link, they are taken directly to the merchants website, and you can earn commission on the viewer's entire purchase. The YouTube Affiliate program pays between 5% to 20% commission typically, but can reach as high as 50%. 

What do you need to be a YouTube affiliate?

  • Your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program
  • Your channel has over 15,000 subscribers
  • You’re based in the United States
  • Your channel is not a music channel, an Official Artist Channel, or associated with music partners
  • Your channel audience isn’t set as Made for Kids and you don’t have a significant number of videos set as made for kids
  • Your channel doesn’t have any active Community Guidelines strikes

What are the requirements for the YouTube Partner Program?

  • 500 subscribers
  • 3 valid public uploads in the last 90 days
  • Either 3,000 valid public watch hours in the past year or 3 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days

How do you join the YouTube Shopping affiliate program?

  1. 1
    Open YouTube Studio
  2. 2
    Tap Earn in the bottom menu
  3. 3
    Select Get started
  4. 4
    Click Turn on at the bottom of the screen
  5. 5
    Review and accept the YouTube Affiliate Shopping program’s Terms of Service
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  1. I wanted to write you a little word to help say thanks a lot as before for those marvelous tips you have shown on this website. It’s tremendously generous with you to allow freely just what a few individuals could have made available as an e book to get some money on their own, especially since you might have done it if you ever considered necessary. The suggestions also acted like a great way to be certain that the rest have similar zeal similar to my own to know the truth a good deal more when it comes to this problem. I am sure there are a lot more pleasant occasions up front for individuals that read your website.

    1. Hey Art-thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to comment. I’m glad you enjoyed the article. What tips did you find most helpful?

  2. Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective strategies to earn money from your site in the long run. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it basically means selling someone else's goods to other customers in exchange for a percentage of anything you sell.

    1. its difficult to generate traffic for affiliate marketing, that’s the problem, this is why imo local lead gen for small businesses is better and easier

  3. Hey Ippei, hope you're doing well my friend.

    Just wanted to let you know that your affiliate marketing with Youtube guide is spot on. I've been a reader of your blog for nearly two years now, and your content never seems to dissapoint.

    I recently started my first affiliate marketing blog and was wondering whether you'll be kind enough to take a look at it. I mainly focus on search engine optimization, but I'm considering giving YouTube a try as well.

    The only issue I face is that I'm not a native English speaker, otherwise, I would have created my channel years ago. Youtube has been booming lately, and now, (more than ever) is the right time to start putting out content.

    Once again, thanks for the fantastic guide, and I hope we can stay in touch!

    All the best 🙂

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