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Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: My Beginning

The truth is, I actually started with KDP—Kindle Direct Publishing.

Decades ago, I had a dream. I was going to be a real estate mogul, work for the State Department of Education, and write children's books.

Let's just say life had other plans.

My son was born with significant special needs, and somewhere along the way, my dreams changed. My priorities changed. I changed.

When he turned 22, though, something shifted. For the first time in a very long time, I found myself with a little time in the evenings that was actually mine. And I started wondering: What could I do with it? What could I build for myself?

That's when I decided to finally revisit one of those dreams from decades ago and started publishing books through KDP.

This post isn't about KDP—that could be an entire series of its own! But something happened while I was creating those books: I realized I had to figure out how to market them.

So I started learning. One thing led to another, and somehow that path brought me here.

Only now, I'm not really marketing my books.

I've moved into the world of affiliate marketing.

And if you're wondering how I got from children's books to Amazon finds, Pinterest pins, Facebook posts, product videos and affiliate links...well, that's exactly what I'm going to share.

My First Attempt at Marketing Was…Not Great

Before affiliate marketing entered the picture, I actually started by trying to market my books on Instagram.

Let's just say that was a big failure.

I've deleted about 99% of the content I made, so if you happen to find my Instagram account and think what's still there is terrible—just imagine what didn't make the cut. 😂

I tried. I really did.

I spent a LOT of time learning about hooks, camera angles, editing, trends and all the things I was apparently supposed to be doing to get people to stop scrolling. I filmed myself. I tried the tricks. I worried about views. I wondered why one video got attention while another went absolutely nowhere.

And I learned something pretty important:

It wasn't for me.

That doesn't mean Instagram or short-form video isn't a great way to grow a business. If being on camera, following trends and chasing that viral moment is your cup of tea, I fully support you.

It just isn't my cup of tea.

And if I never hear the words “viral” or “200-view jail” again, I'll be perfectly happy.

At first, I looked at all of that time as wasted time. Looking back, though, it taught me something I probably needed to learn early:

There isn't one right way to build an online business.

I didn't need to become good at someone else's way of creating content. I needed to figure out what kind of content I could actually enjoy creating and stick with.

And that's when things started to change.

Finding a Different Way

Through all of my research, YouTube video watching and Instagram studying, I kept hearing about the Amazon Influencer Program.

So I applied.

DENIED.

Okay. No big deal. I did a little more research, waited, and applied again.

DENIED. Again.

But somewhere along the way, I learned that I could become an Amazon Affiliate through the Amazon Associates program.

Did I understand the difference between an Amazon Affiliate and an Amazon Influencer?

Absolutely not. But it seemed like a good place to start. And by this point, my social media feeds had figured out exactly what I was interested in. I started seeing videos and posts telling me how easy affiliate marketing could be.

Post an Amazon link on Pinterest.

People click.

People buy.

Make $10,000 a month.

Sounds pretty great, right? Spoiler alert: That's not how it works.

At least, that hasn't been my experience.

There is a LOT more that goes into affiliate marketing than creating a link, putting it on Pinterest and waiting for the money to roll in. And honestly, that's one of the reasons I want to write this series.

Because when I started, I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't understand the different Amazon programs. I didn't understand how Pinterest actually worked. I didn't understand conversion rates, content strategy, SEO, storefronts, product videos or how many different ways there were to approach this business.

I was just trying things. Some worked. Some didn't. And some cost me a whole lot of time for very little return.

But every one of them taught me something.

So I Had an Affiliate Link…Now What?

Luckily, I already had a Canva account from all of my KDP work, so I decided I was going to make Pinterest pins. If you're unfamiliar with Pinterest from the business side, a Pin is basically an image with text that can link somewhere—in my case, to an affiliate product.

Sounds easy enough.

Except I did everything manually.

I would work all day at my full-time job, and then almost every night from about 7:00 to 9:30, I would sit down and find products I wanted to share, grab my links, make the images in Canva, write the descriptions, add the links and publish the Pins.

One. At. A. Time.

And I should probably mention something important here:

I have ZERO marketing or graphic design experience.

And, um...you could tell. 😂

Over time, I started figuring out a few tricks. My designs got a little better. I learned how to make templates so I wasn't starting from scratch every single time. Eventually, I figured out ways to create several Pins at once and swap out products, images and links.

Was I getting more efficient?

Absolutely.

Did some of those early Pins still look like a preschooler made them?

Also absolutely.

But then something happened.

I made a few dollars.

Not thousands. Not hundreds. A few dollars.

And strangely enough, those few dollars mattered. Because they proved that somebody I didn't know had actually seen something I created, clicked my link and bought something.

So I thought...

Well, let's keep going.

Then Life Hit Pause

And then I hit a snag. My son got sick. Then my husband got sick. Then my mom got sick.

Between working full time and taking care of everyone, I was exhausted. Affiliate marketing wasn't exactly high on the priority list anymore.

So the side gig sat. For nearly six months. Then, in July 2026, life finally started returning to some sense of normal, and I thought:

Okay. Let's try this again.

Only this time, I didn't just start making Pins. I started learning more and more. And that's when I realized something I definitely didn't understand the first time around:

Affiliate marketing is a MACHINE.

There are systems. Apps. Programs. Strategies. Automations. Tools. Affiliate networks. Algorithms. SEO. Content schedules. Deep links. Analytics. And about 700 acronyms that apparently everyone else already knows. There are people who have figured out how to put all of those pieces together and make real money doing this. I had not.

So from July until now, I've hunkered down. I've taken exactly one day off. I've been building. Learning. Building some more. Wanting to quit. Building again. Questioning my sanity. Making mistakes. Having breakthroughs. And slowly starting to understand how all of these pieces fit together.

And I still have a LOT to learn.

I'm Going to Tell You About the Mistakes, Too

That's really why I'm starting this series. I've made mistakes. Some have cost me money. Some have cost me an unbelievable amount of time. And some happened simply because I didn't understand how this whole machine worked yet. I'm going to share those, too.

I'm not going to pretend I figured out affiliate marketing in 30 days. I'm not going to tell you that one Pinterest Pin made me $10,000. And I'm definitely not going to sell you a course promising you'll quit your job next month.

I'm just going to show you what I'm actually doing, what I'm learning, what's working, what's not working and what I wish somebody had explained to me at the beginning.

One Thing I Wish I'd Known: You Don't Need a Website

I'll leave you with one thing I've already learned.

I have a website. If you are reading this, then you are on my site.

I built it myself.

Can you tell I had absolutely no idea how to build a website?

Also yes. 😂

I bought the domain and then let it sit for months because I was completely intimidated by the idea of actually building the thing.

Eventually, because I'd already paid for it, I felt like I had to do something with it. I built it, worked on it, changed it, broke things, fixed things—and I've decided to pay to have some of it professionally updated. That's still a work in progress.

So here's something I wish someone had told me when I started:

You do NOT need a website.

Don't let buying a domain, designing a site or figuring out how to become a blogger keep you from starting. There are plenty of ways to begin creating content and sharing what you know without building an entire website first.

So, What's Next?

That's enough of the train wreck for Part 1. 😂

In Part 2, I'll start getting into some of the details: what I've actually been doing, some of the tools I've tried, where I've spent money I probably didn't need to spend, what's starting to work and what I would do differently if I were starting over today.

If you're here because you're thinking about trying affiliate marketing yourself, welcome.

If you're here because you're already doing it and want to compare notes, welcome.

And if you're just here because you enjoy watching a good train wreck unfold...

Honestly, welcome to you, too.

You can find me wherever you see ShopKBTstyle. I'm on Pinterest—which, so far, has been the biggest part of my journey—and I'm now building on Facebook and YouTube, too. Instagram is technically still there...but we've already discussed how I feel about that. 😂

And if you want to follow this journey from the beginning, subscribe so you don't miss Part 2.

I'm laying it all out—the good, the bad, the expensive mistakes and hopefully a few more breakthroughs along the way.

See you in Part 2.