What’s one of the best ways to make money online as a blogger? Maintaining an affiliate marketing blog. The success stories are impressive and worth imitation.
But what if you’ve already opted in and just aren’t seeing the revenue you’d like?
Don’t give up! Instead, it’s time to drill deeper and figure out where you need to make adjustments.
Fortunately, it’s never been easier to up your game. Read on for a comprehensive list of simple yet effective affiliate marketing tips.
Build Trust First
So, how do you succeed in affiliate marketing? The first and most important thing that you can do is establish trust with your readers.
Think about your readers as close friends. When a close friend or family member suggests a product or service to you, you’re more likely to check that product or service out.
Why? Because you trust your family and friends. You know their tastes, and you realize they have no underlying motives.
Now, what if a stranger recommends something to you? Are you likely to purchase it? Probably not.
When it comes to how to succeed in affiliate marketing, you must establish the same type of trusting relationship with them. You must make it clear that you’re just like them. In a sense, you must stand in for them, representing their best interests when you mention a product.
Up Your Traffic Counts
Of course, affiliate marketing only works when you have eyeballs on your blog post. Lots of them. So, increasing traffic to your blog represents a major priority. If you haven’t yet registered your domain, get some helpful advice about where to register.
Once you’ve got all your ducks in a row, it’s time to think about attracting crowds. After all, you only receive commissions when products are purchased or another desired action is taken through your referral link. The more people, the more click-throughs.
The best way to increase traffic to your site? Create mind-blowing content! This content should offer high quality, relevant information. When you consistently produce amazing content, people will be drawn to your blog.
According to Forbes, “An affiliate program is only going to help bring traffic to your website or business; you are in charge of turning that traffic into conversions.” By drawing new readers in with excellent content, you kill two birds with one stone.
Disclose Your Affiliate Marketing Blog
If you’ve been involved in affiliate marketing for any length of time, then you already know this. But let’s take a moment to briefly discuss affiliate marketing for beginners. The bottom line is this: you must disclose everything!
There’s nothing that makes readers feel more duped and disappointed than accidentally finding out that you have another agenda. It’s also unethical. Make sure that you always properly disclose to readers that you promote affiliate links.
Want to learn more about the regulatory ins and outs of affiliate marketing blogging? Free affiliate marketing programs can help you better understand the process and avoid common errors.
Honesty is the Best Policy
In your quest to build a loyal, trusting readership, you must always choose the path of total honesty. After all, your readers are looking to you for insider knowledge. They’re looking to you for a sense of discerning taste. They must rest assured that the product advice you’re giving them is legit.
The best way to guarantee that your affiliate marketing blogs are honest and useful? Think about how you’d present the product or service you’re writing about to your parent, sibling, child, or best friend.
Avoid sales-y language and aggressive persuasion tactics. Remember, who’s corner you’re in.
Promote the Products You Believe in (and Use!)
Another great way to make sure you retain honesty and integrity in your posts? Only promote products and services that you actually use and believe in wholeheartedly.
So, make a list of your interests and products associated with those interests. Add other products, services, and companies that you admire and feel passionate about. This passion will shine through in your posts. And you’ll create compelling posts with anecdotal information about how you use the products in question.
Go for Variety
When it comes to affiliate marketing blogs, be sure that you present a diversity of products. Don’t put all your hopes on one company or product.
And while you’re at it, make sure that your blog is diversified across multiple income streams, too. What does that look like? Consider selling ad space on your blog, offering a service, or selling your own products.
Take a Walk Down Memory Lane
Before delving too deeply into a plan for future content, review your old posts. Look for times you may have mentioned a product in passing. Or, where you could naturally do so.
If you find such mentions, then use Google to search for affiliate programs associated with that product and company. But what if you have a huge archive of posts and don’t know where to start?
Start by reviewing Google Analytics to determine which of your posts are most popular. These posts will provide a great jumping off point for initiating an affiliate marketing blogs.
Know Your Audience, Know Your Products
One of the most important factors to being a successful blogger is knowing your readers thoroughly. Not only that, but you need to speak to each one individually in your writing. So, if you haven’t already done so, get reader personas going.
What do I mean by knowing your customers? You need to understand their problems and pain points. You need to “get” what they’re struggling with and how your affiliate links can help them.
When it’s all said and done, your primary goal should be helping your readers. Why else are they investing time in your blog? So, the products and services that you promote should provide useful solutions to their problems.
This also means understanding what your readers will actually buy and how much they’ll willing to spend for it. You also need to think about when your readers may actually buy and tailor your blog’s editorial calendar accordingly.
Cover All Your Bases
One of the best ways to cover all your bases is by providing products to solve your readers’ problems at various price points. And when it comes to expensive items, the sheer costs doesn’t necessarily make them a bad fit for your readers.
Specialty and one-of-a-kind products come with unique benefits. You may not have as many click-throughs to make purchases. But at the higher price point, you won’t need to.
Promote from Within
We’re all used to seeing advertisements in the sidebars of blog posts. And even better at ignoring them. So, when it comes to product promotion placement, don’t be afraid to do it from within.
Discuss your experience using a product or service, the various steps involved in the process, and what you ultimately think. Within this story, you’ll find a natural place for your affiliate link.
Moreover, depending on where the link falls in your story, you can ensure your readers are truly ready to find out more.
Branch Out
Think outside of the box when it comes to promoting affiliate links. They don’t need to be limited to blog posts. You can add them to your email newsletter and social media, too.
In fact, social media is a great place to mention the products and services that you’re promoting. Just double check with the companies you’re working with to make sure that this is okay.
For example, Amazon Associates don’t allow the sharing of links in email or any offline ways.
Don’t Sell… Help!
When it comes to affiliate marketing, the tips above will help you ramp up your ROI. That said, if I had to sum up which of these tips is most crucial to successful affiliate marketing, I’d have to go with trust building.
Of course, you want readers to click on your affiliate links. But you can’t let your blog posts sound like an advertisement.
They can’t persuade readers in an aggressive, used-car-salesman sort of way. In fact, that’s the fastest way to turn your readers off completely.
Affiliate Marketing Tips
Instead, think about your readers like close members of your own inner circle. You are intervening on their behalf to help them.
You understand their problem, the kind of pain it causes, and you know best how to fix it. Ultimately, you’re not in the business of selling products or services. You’re in the business of making your readers’ lives better. Period.
When you make this mental shift and apply it to your blog, your readers will understand. They’ll place their trust in you. And they’ll come back for more advice in the future.
If you can truly make their lives better, they’ll come back time and again. So, use every blog post that you write to build trust and a better relationship with your readers.
Did you find these tips for affiliate marketing helpful? Interested in more marketing advice for your affiliate marketing blog?
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