Affiliate marketing is still one of the best ways to make money blogging. The problem is the market is flooded with thousands of affiliate marketers promoting the same products, the same way. Use these ten strategies to increase your chance of searchers buying through your affiliate links.
1. Pick 3 Core Products at Multiple Price Points
Core products are ones that you will repeatedly recommend. Think about 3 products that you use on a a regular basis e.g. email service, keyword research tool, and a membership site. Try to cover three price points to appeal to a wider audience. Select a low priced option to increase the chance of people purchasing through you just because it’s inexpensive/low risk. Also locate a product that offers recurring commission. This will provide you steady money to keep you going between the spikes and drops in overall affiliate earnings. Lastly, pick a high-priced offer for your market. Not only will it generate more cash, it also helps you identify the more serious buyers to market to .
2. Add Blog Posts Featuring the Product to Emails.
People will come across your blog at different points in time. They may never see your posts about your core affiliate products. A good way to get your affiliate offers in front of new subscribers is to add affiliate blog posts to your email marketing series as you publish them.
3. Find Affiliate Products with Ready-Made Promotion Materials
Saving time is saving money when it comes to business. Look for products that provide affiliates with ready- to-articles, emails, blog posts and buttons. The sooner you can get content out about the product, the sooner you will make money.
4. Flip Affiliate Marketing Materials
Once you have those marketing materials flip them. Use the articles as an email and rework the emails as blog posts. Taking that extra step to customize the information will help you stand out in search results from hundreds of affiliates who are too lazy to do so.
5. Work in Campaigns
This is especially true for your recurring commission and high-end products. Instead of writing a random post here and there, in one designated period of time develop a variety of promotions. It’s easier to gain momentum working on the same topic at one time. An example campaign could be to write 3 articles, 3 blog posts and answer 3 forum questions around the product. Do the work once and the campaign is set to work again and again.
6. Guest Blog to Promote Affiliate Offers
This doesn’t mean to write a guest post blatantly promoting an offer. Write with an angle to direct readers back to your blog where your post will pre-sell. You may write a guest post about the importance of backing up your computer. In the guest post/bio, mention you love writing about the woes of digital life and how to keep your sanity at (your blog). When you know the guest post will be published, be sure to have a relevant affiliate post ready for readers.
7. Follow the Leader, Your Competition
Who’s already ranking for the product you’re promoting? Take a look at the top 10 postings and take notes. You can cut out wasting time by doing what’s already working for your competitors. Where are they getting backlinks? What type of blog post did they write to get a top ranking-a how-to, list, or review post? If a result shows a site like ezinearticles.com or squidoo.com, consider posting your own article to these sites.
8. Create a Case Study or Follow Along Series
Personally, this kind of content is very appealing to me because it gives me a real-life, sneak peek before buying. Document your experience using a product. Make it a series so people will check-in to see how you’re doing. This works really well because it subtly suggests if you can do it, then they can too.
9. Offer a Product or Service to Supplement the Offer
Building on #8, develop an extra piece to the puzzle that will help buyers “implement” the product. Think checklists, quick start videos and consulting. Most readers are overwhelmed with information and ideas. They really need more help doing than learning. You may want to make your own training course around the offer.
10. Be a News Reporter
Some affiliate offers are upgraded regularly. Potential buyers and even current customers get confused on how the updates affect their business. Clear the confusion for them. Stay on top of any new developments with your 3 core affiliate products. Become the go to source for all news around the offers.
Are you using any of the strategies for affiliate marketing? Share your favorite in the comments below.
photo credit: sam_churchill
Really good advice. Sometimes we just need someone to simply tell us what to do.
I feel like I’ve been told. Thanks
Chris,
I agree.
Personally, I have no problem doing what it takes to make money online, but knowing what to do (and understanding why) is the challenge. It helps to have tangible, action steps and not just concepts which is what I was aiming for with this post.
Glad this helped you!