Affiliate marketing is a common way for content creators to add a steady income source to the monetisation strategy they are using.
It basically means offering your content to market an advertiser’s product or service.
If you are new to aff marketing, let me share with you 10 tips that will help you to get started in the right direction.
#1 Choose Affiliate Programs That Are Good For You
The first and one of the most important things in aff marketing is to find offers that are proven by others, so you know that it’s worth promoting.
Probably the easiest way to go is by choosing products/services that you already love and use on a daily basis.
Because if you are well familiar with a specific product, it will make your job a lot easier.
Finding good reputable brands to become an affiliate for might be hard when you are just starting out, but that’s why you need to join affiliate marketing groups and communities like iAmAffiliate for example, and talk to other more experienced marketers.
#2 You Need to Understand Your Audience
The most important thing in Affiliate Marketing is understanding your audience, and only promoting offers that they are interested in.
When you promote offers that align your audience’s needs they will engage with your content and take action 100%.
Answering the following questions might help you decide what kind of offers/services should you promote:
- What brings the audience to your blogging platform?
- What makes them join your email marketing list?
- Why are they attracted to the content you post?
- What are you providing that they are searching?
You need to focus on choosing offers that are going to give some kind of solution to your audience’s problems.
#3 Find ONE Niche and Stick to it
When you find your niche you should stick to it. Don’t jump around and promote Beauty stuff if your niche is Tech for example.
If you start promoting affiliate products that are poles apart in nature, you will only lose your credibility in front of the audience.
Always use relevant ads to your niche, the more relevant your ads are, the higher chance of generating sales and profits will be.
#4 Become Trustworthy
Today’s modern audience has become pretty smart when they are faced with ads. They can identify whether it’s an sponsored ad or not.
This makes it even crucial for you to choose products very carefully. You shouldn’t promote products that you don’t believe in or that you know aren’t worthy enough to market.
Most importantly if the audience sees that you are only trying to take advantage of their visits by posting ads after ads, they will probably leave and never come back.
To make your audience trust you, you need to promote offers that are nothing less than HIGH VALUE.
Your platform is what it is because of your audience – they believe in you and your recommendations. And this places a big responsibility on your shoulders to make every move with caution.
#5 Think Of Affiliate Ads as Value-adding Resources
Affiliate marketing is not just about putting up links to products with no reason while hoping to make some money…
You must have heard a quote, ‘content is the king’. So, make sure that your content is able to speak for the products and services that you are promoting.
For example, if you are writing a post about your favorite fashion items, just making a list with the affiliate links at the bottom of each listing isn’t enough.
It won’t bring your audience or you any good. What you should do instead is to write a detailed review for each item with the affiliate links pointing the audience in the right direction.
#6 Be Honest About Your Affiliate Partnerships
Your audience might usually be able to identify an aff ad. Therefore, hiding or lying about your relationships is never a smart move. You should be honest and open about it. Not only will your audience be impressed with your honesty and be able to trust you with their choices but you will also feel good about the commission you earn from the sales.
Your audience will know that they are supporting you by following your aff links and this will help you build a loyal follower base.
#7 Try and Test More Affiliate Offers
If you see that one affiliate offer is not working for you, you should simply just move on to another one. All of these programs are different, offering a distinct variety of products and services and following unique payment structures.
Some programs will have better marketing and sales strategies than others. In fact, the ideal approach to take as a beginner is to test different programs and evaluate which one works the best for you and your audience.
#8 Make Your Content Evergreen
The biggest benefit of evergreen content is that months or even years later can still offer the same value to your audience.
Some visitors like to go to the very bottom of the page and if they find outdated content there, they may not want to spend another minute on your platform. We understand that relevant information and content change with time and it may be difficult to come up with something that offers the same value after two or perhaps five years.
But of course you should NOT delete your old content! You can simply add a link to the updated content on your older content, and make it evergreen.
#9 Keep Yourself Updated
When you start working with an affiliate program, keep track of their offerings.
They tend to update their ad units, tools, and even advertisers to offer a better user experience and boost their visibility. You would also want to upgrade your strategies to not lag behind in the race.
You always have to keep monitoring trends and always looking for better opportunities, and constantly adding new RELEVANT content to your portfolio to be able to scale and make more profit.
#10 Be Patient and Persistent
Don’t expect getting rich overnight with aff marketing, it’s not going to work like that.
There are programs that offer lifetime payouts. By keeping referral links active on your older posts, you can earn money for years.
When you refer a visitor to your advertiser’s site, you may continue to earn your commission even if that visitor doesn’t visit your site.
It is possible to build a passive income source with aff marketing, but you need to be consistent, relevant and patient.
And remember, content is king! The first and most important thing you need to have is GOOD CONTENT!