I know how hard it is to make money with affiliate marketing and I am always looking for an easy way. In theory affiliate marketing is quite simple; you place an affiliate link on the Internet, people click on it and purchase the product, and then you get a commission. If only it were that simple?
Most people think it is that simple and are extremely disappointed when they cannot make money with affiliate marketing. I know that people also say that it is easy to make money with Google AdSense, and even I am guilty of this, but we all know that everything takes work.
I cannot give you a magic bullet to make money with affiliate marketing, but I can give you a few tips.
1. Focus on a clear subject
If your website is about dogs then please have content about dogs. When people start veering off their subject they start to lose sales. Just think about it, why would a dog lover want to read about a cat? Or why would a person with a German Sheppard want to read about a Bullterrier?
It is even better to have a more precise topic. By now we all know how important it is to researching a niche topic to blog about.
It is also great to focus on one goal per page. Do not give people too many options as you will only confuse them.
2. Choose the right products to sell
Just as you have focused on a clear subject, you also need to match your products with that subject. Often people find a particular product and try selling it because they like it. This will not get you sales. The people that are visiting your blog must want to buy the product that you sell. You should ask yourself a few questions when choosing the right product to sell.
- Do they need the product?
- Is the product going to solve a problem for them?
- Has it got a recurring income so you can make one sale and get multiple commissions? (Not necessary but nice)
You must have these first two steps figured out before you move on.
3. Limiting affiliate marketing
When searching for affiliate marketing products to sell, never limit your possibilities by only searching the companies you know and are familiar with. For example most people seem to stick to Commission junction and Clickbank products when there are so many other options out there. You can use number of affiliate programs from dozens of best affiliate marketing companies in one website as there are no rules stopping you from doing so.
I urge you to explore more affiliate marketing companies as they all offer different products to sell. What about Shareasale.com, Regnow.com, Ebay.com, Paydot.com, Neverblue.com, Linkshare.com, Amazon.com, Onenetworkdirect.com? Need I mention more. Always strive to get out of your comfort zone and spread your affiliate marketing wings. Some programs require you prove an established income on the internet, but others are free to join, without any qualifications.
4. Gain Trust
Are you in it for the money or do you have a genuine passion for your topic? Did you know that people will trust you more if they can see your passion? Maybe if you show some personality or the real you they also might trust you more. There are probably 1000 ways to gain trust but it helps if you are genuine in the first place.
5. Build backlinks to your content
Again I have to talk about focusing on your topic and the right keywords. Anchor text in a backlink pointing to a particular article is very important and the details do count. For example if you have a review for an Apple laptop and your anchor text says Apple Macbook pro, but when people click the link they find a review for a HP laptop. This is deceiving and people will be disappointed with what they see and your page will be less likely to convert. The same applies if your anchor text is Apple Macbook and you send them to a page about an Apple Macbook mouse.
This is similar and you might get lucky with affiliate marketing, but wouldn’t it be better to let the anchor text sort out the targeted traffic for you?
Let’s be clear here. It is not how much traffic you can get to an affiliate sales page; it is how much targeted traffic you can get that makes the sales.
6. Get your visitors to sign up
You cannot always expect a sale from your visitors but you must expect them to sign up for your list. You need to impress them with the free gift because you will only get one chance with most people. If you are letting the visitors go without giving them a chance to sign up to your list, you are seriously wasting your time.
Just think, if you get people to sign up to a list you have a few more chances to communicate with them and wave your affiliate marketing links in front of them.
7. Give them a gift
That is so nice of you to give gifts away for free, but we all know that you have an ulterior motive. Giving away a free report is a perfect tool to use to make money with affiliate marketing. Especially if you give away a report that people find extremely valuable and hang on to or share with their friends. Have your affiliate links in a free report along with links back to your website. If you do not do this you are wasting a great resource for making money with affiliate marketing.
Take a good look at my gift I give to my subscribers when they sign up for my list about building a WordPress Website from scratch. Let me just say it is not the most perfectly formed giveaway but I am still improving on this.
8. Write all about it
Investigate, research, and then write about affiliate products on your blog. People actually want to know other people’s opinions about stuff before they buy them. Don’t think you can just slap something together though. People are not stupid and can feel when something is not genuine.
9. Show proof
Use the products that you recommend on your blog. I have a blog about building WordPress websites and I only recommend the products that I use on that blog. The products all relate to WordPress and I am using them all which makes these products very targeted for my niche.
For another example I have a computer related website and if I recommend a computer maintenance program that I use myself, I definitely sell more. “The proof is in the pudding.”
Sometimes people see me using a product or doing something on my blog and ask me what it is.
It is usually a product that I sell and make money with affiliate marketing. Surround yourself with what you sell and people will know that you believe in that product.
10. Connect with an affiliate marketing manager
Did you know that you can contact an affiliate marketing manager for either an affiliate company like Neverblue or the product owner themselves? Many people neglect to communicate with the “people in the know” and lose out on sales because of this.
I have constant contact with product owners as they help me to sell their products.
They also give me freebies to give away which the website visitors love. Get closer to the products you sell and get some inside help. There is no doubt you will make more money this way.
Conclusion to affiliate marketing
One of the main keys to make money with affiliate marketing is to focus on a topic. Focus, focus, focus. Then when you know what your topic is and what keywords you need to use, you can then create content and then build backlinks to it. Match the people to the products and you will have a winning combination. Affiliate marketing is not rocket science but some people can make it look difficult.
Anuradha Chawla
Scott Duncan