If you’ve been blogging for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard of affiliate marketing. It is one of the easiest and fastest ways you can make money blogging. So in this posts I’m going to talk all things affiliate marketing. What it is, how to pick the right affiliates, and how to actually get people to click on your links and buy. Here’s how to get started with affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is when a blogger or influencer partners with a company and sells a product on their behalf. They receive a link and when people purchase with that link, they get a commission. There are all different types of affiliates available for every niche and they all range in percentage or flat cash pay out rate.
Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest ways to make money as a new blogger because you don’t actually need anything to do it. All you need is to apply for the affiliate program and meet their requirements which varies from company to company. However, you don’t need to make anything yourself, so it is a fast way to make money when you’re a beginner.
Some bloggers make all their income just doing affiliate marketing and it can be extremely profitable. As a new blogger there are plenty of affiliates you can join and and make money even as a brand new blogger. I made money my first month blogging with affiliates with only 1,500 pageviews, and continue to make a good chunk of my income from affiliates so I know exactly how amazing this income stream can be.
What Affiliates Should You Sign Up For?
There are thousands of affiliates out there but which ones are right for you really depends on what you blog about, who your audience is, what size is your audience, etc.
If you are a minimalist fashion blogger for millennials, chances are you aren’t going to pick a homeware affiliate. You need to do your research and ask yourself “What does my audience need?” sometimes those things are as simple as things we use ourselves everyday. Either way you need to decide who your audience is before you decide on what kind of affiliates you decide to sign up for.
In the beginning, I believe it is best to sign up with affiliates who have higher payouts. At least 25%, or over $30+ cash. The reason for this is because when you have a small audience, you get less eyes on your content, less eyes means less sales. Now, that does NOT mean you can’t make sales with a very small audience because you can, but it is a lot easier to make your income goal by selling 12 high ticket products vs. 200+ products. The reason being is when you are BRAND new and you’ve never sold anything before it is kind of a crazy idea that someone will pay you money.
Because it has never happen before, it kind of feels like “Seriously, someone’s gonna pay for this just cuz I said so?” and you get over that after your first sale or two, but in the beginning it’s kind of unbelievable. So when you make your first sale, if the payout is higher, it will feel like a huge win and it will boost your confidence a ton! A high payout doesn’t mean the product has to be expensive, it just varies by company and product.
Lets recap:
- Decide your audience and pick affiliates accordingly. Don’t choose a Homeware company for your minimalist fashion blog.
- Do your research on affiliates. How much do they pay? When do they pay? (some affiliates pay instantly, 30 days, 90 days, etc so make sure to check!) Do you know
So, How Do I Actually Make Sales?
So now that you know what affiliate marketing is, and how to go about choosing them, how do you actually get people to click and use your links? It’s all in the presentation. First, in my experience, my sales have always been better when I write a blog post dedicated to 1 affiliate at a time explaining the product. There are a lot of ways to do affiliate marketing and some people swear by just using their affiliate link on Pinterest and having people click on it. But in my experience it just doesn’t work as well.
When you actually write a blog post presenting the product it helps connection between you and the reader. You’re not there to just sell them something, you’re there to help. Which is why you should always pick affiliates you actually like and have experience with.
For now I will say, it is not enough to just stick your links in random places and hope people will click, you have to actually write a helpful post! Long form content is even better! For affiliate posts I make sure my blog post is between 700-1000 words. That might seem like a lot, but I make sure to be through and honest about the product, explain it fully, go into depth about my experience with it. Your audiences trust is PRICELESS and it’s not worth it to make a quick sale and not actually provide value.
So now you know what affiliate marketing is, how to pick affiliates, and that in order to get people to click you need to write helpful, thoughtful and long form content, so how do you get people to see your posts when you’re brand new?
Pinterest.
Pinterest is one of the best places to get traffic for bloggers! You can make pins, and get access to millions of people potentially interested in your content. It is almost like magic. In the beginning most bloggers build up their traffic by posting on Pinterest and it results in millions of viewers per month!
So making pins for your affiliate posts should your #1 priority. If you have about 10 blog posts, and affiliate links in 6/10 of them, you create a flow of traffic always seeing your affiliates clicking, and buying!
Affiliate marketing gave me so much confidence in my business and I feel like without it I wouldn’t have felt the confidence to start offering services and making digital products and now running this blog full-time!
Blogging has changed my entire life. It has helped me gain true freedom. Freedom over my time, freedom over my income, and freedom to be where I want, when I want. As the holidays approach I get emotional thinking about the fact that I don’t have to miss a single moment. I don’t have to scramble to ask for vacation time, I don’t have to plan out my days so I can get back to work at a certain time.
I believe in you and your business so much, and am so passionate about you getting everything you desire
Until next time!
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