Affiliate Marketing Beginners guide Blogpost 3 of 5

 

CREATE AWESOME CONTENT –

 

Content is King.

 

You’ll see this phrase over and over as you research having a successful blog or website. There’s a reason for that - it’s true. The real way to the customer’s heart is by providing value.

 

In the content world, providing value simply means giving prospects what they need or want for free, with no tricks and no hidden agendas. By doing this, you will create trust with your readers and you will become their trusted source for information in your niche.

 

Quality, consistent content is an absolute must for any online endeavor, but especially for affiliate marketing. Try putting yourself in the position of the customer you’re trying to reach. If they’re looking for information about something and they click on your blog but don’t find any good content there, they’re going to bounce right off your page.

 

By providing good content, you do two things:

 

●            You keep the reader on your page long enough to find your affiliate links.

●            You build trust that the product you’re promoting is good and worth purchasing.

 

What types of content will best reach your audience and create value for them? There are several that are usually top performers for affiliate marketing. Some of these suggestions may not really fit your particular niche so be sure to keep that in mind when choosing.

 

If you can’t authentically connect with your audience through your content, you’re going to have a hard time converting them to sales.

 

Product Reviews

 

Writing reviews for different products and services is a very effective content strategy. Brands are always looking for reviews that convert customers so this is usually a great place to drop some affiliate links.

 

 

Blog Posts

 

Blogging is a great way to build your audience and establish yourself as a trusted source in your niche.

 

By addressing common problems and questions that consumers have, you can position yourself as a trusted source for information and recommendations.

 

The key to blogging is consistency. You have to be willing to consistently produce quality content in order to get the traffic you need to make money from your links and ads. This is probably the biggest stumbling block new bloggers face.

 

Ebooks, Emails and Webinars

 

Another great form of content to focus your efforts on is an information product. These include guides like ebooks, emails, and webinars. Guides are an ideal hook you can use to get people interested in what you have to say.

As long as the guide is helpful and accurate, it will build trust with your reader and provide the value that everyone is looking for.

– DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR LINKS –

 

Now that you’ve created fantastic content and provided loads of value for potential visitors, you need to get them to your site. There are a few strategies to consider when trying to drive traffic to your links.

 

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

 

In its simplest form, SEO is simply the process of making your website more visible when people are searching for products, services, or information related to your business. The higher you rank in search results, the more likely people are to click on your page.

 

When you do a Google search, do you choose a website on page 8 or do you choose one of the ones on page 1 to click on first? It’s almost guaranteed that the sites on page one have been optimized so that you can find them easier.

 

In a nutshell, SEO is about:

 

●            Understanding your target audience, understanding what their problems are, and knowing what they are looking for

●            Creating content (blog posts, product reviews, etc.) based on what your target audience is looking for

●            Pushing these pages to rank higher in search engines by doing technical things like adding keywords and link building

 

There is a large amount of free content on the web that you can use to learn how to be successful with SEO and all of the tricks you can implement to make your content more visible.

 

 

Build an Email List

 

If you have a solid email list, you can communicate with your readers anytime, keep them updated on new content you’re putting out, and keep them coming back to your site. You can also put your affiliate links right in your emails.

 

And if you don’t have an email list, you can build one easily by offering your readers something of value for free in exchange for their email address. You can simply include a fillable form or pop-up on your blog posts or other content asking for their email address.

 

Some examples of things you can offer in exchange are ebooks, webinars, printables, a newsletter, etc. The possibilities are endless.

 

Paid Traffic

 

You can increase traffic to your site by using PPC ads. PPC stands for Pay-Per-Click and these types of ads are usually run on search engines or social media sites. You run the ad and every time someone clicks on it, you pay a small fee. You can usually put a cap on what you spend on any given day to keep your costs down.

 

There are some downsides to using paid traffic. The first one is that you have to pay for it. Depending on what your commission is, it may not make financial sense to pay for traffic, especially when there are so many ways to drive traffic that are free.

 

Once you start using PPC your traffic will increase but conversely, once you stop using PPC your traffic will stop. So, if you’re new to affiliate marketing or are working with lower commission affiliates, this may not be a good choice for your business.

 

– GET THE CLICKS –

 

Creating quality content is a huge first step in creating a solid affiliate marketing business, but there are some other things to consider. You still have to get the reader to click on your links.

 

Here are a few things to consider about link placement:

 

●            Balance your link placement. If you put the link at the bottom of a page, you’re not going to see good results because people rarely scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. Also, if every third word of your content is a link, your content will look “scammy” which will create distrust and cause people to leave the page.

●            Create links that make sense. Link the product names or descriptions not just random words in your post. You want your links to look legit, not random.

●            Using a callout can be a great option. Boxes, tables, and buttons can be a great way to draw attention to your links and will make your article more skimmable for customers that are just looking for the main points of the content.

 

Again, try to put yourself in the place of the consumer to determine what link placement will draw your customers to click.

 

– CONVERT CLICKS TO SALES –

 

When a customer does what you want them to do, it’s called a conversion. Conversions can be making a sale, signing up for a newsletter, clicking a link, or any other thing that you want them to do.

 

There are two conversions that you want to happen in your affiliate marketing business. The first conversion will happen when the customer clicks on your link. You are completely in control of this conversion and by using some of the aforementioned strategies, you can be successful.

 

If you’re not getting conversions from your content, make some changes and see if there’s an improvement. Just be sure you’re giving the changes enough time to work. Constantly changing things is going to make you look like you don’t know what you’re doing and customers will leave.

 

The second conversion happens when the customer makes a purchase, and this is not in your control. It will be to your advantage to choose affiliates with good conversion rates.

 

There are a few ways to determine if an affiliate has good conversion rates:

 

●            Investigate how much other affiliate marketers are making from any given affiliate. This information is pretty easy to find on Google by searching for affiliate income reports. Many bloggers will publicly disclose their income from the affiliates they work with.

●            Ask the affiliate directly what their conversion rates are and what the average income is for people promoting their products.

●            Go with your gut. If you don’t feel good about a product or would have a hard time recommending it to a friend or family member then it may be worth skipping.