Want to make more money with your blog? Learn how to make money with affiliate marketing using the strategies I used to make $800 in a month from one blog post.
I’ve been using affiliate links for years and I always make some from them but it’s never been one of my top income sources. Lately, I have decided to put more energy into learning about affiliate marketing and trying out new strategies.
There isn’t really one affiliate marketing strategy that will work for everyone. You have to try different things to see what will work for your niche and audience. There are key things to remember though no matter your niche.
I’m not going to touch on the basics of affiliate marketing in this post. If you want to learn more about the basics of affiliate marketing I recommend reading my post How to Get Started With Affiliate Marketing.
How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing
The first thing to keep in mind when you are getting started with affiliate marketing is that you want to be honest and you want to promote things you truly stand behind.
Your audience will quickly lose trust in you and stop clicking your links if you aren’t honest or promote bad products. You can use links for things you haven’t used if you know they are a good product and are clear about that.
For example, I linked to Stitch Fix in a post before I had used the service but I say I explained that I hadn’t tried it and give the reasons for that. People still clicked that link and made purchases through my link.
Once you have a product that you think will work well with your audience it’s time to write your post and test it out. Remember not everyone will be a huge hit but if you keep trying you can find something that works well for you.
Here is the post that worked well for me: An Honest Le Tote Review
And here is how I made it work!
Finding the Right Product
If you have been doing affiliate marketing already look at what your audience has been clicking on and buying so far. One of the most popular posts on my homemaking blog is about wearing house dresses instead of yoga pants. Because of this, I know my audience has an interest in dressing nicely.
I don’t want to be a fashion blogger but I wanted a product that hit on this. The product I chose is Le Tote. It’s a clothing rental subscription box. It’s great for my audience because it hits on a few things they respond to, dressing nicely, subscription boxes, and green products (it’s green because you are renting clothes instead of buying new ones).
Writing The Content
When you know what product you want to promote you have to decide the best way to promote it. This will depend on your audience and the product.
There are key things to remember in your post.
- Be honest and upfront.
- Provide value.
- Don’t just share the good, share the cons as well.
- Make your affiliate links clear.
- Have a good call to action.
People can learn about the product on the brand’s website, they want to know your opinions and they want to know they can trust you. The post shouldn’t just be an advertisement.
Depending on the product, you can share a story that relates to the product, share a solution for a problem and include the product, or even review the product.
The key is to make your content good, honest, and provide value, even if the person doesn’t buy the product. If you do these things people are more likely to buy or at least keep coming back to your site.
And make sure it’s clear what you want your audience to do with a clear call to action and clear affiliate links.
Want to learn more about writing good content? Check out Content Creation 101.
Using SEO to Get Traffic
The main source of the traffic to my Le Tote post is Google. Getting my post to rank well on Google is what is getting eyes on my post.
When creating my post I checked what keywords worked well for Le Tote by searching “Le Tote” on a keyword research tool like SEMrush. I found Le Tote Review and Le Tote Reviews were both popular. I made sure to include those terms in my post to help get it to rank well on Google.
After finding good keywords and following basic good SEO practices, I also have kept the post updated so Google knows it’s a relevant and up-to-date post.
As a Le Tote affiliate, I get access to coupon codes for their products and as a customer, I can use a referral link for free trials. When there is an active code I include it in the post and when that code expires if there isn’t a new one I put in my referral link.
You can make other small updates from time to time if the affiliate program doesn’t have coupon codes or allow you to post about sales. Just make sure the information stays up-to-date and doesn’t contain broken links.
To learn more about SEO I highly recommend the course Crystal Clear SEO. It’s very affordable and my favorite SEO resource. It makes it very easy to understand and is great to go back to from time to time for a refresher.
Using Pinterest For Traffic
Some posts will do better than others on Pinterest. My Le Tote post hasn’t done much on Pinterest and most of the traffic is thanks to good SEO but other posts have done better on Pinterest for me. One other post I have that I get a fair amount of affiliate income from is my post Creating a Nighttime Routine and it does really well on Pinterest but not as well on Google.
Being sure to try to use both platforms can help you make the most of the post. If you can do well on both you can get a lot of traffic.
Be sure you create a good pin with good photos, clear text, and a good description. I like to make my pins using PicMonkey and I use Tailwind and Tailwind Tribes to promote the pins.
To learn more about Pinterest check out Crystal Clear Pinterest. It will help you get more traffic to your site using Pinterest and will help you avoid spending too much time on the platform so you can spend more time creating content.
Don’t get discouraged if a post doesn’t work at first. It often takes a bit get going, it took my post about a month and a half before I saw much traffic or income.
You can also try to rework your post or try a new post and new strategies if it’s not working. Pay attention to each post to see what seemed to work.
If you aren’t getting the traffic you can try better SEO, a new pin on Pinterest, a new title, etc… If you are getting traffic but people are clicking away, maybe you need to make the link clearer or maybe that product just isn’t working with your audience.
With some trial and error, you will find what works for you and can work to duplicate that process for more successful posts.
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