The Ultimate Blogger’s Guide To
Affiliate Marketing
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Welcome to the guide!
Chapter 2
Why affiliate marketing is the ultimate win-win scenario
Chapter 3
Common misconceptions about affiliate marketing
Chapter 4
Your affiliate toolkit - what you need to get started
Chapter 5
Places to find great products to promote for your niche
Chapter 6
SEO basics you need to master for affiliate marketing
Chapter 7
7 techniques you can use to promote affiliate products... without
annoying your audience!
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Chapter 1
Welcome to the guide!
Welcome to the ultimate blogger's guide to affiliate marketing!
When you first start building up a blog you might have money
on your mind or you might not.
After a few months though, most people start to wonder why
they’re doing it.
Affiliate marketing can give you the money you need to fuel
your passion and keep blogging.
Some people even make a full-time living blogging and
promoting products with affiliate marketing.
You can even build up a passive income with affiliate marketing
(despite what many people say) but I will say, it isn’t something
that will make you rich overnight. It does require that you put
the work in. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, it’s a real
business.
You might be confused and overwhelmed by all the information
available about SEO, blogging advice, email marketing and
more.
And sure, affiliate marketing is something that you can add to
that pile but that is why we wrote this. Its job is to demystify the
how part of monetising your blog with affiliate marketing.
It’s the guide I wish I had back when I started.
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So, are you ready to start learning about affiliate marketing and
how to implement it into your blog?
Let’s get stuck in!
Cheers,
Josh Kohlbach
Affiliate Marketer and founder of the ThirstyAffiliates tool for
WordPress
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Some definitions before we start…
Before we begin, let's define some common industry terms that you’ll
come across in this guide. If you don’t understand something while
reading, check back here for the definition.
Affiliate: this is the person or company that promotes products and/or
services for a merchant. In return, they receive an agreed commission for
the sale made or lead generated.
Affiliate Link: this is a special link given to the affiliate by the
merchant that is embedded with a unique tracking code. This enables the
merchant to track the sales or leads the affiliate has generated.
Affiliate Program: the affiliate program details the specifics of the
arrangement between the merchant and their affiliates, how much
commission is given, exit conditions, and other important terms. By
joining the merchant's affiliate program the affiliate agrees to these
terms and is bound by the rules of the program.
Associate: another term for an affiliate.
Commission: this is the percentage or amount a merchant pays an
affiliate for generating a sale or a lead. The exact percentage or amount is
agreed upon in the affiliate program terms.
Merchant: a store owner or company that runs the affiliate program
the affiliate is participating in. They are often the producers of the
products and/or services that affiliate promotes.
Niche: a specific topic or business area. For example, if you have a site
about yoga, your niche is yoga. On a more general level, your niche is
health and well-being. If you focus just on clothing for yoga, that is your
sub-niche.
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Other more specific definitions will be given throughout the guide for
additional terms.
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Chapter 2
Why affiliate marketing is the ultimate
win-win scenario
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People who’ve never tried affiliate marketing either think it’s too easy or
too hard for it to work. Some even believe only the lucky get rich and all
others won’t be able to make more than a couple of bucks a month.
In reality, it depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.
One truth I’d like to make clear is this: Affiliate marketing is NOT easy
money and you won’t get rich overnight from it.
There is money to be earned in affiliate marketing, but whether you’ll
earn from it or not will depend on a lot of factors such as your
commitment, experience, site traffic, etc.
In this chapter, we’ll be teaching you how you can compute your
earnings, how to make affiliate marketing profitable for you, and the
types of payment terms used by most affiliate programs along with why
affiliate marketing is the ultimate win-win scenario.
The 3 Types of Payment Terms
Affiliate programs can use different payments terms. You need to be
familiar with the three main types to get a better idea of how
commissions work.
➔ Pay per Sale: These programs pay you a percentage of the
product sale price whenever a purchase is completed.
➔ Pay per Click: You get paid depending on the number of visitors
you redirect from your affiliate site to the merchant’s website,
regardless of whether a sale is made.
➔ Pay per Lead: In this program, you get paid every time a visitor
fills out a contact form and provides their information.
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“Do I need to learn the math even if I don’t have a site yet?”
If you haven’t registered to any affiliate programs, you might think you
don’t need to learn how it all works.
Remember, affiliate marketing will only work if you are willing to
research and treat it like a real business. Real businesses do projections
even before they have a product.
If you want to set concrete and attainable goals (and reach them), you
must be familiar with the metrics. To paraphrase Peter Drucker: what
gets measured, gets managed.
Learning how to project your affiliate earnings lets you create a
sustainable marketing strategy.
The Terms & Metrics to Know
1. Commission Rate - A merchant will set a specific commission
rate for their products. This is the portion of the revenue that you
receive as an affiliate. Commission rates can range from as low as
single digits to more than 50%. Usually, digital products (such as
e-books and software) have the highest commissions while physical
products may have the lowest.
2. Clickthrough Rate (CTR) - The number of clicks your link or
links get divided by the number of times they were viewed
(impressions).
3. Earnings per 100 Clicks (EPC) - Sometimes called EPHC, this
metric gives you an idea of what other affiliates are earning
through this program. While it shouldn’t be used as a single criteria
to gauge a program’s profitability, it’s still good to analyze.
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4. Average Order Value (AOV) - The average order value is the
sum total of all orders divided by the number of orders. It’s a
handy metric to know for forecasting your sales.
5. Reversal Rate (RR) - The percentage of transactions that get
reversed by the merchant. Most affiliate programs may not provide
this data prior to registration, but some networks (such as
ShareASale) do provide this data so you can analyze.
6. Conversion Rate (CR) - This metric is the most exciting to
track. It may be a click-to-sale CR or a click-to-lead CR, depending
on the program. The conversion rate is calculated by the number of
visitors who clicked through the site offering the product/service
and made a successful purchase (or converted).
Example Scenario
Let’s assume you’re a blogger with around 10,000 page views every
month. And let's say you pick a merchant that pays 30% commission on
sales. For our calculations we’ll also assume the following values for each
metric:
CTR = 5%
EPC = $250
AOV = $125
CR = 10%
RR = 10%
We can calculate for the traffic, sales, and earnings by using the following
formulas:
Traf ic:
10,000 * 5% (CTR) = 500 click throughs
Sales:
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500 * 10% (CR) = 50 sales
50 sales - 10% (RR) = 45 sales
45 * $125 (AOV) = $5625
Earnings:
$5625 * 30% (Commission)= $1687.50
To get your personal projected EPC, you can use the following formula:
EPC:
$1687.50 (Earnings) / 500 (Traffic) * 100 = $337.50
As you can see, your personal projected EPC isn’t that far off from the
program’s actual EPC, which was set at $250.
NOTE: The above formulas may dif er from merchant to
merchant. Don’t assume these projections will apply to all af iliate
programs so please spend time to research on your own, too.
Why Affiliate Marketing Is Good For Merchants Too
Companies wouldn’t continue to have affiliate programs if they weren’t
making money from it. To give you an idea about how merchants also
earn from affiliate marketing, take a look at the formula below:
Revenue - Cost - Af iliate Commission Payment = Profit
Revenue can be seen as the gross income or “top line” figure from which
costs still need to be subtracted from.
Cost includes anything and everything the company spends on to market
and produce the product (which may include other company expenses).
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Af iliate Payment is the commission they pay to affiliate marketers like
you. Since you, as an affiliate marketer, are the one doing the product
promotion for the company, the merchant does not have to spend as
much on marketing to attain that sale – that’s what they’re paying you
the commission for.
Here’s an example scenario. Assume the following values:
Revenue: $199
Cost: $40
Affiliate Payment: $59.70 (30%)
And inserting these values into the formula, we get the merchant’s profit,
or net income.
$199 - $40 - $59.70 = $99.30 profit per sale
$99.30 is still a great margin for the company so while the $59.70
commission (30%) might seem like a lot, it’s actually probably similar or
less than what they themselves are paying to acquire a customer through
their own marketing channels.
Merchants have the potential to earn more from affiliate programs
because, as I’ve just shared with you above, they are earning without the
cost of marketing.
Of course, they’ll still have to run marketing campaigns on the side for
their products/services to gain exposure, but their profits would be
dramatically lower if they did not have affiliate programs in place.
It’s The Ultimate Win-Win Scenario
Affiliate marketing is a strategy that benefits both you and the merchant.
It has turned many average Joes and Janes into millionaires and has
helped small and large businesses grow.
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And now that you know how the math works, it should give you the
confidence you need to trust in this strategy so you can earn millions in
the future, too!
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Chapter 3:
Common misconceptions about
affiliate marketing
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If you found out about affiliate marketing from a friend, there’s a chance
you have preconceived ideas about it that are likely to be false.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t set your own expectations. But it’s
important to set the right expectations so you don’t end up discouraged
and give up before you’ve even given yourself a real chance.
So, let’s debunk a few myths surrounding affiliate marketing:
MYTH 1: Affiliate Marketing Is Easy
You may have heard people say that affiliate marketing is the easiest way
to start an online business. After all, you just need an outlet to promote
the products and affiliate links and you’re all set to go.
While that might sound like something a twelve-year old can do, the
truth is that there’s so much more to it.
Like we’ve mentioned before, affiliate marketing is a kind of business
where all your efforts may or may not reap the results you want. Just
because you’ve joined affiliate programs and own a blog, doesn’t mean
you’ll achieve overnight success.
You need to know how to convince visitors what you’re promoting is
worth their money.
Good marketing sense is also a must-have if you want to promote
effectively. People need to feel without even meeting you that you’re
someone they can trust. It’s up to you to inspire that feeling through your
product promotions.
MYTH 2: More Traffic = More Money
It’s common to think that more hits to your site automatically guarantees
more sales. So people make the mistake of writing crappy content,
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overuse ad copies, and adding as many clickbaits as they can just to get
people on their site.
There’s never been a more stupid way of making money from affiliate
marketing.
Smart affiliate marketers know that you can generate great commissions
even with just a small amount of traffic that is highly relevant to the offer
you are promoting.
It’s all about what you say, who you say it to and when you say it.
1,000 highly relevant visitors to your site is worth more than 100,000
irrelevant visitors.
Don’t ever fall into the trap of thinking more traffic is all you need to
increase sales.
MYTH 3: Affiliate Marketing Is Dead
Some may think that affiliate marketing is a thing of the past, and you
don’t really have a chance at succeeding at it today.
There are generally two reasons why people would say it’s dead:
1. They tried it and failed. Therefore everyone else is destined to fail
at it too.
2. They don’t understand it well enough.
The thing is that affiliate programs will always exist because companies
will always be releasing new products and wanting more sales.
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Having an affiliate program lets companies scale up their marketing and
access audiences they otherwise would have to pay thousands to speak to
via more traditional marketing channels.
And because there are always new products, there will always be new
niches for people to get into. It’s a never-ending marketing cycle!
MYTH 4: Your Posts Will Immediately Get Tons Of Likes And
Shares On Social Media
If you’ve been blogging for awhile you probably already know this.
Unless you’re a celebrity, it’s crazy to think your posts will automatically
go viral.
The chances are good that your posts won’t get the exposure you want
without working hard at promoting them and spreading awareness.
It’s no different for your promotional content. You have to work hard to
get it out there.
MYTH 5: Only A Few Niches Are Profitable
Another myth you shouldn’t make the mistake of believing is that only
some niches are profitable and the rest aren’t. That’s the mentality of
people who have no clue how marketing works.
The truth is that ALL niches can be profitable if you know how and
where and to whom to promote your offers.
Even if you’re promoting ballpens and notebooks, which are rarely
considered popular affiliate products to promote, you can still get sales if
you have good marketing sense.
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Put your focus on connecting buyers to the right products at the right
time.
That may mean focusing on selling to school teachers rather than to
blue-collar workers. Think about the audience you have (or want) and
connect them with the right products.
Get creative and use your imagination. You can make any niche
profitable if you set your mind and heart to it!
MYTH 6: It’s All About Earning Commissions And Sales
Contrary to popular belief, affiliate marketing isn’t all money and sales.
Of course, that’s the good part, but remember that if you do join affiliate
programs and promote products on your site you will have to take a lot of
other things into consideration.
You have the content, SEO, link-building, social media marketing,
website optimization, and everything else in between that you will need
to learn to make money from it.
MYTH 7: Affiliate Marketing Is On The Decline
As I’ve mentioned above, affiliate marketing will continue to thrive and
flourish so long as companies want to stay in business. And companies
will always want to stay in business.
Don’t automatically buy into anyone who tells you that affiliate
marketing isn’t worth doing. Do your own research and really
understand if what others tell you is true or not.
Remember, people who are quick to give up never make it anywhere in
life. It’s the people who are determined enough and resourceful enough
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to reach their goals, whether it be in life or affiliate marketing, that make
the impossible possible.
MYTH 8: Just Having Content Is Enough
Content creation is the first and one of the most important steps in
affiliate marketing.
And while it’s true that having content on your site is what drives your
affiliate marketing, the work doesn’t end there.
You’ll also need to spread your content and get people to really engage
with your site.
If your content sheds light on things they’re confused about or solves a
burning problem, they won’t hesitate to follow your product
recommendations.
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Chapter 4:
Your affiliate toolkit -
what you need to get started
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A carpenter needs a set of tools to build a house and so to does every
successful affiliate marketer need a set of tools to make them more
effective.
Of course, everyone is different. You may find yourself needing only a
few tools while others prefer using a whole wide array of them.
Here are some of the must-have tools of affiliate marketing:
1. A Steady Web Hosting Service
We’ve talked a lot about writing content so far to help you promote
affiliate products. Well, all that content needs a place to live.
Your blog’s files and database will reside at a company called a web host.
Web hosting companies provide space on their servers for people to rent
for a small monthly cost.
You might have heard about free web hosts like WordPress.com, Wix or
Blogger and it might sound like a good place to start but these free
platforms often have restrictions about the types of advertising you can
do.
Sometimes they also place ads on your blog to recoup some revenue from
the visitors landing on your site.
Ideally you should fork out for some cheap shared hosting. This is where
you share space on a server with other users.
Shared hosting suitable for affiliate marketing should cost no more than
$60-120USD a year ($5-10 a month). This cost can often be recouped
with one or two affiliate sales.
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2. A Niche or Product to Promote
Knowing what products you’re promoting will give you an idea of how to
design your website, write your content, and market them to potential
buyers.
Moreover, make sure you really know about your niche. If you don’t,
then invest time to research more about it until you know it like the back
of your hand. People are experts at sniffing out uninformed writers.
Use the information you’ve gathered to create a killer content strategy.
3. Content Management System (CMS)
Among the most popular content management systems is WordPress.
WordPress itself is free and is designed to be very user-friendly for
amateurs. You can edit a lot of things with just a few clicks.
There are tons of free themes that will give your site a unique look and
lots of plugins to provide any functionality you like.
Setting up a website might seem like hard work but the WordPress
community is very DIY driven and there are heaps of guides and friendly
people around in the WordPress community.
It’s also important that you know how to do-it-yourself so that you don’t
have to pay for a developer every time you need something changed on
your website.
4. Search Engine Optimization or SEO
For someone who’s just starting to find out about online marketing, SEO
can seem pretty daunting. There’s a lot to learn and you’ll find out that
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SEO experts don’t always agree with each other’s opinions on what the
best practices are.
Of course, if you’d like to let a professional take care of the heavy-lifting,
you also have the option of hiring an SEO expert but good ones don’t
come cheap.
You can get a good overview of the basics by reading an industry
developed guide such as Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO and this will see
you through 80% of the most effective SEO tasks.
Secondly, you should install the Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress
website. This will give you guided recommendations as to what you need
to do with your content to make it more optimized for the keywords you
are targeting.
5. Email Service and Autoresponder
Email marketing is one of the most effective online marketing strategies
there is. You should start building a list of emails from day #1.
To do email marketing effectively, you’ll need an email provider like
Mailchimp. Mailchimp provides up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000
emails per month on their Forever Free plan which is perfect for getting
started.
Their interface is very beginner friendly as well.
In future, once you start paying for your email marketing software, don’t
be afraid to evaluate other services. In the beginning though, you don’t
need a lot of features so Mailchimp is perfect for getting started.
6. Affiliate Link Management Tool
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Affiliate link management software is technically optional, however, if
you want to be successful as an affiliate marketer it’s a smart investment
in your time.
It’s very time consuming to manage even a modest number of affiliate
links across your website without tools.
A good tool, like ThirstyAffiliates, will also make it 10x easier to insert
affiliate links into your blog content.
Additionally visitors will avoid clicking long confusing looking URLs
which affiliate links appear like – tools like ThirstyAffiliates can help
provide cloaking/redirection to make those URLs appear more friendly
and clickable.
Our tool also provides bloggers with additional tools like click stats
tracking, automatic affiliate linking, geolocated links and more.
Nearly all successful affiliate marketers use a tool like ours to leverage
their time and make their affiliate marketing more effective.
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Chapter 5:
Places to find great products
to promote for your niche
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Choosing the right products to promote is one of the most crucial steps
to achieving success as an affiliate marketer.
In this chapter, we’re going to share with you five of the best places to
hunt down products you can promote as an affiliate.
The following sites are a great place to start hunting for relevant
products for your niche that offer a good commission.
1. Amazon
Everyone has heard of Amazon, the store that sells everything, but would
you be surprised to know that they started off as a book-selling website?
Now, they sell over 480 million different products in the USA alone.
That’s an extraordinarily large catalogue of products for you to choose to
promote as an affiliate! It’s no wonder that its Amazon Associates
Program is one of the most popular affiliate programs on the web.
Advantages of promoting products from Amazon:
● They are trusted by millions of shoppers
This online store is one of the most trusted in the world. Not only
do people get all their orders on time (most of the time), but they
provide excellent customer service that help customers with
anything from shopping to tracking their package.
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● They have everything
Everything except illegal items, of course. But if you’ve ever tried
drunk-shopping on Amazon and typing in the most ridiculous
thing you could think of, chances are Amazon has it. Whether it’s
underwear made from edible candy to ready-to-eat bugs from a
bag, you can find plenty of items on Amazon that can shock and
amuse.
● They are masters at ‘cross-selling’
Cross-selling means to recommend a related item before or during
a customer buys something. Amazon uses the info they get from
other people who frequently buy different things together and
throws these suggestions at other buyers to increase the average
order size (of which, you get a cut).
And because millions of people go to Amazon on an
impulse-buying marathon, they are easily persuaded into buying a
bunch of other items they don’t even need. Scary.
● They reward you for selling more
Did you know that the commission rate on Amazon starts at 4-5%?
That doesn’t sound like much. But if you can make more sales,
Amazon rewards you by bumping that rate to 10% which on bigger
items can really add up. So if you want to promote Amazon
products, aim to sell more and you’ll be rolling in commissions.
Amazon has different associate programs for different store locales. You
can choose to apply as an associate to just one or all of them separately.
Here are the signup URLs for each of Amazon’s affiliate program:
● Amazon United States (US) Associates Program
● Amazon United Kingdom (UK) Associates Program
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● Amazon Germany (DE) PartnerNet
● Amazon France (FR) Club Partenaires
● Amazon Japan (JP) Associates Program
● Amazon Canada (CA) Associates Program
● Amazon China (CN) Associates Program
● Amazon Italy (IT) Programma Affiliazione
● Amazon Spain (ES) Afiliados
● Amazon India (IN) Associates Program
● Amazon Brazil (BR) Associados
2. ClickBank
ClickBank’s affiliate program has an impressive count of 500,000
members worldwide. That should be enough to convince you that they
are a prime choice for affiliate marketing.
Their most popular affiliate products are digital and information
products like e-books and software.
Advantages of promoting products from ClickBank:
● You’re spoilt for choice
Just like Amazon, ClickBank is also home to thousands of
products. They have something for everyone. Just remember that
their products are all digital.
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● Reports are real time
Everything you need to track your sales performance is readily
accessible through their system. You’ll get real time reports on
sales, refunds, cancellations, and more.
3. Rakuten
Formerly known as LinkShare, Rakuten is also a one-stop destination for
profitable affiliate products. It’s one of the oldest affiliate networks but
they still have plenty of promoters (publishers).
Advantages of promoting products from Rakuten:
● User-friendly Control Panel
One of the best things about Rakuten is that their dashboard is
simple and straightforward. Just about anyone can use the control
panel with ease, even people who are new to affiliate marketing.
● Rotating Banners
Some would say that this is Rakuten’s strongest features. It lets you
create banners that automatically rotates your ad units at random
and saves you time while maximizing the visibility of your ads.
● Great Educational Tools
Rakuten is great for aspiring affiliate marketers because of their
comprehensive support tools. They provide training materials so
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you can optimize your affiliate marketing efforts while learning a
thing or two about affiliate networks.
4. ShareASale
This is a business that caters to multiple products from different
categories. They do charge a sign-up fee and charges per sale. As of this
writing, ShareASale has around 2,500 different merchants in its affiliate
network. Businesses of all types and sizes can be found here.
Advantages of promoting products from ShareASale:
● They support a long list of ad types, including text to image ads,
pop-ups, etc.
● They track and report your progress real-time.
● Their support service team is always there to help you out.
● They’ll give you access to training videos and guides as part of your
membership with them.
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5. Ebay
Ebay is one of the first online stores that really exploded. With over 162
million active shoppers and about 5 million merchants, it’s a one-stop
shop for great and rare products you can’t find anywhere else! Their
affiliate program is also open to 13 countries across the globe, making it
more friendly to sellers outside of the US.
Advantages of promoting products from eBay:
● The site is easy to use.
● Fast and easy-to-understand customer service.
● Is already a recognized and well-established site for sellers and
affiliate marketers.
● Wide range of products to choose from.
● You can get paid via PayPal, making payments fast and easy.
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The five choices we’ve shared with you above are among the best places
to start your search for products to promote.
It’s hardly a complete list, but if you’re just starting out, you don’t want
to be overwhelmed anyway. What’s important is that you start
somewhere.
If you already have a blog already, remember to stick to promoting
products that are in some way related to what you talk about on your
site. Don’t start promoting travel promotions if you mainly cover laptops
and gadgets, for example.
No matter how profitable a product may seem, you can’t make sales if
the people you promote them to don’t have a need for it.
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Chapter 6:
SEO basics you need to master
for affiliate marketing
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If you’re new to the whole internet marketing thing, you’re probably one
of the many people who hear about search engine optimization without
having a clue what it is or how to go about it.
Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, is a marketing discipline
that focuses on increasing the online visibility of a site or page in the
organic search results. This can include a combination of creative and
technical elements with varying results, but all with the goal of
improving the site’s natural ranking on search engines.
Do you need SEO for your website?
One of the questions people ask about SEO is whether they need it for
their website. Well, that depends. Do you want a steady flow of organic
traffic to your site? By organic, we mean you aren’t paying to have your
website promoted on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Yes, you also have the option to use paid traffic to boost your search
engine marketing through what’s called PPC (Pay-Per-Click). But for
those with no budget to commit to paid ads, you’ll need to stick with
SEO. The great thing about SEO is that the traffic you build up is
consistent and ideal for long-term goals. PPC is great for quick results,
but the traffic won’t be as valuable over time.
Now that you understand what SEO is and how it differs from paid
traffic, it’s time to learn some basic search engine optimization tricks for
affiliate marketing.
Choosing the Right Keywords
Combining affiliate marketing with SEO relies heavily on finding
products that have a great deal of search traffic. To find out what these
products are, you’ll need to do keyword research.
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Keywords are ideas or topics that represent what your content is about.
In SEO, they can be words or phrases entered into search engines.
A great way to start with SEO for a page on your blog is to begin with the
product in mind.
Once you’ve chosen a product to promote, go to Google Keyword Planner
(or use other keyword research tools) and enter a main keyword relating
to the product.
For example, if you want to promote slimming pills, your main keyword
would be “weight loss”. Click the Get Ideas button and wait for the
results to pour in.
You’ll see which keywords are most popular from the ‘Avg. monthly
searches’ column. Don’t be afraid to use high-competition search terms,
especially if you’re using SEO for long-term results, but keep in mind
that the more popular a term is, the harder it will be to rank for.
Go through at least the first 10 pages of keyword ideas and pick out
related keywords you can use for your affiliate site. You’ll be using these
keywords for creating content and optimizing your site.
And that’s it. You now know basic keyword research for affiliate
marketing!
Using Google’s Search Results
Another SEO technique to try is using Google’s search results for
keyword research. It’s one of the easiest things to do yet many people
overlook it.
Have you heard of Google’s suggest feature? This is where Google
automatically tries to complete search queries and lists other keywords
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people search for that are related. You’ve probably seen this before
without taking too much notice.
You can use these keywords for page titles, content, or inspiration for
making more targeted pages. And because Google is suggesting them,
they must be relevant to the majority of the people who use similar
search queries.
Related Searches
After you conduct a search at the bottom of the page you will also find a
section containing related searches that other people have searched for.
This is another goldmine of useful keywords and search terms that you
can use for alternate keywords on your page.
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Analyzing Page Titles From Competitors
Assuming your competitors have done their SEO research and used the
best practices, you can get plenty of ideas on what the best keywords are
from page titles.
Check Other Search Engines Too
You can also take things a step further by using the above features in
other search engines like Bing and Yahoo!. Both offer suggestions for
search queries and related searches, but you’ll get a variety of results that
offer quick insight on what people are interested in or looking for.
Keyword Research Tools
Aside from using search engines for keyword research, you can use the
following awesome (and mostly free) tools:
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● Google AdWords: Keyword Planner
This is the top pick of even the most seasoned SEO experts. Not
only is it a great tool for starting affiliate marketers, but it
continues to be a valuable companion even as you grow your site’s
content.
Keyword Planner also provides other ideas for you to try in
addition to your search term. Of course, not all of them will work,
but pay close attention to all of the keywords and ideas because you
might just find a gem.
Remember that the results this tool produces is straight from
Google, which is most likely the search engine you’re targeting for.
What better way to get info than straight from the source itself?
● WordStream Free Keyword Tool
WordStream’s Free Keyword Tool is only free for the first 30
searches but it’s worth trying if you want to know what
WordStream has to offer.
It works like any other keyword research tool. You enter your
keyword and let it do its job. If you want more than just the basic
tool, you can try also try their Free Keyword Niche Finder for more
useful results.
Free Keyword Niche Finder helps you find a profitable niche to
start with. If you’ve yet to decide on what niche to start with, this is
a tool that can point you in the right direction.
● Ubersuggest
Although the Google AdWords Keyword Planner may be the top
tool for keyword researchers, most would argue that you aren’t
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getting the whole picture unless you also run an Ubersuggest
search.
Ubersuggest produces keywords that you won’t find on Keyword
Planner. The list will be exhaustive so expect to spend some time
going through all of it.
Keywords work like a compass for increasing your site’s visibility. They
tell you which direction to go.
This is why Keyword research is important, especially at the beginning
stages. You don’t want to hustle not knowing where all of it will lead to.
Always be clear about what you want to achieve. Keywords will not only
provide clarity, but also increase the relevant traffic blog.
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Chapter 7:
7 techniques you can use
to promote affiliate products
...without annoying your audience!
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Affiliate programs wouldn’t be so popular if people had no idea how to
market. It’s a new day and age, with new methods and platforms to
choose from. For anyone who wants to earn a passive income from the
Internet, having a bag of marketing tricks you can call upon is a MUST.
Fortunately for us we live in arguably the best time for running a
business. All the information we need to succeed is more accessible than
ever!
You’re Already a Promoter...
I assume you have a social media profile, your Facebook account for
example. If you’ve ever casually mentioned how awesome a certain
restaurant was, or tagged your friends to a status about your favorite
gadget, then you’ve been casually promoting stuff.
Promoting affiliate products is kind of the same, but instead of just using
social media, you need to use varied methods to attract the right people.
Who are the right people, you ask?
That’s the specific people who have a want or need for the affiliate
products you’re recommending.
Even if they never thought about buying the product, you can still make a
sale if you put them into the buying mood.
Taking Promotion to the Next Level for Affiliate Marketing
There are hundreds of ways to promote affiliate products, but only a
handful are known to create fast and great results.
Below, you’ll find some of the best techniques used by the affiliate
marketing community.
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They’ll be your best friend when it comes to promoting for affiliate
marketing.
1. Social Media Campaigns
Social media is one of the most powerful tools you can use for increasing
your blog’s visibility and promote affiliate products. And that probably
isn’t surprising since everyone, including your boss and your
grandmother, is probably on it.
What started as a way to stay and get connected with friends and family
has now skyrocketed into the most profitable online marketing method
there is. So how do you tap into this potential goldmine?
Trial and Error
Because every business and audience demographic is unique, there’s no
one-size-fits-all strategy to succeed in social media marketing. What may
work for one online marketer may just lead to decreased sales and
minimal engagement for another.
You have to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them. Then, you
can start making adjustments or try a combination of different strategies.
Take a look at your most popular posts. What was it about that post that
really resonated with people? Take that and run with it.
Engage
If you’ve been using social media for personal stuff, we don’t need to tell
you how user engagement can really strengthen your bond with your
audience. Use a friendly, conversational tone - just like you would with a
friend you’ve known for years. People love it when you’re sincere and
genuine. It makes them feel that you really do care.
Become an Expert
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Chances are your product or service is already being promoted by
someone else on social media. To single yourself out from these other
marketers, it’s crucial that you become an expert in the eyes of your
audience.
Stretch your imagination. Go the extra mile. Do as much research as you
can on your product and service and become the person with all the
answers. Doing this gives you two legs up on the competition.
Give
Giving people free information, guides, checklists and other tools related
to your niche is another great way to stand out. Not only do you solve or
provide targeted information to your potential visitors, but you’re also
telling them you’re different from other affiliate marketers.
One good strategy is to provide your audience with interesting, or even
offbeat information they wouldn’t normally find elsewhere. Yes, this
requires a bit of creativity on your part, but it’s a tried-and-tested sales
magnet.
2. Use Search Engine Optimization
We already taught you how to use SEO for affiliate marketing. There’s a
reason why we dedicated an entire section to it: because IT WORKS.
The results won’t be immediate, but you’re investing in your affiliate
site’s future earnings. Trust me. There’s no better time to do SEO for
your site than now.
Another thing you should know about SEO is that there are two main
types: Black Hat and White Hat.
What’s Black Hat SEO?
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Black hat SEO refers to techniques and strategies that boost search
rankings by breaking the rules. Search engines like Google are strict
about optimizing websites with the user in mind. Remember that we
discussed keywords in the previous section. Naturally, the more
keywords your site contains, the more Google will recognize it as a
relevant site when people use queries that contain your keywords.
That’s how things used to work.
Today, there’s such a thing as keyword stuffing, link farming, blog
content spamming, hidden links, site rings and more. These are all terms
used for banned techniques. Site’s that are heavily optimized using Black
hat SEO are NOT reader-friendly and rarely provide users a good
experience.
What’s White Hat SEO?
White hat SEO are techniques and strategies that prioritize the human
experience as opposed to a search engine. The usual strategies used are
keyword analysis, using keywords in content, doing research, using meta
tags, backlinking, and link building.
Between the two, white hat SEO is the ideal choice since you’re investing
in the long-term results of your site. In return, the results you get are
also meant to last a long time and that will help you sleep at night.
3. Blogging
You’re a blogger, so do what you do best!
Content creation is considered a core activity of online marketing and it
can help you promote products in more ways than you might initially
think.
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You can post product reviews, create infographics, create how-to blog
posts that your readers can share, videos such as unboxing videos or
how-to videos demonstrating the product, podcast mentions, and much
more.
Tutorials are a great, low barrier to entry way of creating content to
promote the use of a product. It’s one of the best-performing types of
content for affiliate marketing because it shows the product in use in a
real scenario. People can visualise owning it and are more likely to be in
the buying mood by the time they finish your tutorial.
Even if you can’t or don’t write, you can get other people to write content
on your site for you. Another approach is to invite guest post writers that
can help with your product promotion.
Your blog is yours to use as you please! As long as you aren’t breaking
any rules, you can really get creative here.
4. Regular Emails or Newsletters
What better way to stay in touch with your visitors than to turn them
into email subscribers?
Emails are a personal communication medium. It’s a great way to engage
with people one-on-one and introduce the products you are promoting.
Interestingly one of the best ways to use email marketing is to avoid
selling directly, but instead give a teaser to lead them further into your
promotional content.
It’s good to keep regular contact with your subscribers so start sending a
monthly (or even weekly/fortnightly) email newsletter.
Getting Subscribers
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One very effective way to attract subscribers is to offer something in
exchange for their email. That could be a freebie, a discount, or a PDF
(like this one!).
If you’re offering an information product in the form of a PDF or an
email course then you have the opportunity to warm your readers up
before you start pitching them to buy something.
Spend some time, give them something valuable and you will be
rewarded with a loyal subscriber that will actually listen to what you have
to say.
NOTE: Most af iliate programs don’t allow af iliate links to
be posted in information products or emails directly. Make
sure you check your af iliate program’s Terms & Conditions
and other policies before you place af iliate links anywhere
on your site just to be safe.
5. Create Helpful Videos
If you aren’t camera-shy, then you have the chance to provide your
customers the most helpful videos ever.
Video tutorials, unboxing videos, and product demonstrations are
unbeatable when it comes to providing viewers the information they
need and getting people into the buying mood.
With videos you can unleash your creativity and make yourself really
stand out. You can even use animation to demonstrate how products
work.
If you don’t possess video-editing skills, hire an expert who can make
videos for you. If you already have some editing skills or are willing to
invest time to learn, then you can really take your content (and affiliate
sales) to new heights with video promotion.
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6. Add Banners and Buttons to Your Site
Using banners and buy buttons can do wonders for the click through rate
on your affiliate links.
As long as you place them appropriately and don’t overload your site
with them which reduces their effectiveness (also why you should be
wary of taking up advertising on a site full of ads already).
The key with banners is to make them feel like they are in fact clickable.
One of the biggest mistakes people make with placing banners or ads on
their site is that they don’t make them appear clickable. This just
screams “I’m a nasty ad! Don’t click me!”.
If you spend some time to design a thoughtful promotional banner that
fits into your design it can perform very well.
7. Offer Promos, Incentives, Coupons, or Loyalty Rewards
Customers are always on the hunt for bargains and discounts and
affiliates have a great opportunity to find these offers and put them in
front of their readers. It can really help explode your affiliate sales.
There are even whole sites dedicated to just finding coupons and putting
them in front of customers. However, as a blogger you have leverage with
your audience and a level of trust, which gives you an advantage.
A coupon or promotion notice from you is worth much more to them
than just finding one on the web themselves.
“Do I Need to Use Every Technique?”
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Every niche and every affiliate site is different. Some of these techniques
will get you fast results, while others won’t.
Try each of them at least once and from there you’ll be in a position to
see what worked and what didn’t for your audience. Make adjustments to
your promotional mix and take note of which techniques work best for
you.
Remember that creating a repeatable affiliate marketing strategy
requires time and effort. Unfortunately there is no shortcut.
You’ll find plenty of guides or crashcourse articles, but in the end, there’s
just no beating actual experience.
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Conclusion
We’ve reached the end of this guide… *sadface*
But don’t worry – this is where your journey begins!
Here’s your NEXT STEPS:
1. Pick and research your niche
Remember that it is possible to make any niche profitable. However, that
doesn’t mean you shouldn’t choose from a list of popular niches that are
easier to promote. Do your research, choose a niche you know you can
promote well, and find out what keywords you should rank for.
2. Create a website in a shared hosting platform
There are plenty to choose from, but the common favorites are Bluehost,
HostGator, SiteGround, and GoDaddy. Rule of thumb is that it shouldn’t
cost more than $60 USD a year. You can move to more sophisticated
hosts once you have some traction and lots of visitors.
3. Install WordPress – it really is the best content platform
Depending on where you create your hosting account, the process for
installing WordPress will differ. Many have a 1-click install where you to
fill in the fields on screen and click ‘Install’.
4. Install ThirstyAf iliates plugin
Visit: https://thirstyaffiliates.com
[Shameless plug alert!] ThirstyAffiliates is our free plugin that will help
you manage and insert your affiliate links into your blog. It really is a
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great tool but don’t just take my word for it, look through the reviews on
the plugin page and you’ll see dozens of people saying how it has
changed the way they do affiliate marketing.
You can use it to cloak ugly affiliate link URLs and turn them into more
appealing ones that are redirected via your own site… and did we
mention it’s FREE? Check it out..
View the plugin on WordPress.org →
5. Create a content plan
Good content strategy is the key that will unlock the gates to massive
affiliate earnings. Plan it accordingly. Approach it with some strategy,
adjust, tweak and repeat and you will find success.
Just remember my golden rule: Make your content useful.
To maintain a positive relationship with readers you must make sure
your content offers value while naturally leading your audience to a
product recommendation.
Force feeding affiliate offers down people’s throat does not work.
Also, if you want to get the most out of your content plan, don’t forget to
use search engine optimization recommendations we shared in this
guide. Content marketing and SEO go together like peanut butter and
jelly.
And that’s it...
You are now ready to rock the affiliate marketing world.
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We hope this guide has given you a clearer picture of what affiliate
marketing is and isn’t, how it can generate a passive online earning, and
what techniques you can use to start you off on the right foot.
This guide was brought to you by:
Visit Us:
https://thirstyaffiliates.com
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