Affiliate marketing strategies for beginners
In this guide, I'll show you some smart affiliate marketing strategies that you can use to increase your sales and income.
If you've read my income reports, you know that I earn most of my income from affiliate marketing.
If you're new, read How to Start Affiliate Marketing to understand the basics.
Here are some of the best strategies I've used as an affiliate marketer over the past 4 years to make more money online:
What is affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing
is all about making money by selling products you didn't create. You
choose a great product, become an affiliate and market it with the goal
of making sales.
Once a qualified sale is made, you get a fixed percentage of the commission.
For thousands of bloggers, affiliate marketing is the key to their passive income.
The illustration below will give you a mental map of the entire affiliate marketing process:
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Certain Type of Affiliate Programs are :
CPC
CPA
Subscription
Bonded
You would have heard of the first two; however, the latter may confuse you. Below, I've explained how the four differ and work, and after that, we'll discuss which one works best (and for whom).
1.CPC - CPC stands for cost per click. When you join an affiliate program that gives you commissions based on CPC, you receive a commission every time someone clicks on your affiliate links, banners or other marketing materials such as custom images and infographics.
We often use this term in the impression-based advertising industry; however, some affiliate programs pay with these criteria.
2.CPA - CPA stands for Cost Per Action. In this method of affiliate marketing, you earn a commission only when a visitor converts to a paying customer for the merchant you are promoting. This means that the person you referred, the merchant, would have to buy something in order to make your referral eligible for a fixed commission, such as a WPEngine affiliate.
When you join a program that pays you on a CPC basis, it means you have to drive real customers to that merchant who will take an action such as buying a product, renting a product, or offering a drive.
3. Subscription - Must be similar to what the word recurring means. Recurring paid affiliate programs are those that pay you over and over again either for a fixed amount of time or for the life of the program.
Recurring commissions mean that you have to refer a customer once, then each time the customer renews or extends their subscription, you earn a commission. This is where you generate truly passive income - sponsor a customer once, and earn money until they continue to pay the merchant.
Criteria can be seen in SaaS and hosting affiliate programs that require recurring payment by the customer for using the service. Examples - Unbounce, SEMrush, etc.
4. Bonded - This is the most lucrative and "not so popular" affiliate program commission rule. The bonded commission system goes like this: you refer a customer to an online course or subscription product website.
The customer then fills out a form, generates a lead, and enters development into the company's sales funnel. That's right.
The consumer is then linked to you. Every activity of that customer will be tracked and if more sales are made by that customer, you will get paid.
When an affiliate program pays you on a bonded commission basis, it means that they will pay you commissions without you doing anything.
Based on the four types of affiliate marketing above, you should choose and promote products that would earn you a recurring commission.
However, it still has a small share in terms of merchants to promote. The most well-known and openly practiced type of affiliate marketing is CPA. Almost every other merchant has an affiliate program that pays you on a CPA basis.
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Making money with CPA programs
Affiliate programs pay for cost per action. To get the most out of your sales, you need to make sure you choose products based on certain standards and rules.
I have two and a set of standards before promoting a product on my blog and below. I've shared everything.
Rule 1 - Promote a relevant product
Following my previous agenda, I will not promote any irrelevant product on this blog. This also does not create sales or impress any of the visitors.
I recommend choosing affiliate products carefully. A few months ago, I found an amazing affiliate marketplace called Flexible Offers. It's great to find well-paying affiliate programs in every possible niche.
I searched for WordPress and web service niches on Foffres lex and found several affiliate programs, including MaxCDN and Domination pop-up.
Promoting relevant products has been a major contributor to my affiliate income. From $200 to over $1000/month in XNUMX months of blogging, I have seen many tactics that help you increase your affiliate income.
This helps my readers make better decisions because they can relate to the product I am promoting. You can check out my earnings and traffic reports here.
Rule 2 - Hidden Links
Hiding my affiliate links gave me a sense of peace. I didn't have to worry that my affiliate income would be stolen or that I wouldn't get paid for my hard work.
It also helps me track the percentage of valid clicks as well as it provides branding for external links. With a link masking plugin, you don't have to manually add a Nofollow attribute (which keeps my SEO healthy)to each link, and it also helps with link management by stacking them into categories.
I suggest adding a link hiding plugin as soon as possible as it will help you work more efficiently if you start doing this from the very beginning.I have been using ThrstyAffiliates on my blog since 2016 and it works great. Here is a step by step guide to closing your first affiliate link.
Rule 3 - Product, Service or Merchant Reputation
This is one of the most important aspects to research before promoting a merchant, product or service on your blog. Sometimes a product may look very promising at first, but what about its performance. Is it specific enough. Will it Use of one on industry standards, will people love it?
You need to thoroughly research a product's past and present; you promote it and make sure it's reputable enough and delivers on its promise.
Rule 5 - Buy, Use, Experiment and Promote
This rule is great for making cents in dollars. Before you promote a product. Buy it. Think of it as an investment. Take a few days and get to know the inner workings of the product and try to find the pros and cons in depth.
After you've had direct experience with the product, write a detailed review or tutorial mentioning the experience and time you've had with the product. Add your opinions and tips and help people better understand the product.
Promote established products and services
When selecting the product to promote, many affiliate marketers miss this.
It's hard to generate a sale or even a lead by promoting a relatively new product as an affiliate where all of your income depends on a sale. So what I do is I pick a product on one of my similar niche sites that converts well enough to promote.
This helps me build a relationship with pre-existing merchants who see great results on my niche website, and it also helps me get exclusive offers.
Let's take an example. LongTailPro is a keyword research tool that has a sales ratio of 16.2 (approximately) out of 100 leads on one of a blog. I see it converting very well on some blogs similar to my niche.
Now there is a relatively new keyword research tool called KWfinder that has lower sales numbers and doesn't convert well enough.
Here, I can confidently promote LongTailPro on my blog. This has verified the quality of the products and the needs of my readers without spending a single penny.
Similarly, for hosting. i know Bluehost works exceptionally well because of its attractive and simple landing page look. I can sign up for Bluehost affiliate and promote it without worries because it offers the best quality of service to most beginners.
It will work for you forever. Use it and I hope your sales will double at least in 30 days or less.
Email Advertising (Game Changer)
Here's a spoiler:
Email marketing is the most effective affiliate marketing strategy in any niche and for any product.
Email marketing is one of the hidden strategies to generate direct affiliate sales faster than any other means. Since the beginning of online communication, email has been an enduring source for connecting with customers and readers.
However, list building is now helping many bloggers and online marketers generate thousands of sales with minimal effort for a long time. The first step in email marketing is to set up an email marketing service.
In the next step, collect as many emails using some lead generation plug-ins and tools. This will help you convert your visitors into potential customers.
A great way to make money from affiliate marketing is to set up automated emails that run on autopilot and give you more time to focus on other campaigns that will generate more revenue and profit for you.
You can also add a signature affiliate link to your emails for a product that you use regularly and would also like to recommend to your subscribers. Check out this guide to starting an email list.
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Sales funnel
The sales funnel is a multi-scale project. You can set up a sales funnel to strategically promote an affiliate product. This can be done on your website but the best sales funnel can be extracted by combining it with email marketing.
A funnel sale works like this - You capture a prospect via one of the sign-up forms on your website. Once the subscriber confirms that they are subscribing to your funnel list, the promotion begins.
The first email is a set to give a sense of introduction and get familiar with your subscriber. This does not include any affiliate promotion. Keep it as personalized as possible to create a great first impression that stays with you forever.
I set the second email to ask subscribers their interests and opinions. You can also include a QnA in your email to get a list of issues they are facing.
The third email will contain an affiliate link to the most relevant product or service that is the best option you are considering to solve a particular problem. Remember to show them value by including your personal experience and try to write the emails to a mentor rather than being overly commercial.
Content marketing
If you have never come across this term, I guess you don't know how blogging works for a website that has something to sell.
When we say promote a product on a blog by writing an article, or if we say, drive traffic to a website by creating content, promote a product for a commission, it is all content marketing.
Simplified - Content marketing is about driving targeted traffic that generates sales through useful and informative content. It's a true inbound marketing strategy.
When I write a blog post about a PPC keyword research tool, or when I write about mailerlite or the Fiverr Affiliate Program, that's content marketing.
Here, I am trying to generate traffic from search engines to send more traffic and generate more sales to these websites that pay me the commission on each success.
My content helps me market these products, which helps me earn money since I am affiliated with everything I promote.
Using banners
Banners are easy to use and run on autopilot. Set it and forget it. Since we are talking about affiliate promotion banners here, we will get paid for any action that is taken by a visitor that we refer.
However, I strategically place each promotion banner so that people with different interests see a different banner.
If you browse an article in the WordPress category, you will see a Hostgator banner between the post after 5 paragraphs. This helps me get the maximum number of clicks on this banner, as people browsing the WordPress category post should be interested. WordPress Hosting.
Similarly, I place a HubSpot banner in the online marketing category and media.net banner in the make money category. I suggest you do the same and in a few moments you will see better CTR and action on your affiliate banners.
I use the WPAdvanced Ad Plugin for ad grouping and rotation. This plugin helps me to target specific regions and visitors differently. The advanced ads plugin helps me to geo-target my banners.
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High ticket products
Safe. This needs to be completed. I promote many small products and micropayments on BforBloggers. But that doesn't help me make a living from it.
Some products like Sucuri and RisingCurrentplus pay a very low commission to its affiliates. I still promote them because I use them and trust them.
However, I do promote some high paying products such as Kinsta hosting. Why do I do this? Because when I talk to any of their team members or affiliate managers, they give a series of certified customers with testimonials that prove they are the best in the business.
High priced products should be promoted because they bridge the gap between low income and high expenses. While choosing the high-priced products. All of the same rules apply as we discussed above. You can find such programs on marketplaces such as ShareASale.
Promotion of the landing page
Landing pages must be organized. When a visitor first arrives on your website and finds your content interesting, he is likely to learn more about you by accessing your landing page.
If your landing pages just look pale, you'll end up losing sales. To get the most out of your landing pages, convert them into a lead capture page or make them a visitor funnel.
Read this guide to find your best landing pages and then get the Elementor Or Unbounce landing page builder. Using LeadPages, you can create high converting landing pages with a drag and drop builder.
You can also set up a funnel system via these pages. Imagine a visitor arriving at your landing page. The visitor then scrolls down a bit and finds a beautiful, interactive demonstration of how you can use Convertkit for e-mail marketing. That visitor will click the button to learn more about how it helped you.
Don't sell the product directly, create content that shows and demonstrates the useful side, and make the visitor fall in love; with it.
Social proof
Focus on your memory and try to remember it. You visited a blog or website that has the software, ebook or any type of product for sale. You were browsing the web page and suddenly you see a little FOMO bar
This pop-up was telling you that just a moment ago, a man named John bought a product from this website. This FOMO bar gave you proof of this and it gave you a good reason to buy the product. This is called social proof.
You can use the WPformify WordPress Plugin to add the same FOMO bars to your blog to promote your product reviews and increase your revenue as an affiliate. Read the WPFomify from XNUMX studies in and learn how to use it.
You can see it in action at the MonsterInsights blog.
Scarcity marketing of affiliate products
The very effective and high converting type of promotion is scarcity marketing. While browsing some websites, we come across promotions that are offered to us for a limited time.
Sometimes these websites may tell us that a product has limited stock that will end soon.
This is how scarcity marketing works. You can also start promoting some affiliate products using scarcity marketing.
A very impressive WordPress plugin is Thrive Ultimatum by thrive themes that work very well to promote limited offers on WordPress websites. Check out Thrive Ultimatum.
This means that without prior planning, you would be missing out on a lot of opportunities that could prove to be profitable for your business.
If you're just starting out in affiliate marketing, make sure you use landing pages and banners from the beginning. This will at least give you the opportunity to convert visitors.
I would stick to all my rules before choosing a product and suggest you start with some selected products first. keep your focus on one or two products at a time and improve your marketing skills as much as through continuous learning.
Email marketing must be completed effectively. Even if you are starting a blog and have no money to spend, you can still use MailChimp to collect your visitor's email. This will help you create a long list of potential customers in record time.
Here are some affiliate marketing tools that will prove useful.
What affiliate marketing strategies will you adopt used to increase your sales?
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