When it comes to making money with a blog, advertising can become a headache.
That’s why recently, many bloggers have gotten into using affiliate programs to monetize their blog, and some have seen some outstanding success with these programs.
These few are the outliers, however, and many bloggers struggle to even make a single affiliate sale.
Worse yet, it’s almost always because they are using affiliate links in the wrong way, when they should be taking cues from the big bloggers they follow.
Below I am going to show you how to instantly double your affiliate sales on your site.
It is going to take some extra work and it won’t be easy, but I guarantee that if you do things this way, you’ll be doing them the right way.
1.) Show, Don’ Tell (Using Videos)
One of my biggest inspirations in the affiliate marketing game is
Pat Flynn of the Smart Passive Income blog.
While some (perhaps including Pat himself) wouldn’t classify him simply as an “affiliate marketer” (he does much more than that), he is definitely one of the best in the biz.
That being said, Pat is quite a role model for affiliate marketers to follow, because he doesn’t rely on trickiery or false promises in his strategy for getting affiliate sales.
In fact, Pat uses all 3 of the techniques that I’m about to mention, but he absolutely excels at one in particular: showing, not telling.
When it comes to getting the affiliate sale, you have to SHOW the potential customer how a product or service will benefit them, not just tell them about it.
And there is no more powerful form of showing than actual video of the product’s usage.
Now I understand that this won’t be applicable for all affiliate products (such as e-Books), but it is very effective for practically everything else.
It’s effective because it gives people a behind the scenes look of how to effectively use what they are about to buy.
While the sales pages of most products will tout the benefits, sales pages are less likely to be believed, just like advertisements are less likely to be believed.
They show you the product, but what’s the guarantee that it will work as advertised?
That’s where the smart affiliate marketer comes in.
Using a hands on video for the product (uploaded on YouTube, which brings in more traffic!) to guide people through the actual uses of the product and showing it in action will lead you to a guaranteed increase in affiliate comissions, as you earn people’s trust by showing them how they can use said product themselves.
Showing leads to trust, and trust leads to more sales.
Which brings me to my next point…
2.) Be Genuine
There is nothing that will bring your affiliate sales down then if you come off as a sleaze who knows nothing about the product you’re promoting.
Ideally, you will love and actively use the product that you are about to promote before you even consider linking to it.
If you are strapped on cash, and building a new site, this is exacly why you should not be plastering affiliate links and ads all over the place: you should be focused on creating a resource that people want to visit, and promoting the products that you do actively use at the time, but in a natural way.
One of the most natural ways to do just that is to use text-based affiliate links in comprehensive posts that thoroughly cover a large topic.
For instance, AWeber is a popular tool for many bloggers, and they offer a rewarding affiliate program.
If you wanted to promote AWeber, a “review post” will likely not be as effective as a post that highlights the benefits of email marketing and building a list, with a few text affiliate links to AWeber, which you tout as your preferred email service of choice.
This type of post will be much better recieved because people will see that you are interested in providing valuable content and not just getting them to click on an affiliate link.
Now imagine you threw in a video of yourself actively managing your list on AWeber, highlighint it’s benefits and superior capabilities… I think you see where I’m going, be genuine and providing actual usage will build trust, which in turn (say it with me) will increase sales.
3.) Focus Your Offerings
When most people start with affiliate marketing, they tend to get stuck in a phase of “ooh shiny!”, promoting every semi-related product under the sun in hopes of a sale.
What they don’t realize is that instead of being beneficial to their conversions and income, this is a disastrous move to their potential earnings.
Having focus in the products you promote is beneficial for a number of reasons.
First is that with an emphasis on a certain selection of products, you will discuss their benefits more and show that you really use them and believe in their worth, building trust.
Second is that bombarding people with tons of affiliate links is not only in poor taste (which people will catch on to), but it diversifies your options too much.
When give too many choices, many people will opt for none, or take so long to decide that you’ll lose the sale.
Focus ensures people know exactly what products you actively use, will guarantee their familiarity with them as they come back to your blog, and will make your links out more legitimate: people will know you only link to the good stuff, and aren’t just linking them to every product in the world, good or bad, just for the affiliate sale.
by Gregory
Want to learn more about affiliate sales and content marketing? Head on over to Sparring Mind, the marketing blog made just for WordPress bloggers like you, proving that you don’t have to be a tech geek to have an excellent and profitable blog.
