How to Make Money with Affiliate Links -

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There are so many ways to make money during this time in history and one of the most exciting ways is via affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in layman’s terms, is basically when individuals get a percentage of each sale they send to a company which is attributed to their affiliate link after someone signs up for that good or service with their specific link. Basically, people are getting paid to share their favorite products with the world.

While affiliate marketing isn’t necessarily hard, there is an art to doing it well and with integrity. Also, there are some very specific guidelines that should be followed when you’re sharing your affiliate links. Take this quiz to find out if you are making any of the top 5 mistakes people make with affiliate marketing.

First, affiliate marketers who do really well almost always are super fans of the product that they are sharing. It’s much easier to enthusiastically share a product that you’re obsessed with and have actually used versus trying to share something that you don’t use and don’t know much about.

Think about how recommendations occur in your regular life. For example, you’re looking for a new hairstylist. If you ask for a recommendation on social media your friends will enthusiastically share who’s the best hair stylist is in town. They will also naturally share what their experience was like when they went to the salon, the cost, and what to expect.

Affiliate marketers do the same thing, the only difference is that there is an additional step: getting people to click on the affiliate link associated with their favorite product.

Affiliate Marketing and Blogging

Like many people, I was first exposed to affiliate marketing via blogging. I would read my favorite blogs and the bloggers would share their favorite products in a blog post. The readers would then click on the link and if they eventually decided to make a purchase, then the blogger would make some affiliate income.

Making money with affiliate links as a blogger is pretty straightforward, but in order for the income to really grow, the blogger needs to focus on the following.

Affiliates that match the blog’s content– It can be very tempting to sign up for every affiliate program under the sun and write posts about various topics. Hoping that you will eventually make affiliate money. That won’t work. Instead, focus on finding affiliate programs that are a natural fit for your blog’s content. If you’re blogging about travel, then travel-related goods and services potentially are the types of affiliates that you would want to link to in your blog posts.

Sharing your affiliate links often-It’s not enough to share your favorite affiliate one time. You will need to share it as often as possible in as many blog posts as possible. In fact, if you decide to research this before developing your affiliate linking strategy, you’ll notice on websites that report making a ton in affiliate income that they are sharing the same affiliate links in literally every single post.

Design Posts with Affiliate Marketing in Mind-There is a reason why you will find so many find the perfect gift blog posts online. Most of those have affiliate links for Amazon, Etsy, or other companies that run affiliate programs. Blog topics that can do well for affiliate links also include: how to posts where the blogger helps readers set up their blog, podcast, or vlog.

Social Media and Affiliate Marketing

One of the most low-key and simple ways to share your favourite affiliates is via social media. There are a couple of ways you can do this. The first and most obvious is just making the point to share your link as often as possible. Most affiliate programs will connect whichever social media profile that you would like to share it on. However, make sure it is within the rules for the program.

The other way that marketers should share their affiliates on social media is by sharing their experience with their affiliate products on their social media feeds. Again, your focus is on sharing products that you’re OBSESSED with. There’s no room for lukewarm accolades.

And when you’re on social media sharing your favorite affiliate products be prepared to answer the questions that your followers may ask you. That interaction may be the difference between getting someone to sign up for your favorite affiliate or walking away from it.

Podcasts and Affiliate Marketing

Many podcasters struggle with the best way to monetize their shows-especially when they are first starting out and have low show downloads. One of the easiest ways to share your affiliate links is to share your affiliate as a pre/mid/or end roll ad. Basically, an ad that is either at the beginning/middle/or end of your show. You do have to disclose that you’re an affiliate of the program in your talking points. Hence, you would have to do that in a blog post too.

You could, and should, also share affiliate links in your podcast’s show notes as well. It’s not enough to just talk about your favorite affiliate in the show, you also need to direct them to your show notes so that your listeners can click on the link.

You would follow this same process if you host a vlog and are showing some of your favorite products in the vlog.

Affiliate Marketing Isn’t Hard

If you’re the type of person who loves to share their favorite products, affiliate marketing may work well for you. While it’s not hard to do, it can be challenging to stay focused and grow your affiliate income over time.

Less is more-Make it easy on yourself and focus on a small number of affiliates that make sense for your brand and what you’re doing. Focusing on 10 or fewer affiliates will make it easier for you to begin earning money.

Don’t forget about sharing the affiliates that help your readers do what you’re doing. There are affiliate programs for all of the tools connected to starting a blog, vlog, or podcast. You may be inspiring your readers/listeners/watchers to embark on the same journey that you’re on. Help them by sharing the tools that you use to get your content out into the world.

Create a systems sheet so that you’re consistently sharing your affiliates.

What are Cookies?

No, I’m not talking about the yummy food. I’m talking about the holy grail of affiliate marketing. Cookies are basically the electronic signature that remembers who clicked on your affiliate links. The more people clicking on those links, the better it is for you!

Once they make a purchase, the cookie remembers that you clicked on the link and attributes a small percentage of the sale to you.

Understanding how cookies work in relation to the different affiliate programs that you belong to is key to your affiliate marketing strategy. Some programs have a 24 hour cookie, 7 day cookie, 30 days, or 365 days. Understanding how each program works will help you create a much more effective affiliate marketing strategy.

Affiliate Marketing is Fun

I personally love affiliate marketing and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Create a strategy, study the pros, and have fun along the way. And, more importantly, hopefully you’ll begin making some money too.

Read four easy ways to monetizing your blog