Welcome to Lesson 3 of the 30 Days To Your Profitable Blog challenge. Today we are going to continue with a lesson affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a common way to begin monetizing your blog. Affiliate marketing involves endorsing products and linking them on your blog. If someone makes a purchase from your link, you earn a commission.
Perhaps the most widely used and popular affiliate program is Amazon Associates. So for today’s lesson I wanted to use Amazon as an example of how to utilize affiliate marketing on your blog. Keep in mind that is strategy can be used for other affiliate programs as well.
Amazon has such a wide selection of items available there, that you’re sure to find ones that fit with your blog’s content and your personal values. In addition, millions of people are already using Amazon for their regular purchases, it makes sense that they would be comfortable clicking on your link to buy the item. Take a look below to learn more about the Amazon Associates program, its benefits, and how to get started promoting Amazon affiliate products on your blog.
More On Amazon Associates
Amazon’s affiliate program is called Amazon Associates. It’s free to become an Associate. The program allows you to advertise products sold on Amazon on your website or blog and then earn a commission when visitors make a purchase from your unique link. It’s a great option for newbies to affiliate marketing because you can get started right away and don’t have to create your own products or services.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
Amazon Associates offers a host of other benefits. Because everyone is familiar with Amazon and so many people are already using the site on a regular basis, it doesn’t take much of a stretch to convince your website visitors to click on your links. If they like what they see, there’s a good chance they’ll buy it. You can get nearly anything on Amazon. That means it will likely be quite easy to find products to promote on your blog. The key is promoting items that fit with the theme of your blog and that resonate with your audience. You can even get credit for the items you’re already buying. In fact, it’s usually best if you’ve tried the items you promote on your blog so that you can stand behind them enthusiastically.
Your Affiliate Marketing Strategy
Amazon Associates works by allowing you to place affiliates links to products you wish to promote directly into your blog. A unique tracking code is generated for each product, and you simply place that code on your blog where you want it to appear. When users click on that link and make a purchase, a commission is added to your Amazon Associates account.
You can display links in a variety of ways on your blog. Here are my favorite methods for using affiliate links:
1. Use Text Links
Text only links are good for placing within posts to a keyword that flows naturally within a sentence.
2. Add Image Links
You can also add image links or text and image links if you want to display an eye-catching photo within your post or in your sidebar.
3. Utilize Your Widget (Sidebar, header, footer, etc)
The most under utilized promotion places on your website is in your widgets. Your widget usually refers to your sidebar but it can also refer to your header or footer. A widget link lets you showcase a variety of products you would like to promote to your readers.
4. Use Buttons (Bonus Method!!)
My favorite method is to use buttons. Buttons make a great call-to-action and are totally under utilized in my opinion. You can easily direct your readers attention whether on a blog post or sales page.
More Strategies
The best strategy is to use a combination of methods I mentioned above. But if you want to be a true rock star when it comes to affiliate marketing you may want to work on your branding.
Did you know it’s possible to customize things like background color, image size, and title color before placing links in your blog. Once you get a link set up and customized the way you like it, you simply place the generated code where you’d like to see it on your blog platform. It’s quite simple once you get the hang of it. (Pro Tip: be consistent with your brand color by using one or two colors only. It not only show professionalism but also has your readers associate your brand with your recommendations.)
Commissions increase with the more items you successfully convert to sales each month. So make sure you are making it easy for your readers to buy. You can check your progress in your Associates dashboard.
Amazon Associates is a program that many bloggers take advantage of for monetizing their blog. It’s easy, convenient, and has the potential to convert quite well due to Amazon’s popularity. Give it a try and don’t be afraid to engage in a little bit of trial and error to see what works best for you and your audience.
Final Thoughts
Here I gave you several ideas on where and how to promote products on your website. But the hard truth is that you will to step up your game to get readers to your blog. However, with the right content strategy you can promote your affiliate products and even your own with ease. Try out my Content Promotion workbook where you learn the exact strategy to get viewers to your blog.
Have you tried to promote affiliates on your blog? What has worked for you? Let us know in the comments below.
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