Well, you may have been trying to make money with affiliate marketing for sometime or you’re just doing research on how to get started with affiliate marketing, I want to let you know that affiliate marketing is legit. However some of the tactics and strategies that are commonly taught are not legit.
In this article I’m going to be talking about a few of the strategies that are not going to work for affiliate marketing I also want to talk about a strategy that is successful. The successful strategy takes time and hard work and that’s why most people don’t see results.
A lot of people first getting into affiliate marketing think that they will make a lot of money very quickly and I’m going to tell you right now that’s not how this works.
Disclaimer*
By writing this blog post do I in no way promise you will make any money. These are just personal conclusions I have drawn. This in not professional business or legal advice. If you are successful or not will not be determined my this blog post.
What is Affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing in its simplest terms is you recommending products and services that someone else created to your audience. To find products and services to promote you’ll either need to join an affiliate program or an affiliate network. Once you’ve joined one of these they will give you an affiliate link which you can share with your audience and when someone makes a purchase through that affiliate link you will be paid a commission.
FTC Rules for Affiliate Marketing
If you plan you promoting affiliate links I suggest you read up on the FTC ( Federal Trade Commission) rules before doing so.
FTC.COM Disclosures Guide
The FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking
What does not work in affiliate marketing?
Spam
One of the most common ways people first try to make sales when they get into affiliate marketing is just by spamming their affiliate links anywhere they can. When I first started I’m not gonna lie I did this tactic as well and I did not see any good results from it.
The only thing you’re going to do if you spam your affiliate links is annoy people and waste your own time. I do not suggest a strategy especially if you want to make serious money with affiliate marketing. This is not a sustainable strategy for long-term passive income.
Only Using Social Media
The second most common way I see people try to get into affiliate marketing is using just social media to promote their affiliate links. I feel like the strategy is very similar to the first one where you are basically just spamming people with your affiliate links. This also is not a good strategy.
Well there are a lot of people using social media these days I think it’s best to have a homebase or an Internet property that you can only control instead of just social media accounts.
Sending Traffic Straight to Your Affiliate Link
Unfortunately this is the tactic I thought would be the end-all of strategies and it’s actually not very successful either. Whether you’re just using social media accounts spamming people with your affiliate link or buying ads and sending people straight to your affiliate offer the conversion rate is not going to be above 2%. Chances are your conversion rate will probably be 0%.
This is the most common mistake I see new affiliate marketer is making. There’s a lot of gurus who say if you just buy Facebook ads and send people straight to affiliate offers you’ll make a ton of money and I’m gonna tell you right now that strategy does not work.
While you can get very specific targeting using Facebook ads it’s much better to send people to helpful information then straight to a sales page.
What Affiliate Marketing Strategies Do Work?
Starting a Blog
I honestly think starting a blog is the best bet for someone new to affiliate marketing or someone who has had very little success in affiliate marketing.
Now you can’t just start a blog about anything and I don’t recommend choosing a blog topic based on the price of an affiliate offer or the commissions you can earn by selling particular I affiliate products.
I recommend starting a blog on something you know quite a bit about and are very passionate about. For example I am totally fascinated with 3-D printing so I started a blog about 3-D printing. If I had started a blog about personal finance tools I could’ve certainly found affiliate links for those tools. I could have written some articles about that topic. But there would be no passion! Passion is what really is going to push your affiliate links to be clicked.
Picking a Niche
Before starting your blog you really need to figure out what you’re going to be writing about. This is referred to as your niche. Picking a niche that you feel comfortable writing about, have a passion for and have experience in will make writing a blog 3000 times easier.
Once you decided your niche I think it’s a good idea that you come up with at least 30 different blog topics or titles that you could write about that fit inside your chosen niche. It’s much easier to come up with a blog post ideas if you do a brainstorming session and work them all out at one time instead of trying to come up with them as you go along.
Understanding Your Timeline
Now something we need to talk about is how long it takes for a blog to show up on search engines. This could take anywhere from six months to two years. This long time between creation and results is one reason why I recommend people get started as soon as possible. In other words the sooner you start your blog the sooner you will see results from your blog. This does not mean the results will come in the first, second, third, fourth or even fifth month. I think it’s very important to understand this time frame before you start.
Knowing this time frame, you should not become overly focused on your websites traffic. Focus instead on creating awesome blog posts for them to read when they do show up.
Starting Your Blog
To get started on your very own blog I suggest creating a free WordPress account. WordPress is a blog creating platform that around 70% of all websites use to build and post content. I have used several other website builders and by far WordPress is my favorite.
Most other website builders take a ton of time to customize and design a professional looking website. When I started using WordPress all I had to do was select a theme. That was it I began writing blog posts that day with no need to tweak or re-design the theme.
When I started my blog I did a lot of research. I wanted to find the most common mistakes people make when they begin a blog. By asking thousands of WordPress bloggers what they wish they had known when they started their blog I got my answer. I then compiled this information into a blog post. That blog post can be found by clicking on the link below.
If you would like to create a WordPress account you can do so by signing up through my affiliate link below. This affiliate link pays me commissions at no extra cost to you.
Recommendations and Reviews
After you have your first few blog post ideas your niche and your blog set up, it’s time to start talking about what affiliate offers you should be promoting. I personally only promote products that I have used tested and approve of. You should do the same. Add your link to reasonable locations in your blog posts. You can add recommendations for related products and then include your affiliate link to those products.
Another very common way to promote affiliate products while using a blog is to write reviews. Reviews give your audience information they couldn’t find anywhere else, your personal experience using that product. Offering this type of valuable information will go very far to enticing your audience to click on your affiliate links.
Add a YouTube Channel
A major worry of people starting a new website is how to get traffic to that website. The best way I’ve found to drive traffic to a new website is to create an accompanying YouTube channel. By creating videos on YouTube that link back to your blog you will increase the traffic that your blog receives.
You can check out my YouTube channel here.
https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCdRBKT9c3keYFU0EwX2U7dA
Add a Pinterest Account
Another way to increase traffic to a fresh new website is to create a Pinterest account. Specifically one for that website and then create pins that link back to your blog posts. Unlike a lot of other social media where your posts disappear quickly. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Pinterest pins stick around for a very long time. They will continue to drive traffic to your website as long as they exist.
Please notice that I did not say create pin specifically for your affiliate links. I said create pins for your blog posts. People are much more likely to make a purchase if you can provide them with helpful information before hand.
You can check out my Pinterest account here.
https://www.pinterest.com/yourhelpfulaffiliate/
Add More Blog Posts
As you become a blogger you will soon understand that your most valuable commodity is blog posts. Create as many as you can. This does not mean make 100 blog posts that have 30 words each. You want to be creating content that really stands out to people as excellent. So do your research. Try and include as much helpful useful and valuable information in your blog post as you possibly can. Your minimum word count should be around 1000 words but your goal should be about 3000 words.
With every new blog post you create you should think of as another way people can find your website. The more blank posts the more â€signposts†your blog will have.
Build an Email List
Building an email list compiled of your audience can be hugely valuable to an affiliate marketer. You can send emails to these people letting them know that you have created a new content. This could be a blog post or a YouTube video. Please note that I did not say you should send them spam and emails. Doing this will Cause your email subscribers to unsubscribe to your list. You should only send them valuable, helpful and useful information. It should fit into the niche you know they are already interested in.
Conclusion
I hope you’ve learned from this blog post that affiliate marketing is legit. However most of the strategies that are suggested to newcomers are not. Most of these gurus are just trying to get your money and run with it. I feel like you can be much more successful by just creating a blog. One that you can be passionate about and then create helpful and valuable content for your audience.
At this point you might say wow this seems like a lot of work I thought affiliate marketing was easy. Whoever told you affiliate marketing was easy was probably just trying to get you to buy something. The truth is to create a substantial passive income online you have to work hard for it. It’s going to take months and maybe even years of hard work. If you’re dedicated I believe it can be done.
A blog is one of the lowest cost to entry businesses you can start. It may take some time for your blog to grow traction. You can do it without spending a ton of money. Basically all you need to start your blog website is a domain, hosting for your website and your Workpress account.
How can I be so confident about the strategy. I’ve seen other people implement the strategy and become wildly successful. This is also the strategy that I personally implement and I wouldn’t suggest anything that I wouldn’t do myself.
If you are ready to start your blog using WordPress you can do so by signing up through my affiliate banner below. This affiliate banner pays me commissions at no extra cost to you.