As a blogger, the first question I face is how I make money from blogging. It is obvious that as Blogging is relatively a new career in India and as the general people here is obsessed with doctors and engineers, it is hard to convince about blogging as a job. But somehow, affiliate marketing makes sense to a lot of people.
Thanks to the internet and online shopping portals, shopping has never been easy for lazy people like me. And most of such shopping apps or portals offer cash back or reward points if someone downloads a particular app through your link. For example, how many of us have gotten free rides on Uber or Ola when our friends downloaded the app by clicking the link we sent to them?
That benefit is called Affiliate Marketing, my friend! And aren’t we good at it!
Fortunately, it is also one of the easy and best ways to make money from blogging. Affiliate marketing is a kind of marketing where you refer an online product and if someone buys the product on your referral, you get a commission.
Affiliate marketing is inexpensive; in fact free and only little hard work from your side can generate a good income every month from your blog.
In this blog post, I will discuss how to generate a steady income from blogging through affiliate marketing posts. But before that, let us know some fun facts.
Affiliate marketing can be done not only on your blog but from the social media posts like YouTube videos, Facebook posts and even Tweets and Pins.
As long as you drive traffic to your blog posts with affiliate products, they will never cease to earn money from you. A good SEO can wonder for your affiliate marketing.
How to Choose Affiliate Products for Promotion?
Affiliate marketing is all about trust. Recommend only the product you personally have tried. I always promote products to my friends and clients which I have personally used and found good. For example, I will always recommend books which I have read and found valuable. It helps me to write about the product more extensively as I have personally used it and loved. This procedure also helps in building trust in your readers and they will more likely to click the affiliate link in your blog posts and purchase it.
How to Find the Affiliate Programs?
Almost every online portal offers affiliate programs. Though there are numerous affiliate programs available, choose the portals you use. For example, if you live in India, it would not help you to be affiliated to something that does not cater to the Indian audience. That’s why lots of bloggers from India complain that they are affiliates to lots of programs but do not earn a single penny.
You should first keep it in my mind about your audience. Where do they live? What is their demographics and buying capacity? Consider these factors by analysing your statistics. Word press blogs have their in-built statistics but I prefer using the Google Analytics to get the broader picture.
After knowing your audience and their choices, it becomes easier to choose the products you will advocate.
Among the products I advocate include my web hosting company, my service providers, products from bloggers whom I know or follow personally and books. On my food & travel blog, I advocate brands which I use personally.
The most popular affiliate program that I am a member is the Amazon Affiliate Program. It is one of the most popular affiliate programs in the world. If you are from India, join Amazon and Flipkart. Both the companies offer good commission rates.
How to Become an Affiliate?
Visit the shopping portals or websites of anything you want to promote. Scroll down to the bottom. You will find a link saying ‘Affiliates’. Click it and follow the instructions. Most of the companies accept affiliates immediately.
After becoming an affiliate, you will be given a particular link to their products. You can put the links to your blog posts, social media posts and video descriptions on YouTube videos.
If anyone clicks those affiliate links, you will get commissions based on what the particular company has promised to pay. The commissions range from 5% of the total sale to 50%.
Want to start a blog? Read The Blogging Basics Series
How to Write Posts with Affiliate Marketing Links?
When I first started putting affiliate links in my posts, I would simply put some links from Amazon and put them on my blog posts. Then I would be happy that someone will click them and buy the things I recommend. But it never happened. I am sure that most of the new bloggers do the same and then ask why they are not making any money from the links.
But, today’s consumers are tricky and knowledgeable. They think twice before making any purchase and that’s why they won’t follow the links you have put.
So, how do you put the links?
The whole affiliate marketing thing runs on trust. The readers will buy anything you promote if they trust your words. So, it is always better if you use the product yourself and write a good review or tutorial depending what the product needs more. For example, I write book reviews of the books I love and put the links. Most of my affiliate income from the Amazon comes from the books I have recommended.
SEO is another major factor while writing the affiliate marketing posts. Every day, a large number of people Google information for every product. Make sure that you know the most used keywords for the product you are going to write.
To create a steady income from affiliate links, you need to write a post which is search engine friendly. Write a detailed tutorial/review using the keywords. Show your readers that you have used it and loved it. Once they found it useful for your post, people would definitely buy it.
Things to Consider while Writing Affiliate Marketing Posts
Affiliate Marketing is slow at the beginning. You need to keep your patience. But once your SEO starts working on the product, you will get a rise in your income.
Promote the blog posts on social media.
Keep an eye on the product. If any new version comes for a particular product, you need to update your post accordingly.
Affiliate marketing is inconsistent. It can come down or be sky high at times. It all will depend on various factors like your blog traffic, markets and the readers.
You do not get paid as soon as someone purchases through your link. Every company has a payment threshold and certain time in a month to release the payment.
I hope this post will help you in starting your affiliate marketing. I would love to hear your thoughts in my comment section.
This post is the part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, 2018. I will see you all tomorrow with a new blog post starting with the letter B.
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