Using Affiliate Programs For Bloggers - The Best Programs
Using affiliate programs for bloggers can bring you a steady flow of revenue. It’s important that you do your research and find affiliate programs that align with your level of quality and integrity. Remember that your reputation is always at stake when you recommend something to your audience. The time you took to build a relationship and trust is worth protecting.
If you are just now setting up a blog, that gives you a great chance to build relationships with your audience, especially with those people who haven’t yet joined your mailing list. Once you have been able to build a relationship with your audience, protect that trust and only recommend items you 100% trust and believe in personally.
The beauty of setting up your affiliate blog gives you an opportunity to promote your affiliate offers in a variety of ways. Take a look at these ways to maximize your affiliate sales using your blog.
Your audience is looking for someone they can trust to give them the straight scoop on products in your niche. You can become that someone by doing honest product reviews and comparisons.
The components of these articles include:
- A quick summary of what the product is and what it purports to do for the user.
- The good features and benefits of the product.
- The product’s weaknesses and flaws, along with how to overcome these flaws (where applicable).
The verdict - do you recommend the product? If so, include a link and call to action to purchase the product.
Post Direct Ads
Though you certainly don’t want to have a blog full of direct ads, you can post them from time to time. Think of this as a mini sales letter where you presell the prospect before sending them to the vendor’s sales page.
The components include:
An attention-getting headline.
An opener that draws attention to the pain of the problem, perhaps by sharing a story.
Introducing the product as a solution to the problem.
Listing the benefits of the solution.
Closing with a link and a call to action to click on the link/buy the product.
Embed Soft Sells In Content
The best affiliate marketing blogs use different ways to recommend products. The idea here is to post content and then drop a recommendation directly into the content. This isn’t a hard sell like a direct advertisement. Instead, it’s more like a gentle recommendation from a friend.
Here are two examples of different ways to embed a soft sell:
“Before you can start building your list, you’ll need to get an account with a reputable email service provider. I suggest Aweber.com.”
“You just learned how to write a good sales letter. If you want to make copywriting even faster and easier, then start with a set template.”
And any other content you share with your blog readers.
Get Guest Articles From Vendors
You don’t need to create all these tips articles, how-to articles, and other content on your own. You can ask vendors to create this content for you, and then insert your affiliate links at the end.
Most vendors provide blog articles in your affiliate dashboard. The problem is, this content is often used by dozens of other affiliates. If it’s good content, you can post it. Otherwise, you may seek out exclusive content from the vendor in one of the following three ways.
Ask the vendor to create a unique article for you. You may even propose a content swap, where you exchange articles for your respective blogs. That way you both get content, and you both get traffic and exposure.
Ask for permission to excerpt out part of the product itself and post it as an article on your blog. Be sure you get explicit, written permission for this activity, as doing otherwise could land you in a lot of legal trouble.
Request permission to rework the vendor’s content. If the vendor has posted content in your affiliate center, then ask if you can tweak the content to make it more unique.
Using your blog as a way to introduce affiliate programs to your audience is a smart affiliate marketing strategy. Ready to get started with affiliate marketing? This month’s MyNAMS Insider’s Club Challenge is all about affiliate marketing and you can get started right now for only $1!
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