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I always give these “6 Steps To Affiliate Blogging” when a client wants to start Affiliate Blogging.
And many do, because Affiliate Blogging may just be the fastest way to make money blogging.
It’s certainly one of the best.
As an Affiliate Blogger, you’ll be selling someone else’s product or idea, so you don’t have to take the time to create your own.
That means you can just set up a blog and start making money.
What can you sell?
There is an endless supply of products out there for you to choose from.
While someone else has to struggle through the process of creating a product, you will be positioned to start making money almost immediately just by marketing it.
And you won’t have to worry about things like customer complaints, access issues, refunds, or tracking credit card and Paypal payments.
No need to constantly monitor the download links, to be sure the product gets delivered properly.
All of these creative and processing issues are handled by the vendor of the product.
All you need to do is write a good blog post telling your readers all about the product you’re affiliating, and then drive some traffic to the blog post.
People will be able to click your affiliate link right from your blog post.
This takes them to the vendor’s sales page. Any time a visitor to your blog decides to buy a product you are writing about in your blog post, you make a commission.
Meanwhile, all the really hard work and customer service follow up is done by the product owner, not by you.
You simply get a commission paid into your Paypal or bank account.
That’s the beauty of affiliate blogging.
Sounds pretty simple, right?
But “simple” doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take work.
Here’s the 6 Step process I generally recommend for people interested in pursuing affiliate blogging.
6 Steps To Affiliate Blogging
1. Define Your Niche
Affiliate bloggers usually have multiple sites, each one devoted to a different product or niche.
Your first site should be something you’re pretty passionate about.
The big niches that have been proven time and again to be the biggest profit makers, are
Money, Health and Relationships.
It’s a good idea to choose a sub-niche within one of those 3 categories.
So, if you like Health, your particular interest might be “juicing” or “organic growing” or “hypnotism.”
There are tons of sub-niches to choose from, but if you’re choosing one from within the big 3 categories I mentioned, you should be on firm ground.
2. Pick The Right Affiliate Products
People always ask me “what should I sell?”
Don’t pick a product just because it has a high commission rate.
Choose one that you’re interested in and most important of all, one that is relevant to your readers.
I always tell clients to actually buy and use products before trying to sell them in a blog post.
This will make the information you present more interesting and believable.
People can tell if you’re just copying text from a sales page as opposed to infusing your own opinion and experience with the product you’re reviewing.
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3. Know Your Audience
Now, in order to pick the right affiliate products, you’ll have to know what your audience wants.
If you’re writing about hypnotism, the people who find your site will be coming there to find information about self development in general, and hypnotism more specifically.
Make sure that you’re trying to sell them good affiliate products that will help them.
The only way you can do this is to thoroughly understand what your audience needs and is
looking for.
Only then can provide them with the information and product offers that will help them solve their problems, answer their questions and improve their lives.
4. Create a Content-Rich Website
Write detailed review blog posts containing all the information anybody could ever need about your product.
Demonstrate how it works.
Show them how it will benefit them.
It is best if a product review is in your own words, not just copied from sales pages.
Your visitors will see right through that sales jargon approach, and click off your site in a heartbeat.
They came to your blog to read a review, not a sales page.
If they’re interested in your presentation of the product, they’ll click the affiliate link you give them and THEN they’ll get the sales page.
But then, they’ll be expecting it, and wanting it because they’re pretty much ready to buy the product from what you’ve already told them..
Don’t get stuck on textual content.
Use images, screen shots, infographics, videos, photos, and even audio tracks in your articles.
The more interesting your presentation, the longer people will keep reading your post, and the more likely they are to end up buying the product.
The more passionate you are about your topic, and about the product you’re reviewing, the more convincing you will be.
Also, always give your personal testimonial, and those of other people that you can find.
5. Don’t Sell, “Pre-Sell” Your Product
There’s a big difference between selling and PRE-selling.
The product vendor will take care of the selling.
Your mission is to pre-sell.
You don’t do that by trying to convince people to buy the product.
Do it by writing information about the product, and more importantly, how you’ve benefited from using it.
Testimonials from others will show how they, too, have benefited from buying the product.
Every now and then, invite them to buy it with a soft approach like this… “If you’d like more information, click here.”
Then, let the vendor do the selling (via the official sales page)!
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6. Build A Relationship With Your Visitors
It amazes me how many people delve into affiliate blogging with no concept at all of building a business.
Making a sales commission is one thing. Building a business is another.
If you get a sales commission from somebody that you have no way of contacting again, then you are not building a business.
You may be making some money, but as soon as you stop promoting and marketing, the money stops.
You need to “capture” your customers onto an email list so you can follow up with them in the future.
When you’re promoting a new affiliate product, it’s much easier to pitch it to past customers sitting on your email list than to try to find new people to promote to.
Your past customers already know who you are, and if you do things right, you’ve been emailing them fairly regularly with helpful information.
That way, they’ll trust your opinion about the new product you’re promoting.
They should be more likely to buy it from you than from somebody they never heard of before.
So, put an optin box on your blog asking people to join your list.
Offer buyers a bonus after their purchase if they join your list.
Keep in close contact with them, in order to develop a relationship.
Answer their questions, respond to their emails, reply to them in their comments on your blog posts.
This establishes you as a person who really cares about your readers and customers, and goes a long way to building trust and credibility.
Have you tried affiliate blogging?
Have you thought you might like to try it?
I hope these “6 Steps To Affiliate Blogging” have helped you along the way.
I’d love to have your questions and comments below.
