Affiliate marketing is one of the “easiest” ways to make money online without selling your own product or service. All you have to do is create content, which a lot of internet people are already doing, even if it’s just social media posts about recipes and fitness updates. If you make any type of online content – YouTube videos, podcasts, blog posts, social media posts – and you’re not at least dabbling in affiliate marketing, you’re literally leaving money on the table for work you’re already doing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a consumer-driven approach to advertising where businesses provide unique tracking links to enrolled affiliates (like you), who then promote the company’s products on their website, blog, or social media pages in exchange for a commission when someone makes a purchase through the link.
Affiliate links use cookies to track this process, which can last from 24 hours to 90 days or more. The longer the cookie length, the more opportunity to make a commission.
When a company creates an affiliate marketing program, they put the advertising in the hands of consumers who want to promote their products rather than search engines who charge per click, regardless of conversion rates.
Affiliate marketing doesn’t cost anything for you or the buyer, only for the company paying out commissions. It’s an agreement between you (the content creator) and a company (such as Amazon), where you promote their products and, if someone buys through your link, the company says “thanks for that, here’s a 15% cut.” It happens all day every day all over the internet, and it’s an incredible way to make money off the content you’re already producing and products you’re already sharing.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
One of the biggest benefits of affiliate marketing is that just about any type of business with an online presence can make money this way. If you have a blog, podcast, email list, or social media presence, you have a place to share affiliate links.
Another benefit? You don’t have to create your own product or service to make money. All you need to do is create compelling content that convinces people to click your links and purchase the item/s you’ve recommended.
Not sure what kind of affiliate products you’d promote? Consider this: MILLIONS of brands have affiliate programs. It encourages real customers to share their experiences and promote their products. There is a 99% chance that something you use every day has an affiliate program you can join. All you have to do is Google “product name affiliate program” to find out if they accept affiliates.
The Best Types of Content for Affiliate Marketing
Content is king, whether you’re sharing it on a blog, an email list, a YouTube channel, a podcast, or just through social media (for now – if you have a big audience on social media and you want to monetize it, GET A WEBSITE). Content is how everything is sold online. It’s how anyone online convinces anyone else to give them money. So in order to make money online, no matter how you’re doing it, you have to know how to create deliciously, irresistibly good content that people are dying to read and share.
You have to go about selling your affiliate programs just like you would if you were selling your own product. You have to get people to trust you by showing you’re a valuable source of information, and you need to do just enough convincing to get them to buy the products you’re recommending.
Regardless of your content creation platform of choice – blogs, videos, podcasts – there are some tried-and-true types of content that are known to help drive affiliate sales:
Teach People How to Do Something (How-To Guides)
This is one of the most popular types of content because it immediately helps people solve a problem. How many times have you gone to Google and started typing the words “how to…” followed by whatever you want to learn how to do? Now imagine if your website was one of the first things that Google showed when someone Googled how to do something in your niche.
What does your audience want or need to learn how to do? A few examples:
How to Create a Capsule Wardrobe – Link to your capsule items, your closet organization tools, etc
How to Cook the Perfect Lasagna – Link to your favorite lasagna pan, the items in your recipe photos, etc.
How to Use Quickbooks to Automate Your Small Business Accounting – A guide to using Quickbooks, with an affiliate link for anyone who clicks through and signs up.
Product Reviews
If you use a product that’s relevant to your niche and think your readers would benefit from it, write an honest review about it. One easy way to write reviews is by putting it in list format:
5 Ways ____ Has Helped Me ______
10 Reasons You Need to Try ____ For ____
Product Comparisons
Similar to a review, you can rank and compare products. Share the advantages and disadvantages of one over the other. Make a pros and cons infographic. Compare pricing, features, and benefits. Give your readers everything they need to make an informed decision.
Answer the Most Common Questions About the Product
What do your readers want to know about the product? Maybe they’ve asked you questions on social media or blog comments. These questions can inspire all sorts of content. If you don’t know what your audience wants to know, ask them and publish the answers to their questions in a post. If they want to know something, chances are lots of other potential readers are wondering the same things.
Create a “Resources” Page
This is one of the easiest ways to get eyes on your affiliate links – create a resources page on your website and link to products or services you use and/or recommend for your readers. When done right, these pages can generate tons of traffic and revenue. It’s important that they feature products your readers will be looking for when they land on a website like yours. For example, if you have a niche blog about camping and backpacking, you can create a resources page that links to every item you brought with you while hiking the Appalachian Trail. For your beauty blog, create a resources page of all your favorite tried-and-true products.
Gift Guides
Who doesn’t love a gift guide? No matter your niche, there are going to be people searching for gifts to give someone who likes what you like. So tell them what you want!
Right now I’m working on my first gift guide for this blog, which will be gifts for couch-centered entrepreneurs who work at home and live on the internet (AKA me). It’s a list of things that make my work life as comfortable and efficient as possible, so other people who work at home and read this blog will probably enjoy my recommendations as well.
Ready to Make more Affiliate Marketing money?
Now that you have some ideas, it’s time to create some content!
If you’re not sure where to start, you’re going to want to know affiliate marketing Wonder Woman Michelle Schroeder-Gardener, who’s made over $5 million in affiliate income and taught me everything I’ve ever needed to know about affiliate marketing through her course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
In Michelle’s course you’ll learn:
How to find and choose the right affiliate programs for your niche
How to know what your readers are likely to buy
How to incorporate selling into your content without selling your soul in the process
How much traffic you need to make money with affiliates
How to stay on the right side of the law
How Michelle earned more than $500,000 with ONE affiliate product
Tried-and-true strategies for promoting affiliate products
How to leverage social media, Facebook ads, and Pinterest for affiliates
….and tons more.
I first took this course several years ago, and I revisit the content every so often to brush up on my skills and come up with fresh ideas (and my affiliate income increases every time I do this – she is truly a magician). She’s also created several bonus lessons that have been added since I first joined (the Pinterest section has changed my life), so once you’re in, you can look forward to new content that’s relevant to the latest affiliate marketing trends.
Sign up for Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing here and let’s grow our blogging income together.
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