In the last two blogs I spoke to you about WHY and then HOW to start affiliate marketing. It’s been really nice to receive great comments on how useful this advice has been for my readers. It makes this all worth it, knowing value is being added to people lives. This time it’s about giving you some tips and tricks (advice if you like) on…… if you want Affiliate marketing to generate revenue so that you can eventually earn passive income, you still have to make some effort upfront. The following tips will help you find success by taking these steps and enhancements (which many people may not) giving you an advantage.
Establishing Trust Through Openness
When writing your own review, be honest about what you think based on your experience and what you know about the product. The more truthful you are, the more genuine you’ll seem. People will trust your advice more if they believe in you.
Trust is really important in affiliate marketing because people have to trust you before they buy what you suggest. How much trust you need depends on what you’re selling and the industry you’re in. For instance, it takes more trust to sell a $1,000 course than it does for a $20 iPhone cover.
To write my blogs some are completely about me and are from my head, some are what I have learnt from my mentor Dean Holland. Some are inspired from something I read or heard, a phrase etc. I even read blogs and articles from other people and companies and make my own version using theirs as a structure or idea to build mine on. ChatGPT can help form a skeleton for you to talk around a certain topic.
Talk to a product experts and learn from them
Talking to someone who knows a lot about the product can help you understand it better. You can learn from people who use, make, or sell the product. This can give you more details to include in your review, making it more interesting for the reader. Over time you will meet and network with many people as you build your circle of knowledge.
Create a product tutorial (or a course)
The number of people who follow you may affect how well you do with affiliate marketing. However, there’s another way to bring in more people: by making a tutorial about the thing you’re promoting.
A lot of people search on Google for instructions, like “how to save money for my wedding” or “how to set out my garage.” If you make a tutorial that helps someone with their problem and shows how useful the product is, it will make more sense for them to buy it. This way, you’re giving them a stronger reason to buy the product you’re suggesting.
Build an email list – this is so important
An email list is like a collection of people’s email addresses who want to get messages from you. Having this list is important because it’s a great way to talk to people outside of social media. When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%) (ref. campaignmonitor.com) compared to social and other marketing channels or somewhere else.
To build your email list, you can get email addresses from your content. Then, you can send a newsletter to your subscribers every week or every other week. As an affiliate marketer, you can send different things to the people on your list, like free stuff, reports, new blog posts, or even personal stories.
It’s important to give value to the people on your email list. If they send you an email, make sure to write back to them. Keep your newsletters consistent and good quality. Sometimes, you can also tell your subscribers about products you’re promoting.
There isn’t a strict rule about how often you should send promotional emails, but don’t send them every time you have something to sell. People might think you’re spamming them. If you only promote good products once a month, you’re giving value to the people on your list who might need those products.
Consider your approach or perspective
Depending on what you’re offering, decide how much effort to put into making instructional or tutorial content. This kind of content often leads people to try a product themselves.
For instance, you might make a video showing how to use a physical product effectively or demonstrating the advantages of a digital product, such as software. Unboxing posts are also popular. If you get a product in the mail, you can share your experience of opening it up.
What do you do? How do you do it? let me know in the comments.
Set your distribution strategy
Decide how to spread your content to the people you want to reach. You can do this by choosing the best places like social media, email newsletters, or blogs where your audience hangs out. Also, think about how often and when you share your content to get the most attention. Having a clear plan for sharing your content helps make sure it gets to the right people at the right time.
After you’ve written your promotional content, share it on your website or social media. If you have people who subscribe to your updates, you can send them emails about it. Make sure your website has a special page for affiliate marketing, where you can list all the tools you recommend.
Try offering a bonus, people love a bonus!
Sometimes, marketers encourage people to buy their affiliate products by offering extra rewards. For instance, if you buy something through their link, they might give you a free ebook they wrote, a video or a tutorial.
These promotions make the deal more tempting for customers. They work especially well if the bonus they offer is something valuable that they usually sell. This way, shoppers can see they’re getting a good deal.
A good example of this is when Marie Forleo, a business coach, promotes her B-School for entrepreneurs. Every year, she offers bonuses to people who sign up through her affiliates. Laura Belgray, who writes for Forleo, might offer a personal copywriting session as a bonus to encourage people to sign up through her link.
People who sign up to my ’email newsletter’ receive two gifts in a form of video tutorials from my mentor and coach Dean Holland.
Keep things on the level
Don’t forget to disclose to followers that your post contains affiliate links, but explaining the reason for your affiliation also can help you connect with your audience.
For example, the financial independence bloggers at Frugalwoods (non affiliate link), offer this disclosure: “Frugalwoods.com contains affiliate links. Meaning frugalwoods.com receives commissions for purchases made through those links, at no cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with all of these companies and recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something.”
If you need help figuring out what language style and wording to use in a disclaimer, it’s worth taking time to consult a lawyer.
Next time I will talk to you about the “door with TWO locks that you MUST open if you want to be successful as an affiliate marketer”.
Thank you for reading, I hope it helped you in some way. Is this what you are thinking of doing? Let me know your thoughts. You are only a few steps behind me!
Please leave comments, share with your friends and family and on the social media buttons below.
You can follow me on social media here using this links page. It will be great to see you there.
The best way to keep in touch is by subscribing to my FREE Newsletter where you will get exclusive content and even more value to help you build your online business.
Until next time, take care.
Atif
#Atif’s Academy
As always, you provide a concise layout and it is very helpful. I am not quite to the place I feel I can make a clear tutorial, but I think it is closer than i realize. Good info/advice, again. Thanks Atif
Kae, thanks for your comment. In terms of the tutorial, just think of the things that you know how to do that you’ve learnt since starting this journey. You’ll probably find as many as 10 areas where you could do a tutorial on. It’s in you, you just don’t know it! thanks take care, Atif
Great tips and all very actionable, thanks. I do some of them already, like offering a free course, but to my shame, I have not set a distribution strategy, so that will go on my action list!
I also don’t explicitly state that I make commissions from things I promote, given that mine is a blog about using the internet to make money, do you think that is necessary?
Interested to hear your take on that.
Tony, it’s great to see that one of the tips is something that you wish to do. I think it’s very important that you put a disclaimer or your clear against each link that this is an affiliate link. Being open and honest with people is very key. At least you know the ones who click it know that it’s an affiliate link and to be honest, it doesn’t make any difference to them because they’re not going to be paying any extra. And because you’re teaching them this business, it’s a good practice that they should also be doing when they start. I wouldn’t assume that because your blog is about making money on the Internet that people know about affiliate marketing or links. That’s my take on it, I hope that’s helpful. Thanks, Atif
This post offers so many valuable insights! The idea of creating tutorials and offering bonuses to encourage purchases is such a great way to engage with your audience. I have noticed that in my short videos where I teach something, like a feature of Canva, I get the most views on TikTok! Building trust is essential in affiliate marketing, and the tips in your post can really help create a loyal following. Thank you for sharing this informative post!
Alison,I’ve seen your videos and they are very very good. Anywhere we add value where people can learn and also benefit in knowledge and experience will be popular. You already are a master at it and I look to you as a bit of a Guru. Thanks for the comments. All the best talk soon Atif
The disclosure statement is a must. Thanks for the reminder. I will get mine up asap. If the disclosure statement isn’t revealed, the internet police may chase us down!
Kate, I agree the disclosure statement is very important. And in reality it’s probably not even going to be used or read by anyone but if anything is to come up at least we have that as a backup that we put all the due diligence in place. Further to this if we’re going to be coaching and helping others build businesses, we surely should be teaching them best practice and how they should look after their business. Thank you so much Atif
There are a great variety of ways to give our recommendations to our audience. I thank you for this overview. Do you have a favorite way or ways you have chosen? How did you choose those for yourself? I’d be interested in what you’ve chosen for your strategy and why. Looking forward to next week’s post 🙂
Nakina, thanks for your comment. I think for me probably the one I like is the offering a bonus. Because that gives me the opportunity to create something that’s unique for me. It might be a PDF document it might be a video it might be a mini course, but it’s something that’s me and what I’m doing. And then to offer that as a free gift should give people access into this world. What about you which ones appeal to you? Thanks, Atif
It’s always good to be aware of what may give our business an advantage. I have often thought about doing up a tutorial on a tool I use for promotions – I must do up a plan for that. I’m a reporting guy and I love diving into data. I feel I have a few tips to pass on for say – setting up the Facebook Ads Manager to show the exact stats we need to see on a daily basis. And I can pass on more instructions on how to export that data.
Robert, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head with Facebook ads. That’s something I want to learn and I’m sure there’s many other people that do too. So if you built a tutorial on that I’d be there straight away. Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif. Thanks for the post, Very comprehensive and informative as usual, Strange you should mention Laura Belgray. I recently got onto her email list so that I can study her style and I’m gaining a lot of insights from that
Steve, when I was doing research for this blog I was looking around and there are other blogs that mentioned Laura so I had a look. I haven’t signed up but I think I will do. Who else do you follow outside in this area thanks, Atif.
What a very wise and insightful list for the affiliate marketer! It’s chopped full of gold nuggets. I love how you organize your information and your posts are always easy to follow and understand (I can’t say that about everything I read online these days!) I must say, I’m a little embarrassed that I do not have my disclosure statement on my blog and you just reminded me to move this to the top of my priority list. Thank you for that!
Lauren, I’m glad I reminded you to do your disclosure statement. It’s always good practice to have these things. I’m trying to structure my blogs now in a manner that’s logical easy to read so that people from different levels who have established businesses or are starting from scratch are able to read and follow. that’s kind of my plan. Thanks so much for all of your help and guidance it’s been really valuable take care
Great information Atif,
The email list is the one big thing that is many times overlooked by “newbies” (I hate that word).
It’s so imperative to understand all the facets of internet marketing that we can sometimes get lost in it all.
Having a mentor like Dean and a community of like-minded people definitely is a plus.
Marc, absolutely, and that’s why having a list, like this is a good reference tool for people to bookmark and go back to. Thanks for your comment, Atif
Hi Atif,
I have to say that you are natural at doing this… Your blog post has so much valuable information, and the layout is well done. I’m extremely impressed and look forward to more of your blog posts in the future. Thank you for helping me by viewing your post.
Meredith
Meredith, I don’t know about being a natural, but I’m just trying to make things as simple and is clear as possible for most people. I do a lot of research and I read other blogs and other company materials and I form a structure so that I don’t miss anything important out. I’m glad you find this useful until next time. Thanks, Atif
I agree it’s important to consider your perspective and approach. Since we all have a different perspective, that can set us apart. Using video to do demos, making how-to videos, or downloadable PDFs can also be very valuable and help give people the instruction they need to know how to use the product they are interested in buying, especially if they are holding back because they don’t know if they can make it work.
Nathan, totally agree with you. It’s the tutorials materials books and videos that are probably the most valuable. It’s their passport into this world where they’re learning and curiosity starts that I think is the key to this. Thanks for your comment, Atif
Hello Atif,
I wholeheartedly agree with every aspect of your post. Additionally, I’d like to emphasize, as our mentor Dean often does, the importance of over-delivering. It’s crucial to consistently provide more than expected, ensuring that our potential customers or clients feel appreciated and that our offerings meet their needs. Your post was outstanding, and I gained valuable insights from it. I eagerly anticipate your next one. Wishing you ongoing success in your business endeavors.
Ezequiel Wells
Ezequiel, thank you so much for your feedback and I appreciate your kind words. I think the aim I have each week is to provide at least some value for people. Why would somebody want to read this if they don’t learn or get something from it. I’m glad you found it useful. What are the areas are you interested in? Or want to learn about? I may be able to help thanks, Atif
Hi Atif,
Another great post about affiliate marketing. I like what you mention about bonuses as well as how people can get 2 free gifts when they sign up for your newsletter. So I thought “lead magnets” and “bonuses” might be good topics for a future post.
Looking forward to your next article as you get deeper into the topic of affiliate marketing.
Alan, thank you so much for your comment. I think you’re right lead magnets and bonuses will be great topics for future posts. Regarding free gifts it’s not really about just giving stuff for free. It’s to get peoples attention that if they follow this route there’s so much they can learn and they can change their lives for the better. But you need to entice people and capture their curiosity and attention as not everybody naturally gravitates to this. Take care my friend. Thanks, Atif
As usual, a well-set-out post, Atif.
You have sussed something out, that, I’m afraid many of the bloggers in our little “bubble” linked to Dean’s Affiliate System, haven’t. Most of us will know most, if not all of what you talk about, even if they can’t communicate it as well as you. But, at this early stage, we should not be writing for the sole benefit of each other, though many of us will benefit a lot from what is written. The main thing in our minds when we are writing blog posts, should be that these posts will. in the not-too-distant future, go public. They will hopefully entice “outsiders” to join our email lists, from where they will receive offers from us. Therefore, in my opinion, we should be writing, as you are here, to an audience who have little or no knowledge of what Affiliate Marketing is.
Cheers
Phil
Phil, thanks for your comments and feedback. I agree with you that any blog content needs to be appealing to the full end to end audience not just a subset. We are all on a journey and we are all learning so this should improve in time thanks for pointing out. It’s a very valued point. thank you so much. Take care Atif
I get value from each blog post, and they seem to flow and build every time. Thanks for laying out the posts in a concise way for me, a novice, to read and understand! Truly value filled words!
Ernie, I’m very glad you get value from my blogs. Thank you for your support. I started posting on TikTok yesterday, quite nerve wracking! Any questions let me know. Thanks, Atif
Hi Atif!
Once again you have written a very well-planned post full of important information! My challenge right now is growing my email list. Do you still use a lead magnet or have you switched to using only a newsletter subscription?
I look forward to more of your posts. I really enjoy reading them!
All the best!
Milissa Neirotti
Melissa, thanks for the comment. I have a lead magnet/optin page for my newsletter. I don’t have anything else. All my social media points to the blog and link tree. When they join my newsletter they get added to my email list. Many thanks, Atif
Hello Atif, once again an outstanding blog post. I like that you talk about getting ideas from different sources, I wall in and can’t seem to get started so I deffinintly have to get ideas . It kind of makes me feel like I’m “cheating”,it’s nice to hear someone say they look around or read things for ideas.
Jon, thanks for your comments. It’s like when you’re learning anything you need to learn from others and see what’s out there. So I do look around and see what other people are doing and what ideas there are. Using these as inspiration is great and helps you learn and develop. Obviously there’s no benefit to you or anyone else if we just talk about something that’s available out there as it’s our experience and our journey and what we’re doing is what people are interested in. It is early days and I’m still learning but I am excited and passionate about the future future. Thank you so much take care, Atif
Atif,
As usually, you provide valuable take aways from the information you put in your blog posts. It is true that to maximize one’s affiliate marketing potential begins with TRUST. Without trust the rest of the things don’t matter.
One of John Maxwells laws of leadership is called, “The Law of the Lid”. It simply states one cannot lead beyond one’s level of growth. If one has not grow their character and their affiliate business to a level where they can be like and trusted then clients will go else where to some who they can trust.
The openness you discussed is a great way to show future clients that you have reached a growth level where you can be trusted.
One of the things I have pledged is to only offer products that I’ve used and found value in. This is also a good way to build trust with your readers.
thanks again for the rest of your tips. Look forward to reading about the door wtith two locks.
CJ
CJ, thank you so much for your comments. I hope you’re in very good health. You’re absolutely right as you grow as you learn that’s all you can really teach people. And it’s that level of vulnerability and transparency that gains trust. As long as you share as you learn people will benefit from it. We have a saying in Islam that says “you should wish for your brother what you wish for yourself”. So when you learn things that benefit you, you should also teach everyone else because it’s very selfish to keep it to yourself. Help others learn and grow and thrive. All the best thanks, Atif