Figuring how to make money blogging when you’re first starting out can be tricky…

•  Your traffic is low.
• Tech is a nightmare
• You can’t think of what to write
• Plus you’re hella busy and don’t have time to waste.

Which is why incorporating affiliate marketing from day 1 is such is a smart move, homeslice.

(Rather listen then read? Click here.)

What is Affiliate Marketing exactly?

Affiliate marketing is when you recommend a product, service, app or even a book to readers, family, friends and followers and you get paid a commission (cash, gift cards or app credits) if they buy after clicking on your special link. 

Two reasons you’ll fall head over heels in love with  affiliate marketing

1. Affiliate marketing lets you earn an income while you sleep or yell at your kids or watch the Office for the 49th time.   You set up your affiliate links, add them to blog posts (the other 9 things you’ll read about in the post) share them, then BAM!  Readers buy and you earn.     This ability to earn income without actively working is called passive income.

2. With affiliate marketing, you don’t have to provide customer support or spend time, money or mental energy creating your own course or ebook. #yesplease

(Pin for later)

But before you start sharing your affiliate links like candy make sure…

1. It’s a product or service that you use or used & love

2. It makes sense to your audience that you’re pro

moting it.  I might love Hulu but I create content around email marketing, passive income and marketing so it would be weird if I kept promoting Hulu all the time.  But ConvertKit (my favorite email provider) makes total sense. 

3. There’s strong customer service behind the product you’re promoting.  So you have no guilt about shamelessly telling everyone about your affiliate product because you know buyers will be well taken care of.  For example, I love telling people about my affiliate for website hosting SiteGround because they have amazing customer service.

4. You’re knowledgeable about the products and services you are suggesting rather than recommending random products or services because they have a huge payout.  Readers must trust you’re a reliable source of quality information.

Now that you understand what a little bit of what affiliate marketing is – let’s talk about how you can boost your affiliate income now.

How to Instantly Boost Your Affiliate Income

1.  Be Picky

As you’ll soon find out there are a million affiliate and referral programs and networks you can join and promote. From Amazon to Target to your favorite subscriptions boxes, chances are if you spend money on it, there’s an affiliate program for it

Which can make choosing what to promote very overwhelming since you don’t want to look like a dirty rotten spammer. Before I consider joining an affiliate program I ask myself:

1. Is it relevant to my audience and what I blog about? (Sound familiar?)

2. What’s the payout structure like?

• What percentage do I make from every sale?
• Do I get a bonus or a higher percentage if I sell a certain month each month?
• Are there recurring payouts?
• If it’s app credit, do I use the service enough to warrant my time promoting it?

Don’t feel bad for not promoting something if you don’t think there’s a fair payout. 

2. Establish Relationships with Companies Directly For Higher Affiliate Income Rates & Better Deals For Your Audience

9 times out of 10 you’ll get a higher commission rate if you go through a company or manufacture directly instead of using Amazon or Targets affiliate program.

Plus when you establish relationships with companies you can negotiate rater payout rates once you have proven track recorded of being a quality affiliate.

And the best part?  You can ask for better deals for your people. For example, instead of just offering yall CovertKit’s standard 2 week free trial, I can offer you a full 30-day free trial ( that’s double the value). Which means more people will sign up through me, which means, I earn more and you save more. It’s a total, win win!

3. Create a Review Posts to Increase Affiliate Income

Creating a review post is a great way to increase affiliate income.  Thousands of a month people are searching for honest reviews of products, services and courses before opening their wallets. Be sure to include the actual word “Review” in the title because that’s a keyword your potential sales will be searching for combined with the product name.

If you can do a comparison post…DO IT.

Potential customers are always looking quality alternatives to higher priced item.  Case in point the post I created for my social media scheduler Smarter Queue. 

Smarter Queue will recycle posts on my Facebook page, Twitter Account, and Facebook Community unlike Buffer and for a friction of the cost as Meet Edgar. 

In fact this post as done so well, I haven’t paid for Smarter Queue in a year!

Plus Smarter Queue has even shared my post with their audience several times….#yayfreetraffic&sales!

The keys to a great affiliate blog post review…

Be honest.

The key to a great review to increase affiliate income is that you not only talk about how great the product is, but to also talk about the shortcomings.  Make the flaws and challenges you had known.  

You can talk about how the downfalls didn’t really affect you or how you worked around the issues.  Your suggestions on how to make it better or work around these problems can really benefit someone.

Show to don’t tell. Screenshots work wonders.

Tell the benefits not just the features. 

Have you gain lots of followers, lost a bunch of weight, got oodles of complements? Straight up tell people results you’ve gotten from this product…which brings us to number 4…

4. Write a  ”How to Get”  X Post – Highlighting How Your Affiliate Product Makes It Easier

Show people how your tool actually gets them the benefits they need.  

Include high-quality information where they don’t need your tool or app, but your tool can enhance their experience and results.

Don’t include the name of your affiliate product in the post title!  

Instead, have a title like “How to Make More Money with Email Marketing”  then in your article you talk about how easy it is using Convertkit.  See how that works?  

Lead with the benefit or result readers are cravings.   In this case, the benefit was “how to money with an email list”

5. Create a Free or Bonus  Mini-Course, or Challenge Centered Around Your Affiliate Products

I love this way to generate more affiliate income.  It takes a little more time and resources like (Screencast-o-Matic for screening your screen) but it’s sooo worth it.  You can do this a couple of different ways.

1. Create a “How To” course or challenge about your affiliate product

This is normally a collection of “how to” videos and insider strategies for your audience to maximize or get started with a product or service you love.

For example…everyone who purchases my Email Marketing Fairy Template Sets also get access to my ConvertKit Launch Pad Mini-course where I cover how to stop sending emails after people buy, how to get Convertkit to automatically email our your latest blog post and how to have one welcome series for multiple freebies and content upgrades. 

2.  Create a results-based course or challenge where your affiliate programs are helpers

While I show you how to build a WordPress blog, create a monetization strategy and how to get eyeballs on your stuff –  I feature products I use to build and run my blog like Tailwind for traffic, Siteground for hosting and Divi as my WordPress theme. However, I make sure to include simple lessons student can do using any WordPress theme free or paid.

If you’re in the health niche could you create a 5-day smoothie challenge featuring like your blender, protein powder and online grocery store delivery services you use?

Wonder what my challenge looks like see for yourself…

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6. Add Affiliate Links To Your Welcome Series

A welcome series is a set of automated email messages you send to people right after they join your email list.  Adding an email about  3 paid or free products or courses that helped you to get a specific outcome or benefit – your audience also wants, is a no-brainer way to increase your affiliate income. 

For example, if you’re in the parenting niche:

• 3 Apps For Preschools Actually Worth Spending Your Money On
• 3 Parenting Books Every Middle Schooler Mom Needs To Read
• 3 Must Apps The Help Keep Me Sane #momlife

If you’re in the lifestyle space:

• The 3 Best Investments I Have Ever Made for My Health
• 3 Pieces of Clothing Every Curvy Girl Must Own
• I Would Sooner Divorce My Husband Then Get Rid of These 3 Things.

7.  Go the Extra Mile When Promoting Your Affiliate Products and Services

Going the extra mile is more than just recommending a product or service.  Making sure your reader knows exactly what to do to get your tool or giving them more information on how to actually apply it to their own business or blog.  

 Create catchy ads

If you’re a follow podcaster create mini-ads for some of your affiliate products with music behind it. (Listen to the latest episode of the Inbox Besties Podcast to see what I mean.) I call them my “Tool of the Week” since they’re not official sponsors of the show.  

If you’re a blogger create stunning graphics for your sidebar that link to affiliate products. (I use PicMonkey to create mine.)

Create a support group or have office hours for people who purchase through your link

You can offer accountability, give additional tips and trick and just make your people feel well taking care of.

Treat your affiliate products like they’re your own

Treat the products and services like they are your own.  Shape some strategy behind promoting it. For example I’m a partner (affiliate) for my favorite Facebook ads course the FB Framework. During the launch period, I run ads, hold live streams, create special podcasts and send several emails sharing my stories and tips for the course. 

8 Create Quizzes 

Quizzes can be a great way to increase email sign up but can also be a great tool to boost affiliate income. You could do some like…

“Which is the Best X for You?”

• Which Clothing Subscription Box is Best For You
• Which Email Service Provider Is Best For You
• Which Coffee  Is Best For You

“What’s your style” quiz – where on the answer page you reveal a style guide filled with ideas (and affiliate links) that perfect for the person

• What’s your home design style?
• What’s your personal style?
• What’s your parenting style?

There are a few different quiz programs out there, but my favorite is Thrive Quizzes.  I love it because  instead of charging you monthly like Interact – Thrive Quiz Builder is one time fee. 

9. Create Demo Videos

Now there’s a right way and a wrong why to create product and service demos that get sales.

1. They focus on results – “After switching to X I get Y” here’s how. 
2. They’re in short specific chunks – It’s a 3 minute video like “How to loop pins with Tailwind and 3x your traffice” vs  35 minute video – “How to Get Started with Tailwind”
3. Think of search terms – What would people be putting in search when they’re looking for information about your product or service? What problems would they have?
4. Keep it fun

10. Create a resource page

A resource page include all the tools, apps and things you use to run your own business or blog that people would also like.  You can check out mine here.

Include on the top of the page your power 5 that everyone should have and that you can not run your business without.  These are the ones you are really focused on to increase affiliate income but also what makes the most sense for your business.

11. Create Affiliate Pins

Do you know you can now create pins that link directly to your affiliate offers? In fact one of my most popular pin is an affiliate pin…

In the description of your pin you must mention that it’s an affiliate or ad.  You can simply ad #affiliate or #ad.  When they click on the pin it will take them to the landing page for that affiliate.

Also you can’t cloak your affiliate link.  Make sure that whatever link the people are going to land on that is the one you put for your pin URL.  

You can read more information about Affiliate Pins Breakdown from Pinterest here.  

Plus if you’re using something like  Tailwind where you can automate your affiliate pins to repin to your board and group boards that allow them.  

Wower’s that was a lot let’s recap:

The 15 ultra fast ways to increase affiliate income even if you have like no traffic…

Your turn…Have you been rocking out affiliate marketing? What’s your biggest tips for increasing earnings? Share ’em in the comments below.

This was a podcast episode too! Listen to the Inbox Besties Podcast on Apple Podcast, Stitcher, Google Play or Spotify 

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