Okay, once you’ve got a short list of products you adore, it’s time to see if they have an affiliate program! These days, most companies have an affiliate program so it should be fairly easy to promote most of the products you love. The easiest way to find out if a company has an affiliate program, is simply to Google “company/product name + affiliate program” and see if one comes up.
Many companies actually outsource their affiliate programs to something called affiliate networks. Affiliate networks are tertiary companies that essentially run affiliate programs for other companies. A few examples are:
Once you have found your affiliate programs, it’s time to apply! But here’s the thing. Not everyone who applies to these programs will be accepted. I know, bummer. I talk a lot about the ways you can make sure you are accepted into your account programs in my Build A Profitable Blog course, but I’ll give you a few tips here. First, be honest about how much traffic you have. It’s okay if you are just starting out and don’t have a lot quite yet! Second, be specific about how you plan to market their products. The more specific your plan, and the more they feel confident in how you will market their product, the more likely you are to be accepted.
This one is super easy, and it’s likely something you’ve seen before.
You can link to your affiliate products within your blog posts! Let’s say that you were writing a post about the best baby toys for infants. This would be a great opportunity to include affiliate links for some of those products! Then, if your readers click through and purchase one or many of them, you’ll receive a commission.
You can see how the more traffic you get, and the more quality blog posts you write, the more your income from affiliate marketing will go up.
Don’t include too many affiliate links. 2-4 depending on the length of your blog post is perfect! Make sure your links stand out. I like to put mine in a bright color with bolted font. Only linked to products you can vouch for.
Affiliate marketing is regulated by the FTC, and as such there are rules you must follow to stay legal.
It is extremely important that you follow these rules so that you don’t get a big nasty letter from FTC compliance.
On top of that, the search engines want to see certain protocol followed to keep your blogs ranking in good standing. I show you exactly how to stay both legal and favorable in the search engine’s eyes in my Build A Profitable Blog course, but I just want you to be aware upfront that affiliate marketing isn’t a free-for-all and you must follow certain rules!
That being said, the rules are pretty darn easy to follow, so don’t worry too much
Affiliate marketing within your email marketing campaign is a bit more of an intermediate process, but it’s one that will revolutionize your income and how you make money from your blog!
You have hopefully created a trust based relationship with your readers already You know that the people receiving your emails are people who want to hear more about your blog topic. You can use affiliate marketing in a tasteful way to help your readers solve the problems they need answers for.
So how exactly do you go about including affiliate marketing in your email marketing plan?
Here are just a few ways you can place your affiliate links within emails to increase your blog income:
Did you know that you can also share your affiliate products on social media?
Now, don’t get too crazy, there are a few more legal things you need to know to make sure your social media posts with affiliate links are legal.
However, earning money from your social media posts has never been easier!
Here’s an example…
Affiliate marketing is such a great way to monetize your blog. You can choose to use other monetization methods as well, or focus solely on affiliate marketing.
Without trust, no one will want to buy through your link. This is why it’s so important to only recommend products that you love and can truly recommend.
Of course, your traffic and the size of your email list also matters. The greater these are, the more readers you will be able to reach.
But seriously, I can’t think of a more fun way to make money than to talk about things I like all day!
Let’s recap! Here’s how to get started with affiliate marketing even if you’ve never done it before:
If you aren’t sure which things you should be working on next in your blogging business, make sure to grab my Profitable Blogging Blueprint below!
It will walk you step by step through every action you need to take, in correct order, to make money from your blog.