Affiliate marketing through blogging is a good way to start out, especially if funds are low. Blogging however is a long term strategy and less scalable than through running paid advertising. If you’re unfamiliar with affiliate marketing it’s one of the most popular business models used to earn income on the internet. As an affiliate you refer people to products and services online. When they sell, you make money!
Sounds pretty straight forward, right! With a blog, you create content to bring in people to your blog. As they browse your blog posts they can click on your affiliate links and join your email list. From your list you can promote your affiliate products further and for a longer time span. On a website someone has only a few minutes to purchase a product. Most people don’t buy from websites they don’t know. Often there’s a period of getting to know, which can be done through building an email list.
Once on your email list, you can build relationships with your email subscribers. Get them to know, like and trust you over time and they are more likely to buy something which you recommend.
Affiliate Marketing Through Blogging
But before that can happen, they need to find your blog! This is where you create lots and lots of content which will be a good match for your ideal customer. This is worth giving some serious consideration before you start because getting people to your blog posts isn’t the only factor in play with a profitable blog/website. You also need to get the right people to it, or no one will buy from you.
Affiliate marketing through blogging can be a great way to earn a living. But unless you get it right, it can be a very frustrating experience too. You need to choose content carefully because that content is going to draw a certain person to your blog. Write for your perfect customer, not just for anyone.
Who your perfect customers is will depend on your affiliate products. Ideally choose affiliate products which are a good match for your interests and passions. That way, you can write freely about the things which are of interest to you. This will draw in the right audience and they will buy from you.
So to sum up, your success as a blogger will depend on you getting traffic and making sales. Without the right content, or the right products, this can be a challenge. So it’s important to set yourself up for success from the get-go.
Affiliate Marketing Through Blogging – Starting With Your Affiliate Product
Your choice of affiliate product/s is pretty important. You should ideally choose products which are a good match for some interest or passion you have. Blogging takes time and is a long, slow process. It can take months and even years before you build up a good solid following and start getting traffic, leads and sales. Before this can happen, you’ll need to create some great content and the best way to set yourself up for success is to choose a topic close to your heart.
Choosing a topic just to make money is not a great idea. Remember you’ll have to create content which speaks to your target audience. Be yourself and you’ll have an easier time of it. Try and pretend to be someone else and you’ll soon run out of steam.
Some bloggers start out with a passion topic and don’t monetise it until much later: after they have built a huge following.
What Not To Do
I made a big mistake several years ago and I built a website based on a topic I knew nothing about. Worse still, I had no passion or interest in the topic either! The site was called whentoharvestgarlic.com and it no longer exists! I spent a good six months researching content and building the site. It did rank top of Google for the very uncompetitive terms I was aiming at. However, I had no passion for the topic and after 6 months I was simply burned out. It was difficult to monetise the topic too, and it made next to nothing despite my hard work.
But I learned an important lesson. If you’re going to put months into your blogging, and build a business out of it, make sure it’s good and that you love it! Because a year down the line you’re going to want to enjoy what you do. Don’t put the money before the work. Focus on what you’re passionate about and the work will become a joy.
When it does, it’s so much easier to keep going when things get tough, as they often will.
Getting People To Your Blog
So you’ve chosen your topic and you’re ready to get started. You can even choose to build your blog/website around certain keywords which can help it in the rankings. See this article. But this isn’t totally necessary as the content is the most important aspect. See also best micro niche for blogging. To get people to your blog, you’ll need to write good quality content which is suitable for your particular niche. You can use Google’s keyword planner to help you find the keywords which are already being searched for. See also affiliate marketing content ideas.
Use an SEO (search engine optimisation) plugin to help you write SEO friendly content. This will help you get the right balance of keywords in your content to give you more chance of getting it seen in the SERPs (Search engine results pages).
Once you’ve written your first piece of content your job isn’t over. You’ll want to promote it as much as possible. Newer websites will usually have a longer wait before Google (and other search engines) rank they content.
A high ranking on the first page of Google is a great result but never guaranteed. Remember your ranking will depend on a number of ranking points such as length of content, content quality, domain age, back links, social media presence domain name and so on. It also depends on your competition so for a competitive niche such as affiliate marketing it will be so much more difficult to get free traffic to your blog.
Less competitive niches should be easier to get free traffic from, if you blog regularly over several months and promote your content well.
Useful Plugins
There’s a few useful plugins you can use to help you promote your content. Revive old posts is a good plugin, by revive.social. It lets you connect your new and old posts to be syndicated throughout your social media presence online. There’s a free version and a paid version you can use according to functionality but both are useful.
You can also get social media share plugins too which will show on your site. These make it easy for your readers to share your content on social media, so it’s worth choosing one which you like. There’s many free versions available.
I’ve mentioned already an SEO plugin is a useful thing to get too. I use Yoast SEO which helps me write content which is more SEO friendly.
Keep Going – Gaining Momentum
Blogging is a great way to earn from the internet but it takes time. Remember that it’s a long game so prepare yourself for a marathon not a sprint. Make habits out of creating content and over time your habits will serve you.
Here’s a snapshot from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. I thought it particularly relevant to blogging because it can take so long before the fruits of your efforts begin to show. And it’s not a linear journey. There’s a lot of work involved in blogging which appears as if it’s for nothing at times. But hang in there and keep going.
A good analogy of blogging is the Chinese Bamboo tree which has a 4-5 year gestation period and within 6 weeks grows up to 90 feet tall. So for four or five years nothing shows at all! Blogging can be a little like this too. You can work really hard for a long period and nothing shows. It can be tempting to quit. But if you carry on and keep going, you will see a slow generation of traffic. Offer some valuable giveaway on your blog and you’ll see the occasional lead (email sign up).
Use these small successes to motivate you to keep going. They are the “sprouts” of the bamboo tree!
Affiliate Marketing Through Blogging – Summary
Affiliate marketing through blogging can be a rewarding way to build an affiliate business over the longer term. Paid marketing can considerably shorten the journey, but it’s not for everyone, and requires more financial investment rather than an investment of time. See affiliate marketing business models.
Before you get started blogging, consider a topic or subject which you have an interest or passion for. By choosing your topic and aligning it with your interests you have a much better chance of success and for staying the course when times get tough. Creating content will be more of a joy and less of a burden with a topic you love.
Each piece of content on its own won’t make your affiliate business grow. But together and if you promote each piece of content well, you’ll be able to use your blog as a resource to attract your perfect audience. Over time, as your blog attracts more attention, you should see a rise in traffic and leads. You should start making some sales too. But this doesn’t happen immediately, at least in my experience. So be prepared for a long term strategy which compounds on itself over time.
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