Affiliate Marketing Do’s and Don’t’s

Affiliate Do's and Don't's

Affiliate marketing presents a lucrative opportunity for earning money online, whether you’re a novice looking to dip your toes into the business world or a seasoned marketer seeking to boost your income.

This guide aims to assist you in starting affiliate marketing journey and achieving success as a super affiliate.

So, what exactly is a super affiliate?

A super affiliate is someone who approaches affiliate marketing with dedication, rather than simply plastering banners or ads on their site.

They invest time in reviewing products, writing detailed product reviews, and even creating separate domains to promote specific products.

Super affiliates also prioritize building their email lists to effectively promote products to their audience.

To kickstart your affiliate marketing venture, it’s important to understand how it works. Essentially, you promote other people’s products on your websites and blogs.

Upon signing up for an affiliate program, you receive a unique ID to track sales generated from your site to the vendor site.

Reputable affiliate programs offer insights into sales tracking, click origins, and payment details.

Popular affiliate networks like Commission Junction (CJ.com) and Clickbank.com serve as intermediaries, facilitating multiple program choices in one place while handling payments.

However, individual affiliate programs may provide specialized promotional tools and training, particularly in the realm of information products, along with potentially higher commissions.

Here are a few places where you can find affiliate programs to promote:
www.CJ.com
www.Clickbank.com
www.Shareasale.com
www.Amazon.com

When starting out in the world of affiliate marketing, it may seem overwhelming at first.

The process can appear complex, but by following some straightforward guidelines, you can begin your journey and gain knowledge along the way.

You don’t need to grasp everything immediately; a lot of your learning will come through trial and error.

However, it’s beneficial to equip yourself with as much information as possible to start off on the right.

Here are a few pointers to help you kickstart your affiliate marketing journey.

Affiliate Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

Do figure out who you are selling to.

Identifying a target market is a crucial step in establishing a successful affiliate income stream.

Without a clear understanding of who you are selling to, it becomes challenging to select the right products to promote.

It’s important to delve deep into this process and not just categorize your audience as generic groups like “Men” or “Parents.”

Instead, focus on defining a specific demographic in just a few descriptive words, such as ” divorced single mothers” or “Middle-aged men experiencing hair loss.”

This level of detail will guide your marketing efforts and help you effectively reach and engage with your target audience.

Do make a list of what your target market needs.

Take a moment to sit down with a pen and paper or open a new page on your computer. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience.

What are their current needs? What kind of content do they consume regularly? What are their desires when they have extra disposable income?

By thinking from their perspective, you can create a valuable list of insights.

Do choose affiliate programs carefully.

Each merchant offers varying commission rates, so it’s important to search for the highest rate along with top-notch affiliate resources.

Prioritize websites that are user-friendly and easy to navigate for potential customers.

Pay attention to details like Cookie duration to maximize your earning potential through your promotional efforts.

Do treat affiliate marketing like a real business.

To elevate your affiliate marketing efforts to super affiliate status, it’s crucial to invest time and energy into your business.

Treat your affiliate marketing endeavor with the same dedication as a real business, allowing it to flourish and evolve over time.

Dedicate yourself to crafting compelling reviews, articles, and promotions for the products you truly believe in.

By consistently putting in the effort, you’ll increase your chances of achieving success in the affiliate marketing world.

Don’t plaster your website with affiliate banners.

When introducing your affiliate recommendations, consider a more personal approach rather than relying solely on buttons or banners.

Providing a product review or sharing a personal recommendation can be more effective in driving sales.

By showcasing the benefits of a product and how it can enhance your capabilities, you can naturally guide others towards considering it as a valuable option.

Don’t over promote products.

It’s important to strike a balance between offering valuable content and promoting products to your email list.

While it’s necessary to market your offerings, remember to also provide your subscribers with useful information.

By maintaining this balance, you can keep your audience engaged and more receptive to your promotions.

The key is to give more than you take, ensuring that your subscribers feel satisfied and valued.

Don’t give up too soon.

Affiliate marketing is a business that grows gradually over time, focusing on building web traffic and email lists while consistently meeting the needs of your market.

With dedication to the right strategies, your income will see an increase in the coming months.

One key aspect of affiliate marketing is your website. A well-designed website can significantly boost your sales, while a poorly designed one can hinder your earnings.

It’s not necessary to have a flashy website; instead, prioritize offering quality content and a clean design to your visitors.

Consider the following tips when designing your website:

Designing a Friendly Website:

When starting out in affiliate marketing, it’s crucial to ensure that your website conveys the right message to your visitors.

The key is to establish trust and credibility as soon as someone lands on your site, which can be achieved by creating a user-friendly and visually appealing website.

Here are a few tips for designing your website to make sales:

1. Opt for a clean and professional design with a white background and black font to enhance.

Avoid using excessive fonts or colors as it can detract from the overall look of your website. Keep the design simple and easy to navigate.

2. Create a user-friendly navigation menu with main categories and subcategories for easy access to information.

Update your site map regularly to help visitors find what they are looking for, always provide a link back to the home page.

3. Steer clear of flashy images, flash introductions, and excessive graphics that can distract from the main purpose of your site and impact your search engine rankings.

Keep design clean and simple without any flashing elements.

4. Limit the number of offers on your website to avoid overwhelming visitors with choices.

Focus on promoting a few quality programs rather than bombarding them with multiple options. Integrate affiliate links seamlessly into your content.

5. Engage visitors by offering valuable information and advice before presenting any sales pitches.

Build trust and credibility by providing useful content that addresses their needs before making any offers.

6. Avoid using excessive exclamation marks or overly hyped language as it may come across as unprofessional.

Focus on providing valuable information rather than using exaggerated language.

7. Capture visitor’s email addresses to stay in touch and follow up with them later on.

Provide valuable content and product recommendations without overwhelming them with constant offers.

8. Display your contact information on your website to establish trust and credibility with visitors.

Include a P.O. Box, email address, and general information about yourself and your business.

9. Encourage feedback from visitors by including a poll or form on your website.

Use this feedback to improve your website and cater to the needs of your audience effectively.

By implementing these strategies, you can create a user-friendly website that not only pleases visitors but also enhances your search engine visibility.

Building a website that prioritizes user experience will ultimately benefit both your audience and your affiliate income opportunities.

How to really make affiliate programs work:

1. Make the affiliate programs that you select really relevant to your niche subject to keep the credibility of your site and entice your members into purchasing the products they need.

It goes without saying, but if you have a site about babies and parenting babies, it’s not a good idea to promote pet related products as these aren’t relevant to your target market.

2. Write honest product reviews. Write informative and honest product reviews.

This is a great way to give your unbiased opinion on a product and to build trust with your subscribers.

And if a product is faulty in some way you can add that as a note, your subscribers will trust you more if they know your recommendations are honest and sincere.

3. Find the correct placement for affiliate links.

As mentioned above, affiliate banners and graphics don’t usually work as well as providing informative content and weaving affiliate links where appropriate throughout that content.

For example, you can write a quality article about helping your baby recover from colic and in that article you can link out to resources which will help the parents remedy this problem.

4. Set up your own domain or blog.

You can’t do this for every affiliate program, but if you find a product which has really helped you and offers a generous commission, you can set up a blog and speak about your experience using this product.

Make regular posts and comments about how the product is helping you and your experiences with it and link to the product throughout your blog.

You can also set up your own domain name to promote a product. This looks much more professional than an affiliate link and will be easier to remember too.

It’s great for using when writing articles and content as well.

5. Try to find affiliate programs that offer ‘lifetime cookies’ or ‘lifetime customers’.

This means that when you send a member to the affiliate site your affiliate link is tracked in their system and even if the member doesn’t purchase the product right away, you’ll still get paid if the person returns and buys from that affiliate program at a later date.

6. Redirect your affiliate links through your own domain. There are many benefits to redirecting your affiliate links.

It’s easier to track and remember your links when you need them. If a program changes their links it’s easy to go back and change your links.

You’ll also present a more professional image; many affiliate links are long and look like garbly goop; your visitors may be suspicious of these links.

Try a WordPress plugin like Pretty Link.

That’s it! It’s pretty easy to do and you’ll get many benefits from doing this.

In summary, Always remember to provide quality content and information and once you do that you can concentrate on making product recommendations.

As your business grows, you’ll find other tips and strategies which work best for you and you can start experimenting a little more.

By following the tips and advice in this report, you’ll be ahead of the game and on your way to becoming a super affiliate. Good luck!

Evaluate Good Affiliate Programs Checklist

There are many different affiliate programs to consider representing. Before you sign up for a program, there are some key criteria to evaluate.

This handy checklist can help you make sure you understand what you’re agreeing to before you start promoting.

Payouts

Look for programs that offer a good commission percentage. For example, Amazon.com generally pays between 4% and 6% for a sale.

Other companies may pay as much as 50% or higher. You may also want to look at what they pay for.

Do they pay for a visit or a click or do they pay only on purchases? You’ll find most pay for a sale.

Cookies

Cookies are markers that tell a company where visitors are coming from. It helps them know which affiliates are sending visitors and when they’re sent.

Cookies can last anywhere from a few days to a lifetime.

Let’s say a company sets their cookies at 30 days and your visitor makes a purchase on day 31, you don’t get the commission.

If they buy on day 29, you get the commission.

Ideally, you want lifetime cookies, which means that whenever your visitor decides to make a purchase, you get the credit for it.

If the cookie only lasts a week or a month, you will miss out on those delayed and subsequent sales.

Conversions

Does the company sales page convert? Will it turn the prospects you send them into customers?

If the sales page isn’t effective, then you’re putting effort to pre-sell and then not making any money. Look for programs that have a high converting sales page.

Evaluate their Earnings Per Click

Earnings Per Click (EPC) is metric used to determine the average earnings generated as a result of 100 clicks on an affiliate marketing link or ad.

This is an important number. Think about the difference between making one sale for every 100 clicks versus 10 sales for every 100 clicks.

It’s a reflection of their sales and conversion process.

Marketing Support

You’ll find a variety of support levels. Some affiliate programs give you tons of content to use to market their products. Others give you an affiliate link and that’s it.

The rest is up to you. Some also offer incentives, contests, and they work hard to make it fun and profitable.

The more support and motivation an affiliate company provides, the more you have to use and profit from.

Reputation

Check out the reputation of the affiliate programs you’re considering. Do they treat their customers well? Is their product top quality?

Many affiliate marketers try out the products before they promote them. Consider doing this.

You want to make sure that you create a solid reputation for your own business and that means representing businesses that are aligned with your values and vision.

Payment Practices

How often does the program pay commissions? Some affiliate programs pay quarterly; some pay as soon as you earn a commission.

Slow payers aren’t necessarily bad programs. It’s just nice to know when you can expect your money.

Also, is there a minimum you have to reach before they’ll send you a check?

Some companies have a set minimum, $100 for example, and you don’t get paid until you reach that amount.

Relevance and Promotion Potential

Be realistic when evaluating an affiliate product based on how you might be able to promote it.

Some products are easily woven into your current content and marketing materials. Others may require a lot of additional content.

That’s fine as long as you plan ahead.

Keep this checklist handy and use it to help evaluate the affiliate programs you’re considering.

You might create a data sheet for each affiliate program to help you plan your content and income goals.

Promoting an Affiliate Product Ideas

When you’re promoting a small number of products it can sometimes feel like you’re saying the same thing over and over again to your readers.

The key to creating an abundance of content and driving traffic to affiliate sales pages is to stay fresh and relevant with your audience.

Variety is key. It just takes a little creativity. This list of 30 ideas can help you get started.

1. Write a review. Include a summary as well as honest pros and cons about the product.

2. Interview someone who has used the product. Have them talk about why they bought the product, what problem it solved, and how they’re doing now?

3. Create a” how to use the product” article series. Show people through a how to series, why the product solves their problem and how to use the product effectively.

4. Create a how to use the product video. Publish a how to video on YouTube. Share it on your blog and social media to get more coverage.

5. Write a tips list – people love tips lists. Share a list of tips to use the product or tips to solve their problem. For example, 10 tips to potty train your dog. One of the tips might be to use the product you’re promoting.

6. Create an infographic. Create a visual representation of product benefits and show prospects why the product is effective.

7. Create a comparison chart. Highlight your product alongside similar, but inferior, products.

8. Show yourself using the product in a photo, share it on your blog. Build trust and credibility with your audience.

9. Interview the seller. Talk to the seller and record the interview. Publish the audio and the transcript.

10. Create a webinar. Discuss the problems the product solves.

11. Write a short report. Focus on a problem that you’re solving, for example, potty training a dog. Then lead the reader to the solution; the product you’re promoting.

12. Create an ecourse around the product, deliver it via email

13. Host a product giveaway

14. Write a comparison post comparing the product you’re promoting with another similar product. Be honest.

15. Create a post when product adds a new feature. Talk about the feature and how it adds value.

16. Write a question and answer blog post. Highlight the most common questions people have when trying to solve their problem (the problem that the product solves).

17. Write a post on why you switched from product A to product B (the product you’re promoting)

18. Create a resource page

19. Write a question and answer blog post. Highlight the most common questions people have when using the product.

20. Create list post and include the product

21. Send an email to your list with a special promotion and highlight a coupon or bonus offer.

22. Podcast. Talk about the benefits, tips, or best practices for the product

23. Identify a single benefit or problem that prospects have and write a blog post about solving that problem.

24. Create an email series. Talk about the different benefits the product provides. Start by highlighting the big problem your reader is facing.

25. Seasonal content. Write content that is timely and relevant to your audience. For example, gift ideas during the Christmas holiday or Resolutions during the New Year’s holiday

26. Pinterest. Share images of people using the product

27. Instagram. Create a quick video or image highlighting a product benefit

28. Guest blog. Talk about a problem the product solves on a relevant but not competitive blog.

29. Hold a contest. For example, ask people to send in videos of themselves using the product. Best/most creative video wins.

30. Next steps. Write about what to do after you’ve purchased the product. How can you make the most of it?

As you start working your way through this ideas list, you’ll undoubtedly come up with new ideas. Write them down, add them to the list.

Each time you find a new product to promote, you can make sure you keep your content fresh and relevant to your readers.