Whether you’re currently running a blog or looking to start one in the near future, you might be considering implementing affiliate marketing within it. 

A way of scaling and monetizing your blog involves promoting certain products or services in return for revenue. Once a reader clicks on the link associated with the affiliate and purchases the product or service, you’ll receive a percentage of the sale. 

How Much Can You Earn From Affiliate Marketing?

You’ll be glad to know that the industry surrounding affiliate marketing has been steadily growing throughout the last few years. With spending predicted to reach an impressive $8 billion by 2022, there’s seemingly no better time than now to join an affiliate program. 

However, it’s important to keep in mind that businesses differ when it comes to how much they will offer someone that’s promoted their product or services. Therefore, it’s good to hunt for the highest-paid links possible – even if there is a lot of competition for them.

Top Things to Consider

Before you start with affiliate marketing, there are certain things that you should consider. By knowing the ins and outs of how it works, you’ll be in a better position and be able to potentially unlock higher revenue. For example, you’ll want to keep the following in mind:

Creating a Strategy Plan

While it might seem simple to start, if it’s done incorrectly, you won’t receive the income that you initially hoped for. To prevent this from happening, it’s therefore advisable that you create a strategic plan. Going in with a solid game plan will give you the knowledge to recognize:

• What products or services you will focus on promoting

• Where you should look for the best links and opportunities

• How much you’re willing to invest in the process

• Who you should be working with

What Products or Services You’ll Promote 

Following on from the above factor, you’ll need to establish what products and services that you promote on your blog. Typically, these will align with your blog nicely, e.g. if you’re a parent that has a family-themed blog, then you might include affiliate links in your content that are from vacation websites, toy stores, etc. 

When deciding on this, you might want to ask yourself the following questions:

• How much money is associated with this niche?

• What topics am I particularly passionate about?

How Transparent You Are

When you start to include affiliate links on your blog, it’s a good idea to disclose these affiliations. Your readers will appreciate you being honest about this and maybe more likely to contribute because of this. If you’re not honest, it might lead them to ignore the link and go directly to the site – meaning that you as the ‘middle man’ will miss out. 

Not only this, but it’s also required by the law – so make sure that on the bottom of the page and on each article that has affiliate links, you’ve included a sentence or two stating that they are within the content. 

It Will Take Time

It’s important to keep in mind that you have to be patient when it comes to affiliate marketing. The revenue that you receive from each promotion will build up over time–not all at once. However, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t focus your efforts on continually promoting products. 

The Content Should Be High-Quality

When including affiliate links within your content, it’s vital that the copy surrounding it is of high quality. Without this, your readers will soon lose interest in the article and will either go back onto the homepage or click off of your blog altogether. 

To ensure that they stay engaged and are interested in what you have to say, spend time crafting each article and include the affiliate link in a natural way that doesn’t distract from the copy. If you’ve inserted an affiliate link that’s unnatural and doesn’t fit within the context, it will stand out in a negative way.

Keep Up With Trends

When you’ve started to implement affiliate marketing into your blog, it’s essential that you keep up to date with the latest links and offerings on affiliate programs. You don’t want to be left behind because you’ve missed out on quality links. So, each day, take a look to see if any new ads have been posted. 

By constantly being on the lookout for new services or products to promote, you’ll be able to offer your audience relevant and intriguing content–while being able to make more money in the process. 

Consider Buying a Product or Service Before You Promote It

Of course, this isn’t necessarily essential. But if you want to have the most accurate and reliable opinion of what a business has to offer before you promote it, then it’s worth checking it out beforehand. This way, you’ll be able to establish yourself as a trustworthy and credible blogger that’s taken the time to do this, before promoting it to your readers. 

This is particularly important if you’re planning on writing a comprehensive review of the product or service. Sometimes, if you don’t do this, it will be obvious to your readers. 

Know Your Audience

Although this might be an obvious one, especially if you write a blog that’s within a certain niche, it’s important that you know your target audience and considers what they are interested in. There’s no point including affiliate links just for the sake of it–if you know that your readers won’t be interested in them.

So spend some time researching the different affiliates and ensuring that you can craft content that not only seamlessly complements the link, but that will intrigue your audience and tempt them to click on it when they are on the article. 

Keep Your Values at The Forefront

Following on from the above, it’s critical that you don’t start to tailor your blog based on the affiliate links. If you’re in a niche, don’t randomly start writing posts to do with something that you’ve never written before. Stay true to your blog and you’ll be able to find affiliate links to suit it.