This article has links to products and services we love, which we may make commission from.
Affiliate marketing is a fantastic way to build passive income that will continue flowing in, even when spending time on other projects. It’s one of the fastest and most effective ways to begin making an income your brand, even when you’re still building up your following and reputation.
You can earn commission by targeting the right audience while recommending products and services. The best part is that affiliate marketing works for all niches.
However, bloggers and niche site owners tend to make a few mistakes that limit their chances of affiliate success.
Here’s our guide on making money with affiliate marketing to maximise profit, making every post pay.
Since many considerations are involved, please read the complete guide before implementing or making any changes to your affiliate posts.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing Today
1. Target the Right Audience
When I started implementing an affiliate process, I applied for popular affiliate programs and inserted the affiliate link into my popular content.
While this affiliate ‘trickle-down effect’ will generate income, it’s not the best strategy for affiliate success.
You need to catch the reader with their credit card in their hand to start making consistent sales.
To really start making money from affiliates, you need to flip your affiliate game around and begin the process by choosing the right product/service that is essential to your target audience and has prime keywords that let your content be found on search engines.
For example, instead of just adding Amazon product affiliate links to your guide on studying for finals, you can choose a product you know will help students study and target the keywords they would use to search for such products.
You can make money through both methods, but the more targeted approach will likely make more.
Track the income to see which post type brings in the most income.
For many content creators, ranking on Google has seen its glory days.
They are now focusing on sharing affiliate content that solves problems in Facebook communities that they have built or with their social media audiences; it’s a lot more work as it is less passive, but it can be lucrative if you have an audience that trusts your advice.
Search Engine Optimisation
While Google is not at the top of most bloggers’ minds, it is still worth learning how search engine optimisation (SEO) works.
SEO will allow you to reach the right audience who want to buy the affiliate product or service.
The process can help you understand the buying cycle, and its principles can be used for social media content, newsletter marketing, and product sales.
Put simply, SEO is when you target keywords your ideal customer is typing into search engines like Google, Bing, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
To start the process, you brainstorm ideas and then conduct keyword research.
2. Choose Products/Services to Promote
When deciding what affiliate products to promote, don’t just choose the popular ones.
Really consider the following things:
- The affiliate and the product. Do you stand behind the company? Is it something your audience needs or wants? Is it a price point that is high enough actually to make money from? What commission will you receive? What is the cookie window?
- How would a buyer purchase the product? Will they buy right away, or consider their decision first? This will affect what kind of marketing you need to do.
- What is the user intent of the target audience? For example, what does the Google searcher asking for ‘best neighborhoods in New York’ want? Hotels? Houses for sale? What does a searcher asking for “best slow cooker” want?
3. Consider the Buying Cycle
You need to appeal to readers who are ready to purchase so that they will pull out their credit cards and make the purchase immediately.
So be sure you choose keywords that target the decision/buying stage.
These people are beyond the information-gathering stage and ready to buy when they find the right product.
Using buying words and phrases will attract decision-stage readers. Here are some examples buying words:
- Product reviews
- This product vs That product
- Best luxury product or best budget product
- For women … for men … for families
If you think you have a chance of ranking on page one of Google with your post, don’t worry so much about the volume of the keyword. It’s better to rank well for smaller volume keywords than to not rank for high volume ones. **
I used to believe you needed a large audience to make money, but that’s not true.
You need a targeted audience.
With affiliate marketing, it is better to have a hundred views that convert than a thousand that don’t.
For example, one of my targeted money-making posts makes 3x the commission compared to another post that receives a ton of views but isn’t targeted.
4. Solve a Problem
You can add an affiliate link to just about any post, but the ones that will begin to make money are the ones that solve a problem.
Brainstorming your audience’s pain points is the best way to tackle this. Think about an issue that causes a problem for your audience – something they struggle with.
What are the top three things that keep your audience up at night?
Such as how to source a recipe ingredient they can’t get at home or how to choose the best elliptical machine when there are so many similar options on the market.
Those are the affiliate products you should introduce to your audience.
After brainstorming, research keywords to see if people are actively seeking a solution.
5. Choose The Right Affiliate Programs
When choosing an affiliate program, at the very least, you have to consider the following:
- Commission – What percentage will you make? Or is there a flat fee you will receive per sale?
- Cookie Window – How long must a reader purchase for you to get the commission?
More advanced site owners will also consider the overall company conversion rate before applying because the company’s ability to make the sale after you’ve led a reader to them is also very important.
6. Consider the Types of Affiliate Programs
Some companies host direct affiliate programs like Amazon Associates.
Others go via a third party.
You sign up for the third-party program (like Commission Junction or Awin) and then apply for the individual affiliate program.
Companies cover every niche that is thinkable on these third-party sites.
Here are some of the affiliate marketing programs we use on our sites (travel, food and SEO):
- Amazon Associates – Direct Amazon product sales
- ShareASale – Third party, shop for merchants once you sign up
- VigLink now Sovrn Commerce – Third party, shop for merchants once you sign up
- CJ – Third party, shop for merchants once you sign up
- Partnerize was Performance Horizon – Third party, shop for merchants once you sign up
- Awin – Third party, shop for merchants once you sign up
- Food52 – Recipes, kitchenware
- Avantlink – A collection of international merchants.
7. Focus On The Perfect Products
You may be choosing the wrong products or services in a few ways.
Firstly, you are pitching a product that just does not convert.
It might not be right for your audience; it might have poor conversion rates for the company selling it, the product or service is not available all year round, you’ve failed to optimize the post for that product (see next section) and/or you can’t rank for target keywords (see above).
Secondly, you only focus on low-priced products with low commission rates, which does not generate much revenue.
Naturally, initially, you may not want to target high-value products because you don’t think you can sell them.
However, it would be best if you move away from that mindset.
It’s not about the price of the product, it’s about identifying a need and finding a product that fulfills that need.
A low commission rate isn’t always a negative.
You create a high average order rate (AOV) if you sell a lot of the product.
In some cases, this can earn you additional income for bringing in a lot of sales.
Note: For some affiliates, the reader doesn’t have to buy the product or service you recommend for you to receive a commission.
For example, with Amazon, don’t be surprised if pet-related goods appear in your reports when you promote wellbeing products.
Although dogs are a great source of happiness, this just means the reader has read your guide, gone to Amazon from one of your product links, and continued shopping for other items.
This isn’t always something to celebrate, though, as it can indicate that the reader did not complete the buying cycle for the targeted keywords/product or service.
8. Optimize Your Affiliates
You may have SEO down, but your content isn’t converting for affiliates.
There are many reasons that your links might not be converting, such as a lack of calls to action, placing them in the wrong spot in the post, or not making the buying signals clear enough.
To fix this issue, see below for some great ideas.
Deep Linking
For many affiliate programs, in-text links naturally placed within context convert better than widgets and images.
Widgets can slow your page speed down, too.
Clear Calls to Action (CTAs)
CTAs are buying signals, such as “buy here, act now, check prices, reserve your spot,” etc.
Not including CTAs might leave your readers without a clear understanding of what they should do.
If you use Gutenberg, you can make callouts stand out by using the coloured boxes function, bottoms, or separating lines.
You can also create your own CTA boxes using this code: <div style=”background-color: #BBF1F5; padding: 1.0em; max-width: 25.0em; margin: 1.0em 0; border: solid 1.0px #BBF1F5;”><strong> Don’t miss out. Buy today! </div> Example:
Change the colour coding to match your brand colours.
You can also change the thickness of the box.
Linking is such an essential part of the post-building process.
Sense of Emotion
Every good marketer knows that fear sells.
If you can paint a picture from personal experience that outlines why the reader should buy the product and adds a sense of urgency or excitement, you could increase your selling power.
Remember, solve a problem!
Avoid Affiliate Stuffing
Just like keyword stuffing, you can overdo affiliates.
Sure, you want to encourage click-throughs, but having an affiliate in every paragraph looks spammy and can be overwhelming.
Sell naturally by putting a personal spin on it. If you’re trying to sell products you don’t use yourself, it will come across as unnatural and salesy.
Use Professional Plugins
There are a couple of affiliate plugins that improve the user experience (UX) and make items stand out.
Mobile User Experience
Do not ignore the mobile user experience.
Google now ranks the mobile version of your site, so always evaluate how your posts look to mobile users.
Ask a friend to check for you, sometimes it’s difficult to see issues with your own posts.
9. Track Your Affiliates
Affiliate marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it process!
Question any affiliate course that screams ‘make money while you sleep’.
Sure, you will be selling while you get shut-eye, but to make a lot of money, you have to stay on top rankings.
That’s why we prefer to refer to affiliate marketing as ‘nurtured income’ rather than passive income—as it will require some attention.
If an affiliate program offers a way for you to track the specific link that is being selected, use it.
This will give you great insight into what links are converting and aren’t.
Check frequently to see what placement works and be willing to adjust it when it’s not.
Is it a deep link, a buying signal CTA, a button or a box? Can you replicate what it working elsewhere?
If it’s not working, tweak it. Business is about calculated risk.
What products are selling? Brainstorm more content, do keyword research and publish.
If you have ads running on your site, it might be worth removing them for money-making posts or at least manipulating ad placement so they don’t detract from the money you could be making.
10. Build Relationships
One of my Facebook followers asked if I trusted GetYourGuide Tours, for which I am an affiliate.
I could honestly say yes because I’ve used them personally.
Create an open dialogue with affiliate partners.
Email often, discuss ideas, and ask for reports if they are unavailable.
Many bloggers are resistant to following the advice of affiliate partners, and believe me, I was one of them.
For example, whenever I was contacted by a company that wanted me to become an affiliate and start mentioning their product in my posts, I wondered why I should give them free advertisements on my site.
While some affiliates will pay for advertisement in addition to the affiliate commission, most won’t.
Effectively, the affiliate commission is your payment for advertising their product; you must weigh the benefits.
Don’t ignore the wee guys.
Some of our most successful affiliate partners are brands you’ve probably not heard about.
Don’t disregard every email from affiliates as spam. Be diligent with the companies that find you.
Don’t be afraid to ask for placement fees if you can guarantee Return On Investment (ROI) with these smaller companies.
Some companies do have a budget for this, and they will likely want many administrative changes over the year.
Attend industry events so you can meet partners face to face.
Invite your favorite partners to conferences.
If they are already going, arrange to meet for a casual drink or, more officially, during a speed-networking slot.
11. Don’t Think You’re An Affiliate Expert
We see this too often.
Bloggers make a month of sales, and suddenly, they know everything about affiliates, so they start a company telling other bloggers how to make money from affiliates.
Affiliate marketing is a long-term commitment.
It takes at least a year of analysis to understand the entire cycle of your affiliates: the ebbs and flows of traffic, the buying trends, the low season, the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush, the damn cancellations and returns.
Sure, get excited about the first affiliate sales, but don’t get too emotionally attached until the monthly revenue is consistent and growing.
Would the bank give you a mortgage on your current sales?
Readers, always check the credentials of those selling you advice and courses.
Ensure they can back up what they say with data and proof.
Check the testimonials for blogging courses are by bloggers and site owners, not Instagram account owners.
These are entirely different platforms.
Current Affiliate Issues
When you start really digging deep into affiliates and improving your conversions, you will likely run into a few issues that you need to be aware of so you don’t get burned.
- Affiliates can change contracts when they want, and they do! Laura once applied to a program that offered a 12% commission, only to find that the commission rate had changed to 1% a month later.
- Affiliate partners change programs and may or may not tell you about it. That means you must change the links to the new affiliate program, or they will become defunct.
- Many affiliate dashboards are confusing and require some understanding and navigation. GA4/Search Console spoils us. Why can’t every affiliate have something similar?
- When a reader selects your affiliate link, which goes through to the mobile app instead of a browser, are you making that referral sale? With most of our readers viewing our posts via mobile, we should all be questioning our affiliate partners.
Final Words
The biggest change in affiliate earnings will occur when you start thinking strategically about your affiliate partnerships and links rather than just tossing a link in whenever it seems convenient.
About the Authors
Gemma owns several travel and lifestyle websites, including Two Scots Abroad Travel Guides. Laura runs a portfolio of travel, food, and lifestyle sites. They both love to travel, drink wine, and increase their website traffic through SEO!