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If you are looking to earn a substantial amount of passive income, then affiliate marketing has you covered.

And it is an excellent deal for the other side as well — the business organizations aka merchants. 

It allows them to use talented salesforce and influencers that are popular in their niche and pay only when they make a sale. They also decide how much commission will be allotted for each purchase.  

However, despite all the hype, most businesses are focused on one question — would affiliate marketing work for my business? 

The skepticism behind this question is legit. After all, there’s no point foraying into something that doesn’t particularly work for your business or niche in the first place. 

We will discuss this in a minute, but before that, let’s understand a bit more about affiliate marketing. 

So, what exactly is affiliate marketing? 

Affiliate marketing is a business model where bloggers and influencers recommend services or products they like or find useful, something that will be genuinely helpful for their followers, and earn a percentage of profit for each sale that follows. 

In other words…

Affiliate marketing is basically like a common agreement between two people: a merchant that is looking to sell their product or services and a marketer who can help sell those products in exchange for a commission. 

However, most definitions online talk about three different parties involved in affiliate marketing, including:

• The Advertiser  
• The publisher  
• The consumer 

The Advertiser: Naturally, the advertiser or merchant is the one who has a product or service to sell. From large organizations to solopreneurs, anyone can become an advertiser behind their own marketing program. They just need to have something to sell. 

The publisher: The affiliate or the publisher is the person who creates content to add referral links. Affiliates can also include solo entrepreneurs or even big companies. They can earn thousands or even millions of dollars commission each month, depending upon how high they are able to scale their referral chain. 

The consumer: The consumers or customers make the final sales and make the whole system go ‘round. 

The publisher usually markets the products using the channels that are viewed mostly by their target audience, be it social media platforms, affiliate links in blog posts, or through YouTube videos.

You will find a lot of affiliates in the blogging domain. 

A lot of marketers also use YouTube for affiliate marketing. 

Take these affiliate links, for instance: 

Such affiliate links always come with a tracking ID to keep track of the referrers that send the customers. 

Affiliate marketing seems pretty simple and is a win-win scenario as it can be lucrative for the merchants as well as the publisher. 

This gives rise to another important question, i.e., is affiliate marketing good for my business? Would it even for it in the first place? 

Let’s identify whether affiliate marketing works for your business or not. 

Does Affiliate Marketing Work For My Business

As a small or medium-sized business owner, both sides of the deal are lucrative, whether you set up your own affiliate program to build an online sales-force in order to generate more sales for your business, or you can generate sales for other companies to generate a passive, side-income for your own business. 

However, there’s no point getting started with affiliate marketing if you don’t think it is suitable for your business. One of the quickest ways to check whether it works for your business or not is by checking is your competitors are running an affiliate program. If they do have an affiliate program, you’d most likely see a link redirecting to it in their website footer. 

Again, to figure out what commissions affiliates expect in your domain, check what incentives your competitors are offering. 

If you are looking to generate passive income from affiliate links, then make sure that you don’t treat as a means to an end.  

Don’t consider adding affiliate links unless you feel a strong connection to the product or service you are endorsing. 

If you are vouching for something, you will be held accountable by your followers. If you end up endorsing something you yourself don’t believe in, you will end up losing your followers. 

So, don’t turn into a smarmy salesman just to make some quick cash.  

It goes both ways, though. 

If you genuinely believe in your product and give your readers a legitimate reason why you are promoting that product, they are most likely to respond. 

For example, in this blog post, the publisher gives a rundown on Wix Vs. Squarespace. 

You can see the affiliate link mentioned in the first paragraph. 

It’s easy to tell it’s an affiliate link because of the way the URL appears: 

When you scroll down the article, you can tell that the writer isn’t just promoting something with dollars signs in mind. 

The blog post is written to point out all the features of the product, and you can tell that the product is indeed a worthy choice.  

Also, affiliate marketing only works when you have a good reputation with your audience. 

If you have a respectable and influencing voice in your niche or among your target audience, then you are definitely going to do better as an affiliate marketer. 

It’s a no brainer — if they trust you, they are going to trust what you are endorsing. 

However, affiliate marketing is a lot of work. 

You will have to manage your accounts, keep your articles updated, monitor your links, and so forth. 

After all, nothing good ever comes easily.

And it can be even more cumbersome if you are running your own affiliate program. 

How To Get Started With Affiliate Marketing? 5 Steps To Consider Before Your Start 

Let’s face it; not everyone gets successful with affiliate marketing. 

There are so many things that can go wrong. 

For one, you might be choosing the wrong products to promote or could be joining all the unsuitable social investment networks, among other things.  

And it’s easy to get stuck with low-commission trenches for months or even years on end.  

The competition is stiff and cashing in on affiliate marketing takes proper strategy. 

However, it’s all about choosing the right path and trying out the right social investment networks. 

After that, profits can be astronomical. 

Here’s a step-by-step process that will help you achieve that and make the most out of your affiliate marketing endeavor. 

1. Identify your target audience (and what they are already purchasing)

The first step to becoming a successful affiliate marketer is by identifying your target audience and discerning what products they are already buying. 

For instance, brands that regularly write about topics like how to start a new blog know that their readers are likely to be interested in purchasing WordPress hosting, themes, plugins, and something else along the same lines. 

What if your brand mostly caters to new or to-be moms? 

Then you know they all need products like toys, child care, and other supplies. 

Although this is pretty spot on but to make sure that you are promoting the right kind of product to your audience, you need to conduct extensive research in those areas to make appropriate recommendations.

You can even conduct a quick survey. 

Either choose some tool to conduct your survey or rely on emails. 

If you have an email list, just shoot out an email along the following lines: 

Hey [prospect name]

Just need you to answer two quick questions that will help us offer better services. It’ll only take a few minutes: 

1. What brings you to [brand or blog name]? Do you have a particular goal in mind?
   
2. People/readers ask me for recommendations all the time so just wanted to know what products and services have you bought related to that goal? 

That’s about it! 

Thanks,

[Your Name]

You would be surprised to know how many people are actually willing to give you not only the answers but also some more interesting, not to say useful insights. 

These answers will definitely help you understand what kind of products is your audience interested in. 

2. Choose a product to promote (after extensive research)

In an ideal world, your belief in a product would be enough to create an affiliate link. 

But there are two constraints in your way: 

• First, you are either inexperienced and not sure whether the product that you liked would be useful in the long run. 
• Or you are unable to find an affiliate network for the product you have used and whose credibility you can vouch for 

No matter what hindrances you face, you have to invest time and resources into recommending the best products to your audience. 

Don’t forget to run the following Affiliate Product checklist before proceeding with a particular product: 

• Research that the product has a top-notch quality 
• They have a viable return policy (that you are confident about)
• You have tested their customer support 
• You can back up your recommendation with facts and figures 
• The product aligns with your audience’s needs and requirements 

If the product ticks all the boxes mentioned above, then you are good to go.  

However, this option becomes moot if you don’t have any prior experience with the products that can help your audience, you can rely on various credible affiliate marketing networks. 

Here are some of the best Affiliate Marketing Websites & Programs you can register with: 

• ShareASale Affiliates  
• Amazon Affiliates 
• eBay Partners
• Shopify Affiliate Program
• Clickbank

These are some of the most popular and reliable affiliate networks. 

But be careful — since you are entirely new to the product and have to prior knowledge regarding it, make sure to invest time in research and if possible, try it out on your own by purchasing it. 

3. Choose different & high-end affiliate programs

Don’t fall prey to promoting terrible products that pay even more terrible commissions. 

Even worse, don’t get stuck with a single affiliate network where the commissions are too low.

You wouldn’t want to waste your time promoting something that will only give you a one-off commission or something as low as $20. 

There are tons of affiliate programs available on the internet (some of them mentioned above)

Don’t shy away from trying out different networks. Each of them offers a variety of products, customer service, and payment structure. 

Check out a couple of them before settling for one that fits your goals and requirements perfectly. 

4. Be transparent and mention your affiliations 

There are different approaches to promoting affiliate links. 

However, it’s ethical to let your audience know what approach you are using. 

Here’s an example: 

The writer has cited how he has chosen to add affiliate links. Readers like this transparent approach better — contrary to getting bombarded with a sneaky pop-up link or a shortened link, which hides the real motive. 

In fact, some merchants and affiliate networks are strictly against such practices. 

For instance, Amazon affiliates have laid down guidelines, and do not allow affiliates to use the links in PDFs, e-books, emails, or pop-ups. 

Just make sure that you don’t deceive your audience or violate the terms and conditions of the affiliate network you are connected with. 

If you are promoting something of real value, you would have no reason to hide either way. 

5. Above all, remain consistent and be patient

Don’t expect to generate steady income overnight with affiliate marketing. It might take months, even years, to find success. 

Focus on building a loyal follower-base that will be willing to trust your words. 

The better content you create, the more traffic you will generate. 

Above all, make sure to keep your current audience engaged. If you disappear for days on end without engaging your audience, they are going to disappear eventually and possibly turn to one of your competitors. 

And most importantly, don’t forget to keep on updating your older posts. 

Say, for instance, you created a blog post in 2016 and recommended some products. Turns out, four years later, in 2020, some of those products are not relevant anymore, and you have better products that you would like to recommend. 

In such scenarios, you would have to update the article and make it more appropriate to suit the current situation. 

Wrap Up 

Affiliate is a great way to promote or generate passive income for your small business. 

But it will only bear desirable results if you partner with reputable merchants with an excellent track record in the market. 

Follow through the 5-step process to make the most out of your affiliate marketing strategy. 

• Identify what your target audience is purchasing 
• Do your research on the products 
• Choose varied, high-end affiliate programs
• Be transparent 
• Above all, remain consistent and be patient 

And most importantly, don’t get stuck with a penny-pinching merchant. Try out new products and networks before settling for one. 

Also Read: 5 Content Marketing Strategies To Increase Blog Traffic

You already know how important blogging is for your content marketing strategy.

That’s the reason why you are probably putting so many efforts for your company blog.

And this statement is backed by credible data.

Take a look at this statistic below:

The higher traffic your blog has, the better your online visibility will be. And having online visibility means you can generate more leads and close more sales deals.

All in all, having great blog traffic can do wonders for your business.

However, growing your blog’s traffic is no walk in the park. If you think that writing blobs of text and posting it on your website is enough, then think again.

If you want to get more traffic on your blog and see more interaction from your target audience, then I’d suggest reading this blog post carefully.

I will give you some great, not to say easy tips to grow your blog’s traffic using content marketing.

Let’s get started!

1. Build a fan base by engaging with your readers

Who are you, Christian Bale?

Why would anyone be your fan?

I am sure you are thinking along the same lines. Don’t worry — it’s natural to be skeptical.

But let me tell you one thing: you can actually build a fan base based on your blog posts and by engaging your readers.

Take Elon Musk, for instance. Musk is a multi-billionaire, helms one of the biggest companies in the world but he still engages with his audience on his social media account.

Take a look for yourself:

There are so many billionaires in the world but no one seems to be accessible than Elon Musk, which is why Musk has an army of fanboys behind him.

Again, you’d think that Musk is a billionaire — but how would you, a mere mortal, build a fanbase and for your blog at that.

This time, let’s take an example of someone in our own vertical.

I am sure you know about the marketing guru, Neil Patel. He is probably one of the biggest marketing professionals today and his blog gets huge traffic. Naturally, he also started from scratch, like everybody else.

To build a loyal audience-base, he always makes sure to reply to all the comments he gets on his blog posts. And not just generic “Thank Yous,” either, he reads their comments and provides answers to their queries as well.

As a result, the audience continually comes back and even post comments because they know that the author is genuinely interested in his audience.

Engagement is the key, whether you want to build a loyal audience base for your blog post or for your business.

2. Add emotional keywords in your blog heading

One of the best ways to generate blog traffic is by reeling in your audience using attractive headings.

If your blog headings fail to catch the attention of your audience, then they are unlikely to take the time to further read your blog.

The best way to create attractive headlines is by incorporating emotional keywords. Doing so will grab eyeballs for your content. Moreover, people will not only be compelled to read it but also share your content on social media platforms.

Say, for instance, if you were trying to start a travel blog, you would probably search for keywords like:

“How to make money using a travel blog”

“easiest ways to start a travel blog”

“start a travel blog using simple steps”

So, if you find any blog posts that have incorporated these key phrases in their heading, you are likely to respond positively. It’s like finding something that you exactly desired for.

These emotional keywords generate a feeling of immediacy and compel your target audience to click on the heading right away. All in all, these headings give the audience a nudge to take action.

3. Utilize quality Inbound links

Inbound links are the most valuable links — and the most difficult links to get.

However, inbound links are extremely important if you want to scale up your blog.

They are important because it means that someone visited your blog post and liked it so much that they linked it to their own blog. When this action is repeated over and over again by websites all across the internet, you will automatically start to get massive referral traffic.

But the question is, how would you get those quality inbound links?

Well, for starters, you have to write an in-depth and actionable content, something that is valuable to your target audience.

But that isn’t nearly enough.

One effective way to get inbound links is by leveraging outbound links. It’s quite simple actually: if you want other people to link your article, you have to link other people’s articles as well. This will make them more inclined to return the favor and provide you with an inbound link.

Another easy way to get quality inbound links is by guest blogging (we will talk about this in detail in the next point).

Moreover, don’t shy away from building connections with influencers in your domain.

There are some influencers that are so popular in their field of work that you can’t seem to escape them on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

They have a loyal fanbase that actually takes their words seriously.

But are all these influencers worth the hype?

Well, if statistics are anything to go by, people genuinely take these influencers seriously.

According to a survey, 22% of 18-34 year-olds made a large purchase after seeing an online influencer endorsing the item.

This is a hefty number.

So, if you are not leveraging influencer marketing to generate valuable inbound links, then start today.

Try to build connections with such influences and popular bloggers and request them to provide you with inbound links. Or you can ask them to review your product. Possibilities are aplenty, you just need to get started and start leveraging them to their potential best.

4. Guest post extensively

Guest posting is another great way of building quality inbound links and eventually grow your blog’s traffic.

And guest blogging is not a new, unused method.

It is a proven method that has shown substantial results in the past as well.

For instance, Gregory Ciotti of HelpScout leveraged guest blogging and build a whopping list of 36,733 email subscribers.

HelpScout was an unknown entity before Gregory switched to the route of guest posting.

But before you embark on guest posting, just make sure that you don’t write promotional articles. Avoid talking about your product and how great it is — only focus on writing valuable content that offers useful takeaway points to your target audience.

5. Optimize Your Mobile Site

Sometimes companies and website owners tend to overlook this content marketing strategy, but mobile visitors account for the maximum volume of traffic for your blog.

Don’t let me dictate you into believing this, have a look at this statistic.

According to Statista, in 2018, 52.2 percent of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones alone.

This makes it apparent that you can’t afford to ignore your mobile visitors.

If your website is not optimized for mobile usability, your target audience is going to take one look at it and exit without giving it a second glance.

To alleviate this problem, make sure that your mobile site is easily navigable and has a responsive design.  

Remember, if you fail to optimize your mobile site, then you are losing out on a lot of blog traffic.

Wrap Up

These proven content marketing tips will surely help you grow your blog’s traffic. But don’t forget that consistency is the key here.

I won’t give you false consolations and promise overnight results — you have to be patient and continue working with persistence. Stick to these tips and you will eventually witness solid results, including massive blog traffic, increased conversion rate, more email subscribers, and so forth.

To remain consistent, build a blogging plan beforehand. Create an editorial calendar to remain consistent and ensure that you don’t miss out on your blog posting deadline.

Which content marketing tips and tricks are you using to grow your blog’s traffic? Let us know in the comment section below!

Also Read:

• Omnichannel Experience: How To Evolve Your Sales Strategy To Adopt It
• What Is Affiliate Marketing And Does It Work For My Business