Have you experienced problems making money with affiliate marketing? Are you ready to give up?

Maybe you've considered affiliate marketing, or you've heard about it in passing... but you're not sure if you can do it. Maybe you think it's only for people who majored in computer science. 

If you're new to affiliate marketing, you have found this article at a great time. You'll learn to use affiliate marketing in a way that is natural and "non-salesy" for your audience, which can translate into profits for you.

There are lots of reasons business owners struggle with this business model. However, don't give up before reading this article. You'll learn how affiliate marketing works and how to make it work for you.

Affiliate Disclaimer: This page may contain affiliate links. If you use these links, I will receive a small commission. However, using these links will have no effect on you or your purchase in any way. For more information refer to our disclaimer page. 

There are so many myths about earning money online. And one of the goals of this article is to dispel many of them and invite you to try some methods and strategies that have been proven to work. 

Read this tutorial and try out some of the tips you'll learn here before you make a decision to rule out affiliate marketing.  

One of the Best Low Cost Ways to Start Earning Online

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to start an online business with little to no investment.  It's also one of the best ways to earn passive income. There is a small learning curve but in my opinion, it's worth it.

According to Mediakix, an estimated 80% of brands have affiliate programs. Additionally, almost 65% of affiliate publishers generate income by blogging. 

Affiliate Links for Your Blog vs. Social Media

This tutorial will show you linking methods that can lead to more sales conversions for blog posts. If you don't have a blog or a platform like a YouTube channel, you should consider starting one. If you are interested in learning to build a blog that earns you money, take our free online course. 

Take Heed If You're Loading Up Your Social Media with Affiliate Links

One of the problems new affiliate have is that they sign up for affiliate programs, and then they run to social media and start posting. If that's the strategy you're using it could be the reason you're not getting results. 

First check the terms of your merchant agreement for information on whether they allow posting strictly on social media. Many of them want their current and potential customers to have a positive experience, so they frown on anything that can be considered as spam.

Affiliate programs differ widely, and one program may be okay with only using social media. Others not so much.

Just keep in mind that slamming your audience with affiliate links without adding value will more than likely run away the people you are trying to reach and do business with. 

Posting affiliate links using methods that go against your merchant agreement or your social platform's rules can also cause your account to be terminated, so this is really important. 

The second reason you don't want to rely solely on social media to post affiliate offers is that you have a harder time measuring what works for your audience, and what doesn't work.

Having a platform you can use (one that you own) enables you to use tools like Google Analytics to track your content and measure what's working. Read on to learn what you can do that will get better results with your efforts.

Tips to Get the Best Results with Your Affiliate Marketing Business

When posting affiliate links, it's important to strike a balance between providing value to your audience and maximizing your earnings. Here are  are best practices for using affiliate marketing to earn on a consistent basis.

1. Promote your affiliate offers to a warm audience: A warm audience is an audience that is familiar with your brand, and knows, likes and trusts you. If you have a list of leads and customers, they would be a prime audience for affiliate products that are related to their interests and products they may have already purchased from you.  

Having an audience of people you can talk to about your affiliate offers is a prime reason to build a list. If you haven't started building a list yet, discover how to quickly build a list of engaged subscribers in 12 lessons in a free video course.

2. Promote affiliate products that you have experience with: Promoting products that you know nothing about just because you can make money with it will come across in your promotional material. If you have the product, consider shooting a video or taking pictures of you (or your customers, family members, etc.) actually using the product. Share your personal experiences and explain why you promote this product (how it helped you solve a problem) to come across as more credible and natural. 

3. Focus on quality over quantity: Avoid bombarding your audience with an excessive number of affiliate links. Instead, focus on offering high-quality recommendations. By carefully curating your suggestions, you maintain credibility and avoid overwhelming your audience or coming across as spammy. The goal is to give your audience an excellent shopping experience. 

4. Track and analyze performance: Use tools like Google Analytics (which is free), to monitor the performance of your affiliate links. Identify which products or promotions are connecting with your audience and adjust your strategies accordingly. Do more of what's working and less of what is not. This data-driven approach helps you optimize your efforts and increase your earnings over time.

5. Embed affiliate links inside quality content: If you've looked at your affiliate links, you know that they can be kind of intimidating. They are usually long and really ugly. If you're sharing what is referred to as "naked" affiliate links you could be running potential customers away. The typical affiliate link looks scammy and untrustworthy. Be sure to use the tips on this page to hide the ugly links inside your content. 

For example, instead of posting a long ugly affiliate link on social media, create a text link inside a piece of content like a blog post, eBook, or email course. That's the strategy used by bloggers to create valuable content for their audience, while earning. Watch our video on how to handle ugly links for more information. 

6. Disclose your affiliate relationships: Be transparent and disclose your affiliate relationships. This helps build trust with your audience. Clearly mention that you may earn a commission if they make a purchase through your affiliate link. Honesty fosters authenticity and encourages engagement. 

7. Create content once and promote it indefinitely: One of the best ways to benefit from your affiliate content is to create digital products once, that you can get paid from again and again. Creating quality content around the subject that your products are related to and the problems your products can solve, will help you earn long into the future when you promote it to the right audience.

Be sure to watch the video training below if you're interested in a quick tutorial. 

Profitable Linking Strategies for Your Blog

Affiliates can use a variety of linking methods when placing links on their blog that will take readers to a merchant's site. Today's post will talk about different link types and how they can be used to sell more affiliate products. 

You can use various link types to accomplish your goals without knowing HTML or having coding skills. These code snippets will be provided to you by your advertiser.

It's also good to know that each link type is suited to accomplish a specific goal that will help you convert visitors into customers.

The best choice for using links depends on what you would like to accomplish in your affiliate blog post.

You should also consider the kinds of links offered by the merchant. And keep in mind that not all merchants offer all the link types you'll see in the article.

Image created using Canva

Common Link Types

1. Text Links

This is the most common link type used to sell products and services. 

An example of a text link is the highlighted   'Google', text in this sentence.  Using this link will take you to the Google website.

The advantage of using text links to promote affiliate products is that they are embedded in the content of your post and they don't look as much like advertisements.

For a lot of affiliate sites, this is the most natural way to link to the merchant (advertiser's) site. 

2. Banner Links

These links are more visual and appear as rectangles, squares, and badges. They usually contain words and some sort of graphic element. 

They may be the best choice when you think a text link won't do enough to attract visitors.

The negative side of banner links is that consumers can become desensitized to them and literally block them out of their minds. It's like they see them, but they don't click or take action on them.  

I think it depends on the product and the user. I still use them sparingly on my site.

The image below is an example of a banner link from Tailwind (here's also a highlighted text link) affiliate program.

To place this banner link on your site, you would copy and paste a small amount of HTML code (provided by Tailwind) and place it on your website where you want the image to appear. The code would include your affiliate tracking information. 

When someone clicks on the image, your affiliate code will be triggered and they will be taken to Tailwind's website.  If they purchase a product, you get the commission. 

3. Embedded Search Boxes

This type of link allows visitors to search an online database on another site. The results of the search are your affiliate links to other pages on the site.

There are several ways affiliate programs use these links. The image above shows a search box on a an affiliate link that Macy's serves.  

To get the ad (that includes your affiliate tracking information) on your website, you would copy and paste a small amount of HTML code provided by Macy's.  

Users can use the search box to look for any items on Macy's website that they want.

For example, this kind of link is good to use to help your audience quickly find Christmas, graduation, wedding and shower gifts without leaving your site. If they find what they are looking for, they would use the link to go to the Macy's site to make a purchase. 

4. Linking to the Affiliate Sponsor's Home Page

This is a straight-forward link to the merchant's home page. If an affiliate wants to introduce visitors to the merchant site in general, this is the best way to link.

However, if you have a specific product that you want the visitor to see, you would want to "deep link" to that page using the methods in the next section and shown in detail on the video below. 

5. Product-Specific "Deep" Linking

If you're interested in selling a specific product, you might do a review or provide in-depth information about the product on your blog, and ask people to check it out by sending them to the specific product page so that they can easily make a purchase.

To link to your best products, you would want to 'deep link' to the specific product's details page on the merchant's web site. This gives the reader an opportunity to choose options, get pricing and sale information and make a purchase.

Deep linking is linking to the specific interior page or product on a merchant's site that your visitor is interested in (as opposed to just linking to the home page of the merchant).

Most advertisers have a deep link generator of some sort in their affiliate dashboard. They may refer to it as a 'link creator' as well.

Watch This Video For a Step by Step Explanation of Deep Linking and Why You Want to Use It

Be sure to watch the video above for a look at the example outlined in the steps below.

For the example, let's say you wanted to link to a 'Mixed Media T-Shirt'.

1. You would need the link, to 'Mixed Media T=Shirt'.  Visit the product page for 'Mixed Media T-Shirt', and copy the page link from the browser window. 
2. Now you need the affiliate code for 'Mixed Media T-Shirt'. To get the code sign in to your affiliate account and navigate to the section called deep linking or link generator. 
3. Paste the regular link to 'Mixed Media T-Shirt', into the link creator.  
4. Press enter, and the code will be generated that you will need to link to that specific page.
   
5. Copy and paste the HTML code into your website or blog where you want the product to appear.
   

Why should you deep link? It has been shown that if readers have problems navigating from a homepage to a specific product page, they will probably not bother and click off your transaction.

This difficulty is responsible for over a quarter of failures in getting a visitor to purchase a product.

Deep linking this is the best way to link to a particular product that you're reviewing on an advertiser's site.

Keep in mind that your goal is to convert your readers into customers. The best way is to accomplish that is to make it easy for them to find the product(s) you're discussing in your post.

Image created using Canva

6. Storefront Linking

If you're interested in exposing visitors to a variety of products, some merchants will allow you to link to a storefront. Prefabricated storefronts are maintained by the merchant web site.

The merchant can change what products are on display, but it keeps the URL the same so that the affiliate doesn't have to change any coding.

Some merchants also maintain storefront pages that affiliates can customize, so that they display the most relevant products.

The image below shows a 'Product Showcase' from the Shareasale affiliate network.  Shareasale also has a 'Make a Page' option that shows a whole page of products from specific merchants. 

You can place a showcase like this on your website, by copying and pasting a small amount of HTML code provided by Shareasale.

The code contains your affiliate information and will be passed to the merchant's website when a user clicks on the products.

7. Co-Branding

In some affiliate programs, affiliates can maintain their blog or web site identity even after a customer links to the merchant web site. 

The merchant web site will handle all the sales, and will usually host the page, but will configure the page so that it appears as though it's still part of the affiliate web site (by including the affiliate web site's logo, for example).

Unless the user examines the URL displayed by his browser, he or she probably won't even know he has linked to another site.

8. A Registration Link

Some merchants, in addition to paying a commission for the sale of products, will pay a commission for leads that are generated from the traffic you send to their opt-in or registration forms. 

If your affiliate merchant or advertiser is paying a commission for leads, linking to their lead generation page is a best practice.

Another way registration links are used is if a visitor has to register to use the merchant's web site. In this case, affiliates could link directly to a registration form on the merchant website and drive targeted traffic to that page to generate commissions.

Your merchants will provide the code or a link with your affiliate tracking embedded if they offer this kind of commission. 

Which Link Types are Best for Your Business?

As you can see, the way you use affiliate links has a lot to do with how successful you will be with various programs. 

It's a good idea to limit the number of affiliate links you promote in the beginning, until you know what works best for your readers.

Create a plan that you will implement with each affiliate program, and document how well your plan works. Make changes as needed until you get the results you're looking for.

Track your affiliate links in Google Analytics or other plugins and reports that you can review on the advertiser's website.

To understand your data and what is working for each campaign, I recommend reading a book called 'A / B Testing: The Most Powerful Way to Turn Clicks Into Customers'.

Consider the Flip Side of Affiliate Marketing... Become an Advertiser

Another option for business owners and a great way to hire your own sales force so to speak, is to start your own affiliate program.

A company like Shareasale will find sales leads for you. And the great thing about it is that you only pay when it works! People would apply for your program, and if you approve them, they will help you spread the word about your business.

When people your affiliates refer make a purchase you pay them. That is something that a lot of people are not set up to handle. So they hire Shareasale to manage their program. Learn more by clicking the image below.