Affiliate Links: The Best Way to Market Them

Shannon Lavenia 2135 Views,
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Affiliate marketing is a great way to generate income with your site or your blog. There’s a number of ways to include affiliate referral links or banner ads that can be highly effective and a few ways that can be just plain annoying to the visitor.

First, if your blog is solely for the purpose of posting affiliate links, you’ll find that you’re not going to get many subscribers. People revisit and subscribe to blogs that provide real value and if they land on your site only to find a collage of links and promotions, they won’t stay long. So, the purpose of your blog should be serving the reader, not yourself. Yes, you can profit from your blog if you’re truly being of service to your subscribers. The more service and value you provide, the more you’ll earn in the long-run.

The best avenue to is to be selective with what you choose to promote and how you choose to promote it. First, identify the purpose of your blog and provide real content that is valuable to the viewer. Ensure that your purpose is clear to the visitor. Invite them to opt-in to a list and to subscribe for further information. Then, carefully choose affiliate networks and promotions that fit with the purpose of your site and would also provide real value for your reader. Your subscribers do want to know about services and products that can benefit them.

For instance, my blog is designed to help home business entrepreneurs generate high-quality, high-converting leads for their business. I’ve chosen to include affiliate links for products that are valuable to this niche and would assist my subscribers. Some promotions I have on the site are for e-mail management services, pay-per-click sites, banner advertising resources, branding tools, etc. The links and promotions all fit with the purpose of the site and I ensure that whatever I am promoting, I have personal experience  with.

To further the benefit to you and your subscriber with affiliate promotions, from time to time you can write a blog post about a particular service that would be of real value to the reader. Give them the details about the product or service, an example of how you have used it and, most important, give them an example of the real results that you have experienced using the product or service. What people most want to know is how the product or service can benefit them to produce a real result. Avoid rabid promotions of products simply to earn commissions as this can wear out your subscribers and you’ll find they’ll stop coming by. If your subscribers feel you respect their “space” and time, they’ll respect your offers and will be more likely to purchase, increasing your overall revenue.

Shannon Lavenia

Shannon Lavenia is a well-respected authority and trainer in the network marketing and direct sales industry. Her blog, Get Your Own Leads is a go to resource for home-business entrepreneurs who want to generate high-quality, high-converting leads.

9 thoughts on “Affiliate Links: The Best Way to Market Them”

  • Hey Shannon,

    I am currently starting earning from my blog with affiliate marketing.

    Not yet too succesful, but it is enough to make me believe affiliate marketing works.

    I guess it needs more of my works, trying, and trying, and also patience.

    Thanks for sharing these valuable tips.

  • Hi Shannon
    I have yet to monetize my blog. Have been building up my readership with regular articles posted and blog commenting. I also interact with my readers through questions and answers when they comment on my blog. I am looking at doing affiliate marketing with Amazon related to my niche but I will do this by product reviews on my site and not agressively marketing. My main aim is to give good honest reviews of products I recommend. My other products will be sold through a shopfront on my site. I do not have other ads on my site. thanks for your insightful post.
    Patricia Perth Australia

  • There is also a bit of a misconception where too much ads scare off visitors but as long as you provide real quality content, there should be no problem with monetizing each section on your pages. Users will still return to read the content and may click on an ad or two along the way.

  • Hi Shannon,
    I think one of the most important things that you mention is to have a clear focus for your blog. That way you can provide content accordingly. Don’t hesitate to write up valuable content that doesn’t have any affiliate links. If you truly look towards helping your audience they will surf through the rest of your site to see what you have to offer. Also use banner ads sparingly. That slow down your site’s performance, can be annoying and many people ignore them anyways.

  • I say use that JVPress 3-in-1 “go pages” plugin so that you can turn your affiliate links into blog urls with your keyword in it. It’s better for SEO purposes. Plus, it’s easier to use than that PHP redirect script. For some reason that redirect script doesn’t work with Mac’s Text/Edit.

  • Hello Shannon,
    You have written a great post, and I agree with you.
    If you supply great content to your users and become and authority and blogger whom they respect and trust it will be easier to convince them to buy the products/services you will sell.
    This is the best way, and of course collecting emails to support your affiliate campaigns (with useful products/services) is way easier if you provide useful things that people are willing to subscribe to.

  • Awesome post! I usually try to provide an article written by the author of the product I want to promote and then try to sell the product in the P.S. No one has said that I am only out to make a sale so I assume I am on the right track. Thanks for the info!

  • Hello Shannon!

    Very impressive article! I agree that whatever we have to promote it should come with personal experience.

    I have a question. I have a new website but not offering a subscription yet. If i will add a subscription should i target only in what i need to promote or more generally tips and advices like i am usually posting on my blog?

    Thank you for your time,

    John Mak

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