How to promote your affiliate links? Affiliate guide for beginners

Affiliate marketing programs, such as Amazon’s, are essentially agreements whereby an online retailer, such as Amazon, pays affiliates a fee in exchange for sending them traffic and/or sales through affiliate links. Affiliates are paid according to the program’s guidelines. For example, Amazon’s affiliate program rewards affiliate sites depending on the number of visitors they refer to Amazon who then completes a purchase within 24 hours. This is done mainly through an affiliate link that is placed on the affiliate website. Upon clicking or purchase through this link the affiliate is paid a percentage of the sales.

Affiliate marketing has various advantages for both the retailer and the affiliates that participate. For the retailer, it’s a chance to broaden their audience and boost sales through low-cost marketing. Affiliates are paid only when the desired action occurs, and affiliate program participants are likewise driven to increase conversions because affiliate marketing is performance-based. In this article, we will introduce some of the best affiliate marketing platforms, and we will also provide some information on how to succeed in this marketing trend. Amazon enjoys the title of the biggest affiliate marketing platform to help people earn extra income. Hence, we will start our article with an in-depth analysis of Amazon.

Amazon Affiliate Program

It’s no surprise that Amazon is a forerunner when it comes to ebooks and boosting chances for independent authors. Amazon, on the other hand, was a pioneer in online affiliate marketing. To help spread the word, Amazon chose to capitalize on readers’ love of books. Instead of having to pay for advertising upfront, Amazon paid people a fee if they brought clients to Amazon who bought something through Amazon affiliate links. There weren’t many straightforward, affordable options for young Internet entrepreneurs to generate money online when the Amazon Associates Program started in 1998. This was changed by Amazon’s affiliate program. The only problem was that becoming a successful Amazon affiliate meant selling a large number of books through affiliate links.

Although Amazon’s compensation is still low when compared to other affiliate programs (1% to 10%); however, with such a large product line, large client base, and credibility, you’re likely to discover something to promote and earn money.

Earning money using Amazon affiliate links, like any other home-based money-making strategy, necessitates research, labor, and marketing. Here are some of the best ways to get the most out of the Amazon Associates Program.

No we will look into the most well known methods to promote your links.

Blogging & SEO

Using SEO to drive traffic to your affiliate links is a slow process but is one of the best free methods. Hence before applying for any affiliate program you need to build a strong SEO for your website or blog.

The most popular way affiliates generate money with the Amazon Associates program is through blogging. Some writers have a broad topic site that they monetize via affiliate networks and other means. Some bloggers have a niche site that concentrates on a limited number of products.

Starting off with a niche site is the best way. Once you grow you can expand your site into other niches. This is because attracting visitors to a broad topic site is extremely difficult!

Niche helps you focus on keywords and keeps your audience exited as well. Earning profit with Amazon Associates on a weblog can be done in both cases by:

• Publishing articles about purchasing an Amazon product
• Publishing reviews for recently announced products
• Publishing articles on best-seller products
• Using the blog to promote special offers

If you are right at the beginning of your journey and don’t have much traffic then you can use guest blogging to promote your products if the blog owner allows it. This way you can find blogs that already have traffic and post articles containing your amazon affiliate links there for huge exposure.

Using landing pages

If you are not a blogger or feel blogging is too much work then you can use landing pages to drive traffic to your affiliate links. Moreover, using this method together with blogging can increase your profits exponentially.

Create a landing page that basically advertises the product and then direct users using amazon affiliate links from your landing page. You should incorporate the essential components a landing page should have in order to convert before using this method. Look for the essential components of a landing page on google and there are many refernces.

Another possibility is to collect user emails and then use email marketing to bring targeted users to your website. Remember some affiliate programs like Amazon Associates DO NOT allow direct affiliate links inside emails. This will get you banned from the program. However you can use emails to bring users to your website where the Amazon affiliate links are located.

In order to successfully gather emails you will need some sort of lead magnet. In marketing a Lead magnet is an item or service given away for free in order to gather contact details. For example free ebooks, guides, consultation in exchange for email addresses.

Most successful affiliate marketers use a simple two-page website and an email marketing system to create passive revenue by automating their affiliate advertisements. Provides a lead magnet on your landing page in exchange for people signing up for an email list. After that, the user is taken to another page, which normally gives data about an affiliate product. The lead magnet is included in the email, along with a series of accompanying emails with helpful tips and affiliate product advertising.

Social Media

To get sales from social media you need a huge number of followers. Build a social media page and attract users before you start doing affiliate marketing. You can post content on your social media page and place your affiliate links there. For example you can create a youtube video and place your affiliate link in the description. In the video, provide many of the same types of content that you can on a blog, such as reviews. The benefit of using video to earn revenue is that you may provide tutorials, and other video elements to help potential consumers choose whether or not to purchase the things. Linkedin is also a great place to post content and linking it to affiliate products.

You can share your blog posts containing affiliate links via social media, or publish your affiliate links directly. To be upfront and not bother your followers, you should indicate that the link is an affiliate link when you post. People don’t want to be marketed to all of the time, therefore non-affiliate posts must be alternated with affiliate links.

Let’s have a look at other well known affiliate programs.

ClickBank

Many individuals mistakenly believe that Clickbank is merely another affiliate network. Unlike conventional affiliate platforms, however, Clickbank acts as a platform for both product creators and affiliates, allowing them to earn money together without the need for complicated paperwork or agreements. To put it more simply, Clickbank connects people who create digital products with people who can sell them, including affiliate marketers. To succeed with Clickbank, you must follow the same formula as any other successful business. You’ll need a good offering that people want and a funnel to convert traffic to begin with.

Then you build up your traffic, optimize your funnel, and grow the whole thing once you know you’re profitable (i.e. you convert $ more than you invest). On paper, it appears simple, yet few individuals put forth the effort to get it correctly.

The top 10% of affiliates generate 90% of affiliate revenue, so put your best foot forward.

eBay

For prospective affiliate marketers, the eBay Affiliate Program has long been one of the most popular choices. At first sight, it appears to make a lot of sense.

You can get paid twice if you’re already selling on eBay and selling to people who came from your own website.

You are of course, compensated by eBay for money spent on the items of other sellers.

When a reactivated user clicks in one of your advertisements and starts bidding on things, you are paid between 50 cents to a dollar. There was once a compensation scheme in place for new customers, however, that system has since been removed. Because of click-throughs, eBay pays you extra money whenever buyers complete a transaction.

Recommended book on the topic

If you are looking for books to read deeper into the topic then the following book is a best seller books on Amazon about affiliate and online marketing.

Final Words

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing in which a firm pays third-party sources to send leads or traffic to its products. The type of platform you choose for affiliate marketing depends on your preference and expertise. There are various platforms, but the proven ones that help millions of people earn thousands of dollars per month are Amazon, ClickBank, and eBay. Hence, choose your platform and start making money today.