An affiliate marketing programme can help you earn a commission when someone you refer purchases that company’ service or product which is perfect if you aim at monetising the traffic of visitors that goes to your blog, email and social channels.
What’s important is that, before you sign up for an affiliate marketing program, you need to know what you’re getting into, and more importantly realize that it takes a lot of work and dedication to be successful. To be honest, it is something anyone can do and see results with. But it takes strategy and time to get to that point. Here are some essentials that you should keep in mind:
The DO’s
Create Compelling Content
The most common trait amongst steady affiliates is that they have a common and steady traffic of people who re-visit their website. And the main reason this happens is that they create content which is engaging enough for viewers to come back. Be it a blog post, email or video- content that is valuable proves that you’re a reliable source of information. When this is done regularly and diligently, it becomes a lot easier to start promoting a service or product as part of an affiliate marketing program. An important point to remember is that, when content is created that links back to a company of which you’re an affiliate, use authentic examples and give advice on how to be ahead of the game using whatever you are promoting.
Stick to your Niche
In an attempt to make money, many affiliate marketers make one common mistake- trying to promote too many products or services. While this in turn may work for more established affiliates, while you’re starting out, it is advisable not to do it. By focusing on relevant products, it becomes easier to make quality referrals because of the overlap between your audience and the product you’re promoting. If you’re a fashion blogger, it wouldn’t make sense if you started promoting electronics and video games that aren’t applicable to your niche.
Place Links in Relevant Locations
Sometimes when the brand name is mentioned throughout the content, it doesn’t prove to be enough. The brand name should be hyperlinked with an affiliate link so that the user doesn’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page or email in order to find a clickable link. To get credit for a customer referral, you need to have links for them to click on. Affiliates should thus make it easy for their readers to easily navigate to a brand’s site via the affiliate link.
The Don’ts
Avoid Spam content
If you want to maintain a steady flow of traffic returning to your site, avoid posting content that can be remotely considered ‘spammy.’ Any content that is irrelevant to what you usually write about, or something that your audience does not expect, would automatically get this label. Spam content would definitely result in large amounts of traffic but poor conversion rates. Companies could then become apprehensive about working with you or in a worst case scenario, even remove you from their program.
Do not violate the Affiliate terms of service
Prior to signing up for an affiliate program, you will most likely be required to agree to an affiliate terms of service document that will lay the ground rules for what you can and can’t do while promoting the company.
These typically include guidelines around promoting their competitors in adherence with their brand or also referring your own sales. Be sure to follow up on these agreements and reference them any time you’re unsure. For instance, affiliates may often bid on search engines such as Google or advertiser’s branded keywords. If you’re going to take part in this type of activity, please make sure it’s OK first. This can often increase the brand’s costs in paid search and also remove
Violation of terms will result in deduction of commissions or removal from the affiliate program entirely.