Profitable Blogging with Increased Affiliate Income

So you have a blog and are trying to make money via affiliate marketing. Haven’t seen a decent share of success?  We’ve done reasonably well, so we'd like to share some practices that we've followed over the years.

Don’t rely only on the sidebar

Under-monetized blogs often have lovely ads in the sidebar, but sales don’t pour in. We’ve seen that sidebar ads result in the lowest sales compared to other affiliate advertising methods on my blogs. So, if that’s your blog’s sole affiliate marketing method, you need to make some changes – right away. 

 

Start micro-tracking regarding what brings in sales

You can track affiliate links on the basis of their placement using SID codes. These codes are parameters related to your affiliate links which track performance. You may track display ads in the sidebar using “sidebar” as the SID code and affiliate links within reviews using “review” as the SID code.

This helps you make more money because you get information regarding ads and links that work and those that don’t. It also enables split (A/B) testing for finding out the display ads which work best for the specified audience.

Offer solutions

We agree it’s great to post awesome, new ideas on your blog which will make you stand out from the rest. But when we’re looking at affiliate income, We've found that understanding the audience’s existing problems and resolving them has contributed to a large part of my revenue.

When you offer solutions and create affiliate links to products or supplies required to execute them, you’re sure to strike affiliate gold. There are some good, free tools that can help you know the questions, needs, and problems of your audience. 

Don’t overlook SEO

Search engine optimization is powerful so make sure you don’t ignore it. You need not be a hyper aggressive SEO expert. Just make sure your blog follows the basic SEO best practices. As readership increases, you’ll get links, authority, and social signals. When page SEO is good, you can utilize these to the best extent possible.

Each post should not attempt sales

Don’t appear greedy or desperate. If your blog comes across as an extended and repeated sales pitch for each product, your readers will get alienated.  And no readership equals zero sales. It’s important to understand the difference between recommending products and selling them.

We make it a point to post a few genuinely useful posts which don’t have review focuses between those that do. By being helpful, you increase readership, and subsequently sales.

Write in depth reviews of appropriate products

We think reviews are the best way to generate affiliate income from a blog. So try to make them meaningful. Recommend products that you love, and use and show proof that you actually use them. Offer details about both pros and cons. Ensure you mention how a product solved a problem or fulfilled a particular need.

Though products mentioned need not have exact relevance to the blog topic, they need to have relevance for readers. For example, if yours is a cooking blog and the audience comprises of mostly women and many of them have kids, then advertisements of the “Mommy” kind won’t be too off the mark.

Build mailing lists

Once you’ve got people on a site, you must try to get their email addresses. Email is a great way to remind people of your presence without needing to find them again. This also becomes an additional channel for making affiliate recommendations.