Have you ever considered starting your own affiliate marketing blog? It is one of the ever-expanding options for those who are looking for a flexible work/life balance, a great way to make money, and part of one of the biggest industries on the internet: marketing.
What is an affiliate marketing blog?
An affiliate marketing blog is not a personal blog, which focuses on whatever you want to talk about in the moment, or a business blog, showcasing the brand and business. Instead, an affiliate marketing blog aims to showcase products and services from various brands for the sake of third-party marketing. You are looking to provide your readers with goods and services that they are likely to be interested in.
The other side of an affiliate marketing blog is the finances. Affiliate marketing blogs are more upfront about their financial side. The point is to drive traffic to your site and create sales, rather than making money on the side of creating content.
The main benefit of an affiliate marketing blog is that it appeals to modern-day work values. You can do it from home, you can do it around your lifestyle, you can do it without much experience, and you can do it well with some dedication and persistence. That’s all on top of the fact that affiliate marketing is one of the fastest-growing industries on the internet and one of the easiest ways to make money.
So, how do you get started?
Choose your niche
There is no point in aiming to sell anything and everything. You will not generate an audience that way, as they will look at your site and see that 90% of the products you are showcasing have no relevance to them.
Instead, you should pick a demographic and stick to it. There are hundreds of options out there, so it would be best to stick to something that applies to you and therefore you can give some semblance of insider knowledge. It helps with the language of selling too. No one is going to understand why you, a woman, are saying you always use this brand of beard dye, for example – unless that is specific to your very niche demographic.
Choose your domain name
When choosing your domain name, you’re looking for something unique but descriptive. You might need to do some research to land on the right name. Think about what you are trying to appeal to and put it at the center of a mind map. Your branches will be all the concepts you like and their branches will be the connotations of the concept or symbolism of the concept.
To use a real-world example, Nike is a sports brand. At the center of its mind map would be sports, branching out to concepts like “athleticism”, “fast”, and “victory”. That last one is likely what Nike landed on since it went with the Greek goddess of victory for its name.
Create quality content
The idea of quality content has changed over the past couple of years. No longer is the content with the highest resolution or the best camera the best content, although that is an element. No, instead, users are looking for content that will keep them engaged.
Your affiliate blog must bring people back every time, which means they need to find something in it that they don’t get anywhere else. In turn, this means that the usual “This is the product, and it does this thing the best” content isn’t going to cut it.
Instead, incorporate the product or the service into other, more popular genres of content. Sift through the various genres of content and see where the products would fit in. If you’re selling cleaning products, stick them in #oddlysatisfying content, if you’re selling food feature it in mukbang content, if you’re selling beauty products do a makeup cosplay with them, etc.
Upgrade your marketing
Using social media is the most effective way to market your blog, but don’t limit yourself to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and call it a day. There are a lot of different platforms out there that are getting their moment in marketing. See what platforms appeal to certain demographics and set up an account somewhere you never considered before.
For example, Pinterest is very similar to Instagram’s early days, with a stereotypically female demographic. If you’re selling products aimed at women, or appeal to the same principles as cruelty-free or environmentally friendly products, then you should expand into Pinterest. If you are selling men’s focused products or a lot of tech-heavy products like games and cryptocurrency, you might want to look at Reddit and focus on the relevant forums there.
You are appealing to a smaller market, yes, but also a more dedicated market made up of people with specific interests. The benefit of these smaller audiences is that they are made up of people who have found their people, and are therefore more likely to look at someone in the community using a product and think that it would suit them.
If you’re interested in other aspects of affiliate marketing, you can look at our blog for more information, or for more personalized advice, book a free call with a member of our team.
