Creating blog posts to enable you to earn affiliate sales is not magic, but without the right strategy, you will generate traffic that doesn`t convert.
With the right blog post strategy, you don`t need hundreds of thousands of traffic to make conversions.
Blog posts convert if they target an audience in need of your products or services. But more than that, you must know where to place the affiliate links and entice people to click and buy.
But how can you persuade people to click on your affiliate links? That`s what this content explains so you can create affiliate marketing blog posts that rank and drive sales.
Choose Affiliate Products Aligning with Your Niche
Knowing your niche makes it easy to find affiliate products and create blog posts that target the right audience.
Besides, since niching enables you to pick products or services you are skilled in, it`s easy to create helpful content that convinces people to make purchases.
Therefore, ensure your blog niche aligns with the affiliate products you choose.
A niche is an area of specialty.
If your blog niche is health and fitness, for example, choose health and fitness affiliate products. If you market inspirational books instead, you won`t convert. You will bore readers and make them ignore your website.
You can find a niche by
- Examining market gaps
- Considering your talents and interests
- Using your professional skills
If you aren`t sure about how to find a niche, check out this content. It explains in-depth how to pick a niche.
Understand Your Target Audience
Not everybody is interested in your business, and if you create a generic affiliate marketing blog post, you will attract many people who have no buying intent.
Apart from finding products relevant to your niche, you need to align your content with people who have the intention of buying.
An example is if you sell affiliate marketing courses and use the word affiliate marketing as your main keyword. You will attract people in need of learning about affiliate marketing, but not buying courses.
To attract sales, you need to align your content purpose with your audience`s intent.
Blog posts` purposes can be increasing sales, traffic, brand awareness, and leads, but in the case of creating affiliate marketing blog posts, the purpose is increasing sales.
Therefore, you will have to target people with the intention of buying.
Such people use keywords that show buying intent, which include words like affordable, purchase, buy, for sale, etc. Such intent is called commercial search intent.
You will appear in these search queries if you incorporate those keywords in your content.
To know the keywords people use when making commercial search intent, do keyword research. That entails putting yourself in your audience`s shoes and thinking of the words they may type when searching.
If you sell affiliate marketing courses, you would come up with a keyword like affordable affiliate marketing courses for beginners.
Then put the keyword in keyword research tools like Moz. You will find more suggestions and their search volume and difficulty, so you can pick one that enables you to rank.
Your keyword is affordable affiliate marketing courses for beginners, but maybe people mostly use the phrase affiliate marketing training for beginners.
Knowing which keywords drive more traffic helps you to tweak yours and create content that ranks.
Here is more on how to identify your audience`s intent and attract traffic that converts.
Choose Your Affiliate Blog Post Format
Affiliate marketing blog posts have no specific format. Provided that you target the relevant audience`s intent, you will drive income.
Your blog post title will determine the format you use. If your title is 5 Reasons You Should Buy Freelance Writing Courses, that implies a listicle. If it is How to make money with Getresponse, that`s a how-to guide. All these articles can be monetized for affiliate marketing.
However, if you have difficulties choosing a blog post format, research relevant ranking blogs and see their formats.
If you want to create content selling freelance writing courses, for example, you can search for a keyword like affordable freelance writing courses. Then examine the ranking content formats and replicate them.
Here are the results you can get for the keyword affordable freelance writing courses:
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The ranking blog posts signal the formats that people are interested in. Creating your affiliate marketing blog posts in the same formats increases your chances of ranking and driving traffic.
Some of the formats you can choose for your affiliate blog posts are
Listicles
The word listicle comes from a combination of list and article. It refers to content that is comprised of a list of items.
You can use this format to review or recommend products or services.
For listicles to be effective, include a number in your title.
For example, if you want to write about the best tools for affiliate marketers, you can include how many tools there are e.g. 5 best tools for affiliate marketers.
That helps people understand how long it will take them to read your content and decide whether to read it.
Besides, be consistent. Don`t create a title about affiliate marketing tools and include skills in the content e.g.
5 Affiliate Tools for Affiliate Marketers
- Getresponse
- Moosend
- Ahrefs
- Copywriting
- Chat GPT
Copywriting is a skill and not a tool. Adding it to your content weakens it, driving away readers.
Here is more on how to create listicles.
How-to guides
These are articles that explain processes.
You can use them to guide people through how to use products or conduct services.
How-to guides make for perfect affiliate marketing blog posts because they explain how to use the goods and show how people can benefit.
To create these types of posts, create step-by-step outlines and use simple language so people can easily understand. That`s because how-to guides mostly involve technical terms that may confuse and alienate readers.
To simplify technical terms, use easily understandable synonyms or explain the terms.
An example is when writing an SEO Guide. That will require using words like keywords or meta tags. People will easily understand if you explain them.
See how you can create effective how-to guides here.
Reviews
These are types of articles that explain the features, benefits, and disadvantages of products or services.
They enable people to gauge whether products or services are helpful before purchasing.
To create effective reviews, pick products related to your specialty and create a topic that shows how people can benefit.
Then explain how the product features can solve the readers' pain points.
Also, include the product's downsides, whether it`s high price, complicated user interface, durability, etc.
Though people may not buy when you mention the downsides of the product, they will trust you for providing an honest review. This builds authority and makes you reliable, which increases the potential to drive sales in the future.
Comparisons
People compare product or service features to examine and buy the ones that suit their needs.
Comparison content helps compare products and services' strengths and weaknesses to make it easy for people to decide.
To create enticing comparison affiliate marketing blog posts, use related goods and explain why you are comparing them. For example, you can compare Ahrefs and Moz. All of these are keyword research tools and one will read your content to see why they need to pick one over the other.
The reason for your comparison could be one gives a free plan and the other doesn`t, or one is cheaper than the other.
See this content on how to create intriguing product comparisons.
What to Include in an Affiliate Marketing Blog Post
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| Image by Yan Krukau: Pexels |
For your affiliate blog post to drive sales, it should answer your audience`s intent and convince them to perform your calls to action. That`s when you create in-depth content that explains the benefits one can get for buying your products or services.
To make your affiliate marketing blog posts effective,
Write an Attractive Title
Your blog post can be helpful and persuasive, but if the title doesn`t encourage people to click and read, you will lose traffic.
To convince people to read, your title must promise them that the content will answer their queries.
An example is creating a blog title like freelance writing courses. That shows your content is about freelance writing courses, but it doesn`t show how helpful the courses are.
Perhaps you want to help people make $1000 per month doing freelance writing, but your title doesn`t show it.
So, even though someone might search for the particular content, they won`t read your content because the title is irrelevant.
To align it with people`s search intent, it should be Freelance Writing Courses to Help You Earn $1000 Monthly.
Check out this content to learn more about how to create titles.
Write an Intriguing Introduction
A boring introduction can make you lose readers even when the title and body content are intriguing.
This section prepares readers for the body content, and to keep them reading, you have to hook them.
That entails starting with an attractive statement, which can be a fun fact, a question, or an anecdote that makes them agree on why your content can solve their problems.
Let`s say you are writing content about How to Make Money Doing Affiliate Marketing Even if You Tried and Failed. You can start with a statement like,
Yes, it can be difficult to make money doing affiliate marketing. If you aren`t patient, you can give up and fail. But guess what? I`ve been there. I tried and almost gave up, but fortunately, I figured out a way.
Someone who is looking for ways to drive sales to their affiliate links will be intrigued to keep reading, and ultimately buy your products.
Check this content for more on how to create introductions that drive traffic.
Include Product Features
Product features help prove whether your products can solve your audience`s intent.
An example is when you sell cars. You cannot convince people that they can stand rough roads without showcasing the features.
To align your product features with your audience`s needs, you have to research their persona.
Audience persona entails specific characters representing a target market audience, which includes demographics and psychographics.
Demographics refer to population statistics like
- Age
- Religion
- Marriage status
- Gender
- Profession
Conversely, psychographics are the feelings that drive people`s desire for a product or service.
For example, parents may buy bicycle presents for their kids to express their love for them.
Being married is a demographic reason for buying bicycles, which is influenced by love (psychographic reason) for their kids.
Finding products that align with buyer persona enables you to create affiliate blog posts that resonate with people and increase the potential of making sales.
Here is content that explains how to create a buyer persona.
Share Your Experiences and External References
Personal experiences help empathize with your audience and show that they can overcome their problems using your affiliate products.
That`s because perhaps you went through their problems, but after using the products or services you are promoting, you succeeded.
An example is if you struggled to find freelance writing jobs. However, you didn`t know it was because you lacked pitching skills until you bought a freelance writing course and learned how to create the best pitches.
People will resonate with you and be curious to buy and see if your affiliate products or services can help them too.
Besides, you need to add external references like testimonies and expert quotes. This helps back up your personal experience and builds trust.
However, ensure to find genuine testimonies, which you can get from websites like
Businesses list their businesses on these sites to optimize them for local SEO and enable clients to leave their reviews.
Industry expert quotes can also help increase your affiliate blog post credibility.
Industry experts are people who are experienced in your niche and people trust them.
To find quotes from these people, conduct interviews with them.
If you are a digital marketing speaker, you can interview people like Larry Kim or Joe Pulizi.
If you cannot find an expert to interview, find pre-existing relevant interviews from trustworthy sources.
Embed Videos
Videos enable people to see the products or how services are conducted, which builds more credibility.
Therefore, you will increase the potential of making sales if you create videos and incorporate them into your affiliate blog posts.
If you are writing content about affiliate products, create a video showing how the products are used and if it`s about services, show how people can conduct the services. Then upload the videos on YouTube and embed them into your blog post.
This helps attract people who love videos, which increases the chances of increasing sales.
However, if you can`t or don`t wish to create videos, you can use videos from third-party sources.
This content explains more about how to create YouTube videos and increase sales to your affiliate products.
Add Advantages and Disadvantages of the Products/Services
Including disadvantages in your affiliate blog posts helps keep people from any damage that the products or services can cause.
An example is selling body lotion that can cause allergy, but you don`t show it in your content.
When people buy and experience the drawbacks, they will lose their trust in you and avoid your products.
But if you tell the truth about the products, people will build their reliability in you and make you a go-to source for lotions, which increases sales.
However, don`t be afraid to add the advantages too. These are the benefits people need to see and gauge if the products suit them.
The advantages can be effective if they show how the products or services solve readers` pain points.
For example, if you sell cameras, the advantage can be a high-quality lens that produces clear colors and geometric accurate pixels.
That will entice people more than just stating the advantage as “a high-quality lens”.
Create a Punchy Conclusion
After reading your content, people might forget more of what they have read. The conclusion summarizes the content and emphasizes the main points.
However, ensure to make it short so you don`t bore and lose readers. Plus, don`t add new information and confuse readers.
For example, if you write content about the best SEO tools, in the conclusion, iterate why the tools can help your audience`s websites rank.
Also, add a call-to-action to encourage people to purchase. Although you might have added some calls to action within the post, people might forget to click and leave without buying.
This content explains more about how to create conclusions.
Include Calls to Action
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| Image by Andrea Piacquadio: Pexels |
To achieve your affiliate marketing blog post goals, you must create calls to action that entice people to buy.
Calls to action are statements that encourage people to click your affiliate links and purchase.
To make sales, place affiliate links in statements that show where the links drive and how people can benefit from the products or services.
Let`s say you sell poetry books, and then you hyperlink your affiliate links on every poetry book keyword and think people will click and buy. That won`t convert because the word doesn`t provide any value.
To make your calls to action effective, make the hyperlinked text more descriptive like “Here is where you can buy poetry books and learn how to earn money selling poems online.”
That is descriptive enough and will entice people to click and buy to learn what the book offers.
Ensure to place the calls to action at the top (just after the introduction) middle, and conclusion of your affiliate blog post.
That`s because people might not read the whole content. Placing it at the top or middle will entice them to purchase. Others might reach the bottom and forget to act, placing it at the bottom reminds them to buy.
Learn more about how to create calls to action in this content.
Add Affiliate Disclosures
Creating affiliate blog posts without adding disclosures is taking advantage of your readers and making money.
That`s against federal laws.
Not disclosing that you get paid when people click and buy through your affiliate links can make you removed from the affiliate programs. Also, you and your sponsors can be sued and fined.
To avoid any mishaps, include a statement that shows what people should expect from your blog post.
However, don`t use jargonized language. Use simple language, be descriptive, and make your disclosure short so everyone understands.
Here is an example of an affiliate disclosure: This content contains affiliate links. So, I get paid commissions anytime you click and make purchases.
Optimize Your Affiliate Marketing Blog Post for SEO
Your affiliate marketing blog post might be helpful and enticing, but if people can`t find it, it won`t be profitable.
SEO enables search engines to align your content with people`s searches, rank it, and drive converting traffic.
To optimize your content for SEO, incorporate the main keyword throughout your content. Add it in once in the title, twice in the subheadings, and once every one hundred words in the body content.
Here is content that explains keyword research practices to help rank your blog post.
Besides, add internal and external links.
Internal links help content to be found through different pages on a website and drive traffic, while external links back up content assertions and build authority. This increases the time people spend on a website hence raising a website rank.
Read this content and learn more about how to do internal linking and increase your website dwell time.
Additionally, build backlinks for your content to enable it to be found through third-party sources. This helps drive traffic from other websites and increase brand awareness.
Backlinks also signal search engines that you create valuable content, which makes your content be crawled and indexed more, raising your site rank.
You can build backlinks through off-page SEO, as this content explains.
Start Making Money with Your Affiliate Marketing Posts
You will make money through affiliate marketing only if your content shows how your products can help your audience.
That`s when you pick affiliate products aligning with your niche and create content that solves readers` intent. Then optimize your content for SEO so it ranks and drives traffic with the potential to make sales.
However, don`t forget to add persuasive calls to action, and you will attract people and entice them to make purchases.
Share this content with others to enable everyone to create better affiliate marketing blog posts and make money.
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