Learn how to introduce a new affiliate to your blog’s audience and you’ll learn how to increase affiliate sales and make more money with your blog. Included are ideas for content to best introduce your new partner!
On a Wednesday night, many years ago I added my first affiliate link. I honestly remember thinking, “easy money.”
You can laugh at me. I do.
When I made my first affiliate sale, I screamed. For at least 20 seconds, I screamed that happy scream which escapes when you are shocked, excited, and scared at the same time. My very first website’s traffic had just reached 70,000 page views per month and someone – a complete stranger! – bought a Rubik’s Cube.
A love affair began with affiliate linking. For nearly a decade, I’ve made income from Amazon and many other affiliate partners.
I am no ‘guru,’ but I have learned over the years that making money with affiliate sales isn’t a big secret.
The success of earning from affiliate sales comes down to just a few things: your audience, your story, and your consistency.
This article likely contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase, I could receive compensation. Read more about my affiliate policy here.
Know Both of Your Audiences to Earn More
Every blogger must seek an understanding of their audience. Habits, purchasing preferences, trust, authority – there are quite a few components to those ‘page views.’
Those who guess about their audience won’t be as successful as those who KNOW their audience.
Bloggers who know their audience and are consistent with their methods will see more success than those who make decisions without that knowledge. Duh, right?
What is your current method for obtaining marketing feedback from your audience that highlights their shopping habits, purchasing preference, problems they face, or goals?
Many bloggers haven’t asked their current audience what problems they are experiencing, the content they want to see, or even what they buy online. They don’t {yet} have an audience-centric process to select an affiliate that appeals to their ideal audience, either.
Before You Introduce a New Affiliate Partner
This is a high-level generic strategy that will make you a better marketer. I’ve included a worksheet as a download (in the Resource Library for subscribers) if you want to work through a guided plan.
I’ll Say It Again: Know BOTH Audiences
Take some time to do your ideal and current reader research and determine if the affiliate is one which will resonate with your readers.
- Will they buy this? Why?
- Will they buy this from you? Why?
- Would they rather purchase these types of items in stores or from other vendors?
If you’re unsure of these answers, Identity takes you through the questions to ensure you know the readers you have and are able to attract more of the readers you want. Choosing affiliates which convert will be easier because you will understand what drives your readers (and their purchases)!
Content Plan – New Material
Where in your content plan will you be able to add affiliate onboarding articles? If you need ideas, I include 13 of them in the worksheet. Plan on 2-3 articles for an affiliate, highlighting different audience attributes and problems.
More so than “a good deal,” good content helps you make a sale and increase your affiliate income. Why? Deal shoppers seek a deal and aren’t loyal. Content-based shoppers seek knowledge or skill and are fiercely loyal (when the affiliate is a good match).
Content Plan – Existing Material
Can you identify existing content to which you will be able to link this affiliate? If you can’t, why are you considering this affiliate? If you can, how many and which articles will you update?
Incentives, Exclusive Access, or Bonuses
Will you offer incentives for purchasing through your affiliate link? How will you track it? How will they notify you or provide proof of purchase? If they use your link, will they get something from you like your advice, help in implementing the purchase, or access to a closed group?
One of the most valuable aspects I offer to anyone using my affiliate links is that I’m there for them. If they have a question, want to test something to see if it works, or they need help to determine their strategy for the product, I offer myself up to them as a sounding board.
Non-Content Advertising
Will you advertise this affiliate on your site with graphics? Sidebars, exit-intent popups, landing pages (or pages after a call to action), inline embedded content, and in-article linking are all options for advertising an affiliate on site. And remember: advertising is just one way to introduce a new affiliate to your followers.
Social Plan
Is the affiliate partner a good candidate for social sharing or mini-series on social channels? Where in your social media scheduling will the best yield results? Where will you test first based on what you know about your audience? What is the amount of time you are going to dedicate to this affiliate and social media scheduling and live-sharing?
General Affiliate Management
- Make certain to read all terms, including usage, link-cloaking, payouts, and more.
- Enter the affiliate links into an affiliate manager plugin like Easy Affiliates (free). It provides link analytics, nofollow designation automatically, and makes it easy to change the links EVERYWHERE on your site and elsewhere in a single update.
- Create a line item for the affiliate within your income tracking systems.
- Add to your affiliate tracking system and document the affiliate, payout information, terms, and other pertinent data such as where to obtain graphics. If you are inclined, join the Facebook group or newsletter for the program.
Earn more in 2017 by focusing on the audience, content, and structure of your site. Get exclusive, members-only access to the Resource Library where I share checklists, guides, and training (and nowhere else). Right now, you’ll also get Beyond the Data, a survey supplement from Identity!
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How to Introduce a New Affiliate to Your Audience
Put bluntly, people buy from those who they trust, but they aren’t going to buy simply because you tell them to buy. They won’t even buy because you ask them really, really nicely to buy. They will, however, buy if you tell them about a product they want or need – even if they don’t know they want or need it.
Do not focus on features (features are things that describe the product or service). Your audience can:
- immediately say they “don’t need it” and dismiss your message and
- they can read the features list for themselves, y’all.
A successful affiliate income earner, however, strives to tell an audience of BENEFIT of the purchase through a story. To be able to highlight a benefit, ask yourself will the product help them:
- accomplish a task or goal?
- learn something new or dive deeper into the knowledge pool?
- solve a problem?
- fill a void or give them an answer to a craving?
And instead of TELLING THEM about the benefit, get them to come to the conclusion on their own. How?
Storytelling Converts
Tell a story because stories allow for relatability and for your audience to draw their own parallels. Storytelling converts and is one of the best ways to introduce a new affiliate to your audience.
“But if storytelling sells so well Sarah, why don’t more people do it?” In my opinion, there are only two reasons: fear or dishonesty. Hear me out.
Sometimes storytelling means sharing vulnerabilities we have. There are times telling a story looks like some sort of an experiment on our sites or within our families. And sometimes, storytelling means we admit a failure. That’s all scary.
The other bit – the dishonesty – will be trying to earn from something with which you have no experience, personal connection, or true interest in promoting. Getting your audience to click on those types of links is dumb luck.
The affiliate onboarding worksheet I created for subscribers contains 13 types of articles or strategies to assist you in creating a customized affiliate content plan.
The affiliate onboarding checklist will help you find the type of story you’re going to tell.
Summary
Learn how to introduce a new affiliate for your blog and you’ll learn how to increase affiliate sales. Write the best story about affiliates and you’ll earn from the audience you worked so hard to build.
Affiliate is something I still need to explore. I use it but not efficiently.
Thank you very much for the great tips, Sarah!
I love this! I find that affiliate marketing only works if you are filling a need and helping them solve a problem like you said. Thanks for the plugin recommendation too! I am adding it now.
Exactly! The plugin is free right now, but they are coming out with a PRO version and I can’t wait. It’s really been helping me to see which affiliates are resonating with my audience.
Thanks for these great tips! This is something I needed this week 🙂
I’m so glad I could help you introduce a new affiliate to your audience, Ivy. Let me know how your next one goes!