Affiliate marketing can be super intimidating at first, but I’ll break it down to be as simple as possible. I’ve even included some super simple walk through videos.
Here are my top five tips for affiliate marketing. I use these tips all of the time, so I can definitely say that they work.
Think of affiliate links as assets for your readers instead of a paycheck for yourself. I’ve actually improved posts by including affiliate links, my favorite post that is making me money almost every day is this DIY candy buffet tutorial, I improved this post a ton by adding affiliate links long after it was published.
You can add affiliate links to posts after they’ve been published. Check out your top viewed posts, then take a long hard look at those posts to see if they could benefit from affiliate links.
Writer’s block? Put together an affiliate widget for a fun little post on your favorite things. I’ve even included simple instructions in the videos below.
Affiliate links help make the best ever gift guides, I love making gift guides. (normally geeky gift guides, because that’s what I do!) Pro-tip: Get your holiday gift guides out at least a month before the holiday. This year I’m starting Christmas gift guides in September, not even joking.
You don’t need your readers to buy the exact item that you linked to, as long as they enter the site with one of your links and make a purchase you’ll get a percentage of the sale. Get your readers to the website, then it’s the websites job to make the final sale, and ecommerce sites are pretty darn good at getting you to add a few items too many to your cart. But I seriously needed that Lord of the Rings sword, guys, and it just kind of…fell into my cart.
So now that I’ve told you my favorite affiliate marketing tips, you can sit back, relax, and learn how to use Amazon Associates and/or CJ.com for affiliate links. These are the only two websites I use for affiliate marketing and I love them. They’re both pretty similar, except that Amazon can only be used with items sold on Amazon (which is a lot!) and CJ.com works with a lot of different websites (they have a crazy amount of retailers to work with, and good ones too!)
How to use Amazon Associates (affiliate link) for affiliate marketing:
How to use CJ.com for affiliate marketing:
I hope this post helped you feel more comfortable with affiliate marketing!
Thank you thank you thank you!! 😀
You are very welcome, welcome, welcome!! I hope this post helps you out!
Great tips! I find a lot of people are intimidated by adding affiliate links but I appreciate when a blogger recommends something and gives me the direct link to buy if I choose to. I am more likely to buy if someone recommends it and I can read a little bit about it and I like to support other bloggers if I can.
Thank you so much for this post. This was by far the most helpful post I have read. The only issue I am having with the Amazon Affiliate video is that your Sitestripe looks different then mine. I didn’t know if mine was just a newer version. Since yours is different I couldn’t figure out how to do a widget because mine does not have that button your does. This is my first day trying to work with any affiliate programs, so defiantly still in the beginning stages. Thank you for your video and any helpful tips you may have
Useful information! Thank you
Thank you so much this post helped me a lot understanding how to add affiliate link. New blogger here 🙂
I’m new to blogging, I am so excited to add affiliate links! Thanks for your video tutorial. I’m saving this on Pinterest so others can see it as well. 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m new to CJ and this is SO helpful. Do you know if there is a way to make Pinterest pins to have CJ affiliate links added?
The asset point is brilliant Brittany! Best explanation of affiliate links I have ever read, being online for 10 years. I love it. Folks desire making money but give no thought to resources in the market or service. I think matches; how does the product or service match my reader’s needs. If we have a match, I’ve no issues selling and prospering hehehehe…but see the link as an asset and resource, not a paycheck. Fabulous post.
Ryan