However, not every blogger can generate a good income from affiliate commissions.

I tell you more, with almost 2 billion websites out there (source “internet live stats“), many will not even be able to generate a single sale.

But let’s look at the glass as half full.

Indeed, many bloggers have taken affiliate marketing a step further and have devoted their entire professional lives to working online.

I’m sure it’s the dream of many of you.

But what turns a good affiliate into a great affiliate?

In truth, there is no easy answer, as the range of potential products and services that can be promoted through affiliate marketing means that there has been an equally diverse range of practices and methods used to exploit it.

If you’re completely in the dark about this whole affiliate marketing, though, let me fill you in.

You need to consider some points when choosing the path of making money online with affiliate marketing (this post contains circa 1500 words and takes around 7 minutes to read).

What is Affiliate Marketing and How Does It Work?

It’s a relatively modern form of marketing with its roots in the early nineties when companies would hire members of the general public to direct people to their stores.

The reasoning is that people are more likely to trust ‘one of their own than a company drone.

The affiliate marketing of today is essentially the same practice, only online.

Essentially everything boils down to uploading links that direct your viewers to your affiliate partner’s site.

If some of them are going to purchase that product or service, you’ll get a commission out of it.

Generally, the standard is 10-20%, but the commission can be up to 50% or even 70% for specific products.

So basically, the commission amount can fluctuate from as low as $1 up to greater sums, like $1.000, $2.000, or even $10.000, depending on what product or service you are recommending.

Now, when you register for affiliate programs, you will get a unique affiliate link that you will use when promoting that specific product.

This is a tracking URL, which companies (or affiliate networks) use to record if your referral generated the sale.

Every affiliate program you are going to register to has its own terms of service, like, for example, the cookie period.

If this time is set to 30 days, if your visitor uses your affiliate link to check a product web page but decides to buy it within the next 30 days, you will still receive the affiliate commission.

Here are some important affiliate marketing terms you should read about.

1. Affiliates: people (webmasters, bloggers) who will use affiliate programs to generate income.
2. Affiliate Marketplace: You can sign in to find different affiliate programs in a specific niche (for example, ShareASale, ClickBank, Amazon, etc.).
3. Affiliate Link: the unique tracking link you will receive when signing up for an affiliate program.
4. Commission: it’s the amount of money you will get for each sale of the specific product or service you promote. Basically, if you recommend registering to an affiliate program and some of your readers will do, you will get a percentage of the commissions this user will generate (for a certain amount of time – generally one year). Some examples? SeedingUp, ValuedVoice.

The above-mentioned are just the basic terms you need to know to start your journey in affiliate marketing.

Soon, you will learn about coupons code, URL shorteners, landing pages, and so on.

Study and Research

Getting the right information is crucial for affiliate marketing, like any other online business.

First of all, it’s about learning SEO and copywriting. Select a niche, make keyword research, target specific terms and write relevant, useful, informing content for your users.

There are tons of courses available on the internet and you should make your research before choosing one. I suggest this one, hosted by The Second Wallet and presented by Vick Strizheus, 8-figure internet entrepreneur and digital consultant.

Choose the Right Partners

Obviously, if your blog adheres to a specific niche, you’ll want to use partners whose products reflect that market.

For example, if you’re running a blog that deals with health and fitness, you should be looking for affiliates that deal with products such as health supplements and gym equipment and services such as personal training. Maybe you even love skincare and have a routine you want to share with millions of people. Direct sales for organic skincare companies have been increasing recently with the trends toward organic healthcare products. If you already know about skincare, then it makes selling much easier. 

If your blog is less focused, of course, you’ll have potential options, but it’s always best to have a clear, defined focus. 

Also, try not to focus on affiliates that only sell small ticket (inexpensive) items and services.

For bloggers who write about WordPress or websites creation, the BlueHost affiliate program gives a $60 commission for each sale.

And when you receive an email in your inbox announcing that you made a sale, you can party!

Find a Balance

As a blogger, affiliate marketing can potentially create an enormous amount of revenue for you and whomever it is you’re partnering with. Still, if you’re too heavy-handed with it, your blog could lose its credibility.

As your blog loses credibility, it will lose viewers, and that will send it spiraling down the search engine results ranking, leading your partners feeling like they’ve backed a lame horse.

Be sure to keep your blog stocked with content that isn’t affiliate marketing based, or people will soon see through you, and you’ll lose not only your blog but also any potential revenue you could earn through it.

If your content is not worth reading, then nobody will read it; it really is that simple.

Research Affiliate Companies

Unfortunately, as an affiliate, there’s very little chance you’ll be going it alone.

If you really want to make a decent amount of revenue, you’ll need to use an affiliate program.

The company that runs the program will be the ones paying you, so make sure that you do as much research as possible into the companies rates compared to their competitors and ask around to see if the company you’re considering has a good track record with their users.

Most affiliate programs will operate on a ‘pay per click’ or ‘pay per sale’ basis.

With PPC, you’ll get a commission for every person who visits your site and is referred to your affiliate partners’ site through your links. With PPS, you’ll only get your commission if the visitor eventually purchases an item or service from your partner’s site.

Obviously, you’ll generally gain more commission from a PPS system, but the commission will be far more infrequent.

Whether you decide you prefer PPC or PPS depends very much on your own personal preferences but make sure that the company you choose to work for uses the payment arrangement you’re most comfortable with.

Produce HIGH-QUALITY Content

Do you know your audience?

Be sure to promote just those specific products or services relevant to your users and strive to create content that solves their problems or needs.

This is a good article from MarketingLand, that explains 7 big mistakes that new affiliate marketers make.

The first mistake is “Selling rather than helping.”

Be sure to write genuine posts to help your audience solving one of their needs or issues, and you will be right on your way to finally generate an income with affiliate marketing.

Use the Right Tools

When it comes to affiliate marketing, like any other task online, if you are going to use the right tools, everything becomes much simpler.

First of all, you want to have a blog.

If you use WordPress, I have a tool to suggest to you.

It’s called the Pretty Links plugin, which will make your affiliate marketing work much easier.

Basically, it helps manage all your affiliate links under one dashboard, making it easy to add them every time you create new content.

Also, you can create groups for your links, cloak, and customize them.

Other than that, it would help if you used a URL shortener. This will make it easier to share your links online.

Finally, you should use a tool like Google Analytics to track the performance of your campaigns and see if they are working as expected.

Conclusion

I hope this small guide to affiliate marketing is going to help you to get started.

There are many possibilities to earn money on the web. Most of them have in common that you need high-quality content. In fact, check these residual income business opportunities.

To generate truly high-class journalistic content, education is the best way. Open School of Journalism offers a distance education program in journalism with many electives, including online journalism, content marketing, etc.

And you, are you making money with affiliate marketing?

Do you have any other suggestions to add?

Please share your experience in the comments below. Thanks!

Instagram is one of the top trending social media platforms which grabs the attention of hundreds of millions of people, and therefore Instagram affiliate marketing is one the top stops for influencers to generate as many following as they can. 

You created an Instagram account randomly and within no time you got famous in your niche and tens or hundreds of people started to follow you. That’s when you need to realize that you can even make money on Instagram. And while I just say “money” it may involve a huge amount with skill, time, and some luck.  

The question that needs to be addressed is what exactly Instagram affiliate marketing is? My friend, leave all your work behind and read this article with keen interest because you are going to find a way to potentially earn a huge sum of money afterward. You can thank me later! 

Well, it works when an affiliate marketer partners with companies or small- or large-scale businesses that post their products or services on a website. The affiliate marketer then posts the link or customized URL of the respective company to pursue a larger audience to visit or buy their products. For example, if you talk about hosting and online businesses, you could promote reseller hosting.

If you succeed in doing so, meaning that someone buys a product originating from clicking on your custom affiliate link, then well done and congratulations – your work is done! Now sit back and wait to get your commission from the company.  

While engaged in affiliate marketing, you can get to know new brands, and companies, and find endless opportunities waiting for you to promote.

Assuming you do this while sharing valuable information with your Instagram audience, you will enjoy these advantages: 

• As your account grows day by day, your audience will love to know about new and trendy brands and you will become more known and end up organically getting more followers. 

• It will be advantageous for both the company and the affiliate marketer even if people don’t buy the product. At least they will get to know about the product details pleasing the company while also you providing invaluable information to your audience 

Affiliate Marketing Marketplaces

Numerous affiliate marketplaces allow you to shift yourself from a normal Instagram user to becoming an affiliate marketer. It all comes down to the type of business you want to work with. Here are a few for you to check out: 

• ShareASale

• Flexoffers 

• Commission Junction 

• Rakuten 

And the list goes on.  

Instagram is a widely used platform and is second to only Facebook in its number of active users in social media. 

On Instagram, you don’t need to just upload pictures or follow your favorite celebrities but you can also carry out business marketing on Instagram. So, what are you thinking? Take advantage of the opportunities that are in front of you and get going! 

As you can see in the screenshot below, the popularity of affiliate marketing has risen steadily during the last decade.

Image via Statista

Given that it can be a great source of passive income, it’s popularity shouldn’t really come as a surprise.

For brands, partnering with the right affiliates can help them reach a larger audience and promote their products to bigger and new audiences. 

For you, for each sale made via your affiliate link or promo code, you can earn a commission.

Without putting in extra effort, you can boost your income via affiliate marketing. However, to get the maximum ROI, you need to be strategic in your approach.

In this post, let’s take a look at how you can optimize your affiliate marketing campaign.

4 Effective Tips to Optimize Your Affiliate Marketing Campaigns

With the right mix of planning and strategizing, it’s possible to increase your profitability and get more out of your affiliate marketing campaigns. 

Here is what you can do to boost the ROI of your affiliate marketing campaigns:

1. Define Clear Goals For Your Affiliate Marketing Campaign

Have you tried getting somewhere without entering the final destination in your GPS? 

It can be confusing and tough. Similarly, if you start working on your affiliate marketing campaign without a clear vision and goals, it can be difficult to achieve them. 

So, the first step towards optimizing your campaign is goal setting. 

Consider what you would like to achieve in a defined time frame. Take into account your skills and resources, and make sure you set realistic goals.

Also, don’t confuse goals with wishes. Your goals are more concrete. They are time-bound and provide specific details about what you’d like to achieve.

Here are some goals that can impact your affiliate marketing campaign’s profitability:

• Increase your content’s impression count in X months by Y% 
• Increase the conversion rate of your affiliate marketing campaign by X% in Y months

As you can see, these goals are all measurable. They make it easy for you to track them and ascertain whether you were able to achieve them. 

If you are opting for native advertising, it’s all the more important to define these metrics beforehand. Why? Because measuring the performance of native ads isn’t exactly a cakewalk.

2. Compare Different Affiliate Programs

Amazon Associates, CJ Affiliate, PeerFly, and more — there are a lot of different programs for affiliate marketing out there. They make it super easy for anyone out there to get affiliate links. 

While you have a lot of options available, not all of them might be worth your time and energy. Before you sign up for an affiliate program, invest time in filtering out your choices so that you choose the right ones for you.

For the vetting process, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is and what they might like. Additionally, make sure your the affiliate products are relevant to your audience.

Image via Amazon Associates

A common mistake that many affiliate marketers do is to pick the affiliate programs that offer the highest commission rates. But the first thing you should check out is audience compatibility. 

If the audience of the program isn’t related to your target audience, you’ll have a hard time generating any income.

On the other hand, a network that offers low commission but has a target audience related to your brand can still help you boost your revenue.

3. Check All Your Traffic Source Options

On the front of traffic sources, there is a lot of campaign optimization that is possible. The good news is that it’s also easy to work on it. On the flip side, what you can do depends on your traffic sources.

Some of them allow you to purchase traffic on the basis of the type of device used while others are more specific. They will only provide desktop or mobile traffic. 

You can also add custom variables and then pass the relevant data to your affiliate program. For instance, some sources enable you to send information like the placement type from where your traffic comes. Without setting it up on the side of the traffic source, you can’t get it done.

Also, if you can block or pause some traffic types in your traffic source, do that. You can then make a report which can help you evaluate the kind of traffic that matters.

Let’s say, you have a pop-up campaign for desktops and mobile devices. If you want, you can pause your traffic source based on its incoming source (desktop or mobile) and the network connection. 

4. Analyze Your Test Results

Test your campaign and wait till you collect a significant amount of data. Once you have it, check your numbers and assess whether you need to change your tactic. 

To optimize your campaign, you may want to leverage landing page CRO or change the offer to cut out a sweeter deal for your target audience. Sometimes, your landing page might work well on desktop, but may not show the same results on mobile devices. 

You can also optimize your campaigns based on different types of browsers, ISPs, OS versions, and other such factors.

Remember that adapting your strategy to the response that you get is the key to optimize your affiliate marketing strategy.

Pro Tip: Use specialized tools to analyze your affiliate marketing campaigns.

Ready to Optimize Your Affiliate Campaign for Profitability?

Affiliate marketing offers a ton of opportunities to earn passive income. If you’re planning to create an affiliate marketing campaign, make sure you optimize it well. That way, you can get the most out of your efforts.

From the onset, you should be clear about what you want to achieve. Clear realistic goals will help you stay focused. It will also help you determine the KPIs that are important to measure the success of your campaign.

For optimization, you can focus on the traffic sources, landing pages, as well as the offers that you give to your target audience. Lastly, you should test your campaigns and change your strategy as required.

Do you have any questions about optimizing your affiliate marketing campaigns? Please mention them in the comments section. 

You’re feeling frustrated because people are not looking at your affiliate products, let alone buying them.

I can relate to it because in 2013, I tried my hands on affiliate marketing but didn’t succeed.

To be honest with you, I failed.

The highest monthly income was in September of the same year when I earned $308.99.

The months before have experienced staggering failure – it’s common to see just $74.22 or less on my merchant account at month end.

However, things started to change in 2014 when I signed up to promote recurring high-ticket offers.

Trust me, offering a high-ticket product for sale is the ONLY way to work less, drive fewer visitors to your ‘money page’ and still make decent income to live by.

You want proofs from ordinary people who are succeeding in this business model?

Okay, Pat Flynn makes over $30,000 monthly from Bluehost. Their affiliate program pays out $65 per referral.

An affiliate could earn up to $150 if the person they referred orders.

In this post, I want to share with you the 4-step plan you need to make at least $2,000/month, promoting high-ticket offers.

A quick definition, before we jump right in on the easy steps.

What are high-ticket affiliate offers?

These are products/programs or offer that you promote as an affiliate and earn up to $100 when a sales order is completed.

For instance, most of Brian Tracy’s video training courses and seminars are sold for $599 and beyond.

You could join as an affiliate to promote the program and earn commissions in the process.

Typically, you’ll be paid 50% commission no matter the cost of the product. But in this case, it’s $1000+.

A 50% commission rate will net you $500 or more, depending on the upsells and backend offers

That’s what high-ticket affiliate marketing is all about. Stop wasting time on peanuts.

You deserve more from your hard work cowboy!

But the question is: how do you ensure the money keeps rolling in, assuming you’re new to the game?

Just follow this 4-step plan and you’d be smiling to the bank by next month.

Step #1: Get a custom blog theme

The difference between a high-ticket and low-ticket offer is the impression you create in the minds of buyers.

According to Forbes, people only do business with who they like and trust to some degree.

Whether you’re a blogger or business coach, impression is everything.

What people say about you is much more powerful / important than what you say about yourself – more importantly on the internet.

That’s why you must get a custom blog design from day one that’s compatible with mobile devices. Econsultancy.com saw 65.71% increased conversions when their design was improved, and revenue increased by 101.25%.

You may be asking why some people succeed online without having a custom blog, right?

Well, you have to understand that even a free wordpress theme is all you need to persuade people to buy an e-book that sells for $27.

Buyers may not trust you yet, and it’s because of the low cost of your product – they’ll just buy it.

But when the same people are expected to spend up to $100 and more on a particular product/program, the fear of losing money will set in – and discouragement is the next thing.

To curb this challenge, use a custom designed blog to build influence and speak the same language your readers love – BEAUTY!

Step #2: Research high-ticket offers

There are several platforms to select high converting offers that will generate a high commission for you. Make sure in the beginning not to waste your time on low-ticket affiliate offers and instead focus on high-ticket offers.

My favorite merchant is offervault.com. On the homepage, just type the niche you want and press search.

In this case, I’m looking for a product that will pay me $150 per lead/sale in the home business niche:

Now you’ll see a lot of opportunities to earn more money as an affiliate.

Don’t be scared to pick any of the offers that pay out handsome commissions.

If you work hard for it, you’ll earn it.

Screenshot:

In affiliate marketing, choosing a niche and product to market is usually seen as the most delicate of all, because the wrong niche will drown your efforts.

Moving forward…

Step #3: Create video tutorials weekly

I love this. Video tutorials will set your posts on fire, and trigger action almost instantly.

Have you ever watched a video and got inspired to try a particular product?

For instant, if you watch Derek Halpern instructional videos, nothing can stop you from moving ahead in your online business.

Don’t just write a product review and relax.

It’s not going to work that way, and your sales conversion will be low. Remember that text-based content has a limit on how much it can engage and portray you as the go-to expert.

But when you create videos tutorials weekly, you’re reinsuring readers to hold you accountable for the things you said, not just what you wrote.

And if that happens, they’ll definitely buy your high-ticket affiliate products.

I find it pretty difficult to trust a blogger just because he wrote a useful post.

It’s possible that s/he outsourced the content to a ghost writer. Don’t you think so?

Can an affiliate marketer, blogger or business coach outsource video creations?

Yes they can, but on that type of video, it’d simply be a guide, not on personal relationship.

Step #4: Target low-hanging keywords

Since “home business” is our preferred niche for this case study.

How do we generate low-hanging keywords, which are less competitive and profitable at the same time?

Just go over to Google and type, “home business” and watch the auto generated search queries.

See what I’m talking about:

I think I like ‘home business opportunities’.

I’ll click the keyword, copy as it is and go to Google Keyword planner (here).

Once I get there, I’ll paste it, and hit “Get ideas.”

From the screenshot above, the low hanging keywords (a.k.a. long tail keywords) you should target if you were to promote a home business program/offer are:

• Work from home business
• Starting a home business
• Legitimate work from home opportunities
• Home based business opportunities
• Work from home scams

Note: Targeting a long-tail keyword doesn’t mean you’re over-optimizing or stuff keywords.

In fact, Google recommends that you research the top search queries people are using to search for you. So it’s vital, it’s fundamental!

If Google is against keyword research and targeting, why are they still allowing us to use Google keyword planner.

Step #5: Create excellent content

Now, based on the keywords you found, as suggested in the previous point, you are ready to start the part that takes the most time (but potentially the most profitable) of producing the affiliate content. This is where the phrase abused but more true than ever comes into play: “Content is king”.

Your goal will be to turn your website into an authority in your niche and the most effective way to do this is to create fresh, unique and high-quality content.

Now, do not write to sell, but try instead to create a relationship with your audience.

Your reader, before being converted to a full-fledged buyer, needs to be attracted to your brand (or simply your name). That’s why when you create content, it must never be purely for the sale of your product or service. On the contrary, it should be always aimed first at creating a relationship of trust, encouraging your reader to follow you over time because you have something interesting to say and tell and that can be really useful to him in his life.

Only when this relationship of trust is created, only then, you can start earning with affiliate marketing.

Conclusion

In all, you’ve to understand the psychology of persuasion, as laid out by Robert B. Ciadini; Author of Influence.

Whether you’re selling a $17 product or a $1999 high ticket product, knowing what prompts people to press the buy button is a powerful force you can’t do without.

Most of the time, people buy out of emotional signals going on within their minds and afterwards, they justify it by giving cognitive reasons why they bought it.

If you want to succeed at selling other people’s products, start speaking to the minds of your target audience.

Use your videos, posts, podcasts and slide presentations to evoke curiosity, captivate potential buyers and nudge them to action.

If you continually do this, nothing can stop you from making $2,000 per month through high-ticket affiliate offers.

As always, what is the biggest commission you’ve ever made per sale in your affiliate career so far?

Share your value-based thoughts in the comment box below. See you ahead!

If you want your product to sell as well as it can on Amazon then every step of creating your listing needs to be the best that it can be.

It’s no surprise that the title is paramount in this because it’s not only what your shoppers will read but also be implicit in keyword use to be found in as many searches as possible.

Your title should contain more than just the product name, it needs model numbers, sizes, colours, patterns, quantities, speeds, types, platforms and each of these are dependent on what your product is. Handily, Amazon sets out guides for best practices in different departments. These formulas are broken down by product.

For example, Small Appliances and Home Environment products should follow the guide: brand + model number + model name + product type and colour.

But – what you need to try and work out is how best to get premium keywords into your product title that aren’t already there.

It’s not just content though, you should also consider the appearance to make sure you not only sound professional but look professional too.

Capitalise the first letter of each word.

Spell out weights and measurements in words instead of using abbreviations.

Make sure all numbers are numeric and not spelt out.

Only use ampersands where correct to do so; in your title it should only appear if it’s part of the brand name.

If size isn’t relevant don’t put it in the title, use that space for more important keywords. And the same with colour, if it’s not relevant in a search use that space for something that is.

2. Write Compelling Descriptions

Writing copy can be confusing. On one hand we’re going to tell you ‘less is more’ because your shoppers will always be in a hurry even when they’re not, they’ll skim everything, but you still want to engage with your visitors, supply them plenty of information and talk their language.

In all areas of organic marketing we talk about not selling the product but selling the lifestyle. Sell the benefits. What’s the real desire of owning those shoes or that dress? That you’ll look stunning? Feel like a movie star? That you’ll be the most glamorous girl in the room? Use it to help your customers paint a picture. They’re already considering your item otherwise they wouldn’t be reading the description, this is your chance to tip them over the edge and into a sale. Keep your lines short and sweet (less is more, remember) and sell the dream, not the product.

The other method never to underestimate is using bullet points. Ideal for skim readers they stand out way more than a paragraph of text ever can. Try making the key point of each bullet in bold or upper case to highlight the important information and then follow it with standard lower case to sell the dream behind that piece of information.

3. Using Keywords At Every Opportunity

Appearing high in searches is all about keywords but there are ways to use them that you may not be aware of.

You should already be using keyword tools for new suggestions as any organic SEO Agency will tell you, and also Amazon’s own search bar to glean the most common searches for your keyword insertion. Start typing your product details and see what comes up in the automated population. Are any of those phrases ones you can use to join the popular enquiries?

Keywords On The Backend

There are places you can utilise keywords that aren’t going to appear in your description, title or instructions; for example, in the backend of your listing there are areas for you to complete that don’t have to appear as sales copy because they’re only considered by the mechanics of Amazon’s searches and not being read by shoppers. Make the most of them by entering long-tail keyword phrases. You have limited fields and spaces so be strategic. Drop the words that aren’t important and avoid repetition. Optimise this area as you would everywhere else and make it count.

Keywords In The Canonical Url

The canonical URL is the main link to your product page and is used by Amazon and Google in retrieving search results. You should try and feature your main keywords to appear in it in order to boost rankings.

4. Inventory Management

Inventory management is important to the way Amazon decides if you’re an appropriate seller for its search results. They’re not going to consider you a good sales option if you’ve run out of stock, and replacing stock won’t automatically push you back to that top spot listing. You have to earn your place and maintaining a constant inventory that can meet demand shows Amazon you’re in control and can handle everything they throw at you.

Your inventory is also taken into account when being considered for the Buy Box. If you can feature in the Buy Box then your sales are going to lift exponentially. So keep an eye on your inventory. Utilise whatever tools you can to predict demand and always make sure you’ve got it covered.

5. Use Your Reviews As A Streamlining Tool

Our Amazon agency constantly recommends that reviews are a vital part of selling on Amazon. Your customers are more likely to trust other shoppers who have already invested than whatever you tell them about the product. They know you want to sell and will tell them what they want to hear but the reviewers are going to be 100% honest about the product performance and the service they received.

In order to receive those 5 star ratings then you’ve got to do the work. Keep your customers happy. Sell them a great product and at a great price. Try and resolve any bad reviews to show exemplary service.

Using Reviews To Tweak Your Descriptions

Another great use of reviews is to consider all the elements your customers repeatedly talk about. If there are features that are regularly making your customers the happiest then write them into your sales copy. And if there’s a chance you can use those as your keywords too, then what are you waiting for?

6. ASIN Piggybacking

Every product on Amazon has an ASIN (Amazon standard identification number). This 10-digit number is unique to Amazon for product identification. Utilising this code you can find out the selling price for all of a product’s sellers and if you think you can sell it for less than the best of the pack then you’ve found a great product to enter into resale with.

You will need to have sourced a supply that allows you the correct margins after considering all expenses but this practice is widespread when looking to boost product inventory.

7. Choose The Right Ad Format And Constantly Streamline Performance

Amazon wants you to sell more; it’s how it makes such a big percentage of its money. They also encourage you to buy their paid advertising in order to help boost your traffic and sales. Making sure you’re using the correct advertising format is important too.

This applies mainly to Amazon vendors as opposed to their third-party sellers, as there are three main formats for vendors to choose from where the third-party seller has only one. It can be confusing so you may want to consider the help of an Amazon marketing agency to guide you in the best practices.

Vendors can buy into Amazon Sponsored Ads, Amazon Headline Search Ads or Amazon Product Ads, and each of them work in different areas and in different ways. To gather information on which will perform better for your products then you must test each of them and compare the data of the results and costs. Your listing position may denote which method is preferable due to where they appear. For example, Product Ads could help sellers who don’t have the buy box as they are displayed in a competitor’s product detail page.

8. Be in the Buy Box

One of the biggest advantages we believe as an Amazon seller consultant is understanding how to feature in the Buy Box. Of all the sellers of a particular product only four will appear specifically with their own add to cart button.

So what are the important metrics to consider?

Price

Price is always going to be important and it’s no different here. What you need to take into consideration though is Amazon doesn’t just prefer the cheaper listed options but the cheaper options after taking shipping into account.

Shipping Performance

Amazon wants to offer the best service all round so if you constantly prove to ship to its customers speedily and efficiently then you’re scoring points. Being part of their Fulfilled by Amazon program will help too. Other key metrics to work on are your order defect rate and perfect order percentage, as they also affect who gets to sit in the Buy Box.

Seller Rating

Every seller that features in the Buy Box has a seller rating above 90%. It says a lot once more of how Amazon views its preferred sellers. The ones that offer the best service are the ones they’ll choose to promote.

9. Vendor Powered Coupons

Savvy shoppers are always on the hunt for a bargain. Amazon recognises this and offers its own unique portal for shoppers to gather coupons that will earn them discounts.

Daily promotions and savings are highlighted on the website and can be used off-site to drive traffic to your product pages.

The hacks to get the best from VPCs are:

Promote Them

Coupon pages work just like any other listing so promote it independently. You could get more traffic and sales for the coupon link than the product link itself.

Offer Better Discounts than Your Competitors

If shoppers are looking for the best deal then find a way to be just that. The best deals will have the most chance of featuring in a showcase.

Use Third-Party Coupon Sites

There are thousands of external sites that promote daily deals, coupons, money off codes and more. You could consider them as an option to build on your inbound marketing methodology. Once you start submitting your VPCs to these you should monitor which sites are driving the most traffic. Build on them as well as dedicating time to test driving new ones.

Swap Coupons for Sales Metrics

We’ve discussed how important getting good reviews and ratings are so why not offer a VPC discount to any friends and family in return for a glowing reference and a 5 star rating? It could make all the difference in earning the customer confidence your sales need.

10. Split Testing

Any Amazon marketing expert will judge their successes, failings and where to make positive advances via testing. In this world of data and metrics it’s important to test all options so you can see what really works best, not just leaving it to guesswork and hope.

You should test all of your options by making changes and measuring the results.

The main area is obviously price – and not just your price. You should be aware of the changes in your competitor’s price so you have an idea where to pitch your own. Would a lower price gain a higher volume of sales? Or would you make more money on a lower volume of sales at a higher priced product?

Other key areas for testing are sales copy and the main feature image. You may think that all your images show your product in the same light but by testing you’ll have data to investigate, to find any patterns in sales and traffic that coincide with those changes.

However, many people promote their websites on Facebook in the wrong ways, which usually leads to them being labeled as a spammer.

There are quite a few different ways you can drive traffic to your site from Facebook and make money from your affiliate offers, without developing the reputation.

So before you start getting blocked from your favorite pages, or tossed out of your favorite groups onto the curve, follow these suggestions, implement the strategies I’m giving you, and then use Facebook to drive massive amounts of traffic to your affiliate links.

First, Build Your Own FB Page

Ok, there’s a bit of a caveat to this one.  Facebook has recently implemented changes to their algorithm that makes it harder for people that have liked a page to actually see the content that the page is producing.

With them limiting the organic reach of pages on their platform, many people have resorted to “boosting” posts and paying for advertising to increase their reach.  This is one way to do it, however there are cheaper ways you can make sure people that have liked your page will see the content you’re producing.

The best way to make sure people are seeing the posts that you’re publishing is to get them to interact with your posts, either by commenting, liking, or sharing them. As your engagement rate goes up, your organic reach will increase.

However, if you’re not able to increase your organic reach, you can boost your posts to make sure they’re getting out to your audience, while also targeting new audiences that are similar to the organic audience you’ve already built.

Start Your Own Group

Facebook Groups are the new Pages, and allow you to reach more of your audience without being forced to pay for it.  While this may not always be the case, for the time being Groups are doing great, and are fairly easy to grow.

Most groups are growing organically, however there are some marketers that are paying for boosted posts that contain links to their groups, and are seeing a massive influx of new users as a result.

When you publish a new piece of content to your group, you can almost guarantee that at least 40% of the people in your group will see it, where less than 10% of the people that have liked your page will see it.

You can’t just publish content, though, and hope to get the results that you’re looking for.

Provide Useful Tutorials

If you want to maintain the reach, whether on your Page or in your Group, you’re going to need to make sure that you’re publishing content that people actually want to see, click on, and read.

Then you can parlay your content into your affiliate links and connect the two together so you can eventually make sales.

People love original, awe inspiring, emotion inducing content, and are more than happy to click it and read it, but if they feel like you’re being a marketer, or trying to pitch your products and services, they’re going to turn off and make it harder for you to make the sale.

To give you an example of what I’m talking about, let’s assume you’re running a Page or Group based around motorcycle racing enthusiasts.

You can create a piece of content that teaches them how to change out the spark plugs and wires on their motorcycle.  Since you know that the people on your Page or Group are going to be interested in learning how to do it, you can create an in-depth tutorial for them.

Then, as you work through the tutorial, you can create links to products that they may use while they’re changing out their spark plugs and wires, and a portion of the people reading the tutorial will click the links to take your recommendations.

As long as you’re providing value first, and not making the tutorial specifically about promoting your affiliate links, you’ll have a much easier time promoting the content across other Pages and Groups, too.

You also won’t be labeled as a spammer.  People understand that marketers are trying to make money, and if you bake the affiliate links into the content inconspicuously, you don’t have to worry about getting tossed out of other Groups, or blocked on Pages that you’re trying to share on.

Partner With Pages that Have a Built-in Audience

One of the best ways to grow your own Group or Page, or to work out deals with Page and Group owners is to partner with them, and then cut them in on the profits that you’re generating.

Many owners and administrators are open to the idea of you providing valuable content to their audience, especially if you’re going to share the profits with them.

You can’t just reach out to the owners and suggest this arrangement, though.  You’re going to need to build a relationship with them, and show that you are truly interested in providing valuable content, instead of out to simply make a quick buck off their audience and then move onto the next.

This strategy works best if you already have a Page or Group with a built-in audience.  You can cross-promote each other’s groups, and then not have to share in the profits with the owners of the Pages or Groups you’re trying to promote your content in.

Engage People That Comment, Like and Share

When you’re promoting content in other people’s groups, you’re going to end up getting people that like, comment, and share the posts you’re publishing.

When this happens, you want to make sure that you’re taking the time to engage with them, at least by responding to their comments.  You can go one step further and reach out to the people that shared the post, asking them what it was that they specifically enjoyed about it.

By engaging and replying to comments, you’re going to leave a mark on the people you interact with, so they’ll be more inclined to comment, like, and share your content when you publish new posts in the future.

Then, after you’ve done this a few times, your reach in that specific group will go up substantially, because Facebook’s algorithms will see that people are enjoying what you’re posting, and want to help you reach even more people, without forcing you to pay for it.

Engaging with the users that are interacting with your posts also helps the Page and Group owners out, because you’re increasing their reach by increasing the engagement with the posts on their Group or Page.

As their engagement goes up, their organic reach will go up, which will make them more inclined to let you stick around and continue promoting other content that you’ve created.  This is one of the best ways to build a long-term relationship with the owners that you’re working with.

Use Content to Pull FB Users Onto Your Email List

If you want to take a long-term approach to promoting your content on Facebook, instead of sending the users to a page or blog post that contains your affiliate links, you should try using Facebook to send those same visitors to a landing page that collects their email.

This strategy is slightly harder to implement than sharing an actionable, valuable blog post, because Group and Page owners know that you’re only doing it to collect emails, but if you’re able to solve problems that people in their audience are having, you can still pull the strategy off.

By pulling the visitors onto a landing page, and enticing them to subscribe to your email list, you’ll have many more opportunities to follow up with them later, without having to pay Facebook for the clicks, or worry about not reaching all of your audience.

Safeguarding your subscribers from changes in Facebook’s algorithms is a smart way to build your business, because even though Groups are a great way to get in front of people who are interested in what you’re offering, it’s in Facebook’s best interests to eventually limit the reach of Groups so that marketers are forced to pay for it, instead.

Facebook Ads Are Great for Growing Your Email List

If you’re the type of marketer that prefers to taking growing your list into your own hands, one of the best ways to do it is by paying Facebook to get your offer (or your landing page) in front of people who you know are interested in it.

Before you start spending money on Facebook Ads, you’re going to want to make sure you have a proper sales funnel in place, along with an autoresponder series that will help you start generating revenue as soon as Facebook starts delivering traffic.

Having a sales funnel and an autoresponder will help offset the costs of the Facebook Ads, or at least help reduce the actual expense of the ad campaigns, so that you can spend more money on traffic and grow your list without hitting a ceiling on your budget too quickly.

Paying for ads guarantees your reach, and as long as you’re targeting specific interests and researching your market properly to ensure that you’re getting the ads in front of the right people, you can grow your list far faster with an ad than you can by promoting the content in Groups and Pages.

Don’t Promote “Junk” and “Spam”

I gave you an example of creating valuable tutorials so that you are actually helping your audience, instead of simply taking from the Groups and Pages that you’re posting to.  Creating valuable content is actually easier than promoting junk.

If you’re not familiar with the type of “junk” that I’m talking about, go spend some time in a few popular groups that aren’t great at keeping the spam out.

You’ll see constant new posts from people who never interact with other people in the group, and only post pages to the content on their blog.  The content that is usually a straight-up sales pitch for some shady products or services.

These people’s lives are usually short-lived in the Groups, because once the administrators realize what’s going on, they’ll ban the users.

Instead of finding yourself getting banned, don’t publish junk content that doesn’t help anyone but you (by way of an affiliate link click) or constantly spam groups that have a no-spam and no-promotion policy in place.

Make Sure Your Retargeting Pixel is Installed and Functioning

Even if you’re not paying for advertising to grow your Group or Page, you may want to in the future.  This is especially true if Facebook implements new algorithm changes that limit the organic reach of Pages even further, or reduce the effectiveness of Groups.

A retargeting pixel, if you’re unfamiliar, allows you to build a custom audience inside of Facebook that you can advertise to later, for much cheaper than you would pay for advertising to the same people if they had never visited your website before.

When someone lands on your website, the pixel will fire off, and the person’s computer will have a cookie placed on it.

Then, when you go to create a new advertising campaign on Facebook, you can use the custom audience that has been built from people who have already visited your site, and spend substantially less for each click that you generate.

As long as you’re focused on providing value first, and building long-term relationships with the owners of the Pages and Groups that you’re trying to promote your content through, while making sure that you’re doing what you can to collect an email address instead of letting the visitor bounce off your site, you can use Facebook to push a massive influx of traffic into your site.

First, I won’t recommend you jump into making money if you are just starting a blog. You may not get any reasonable results and this may lead to discouragement and abandonment. The first thing every newbie blogger should do is focus on building flourishing community.

Your community is your market and I want to underline the word flourishing. There is no successful blogger with a thriving community. That’s what makes the excitement. So before you start thinking of your firs $1000 as a blogger, make sure you are getting targeted traffic and engaging readers.

That’s what I get on my blog. I see the results so I decided to share with you some of the things I do to get this income coming.

The Three Top Ways I Make Money Blogging

1 – Banner Advertising

There is a disease around that makes people think banner advertiser is dead. This sickness called Banner Blindness has made some bloggers to completely ignore banners. But the truth is, out of every 10 sites you visit, you are still going to see some banner advertising elements. If it no longer works, people won’t keep investing in it.

Erik for instance is making money with this blog through BuySellAds (BSA). That may not be your case because getting approved by them is like hitting a hard rock. To make things more difficult, once your application is rejected, they won’t even tell you where you are wrong.

A good BuySellAds alternative I recently came across is AdClerks (PC). Though I have more than the minimum impressions required by BSA, and my blog is premium with a great community of readers, my last application was turned down. I still think there an error though

I have sold banners in the past, managing everything by myself through a plugin. But this time, I decided I was going to use a platform so as to raise my chances of being located by many more advertisers.

The rejection by BSA got me surprised but not discouraged. After a few keystrokes in Google, I found over five ad networks and decided to go with PC. My friend here, Erik is doing well with BSA but if you want something quick, give PC a try.

2 – Affiliate Marketing

This is what makes blogging even more exciting. Everyone with a blog can do affiliate marketing and see results.

Though this is not as simple and easy as it used to be, Affiliate Marketing is still a flourishing business. You don’t need any investment. If you have a blog already, what you need is promote targeted affiliate products, generate sales and earn commissions.

I wrote an ebook Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers where I share my working methods and steps taken by other successful bloggers to make real money with Affiliate Marketing.

Most of the things you need to succeed are inside. But briefly, I’m going to give you some very powerful tips to help you succeed with Affiliate Marketing as a blogger:

1. Make sure you promote products that are targeted to your niche. Don’t try to sell anything because your cousin or grand ma is the author.
2. Focus more on products that pay recurring commission. That way, you are sure of a steady source of passive income.

Now, this is the killer method that constantly generate my income:

1. Get a copy of the product you want to promote and use it. There are different ways to get a copy: Generally, you may buy or ask for review copy from owner.
2. Once you’ve used it and gotten some results, share those results with your audience. Man has been programmed to copy things that are working for others. Therefore, if your readers see something working great for you, chances are high for them to buy that same stuff.
3. Finally, teach them how to use that product and get the same results. These tutorial posts are the triggers. If people don’t make the buying decision after reading your results, a majority will do after you teach them how to get your results.

3 – Sell My Own Products

There is nothing as rewarding as selling your own products but I know some folks are going to complain about this.

The truth is, creating and selling your own products is even more complicated but the income is a huge compensation.

Product creators have to deal with a lot of other things that eat up time and money. These are things like updates, upgrades, maintenance, shipping, customer service, etc. As an affiliate, you are never going to deal with all these.

But the truth is, once you’ve created a product that’s a big success, you will make more money than any affiliate and that income will help you handle any extra responsibilities.

In the past, I have created different products for bloggers and these all summed up are making the greatest share of my income online. And as a serial entrepreneur, each time I sell any of these products, my income doubles.

What if I can’t create a product Enstine?

I saw that question coming and I’m ready to answer!

I know I have worked hard, developed my skills so I can create digital products any time without hiring or outsourcing part of the job.

But I still have that strong believe that anyone else can create a product. Even if you are just from under a bridge and you know absolutely nothing, you can still create a successful product.

Today, PLR products are a fast way to go. As a matter of fact, my first ever product was a PLR ebook which I sold on Clickbank and make much more money than I ever invested. You can read more about it here

So it is no excuse that you can’t create a product. If you ain’t able to do it yourself and you feel PLR products are all crap, there are thousands of talented freelance developers and writers in any industry. You can fine them on Freelancer, Upwork, etc.

All you should do is put up your thinking cap and come up with a hot product idea. It could be an ebook or software. Digital products are doing well now so you won’t be wrong creating one.

Once you’ve brainstormed and arrived at something, you should hire talents from these job boards and before you know it, you are a product owner.

Conclusion

Those are the three main ways I make money blogging. I know many of you use Adsense and other methods.

I want you to share with us in the comment what’s working for you and how we can benefit from your experience.

“Affiliate marketing” is a highly effective promotion strategy, though many aren’t aware of it.

This marketing niche is pretty important for many online businesses, and yet a lot of new business owners have no idea what the term means.

Here’s a brief introduction to the subject which should clear up a few questions for you.

Source: Flickr

What is Affiliate Marketing?

So what is affiliate marketing? This is a very large question.

The simplest way I could define affiliate marketing for beginners is making money by promoting another business.

There are a lot of different methods which fall into the “affiliate marketing” category. However, when most professionals use the term, they usually mean a system of blogging.

You would write articles on your blog, including links to the client’s landing page. Every time someone clicks on this link, you earn a commission.

Another common variation involves referring someone to the client’s site whenever they take some kind of action.

Let’s say you had a customer who fills in some kind of form or gives you their email address. You’d be paid for referring them to the client’s business.

Though many methods exist, there are certain things which makes affiliate marketing go hand in hand with blogging.

Build a Community Around Your Blog

Obviously, it’s not the only way to make money from blogging, and won’t suit the style of every single blogger. However, affiliate marketing is more effective in this context.

This is due to a certain degree of trust between the blogger and their readers. As the trust grows stronger, the readers usually follow more recommendations from the blogger.

Your aim should be building a community, so to make the users feel like home. There are many ways you can achieve this, one is by focusing on the comments section of your site. Or you can create a forum, in a sub-domain of your blog. Or else, check how to use DeviantART to build a loyal community around your website.

However, there might be some cons. You can probably see that this presents a certain amount of risk. While there’s stacks of money in it, many people still see bloggers as unbiased and trustworthy sources of information. If the blogger promotes the wrong product, or makes their link far too obvious, the trust can be broken in an instant.

There are a lot of bloggers out there who make the majority of their money through affiliate marketing. However, it’s not a fool proof get-rich-quick scheme in the slightest.

The success of affiliate marketing hinges on a variety of different factors. Obviously, the blog or website in question needs a healthy flow of traffic. It’s no good having a lot of backlinks out there if no one sees them!

Furthermore, it can be tough to find products which are relevant enough for the blog. Blogs which are too general won’t get that much traffic.

However, those with a narrow niche will find affiliate opportunities hard to come by. Even if the blog’s all about consumer products, it can be hard to sell things to the readers.

People follow blogs for a wide variety of reasons, but very few use them as catalogues!

I hope this introduction has given you a better idea of what affiliate marketing is and what it means for your business or blog.

There are challenges to making this method work, but when it does it’s fantastic!

While almost all of us have, at some point, written something online or uploaded a picture or video to Facebook, most of us will have done so without the realisation that these very same trivialities could earn them a lot of money.

In today’s times, social accounts with large active followings can be just as valuable as having a well-run website and are just as easy to monetise.

While people will already know about the traditional adverts that you can pick up, from hosting Google Adsense banners on your blog to advertising in your YouTube videos and across your channel, few will know that there are sites dedicated to partnering high-authority social accounts with advertisers looking to reach similarly-matched audiences.

In the last few years, several leading newspapers have featured articles about how much celebrity tweet endorsements can cost with figures between $100 and $10,000 being batted about, but few have mentioned about how much members of the general public have managed to stack up for offering the exact same services.

Forbes magazine recently covered an article showing how some of these ‘Average Joes’, that few of you would ever have heard of, have pulled in excess of $10million in pre-tax earnings last year just thanks to their online social activities.

They didn’t just earn that using the conventional advertising methods you see online, in fact large swathes of the cash will have been generated in private deals between sponsors and them directly with sponsors recognising that anybody now, with the right audience, can become the next valuable advertising platform.

How to Make Money With Your Social Accounts

Here are just a few of the sites that are active on the internet now, offering you the opportunity to list your social accounts as marketing facilities for willing advertisers to bid on:

Sponsored Tweet

Sponsored Tweet is a site that allows you to connect with businesses and people looking to advertise their services.

You have to fill in your audience details but you are given the opportunity to set your price and bid on projects as and when you wish

Paid Per Tweet

Paid Per Tweet is similar to the above but has a larger broadcasting reach.

Publishers from different countries and speaking different languages can list their requested price here for advertisers to engage with their audiences.

Notable figures include comedian George Lopez listed at $2000 per tweet and Raekwon, a member of the Wu-Tang Clan, who comes at a bargain $150.

FameBit

FameBit requires you to have at least 5000 channel followers but offers you a chance to monetise your YouTube videos, Instagram accounts and Vine accounts by showing you who is looking for coverage.

While they also cover several other social platforms – it is the ones listed above that offer the best ROI and can generate large revenues if managed correctly. Take a look at one of our previous posts for tips on Youtube here.

You may want to read: Unleash the Power of Social Media Marketing – Useful Resources Mentioned Here

So for those of you who have suddenly remembered the logins to their social accounts or who have Dollar signs in their eyes and are already planning which new accounts you can create and grow, you really could be the next Internet sensation!

Just as traders watch the market for which trades will earn them money, keep an eye out for the next sensation and jump on board as early as you can.

It could be videos of dressing up dolls to tweets telling jokes, Facebook groups about celebrity gossip to Instagram snaps of the latest must-have designer wear; but once you have amassed enough of an audience to be considered a credible publisher, be sure to check out the heaps of sites out there looking to partner you with paying audiences and really become a stay at home millionaire like all the ads portray!

Do you have a large following?

Have you ever thought about monetizing your social media accounts?

Please leave your views below and share the post if you liked it, thanks!

This figure confirms that affiliate marketing has become one of the biggest business opportunities as the start-up costs are so low and the income that you can generate from this option can also be mind-blowing.

Affiliate marketing is having your own website and sending the traffic to someone else’s website in order to boost the visibility and traffic of that merchant company. You’ll be paid commission for every sale that you generate for that company.

Make money affiliate marketing can be done according to your wish and there are so many people who have made it their full-time job.

But how should you give the best start when you’re interested in making money through affiliate marketing?

Read on the concerns of this article.

Vital Steps to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

If you’re a novice who is entering the affiliate marketing industry for the first time, you might be looking for some tips through which you can effectively make money and use the proceeds to make ends meet.

Check out some tips shared by the experts.

Create a website

In order to start off as a successful affiliate marketer, you require having a website through which you can place the links to the products or the services that you actually recommend people.

As it’s easy to get a free blog through the services of Google’s blogger blog network.

Know the niche

Everyone has their own niche and you too have to determine your niche so that you know that you’re serving the right audience who can be targeted and converted into the prospective customers.

You also need to decide on the product that you would like to offer and before you choose this, you have to remain watchful about choosing the right product that can satisfy the needs of the audience.

Check the quality of the product

If you want to determine whether or not you’re selling the right quality product in the market, you have to ensure whether you would have chosen that product in case you were a customer.

If your answer is ‘yes’, you should go for it and if it is ‘no’, then you should avoid promoting that product.

Check the commission that you’ll be paid

You should check the commission that the merchant company is paying you so that you may know that this is the best company that you should seek help of.

Often there are companies that offer more commission than what you’re getting now but the products that they offer aren’t up to the mark.

Therefore you should avoid taking wrong decisions that can mar your profits in the long run.

Why should you choose affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing online marketing techniques that can help you make money and if you’re wondering about the reasons to be an affiliate marketer, here are some reasons.

Cost-effective

Marketing on the internet is pretty cheap and when you have the option of being an affiliate marketer, you can choose this option as it can help you make enough money with which you can repay your debt obligations.

No fees required to join affiliate programs

You won’t require any kind of fees for joining the affiliate programs and this will also be cost-effective when it comes to making money.

Therefore, when you’re looking for ways in which you can boost your passive income and stay afloat in the tough competitive market, you might choose to become an affiliate marketer.

Take into account the above mentioned points so that you don’t falter and take the wrong steps that can bar you from making enough profit in the long run.