Written by Brian Dean
This is a complete guide to affiliate marketing.
In this all-new guide you’ll learn all about:
So, let’s jump right in and turn these key points into your blueprint for affiliate marketing success!
Let’s kick things off with a chapter on the basics of affiliate marketing, setting the stage for your success. Here’s what’s in store:
Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing strategy, where businesses team up with content creators and influencers (affiliates) to promote their products or services.
Affiliates connect their audiences with products or services they’ll love, and earn a cut of each sale they generate.
It’s a win-win-win scenario: businesses gain wider reach, affiliates earn income, and customers discover valuable products.
After you sign up for an affiliate program, the merchant who created the program provides you with a unique affiliate link or tracking code. These links are placed on your website, blogs, social media platforms, or email marketing campaigns to direct users to the merchant’s site so that they can make a purchase. The links are used to monitor sales that come from your affiliate marketing efforts and provide you with a percentage of the sale.
When a consumer clicks on the unique link, a cookie, a web tracker, is stored on their browser for a period of time. If they decide to make a purchase during that time, even if they leave the site and come back later, the cookie lets the merchant know who sold the product and earns the affiliate a commission.
If done right, affiliate marketing can be super profitable for both the merchant and the affiliate.
The affiliate marketing ecosystem can be broken down into four parts:
Also known as the “creator”, the merchant is the business selling a product or service. Their job is to identify and recruit the right affiliates for their affiliate marketing program and supply them with promotional materials like discounts and banners. It’s also their responsibility to motivate affiliates by keeping them up to date on deals, product features, and their top converting products.
They also have to supply the affiliate with an affiliate link to track the sales that the affiliate makes. Merchants can range from solo entrepreneurs to startups and Fortune 500 companies.
Also known as the “publisher”, is a person (or people) that promotes the merchant’s products or services on their platform and drives their audience to the merchant’s site.
The affiliate usually comes up with a marketing strategy and content to leverage the product/service. This could be in the form of videos, blogs, paid ads, and email campaigns.
The success of an affiliate marketing program relies heavily on the affiliates’ ability to effectively market and promote the merchant’s offerings to their audience.
The network is the middleman between the merchant and the affiliate. These networks provide a platform where merchants can list their products and services and affiliates can find suitable products and services to promote. They also handle important tasks such as tracking sales and commissions.
Essentially, they speed up the affiliate marketing process for both merchants and affiliates.
Also known as the “customer”, the consumer is the end-point of the ecosystem. These are the people the affiliate is trying to target and convert into customers. They are the ones who ultimately decide whether to click on an affiliate link, make a purchase, or engage with the promoted products or services.
Understanding how they behave and what they prefer is essential for successful affiliate marketing strategies.
Affiliate marketing is a popular marketing strategy for individuals because of the fact that payment is performance-based.
Here are the four main benefits of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing doesn’t require your to create your own product, worry about inventory, or handle customer support. Your job is to market to your users and get them to take an action. All you need to do to get started is create an engaging website and appeal to your audience. Once you’ve done that, the merchant handles the rest.
Unlike other business ventures that require a lot of investment for website and project development, all you need to start earning money in affiliate marketing is a website or social media platform.
On top of being cost-effective, affiliate marketing is also low risk. Since there is no large upfront investment, if it doesn’t work out, you’ve only spent some time and a small amount of money.
Part of the beauty of affiliate marketing is the fact that everything can be done from the web. There’s no need for a physical space or inventory. That means there’s no limit to how many products or services you can promote.
With the right strategies and techniques, you can quickly scale your affiliate marketing business and increase your earning potential. Plus, you have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world.
Affiliate marketing is driven by results. That’s what makes it such a cost-effective marketing method for merchants and a great source of passive income for affiliates. However, as commission is based on performance, if you don’t get people to convert, you won’t earn money.
Here are the main payment models you need to know.
The PPC model means affiliates earn a commission every time someone clicks on a link that leads to the merchant’s site. This model is great because getting a user to click on a link is a LOT easier than making a sale.
PPS stands as the most commonly used payment model in affiliate marketing. Simply put, with PPS, affiliates get paid for each sale they bring in.
In the PPL model, affiliates are paid for every lead they bring in. Leads can range from email sign-ups to consultation calls. The PPL model usually has a higher commission rate than the PPC model because the leads you bring in are more qualified.
That being said, this method does require more work, and some merchants evaluate every lead you bring in, which means commissions can be delayed.
Also known as “Cost-Per-Action” (CPA), the PPA model is very similar to the PPL model. The biggest difference is that the user is usually much further down the marketing funnel, which means they’re done researching different products and are closer to making a specific purchase.
If you want to learn more about this model, you should take a look at our article on CPA marketing.
To ensure you get the most out of your affiliate marketing efforts, you’ve got to set the right foundations.
A huge part of this is identifying and qualifying your niche. But it also includes building a website that engages your users, understanding your audience, and performing keyword research to ensure you’re creating high-quality, valuable content for your audience.
For this chapter, we’re going to focus our explanations primarily on SEO, but the same rules apply across other traffic mechanisms.
Choosing a niche is usually the most difficult part of affiliate marketing since you need to find a balance between market demand, personal interest, and the potential for profitability.
As mentioned above, it’s important to enter a niche that you’re interested in. After all, if you’re going to invest time, effort, and money into building a long-lasting business, it’s important to invest it in a niche you’re interested in. Entering a niche purely for profit is the biggest mistake a beginner can make.
Start by identifying your passions, hobbies, and interests. For example, let’s say you enjoy running.
You feel like you’ve got a lot of knowledge to share on the topic and decided that it’s the niche you want to enter into. The next step is to qualify your niche.
Before you invest time and energy into a niche, you’ll need to look at its competitiveness, as well as the breadth of search interest and, of course, profitability.
These are the factors you’ll need to assess when qualifying your niche.
The first thing you should do when qualifying a niche is to identify whether or not there is consistent interest in the niche. You can identify this by looking at the search interest over the period of a year or more.
Search trends that experience frequent fluctuations suggest that a niche isn’t consistently popular. Therefore, you might not generate a stable and reliable income from it.
Here’s how to identify search trends.
Google Trends is a free tool that allows you to analyze the search trends for keywords.
Here’s an example.
In the search bar, enter your topic and hit “Explore”. We’re going to use “running shoes”.
Next, click on “Past day” and change it to “Past 12 months”. The most effective way to gauge search trends is by analyzing data over a year or even two.
This will give you a much better idea of how popular the niche is:
As you can see, the interest in “running shoes” fluctuates throughout the year. However, by analyzing the timeline at the bottom of the graph, you’ll notice a consistent level of interest in this topic throughout the year.
Another place to look for search trends is by looking into the fastest growing subreddits or even looking at what’s trending on TikTok.
The next step in qualifying a niche is to identify and assess the competition. These are sites already ranking for the keywords and topics you aim to target. By understanding what types of sites they are, you can determine whether or not you will be able to compete in the niche.
Let’s take a look at the most important steps for identifying and assessing competitors in your niche. If you want a more comprehensive guide on SEO Competitor Analysis, then check out our guide which we’ve linked to.
First things first, you want to search for your keyword and have a look at the search engine results page (SERP).
Next you’ll want to check out the site’s that are ranking. Then you’ll want to have a look at the Authority Score (AS) of each site (to determine if they’re authority sites or not).
Before we go any further, let’s differentiate between authority sites and non-authority affiliate sites:
With that being said, let’s jump into the competitor analysis.
To check a site’s AS, you can use Semrush’s Bulk Backlink Analysis tool. All you need to do is paste the URLs of the sites that are ranking for your primary keyword and click “Compare”.
Then, you’ll be able to see the AS for each URL.
The next thing you need to check is if the top-ranking site is an affiliate site. If so, then that’s good news because it indicates that Google is choosing to rank affiliate sites for the keyword.
How do you identify affiliate sites? First, click through to the page.
Then check for the following:
Here’s a real world example.
Runners World has a clear disclaimer indicating that it’s an affiliate site.
The next thing you need to check is the number of backlinks directed to each top-ranking page.
If a domain has a low number of backlinks (eg. fewer than 10), then there is a chance that you could overtake the site by outlinking them. But, you need to acquire quality backlinks from high authority sites that are relevant to your niche.
To check up on your competitors’ backlink profile, you can use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics Tool.
Copy and paste the top-ranking competitor’s page URL into the tool’s search bar. Then,
Looking at the results for the Runners World page that is ranking in the top spot, you can see that they have a total of 28 high-quality backlinks pointing to their page. This will take some beating but can be done through formulating an effective link building strategy.
It’s crucial to take a look at your competitors’ traffic and traffic value to determine if there’s commercial value and search interest for the topics they cover.
To do this, you can use Semrush’s Organic Research Tool. Simply copy and paste your competitor’s domain into the tool.
You’ll then get an overview of their site:
In this example, you can see that Runners World is getting over 1.4M in monthly traffic. This gives us a pretty good idea of the breadth of the search market.
Plus, you can see that their traffic is worth almost $1.1M. That means advertisers are willing to pay a lot of money for this traffic, which tells us the keywords they’re targeting have commercial value.
Analyzing these factors will give you an indication of whether or not there’s potential in this niche. But you’ll also have to look at affiliate programs and their commission structures to find out if they are programs that you’d benefit from.
Several factors come into play when evaluating the profitability of a niche. First and foremost, it’s crucial to identify the revenue generated by sites within your niche.
One way to do this is to work out some basic forecasting. For example, let’s say an affiliate is paying a 10% commission and the average order value for their site is $50.
This means each sale is worth $5. If you can get your page to rank number one in the SERPs with a 33% click-through rate (CTR) for a keyword with a search volume of 1,000, then that equates to 333 clicks per month.
If your conversion rate for this page was 3%, then that’s ten $5 sales a month, which works out at $50 per month in revenue just from that page.
Another way of assessing profitability is to use Flippa, a platform dedicated to buying and selling domains.
After you land on the homepage, click on “Browse”.
Next, select “Websites” > “Content” > “Review”.
Scroll down to the “Industry” filter and select your niche. We went with “Electronics”.
Here, you can see that this site is generating $1,330 per month from affiliate sales.
While this provides a general insight into the profitability of your niche, it’s crucial to factor in the cost of content creation and site maintenance.
Next, you need to find and analyze affiliate programs and their commission structures.
Now that you’ve established that there are sites in your niche making money off of affiliate marketing, the last thing you need to do is look for relevant affiliate programs.
Once you’ve found them, you have to determine if those programs have commission structures that you’d be able to benefit from. But if you’re looking for something more niche, here are three ways to find affiliate programs.
Perform a simple Google search.
For example, if you’re looking for affiliate programs in the running shoes niche, type in “running shoes affiliate programs” and hit search.
You’ll get a list of sites you can check out:
Another way to find affiliate marketing programs is by looking at your competitors’ sites.
Some sites have their disclosures placed in the footer menu — this is usually the case if they’ve only partnered with one merchant, like Amazon.
Here’s an example:
Other sites maintain a dedicated affiliate disclaimer page where they outline all the affiliate programs they have joined.
Analyzing your competitors’ outbound links can help you identify which affiliate programs they’re signed up to. To do this, you can use Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool.
Simply copy and paste your competitor’s domain into the tool and hit “Analyze”. For this example, let’s use Runners World (runnerworld.com).
On the “Overview” page, click on “Outbond Domains”:
Set the “Category” filter to “Shopping” or “Internet & Telecom”. We went with “Shopping”.
You’ll now see the affiliate programs your competitor is signed up to.
In this image, you can see the competitor has signed up to a few affiliate programs, for example Amazon, Walmart, and Awin.
The next step is to research the affiliate programs you found. You’ll need to identify if they offer products or services that are related to your niche and that you would want to promote.
Additionally, you’ll need to look at their commission structures and rates to assess if the ROI is worthwhile.
After you’ve gone through all of the steps needed to qualify your niche, it’s time to find topics you can create content around.
Understanding your audience’s needs is fundamental for a successful affiliate marketing strategy.
It goes beyond identifying demographics.
It involves delving into their interests, challenges, and preferences. This understanding is crucial for various reasons that contribute to the effectiveness and sustainability of your affiliate marketing efforts.
Here are the key aspects that highlight the importance of grasping your audience’s needs:
Building an engaging website is crucial for attracting and retaining visitors and fostering trust. It entices your readers to explore further and interact with your content. This can enhance your chances of improving conversions.
First, let’s start off with creating engaging content
Providing high-quality, engaging content will capture your audience’s attention and encourage them to spend more time on your site and ultimately convert. By creating valuable and relevant content that caters to their interests and needs, you can become the go-to source for the information they seek. This can establish your authority in your niche.
Creating great content can be easier than you think. Just keep these factors in mind:
When reviewing products or services, don’t be afraid to give your honest opinion. Just because you’re earning a commission from an affiliate link doesn’t mean you need to tell the user the product or service is great if it’s not.
Users are more likely to find you relatable if you’re honest with them about any issues with a product or service. This will help to enhance your credibility. Additionally, you need to write original content that provides value to your readers.
This is SUPER important in growing your user base and gaining trust with your audience. Here’s what Nabil Al-Baidhani (Affiliate Marketer, KRA Marketing) says about providing value:
“Money will follow if you focus on helping potential buyers get the information they want. When I understood and implemented this, my business took a positive turn.”
Telling a story instead of just trying to push a product can make the product seem more desirable and can help establish a deeper relationship with your audience.
Great content comes from a place of experience. That means your reviews and articles should be centered around products or services that you’ve actually had experience with.
For example, GearJunkie does lots of reviews on pocket knives.
They test each knife to meet a bunch of criteria that most knife fans are looking for, and break down their choices in detail.
They also have a section at the end of their articles explaining why you should trust their reviews:
By doing this, they signal to both users and Google that they know what they’re talking about, and they’ve got experience and expertise.
Don’t sugarcoat it. Dig deep into what’s bugging them from the get-go. If you can vocalize the reader’s problem, they’ll trust you to give them a solution. Here’s an example from Wirecutter. Notice how they immediately recognize the problem (bulky wallets in a cashless society) and offer a solution (a slim wallet):
Incorporating compelling visuals like high-quality images and videos enhances the overall visual appeal of your web pages. This not only captures visitors’ attention but also creates a more engaging and visually pleasing user experience (UX).
Visual element displays are a great way to showcase a product and provide concise information about it. If used right, they can be eye-catching and make it easier for users to skim through your content.
Here’s an example from Lasso:
As you can see, this product is inserted into a table that not only makes it easier to spot, but provides the core information like the rating and pros and cons. The table format also features a link to the review and a link to try (or buy) the product.
On top of that, using product comparison tables helps users to compare products at a glance.
Trust signals convey to users that your site is trustworthy. In the realm of affiliate marketing, establishing this trust is crucial. Users need to have confidence in the information you provide about the products or services you’re linking to in order to make a conversion.
In addition to establishing user trust, trust signals also convey to search engines that your site is credible.
Trust signals are sent from on-site and off-site features.
On-site trust signals include:
Off site trust signals include:
Creating engaging content and establishing trust are vital, but there are plenty of other elements that go into building an effective site, such as:
It’s SUPER important to maintain a consistent brand identity across your website to establish a cohesive and recognizable online presence. This helps build trust and ensures a unified experience for your audience. Additionally, a consistent brand image conveys professionalism and credibility.
Include interactive elements, such as polls or comment sections, to encourage user engagement.
No one enjoys a sluggish or confusing website. Prioritize items that allow for easy use of your site like mobile friendliness, lightning-fast loading times, intuitive menus, and clear CTAs.
Once you’ve picked your niche and set up a reputable site, it’s time to decide which company you want to partner with and start the process to become an affiliate.
In this chapter, we’ll give you a step-by-step guide on how to join an affiliate program or network, as well as some top options to look into.
Take a closer look at each network and assess the industries the merchants cater to. For example, if they operate in the B2B sector, it might not be suitable for a B2C affiliate marketer to promote their products or services.
If you decide to work directly with a merchant, make sure they offer a product or service that is relevant to your niche you chose earlier.
Prior to enrolling in an affiliate network or program, carefully review their terms and conditions. It is crucial to understand the commission structure and the prerequisites required for registration. Additionally, assess the regulations as they may vary among different merchants.
After you’ve read the terms and conditions and are happy to proceed, it’s time to complete the application. You will need to provide accurate and relevant information. This may include details about your website, marketing methods, and payment preferences.
After submitting your application, the merchant will review your information.
Approval times vary, but you will typically receive an email notification once your application is processed.
With your target audience in mind, here are some affiliate networks to consider.
Here are some affiliate programs to consider.
In affiliate marketing, revenue is closely tied to the amount of targeted traffic you can drive to your site, and SEO is an absolutely vital part of doing so. By leveraging the power of SEO, you can get your site ranking higher in the SERPs and attract more potential customers.
Since the goals of a successful affiliate marketing campaign usually include things like lead generation, sales conversion, and customer acquisition, SEO strategies integrate seamlessly, creating a synergy between the two.
Simply put, if you can nail your SEO strategy, then you have a very good chance of achieving your affiliate marketing objectives.
Keyword research is one of the foundations of any SEO strategy, as understanding what your audience searches for can guide you in creating content that will draw them in.
Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool is helpful to find the most relevant keywords for affiliate marketing campaigns. It’s easy to use and provides you with a ton of keyword suggestions.
We’ll give you a quick example of how to use Semrush’s tool to carry out your research. If you’d like more comprehensive advice, check out our full guide to keyword research.
To start, type in your seed keyword and hit “Search”.
For this example, we’ll use “running shoes”:
As you can see, the search volume is almost 4.9 million. This indicates a substantial interest in this niche.
There’s also over 248K relevant keywords, but not all of these will be relevant to your site.
You’ll need to narrow down this list to help you target keywords that are both easy to rank for and beneficial for affiliate marketing.
First, use the “KD%” filter and select “Very easy” to find low competition keywords.
Next, you’ll need to include keyword modifiers in your search. Modifiers are words that you append to your base keywords. This ensures that the results you receive are specifically tailored to meet your affiliate marketing needs. Some go-to modifiers for affiliate marketing include:
You’ll also want to look for branded keywords, for example, Nike.
Click the “Include keywords” filter and type in your modifiers and hit “Apply”:
Then, click the “Intent” filter and choose “Commercial” to filter and display only keywords with commercial intent:
Focusing on search queries with commercial intent will enhance your chances of attracting relevant traffic to your site and achieving your affiliate marketing goals.
Here’s what Harry Boxhall (Squarespace SEO Consultant, Boxhall Marketing Ltd) had to say about understanding and addressing search intent:
“By tailoring articles to answer specific questions or solve problems that users were actively searching for, I noticed significant improvements in engagement rates and time spent on the page. More importantly, this nuanced approach led to higher conversion rates for affiliate links. Understanding and addressing search intent turned out to be the game-changer, leading not only to better search rankings but also to a considerable increase in affiliate revenue.”
After applying all the filters, we’ve narrowed down the results from 247,000 to 213. This trimmed-down list is more manageable, and the keywords are now more specific.
And, they’re WAY easier to rank for:
Once you’ve identified your keywords, it’s time to start creating an optimized content marketing strategy that supports your SEO goals and engages your target audience. You need to focus on creating valuable content that’s highly relevant to user intent and entices them to convert.
As outlined in Google’s Helpful Content Update, the primary aim of your content should be to help the user resolve their issue, rather than solely trying to improve your rankings.
There are many different types of content that have proven to be successful for affiliate marketers, such as how-to guides, product reviews, and comparison posts.
Let’s take a look at some of the most effective types of content marketing that you should incorporate into your SEO strategy.
How-to guides are a great way of establishing trust and transparency with your target audience. As the name suggests, they show users how to use a product or service.
This is crucial as you want users to feel confident they’ll be able to use the service or product you’re promoting. Plus, if a user understands how something works, then they tend to be more inclined to make a purchase.
These guides typically target queries with informational search intent like “how to use an air fryer”. You could also consider targeting search terms related to errors like “air fryer not working”, and then lay out the steps for solving the issue.
Another good strategy is to target queries where you can position your product or service as the solution. For example, let’s say you identify the keyword “how to roast potatoes” during your keyword research. You could create an article called “How To Make Perfect Roast Potatoes With An Air Fryer”, where you demonstrate how users can use the product you’re promoting to achieve their desired outcome.
This is an excellent way to match search intent and ensure your guides rank highly in the SERPs, leading to more user engagement and higher volumes of targeted traffic to your affiliate site.
Users search for reviews to give them the information they need to make an informed buying decision. They’re a go-to source for potential customers, and they should form a key part of your SEO content strategy.
Your reviews should be transparent, honest, and well-rounded. Make sure you mention the downsides of products as well as the upsides. No product is perfect, and if you try to make the products you’re promoting seem perfect, your audience won’t trust you.
For example, let’s say you’re writing a review of a new Lenovo laptop. You have several sections covering its powerful graphics card, awesome resolution, and massive amount of RAM. To build trust with your audience, you should also include a section called something like “Where It Falls Short”. Here you can give users your honest opinion about any cons, like its short battery life.
This gives the review balance and means your audience will be fully informed before making a purchasing decision—which is exactly what they’re looking for. Users are then more likely to return to your site for reviews in the future, which can lead to a sustained increase in targeted traffic.
Comparison guides are similar to reviews but give users even more information by comparing similar products or services to each other. They’re great for driving targeted traffic to your site as you can use them to address long tail keywords like “Specialized bikes vs Giant bikes” or “is Specialized better than Giant”.
Users who search for queries like this are in the consideration stage of the buying process, and they have high purchase intent and specific product preferences. By creating engaging content, you can move them further along the sales funnel (and hopefully boost your affiliate income).
Your guides should include detailed comparisons of the products that show how their different features stack up against each other and give users your honest opinion about which product best suits their needs.
You can improve user experience by creating tables that list things like the price and specs of each product you’re comparing.
Backlinks are simply hyperlinks from one site to another, and they’re one of the many trust signals used by search engine algorithms when they’re ranking pages. It’s important to bear in mind that not all backlinks are the same, and some are more high quality than others.
Building high-quality backlinks can help your affiliate site rank higher for your targeted keywords, leading to more traffic and increased affiliate sales. In order to rank well and increase organic traffic, the backlinks should be from relevant and authoritative sources and earned naturally.
Links like these help your site grow as an authority within your industry, and acquiring them will form a fundamental part of your SEO strategy.
Some of the best ways to build high-quality backlinks to an affiliate site include:
These are just a handful of the ways you can build backlinks to your affiliate site and give both your traffic and authority a boost. If you’re looking for a more in-depth guide, check out our guide on link-building strategies.
While it’s great to drive traffic to your site, that’s only half the battle. Now, you’ve got to optimize your webpages to maximize the amount of conversions you get from your visitors.
This is known as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and it’s something that’s absolutely vital if you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer. The good news? Effective CRO doesn’t have to be difficult. Here’s what you need to know.
CRO requires gathering data on your current user behaviors, for example:
Using that data, you focus on streamlining their experience on your landing pages to make it as easy as possible for the user to convert.
Ideally, you should always follow these best practices:
A table of contents provides a super quick overview of the article and is an easy way to give your users the option to jump straight to what they’re looking for. By doing that, you help cut out all of the information they weren’t looking for and give them the answers they want immediately.
Here’s an example of the table of contents we’ve created for our large guides here at Backlinko:
When it comes to affiliate marketing, you’ll often end up reviewing a lot of products to cover all the relevant keywords.
This can lead to huge walls of text and long articles, which can be daunting for readers. With a table of contents, you can make it easy for them to navigate the page.
Comparison tables are a great way to give your reader a quick overview of your article. They are especially useful if you’re writing an article comparing different products.
For example, if you’re writing a review on the best bluetooth headphones, you can use a comparison table at the start of the article with a round-up of all the products. You can then use various columns, such as “price” and “features”, to give your reader a quick overview.
Every paragraph should highlight your key points, so that readers can easily skim through if they’re looking for a specific section or an answer to a particular question. Subheadings are great for quick skimming. They help users quickly find what they’re looking for, giving them the answers they want and bringing them closer to a conversion.
Here’s an example from PCMag:
As you can see, they’ve broken down each product by why they’ve chosen it, who it’s ideal for, and the pros and cons.
This makes it super easy for a reader to skim through and find the exact information they’re looking for.
It’s no secret that a good CTA can increase conversions. But you’ve got to make sure they’re easy to find. While in-text links are great, buttons are eye-catching and worth implementing into your content.
Here’s how to make sure your CTA buttons effectively contribute to your overall CRO strategy:
Here’s an example of a CTA button from Lasso:
It’s important to monitor how many clicks you get on each product.
If you’ve posted a top 10 list, your 4th product shouldn’t be getting more clicks than your 2nd.
But if it is, then you should reevaluate whether or not your list should be ordered the way that it is.
While written content has its place, more and more people are turning to video content to inform their purchasing decisions. YouTube used to be king of this arena, but the rise of TikTok has made short-form video content an essential. Plus, videos are often more engaging than the written word.
Nowadays, consumers spend their free time scrolling through various social media platforms in search of some easy hits of dopamine. So, why not take advantage of that?
Utilizing videos to help break down complex concepts into digestible content is a great way to boost your conversion. It’ll also make it easier for viewers to understand your message.
Creating videos (and starring in them) can also help position you as a source of authority and add a human touch to your content.
Then, you can take these videos and embed them into your content, giving readers a reason to stick around on your site. Additionally, including them may even boost your SERP rankings. To learn more about this, check out our video SEO guide.
Monitoring and analyzing your performance is absolutely vital if you want to succeed as an affiliate.
When joining an affiliate program, each affiliate gets access to a dashboard which allows them to track the performance of their links.
There are also plenty of third-party tools you can use to keep tabs on your performance. Let’s take a look at some of them and the types of data you need to track.
User behavior data refers to information gathered on how individuals interact with your content and navigate your website. This data provides insights into users’ actions, preferences, and engagement patterns.
User behavior metrics include:
GA4
You can use GA4 to measure metrics like bounce rate and dwell time and to track the performance of on-page elements like CTAs. To learn all about how to use GA4, check out this comprehensive GA4 guide.
Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC is also useful as it allows you to track your Google keyword ranking, measure your CTR and page indexing, and identify your most popular pages. Our in-depth GSC guide tells you everything you need to know about harnessing the power of this tool.
Reviews and Surveys
Harnessing the power of customer feedback through reviews and surveys is a strategic move to gain valuable insights into the performance of your affiliate marketing efforts. When combined with the traditional analytics mentioned above, you can gain valuable insights into what’s performing well and identify areas that might need improvement.
You need to encourage your users to leave reviews of the products or services you promote and participate in surveys. This will provide you with a deeper understanding of:
Heatmap Analysis
Heatmaps visually display where visitors are clicking, moving, and spending the most time on your website. This helps you understand their behavior patterns and preferences.
Here’s the super cool part, heatmaps use color gradients to highlight “hotspots” where user activity is concentrated.
These areas often indicate high engagement.
By identifying popular sections of your site, you can strategically place affiliate links, CTAs, or important content.
Most affiliate programs don’t have evergreen links, meaning you’ll need to keep track of which links are broken or expired.
Lasso is a great tool you can use to find and add affiliate links, as well as to monitor and track existing ones:
At the top, you can see three icons in red, yellow, and green:
You can also connect it to GA4 to identify how affiliate links perform on specific posts and pages. This allows you to identify what kind of content is getting the most conversions on your site.
If you click on the “Performance” tab, you can see what your revenue is for a selected timeframe, as well as which networks and programs on your site are getting the most clicks from your affiliate link:
If you want to be a successful affiliate, you need to understand and comply with all the legal and ethical rules that apply to your region.
Here are the most important legal and ethical considerations you need to keep in mind.
As well as being a trust signal, disclosures are a primary and crucial obligation for any affiliate. It’s essential to clarify that any purchases made through your links will result in you earning a commission.
In most countries, including the United States, this is a legal requirement.
Both merchants and affiliates have to make sure that they’re not infringing on anybody’s intellectual property if they’re showcasing a product or using promotional content.
There are rules and regulations put in place to safeguard customers from dubious dealings or exploitation. These include the CAN-SPAM and Federal Trade Commission Act. It’s crucial to stay well-informed about these guidelines because failing to adhere to them can lead to serious consequences.
It’s important that affiliates are honest with their customers. That means no false claims or any marketing efforts that could be misleading.
Maintaining consumer privacy is a cornerstone of successful affiliate marketing. It not only ensures legal compliance but also builds trust, fosters long-term relationships, and instills confidence in users. Adhering to privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA is essential to avoid legal consequences and maintain a reputable business.
Here are a few steps you can take to ensure you stay up to date with the guidelines:
Once you’ve established yourself in your niche and you start to see success, it’s time to expand your efforts.Let’s take a look at the most effective ways to do this.
The goal of scaling is to expand your business so that you have more reach, more impact, and earn more revenue. Here are a few ways you can scale your marketing efforts:
Another great way of scaling your marketing efforts is to simply ask your current merchants for more money. If you’re a top performing affiliate who makes a lot of money for your merchants, then you actually have a lot of leverage in terms of increasing your commission rates. As affiliate marketing expert Jamie I.F. says:
“If you’re driving sales, and are likely a top performer, you’d be surprised how much wiggle-room there is. Affiliate managers often have secret higher rates for top affiliates – but unless you ask, why would they give them to you?”
Implementing a multichannel strategy involves reaching your target audience across various platforms. This approach enables you to engage with customers at different stages of their journey. When executed correctly, it can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
A multichannel approach is important as it helps you to diversify the sources of your traffic. This is vital as overly relying on one platform for customer acquisition can leave you vulnerable. Instead, diversification ensures your marketing messages reach a broad audience.
For example, email marketing can be great for nurturing leads, while Facebook is useful for building brand awareness.
Let’s dive into what you need to know to kick off your multichannel marketing journey.
When employing multichannel strategies, it’s essential to keep your brand tone and messaging consistent across all channels. You need to put together a brand style guide which will include:
When it comes to selecting channels, the options are abundant. Social media stands out as a top choice, given the multitude of platforms available.
A study by Authority Hacker found that the following platforms were the most popular:
The study also revealed that, on average, affiliate marketers on social media utilize a minimum of three different platforms.
Email is an effective channel for affiliate marketing too. It allows you to segment your audience based on factors like behaviors and demographics, so you can send relevant and targeted affiliate offers to specific groups. By targeting users, you can boost your conversions and revenue.
With everything you’ve just read, you’re probably itching to get started.But first, we want to make sure you’re aware of some of the common mistakes affiliates make to help you avoid making them, too.
Overloading your audience with affiliate links and promotional content without providing value can quickly lead your users to lose faith in you and bounce from your website. Make your content valuable first, then worry about working the affiliate links in.
Choosing an overly competitive niche puts you at a disadvantage from the beginning. The intense competition makes it challenging to stand out and compete effectively.
While certain products may offer lucrative commissions, promoting low-quality items solely for financial gain can erode trust with your audience. It’s better to endorse products you genuinely believe in to maintain credibility.
Using a single merchant establishes a solid relationship between the two of you, but it leaves you vulnerable if their policies change. Diversifying your affiliate partnerships by promoting products from various merchants reduces your vulnerability to unexpected changes.
The reality is that affiliate marketing can bring in a lot of revenue — but it’s not an overnight process. According to Affiliate Marketer Training, if you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t expect a lot of revenue for at least 6 – 12 months.
Make sure you set realistic goals that prevent you from being discouraged and can help you grow consistently.
Rules and regulations change, and they impact affiliate marketing. If you don’t keep up, you run the risk of getting caught out. Like every industry, the best way to stay ahead is to stay informed. Regularly review your affiliate program’s rules and regulations.
If you fail to monitor user behavior, you won’t be able to adapt quickly if conversions start to drop off. You need to keep track of metrics like CTR, so that you can change your strategies when necessary and ensure you don’t lose revenue due to shifts in the way users interact with your site.
Simply put, without this data, you won’t be able to tell what’s working well and what isn’t,
Ultimately, being an affiliate marketer means you’re always learning and adapting. It’s a core part of staying relevant and being successful—and monitoring user behavior is a fundamental part of this.
Analyzing case studies is crucial for gaining real-world insights and practical knowledge.Case studies provide specific examples of successful strategies, challenges faced, and solutions implemented by other affiliates.
By studying these real-life scenarios, you can learn from the experiences of others, understand effective techniques, and discover potential pitfalls to avoid.
Let’s take a look at some examples of affiliate marketing done right and identify what led to their success.
Spencer Mecham is a well-known affiliate marketer and the founder of a company called Buildapreneur. After he was laid off in 2008, Spencer committed to growing his blog and turning it into an affiliate marketing powerhouse.
The success of his blog allowed him to start several online businesses, and, as a result of his marketing strategies, Spencer became the top ClickFunnels affiliate in the world. Since 2016, he’s generated more than $100 million in sales.
Jamie I.F. launched his first site in 2018 without knowing anything about affiliate marketing. However, after fully committing to growing his site (Increasing.com) in 2019, the affiliate revenue it was generating started to explode.
By 2022, his portfolio was generating more than $32,000 per month. Now, Increasing.com offers highly-rated newsletters and blog posts to help other affiliate marketers up their game, too.
On the other hand, it’s crucial to analyze situations where affiliate marketing didn’t yield positive results so that you can learn from the mistakes.
Aleksandr Zhukov is a Russian man who was part of a gang of five people who ran display ads on their sites in exchange for revenue for every click.
But it turned out that Zhukov and his buddies set up fake sites and programmed data centers to generate billions of clicks on these ads.
As a result, he scammed merchants out of $7 million in revenue from 2014 to 2016. But we wouldn’t be talking about him if he’d gotten away with it. In 2016, a cybersecurity firm called WhiteOps (now Human), published a report analyzing the fraudulent activities.
What happened then?
Well, US law enforcement flew over to Berlin, arrested Zhukov, and flew him back to America, where he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
What’s the lesson here?
Well, it’s an example of what happens when you try to get around the law to make a quick buck as an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing can be an incredibly powerful tool in growing revenue streams. If done properly, you can see consistent success.
But it’s important to be transparent about your product, to be willing to put in the hard work, and to be wary of so-called “hacks” to speed up your growth.
You shouldn’t rush into affiliate marketing — take the time, do the research, and make sure you’re set up to succeed before you agree to market any products.
If you have any affiliate marketing insights you’d like to share, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.
