Small Business Websites
Tips for Affiliate Marketing Success
Written by Charles Mburugu for Gaebler Ventures
Affiliate marketing programs can be a major source of income. The key to maximum earnings is to engage your readers. Affiliates are only paid if and when a particular action is performed. The action could be signing up for or purchasing a newsletter. What principles can you follow to succeed in affiliate marketing?
For anyone with a content-based website, affiliate marketing could be a good way of generating passive income.
However, before getting involved in this business, you should first consider a few things. Can you engage your website visitors? Do you have the understanding and the resources for knowing what your site visitors want? The following are important tips for affiliate marketing success.
Be an authority in your niche
It is very vital in affiliate marketing to be considered an authority. Many online users know what an affiliate link looks like when they it in your site content. If you promote a product you have no passion for or place too many ads on your site, visitors will leave never to come back. You should build a relationship with visitors using genuine content and this will lead to repeat visits.
Think of banners ads and affiliate ads as extra promotional materials that complement your site's content. These ads should add value to your content by making it useful, informative and helpful to your users. One way of grabbing the attention of customers is to simply write a detailed review about a particular service or product. You can then use affiliate ads to direct them to the vendor using the affiliate link. Placing affiliate links within irrelevant content is unlikely to produce any positive results.
Be transparent
Always reveal your affiliations. Your honesty will be appreciated and readers will feel better about buying your products. If they sense some dishonesty, they will bypass your link and go straight to the vendor so as to deny you the referral credit. Full disclosure and honesty are vital elements in building a loyal readership.
Do market research
Take time carrying out market research so as to understand the various available options for services or products in the different affiliate programs. Think about which services or products your readers may like or need and are likely to buy. You could try changing the ads frequently. Use different text and graphics and see which works best. It could take a while to get the right formula.
Continually check your affiliate links
If one affiliate program is not generating any money for you, just move to another program within your niche. Realize that affiliate programs are not all similar, and what works today may not work tomorrow. There are various different services, payment schedules and products that you can use. Some affiliate programs offer a lifetime payout, while other limit it for up to 90 days.
Be patient
Finally, remember to be patient. Your affiliate marketing income, if properly researched, will build up and grow over time. Depending on the market you have selected, some programs will offer monthly commissions as long as the customer is alive. If you refer a customer, you could earn income from that particular customer even if he never visits your site again. Don't remove your older affiliate links. As long as the links are active, they can still generate some money.
Charles Mburugu writes for us from his home in Nairobi. He has a graduate degree in Business Management from Kenya Institute of Management. He is interested in writing about branding, CSR and intellectual property.
Share this article
Additional Resources for Entrepreneurs
Conversation Board
We greatly appreciate any advice you can provide on this topic. Please contribute your insights on this topic so others can benefit.