7 Tips to Dramatically Increase Your Affiliate Conversions
I honestly believe that creating your own products and/or services to sell on your blog is one of the best ways to generate revenue.
But…. (yes, there is a but)
It isn’t always the best option.
You’re probably thinking that I am crazy right now because I totally just contradicted myself.
Hear me out.
Even though creating your own products, like online courses, can generate higher profits for your business, not everyone has the time or money to invest into creating a product right now.
This post may contain affiliate links.
Raise your hand if you want to be able to earn money to fuel your business, so that you will be able to create your own product…. ME! ME! ME!
Or, raise your hand if you have already created your own product, but need to find another stream of revenue.
This is where affiliate marketing comes into play.
You don’t have to invest a ton of money to get started with affiliate marketing, and you can immediately start promoting an affiliate offer even if you are new to having an online business or blog.
Today, I want to share with you 7 tips to drastically increase your affiliate conversions without feeling sleazy.
Before I do that, I wanted to tell you about the 3 rules of affiliate marketing that I follow to help me increase my conversions.
This will help to lay the groundwork for when you are ready to start earning money as an affiliate partner.
You are probably thinking right now, “Oh, great! There are rules to affiliate marketing?”
Kind of, but not necessarily.
The rules I am about to share with you are my own personal rules for affiliate marketing.
Following these rules has helped me to increase my conversion rates, which has led me to earn five figures every single month.
These are just my personal guidelines.
You do not have to follow them, but they help me to set boundaries and promote affiliate offers without feeling like I am selling my soul.
3 Rules of Affiliate Marketing:
#1 Only recommend products you use
This rule is HUGE.
You never want to promote something on your website just because you think it will make you money.
In order for someone to purchase a product or service that you recommend on your site, they need to know that you genuinely use it and like it.
Don't try to recommend a product that you have never tried. This is a mistake I made, and I see it happening over and over again.
It is one of the reasons that a lot of people actually fail with affiliate marketing.
Your audience trusts your opinion, so don't sell them out to make a quick buck.
#2 Don’t recommend anything that isn’t helpful to your specific audience & niche
This is another mistake that I made.
I would promote anything and everything to my audience.
I thought it would help me to earn more money. I never thought about what my audience would actually want to purchase, or items that could help solve their problems.
You need to promote affiliate offers that your audience is genuinely interested in, not just what you think they want.
If you need help figuring out what to recommend, check out my Affiliate Marketing Beginners Guide.
#3 Don’t just come right out and say BUY NOW
You need to build trust with your readers before telling them to purchase something you recommend.
Show them rather then tell them about it.
This happens by creating valuable content, like a tutorial post, that will show your audience how and why you are recommending the affiliate product.
Now that you know the guidelines that will help you earn money as an affiliate partner, it is time to figure out ways to boost your conversions.
There are so many different ways to promote affiliate products or services. I am going to share with you 7 to help you get started.
7 Ways to Dramatically Increase Your Affiliate Conversions:
#1 Resources Page
I recently told you that my #1 way to increase conversions and make more money as an affiliate partner is by creating a resources page on your blog.
This is one of the best ways to share your top products and items that you absolutely love with your audience, without coming off as a slimy salesperson.
It is also one of the easiest and fastest ways to promote the products you are an affiliate for.
Erika from Olyvia.co refers to her resources page on her social networks and in Facebook groups without coming off as spammy.
Referencing it makes it not only easy for your readers, but easier on you, because you don’t feel like you are just selling your audience.
#2 Promote Pillar Products
I just told you about how important it is to only promote products and services that you genuinely use and have seen positive results from.
To take it a step further, you want to stick to a small amount of products to recommend to your audience. This will help to increase your conversions, because your readers will see that you are only promoting a handful of items because you know they can benefit from them.
Angie from The Work At Home Wife calls these your pillar products. You can increase your revenue when you are able to identify a few must-have resources.
Stick to a small list to increase your monthly affiliate revenue.
#3 Interlinking
The other day I received an email from one of my readers, Elizabeth. She said she had recently became a partner of an affiliate program and started adding her link to a bunch of her blog posts, but was disappointed to see that she hadn’t made any money.
Her question to me was, “How can I write a post that will convert?”
Want to know what my answer was?
Write a tutorial post and then link to it frequently.
One of the best posts you can write to earn money as an affiliate partner is a tutorial, because it shows your readers how you use something, rather than just telling them. You can read more about it in my beginner’s guide.
Here are a few other post ideas:
Reviews
Guides
Resources List
Write a post that shows your before and after results
Gift guides
List posts or roundups
The big picture is to write a post that guides your audience on how and why you use certain tools and resources. Lay it out for them step-by-step.
Again, show them rather then tell them.
Elna from Twins Mommy shares how she tripled her affiliate earnings by writing a mini tutorial, and then linking to that page in other blog posts. Instead of just dropping her referral link into her content, she will send her readers to her tutorial, so that they can see how she uses the specific product she is recommending.
#4 Send an email that focuses on an affiliate offer (you can even get a specific discount code)
Another way to increase your earnings as an affiliate partner is by sending an email to your list that specifically focuses on 1 product or service you recommend.
Not only can you get the product in front of your reader by sending an email, but you can show them exactly why you like it or how you use it.
You can even reach out to the affiliate company and ask them if they would be willing to offer a specific discount code for your audience.
This is something that Abby from Just A Girl And Her Blog did recently, and you can see from her income report that she made over $800 from just one email.
I am on her email list and this is a small blurb about why she loved Money Saving Mom’s Makeover Your Mornings course.
She then took it a step further and offered her list a special coupon code if they purchased the product she was recommending.
This is an awesome way to increase your conversions.
#5 Host a webinar or a JV webinar
Have you ever done a webinar? My friend, Mariah Coz, is the queen of webinars. There are two different ways that you can promote an affiliate product by doing a webinar:
Solo webinar - this is where you can host a webinar that shows your audience exactly how you use a program, a particular software, or any other affiliate product you promote on your website. Mariah shows you how she made $5100 from doing this exact strategy.
Joint Venture Webinar - this is when you team up with someone else in your niche that you are an affiliate for, they teach your audience during a webinar, and then pitch their product at the end. You can see all the different types of JV partnerships laid out on the Teachable blog.
If you are an affiliate of a product, reach out to the blogger or business owner and see if they would be willing to host a webinar for your audience. It is a win-win for both of you!
#6 Create a video
I know a lot of people think that creating a video is a lot of work, but it can pay off. Instead of just writing a post about a product or service you recommend, take it a step further and create a video.
It can be as simple as a short tutorial of how you use it.
I am one of those people who loves to see how something works before I purchase it. I enjoy seeing how I could potentially use the product by getting that behind-the-scenes look of how someone else actually uses it.
Another example is a video that Leslie Samuel created about how he uses Trello to manage his blogging team. He is an affiliate for Trello, and in the video he gives you an inside look at all the different options it has to offer and exactly how he uses it.
Not only is he able to promote an affiliate product, but he is still providing his audience with value, because he is showing them exactly how Trello helps his business.
#7 Create an autoresponder sequence that leads to an affiliate offer
Instead of having the same autoresponder series for new people who signup for your email list, consider creating separate sequences depending on your audience’s interests.
This is an awesome strategy to implement, because you can get the affiliate product in front of your audience several times without being salesy, and it won’t require much more work after it is all setup.
To do this, you’ll need to focus on 1 product.
You don’t want to overwhelm your email subscribers and bombard them with different products and services.
The key is to create an autoresponder based upon their interests.
For example, on my site Frugal Fanatic, I have free Budget Binder printables that my readers can download.
Whenever someone opts-in to get my budget binder, they are automatically added to an email autoresponder sequence that focuses on saving money, and how I use printables.
This directly relates to the content upgrade (my budget binder worksheets), that they signed up for on my site.
Throughout the autoresponder sequence, I promote 1 affiliate product that I know this audience would be interested in.
This helps to increase conversions, because the people who go through this sequence are already interested in certain topics that relate to the affiliate product I am promoting.
I would love to hear about the strategies you use to increase affiliate conversions on your site; please share in the comments!