Let's talk about affiliates! What does that mean exactly? An affiliate is someone who promotes a product or service but gets paid by another company in exchange for doing so. So if you've ever been asked to "promote something" on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google AdWords, etc., then chances are it was an attempt at getting your attention using an affiliate relationship. You're probably thinking, "I don't know anything about this stuff!" Well, let me tell you, there's more than one way to skin a cat.
The most common form of internet advertising is through affiliate programs. These days, anyone with even a little bit of tech savvy knows that you can take some pictures and post them online (or anywhere else) and generate massive amounts of traffic from people looking for similar things as you did. The best part is that you don't need a huge budget like traditional media outlets have to pay for ads. All you really need is to find products that people want to buy and then create a page where these products are talked about. That's all it takes. People will naturally click on your site or follow you around to learn more about whatever it is you're promoting, and when they do, they'll be directed to purchase those items. This is known as affiliate marketing.
So why should we care about affiliate marketing? Because it doesn't cost us any money to advertise our own products, which means it allows us to sell without having to spend a dime on inventory. We just put up a few pages with information about our products and watch the sales roll in. It sounds too good to be true, right? Well, yes and no. There are many ways to go about making an affiliate link (or simply referred to as an affiliate), and each has its pros and cons. Let's break down the basics below before moving into how to set yourself apart from other affiliates.
You might already see a lot of different methods to creating an affiliate link, so here goes. First off, you might notice that most of these methods require that you sign up for a certain platform first. If you haven't created an account yet, don't worry because you can still benefit from this article regardless. Just keep reading until the end.
There are two main types of sites that allow you to create an affiliate link: ClickBank and Shopify. Both offer their own advantages and disadvantages depending on whether you prefer to build an e-commerce store or run a digital storefront. For instance, Shopify offers much better payment options than ClickBank while ClickBank lets you reach millions of buyers worldwide with ease. However, both platforms provide the same amount of tools to help you market your business effectively, so either choice is viable.
With Clickbank, you can easily add products to your shopping cart through a simple URL redirect. Each time someone buys your item, you earn commission based upon the price of the product. With Shopify, however, you must upload images for every single product listed on your website. Once uploaded, you can embed these images within your posts and receive commissions accordingly.
If you'd rather not deal with uploading photos manually, you may also consider adding a third party app called Wix Shopify Apps. While the process isn't quite as easy as with ClickBank, you can still automatically update your listings and add new ones whenever necessary. Plus, Wix provides a free plan that gives you access to over 100 apps, meaning you won't incur any charges beyond the standard monthly fee.
Once you have your affiliate link ready, there's only one last step left - sharing it everywhere. Here are some examples of places you can share your affiliate link:
1. Social Media Channels
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat...the list goes on. As long as your audience has accounts on these networks, you can send out your affiliate link to them via messages, shares, likes, follows, reshare, etc. This method works well for smaller audiences since it requires minimal effort and costs nothing extra.
2. Email Marketing Campaigns
Email campaigns are great for reaching large numbers of customers quickly. They're typically cheap and effective, especially if you choose to include your affiliate link directly in the subject line. Many email providers give you a ton of flexibility when it comes to designing emails, giving you endless opportunities to add your affiliate link wherever possible.
3. Blog Posts/Videos
Blogging and video creation are excellent ways to drive traffic to your site. Since blogging involves writing content regularly and posting it to a blog, you can always add your affiliate link somewhere relevant. Likewise, videos are very popular nowadays, so you could easily insert your affiliate link into one of your clips to increase your exposure.
4. Website Content
Another option for driving traffic would be to place your affiliate link inside of existing articles on your website. When readers read an interesting piece of content, odds are they'll look forward to seeing more related info. By inserting your affiliate link in a natural spot, you can bring additional visitors to your site.
5. Podcasting & Video Conferencing
Podcasting and video conferencing services such as Zoom, Skype, GoToMeeting, WebEx, etc. are ideal for hosting virtual events, seminars, webinars, live Q&A sessions, interviews, etc. To ensure maximum exposure, you can embed your affiliate link into audio recordings and/or presentations. Doing so ensures that viewers will hear your message repeatedly throughout various episodes.
6. Referral Programs
Referring others to your affiliate link may seem counterintuitive at first glance, but there are plenty of reasons why this tactic makes sense. One reason is that referral programs reward you handsomely for spreading word about your brand. Another is that you can collect valuable data pertaining to customer behavior and habits. In short, referrals are a proven strategy for increasing traffic and revenue.
7. Banner Ads
Banner ads are extremely useful for attracting potential customers to your site. Not only do banner ads appear on top of major search engines' results pages, but they can also show up on social media channels, blogs, newsletters, etc. Depending on the size of your campaign, banners can range between $50-$300 per day. This type of ad placement is perfect for generating leads and building trust among prospective clients.
8. Product Reviews
Product reviews are helpful because they encourage consumers to leave feedback regarding specific brands. This helps establish credibility and encourages other users to visit your site to learn more about your niche.
9. Freebies
Freebies are often shared by influencers and bloggers alike. If you're able to produce quality material that appeals to your target demographic, you stand a chance of receiving positive feedback in return. This is especially true if you offer a gift, coupon code, discount, or special deal.
10. Sponsored Post
Sponsored posts are usually reserved for industry leaders and companies with high-end products. Although most sponsored posts don't result in direct commissions, they can boost your visibility significantly. After all, wouldn't you be willing to write a review or feature a particular product in order to attract more attention?
11. Trade Shows
Trade shows are highly sought after by entrepreneurs due to their ability to connect businesses with potential partners, investors, sponsors, and employees. They can also lead to increased traffic and sales. Some trade shows charge registration fees ranging from $100-$500, while others are completely free.
12. Online Forums
Online forums are terrific resources for gaining insight and advice from fellow members. Users are typically interested in topics relating to their hobbies, interests, careers, etc. Thus, if you join an active forum community, you can potentially gain a significant following in return. Of course, you'll have to participate actively in order to grow your reputation.
13. Press Releases
Press releases are essentially news stories designed to inform journalists about upcoming developments. News organizations sometimes publish press releases in hopes of drawing publicity for themselves. If done properly, the story becomes public knowledge, thus helping your brand gain recognition.
14. Events
Not everyone agrees on the merits of holding physical events. Nevertheless, there are times when they prove beneficial. For instance, conferences and workshops held offline tend to draw larger crowds than regular meetings hosted online. Regardless of location, you can always leverage event planning software to organize everything from ticket distribution to venue selection.
15. Contests
Contests are an exciting way to engage with current and future customers. Whether you conduct contests internally or externally, prizes are almost guaranteed to grab the attention of participants. In fact, giveaways are considered to be one of the best forms of promotion.
16. Paid Traffic
Traffic exchanges aren't necessarily bad, provided you treat them responsibly and in moderation. On the contrary, targeted traffic is essential for boosting conversions. If you have enough cash flow, you can hire professional marketers to generate qualified leads for your site.
17. Article Writing Services
Writing articles is a fantastic way to showcase expertise in a given field. Even though guest writers may charge higher rates, it can ultimately save you tons of time and energy. Furthermore, you can always ask former colleagues for recommendations when hiring freelance writers.
An affiliate link is one of those terms that seems easy to understand at first but actually means something totally different when it's explained properly. It's like trying to describe "the internet" or even just "a computer". If someone asks you to explain in detail what an affiliate link is, your brain will probably shut down right there - because most people don't know exactly what it is!
In this article we'll be discussing some important questions about affiliate links and their benefits as well as showing you how to create and insert them into your site if needed. We also have our own little guide below which explains everything in plain English so you can learn more without having to go through pages upon pages of confusing technical jargon.
If you'd rather skip straight to the examples then click here. Otherwise read on...
A hyperlinked text link (or simply called a link) has two parts: The main part which contains the actual URL with the keyword you want to rank for (e.g. /shop/shoes) and another smaller part which says where it should take you once clicked (e.g. www.mysite.com). This second part could be anything from 'Shop' to 'About Us'. You may also see these referred to as anchor texts in Google Analytics reports.
To create a hyperlinked text link in HTML, open up any page on your web host and look for the following code:
This will appear somewhere inside your webpage header (usually under the title tag), usually towards the top left hand corner of the screen. Once found, copy & paste the full address including http://www.yourdomain.co.uk onto your clipboard. Now open up Notepad++ (which is free software available to download from the official website) and select all the content within the above mentioned heading element by clicking CTRL + A and hitting enter. Then hit CTRL + C and CTRL + V to copy and paste the copied data back into your browser window. When finished, save the file as index.html.
There are also ways to embed the hyperlinks directly into the body of the document using CSS stylesheets. There's no need to worry about copying and pasting though as CSS style sheets are easier to manage than editing raw HTML files. So after saving the above mentioned new index.html file as style.css, navigate to File | New Document and search for style.css again. Click Open and choose the newly created.CSS file. Next, find the line starting with @import url("http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans") { and replace the entire thing with only the following bit:
Now just save and close the file and reload your webpage. After refreshing the page, you should notice that every time you visit the same domain name, you're taken to a specific location depending on where you've previously been directed from the original source. For instance, if you were directed to shop.mywebsite.com via the previous example, you would end up going to shop.ourwebsite.com instead. As long as you keep doing this, each time you visit the same domain, you'll be automatically redirected to a certain place and therefore achieve higher rankings.
Note: Make sure to test out your redirections before putting them live! Don't forget to change your default homepage settings too otherwise you might accidentally direct everyone else away from your site!
You can also set up multiple locations within your site using 301 redirects. Just remember to check your server logs regularly to ensure nothing goes wrong during the process.
When creating a hyperlinked text link, you must include the word "affiliate", followed by either "clickbank", "amazon", "cj", "shareasale", "ebay partner network inc.", "razuko advertising" or whichever particular affiliate program you wish to promote. These programs allow affiliates to earn money by promoting products sold by third parties. They generally provide a list of websites where users can browse and purchase items. To see whether you qualify, contact the relevant company.
For example, let's say you wanted to advertise the product "Shoe Repair Kit #1" offered by Amazon. Instead of typing the whole URL manually each time (i.e. amazon.com/dp/B00J5ZM8YQ) you can type the following:
It doesn't matter what order you put them in, although the best practice is to put the affiliate link last and the rest of the information (name, price etc.) next to it. Doing this ensures visitors always stay on the same landing page regardless of which option they chose to buy.
The reason why you put the affiliate link at the very end is because you want the visitor to come across the advertisement first, not the affiliate link itself. This way you hope to encourage them to click through to your site and hopefully sign-up for your newsletter or whatever other offer you may have.
As with normal links, you can also create your own custom affiliate links to display anywhere on your website. Simply input your desired destination URL (for example, /products/) and follow the exact procedure outlined above.
One final note: Always make sure that you remove the affiliate link from the URL whenever possible. In fact, you shouldn't ever leave it on unless you are 100% confident that the customer will definitely click through. And even then, try to avoid leaving it on forever. People tend to become less inclined to spend money over time and eventually stop buying from you altogether.
So far we've discussed adding affiliate links to your website as opposed to linking to an external website. But what happens if you already have an existing website? Well, if your business sells physical goods such as clothes, books, electronics, jewellery etc., you can easily integrate an affiliate program into your own store. All you need to do is install a shopping cart plugin (such as WooCommerce) and enable paypal checkout. From there, you can start selling products and offering special offers through affiliate links.
If you sell digital downloads however (music, ebooks, video courses etc.), things aren't quite so simple. What you really need is an online storefront platform (like Shopify) and a payment gateway service (like Paypal). Using these tools, you can effectively turn your website into an online marketplace, allowing you to sell both physical and digital goods.
Once these services have been installed, you can create an account and begin uploading your products. At this point, you can decide whether or not to charge customers for shipping costs. Alternatively, you can opt to give buyers discounts for paying upfront. Either way, you can then assign unique URLs to each item and associate these with affiliate links.
Simply put, an affiliate link takes you off of the original merchant's website while a regular link does not. However, this isn't necessarily true since many merchants still give you the opportunity to link to their website from within your own blog post.
Some businesses require you to register with them and receive a tracking number in order to track sales and commissions. Others allow you to send traffic directly to their website via social media platforms such as Facebook & Twitter. Some companies even offer affiliate programs where you can join a mailing list and refer others to their site who subsequently purchase merchandise. Whichever route you choose, it's always worth checking out the competition beforehand to determine what kind of returns you can expect.
But ultimately, the decision is yours alone. Do you prefer to remain anonymous? Or would you prefer to build brand recognition? Maybe you're looking to increase conversions by attracting targeted traffic? Whatever your reasons, affiliate links can help you reach your goals quicker and better than traditional methods.
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Affiliate links are a great way of promoting your business online. They allow people to click through from wherever they're browsing in order to make purchases with you. When someone clicks that link, it's usually then directed back to their chosen retailer or merchant - so if you have a good one, this could be very lucrative!
However, many businesses don't realise just how important these links are - which means they miss out on potential sales opportunities. In fact, according to research by Clickbank [Broken Link Removed], only around 30% of affiliates actually include them when creating content. This is despite the fact that they would almost certainly increase conversions. It may seem like a small percentage, but when you consider there are millions of websites worldwide, and even more bloggers writing articles every day, it really adds up over time!
So, here we'll look at some ways in which you can promote yourself using affiliate links. We will also explore whether or not you should be including them in all your posts. And finally, as well as looking at different types of site, we will take a closer look at Instagram and Pinterest - two social networks where many brands are already getting involved with affiliate programs.
When you create any post on your blog or website, you must always provide a clear call-to-action (CTA) button. The CTA can either direct visitors away from your page towards another part of your site, or to a landing page. You should aim to keep everything on your website free of clutter - especially CTA buttons - so that readers' attention stays focused on your content.
If you want to encourage users to buy something, however, then you need to give them somewhere to go. To achieve this, you simply need to add a CTA directly below your article, linking to whatever product or service you are selling. For instance, let's say you write about "how to grow tomatoes". Then underneath this, you put a simple line saying "Buy Tomatoes Now" and link down to a page telling people how to grow tomatoes. So, when someone reads this piece of content, they can purchase your products via your own ecommerce store or third party platform such as Amazon.
There are several options available when choosing where to host your CTA, depending upon your preference. If you prefer to stick with WordPress, for example, you could choose between Jetpack, Yoast SEO Plugin, AllInOneSEO Pack, or Google Analytics. Alternatively, if you've got coding knowledge, you might opt for HTML embedding. But whichever option you decide upon, make sure to follow the correct steps outlined previously.
As mentioned above, you can easily insert an Amazon CTA onto your web pages using WordPress. However, there are other platforms too, such as Blogger, Wix, Squarespace, and Tumblr. Each provides its own method of adding CTAs, although most require you to install plugins first. Once installed, each will automatically generate a code snippet whenever you publish a new blog post. Simply copy and paste the code into place.
The best thing about doing this is that you won't need to worry about creating a separate landing page. Instead, anyone who visits the post will see the same CTA immediately underneath the title. Plus, because it's built right into the text box, nobody else needs to know that the link exists!
You can find a full list of affiliate networks on our guide to affiliate marketers.
This isn't quite as straightforward as inserting CTA buttons into your posts. After all, you're still trying to attract traffic to your site. Therefore, instead of creating a whole brand new section dedicated solely to promoting your products, you need to integrate those links seamlessly into existing posts.
To start off, head to the source page of your desired product and search for the anchor tag containing the URL. Copy this URL, open Notepad++ or TextWrangler and select Replace tab. Paste the copied string within quotation marks, replacing the entire phrase with a single space. Finally, press OK and save the file to ensure changes were applied successfully.
Now that you've replaced the original URL with your affiliate link, you can safely delete the old one. As long as you replace it with a working link, no one will ever notice!
Yes, absolutely. This is why it's crucial to include them as often as possible across your various publications.
For instance, if you'd rather not type out individual URLs for each post, you could set up automated emails. These days, email services like MailChimp offer plenty of templates for you to fill in. Just select the template you wish to use and edit it accordingly. Next, enter the relevant information into the fields provided.
Once complete, send the message to your subscribers or followers using Sendible. Thereafter, they will receive a notification with your affiliate link embedded inside. From here, they can visit your site straightaway and buy the item featured. Of course, if you're looking for further help with setting up an effective auto-responder system, check out our guide to autoresponders.
If you'd rather not spend money on software, there are lots of affordable alternatives. One popular choice is GetResponse, which offers both desktop and mobile applications. Another alternative is HubSpot, which has recently announced integration with Facebook Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, Skype, Telegram, WhatsApp, and others... meaning it's easier than ever before to build automatic responses into your workflow.
Finally, remember that in addition to the main email address associated with your account, you should also be sending messages to listservs, newsletters, forums, and group chats. This allows you to reach audiences beyond your usual contacts.
Do you think you should be including affiliate links in all your posts? Or do you feel that it's better to leave them out altogether? Let us know in the comments below.
Affiliate Links
An affiliate link allows customers to purchase products on another site.
An affiliate link is a hyperlink which takes visitors away from your own site.
You receive commission when users buy items via your affiliate link.
This means that you will earn money whenever somebody uses your affiliate link to buy something else.
The Basics Of An Affiliate Link
There are several different ways in which affiliates can generate revenue using affiliate links:
A percentage of sales (usually between 1-10%)
Commission based on a fixed fee per sale (usually $0-$50)
A percentage of commission paid out by the seller
Payment based on performance
You'll also find various other types of affiliate links including:
Links within emails sent by email marketing services such as MailChimp, ConstantContact etc.
Linked directly from social media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc.
Links embedded in blog posts written by bloggers who've used your product/service
Links embedded in press releases distributed by PR agencies
Links inserted into web pages created by web designers who want to promote a particular service
Links included in newsletters issued by companies looking to sell more products
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.