Affiliate links can be a great passive money maker for your blog (or even your business). What takes affiliate commissons from good to great is lots of successive tweaks, tests and some planning ahead.
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This post includes a bunch of easy things you can try today to bump your conversions and commissions from affiliate links. Although they’re great for use with the Lyrical Host affiliate program, they’ll work for others just as well. Remember to check the latest rules of the affiliate program/s you’re using first to make sure these suggestions won’t break them!
01. Create your own unique bonus for people using your link
Provide people with an extra incentive by offering them an extra reward once when they send you proof they purchased using your affiliate link or code. This could be something that is passive for you (for example an exclusive download you’ve created), or something with a high value to the person (e.g. a free call or training), or something generally desirable (e.g. for programs with higher payouts you could offer a gift card).
This idea can be adapted for all types of blog and business niches. For example, if you’re a personal trainer recommending an app, you could create and offer a meal planner or a bonus video of strength exercises. If you run a pet blog, you could offer a short ebook of “10 ways to stop your cat getting bored” or something like that.
For our affiliate program, helping someone with their new blog could be invaluable to them and very rewarding for you, or you could offer a template, tracker, checklist or list of blog post ideas.
02. Change up your social media images and messaging
It sounds really simple – and it is! – but most people post about an affiliate program once or twice and then forget about it, or have the same post scheduled to repeat.
People can get blind to this after a while, so switching up your message and images or video can really help it feel fresh. Plus, it gives you a chance to tailor the messaging and see what resonates with your audience. The better received it is, the more chance you have of converting (and converting higher value orders). Even testing out looking different ways in a selfie could make all the difference (evdience shows that a person looking toward text/a button or a product can convert better).
For some affiliate programs, it may work best to create a loose schedule by season, for example clothing or travel. You could create a bunch of posts and schedule them across a month or three month period so the work’s all done ahead of time.
03. Get personal
You can sell anything you truly believe in. You don’t have to be technically skilled to sell a complex tech product or service (like hosting!), because people are looking to you for a personal recommendation rather than an explanation.
They want to hear a human side – your experiences, your passion for the products and services you love. At the end of the day people are primarily following you and consuming your content because they’re looking for entertainment or advice, and if you’re talking about something you genuinely believe in, you don’t have to worry about feeling awkward or like you’re a salesperson because your passion will naturally come through in your voice. People want to hear what you have to say.
04. Use the seasons to your advantage
Know the peak seasons for what you’re promoting, and plan ahead accordingly. For example, the dead time between Christmas and New Year is great for promoting health and fitness products and services in time for people’s New Year’s resolutions. Whereas having recurring social media posts to promote sunglasses in November isn’t the best move…unless your audience is Southern Hemisphere based, in which case it’s perfect timing.
Digital products and services can be harder to predict in terms of seasonality, especially if you’re not super familiar with the industry and the audience is quite general. Within that, different companies can have different peak times, for example Lyrical Host doesn’t follow the standard web hosting company trends for peak times of year. For that reason, it’s best to check with the affiliate program manager or the company to find out when the best times to promote them are.
05. Create yourself a promo calendar & plan
Once you have a list of when to promote certain products/services, create a list of different tasks you can do (for example, create 3 tweets, 1 Instagram story, 1 email, etc.). Map them out on a calendar, then work back to figure out how much time you need to write and create so you’re all set for the peak promo season.
Slotting these in to your schedule in advance also means it’s easy to spot when you may be intending to send too many posts and emails in a short space of time, or promote things so close together it’s confusing. Once you’ve created one promo schedule, you can tweak it and re-use it for other affiliate programs or seasons.
Tip: The sweet spot for selling anything is the very beginning or end of a month, as that’s when most people’s pay days fall.
06. Send subscribers a reminder
It’s easy to worry that you sound like a broken record and you’re boring your followers, but between algorithms and attention spans, it’s more likely people will miss things than feel they’re seeing them repeatedly (besides, you’ll be mixing up your messaging!)
Don’t assume everyone knows or has seen something because you’ve mentioned it before; we’ve spoken about things all over social media and email before for weeks and still had people pop up last minute saying, “How have I not seen this before?!”
07. Revisit top performers from a new angle
This works especially well if you have a blog post or video but want to keep interest going, or you want to say something fresh as a follow up. It could be in the form of:
- “Where am I now,” six months or one year on – an update of how you’re getting on in a program, membership, service, or what a difference a product has made to you.
- A roundup of your favorites – e.g. specific products on a certain theme, services that work well together online for running your blog or website.
- X (more) tips… – a listicle works great and helps people understand the benefits of what you’re promoting and how they can get the most out of it.
We hope you’ve found some inspiration from our tips! Let us know if you try them out, we’d love to hear about your experiences.
On a side note, have you checked out the Lyrical Host affiliate program? We have no traffic or sales requirements and bloggers, business owners and website owners of all niches are welcome to sign up. It takes just a few minutes, and then you can create customized 10% off hosting discount codes, plus generate links to promote our courses, stock photos, and any other digital products we have for sale at the moment.
I can't believe I'm typing this, but I am just over halfway to having enough money to get my next book professionally edited…and it's all thanks to people who've used my coupon for @lyricalhost 😭
Thank you so much for supporting me and helping my work to grow! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/CVf7kvWsw2
— Holly Pritchard 🏴 (@ha_pritchard) January 28, 2021
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Is posting properly disclosed affiliate links to Pinterest allowed as well?