Hard truth: If you waited for the perfect economy, you’d never start or do anything meaningful in your life.
We’re not just talking business and blogging but anything – starting or growing a family, moving house, following a dream.
There’s always something going on – or rumored to be happening soon – with all economies at all times. The best thing to do is just block out the noise and carry on with what you’re doing – especially for something like affiliate marketing, where you have nothing to lose. The only other option is to do nothing, ever.
However, when people are feeling particularly sensitive to or have heightened concern about economic conditions, accommodating and adjusting for that can give you better results than you’d otherwise get.
How To Win At Affiliate Marketing In The Current Economy Share on XRemember:
You can help save people money on things they need.
Time has a value as well as money. For example, for many people who aren’t super great or confident with tech, it can be a false economy to switch to a web host where you’re basically left to figure everything out on your own. If you’re spending time researching solutions, breaking your website or email with AI’s suggestions, hiring people to fix things, or spending hours on the phone being fruitlessly passed around, it takes you away from other things you could be doing (whether that’s making money, helping people, or taking a well-deserved break).
You’re leaving people to make their own free choice about whether something is right for them or not using the information you’ve provided. You’re not pestering them personally, you’re sharing something you genuinely recommend on your own platform.
What you recommend could genuinely be life changing for someone, whether it’s setting them off on a path they’d never considered before, or giving them the hope or confidence they need.
What to recommend in a weaker economy
01. Things that save people money (or time)
Context is everything. In a weaker economy, people are less likely to be buying luxury products and services and may even be resentful of people sharing them. If this is your normal route for affiliate marketing, it may be time to focus on sale prices and value if you’re still continuing down the luxury route.
Helping people save money works well in every economy. This is especially true when people may not even be aware of how much they could save. For example, if they’re paying for web hosting but also hiring people to fix tech issues or do things like set up redirects, they could save three or four figures a year by switching to us as full tech support is included. If they’re with web hosts where they had an introductory offer on their hosting or domain names, especially if they’ve now been with them a long time, it’s likely that switching to us will save them a good amount of money.
People also undervalue their time or forget that they should be attributing a cost to it. If they’re trying to figure out tech problems on their own for hours that one of our support team could fix for them in five minutes, that’s valuable time taken from something else – whether that’s an income-producing activity, spending time with loved ones, or recharging for mental health.
02. Things that help people make money/invest in themselves
If you’re promoting Lyrical Host, it’s helping someone invest in themselves through creating their own blog or business. Even if they don’t directly sell or earn through their website, the variety of skills they’ll learn along the way opens up a whole range of different digital jobs and helps them figure out what they’re passionate about without any pressure.
It’s one of the lowest barrier ways to make money online on your own terms, and the possibilities for what you can create a website about are endless. From passive income through ads and affiliate commission, to building a service- or product-based business, to renting out your website, to simply starting with your passion and seeing where it leads, there are lots of options. As an affiliate, you may want to check out the monetization downloads in our customer resource library – along with our PDF on using your blogging skills to make money – to give you targeted content inspiration for posts, email series, and even courses.
If they’re selling products from their website (digital or physical), they keep more of the profit compared to platform services charging for listings and advertising or taking commission. If they already have a business on a selling platform, boosting their income (and security) by switching to a self-hosted website could also be an advantage; point them to How To Transition From Etsy To Your Own Website for more on that.
Having your own website also adds an extra layer of security, whatever its purpose. You always have full control over the look and messaging, and you aren’t limited to what social media sites want you to do. A side hustle means you don’t have to stretch your main income as far when prices are rising. A hobby or portfolio website looks impressive and helps you stand out in a competitive job market. A freelance website means you’re ready to start promoting if you’re made redundant. A blog or business website – or even just the content – can often be rented out or sold on, and a good domain name is always an asset. Many buyers will purchase just for backlinks alone, it doesn’t have to be a high traffic or large website.
03. Things that solve a problem
Price a tube of toothpaste at $15 and people will think it’s expensive.
Add “whitening” to the label and people will think it’s worth the money.
People are happy to pay more to solve a problem.
People also love to pay once for multiple benefits. If it means only having to buy one product/service, shop at one store, and deal with fewer companies, it’s a win.
When you’re thinking about your affiliate content, double check that when you’re highlighting the features and benefits, you’re explaining how they harmonize together for even more value/convenience/problem-solving.
For example, as a Lyrical Host affiliate, it’s worth mentioning that we do free digital downloads monthly – something no other host does. We also include full WordPress support as standard, including fixing errors and conflicts, setting up redirects, and switching domain names for customers who want to rebrand. We also use data centers all around the world, so your site isn’t just tied to being fast in one location – it’s fast regardless of where you or your visitors are at any moment in time.
And, if people are paying for things like caching, security, and backup plugins, they can save money by switching to us where those features are included for free.
What makes affiliates successful in an economic downturn?
01. First off, showing up. It sounds obvious, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Very few people are consistent – it’s hard to maintain! A low-brain away around it is to use an evergreen social media scheduler to automatically reshare your affiliate posts and messaging. Many of them allow you to enter different wording variations so you’re not always posting the same thing, and you can mix it in with your other content so you’re not just sharing affiliate/ad posts.
Add affiliate promotion tasks to your to do list on a regular basis. These could be anything from updating content to sending an email to your list. You may not hit every task every time, but sometimes is better than zero times.
02. Always explain why you recommend someone/something. Your genuine reasons and passion for your recommendation are far more powerful than a sole name drop. For example, “I use Lyrical Host” – or even “I recommend Lyrical Host” creates a very different impression to this:
“I love my website, finally!! I struggled so much with my website when I was with other companies. I’d contact support when I had trouble and they’d send me to article after article to fix things myself and I often made things worse. I’m so glad I switched to Lyrical Host. They treat me like I’m important, not a burden, and their support team are all the kindest people. I never thought I’d feel this confident with my WordPress site, ever. 💛”
(one of our reviews from the lovely Jody).
If you know what someone is looking for, what they’re struggling with, or what’s important to them, you can focus on responding directly to that (as opposed to saying something generic or trying to cover too much). For example, Jody’s testimonial would be ideal for someone looking for a new host because they’re not super techy and are looking for more hands on support.
03. Doomscrolling can make you money – if you make it productive.
Keep an eye out (or search for) people on social media actively looking for WordPress hosting recommendations. It’s not salesy – they’re literally asking you! Threads and X can be good for this. And it’s always a bonus if you have an existing follower or friend looking for opinions; the social proof is already there and they’re more likely to trust your advice.
04. Always be ready to recommend. Thinking “I’ll come back to it later” is the downfall – you’ll never come back to it later. (We’re back round to missing 100% of the shots you don’t take).
Affiliate marketing is a numbers game. The more people you reach, the more success you’ll see. This can be a mix of your own audience, finding people on social media asking for recommendations, collaborations and piggybacking on other people’s audiences, and more. Online, you can see questions, requests and grumbles come up in an endless stream – and you can be ready with a proactive solution.
Have text snippets and images saved on your phone – including your affiliate discount code. Slightly longer comments and images are more attention grabbing in a list of short text comments – your image can be as direct or as subtle/interesting as you like. For example, you could have an image that focuses on your affiliate discount code (don’t forget to add good ALT text when sharing!) and one that’s a grid of stock photos or thumbnails.
If you’re a fan of AI tools, have one rewrite your initial comment in different ways and focusing on different key messages so you’re not posting the same thing repeatedly but it’s still you.
05. Match the person to the product/service. If someone just wants a super quick and simple set-and-forget website for a business idea they’re testing out and they’re not actually interested in learning how to build a website themselves, WordPress may not be the right fit for them. They can take a look here if they’re not sure: Is WordPress Right For Me?
This applies to everything – part of being a successful and ethical affiliate is recognizing when a product or service may not be the right fit for someone.
06. Choose affiliate programs wisely. Consider which affiliate programs work best for your situation. For example, if you have a tiny audience, then earning pennies per sale from Amazon’s affiliate program may not be the best use of your time and effort. However, the Lyrical Host affiliate program nets you $X-Y (or equivalent currency) per sale, so even having just a couple of people sign up is worth it.
Review your existing content
This is essential as not only do you want to make sure your links and codes still work and the information you’re providing is still accurate, but you want to make sure it’s suited to a more hesitant economy (i.e. using the tips above to ensure you’re promoting things that make sense and positioning them in a way that acknowledges the current times and stacks the advantages).
If you need to do a deeper tidy up and review of all your affiliate content, check out the in-depth Affiliate Cleanup Checklist in our customer resource library.
In the meantime, here are some quickstart tips for updating older content:
01. Create a spreadsheet of your affiliate posts. Mark which are evergreen and which will need updating every so often.
02. Look at your analytics – in particular, review content that gets views and clicks but not conversions. Are links and codes easy to find? Are there any distractions on the page? Are you trying to promote too many things and people are indecisive? Do you have ads on the page that people are clicking instead (and earning you less)? Where possible, create different discount codes to track what’s getting the most views and conversions.
03. Review content for messaging – is it appropriate to the current times, and does it make sense at a time where people may be more proactively looking for the most value for money? Are you still using affiliate discount codes that say 2024 or have another kind of outdated reference in them? Although they will still work, many people won’t bother to try them in the first place.
Final tips
Don’t give up before you’ve started. You can always find someone who thinks what you’re doing is a waste of time or a bad idea. You can do nothing (like them), or you can do something and learn from it. Any kind of action always beats no action, even if the gains aren’t immediate.
Keeping a flywheel going is more effective than stop-starting, so even if you’re seeing less success in a downturn, it’s better to not quit altogether. Instead, change your expectations and remember that it’s a temporary situation. Think about what you can try that’s new – whether it’s a change to your content, or where/how you promote.
A quieter period can be an advantage; if there are fewer people promoting, there’s not as much competition. And if you’re choosing your affiliate programs carefully and positioning products/services in a way that makes sense in the current economy, you can really make a difference to how people see things and help them benefit from a new lease of life.
Pin for later:
No Comments