8 Super Simple Affiliate Marketing Tips for Mum Bloggers
“Many people who get into affiliate marketing do so with the same mindset; making money first, and thinking of their audience second (if they think of them at all!) That's a recipe for disaster, or at least lousy results.” - Pat Flynn
If you’ve been blogging for a while, then I’m sure you’ve heard about Affiliate Marketing and maybe you’re even earning an income from it yourself already…
However, if you’re new to blogging and curious about how to earn money from affiliate marketing, but think it’s too complicated to get started, then this post is for you!
Affiliate Marketing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make money with your blog or website and that’s why I wanted to share my 8 super simple affiliate marketing tips for mum bloggers just getting started…
“This post may contain affiliate links and if you make a purchase using one of my links, I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you”.
1) Write Product Reviews and Tutorials
The first tip I want to give when it comes to affiliate marketing is that of writing reviews and putting together tutorials…
When you want to promote a product, the best way to put it across to your readers is by writing an in-depth review of it.
People want to know how to use something and everything about it before they decide whether it’s right for them to buy!
I did exactly this when I wrote my blog post all about Canva!
I shared a full post complete with video tutorials, showcasing exactly what Canva can do and why I feel all bloggers should have this design tool under their belt.
This is my fave blogging tool by far and you can learn how to use Canva (if you don’t know already)…
When you create product review posts, you’re not just promoting a product and that’s it – you’re giving valuable information to your readers which can help them make an informed decision about whether it’s right to purchase or not!
2) Find Decent and Reputable Affiliate Marketing Programs
With so many affiliate programs out there, it can be hard and overwhelming to find the right ones for you, which fit your blog and niche!
It doesn’t have to be like that though and what I’d advise is this.
Sit down and look at what kinds of things you could promote.
Literally, write a list of all the things you could promote that your readers would really benefit from.
For example, say you’re in the travel niche – what kinds of things would be awesome to recommend to your readers who love to travel?
You could write down things like:
Hotels they could stay in
Travel equipment they’d need such as suitcases, travel bags etc…
Tours they could take
Books they can take to read
This is just scratching the surface with it, and even amongst those few examples, you can already see how many different products you could recommend and earn a commission from as an affiliate.
Once you’ve done this, you can then seek to find programs which offer the products and services you want to promote.
You can type into Google (again using the above example) “reputable affiliate programs for… in this instance, I typed “travel”.
The image above shows you straight away some of the top online affiliate platforms for the travel industry.
I’ve listed some of the best and most reputable affiliate programs for beginners below:
I could go on and on as this list is in no way exhaustive.
You just need to read all about the platform when you check it out, read reviews and get a feel of them.
3) Only promote Necessary Products and ones you've used yourself
It’s very, very easy to get caught up in wanting to promote EVERYTHING, especially when you’re in the mindset of wanting to make money!
But try to only promote necessary products…
Just because there’s so many affiliate programs out there, doesn’t mean you should promote everything under the sun…
What you have to remember is, that it shouldn’t be about how much money you can make off of people, but about the value you can give through your content.
I have a way of looking at it, which I call the cupcake method…
The sponge part of the cupcake is the highly valuable content within your blog posts – the main base you need and then the icing on top of the cupcake is where you sprinkle in your affiliate products and links to top it off…
All of my blog posts have affiliate links within them, but I don’t overpromote or overuse them.
They’re woven into the content naturally and when someone reads my post, if they come across one and click on it, then that’s great!
Another rule I stick to is to only promote things I’ve tried and used myself. This gives me the authority and credibility to speak about the product.
Thinking right now, I don’t think there’s one affiliate link on my blog that’s for something I haven’t used personally.
I’m one of those people that wants to be able to give full details and information on a product, course or service I’ve actually tried and had access to.
That way, if people want to ask me questions about it, I’m able to answer them openly and honestly.
I always freak out at the thought of promoting something I’ve never used as it just feels a bit awkward and wrong. I want to be able to recommend something 100% and wholeheartedly, but that’s just me and how I feel about it.
That being said, there’s tons of different types of blogs that can have all kinds of affiliate promotions on them.
On a travel blog, like I mentioned in the example above, you can probably recommend affiliate products on things you may not have tried yourself if it’s something that’s trending or super popular with travellers…
This is where a program such as Amazon Associates could come in handy.
In the image above, I simply typed “travelling” into Amazon’s search and tons of products came up.
These are just a few of those items:
Collapsible Coffee Filter
Foldable backpack
Travel Planner
Bluetooth Headphones
If you were writing a blog post about “The Top 10 Must-Have Items To Take Travelling Wherever You Go”, these would be fab products to recommend and link to within that post because they are super relevant.
Then, whenever someone clicks those product links and purchases, you’d get a commission.
A lot of Beauty blogs and Food blogs tend to also have a lot of affiliate links to cookware and make-up products of all kinds etc, which the blogger may not necessarily have used themselves!
These kinds of blogs (which fall under the Lifestyle umbrella) do tend to promote a lot more products than other blogs!
4) Promote your Products within your Emails
Another great way to promote affiliate products is through your email list.
This can be done by sending out newsletters with affiliate product recommendations plus, you can even include exclusive deals and coupons that your readers can’t find anywhere else.
This is why I love email marketing because you get to share tons of awesome stuff with them, you wouldn’t share anywhere else.
Your email subscribers are already engaging with you, so they’re much more likely to purchase the things you recommend.
You’ve built trust already and they signed up for something in the first place, so they’re geared up and ready to listen to what you have to say and offer!
TIP: One thing I want to mention here is that you should always check with the affiliate program etc that you’re actually allowed to promote their affiliate links within emails.
You have to be so careful to check all the terms and conditions before adding links to your site.
The last thing you want to do is get into trouble by offering promotions in places you shouldn’t be.
5) Using the Power of Social Media
With Social Media being such a popular place to be, many entrepreneurs and influencers use these social platforms to promote products and services.
There really are tons of ways to utilise social platforms, so that they can work for you and your blog or brand.
Creating shareable content, such as blog posts, reels, stories, infographics, or videos, that includes affiliate products and links, is one way you can harness the power of social media.
You could share affiliate products that are on sale, carry out a giveaway that includes an affiliate product, or create helpful tutorials that use affiliate products.
Engaging with your audience regularly in this way, sharing tips and updates about new affiliate products and promotions can really help you boost your affiliate sales.
Social media can also be used to drive traffic to your affiliate links via targeted advertisements or social media ads. By creating targeted social media posts/ads, you’ll help reach more of your ideal audience.
You can see already how many ways you can make social platforms drive big affiliate sales…
Businesses and brands are actively seeking out people to promote their products on social media.
This means it can be really easy for a brand to come across your account, like what they see and then offer you an opportunity to promote their products if it fits in and resonates with you/them…
Content creators love nothing more than to create and share information about the things they love, so it’s a win, win situation!
You get to promote the products you love while being paid and the brands get to have their name and products out there, reaching as many eyeballs as they can!
Social Media is just great exposure for affiliate marketing because of the sheer volume of people showing up on the platforms, multiple times a day!
This gives dozens of opportunities to get products and services etc seen!
Finally, it’s really important to track and measure the performance of your affiliate marketing efforts on social media in order to understand what’s working and what isn’t…
6) Find Products and Services that offer a FREE Trial
It’s a fact – people love a free trial for something because they get to “try before they buy”…
If a product or service is on the higher end of the price scale, then a free trial is perfect for letting people test it out before they fully go in and commit.
If the products you’re promoting don’t offer a free trial, see if you could offer coupon codes or discounted rates…
Both of these things will encourage more people to buy the products you’re promoting, as people love to feel like they’re getting a good deal!
A lot of the blogging tools I use offer free trials for either 7 or 30 days…
You’ll find a lot of them will do this to keep up with competitors and to make sure they’re offering the best they can for customers.
I find that a lot of the SEO tools (such as Moz) have free trials because most of the time, they’re super expensive.
People want to have a chance to take it for a test drive and see whether it’s actually something they would use and benefit from.
If you are looking to promote a product which doesn’t offer a free trial and you feel it would be beneficial, you could always reach out to the creator and see if it’s something they would do…
7) Always include the "cons" as well as the "pros" of a product
Everyone wants to know all the great things about a product you’re promoting and what it can do, but you also need to be sharing the downsides of the product as well.
This is just as important to help people make a true and informed decision, plus people will know that you’re not just trying to make a quick sale!
Letting people know what’s not that great about a product or service will help build trust and credibility with your readers.
Just because you’re sharing something “not so great” doesn’t mean people won’t still go ahead and buy! It’s about giving ALL the information you can so that they have the full picture to make their choice.
When you’re promoting or reviewing any product, make sure you’re totally honest about what you like and don’t like about it.
Your readers will appreciate your honesty more – that’s for sure.
8) Be Transparent about Affiliate Marketing
It’s important to be upfront and honest with your readers about affiliate marketing, which means letting them know that you make a commission off of affiliate sales, including those links within your blog posts and videos.
By being transparent, you can build trust with your readers and help them feel more confident about making purchases through your affiliate links.
On every post and page where you have affiliate links placed, you have to tell your readers they are there, within those actual posts and pages.
I have my affiliate disclaimers all over – on every single post, on the relevant pages and also within my emails that go out to my email list subscribers!
You have to make sure people are aware that when they click on a link and purchase something, you’re getting a cut of that cost!
It’s that simple and easy.
Let’s wrap it up!
So there you have it – 8 simple affiliate marketing tips you can take action on and make more sales…
Hopefully, you found one or two that you can put into action straight away and start seeing results.
Just to recap on them:
Write Product Reviews and Tutorials
Find decent & reputable Affiliate Marketing Programs
Only promote necessary products and ones you’ve used yourself
Promote your products within your Email Marketing
Use the power of Social Media to promote
Offer a FREE Trial on affiliate products if you can
Always include the “cons” as well as the “pros” of a product
Be Transparent about affiliate marketing
Just remember to focus on creating high-quality content which is helpful and provides value to your readers. If you do this, with affiliate links sprinkled into the mix, you should start seeing more sales…
