The Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Guide for Bloggers
This post was updated on December 17, 2022.
This post contains affiliate links. This does not cost you anything extra and it helps support this blog. For more information, please read my disclaimer.
When I started writing about my travels ten years ago, I had no idea that you could make money blogging - let alone the concept of affiliate marketing.
And I have a feeling a lot of other bloggers (yes, you) are in the same boat.
Maybe you’ve added some affiliate links on your blog but you haven’t made any sales. Or maybe you’ve signed up for a few programs but don’t know what to write.
Maybe you’re too overwhelmed to start?
Whatever your situation, I get it. Affiliate marketing can seem confusing. But trust me, it doesn’t have to be.
I went from knowing nothing about affiliate marketing, to making over $3,400 of affiliate income in my first six months of blogging. Although it wasn’t easy. I spent a lot of time researching and testing out different affiliate marketing strategies for bloggers.
Lucky for you, I’m here to share my findings.Sit back, relax and scroll on down to get your affiliate marketing learn on!
What is affiliate marketing?
Let’s start with the basic fundamentals.
For bloggers, affiliate marketing basically means that you are promoting products and services for another company. You’ll receive an affiliate link from said company and if someone purchases a product or service through your link, you receive a commission. The amount of the commission varies depending on the company.
Still with me? Here’s an example:
You’re a travel blogger who is writing a post about things to do in Paris and you want to include a link to your favorite hotel. You find and sign up for their affiliate program online (more on this later) and get your personalized link. You add the link to your blog post, get a couple of clicks, and OMG – someone just booked a stay at the hotel.
As a thank you for referring someone to the hotel, they send you a 10% commission on the stay. So, if the stay cost $100 for one night, you just earned yourself $10!
What are the benefits of affiliate marketing?
At this point, you might be thinking to yourself: why would I want to make a measly $10?
Because that’s exactly what I thought too.
But, the key to affiliate marketing is that you do the work once (apply for the program, include your link, etc.) and get that commission payout again and again. To further convince you of just how effective affiliate marketing is for bloggers, here are some more benefits:
It’s one of the easiest ways to make money blogging.
There are a lot of different ways to make money blogging. Perhaps one of the most profitable is to create your own product or service - which takes a lot of time and effort. Whereas with affiliate marketing, the product or service has already been created and you’re just sharing it with your audience.
It’s perfect for beginner bloggers.
Affiliate marketing helps you become more comfortable promoting and selling products or services online. It will also help you build trust with your audience and establish your blog as a helpful resource. As your blog continues to grow, people will continue looking to you for helpful recommendations. This will make it easier to continue affiliate marketing or create your own product/service down the line.
The commissions add up.
One of my biggest affiliate marketing tips for bloggers is: don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. What I mean by this is to not rely on just one source of affiliate income. Join multiple programs to bulk up those commissions. It might not seem like you’re making a lot of money when each commission is $1-$10, but those small commissions add up at the end of the month.
Take a look at some of my past income reports as an example.
It’s passive income.
The work you put into your content now will continue to pay off years down the line. Yes, it does take effort to find and apply to affiliate programs, write the content surrounding it and then promote your post. But once that affiliate link is up on your blog, the bulk of your work is done. People will continue to find your content and click those links long after you’ve worked on the post.
How to Set Up Your Blog for Affiliate Marketing
You won’t make any money with affiliate marketing by slapping links on your site and calling it a day. You’ll need to treat your blog like an actual business.
In fact, most affiliate programs will want to see that you are committed to your blog before accepting you into any programs. Here are some things you can do to ensure your blog is set up for affiliate links:
Create a good foundation. Ensure that you have a well-designed site and are using your own domain name. For that, I recommend Squarespace. It’s an all-in-one website builder that includes your domain, hosting, website theme, eCommerce, and more in one place. I switched to Squarespace in 2022 and have been absolutely in love with the platform. If you’re thinking about starting or upgrading your blog, check out my guide on How to Start a Blog in 1 Hour here.
Come up with a traffic & promotion strategy. People need to actually find your blog in order to buy from you. The first step is to come up with an SEO strategy - which is something I discuss in my guide called SEO for Beginners and my post on How to Find Keywords for Blog Posts. You can also find out where your audience hangs out on social media and join them there. I’ve used Facebook groups, Pinterest group boards, and Instagram comment pods in the past.
Write helpful content. You won’t make sales or grow a following by writing sales pitch after sales pitch! Write evergreen content (more on this in a minute) that provides your writers with valuable information. Then, direct them to the resources they need – via your affiliate links!
Include a disclaimer. Keep things legal, people! The FTC requires you to inform your readers if you are being compensated for anything they click on. So, make sure you include a short disclaimer before any affiliate links in your blog posts. Check out this article How to Write a Blog Disclaimer to learn more.
How to Attract the Right Audience
Did you know that there are over 2 million blog posts published every single day?
If want to make money blogging, it is essential that your blog stands out from the crowd. Use your content as an opportunity to attract your audience and leave them with a lasting impression.
There are a few ways you can achieve this:
Speak their language. We naturally feel more connected to people who are similar to us. So, write to your audience the way you would talk to them in real life.
Focus on their needs. I hate to break it to you, but people don’t want to hear all about you and your life. They want to know how you and your blog can help solve a problem they have. Use your content as a way to show readers how you can make their lives easier.
Make your content better than the competition. If your reader is in the market to buy a particular product or service, there’s a good chance that they are reading a lot of similar content to yours. So, if you want your content to stand out from the rest, you need to make it better and more engaging. Add more research and personal experiences to your content.
By combining these three elements, you are going to establish yourself as an invaluable resource and increase your conversion rate. And that is going to put you way ahead of the game.
How to Find Affiliate Programs
For some bloggers, this is the hardest part about getting started with affiliate marketing. You want programs that are both profitable and related to your niche.
Here are just some of the ways you can get started:
Just Google it. Yeah, it’s really that easy. If there’s a company that you love and you think your readers would love too, just Google the company name + affiliate program and see what comes up. If no companies are coming to mind, try doing a Google search for any programs related to your niche by searching something along the lines of “best affiliate programs for travel bloggers”.
Find inspiration from other bloggers. Are there any other bloggers in your niche killing it with their affiliate marketing strategy? Visit their blog and find out what products and services they are promoting. Chances are, you both have a similar audience who are interested in the same things!
Join affiliate networks. These are honestly the BEST way to find and apply for affiliate programs. Networks basically act like middle-men between publishers (that’s you) and actual programs. You can even sort by niche to find programs that suit your site!
Best Affiliate Networks & Programs
To help you get on the right track, I’ve put together a list of some of the most trusted (and my personal favorite) affiliate networks and programs for bloggers.
Shareasale: This is my personal favorite network because of its large selection of blogging-related affiliate programs. In the past, I’ve used Shareasale to promote companies like Namecheap, Studiopress & Tailwind. Keep in mind that the minimum payout is $50.
Awin: Again, there are a ton of great programs on Awin, but I mainly use it to promote sites like Fiverr and Trusted Housesitters. Keep in mind that there is a $5 deposit required in order to sign up.
CJ Affiliate: Although I’m signed up for CJ Affiliate, I don’t actually use it myself as I find the platform to be kind of confusing. Regardless, I think this would be the perfect network for travel bloggers because there are a ton of programs in that niche.
Amazon Associates: Due to the huge variety of products on their site, Amazon is the perfect affiliate program for new bloggers! It’s easy to join and you can earn up to 10% commission on all purchases.
How to Find and Insert Affiliate Links
This is a little hard for me to explain because each affiliate network has a different process for finding or creating affiliate links. Luckily, on most platforms, the process is quite simple.
In Shareasale, Awin, and CJ Affiliate, you can create custom links under the “Links” tab in the menu bar. On Amazon, you can find links under “Product Linking” on your affiliate dashboard or use SiteStripe to get links directly from Amazon listing pages.
Whenever you’re promoting a product or service to your readers, I highly suggest linking them directly to the product page rather than including a general affiliate link to the company homepage. This makes it easier for your readers to find what they’re looking for and in turn, will increase your conversion rates.
Another hot tip: make your links stand out.
You can bold them, underline them, and change their color. On Squarespace, I automatically have all of my links set to purple. This helps your links stand out in the body of text.
Where to Use Affiliate Links
There are several different places for you to actually use and promote your affiliate links. Of course, blog posts are the most obvious. But there are certain types of blog posts that work really well for affiliate marketing.
Here are some examples:
Lists or roundups. Think gift guides, packing lists, and “best of” posts. These are super easy to create and can be written on almost any topic of your choosing.
Reviews. If you personally own or have used the product you’re promoting, write an in-depth review of it! Include lots of pictures or even a video.
Your most popular posts. Revisit your most popular posts from the last few months and add any relevant affiliate links that you have.
If you really want to get serious about affiliate marketing, use your links in more places than just your blog posts. Like email newsletters or on social media. Each platform works a little differently, but here are some ideas to get you started:
Facebook: Create paid ads to promote any special offers.
Twitter: Share referral codes for services you love using/
Instagram: Add links to any products or clothing items that are featured in your photos.
Pinterest: Create pins that link directly to affiliate links!
What are your biggest struggles with affiliate marketing?
Here’s a quick summary of everything we covered in this post:
What is affiliate marketing (and what are the benefits behind it)
How to set up affiliate marketing on your blog
How to attract the right audience
How to find affiliate programs (and a list of the best places to start)
How to find, insert and use affiliate links
Obviously, the world of affiliate marketing totally depends on your specific niche and stage in blogging. Let’s talk about it in the comments. Have you started affiliate marketing yet and if so, what have your results been like?
Don’t stop there! Keep reading more of my blogging tips like:
