CHRISTINA GALBATO: One of the best ways to monetize your blog is through affiliate marketing. In this video, I’m going to be giving you the rundown on what affiliate marketing is and why you should be using it, the best affiliate programs to join, and how you can maximize your earning potential using affiliate marketing. [UPBEAT MUSIC] First, let’s get you familiar with what affiliate marketing actually is. Affiliate marketing is when you link to a product on your blog and make a small commission if someone visiting your site clicks the link and buys the product. Having affiliate marketing as part of your monetization strategy is really important for a couple of reasons. First of all, it allows you to create “set it and forget it” income. You set the links up once on a blog post, and as your traffic grows and that blog post is seen more and more, you’ll begin generating more and more income
from people making purchases through that link.
This is what’s known as passive income and what is considered to be the best type of income that you can make in the online space. Second, it’s another stream of income that you can add into your business. It’s incredibly important as a web creator to never rely on just one or even two streams of income. You never want to put all of your eggs in one basket. There are a ton of programs out there, but these are the most popular and most reputable. First, Amazon Associates. Amazon’s affiliate program is absolutely worth signing up for because there are a ton of products on Amazon that you might find yourself promoting or talking about in your blog
content organically, no matter what your niche is.
Amazon Associates pays up to 7% commission on any purchase made after following your link. What is extra cool about Amazon Associates, though, is that the commission is not just given when someone buys the specific product you link to but any product in the next 24 hours after clicking your link. Next, Booking.com. Booking.com is a hotel booking website and it’s a great affiliate program to sign up for if your blog focuses on travel. And the commission rate is high, 25%. The one downfall of Booking.com’s affiliate program is that the cookie duration is not long at all, meaning that if someone does not book directly after clicking on your link, you won’t get commission. Still, if someone has searched Google for a blog post about the best hotels in Mykonos for their upcoming trip, for example, that likely means that they’re ready to book. And the chances they click on that affiliate link on your site and book a stay immediately is pretty high. The next program is rewardStyle, a great affiliate program to sign up for if your
blog covers lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and/or wellness.
They offer between a 5% to 15% commission, and they work with over 4,500 brands. Pretty much any product you recommend or talk about will be on rewardStyle. RewardStyle also owns LIKEtoKNOW.it, which is their mobile platform that allows you to monetize your Instagram. Now, let’s talk about the top five ways to maximize your earning potential using affiliate marketing. First, never forget to place them organically in blog posts. The vast majority of the blog posts you’ll publish on your site will talk about or recommend some kind of product or hotel. So whenever you speak highly about something, go find the proper affiliate link. I know this is a pretty straightforward tip, but it does take a little bit of extra time to find the right affiliate links for the thing that you’re recommending, and so this step shouldn’t be skipped. Second, create roundup blog posts to generate affiliate income. This is a bit different than the first method because it isn’t just placing links where they fit in a blog post. This is really about creating a blog post solely for the purpose of placing affiliate links and generating income and, of course, giving value, but the focus is much
more on revenue generation than it normally would be.
A roundup blog post is usually a list of like 10 to 40 products that you recommend that fit a certain topic or solve a problem. For example, if you’re a travel blogger, a great roundup post might be about the 10 best hotels in Tulum with Booking.com links to those hotels. Thirdly, create seasonal content. Seasonal content is content that is only relevant at specific times of year. For example, this post of mine called “30 Holiday Gifts for Female Entrepreneurs” always sees a spike in traffic and therefore a spike in affiliate income around the holidays. Fourth, if you have a list of email subscribers, don’t forget to drop your affiliate links in your weekly emails to them, for example, if you’re mentioning a trip you went on and linked the dress you wore that everyone was asking you about over on Instagram. Pro tip, I limit the number of affiliate links in one email to a max of one or two per email. The next strategy for placing affiliate links is to create a shop page on your blog. This is a page dedicated to sharing your favorite products that relate to your niche with
every single product linked with an affiliate link.
If you’re a travel blogger and photographer, you could have a shop page dedicated to your favorite photography gear. You could link to this page on your blog’s top menu or on your blog’s sidebar or as a header or footer within your blog. Affiliate marketing is an easy way to set your blog up for success for years to come. So I hope after this video, you’re feeling ready to start using affiliate marketing to monetize your blog. I have lots more videos coming soon that will help you monetize
through brand collaborations, online courses, and more. Bye for now. [UPBEAT MUSIC].
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