Affiliate marketing is considered as a dirtbag for most people, but when used right, there’s no other income source that can match affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a win/win approach. If you are doing affiliate marketing “strategically”, it’s beneficial both for you as well as your readers. You get commission and your readers get good products to use.
Unfortunately most beginners to affiliate marketing follow blind advice and they end up getting no sales. If you don’t want to be a mediocre affiliate marketer, follow the tips mentioned in this article to increase affiliate sales. The best thing is you don’t have to increase your website traffic to increase your affiliate sales.
Let’s get started!
1. Build trust before selling
“Trust is the new currency online”
Ask any successful affiliate marketer about their #1 secret to grow their affiliate sales, you will get only one answer: building trust. In this skeptical online world, it’s really hard to gain someone’s trust without having prior online reputation.
There’s a huge problem when it comes to affiliate marketing and that is building trust. Trust is the key especially when it comes to online.
People buy from people they know. People don’t buy from strangers.
Imagine you and I are met for the first time in a street and I asked you to buy an affiliate product from my website. What would you do? You’ll end up the conversation as soon as you smelled that I’m trying to sell.
You need to build trust to increase your affiliate sales. And building trust is not a rocket science if you follow few simple tips.
- Write in-depth articles. Did you know that most people look for “data based in-depth” articles over short-and-sweet content? In-depth articles not only rank high in the search results but they provide huge value to your audience. Your readers will also recognize you as a thought leader if you post detailed articles on your sites.
- Be authentic and develop a “win/win” approach (always look for ways to get mutual benefits).
- Increase your online reputation by being helpful. People should look at you as a “helpful guy” who provides valuable information.
- Be consistent. No matter how much great content you produce, if you’re not consistent, no one really cares in online world. Being consistent is the real key when it comes to building audience and increasing sales. Stick to a consistent blog posting frequency, always answer your audience queries and use social media to connect with your fans regularly.
2. Write honest product reviews
You should always find better ways to promote your affiliate products to increase their sales. Without promotion, you can’t reach wider audience. And without reaching a large group of people, you can’t make more sales. It’s as simple as that.
When it comes to promotion, one of the best ways to boost your affiliate sales is to write product reviews that are genuine.
People should trust you with your words. Develop a unique writing tone to attract your audience.
Don’t write product reviews just for the sake of increasing your affiliate sales. You should also mention the flaws of the products. It’s always better to promote the products you personally use.
Here are few tips to write genuine product reviews:
- Always focus on benefits rather than features while promoting products through reviews. Tell your audience the need of using products, instead of pitching the features.
- Craft your headlines carefully as 8 out of 10 people decide whether or not to read your reviews by just looking at the headlines.
- Don’t use too many affiliate links while writing product reviews. Use your links in prominent places and if possible use banner ads because they convert really well.
- Always share both pros and cons of using the product reviews you promote. This instantly builds trust and credibility.
3. Create a sales funnel through your email list
Email list is the #1 key to increasing affiliate sales.
YaroStarak, one of the best affiliate marketers says, 75% of all his affiliate incomecomes from his email list. That’s really huge!
Having an email list not only increases your traffic, leads and trust but it also increases your chances of making more affiliate sales.
Building trust becomes easy by having an email list. By sending emails strategically to your subscribers you can dramatically increase your conversions.
Make sure to create a sales funnel for your websites to convert normal website visitors into sales. And that can be only possible if you are building an email list.
Few effective email list building strategies you can implement on your sites to create a sales funnel.
- Offer a freebie to your subscribers.
- Use your signup forms in prominent places to get more visibility.
- Use landing pages as they are less distractive and give more attention to only one call to action i.e. “sign up now!”.
These three articles will help you in building your email list:
- 1+5 Best Email Marketing Software’s To Build Your Blog Audience
- Use GetResponse AutoResponder To get Started with Email Marketing
- Convert Visitors into Email Subscribers using OptinMonster Plugin
4. Using bonuses can sweeten your affiliate offers
One of the easiest ways to convince your readers to buy your affiliate products is to offer incentives.
Offer them something extra when they buy from you.
Always ask yourself this question before promoting your affiliate products: “what’s in it for them if they buy from me”.
If they are getting something extra, they will definitely buy from you. So focus on giving away something for (as a bonus) whenever someone buys from you.
You can offer bonuses like;
- Free eBooks
- Videos
- Plugins you develop or themes you create
- Or anything that adds value to your buyers
Let me give you a real-time example on increasing your affiliate sales by offering bonuses.
Let’s imagine, there are two guys A and B who are selling the same affiliate products. Mr. A is offering a $20 eBook for free to those who are buying Bluehost using his affiliate link while Mr. B is not offering anything like that.
In this case, let’s say you know none of them. Where would you rather buy if you got a chance to sign up for Bluehost? A or B?
Mr. A, right? Because you’re getting a $20 eBook as EXTRA when you buy from Mr. A.
That’s the importance of offering bonuses to increase your affiliate sales.
Important note: Make sure to disclose your affiliate links. Whenever you’re promoting a product, clearly disclose it as an affiliate link. And tell your readers you earn some commission while promoting products on your blogs or websites. Affiliate disclosure not only helps you get rid of legal problems but it also builds instant trust on you.
Final thoughts
As I said earlier in the post, affiliate marketing is a win/win approach. So you need to answer the most important question “what’s in it for them”. If you’re only thinking about increasing your affiliate sales without considering your audience wants and needs, you’re going to fail miserably.
Write genuine product reviews that focus more on benefits rather than features and create curiosity about the products before selling them.
Don’t forget the fact that, making sales from affiliate marketing takes time. Instead of focusing on making $10,000 from next month, focus on making your first 10 affiliate sales. Then, go forward slowly.
Think of affiliate marketing as a slow-and-steady method of making passive income instead of considering it as a “get-rich-quick” scheme. And you’ll be fine!
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