Top Nine Methods Of Driving Traffic To Your Affiliate Links
In affiliate marketing, the
advertiser has already created the product or service and the affiliate
program, and provided the tools and creatives needed to help market their
offering. The main task for publishers is to generate traffic to these
affiliate offers, which equates to more traffic to the advertiser’s website via
an affiliate link. This ideally leads to more conversions and higher
profits. Therefore, to be able to generate traffic has to be top of the list of
priorities for publishers.
Methods of generating traffic
We’ve explored some of
the most effective ways publishers can generate traffic for their affiliate
offers and are sharing our top nine methods below.
1. Paid online advertising
Advertising is the
mainstay of lead generation. Whether you choose to do paid search, social media
campaigns, remarketing or display advertising, it’s a tried and tested method
to drive traffic to your affiliate links.
One of the advantages
of using paid lead generating techniques is that people who click on your links
are usually high up in the buying cycle, and are therefore ready to purchase.
However, you need to balance the cost of your advertisements with the commission
you receive per sale. If each ad conversion costs $50 and the commission per
sale is $40, it is not worth pursuing this form of lead generation.
2. YouTube
YouTube is the second
biggest search engine on the internet, with approximately three billion views
per day. As such, it is beneficial for you to start your own channel to promote
your offers. Add an interesting video that relates to your offer, then include
a compelling call-to-action that links to your affiliate product. Make sure to
also put your call-to-action link or discount code within the description box,
with a short description of your video. To further utilize your video add an
Overlay, which is a little box that stays on the video throughout with your CTA
on it. You can get started at ads.YouTube.com.
Don’t restrict
yourself to Youtube as there are other video channels like Vimeo that can be
used to good effect. However, one of the disadvantages of video promotion is it
does take time and effort to produce good content that is going to attract a
loyal audience. On the plus side, great videos have the potential to go viral
and can escalate very quickly to hundreds of thousands of viewers.
Additionally, when
promoting affiliate offers on social media remember to follow the compliance
and disclosure guidelines for using affiliate links.
3. Social media
If your audience is
hanging out on social media, then you and your affiliate offers need to be
there too. You can use social media in many ways, including:
·
Participating in
communities with a need for your product. It’s important not to promote but to
build relationships by answering questions and engaging with the community. If
you are helpful, your readers will click on your name to find out more about
you. Make sure your profile links back to your website and your affiliate
offers.
·
Sharing your blog
content with links to your offer, either on your own page or as promoted posts.
·
Running an advertising
campaign, using social media marketing.
You can also use
social media to publish long articles, which link to your offers. Good places
to publish includes platforms such as LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, SlideShare,
and Udemy. Readership of these sites is high, and if
your content is relevant and searchable, it could get you in front of thousands
of new people.
Again, when using
affiliate links on social media, make sure you’re following the compliance
and disclosure guidelines.
4. Blog posts
Blog posts are a great
way to share affiliate links. If you have an active readership your audience
will already be warm to your reviews and advice. Just make sure not to use your
blog posts as sales letters; the content should provide value to the reader and
your affiliate links should sit naturally within the topic. Recipe blogs use
this to good effect. As they discuss the method to follow to create the dish,
recipe blogs describe the tools needed for the job, using affiliate links to
the sales page of the item in question.
Another method of
using your blog posts to promote affiliate links is to answer your readers'
comments and use your affiliate links in the replies. If the product you are
promoting is related to the answer, it doesn’t look like a sales pitch but a
solution to the reader’s problem. Be careful of doing this on other people’s
blogs as it may come across as spam.
If possible, try to
make the content evergreen. Evergreen refers to content that stays relevant for
many years to come, and could include how-to guides, best practices or tips and
tricks. These types of articles are read and referred to over and over again.
Although you may have to refresh them occasionally, the information still
remains relevant. This means you can roll out this content to a new audience
every so often and expose your affiliate links each time you do so.
5. Guest blogging
In addition to
building your brand’s own blog, the technique of guest blogging is a
tried and true method for generating traffic that has stood the test of time.
There are two different aspects to guest blogging:
·
Guest blog on
well-known sites that fit your niche. Offer great and relevant content, and if
accepted onto other blogs it will expose you to a whole new audience. Make sure
your profile and your byline link to your affiliate offers and your website.
Your affiliate marketing content should be related to the guest blog and useful
to the new potential readership.
·
Accept guest bloggers
on your own website. Publish content from other writers and they will share and
link their article, which will, in turn, expose your website (and affiliate
offers) to new audiences.
6. Email Marketing
Email marketing is
still alive and well, with 64% of companies believing
it is the best marketing method they have, with an estimated ROI of 3800%.
Because of this, make sure you don’t overlook it in response to some newer,
more exciting methods.
You first need to
build a list, which you can do through providing a free offer - like sharing a
report, e-book or webinar - and using a form to capture email address (making
sure, if you are marketing in the EU, to comply with GDPR). When
emailing your list you must be careful to provide them with useful, relevant
content. Otherwise, they will quickly unsubscribe.
7. Product reviews
The online audience is
influenced by other people’s views of a product, and will often research for
testimonials and reviews before committing to buy. It’s estimated that 90% of potential buyers will
read online reviews before visiting the website and making a buying decision,
with 88% trusting them as much as they would if a friend recommended a product.
For publishers who
have built up a loyal audience, these statistics are good news. If you write
honest and unbiased reviews about products related to your niche, your audience
will view these reviews as a trustworthy recommendation. When you have a
product or service to promote that is tied to your affiliate marketing efforts,
write a review. If you have chosen to promote the product, it is important that
you believe in it and recommend it because you genuinely want to help your
audience. In this way, you will be able to write a frank and honest review while
still including your affiliate link. The review needs to be positive but honest
and should not turn into a sales letter.
Make sure when using
affiliate links in product reviews to follow the compliance and
disclosure guidelines.
8. Quora
Quora is a questions
site, providing a platform for users to ask whatever they want. Experts then
give guidance and advice on the subject matter. Although direct affiliate links
are not allowed, you can link to a website or a blog post if it provides more
information on the answer you are giving. Make sure the website you send people
to contains content with your affiliate link.
Again, when using
Quora you must genuinely be looking to provide a valid answer and help the
person submitting the question. Good advice will be read and shared, while
answers that are just sales pitches will get a thumbs down.
9. A search engine
optimized website
Your website is the
presenting brand for your affiliate links and needs to be discovered by
consumers interested in your niche. Making your content easy for search engines
to discover your site is important, as it will help rank your site higher up on
searches and drive more organic traffic to your affiliate offers.
Each page should have
a well written meta description, meta title, image alt tags, and H1/H2 tags.
Research the keywords for your niche and affiliate offers, and add a keyword
per page that is relevant to your offers. Ensuring it is in the title and
content as naturally as possible, without keyword stuffing, can also help with
searches. Also work on achieving backlinks by getting your content shared on
social media or other blogs, and include internal and external links within
your own content.
If your chosen subject
is too niche, you may not get the level of traffic you need to convert your
readers into clicks on your affiliate links. Do some research on how many other
people are selling similar products by using the Google search bar. Google will
instantly tell you how many results they have found, and can help inform the
keywords you use to search engine optimize your site.
My final word
What methods you
choose to generate traffic will depend on your offers, your industry, and your
preferences. Many marketers combine a mixture of paid and organic sources.
Whichever methods you prefer to use to generate traffic to your affiliate
offers, consistency is key. Even with paid traffic, the longer you maintain
your campaigns the better they will perform. Keep with it and traffic will come
your way.
Please kindly leave a
comment and let me know which of the above methods seems simple in a good start
to you. Thanks!
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