As a blogger, it’s common to search for different ways to earn money. Sponsored posts and advertising can generate a decent income, but they may not be consistent. This is why we aim to demonstrate how to promote affiliate marketing without social media.
Therefore, it’s crucial to have diverse sources of income for your blogging business.
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How To Promote Affiliate Marketing Without Social Media
One way of earning a decent amount of money without having to do very much work is through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing generally involves choosing a product or a service (usually related to your blog niche).
Next, creating awareness around the product. So when someone buys the product or uses the service using the affiliate link, you receive a referral commission from it.
Getting to grips with affiliate marketing is pretty straightforward. But if you are a total newcomer to the process, this article will help you look at a few different ways of promoting affiliate marketing without social media on your blog.
Why without social media? Some social media networks do not allow you to promote affiliate products.
You have to be careful when promoting them on social. However, other networks may allow it like YouTube.
Review Posts for Affiliate Marketing
This is probably one of the best ways of promoting affiliate marketing. People naturally turn to the internet when they are looking for reviews of products and services.
So if you have strong, informative posts about whatever you are trying to promote, you are more than likely going to get click-throughs.
These reviews will often convert into purchases. A review post introduces the product or the service to your blog readers. It guides them toward understanding why they should be buying or using it.
Bloggers are increasingly being referred to as ‘influencers’. It is because people are recognizing how their opinions matter and can influence people.
Honest Reviews
When writing a review, you should always make sure that they are honest. It can be tempting when you are trying to promote something through affiliate marketing to only mention the positive points about a product and neglect any issues.
An honest review should include both. You should also add any images, if relevant, and any vital information (price, location, etc.).
It is also a good idea to use a personal tone in review posts, as people have come to your blog looking for personal recommendations.
For example, if you are writing about TubeBuddy, possibly one of the best [YouTube affiliate programs], it is better to say:
‘These are the benefits that I got from using the service’, rather than: ‘These are the benefits people have found from using the service’ – your readers want to know what YOU think.
How-To Articles
These are becoming increasingly popular, and DIY-style articles work particularly well for affiliate product promotion. These do well especially if your product needs instructions for use or technical guidance.
For example, if you are an affiliate for a website hosting company, you could write an article about putting it into place or adding additional domains, with an affiliate link or three to the product or service.
These sorts of tutorial posts are not only good for promoting your links but are also useful for improving your ranking in search engines. If you concentrate on getting your SEO (search engine optimization) right, your post will do well.
Coupon Codes For Affiliate Marketing
Everyone loves saving money, and it can be one of the most significant incentives for customers. Whenever a customer is looking to buy a product and sees a box for coupon codes or voucher codes, there is an excellent chance they will go to a search engine and look for ‘Product name and coupon’.
If you have any of these codes on your blog, and the customer clicks through, you will still receive a commission for the sale. However, it is important to keep in mind that as an affiliate marketer is not just to share the coupon code, but to get them to click through using your link.
If customers don’t do this, the sale will not be counted as yours, and you will not get the commission unless you have been given a unique voucher code by the company that links it back to your blog or website.
Some coupon sites may ask you to click through to see a coupon code. This is quite a canny way of doing it as it allows them to implement the cookie on the customer’s device.
So, if they decide to go through to the product website at a later date, you will still receive the commission.
Featured Posts
Whatever type of post you are including your link on, your ultimate goal is to get as many views as possible on that post. Obviously, you will be focusing hard on SEO, and sending it out to your email subscribers.
However, you can also give it more visibility by placing it as a featured post.
If you use WordPress as a blogging platform, there is a feature that handily allows you to ‘stick’ any post on your blog’s home page. This means that anyone who visits your blog will see the post without having to search through older ones.
Banner Advertisements
If you have targeted, organic traffic on your blog, banner advertisements can work wonders for your affiliate promotion. They work even better if they are placed in a prominent position, above the fold.
The fold is the point where the readers will need to scroll down, so having them above that is your best bet.
Don’t crowd your blog with banner ads though. This can be very overwhelming and off-putting for your readers and never place similar ads on your sidebar.
A prominent banner ad is your recommendation for a product. So, if you have several recommending similar products, you are sending out a confusing message to your reader. They may not know which product or service to choose.
You can see an example below of an affiliate banner. (Note: Do mark them as sponsored and a no follow attribute.)
Online Courses
If relevant, you may be able to incorporate affiliate marketing into any online courses that you offer your readers, whether free or paid. Let’s say, for example, you have a five-day productivity course. You might want to throw in an affiliate link to Evernote.
It won’t feel like a forced promotion, because you are offering solutions to problems that your readers may have. All of the best affiliate marketing courses teach this as a foundational approach.
Email Lists
Email lists are an important marketing tool for any business. They can be harder to build up than a social media following, but they belong to you. Facebook, Twitter, and the like could remove your profile without warning, or close down, and you would lose that audience.
Your email list is a community that trusts you and wants your personal opinions delivered directly to them. They are already engaged enough to have signed up for your list. So, capitalize on that and give them your affiliate link.
In Conclusion: How To Promote Affiliate Marketing Without Social Media
The most important thing to remember when it comes to affiliate marketing is trust. Don’t promote any old thing, and build up a level of trust with your audience.
Without that, driving affiliate sales will be near impossible.
How are you using affiliate marketing without social media on your blog today? Do you have any additional tips to add to this?
I’d love to know more in the comment below.
She has 30+ years of experience in marketing/advertising with 12 years of experience in content marketing, social media, blogging, and SEO.
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I’d add SEO, Lisa.
Creating content that solves your audience’s problems, and optimizing it for specific affiliate keywords, help increase the chance of getting more traffic from search engines.
Hi Erik, I had that under featured posts, working SEO hard but a separate paragraph would be a good idea! It’s probably my top method as well. Thank you. Have a fantastic day.
Hi Lisa,
Sage advice you have given here. When it comes to affiliate marketing, we don’t want to have tons of ads on our blog post. I once wrote an article about “sidebar blindness” because we get a blind eye when there is too much going on on a blog. It needs to be crisp and clear in order to get customers.
I like doing reviews the best when it comes to something I want to affiliate. I also like to do an article that will compare one thing to another, showing the reader the pros and cons.
When it gets down to it, people need that trust factor in order to purchase an affiliate product we want to share. We have to give them a good enough reason by taking them by the hand and showing them the benefits.
-Donna
Being I am also doing affiliate marketing, yet I am not success till date, hence it is nice and useful post to me, I would follow your idea, anyway thanks
Hi Lisa,
Yet another informative post as usual!
A lot of things to pick on Affiliate Marketing.
No doubt it is an easy method to make money online, but one needs to play it safe. Yes, as you said, TRUST is the key here!
Indeed the most important thing to remember when it comes to affiliate marketing is TRUST.
A newbie can pick a lot of lessons on AM from this post. As you said the newcomer can use a few different methods in achieving the goal in affiliate marketing.
A good guide indeed will tweet it.
Keep sharing.
PS:
I found this post curated on BizSugar and up-voted and commented.
Keep it up.
Thanks
Phil
Hi Philip, Thank you! Yes – trust is really the bottom line when it comes to affiliate marketing. People like to do business with people they know and most of all TRUST. Thanks for coming by on this one and for sharing everywhere too Philip. Have a wonderful Wednesday and rest of the week.
Hello Lisa,
Great suggestions. I always do reviews, list posts, comparisons, and how to posts on affiliate products. As you said, such kind of posts will educate readers about product features and how to use them efficiently to get maximum benefits.
The strategies mentioned here will help marketers in promoting products and boosting their affiliate revenue. I share your post on FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
All the best,
Hi Manoj, which of the posts work best for your affiliates? I like the reviews myself. Education is key on products for consumers to make choices and decisions. Thanks for all the shares too Manoj, Enjoy the rest of your day!
Hello Lisa,
Affiliate Marketing always works great for me. You have to produce quality and relevant content that helps your readers. Recommending relevant product is definitely help you to become successful in affiliate marketing. Thanks for writing this amazing post.
Have a Great Day.
Vishwajeet
Hi Vishwajeet. How many products do you do like that Vishwajeet? I think the key word here is RELEVANT. That is important. You are welcome and I appreciate all your support here and on the social channels. Have a great day and weekend ahead.
Hello Lisa.
I think selling your service is the best idea if one is looking to increase their per sale income.
Hi Ashsh, Yes, it’s a great way but also time consuming. If you can find more passive ways to generate income you can have more “balance” in your life. I’m about 60/40 with 60% being services. I like having multiple streams too because if one goes down you have more, Thanks for your input and welcome to Inspire to Thrive.
Hey Lisa
Awesome post,
I think affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog online. Banner and in-text ads are very annoying and may ruin the user experience.
Regards
Bhawna
Hi Bhawna, thank you. Well you need to use some banner ads for affiliate marketing but as long as they are NOT all over the place and I agree about those in-text ads. I tried them for a very short time here but didn’t like how they looked or felt. Readers did not care for them either! Thanks for your input and have a great day.
Great post Lisa! To make a true side income with blogging affiliate program is the best way but without a post like you wrote today we cannot make any sale. Thanks for this lisa!
Hi Paul, thank you. Yes, that is true! You must provide useful information about the product and why it works and what it does and most important why people need it. Thanks for coming by and have an awesome day,
Hi Lisa,
Indeed a great post and a topic that most of the bloggers need to have knowledge on.
You can also see affiliate marketing sites regularly if you do a Google search like best “product” review, “top ten products”… You get the idea.
One thing that bloggers need to know, is that they should have also other informational articles on their blog post rather than only the review articles.
Google recently has started to penalize sites that do so, as they say they don’t add enough value and they are right about this.
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Melos
Hi Melos, welcome to Inspire to Thrive. Very interesting about Google penalizing sites that do that, news to me. Thank you for that tidbit here. It does makes sense after thinking about it. Have a wonderful rest of the week!
Smart tips Lisa. How To posts rock affiliate-wise and yep, choosing a few quality offers you feel clear on, and believe in, makes a night-day difference, opposed to selling everything under the sun. Be selective. Keep integrity, gain trust and make more sales over the long haul.
Hi Ryan, thank you. Oh yes, I don’t do many affiliates at my place. I’m very choosy. And I must believe in them and use them. Thanks for your input and have safe travels and your next adventure.
? Lisa, those “How To” articles tend to do rather well whether or they are affiliated with affiliate marketing.
Great tips, as usual, my friend!
Hi Renard, do you do many how to articles on your blog? I think they are great as well. People always want to know how to do this or do that. I have another one coming up soon! I learned how to do something new and once I test it more I’ll be sharing. My favorite kind of posts. Thank you Renard and have a great day.
Hey Lisa,
You know I have covered this topic intensively on my blog and some guest posts. Though a lot has changed since the good old days of Article Marketing, the channels are almost same.
One thing that’s so crucial, which you mentioned is trust. People always want a third party endorsement before buying something online. If they trust you, they are often going to buy on your recommendation and you earn the commissions.
Good luck to you Lisa and thanks for keeping me busy and smiling these days
Hi Enstine, yes, you have covered it on your blog too. I would agree TRUST is the most important factor with any marketing today. People are so distrustful today that you really need to develop it with your followers, business associates and more. Thank you for your input on this one Enstine and have a great day, keep on smiling.