Almost two years ago, I was approached by MyProtein to review some of their products! I was happy enough with a big bag of protein powder, a huge tup of almond butter and another huge tub of cashew butter. When my post went live, I sent through the link to my contact. He responded to say they were really happy with the post and would I be interested in joining their affiliate scheme! I really had no idea what one was but I said yes and followed all their instructions to sign up with Affiliate Window.
Fast forward about 12 or more months and I’d done nothing with this. I started to notice though how many offers I was getting to join affiliate schemes and realised that there must be something in this. I turn down about 95% of affiliate scheme offers and if you read my Behind The Screen posts you’ll know how much money I do / do not make but I have been making a concerted effort the last few months to share the links.
Firstly, let me start by saying that if you think making money through affiliate links is easy, then you are wrong (if it is really easy for you, then congratulations and please share your tips in the comments?!)!
Here are a few of my tips and how I’ve been working with them:
Be Authentic || Stick To Your Niche and Brands You Would Shop With
Top of my list is be authentic. I only join the programmes of brands I love, use and believe in. I’m currently signed up to 7 advertisers on Affiliate Window (AW) in addition to Amazon Affiliates and the Kayla Itsines Scheme. I’m really keen on working with each of the brands to help create content so I’m not just sharing links repeatedly. Some brands have been more accommodating than others which then impacts my shopping behaviours and which brands I promote / share most.
I have run a few competitions with Simply Supplements which have been great for increasing awareness around the brand and giving reader an opportunity to try products they may not have considered before.
I stick to sharing links for the topics covered on my blog (with the exception of twitter where I share anything and everything I love on Amazon!).
Shop Your Own Links
If you wouldn’t shop with the brands why should anyone else?! Shopping your own links works well with AW but never counts with Amazon. I recently topped up my mums supplements from Simply Supplements and filled up my superfood cupboard from Planet Organic. I’d much rather shop with the brands that will help me create an income over any other brand. Makes sense?!
Leverage Social Media To Work For You
Use Facebook and Twitter to share ad hoc offers from brands. Most of the advertisers on AW send through a weekly email with their best offers. When they send through the links already with your id it makes it super quick to copy, paste and share with everyone, everywhere. Keep a stock of photos to use for these instances too as the ones they send you can be repetitive or may just not fit in with your branding.
Instagram doesn’t work so well for affiliate links as you can’t click through to links in the text of images; the only clickable link is the ONE in your profile.
Be On Top Of The Best Offers With Fresh Content
In addition to the weekly emails, keep an eye on the advertiser accounts on social media to see what they are sharing and then retire yourself. If they are sharing it, then it must be popular / a good deal / something interesting?! That is my thinking anyway!
Utilise Plug Ins That Do The Work For You
Affiliate Window comes with a bit of code that automatically creates affiliate links from your site wherever applicable without you having to do anything over or above finding the link on the advertiser website. It also signs you up to any affiliate programs as a result of a link being created and a purchase being made. I randomly got signed up for a US advertiser the other day; I’m not sure if it was an AW error or not! It wasn’t a good fit for my blog though so I promptly unjoined!
Quality Over Quantity
Oversharing is never good right and I’m sure some people do unfollow you if they get fed up of seeing too many advertisements per say. Or maybe they just don’t like my passive aggressive tweets?! haha!
If there is a particularly good deal going on for a period of time, I’ll set up a few scheduled tweets to go out during that time so it can reach the maximum amount of people.
How do you feel about affiliate links, either as a reader or fellow blogger?!
Anymore other tips that you have?!
Elle
I've never really got to grips with affiliate links, I like the idea of popping affilate links for brands I would use in now and again but I don't have the organisation/scheduling/pedantic nature required to keep on top of them. I work better with review/sponsored post content as a way of monetising the blog as I'd forget about affiliate links, not use them myself and lose them in all my posts!! Thanks for sharing with #blogstorm
I hear ya! I have some code on my blog that does the links automatically when appropriate so I have no need to even think about it ๐ I just write what I would normally write and link where I would normally link! Sponsored posts obviously pay more I guess, but then it's a "one off" whereas affiliate could be a more steady income stream even if less money?? It's all swings and roundabouts, eh?! x
I don't use affiliate links, but I agree that if I did, they would only be for brands I genuinely believe in. You can't expect to have much credibility as a blogger if you are recommending things to your readers that aren't good! #blogstormDebbie
Thanks for stopping by Debbie ๐ I totally agree! I also always decline offers to share brands that I've never tried for that reason! I once shared a kickstarter campaign because I genuinely loved it and have gotten countless requests since to share others!!
Great tips! Such a bummer that Amazon doesn't count your purchases towards it.. either way I still shop with them cause they're awesome!
Me too ๐ Amazon is like my number one shop! haha! I think that's why I though the affiliate scheme would work well but apparently not everyone is like me and just buys everything they see when they see it! ๐
Interesting, I'm not using AW but will have to look into that. I use Amazon and ShopStyle for most of my affiliate programs and have had decent success with them. Thanks for sharing these tips!
Hey Ashley ๐ I presume ShopStyle is purely fashion / clothes?? AW covers like EVERYTHING! lol which works well for me as I mostly share food products and fitness stuff! …Amazon worked really well for me the first month but then the last couple of months I've made nothing! How do you make Amazon work for you??
Looks good!
Thanks Dorit ๐
These are great tips. I rarely post with affiliate links but I want to start using them more because the ones I have are products I really love.
Thanks Ivanna! With your youtube channel you can easily add relevant links under the videos and if you do log posts to go with each video you can add them there too! I believe that as long as you are sharing products you genuinely love, that will come across!!