Finding a wonderful new affiliate program that promises big money rewards can feel like hitting the lottery. Many who do sign up, send their referral links out to a few sources and put them on their sites and then sit and wait for the cash to start flowing.
Sadly, while money can come from the above measures, the reality is it often takes a little more work than that to make these programs pay off. Getting involved with a great affiliate program is just the starter for making it pay off. Putting links up in forums, on one's own site and e-mailing people about the program is a good step to take. There are, however, quite a few more things you can do to increase affiliate program potential. Content is often the key to boosting earnings.
There are some fairly well proven measures that bloggers can take to improve their earning potential from affiliate programs - especially recently launched programs. How much or how little work is involved will depend on which strategies you choose.
If the affiliate program happens to be very new, you can get a leg up on the competition by writing about that program early, informatively and often. Doing this will enable your blog to get ranked on the topic early. In essence, if you play your cards right, your writing can become an authority on the topic. Write about the product or service. Create posts about the affiliate program itself. Do anything to get the right keywords in and the pages ranked. Those who strike early and effectively can easily see their pages ranked in the top portion of a search on the subject.
Writing about a new program or one that's new to you can be a little tricky. There are some important rules of the road to consider. Sites that offer posts, articles or full pages about a topic need to make sure their content is balanced, relevant and useful. The aim is to make a site and authority. Doing this requires fairness, honesty and balance. Should other articles already exist about the topic, don't worry. Just write your pieces in a different manner, be more in depth or informative. Do avoid outright sales of the product, and don't worry about mentioning any negatives that might exist. Including the cons can actually make a piece more credible.
Keywords are important to articles on affiliate programs, but they are not the be all and end all. Don't let them bog the piece down too much. Instead, focus on working the main words into the title. Put them elsewhere in the piece where they fit naturally. The posts that get read the most are those that have a clear voice, are easy to read and offer something readers need or want to know.
Should other articles be available, consider linking to those you use or particularly enjoy. When you do this, you can earn a trackback. This puts your website's link on the site you're linking to. That site's visitors can see it and click through to your site. This is particularly useful if the site linked to happens to have a lot of traffic.
Other ways for boosting affiliate income potential exist. Some site publishers create their own presell pages. These pages have their own separate URL and are used to entice and encourage visitors to click through to an affiliate. Good ones, however, do this by providing relevant information, not high-pressure sales tactics. The benefit of these pages is that they help keep a home page free from tons of affiliate links. They also are wonderful for gaining their own search rankings. This is especially so if the content is relevant and balanced.
Borrowing traffic from other relevant sites isn't at all uncommon. It might not be the most popular way to gain attention for your affiliate links, but it can work. This method involves setting Google Alerts for the topic. This way, you know when others write about the affiliate subject. Once they do, visit their sites and write a few comments, drop a link to your presell page or related content and move about your day. Those who are interested in more information on the topic will likely click through.
Increasing a blog's affiliate program earning potential doesn't necessarily require a lot of advertising. The right content can often make all the difference in the world.
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