45 Tips to Make MORE Money with Affiliate Marketing

I’m often asked the question: “How do I make more money with affiliate marketing?”

This is hard one to answer.  That’s because there are a number of ways to increase affiliate income.

Some you can do in a few minutes.  Others require an extra level of time and dedication.

Today we’ll cover forty-five of these ideas…

Blogging to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#1 – Write a review for the marquee products you promote.  Target the keyword: {Product Name} + review in your content.  Get backlinks to this article and increase its search engine ranking.  This is a great way to target people who are in a buying mindset.

#2 – Enhance the review (see #1) by including examples, screenshots, videos and anything that demonstrates proof of what the product claims.  It’s important to be specific.  People want to know how it’s helped YOU.

#3 – Record an audio (or video) Skype interview with the owner an affiliate product.  Include 90% quality content with a light pitch at the end.  Do this for everything you promote.  Then offer these interviews as exclusive content to blog readers.

#4 – Target a massive problem/question in your niche.  Create a webinar presentation that mostly solves this problem.  Weave a subtle recommendation of a quality product within the content.  Promote this piece of content to all current and future readers.

#5 – Create a resource page for blog readers.  Think of this as a “101 class” where you include links to content covering a specific topic.  Put it in a logical order.  Then link to any product that’s relevant to these articles.

#6 – Create a tools page.  These are the things you use on regular basis.  Most will be links to free resources.  But also include affiliate recommendations to products that help readers.

#7 – Record a video presentation where you demonstrate a product.  (This works great for membership sites and software.)  Show all the benefits and provide a behind-the-scenes look at what’s available to customers.  Post on your blog and YouTube.  Use a site like Tube Mogul to distribute this content to additional video sharing sites.

#8 – Think “content marketing.”  People don’t buy blindly through affiliate links.  Buy they will if you’ve built authority and regularly provide excellent advice.  So focus on sending people to content where you subtly talk about a product.

#9 – Use a tool like Rank Tracker to identify blog posts that generate web traffic from niche-specific keywords.  Edit these articles; recommending a related affiliate product.  Increase their search engine rankings to get more traffic and make more money.  (A big thanks to Alex for this idea!)

In addition, you can use one of the popular SEO Services to increase the rankings of your existing web pages.

#10 – Rotate the advertisements on your blog with the Ad Rotator plugin.  Most affiliate products have internal tracking that measures both earnings and clicks.  Eliminate any ad that’s not making money.  This will free up space to display ads that are profitable.

#11 – Streamline the key areas of your blog.  Your focus is to increase the amount of content people read and make money.  Remove the things that don’t add to this end result.  Ie: Do you really need a clock or a calendar widget?

#12 – Design a ‘ninja advertisement.’  This is a text-based image that matches the same font as your blog. (See the bottom of this post for an example.) Automatically post this at the end of each article using the DD Add Sig plugin.

Obviously… you should test this in comparison to traditional types of advertising.

#13 – Set goals in the Google Analytics program.  Focus on increasing clicks to affiliate products.  Regularly run a test on your blog and see if it produces more clicks.

Promotional Ideas to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#14 – Track every affiliate click down to the exact traffic source.  This identifies the specific actions that produce income.  This information is a great way to do an 80/20 analysis of your affiliate business.  Simply do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.

#15 – Register a URL forwarding address for your top affiliate programs.  Make it easy for people to remember.  Example:  I use http://www.GetMarketMe.com for my promos of the Market Me Suite program.   This is a great idea if you create a lot of audio and video content.

#16 – Create a bonus that complements an affiliate product.  Only offer to people who buy through your link.  Even better…Point out a product defect and then position your bonus as a solution.

#17 – Create a product that sells for under $10.  Write a killer autoresponder sequence that promotes a variety of affiliate offers.  Simply put, customers are 10x more likely to buy an affiliate recommendation than your standard email subscriber.

#18 – Record a Podcast series in your niche.  Provide amazing content that builds a loyal audience.  Only then should you recommend an affiliate marketing offer.  (Check out Podcast Answer Man for more on this.)

#19 – Record a video series in your niche.  This is similar to tip #18 where you create excellent content before giving an affiliate recommendation.  (Check out this free PDF on how to dominate video marketing.)

#20 – Tighten your paid advertising.  Adwords, Facebook Ads, and Yahoo are great places to find targeted traffic.  The important thing is to identify the keywords/demographics that generate income.  Focus on those and ditch the stuff that’s not making money.  (This might seem obvious.  But many marketers let their unprofitable campaigns go unchecked.)    

#21 – Presell the affiliate offer.  It doesn’t matter what medium you use.  Telling people why you like a product is a great way to increase interest in it.  Folks should come to a sales page – Wallet in hand and ready to buy.

#22 – Link to a product’s presell content.  Nowadays most affiliate programs offer tools that presell their product.  (Like free PDFs, webinars, infographics, and audios.)  Instead of directly linking to an offer; you can send traffic to one of these presell items.  This is a great way to bridge your presell content with a sales page.

#23 – Use scarcity effectively.  Many product owners love to use scarcity in their marketing.  This could be a limited availability or a sale for a few days.  Find when a program is using scarcity and make a strong push to your audience.

#24 – Use content sites like EzineArticles.com and Squidoo to promote an affiliate link.  Yes, this trick still works.  The important thing is to create quality content that makes people take click your links.  Also, be sure to use a forwarding URL (see #15.)

#25 – Tweet about an affiliate offer.  I do think people send too many self-serving Tweets.  However the occasional affiliate link works when you’re always giving great content.  Just make sure to build trust and only link to something that’s useful to followers.

#26 – Bypass the opt-in page of product owners.  Sometimes you don’t want to send traffic to a squeeze page.  This is especially true when it gets a low opt-in rate.  This free tool helps you bypass this page and send folks directly to the sales letter.

#27 – Diversify your affiliate income.  I’m a firm believer of focusing on a single niche.  On the other hand, it’s important to create multiple streams of revenue.  One thing you can do is set up a web of Amazon niche sites.

#28 – Write a Viral eBook.  Write a free report (or manifesto) that’s full of helpful information.  The primary objective is offer value to the reader.  But include an affiliate link to any product you think helps people.

I did this for my report THE Affiliate Research Formula last month.

Almost as an afterthought I included an affiliate link to the Market Samurai program.  The result?  I generated more sales in last 30 days than I had in all the months before.

Email Marketing to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#29 – Offer a lead magnet and build an email list.  This is what all successful Internet entrepreneurs do to generate a full-time income.  Done correctly, you can generate cash-on-demand every time you send an email message.

#30 – Include an affiliate advertisement on your thank you page.  (Or test an existing offer with a new product.)

#31 – Include affiliate links in your lead magnet.  This is similar to idea #28.  The only difference is to make a strong recommendation of a single product.  That way, you’re giving great content without overwhelming a new reader.

#32 – Split test your lead magnet offer.  Put simply: More subscribers = More money.   Use a site like Google Optimizer to increase your opt-in percentage.  (Also check out my ab split test post that lists 23 ways to increase your subscriber numbers.)

#33 – Build an autoresponder sequence that rocks!   Write a series of emails that educate while promoting top affiliate products.  The key here is to create valuable email content that complements your online brand.

#34 – Send a broadcast message.  Don’t let old subscribers stagnate.  You can maintain their interest by sending regular content…with the occasional affiliate offer.

#35 – Maintain a publishing schedule of your emails.  Do this for both your autoresponders and broadcast messages.  Include metrics like:

• Open rates
• Clicks on affiliate links
• Earnings per email

This information is important because it shows what produces income.  Use it to front load your sequence with the most profitable emails.  Ultimately this is a great way to increase profits with the same number of subscribers.

#36 – Resend a message to your “un-opens.”  With tracking you’ll know what broadcast messages make money.  With Aweber you can deliver the same message to anyone who didn’t open the original email.

#37 – Continue to send profitable emails.  This technique works great with broadcast messages.

The harsh reality of email marketing is many people will unsubscribe after a few months.  Or they’ll lose interest.  The good news is you can send proven emails to new subscribers.  Usually I like to recycle my best content every 6 to 8 months.

Product Research (and Selection) to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#38 – Examine the payout of your existing affiliate product selection.  It’s okay to promote stuff that generates a single commission.  But it’s even better to market offers with recurring revenue and quality upsell offers.

#39 – Find new products to promote.  New products hit the market all the time.  It’s up to YOU to try them and tell subscribers about the best ones.  (Personally, I like to send at least one email each month about a new product.)

#40 – Use a site like CB Engine to track new Clickbank products.  There are a lot of hidden goldmines in Clickbank.  Be one of the first to promote them and you’ll make more money as an affiliate marketer.

#41 – Locate and understand common problems in your market.  (Use a site like Big Boards to do this.)  Identify the questions and obstacles that plague most people.  Take these ideas and create content around them.  Be sure to recommend an affiliate product that provides a solution.

#42 – Study other marketers in your niche.  Join their email lists and subscribe to their blogs.  See how they structure an affiliate recommendation.  Borrow the ideas that currently work for them.  (Just don’t plagiarize their content.)

#43 – Ask for more money.  This works great for offers with a self-hosted affiliate program – Especially if you’re generating a lot of sales.  Most product owners are willing to increase affiliate commissions if you ask.  The trick is to be someone who produces a reliable level of income.

2 “Can’t Miss” Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

#44 – No matter what…always experiment.   The Internet is constantly evolving.  So it’s important to test different things.  Sure, some things will result in failure.  The good news is you’ll also develop a few techniques that will raise your affiliate income.

#45 – Take your affiliate business to the next level:  Allow me to give my shameless, gratuitous plug:

My Affiliate Marketing without the Bulls**t product provides a step-by-step solution to affiliate success.

In this post I’ve listed a number of tips and shortcuts.  But they won’t work unless you have a plan.  With my product you’ll get that roadmap that guides you through the challenging process of building a long-term business.

YOUR Ideas on Making Money with Affiliate Marketing?

Okay, I just listed 45 tips to make more money with affiliate marketing.

Now it’s up to you!

Did I miss an idea?  What tricks do you use with affiliate marketing?  Have you successfully (or unsuccessfully) used any tip I just listed?

Please discuss below…

Take Action. Get Results.