Best Ways to Promote Affiliate Links - SideHustleAdvisory Blog

How affiliate links work

A referral link provided by a brand or company is called an affiliate link. It enables them to monitor referrals sent by you and offer you a commission on successful sales. This is a beneficial arrangement as the company pays only when outcomes are achieved.

Below is a summary of the functioning of affiliate links:

You can post an affiliate link on your website, blog, or social media platform.

A customer clicks your affiliate link
Customer is redirected to the advertiser website
Customer is tracked as being referred by you through a cookie
Customer makes a purchase
An affiliate network attributes the purchase to you and issues a commission
Commissions appear in your affiliate dashboard
You get paid (!) by the affiliate network

An affiliate link may appear complex to those who are not knowledgeable about it.

Actually, each affiliate link consists of some basic components that guarantee proper acknowledgement for your referrals:

The affiliate network creates an affiliate tracking domain to redirect your users to the brand or advertiser.

Affiliate identifier: Identifies you as the affiliate sending the referral
Merchant / advertiser identifier: Identies the merchant receiving the referral
SubId : Customizable text you can use to track which content and links are driving the best conversions
Deeplink: Which page on the advertiser’s website you want to send the visitor to instead of the homepage (such as a product page or landing page)

The appearance of each affiliate link will vary slightly, but all of them will generally integrate these components to form a completely distinct link that you may share on your website, social media accounts, and email database.

Learn how to advertise affiliate links on your blog or website.

1. Product reviews for affiliate offers

One of the most popular forms of content used in affiliate marketing are product reviews. The underlying concept is that individuals who peruse product reviews are close to making a buying choice.

By leveraging your affiliate link, you can easily earn commission on items that individuals would purchase regardless, provided that you refer them to the product before they make the purchase.

To generate notable revenue, it is essential to assess items that possess a substantial conversion rate, dependable commissions, and adequate quantity.

Go beyond the usual products sold on Amazon to gain an advantage.

You have the option to examine, for instance:

Especially when compared to physical goods, commissions for digital products and services can be significantly higher due to their significantly lower production costs.

Producing a product review that yields high conversion rates isn’t overly complex, but it does require trial and error.

We have designed a product review template that can serve as an excellent point of departure.

Employ affiliate links in a timely and appropriate manner, without excessive use. To efficiently promote affiliate links, utilize anchor text that piques curiosity in the content connected to the link.

Phrases such as “click here to see more pictures” or “find out more about the [product type]” indicate that useful information is readily accessible.

2. Inside a free email course

In 2021, email remains widely recognized as the most affordable marketing channel, and this applies to affiliate marketing as well as other forms of digital marketing. The reason for this is that email affiliate marketing offers the opportunity to:

Reach buyers reliably. Regardless of ongoing Google and social media algorithm updates.
Sell to the same people over and over. Instead of convincing new buyers from ground zero every time.
Share time-sensitive information. Such as discounts and deals, which boost conversion rates.

Email courses offer a great opportunity to not only build your email list but also to include your affiliate links.

A series of emails sent over a specific duration that teaches subscribers how to achieve something is called an email course. By including affiliate links in an email course, you can equip subscribers with the necessary resources to achieve their objectives.

Check out The New York Times’ 7-email sequence for ideas on how to educate individuals about safe internet usage.

Each email in the sequence provides both valuable educational material and opportunities for seamless affiliate promotions.

The first email could recommend a premium password manager.
The third email can suggest a VPN affiliate program
The fifth email could review an antivirus program.

As long as the subject relates to your blog or website’s niche, you can apply this method to almost any email course.

The greatest aspect is that the majority of email courses are timeless, allowing a solitary complimentary course to generate leads for you, generate affiliate earnings, and ultimately offer an expensive paid product.

Automate your email list monetization with a three-fold approach.

3. Link your own products with affiliate links

Monetizing a website through the sale of your own products is a highly efficient method, as it yields entire profits instead of mere commissions.

What if you could attain both?

It is possible to share your own products using affiliate links on certain platforms and with certain merchants, without affecting the payment you receive for each conversion.

By way of illustration, LinkedIn Learning enables educators to employ affiliate links to promote their own courses. With this system, you can potentially earn a higher income as an affiliate than you would as an instructor. The greatest advantage, however, is that you’ll be able to do both roles simultaneously.

This concept also holds true for courses on Udemy or when advertising your own books on Kindle using Amazon’s affiliate links.

For every mention you make of your course or book, always attach an affiliate link to boost your revenue that you were going to receive anyway.

4. Gift guides and product roundups

There are a couple of reasons why product roundups, also known as “best product reviews”, are highly effective methods for promoting affiliate links in your content and driving conversions.

Typically, when someone searches for product roundups, they are still in the initial stages of their buying process and considering all available options. Consequently, your links are likely to receive more clicks.

Furthermore, the probability of them possessing a previously saved affiliate cookie belonging to another person in their browser is lower.

In the end, roundup posts provide an excellent opportunity to experiment with various products to determine their conversion rates, allowing you to create specialized reviews or supplementary content solely for the products that appeal to your audience.

Does it sound satisfactory?

Here’s an example of the most common format top websites are using for their product roundups.

To ensure effective links, it’s important to strategically place them throughout without overwhelming the reader. Avoid making them sift through excessive information before presenting your top recommendation for a toothbrush.

5. Run pay-per-click ads

If you’re receiving organic traffic to your website but you believe that your conversion rate could be improved, utilizing social media advertisements may provide a solution.

Retargeting ads provide an excellent opportunity to bring back visitors who discovered your website through Google by utilizing your cost-per-click and commissions.

All they require is a small push to make the purchase.

The Best High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing Programs

Subjectivity determines what qualifies these affiliate marketing programs as the “best”. However, I picked these programs based on their payment rates, clientele volume, and average customer evaluations. Evaluations from customers assist in deciding if a product is worth endorsing. Additionally, you can utilize customer reviews to market the products or services. This involves showcasing the exceptional results customers achieve from using the product or service and the characteristics they adore the most.

1. Smartproxy

Smartproxy enables customers to globally access corporate information to facilitate competitor analysis, web search result extraction, cost compilation, and advertisement validation.

The product received an average rating of 4.7 out of five stars from 836 reviewers.

By using its affiliate program, you have the potential to earn $2,000 for each customer you refer to Smartproxy.

2. Thinkific

Over 50,000 instructors have utilized Thinkific, an online platform for creating courses, which has resulted in over 100 million courses being created.

The product received an average rating of 4.6 out of five stars from 669 reviewers.

The Thinkific affiliate program has the potential to earn you $1,700 annually for each referral.

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers ecommerce services that include open SaaS, headless integrations, omnichannel capabilities, B2B options, and solutions for offline-to-online business.

An average rating of 8.1 out of ten stars was given by 648 reviewers.

Sign up for the BigCommerce affiliate program and receive a commission of either up to $1,500 for new enterprise customers or 200% of the customer’s initial payment.

4. Teamwork

The project management software called Teamwork pays attention to optimizing billable hours and enhances efficiency for all members of the organization including the project managers and the founder.

It received an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 1,022 reviewers.

By participating in the Teamwork affiliate program, you have the opportunity to earn up to $1,000 for each new customer that you refer.

5. Flywheel

Flywheel specializes in offering managed WordPress hosting that caters to agencies, ecommerce, and websites with high traffic.

It received an average rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 36 reviewers.

The Flywheel affiliate program allows you to receive a maximum of $500 for each new referral earned.

6. Teachable

Over 100,000 entrepreneurs, creators, and businesses of all sizes use Teachable, an online course platform, to develop captivating online courses and coaching businesses.

It received a rating of 4.4 out of five stars from 150 reviewers.

By becoming a Teachable affiliate member, you can earn an average of $450 per month.

7. Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a worldwide platform that provides access to stock photos, vectors, illustrations, videos, and music.

An average rating of 4.4 out of five stars was given by 507 reviewers.

Registering for the Shutterstock affiliate program could earn you as much as $300 for every new customer.

8. HubSpot

The CRM platform offered by HubSpot enables efficient management of various aspects of your organization, including marketing, sales, content management, and customer service.

It received an average rating of 4.5 out of five stars from 3,616 reviewers.

By participating in the HubSpot affiliate program, you can earn an average monthly payout of $264 (calculated from current affiliate earnings), or potentially more if you become a solutions partner.

9. Sucuri

Sucuri provides expert security analysts who use a cloud-based platform to deliver malware detection and eradication, as well as protection against hacks and other attacks that work to improve website performance.

It received an average rating of 4.6 out of five stars by 251 reviewers.

By becoming a part of Sucuri’s referral programs for their platform, firewall, and agency products, you have the potential to earn as much as $210 for each new sale.