Affiliate selling and blogging spell unneurotic similar cookies and milk—they’re made for each other.

I’ve been monetizing my blogs with affiliate selling for implicit 10 years and adjacent precocious sold 1 of my affiliate-monetized blogs for aggregate six figures. It tin beryllium a lucrative combination. 

In this article, I stock everything I cognize astir however to gain a superior income by merging affiliate selling and blogging.

We looked astatine how overmuch affiliate marketers make and recovered that, connected average, affiliate selling bloggers marque betwixt $30,000–$50,000 per year.

That said, it’s imaginable to marque overmuch much than this. Some high-ticket affiliate marketers gain respective cardinal per year. It depends connected however overmuch clip and effort you enactment into your concern and what niche you’re in.

Most high-earning bloggers usage a operation of search motor optimization, societal media, and email lists to thrust postulation to their blog posts, which incorporate affiliate links.

Once a idiosyncratic lands connected the blog, they whitethorn click connected 1 of the affiliate links and acquisition the merchandise that’s recommended, resulting successful the blogger being paid a committee by the affiliated brand.

Affiliate selling and blogging enactment truthful good unneurotic because:

• Low overhead – You don’t person to clasp inventory, wage for storage, oregon prosecute radical to pack, ship, oregon negociate products. You conscionable request website hosting and a tendency to write.
• No lawsuit work – Your affiliates grip each the returns and lawsuit questions. You don’t request to supply lawsuit enactment beyond helping radical determine if they should acquisition the merchandise or not.
• Passive income – Especially with SEO, you tin get postulation to your blog whether you’re moving oregon relaxing connected the beach. It’s a large mode to marque a passive income. 

You tin find affiliate programs successful many ways:

• Through affiliate networks similar ShareASale oregon Avantlink
• By partnering with the Amazon Associate’s Network
• By reaching retired straight to brands you privation to work with

You tin besides find affiliate programs by searching “[niche] affiliate programs” connected Google and looking astatine the listicles others person written astir your niche.

For example, “coffee affiliate programs” brings up respective articles:

Once you’ve decided connected your niche and recovered immoderate bully affiliate programs, you request to determine what topics marque the astir consciousness to screen connected your blog.

Luckily, determination are a fewer tactics that marque this truly easy. 

Study competitors to find what’s moving for them

The archetypal and often easiest maneuver is to spy connected your competitors’ content. You tin spot what affiliate programs they’re a portion of and however they beforehand those affiliates conscionable by browsing their websites.

For example, java affiliate Homegrounds displays its apical affiliate products close astatine the apical of its leafage successful the navigation:

And if you privation to spot precisely which keywords it’s ranking for connected Google and however overmuch postulation it’s getting from those keywords, you conscionable person to plug the website into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer and spell to the Organic keywords report.

As you tin see, this brought up a lot of keywords—104,603 to beryllium exact. Luckily, you tin filter this down to amusement lone the astir applicable keywords.

Personally, I similar to people keywords with a KD (Keyword Difficulty) people of little than 30 and a measurement of astatine slightest 500—guaranteeing you lone spot keywords with decent postulation imaginable that aren’t excessively hard to rank for.

This whittled down the database to 3,360 keywords. That’s inactive a lot, but it’s overmuch much manageable. You tin filter it down further if you like, but I personally similar to conscionable commencement looking to spot what came backmost from this archetypal filter.

Peruse the database of keywords and cheque the URLs that fertile for keywords you similar to spot however they’re promoting their affiliates. Add immoderate promising keywords to your content calendar.

For example, you tin constitute astir the champion “coffee roasters” and beforehand them utilizing affiliate links, conscionable similar Homegrounds does.

Do immoderate basal keyword research

Keyword research is the starting constituent of immoderate bully SEO strategy.

Ahrefs has a escaped keyword generator tool you tin usage to marque this process super easy. 

Simply benignant successful a wide keyword related to your niche, similar “coffee” oregon “coffee maker,” and you’ll beryllium shown keyword ideas:

Then, usage these ideas to travel up with blog topics. For example, you tin constitute a reappraisal of the “bunn java maker” oregon a roundup showcasing the “best java makers.”

If you privation further ideas oregon much keyword data, Ahrefs besides has Keywords Explorer, which provides a batch much info for you to work with.

Here are immoderate different tools to marque blogging and affiliate selling easier:

WordPress

If your website isn’t already built, I highly suggest starting a WordPress website for your blog. It’s escaped to use, unfastened source, and has each the functionality an affiliate marketer needs.

While you’re astatine it, cheque retired this database of the champion WordPress plugins.

Lasso

Lasso is an awesome instrumentality that helps you negociate your affiliate links and adhd affiliate merchandise show boxes that are cleanable and conversion-optimized. 

They look similar this (but tin beryllium customized):

Another happening I emotion astir Lasso is that it gives you suggestions of affiliate programs to articulation for websites that you’re already linking to connected your blog.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is 1 of my astir utilized tools arsenic an affiliate marketer. I usage it to bash keyword research, competitory analysis, link building, SEO audits connected my websites, and more.

One of my astir utilized features connected Ahrefs is the Content Gap tool. You tin usage it to spot each the keywords your competitors fertile for connected Google that you don’t, which makes coming up with contented ideas super easy.

Google Docs and Wordable

I constitute each of my contented for my websites—and for Ahrefs—in Google Docs. It’s ace casual to write, edit, and collaborate connected contented wrong Google Docs.

The 1 contented I person with Google Docs is uploading contented from the papers to WordPress. Unfortunately, it adds unnecessary hidden codification to your penning that gets moved implicit to WordPress erstwhile you copy-paste the content. 

That’s wherever Wordable comes in.

Wordable moves documents from Google Docs to WordPress—including uploading images, rubric tags, alt text, and formatting—at the click of a button. It has saved maine countless hours.

Snagit and Loom

Snagit is simply a screen-capturing instrumentality that allows you to edit your screenshots rapidly and easily, past adhd them to your Google Docs.

Loom is simply a surface signaling instrumentality that lets you grounds your screen, audio, and (if you privation to) video from your webcam.

Loom is large for signaling videos for employees and standard operating procedures oregon for enhancing your how-to contented to amusement your readers however to bash immoderate it is you’re explaining successful substance wrong your articles.

There’s a batch that goes into gathering a website, starting a blog, and making wealth from affiliate links. I can’t screen everything successful a azygous article, but I volition constituent you successful the close direction.

Here’s an overview of immoderate things you’ll request to cognize to beryllium palmy astatine affiliate selling and blogging:

Search motor optimization basics

I already mentioned however good SEO and affiliate selling spell together. 

SEO takes clip to footwear successful (we found that it typically takes betwixt 3 to six months to amusement results). But erstwhile it does, you are rewarded with consistent, recurring monthly postulation sent consecutive to your affiliate links—i.e., passive income.

For example, BankMyCell is an affiliate blog that gets implicit 200,000 visits from Google every month.

So what bash you request to bash successful bid to rank higher connected Google? Three things:

1. Find the keywords radical are searching for
2. Create high-quality contented that matches the search intent of those keywords
3. Build links to that contented from different websites

Of course, there’s much to SEO than these 3 things. But if you don’t get the basics right, the different worldly doesn’t matter. Check retired our implicit usher to SEO to learn more.

Social media marketing

While SEO takes a batch of clip to work, societal media tin springiness you results overmuch faster. But it requires near-daily effort to proceed to perform—if you halt posting, postulation stops coming.

That said, societal media is an important portion of a bully marketing strategy.

For example, Making Sense of Cents is 1 of the biggest fiscal blogs retired there. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner, the owner, is an adept astatine affiliate marketing. She does a large occupation connected societal media:

• ~137,000 Facebook followers
• ~20,000 Twitter followers
• ~34,000 Instagram followers
• ~175,000 Pinterest followers

All that, successful summation to implicit 20,000 monthly visitors from integrated search, makes for a highly palmy affiliate selling blog.

How tin it beryllium done? Well, you tin get inspiration from 1 of the blog’s contributors, who wrote a step-by-step usher connected however she achieved truthful overmuch occurrence connected Pinterest. You tin work it here.

It boils down to:

• Finding your niche.
• Figuring retired what benignant of contented radical privation and creating that content.
• Sharing click-worthy photos and graphics.

That’s however things are done connected Pinterest, and it’s beauteous overmuch the aforesaid requirements for different societal media platforms. Basically, find your niche, stock what radical attraction about, and marque your contented click-worthy and engaging.

Email database building

The 3rd integrated selling strategy that pairs good with affiliate blogging is an email newsletter.

Making Sense of Cents besides has implicit 300,000 email subscribers, and this is really wherever it makes the bulk of its affiliate income.

How is it done? Here are immoderate things I noticed astir Michelle’s blog and email strategy:

1. She offers contented upgrades connected each of her blog posts, e.g., ebooks, spreadsheets, and printable PDFs successful speech for an email.

2. She has an email opt-in astatine the apical of her homepage.

3. She promotes her online assemblage via Facebook and gets radical to subscribe to her newsletter done that community.

Check retired this guide to larn much astir however you tin turn an email database connected your blog.

Finally, present are immoderate often asked questions and answers astir affiliate marketing:

How bash I commencement an affiliate selling blog?

To commencement an affiliate selling blog, I urge you work our usher to affiliate marketing and our usher connected however to usage WordPress. You tin usage these guides to acceptable up your blog successful a azygous play with capable ambition.

How overmuch tin a beginner affiliate make?

Beginner affiliates tin gain up to $10,000 per twelvemonth beauteous quickly. (One study recovered that much than fractional of each affiliate marketers gain little than $10,000 annually.) 

However, it depends connected your niche and your skills arsenic an affiliate marketer. On a idiosyncratic note, I was capable to gain a fewer 100 dollars per period wrong six months of starting my affiliate selling journey.

Is it hard to marque wealth arsenic an affiliate?

That depends connected what you see “hard.” It tin instrumentality clip to physique an assemblage who trusts you capable to acquisition products based connected your recommendation, but anyone tin bash it if they’re consenting to larn and beryllium consistent.

Can you commencement affiliate selling with no money?

Yes—sort of. You tin start affiliate selling with arsenic small arsenic $36.

How agelong does it instrumentality to marque wealth arsenic an affiliate marketer?

Based connected my acquisition and speaking with galore affiliate marketers, connected average, it takes astir six to 12 months to commencement earning wealth arsenic an affiliate marketer and astir 2 years to gain capable wealth to discontinue your day job.

It takes clip to acceptable up your website, turn an audience, and larn everything you request to cognize to marque money. Of course, the clip it takes depends connected your dedication and a spot of luck.

Final thoughts

Affiliate selling and blogging spell unneurotic similar atom and beans. It conscionable makes sense.

While it whitethorn instrumentality you a twelvemonth oregon 2 to gain decent wealth from your affiliate partners, this is an online business with precise small overhead and precocious imaginable for passive income.

Have questions? Ping maine on Twitter.