Five tips to maximize profits as an affiliate marketer

This post originally appeared on Searchenginewatch.com

Are you aware that the affiliate marketing sector is worth $12 billion? That’s quite a vast number. 

If you do it right, it is estimated that affiliate marketing programs can increase your business revenue by 30%.

Now, when we say affiliate marketing, it is an umbrella term that covers several techniques that you can implement and generate profit.

Earlier, the affiliate marketing process was all about discovering the right affiliate products, building websites, and online businesses to market your affiliate products, and identifying keywords for each product to write unique content wrapped around those keywords. 

But now, the focus has shifted to adapting your product to suit your customers’ needs. Search engines won’t rank you unless you implement SEO best practices. Plus, you will have to execute more advanced online marketing techniques in order to succeed.

So, if you are looking for tips on how to do affiliate marketing and maximize profits for your new blog, these five essential strategies will help you.

1. Pick a profitable affiliate program

Affiliate marketing is, without any doubt, one of the most popular side hustles. What does this mean? There are a lot of folks out there that can get your products to potential customers. 

However, it’s quite daunting to choose the right affiliate program since there are so many options out there. 

So start out by picking a niche with monetization potential.

Once you have selected your niche, it is time to check out some income reports and others in the niche. After all, it’s pointless to pick a product if you can’t monetize it.

Once you are done with that, double-check the typical pay per click of keywords in your niche.

As your focus is to drive traffic and sales, you will have to find out what the competition is like.

Tools such as Google AdWords’ Keyword Planner will help you find out pay-per-click (PPC). You can also determine who your competitor is and how you can compete.

Some less competitive niches for SEM (search engine marketing) could include personal hygiene and fitness, but (in my honest opinion) there doesn’t seem to be much potential for affiliate marketers. The cash is usually taken by businesses.

However, in hyper-competitive niches in the digital space including business and influencer software like the one shown below, there is extremely high revenue potential since they are high ticket sales.

Here’s an Ahrefs overview of the difficulty of one of the toughest but decently profitable keywords: podcast hosting.

Source: Ahrefs keyword explorer

2. Improve your site’s SEO

Improving your site’s SEO will help you to outrank your competition in Google’s search results. 

According to statistics, Google accounted for over 75% of global desktop search traffic, followed by Bing at 9.97%, Baidu at 9.34%, and Yahoo at 2.77%.

Clearly, it can drive more organic traffic to your website, which in turn will increase your chances of making a sale.

Learn what your customers are actually searching for

Find out the most popular way people are searching for your business. The good news is that it’s quite simple to identify the modes used by your target audience to reach your business.

A simple Google search using your keywords and phrases will help you identify them right away.

For instance, let’s search for “best webinar software”.

Source: Google

You’ll notice that the results are almost all “best” and “review” posts. How do you replicate that?

Simple. Just make your own post. Here’s a post that I created to directly compete with those results.

Source: Ricky Wang.com

As I’ve emphasized, just get the main keywords and related keywords in your content and you’ll be just fine. We’ll explain this more in the next section.

Find out the different ways people may be searching for the same thing

Not everyone will type the same keyword even when they are looking for the same thing. Thus, it’s equally essential to identify all the popular keywords your target audience might be searching for. 

And it’s quite simple. Just look at the SERP overview of your main keyword in tools like Keywords Explorer, and you can identify all the different terms people are using.

Source: Ahrefs keyword explorer

The Kw. Column shows the number of keywords all the top 10 web pages are ranking for.

You might want to hone your keyword research skills for the best possible outcome.

Optimize for the bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

Optimize for more specific keywords. Let’s say, if you’ve heard of VoIP phone services, you’ll know Vonage.

Since that’s a household name in the calling world, it’s bound to have specific keywords tied to it, like “Vonage alternatives”.

That search intent is what people like to call BOFU. It’s lower in volume for sure, but the intent to purchase is extremely high.

Even though I’ve already published a piece on VoIP companies, I could publish another one targeting the alternatives version and rank it even quicker.

Since we’re talking about BOFU potential posts at the moment, another (possibly even better) post type would be a direct comparison, or “verses” comparison.

Here’s an example from my site, RickyWang.com on a direct WebinarJam vs Zoom webinar software comparison. You can’t really get more specific than that, so I can be close to 100% sure the post will have a high conversion rate.

Create useful, engaging, and popular topics regularly

To find out what people are talking about in your niche, join platforms like Reddit. You can curate your content based on popular topics being discussed. 

Also, tools like Content Explorer will be useful to identify all the current and engaging topics in a particular niche. It’s also essential to craft unique content and keep posting consistently.

3. Use low-cost marketing tools

If you think of it, Affiliate marketing is not that costly. You can use plenty of low-cost or even free marketing tools to reach your audience and analyze your progress. 

For example, you can use free email marketing tools such as Mailchimp to build an email list and send out newsletters or offers to make more sales. 

Plus, social media monitoring tools, such as Mention, can help you to understand your affiliate partners’ quality by tracking what customers are saying about the provider.

What’s more? You can employ free surveys or website popup tools to find out what kind of content your audience would like to read. 

You can even track and study how your affiliate marketing efforts compare to other forms of ads on your site using Google Ads.

As affiliate marketing is a competitive market, you might also want to check out what your competitors are doing. And that’s where tools like SpyFu can come in handy. 

They help you track every keyword your competitor has bought on AdWords and will rank them by effectiveness. The result – you can have an advantage over your competitors easily and drive more organic traffic.

4. Pick the right price points

When deciding the affiliate commission rates, companies will generally take into account some factors. When it comes to pricing, lower-priced products tend to have higher commission rates. On the other hand, costlier products are likely to have lower commission rates. 

So, the products you choose will determine how much commission you will receive after making sales.

Another factor affecting the affiliate commission rates is the company’s value itself and the importance it places on affiliate marketing.

For instance, Thinkific typically tops the list for the best online course platforms and though they have a great product, another secret to their success is the affiliate program they’ve created.  

They have a very attentive affiliate team, generous commissions, and an in-depth dashboard for affiliates that provides total transparency including clicks, referred customers, amount sold, money earned, and pending commissions.  

(Source: OneHourProfessor)

Consider all these variables before jumping into an affiliate program. 

It’s essential to review beforehand if the program is worth your time. Also, take into account your target and compare how much you could possibly earn monthly with each program. After doing your math, choose the option that will give you better payouts.

5. Implement a mobile marketing strategy

Learning how to do affiliate marketing right also includes learning how to implement an effective mobile marketing strategy. 

After all, statistics suggest that over 50% of affiliate-referred traffic comes from mobile devices, where voice search SEO plays a huge role. 

In addition, upwards of 52% of buyers prefer mobile-optimized content. Thus, mobile marketing is something you can’t afford to ignore. 

However, mobile marketing is not only about sending messages. You can divert the traffic you get via mobile search and social media and send them to your mobile-optimized website where you are selling your affiliate products. 

Plus, you can use social media platforms to promote your products and services via influencers. It will boost your brand awareness and engagement exponentially.

Here’s an influencer post example: 

Source: Instagram

Not just that, it will also build credibility with your target audience, which is crucial in business. Naturally, the endorsements from affiliates and the valuable content you put up on your profiles will prove your authority in your industry.

You can also implement mobile-specific advertising strategies and channels, including App Install Ads and Mobile Web Ads. They can help you to reach the mobile audience while converting them into leads and customers. By using these ads, you can drive traffic to relevant offers and receive commissions when you make sales.

To implement this strategy, simply look for mobile-optimized offers on your affiliate platform.

Also, don’t neglect targeted ads while using social media for your affiliate marketing. These ads are great for getting your content in front of the audience, who are most likely to buy your products or services.

Wrapping up

You might feel there is a lot of competition out there, and maximizing profit for your small business from affiliate marketing is an intimidating task. However, implementing the right strategies will help you to achieve your goals. 

Hopefully, you have learned how to do affiliate marketing right by going through this article. 

Summarizing tips to maximize profits from affiliate marketing

• Start by picking a profitable program
• Optimize your site for SEO
• Use all the different marketing tools available 
• Pick the right price points
• Implement an effective mobile marketing strategy

Being an affiliate marketer comes with plenty of benefits. You can earn a passive income, it doesn’t require customer support, it’s cost-effective, and so forth. 

So, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be joining the affiliate marketing game.

Ricky Wang is the Founder of RickyWang.com.

The post Five tips to maximize profits as an affiliate marketer appeared first on Search Engine Watch.