Affiliate Marketing Blogs

The most popular form of affiliate marketing is through a personal blog format, with marketers looking to set themselves up as an authority within any given niche, advising readers with product reviews and recommendations.

How does it work? Affiliate Marketing Basics

First things first, to become an affiliate marketer, you will need a platform to advertise from. Throughout this brief explanation of affiliate marketing, we will assume that you’re going down the blog route as opposed to a platform such as Youtube.

The most profitable affiliate marketing blogs all share one thing in common before they create their blog; they conduct thorough and in-depth niche research. I will fully explain how to select a niche in another post, but it is essentially picking a niche that is profitable yet has low competition.

This involves a lot of research into search queries (keywords) that are commonly entered into Google, and whether or not there is a high buyer intent behind them; typically, questions like ‘best x,’ ‘best x for y,’ ‘best x under $500’ etc.

If you are already running a blog, keyword research still needs to be conducted. You will be looking for low volume searches that hold little competition to maximize your chances of appearing in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Most affiliate marketers will tell you this is the most critical step if you want to maximize the potential of your blog and shouldn’t be overlooked. Once you are confident you have found a profitable niche, you need to buy a (preferably brandable) domain name, hosting, and get to building your webpage.

Unlike the halcyon days of the internet, web development for the layperson is easier than ever; and there are a plethora of tools available to ease the process. Popular theme builders for affiliate marketers include Elementor, Thrive Architect, and Wix.com.

Many of the blogs posted below contain comprehensive posts regarding any or all of these steps, and a few have created courses that will take you from 0 to 100, detailing the process step by step.

After all that, you should have a fantastic looking, fully functional blog site. But now what?

Content.

Content will now be your main focus and is driven by the prior keyword and niche research you have done. Posts will be a mixture of commercial and informational articles.

The aim is to create the best informational resources you can to cement yourself as an authority within your chosen niche. Primarily you will want your posts to be of a quality good enough that other webmasters or bloggers will reference them in their own blog posts and articles.

Commercial posts are recommendations and product reviews with the intent of getting the reader to buy the product through your affiliate program. This will usually be through a unique link provided by the affiliate program you are associated with.

Most affiliate websites use Amazon, which has many benefits as it is a well-known and trusted source for buyers to purchase from. However, comparable affiliate programs exist from Rakuten, eBay, ClickBank, and CJ Affiliate.

There will likely be smaller, independent affiliate programs within your niche; these will typically offer higher commission rates than larger corporations.

Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing

Pros

There are many advantages of affiliate marketing, including:

• Low investment to start - It is possible to get started in affiliate marketing for under $100, and many often do. Reinvesting money earned into your affiliate blog leads to scalability and exponential growth over time. There is no other business in the world that has the same earning potential as affiliate marketing when compared to the low start-up cost.
• No prior experience needed - Marketing, eCommerce, or development experience are all unnecessary to get started with affiliate marketing. Most learn by doing and continue to refine their process through testing or trial and error. The affiliate community is also a font of knowledge, with many industry leaders freely offering quality advice through their blogs and Facebook communities.
• A second source of income that can lead to complete wage replacement - Affiliate marketing can not only be a secondary source of income for you but with enough work can become a full-time occupation.
• Flexible - You may have heard the term digital nomad before. Digital nomads are essentially people who travel the world working remotely online, and many of them are affiliate marketers. Not only can you gain freedom of location, but you can totally define your own working practices as you see fit. With affiliate marketing, you get out what you put in. A common approach is to quickly build and rank affiliate sites to a decent profit, before selling them on to people looking to enter the industry, or other marketers expanding their portfolio.

Cons

While affiliate marketing is an attractive prospect, it is not for everyone; this can be down to several reasons:

• At the mercy of affiliate programs - Since affiliate marketers make their money through commission on sales, or other actions, we are entirely at the mercy of our chosen affiliate program who can dictate the percentage of commission received as they see fit.
• Strong competition - Competition in some niches can be fierce, and it will take a lot of work to keep up with your competitors. As affiliates don’t generally have a repeat customer base (if you send a customer to Amazon, chances are they will go straight to source for their next buy), this can become overwhelming. However, don’t let this put you off. Consistency and perseverance are vital in affiliate marketing, as long as you continuously action on a set plan, you will see results.
• Pay-per-performance -  This is both a blessing and a curse; with affiliate marketing, you get out what you put in. You can work hard for several months and achieve a lot of success, but if you lapse, there is always another competitor ready to take your place.

Not only that, but they have authored one of the most comprehensive affiliate marketing courses on the web, The Authority Site System. A step by step in-depth guide on affiliate marketing that takes you through niche research and beyond.

Check out this blog post where they detail how they built and flipped an affiliate site for six figures in only 18 months: How We Sold an 18-Month-Old Site For Mid 6 Figures

At the time he was unemployed, to the point that he cashed in a $350 welfare check at the same time as the check from Google.

Since then, Jeremy has only grown as an affiliate marketer and he is considered one of the most knowledgeable guys in the industry.

His blog is filled with hints and tips on all things internet marketing, from SEO to outreach email marketing to affiliate marketing.

His story can be found here for anyone seeking inspiration.

Recognized for his eBook, available for free from his blog, that details a thorough action plan to go from 0 to $40,000 monthly recurring revenue within two-years.

His blog is consistently filled with quality information and how-to’s touching on all aspects of internet marketing, from email marketing to building your social profiles and tips for improving your SEO.

Download John’s eBook here: Make Money Online

Shawn is also co-founder of Affiliate Summit, a core conference in the affiliate marketing industry calendar.

Through his blog and podcast – This Is Affiliate Marketing, Shawn delivers finger on the pulse news and updates on the affiliate marketing sphere. Shawn is very matter of fact in his approach, cutting through the mud and being upfront with the realities of being an affiliate marketer.

If you want to access Shawn’s knowledge, I suggest starting here.

Regularly interacting with his audience, Zac posts quality informational content on his blog filled with actionable hints and tips to boost your success.

He has also authored his own affiliate blogging course – The Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing & Blogging, which can be found here — covering the basics of how to get started with affiliate marketing, from creating your site, content creation, and advanced marketing strategies to promote your blog.

Affiliate Summit hosts social events and tradeshows around the globe, where some of the world’s premier marketers gather to network and share their knowledge of the industry.

Their blog is regularly updated with tips, updates on industry concerns, and Q&As with industry leaders.

Check out their blog post: Best Affiliate Marketing Blogs

Missy now spends her time helping others grow their affiliate and marketing empires.

Authoring several books, including ‘Make Money With Your WordPress Blog,’ which teaches bloggers how to monetize their efforts, Missy has been a key player in the affiliate marketing sector.

Check out her free resources for affiliate marketers here.

Owner and founder of Diggity Marketing, Matt has a keen eye for detail and consistently tests and improves upon his methods.

He also runs an annual SEO conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, but among affiliate marketers is most known for creating the Affiliate Lab, an in-depth, test-driven course designed to take you from creating your first affiliate site to flipping sites for many times their monthly value.

I would 100% recommend Matt’s course to anyone seriously considering affiliate marketing: Affiliate Lab.