Transcript
Welcome to the Bloggy Friends show.
What's up my bloggy friends?
Famous Ashtagrante here and today we're doing a deep dive into affiliate marketing profits.
And I got to tell you, if you want to make money online, affiliate marketing is the fastest
and easiest way to start actually generating profit.
Because the truth is, you don't have to put any effort really into creating a product.
You do have to create an audience and you have to actually get people to click your
links.
But you don't have to make anything, you don't have to ship anything.
You just put out a link and if anybody buys something from it, you get paid.
And in this episode, we're going to explore nine steps to affiliate marketing profits
so that you can get paid even faster.
And I am going to break this into two parts because there's a lot to unpack here.
And I kind of want you to be able to get all of the good stuff that you can hear and learn
about.
So grab some notes or grab some notes, grab a pen and take some notes and let's jump in.
Because I want you to be an affiliate marketing superstar.
It's so much fun to actually make money off of other people's products because like I
said, you don't have to do anything.
You just send people there.
You don't handle the customer service.
You don't handle the shipping.
You don't handle anything.
You just put out links to the things that you're already buying and tell people, hey, I found
this cool thing.
Go buy the thing.
If they buy the thing, you get paid.
So if you're ready to dive into the exciting world of online entrepreneurship, buckle up
because we're about to reveal the secret sauce to affiliate marketing profits.
And it may seem overwhelming at first, but don't fear.
I'm going to tell you everything you need to know.
So step one, it's lame.
I admit it, but you got to select your niche.
As Pat Flynn often says, the riches are in the niches.
And I know some people call it niches, but we're going with niches because it rhymes.
So embrace your passion and your expertise in one fell swoop.
And so you picture this, you're standing at the crossroads of infinite possibilities and
the key to success is choosing the perfect niche.
So pick a topic that genuinely makes your heart skip a beat.
If you're not into health stuff, skip the medical advice blog.
Embrace what lights up your soul.
So even if it's something as what may seem silly to you like mushroom gardening, I've
actually seen affiliate websites for mushroom gardening and these sites, they make money.
They make like 10 to 20, 30 grand a year because of the fact that they are telling people all
about how to garden mushrooms.
And so passion and expertise, they're your secret weapons.
And when you're all fired up about your niche, niche, whatever, you're going to be able to
produce content that brings people to you like a magnet.
It'll pull in curious readers who can't wait to check out the awesome products that you're
recommending.
Step two, understand your audience's desires.
I mentioned this in a previous episode, but if you have a site about bowling balls and
all you're talking about is KitchenAids, you're not going to sell any bowling balls.
So imagine your audience as a treasure trove of precious gems that are each seeking something
unique to fill their needs and their aspirations.
So your mission is to craft content and promote products that speak to their hearts.
So even if you decide one day that while you're working on whatever it is your niche is that
you no longer want to talk about it, it's better to keep talking about it because of
the fact that if you're building up an audience that's centered around one niche, niche, whatever,
if you're creating content that's centered around one topic, then they want to keep coming
back for that topic.
They don't care if you've decided that you no longer want to talk about it.
They want to keep talking about it.
So that's why it's so important that in step one, when you're deciding on what niche or
niche or whatever it is you want to write about, that you're really clear on whether
or not you can do this for a long time.
Because right now, I don't know if you've seen this or not, but a big thing that's happening
in 2024 is that creators and YouTubers and content writers and all the things, they're
getting bored with their niches and they're quitting.
And while that's great for people who are trying to come into the market, it's horrible
for the fact that all these people are building up audiences and now they don't want to talk
about their topics anymore.
And so all these people are now looking for new people to listen to or consume content
from.
So you've definitely got to make sure that whatever it is you're choosing to talk about,
that it's something you can do for a long time.
And this all starts with keyword research, right?
Like if you want to know what your audiences are looking for, you need to get those creative
gears turning and explore things like WordStream and Google Keyword Planner, WordTracker.
These are like your trusty compass.
They're guiding you towards what your audience is really searching for.
I love the website People Also Ask.
Or if you go to Google and you search something that's related to the topic that you want
to write about, it'll sometimes even tell you what people also ask.
There's so many different things that you could find that are related to your topic.
And so maybe the big thing is if you're getting tired of your topic, you need to pivot and
figure out how you can keep talking about that topic, but maybe just in a different
way.
But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
So the big thing that'll help people who are just getting started with affiliate marketing
in their websites and their blogs is to think about long tail keywords.
And long tail keywords, they're kind of like the hidden treasure maps that are leading
you to the untold riches.
Questions like how do I bake a cake from scratch?
Those are gold mines for inspiration.
You can turn them into engaging blog posts like how to bake a chocolate cake from scratch.
Or you know, something related to baking a cake from scratch, but adding additional keywords
like how do I bake a cake from scratch with a convection oven?
Or how do I bake a cake from scratch with an air fryer?
Or how do I bake a cake from scratch when it's cold outside?
All these kinds of things are things that people are actually searching for.
And if you write content that answers those questions, you're going to rank faster and
better.
And don't forget to look for friendly forums like Quora.
Your audience is spilling their hearts out right there on Quora, Reddit, even Medium.
They're asking real questions, seeking real solutions, and these kinds of conversations
that you can kind of be like a wallflower at.
You can see what people are looking for so that then you can go and write content that
answers those questions.
So I've been talking a lot about content and believe it or not, we haven't even gotten
to step three, which is to establish your affiliate blog.
This is your foundation for success.
Yes, a lot of people are making a lot of money with things like TikTok and Instagram and
Facebook and all the things doing affiliate marketing on those platforms.
And while that's great, here's the problem.
You don't own it.
I'm going to say that again.
When it comes to Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, you don't own it.
So overnight you could lose access to your audience.
This has happened to so many Instagramers.
I saw one last year that just broke my heart.
This Instagramer had built up an audience of 400,000 plus people.
She was using it to make money.
In fact, she built her six figure business all on Instagram.
And then what happened?
She got shadow banned.
And to make matters worse, then she lost access to her account.
Overnight, she had no money.
She had no way to contact her audience.
No one knew how to get in touch with her.
And so when she tried to finally get a hold of the people at Instagram, they didn't care
because the truth is they're in it to make money.
Yes.
But they don't care about you as a single individual whenever they have so many other
people that are working with them, paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
If you're just a lowly creator, even though she had more than 400,000 followers, she is
not a big deal to them because they know that tomorrow someone else is going to start an
account and they could go viral too.
So it was really sad to see and when she did finally get access to her account again, her
follower number had dropped to less than 100,000 and she actually just quit her business completely.
I think last I heard she went and got a full-time job because she was so tired of trying to
do content.
But if instead she had created a website and drew people to an email address, or excuse
me, an email list, and then started contacting her audience that way, she would have been
able to keep in touch with them.
In fact, I saw this happen to another creator.
They lost access to their account.
They sent an email to everybody that was on their list and basically said, hey, I lost
access to my account.
Here's my new account.
And you know what happened?
The very next day she had almost all of her followers right back there on this new account,
even though she didn't have access to her other one.
And the reason why?
She owns her email list.
This is why it's so important that you start your own website and you create your own email
list so that you can have direct access to your people.
All right.
I know it was a lot, but let's get back to it.
So establish your affiliate blog.
Like I said, this is your foundation for success.
Your blog is like a magical gateway to affiliate success in the sense that it's the secret
key that opens doors to incredible affiliate programs.
The truth is a lot of websites will not even allow you to be an affiliate if you don't
have a website of your own.
So if you have a website of your own, it makes it that much easier to apply for affiliate
programs.
For example, on ShareASale, I'll leave a link to ShareASale in the show notes, but if you
are trying to apply for the different marketplaces that are vendors on ShareASale, if you don't
have a website, it is much harder to get accepted into these programs.
And the reason why is because they want cookies.
They want to be able to track who's going to your website, who's actually clicking these
links.
And yes, you can get trackable stuff from Instagram and Facebook and all the things,
but it's much easier to do whenever you have something like a unique link.
Like for example, famousashleygrant.com backslash RSS.
If you click that, you go to my affiliate link for RSS.com and if you buy podcast hosting,
I get a commission for it.
And this is a direct way that people at RSS can see I sent people to their website instead
of going to RSS.com backslash affiliate number, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's so much easier whenever you have a direct link that people can click.
And once your blog is up and running, it's time to sprinkle that stardust baby.
Publish amazing content and put those sweet affiliate links throughout the content, but
make sure you're not just putting links for links sake.
Instead you want to create content that's centered around these products and talk about
them organically.
Because people can tell if you're just trying to push a link, if you're just like, hey,
if you want to support this blog, go buy this book.
Instead you should write about the book.
Tell us why we need to see the book and then at the end talk about how they can buy the
book.
So having your own website gives you superhero level control over your affiliate journey.
And like I said, this is something you own.
It shields your hard work from unexpected setbacks.
No shutdowns are going to mess with your affiliate party this way.
All right, so step one was to select your niche or your topic.
Step two was understand what your audience actually wants, what their desires are.
Step three was establish your affiliate blog as your foundation for success.
Let's get to step four.
In step four, you're going to explore diverse affiliate platforms.
That's a mouthful.
Your choice of platform, it's like picking the perfect weapon for your affiliate battles.
If you're into tangible products, the coolest gadgets and the snazzy stuff, you're going
to want to go to something like Amazon or ShareASale or Commission Junction.
They're like the ultimate allies.
They offer free signups and they win the hearts of affiliate warriors everywhere.
But here's the thing, if you're more of a digital wizard, you want to go to things like
ClickBank and Warrior Plus and JVZoo and AppSumo.
AppSumo is amazing if you want to start pushing digital products.
The reason why is they give lifetime access to people for different software that's coming
up or up and coming.
All these startups are just itching to get in the door at AppSumo.
If you start promoting these links or these different programs, people get lifetime access
and you get half the amount.
Sometimes it's only 10%, but anywhere from 10% to 50% of the sale is big deal.
If you're selling a product that's $90 for lifetime access and you get 50% of it, that's
a pretty sweet deal, right?
It's definitely going to be a lot more money than you're going to get through something
like Amazon Associates where if you sell like a $5 let's say coffee cup, you're only getting
a Nickelback, right?
And nobody even likes them.
Although, all right, fine.
I admit it.
I totally sing Nickelback occasionally.
Don't unsubscribe.
Step five, embrace the power of social media marketing.
Yes, I know I just hate it on social media a lot, but you can use it.
You definitely can use it.
I'm just saying you should start a website first.
That should be your first point of contact.
The first thing that you're driving people to because like I said, you own that audience.
You own that list.
You own that way of continuing to be able to get in touch with your people.
But I definitely do recommend you have links on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest,
X.com, YouTube, all the things.
And signing up, it's easy and it's free and it gets you a backlink and they have high
domain authority.
Oh, and here's a pro tip.
Keep it simple and use the same username as your blog.
So I screwed up on this whenever I first started.
My website is Famous Ashley Grant, right?
And I don't have Famous Ashley Grant as my social profiles all across the board.
Partially because X.com does not allow you to have that long of a username, but I could
have done something like Famous Ashley across the board and I didn't.
And so now I can't get it.
And it's kind of funny because sometimes people will click the different links that I have
and they're like, hey, is this you?
Because my Twitter name, I'm sorry, X.com, I keep doing that.
X.com, my user profile is Ashley is Famous.
And so it's kind of become like a joke that like, oh, is this really you?
But you can still like, you can circumvent that a little bit if you change your name
to that name.
So like instead of Ashley Grant as my, I guess you'd call it my legal name, I'm listed as
Famous Ashley Grant on X.com, but my profile name is Ashley is Famous.
But I am Famous Ashley Grant on Instagram and Facebook.
I think on TikTok, but I'm not sure.
But anyway, moving right along.
So you are going to want to get on social media to start marketing your blog.
And notice I said market your blog, not your affiliate links.
Because again, you want to draw people back to your blog.
You want to get their attention to get you to your website.
So then you can get them on your email list so you can have interaction with them there.
But you can take advantage of things like social media trends like Clean Talk or Book
Talk or all the different hashtags that are going on and show people how you do things.
Like show people how to use the different products that you're talking about on your
website and all that content can then be repurposed into better blog fodder.
So like if you are talking about gardening, for example, I know I talked about mushroom
gardening earlier, but let's say you're just talking about how to start a vertical garden
in an apartment.
You could actually show people how you're creating your vertical garden and then link
to all the things on your website and those images and videos that you're sharing.
You can now repurpose that as content that you embed into your blog post, which gives
you more expertise and authority in the blog post.
So we covered a lot in this episode and let's do a quick recap.
So like I said, step one is you're going to choose your topic.
Step two is you're going to understand your audience's desire.
What are they actually looking for?
Step three, establish your affiliate blog.
Your website is your home base on the internet.
Step four is explore diverse affiliate programs.
Don't just use Amazon Associates.
Please, I beg of you, use more than just that.
And I didn't say this earlier, but I will say it now, a pro tip is if you have a specific
product that you are using a lot, see if that product has a direct to consumer affiliate
deal.
What I mean by that is let's say you have a camera that you're obsessed with and yes,
you could go to an Amazon and be an affiliate for them and get a 4% commission on that camera.
But if instead you go to the camera website and you sign up to be an affiliate with the
camera, you could get as much as 10, 15, 25, maybe even 50% of whatever it is you sell.
And obviously that's a lot better than the 4% that you're going to get with Amazon.
And finally, step five is embrace the power of social media marketing.
You should be on social media.
Don't be on all of them.
I highly recommend you stick to one until you can build up an audience.
And then if you have more time, then play with additional platforms.
So come back for part two and we'll share the rest of the steps to affiliate marketing
profits.
Until next time, may your page views be high and your bounce rate below.