Top 7 Principles of Affiliate Marketing

I have been working on affiliate marketing on my blog for many years and, before explaining how you can apply it on your blog, I want you to know what the 7 principles that govern this strategy are.

Without them, it will be of little use to apply the rest.

#1 – RELEVANCE

It is very important that you recommend products that are relevant to your audience.

If you have a blog about starting a business and you promote a product like a diet or an online war game, you will not arouse any interest in your audience.

The risk is double if you do not segment your offers: you will not sell anything and you will also lose readers. It's a double loss for you.

The relevance of the products you promote is essential for me. I would never promote products that have nothing to do with the needs of my audience.

#2 – CREDIBILITY

I personally, as an affiliate, only recommend the products that I use. But not just once, but the ones I use in the daily operations of my blog.

In fact, I only usually recommend suppliers or products that I have been using for months, years in many cases.

For example, when recommending a plugin to capture subscribers, I recommend Thrive Leads because it is the one we currently use at Lifestyle Squared and the one that gives us the best results.

But at the same time, I also recommend SumoMe because it is a very good free option for those who are just starting out.

#3 – YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE

To close sales when you work with affiliate marketing you should never tell anyone to buy product "X" or service "Y" because you recommend it.

What value does this have? If you haven't tried the product/service yourself, how do you know if it's really the bargain you're presenting?

The best thing is that you focus on presenting how you yourself are using this product and what is the value it has for your own business. Working with explanatory video tutorials is much more educational and efficient at the level of affiliate marketing.

#4 – ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

Forget animated banners, flash, or intrusive pop-ups to promote affiliate marketing products.

In my case (and believe me I'm not the only blogger in this situation) deep links work better, those that appear naturally in a blog post.

Also do not use plugins that automatically transform keywords into affiliate links.

Remember point #1, relevance is key. Nobody better than a human being to optimize the natural inclusion of an affiliate link in a post. The effort pays off and, if you do, you will see how the conversion results go through the roof.

#5 – CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Physicians, when giving scientific talks at conferences in which they participate, have an obligation to disclose possible conflicts of interest. For example, working with a pharmaceutical laboratory to launch a new drug that is related to the exposed topic.

Do the same. Reveal your conflicts of interest, be transparent and honest.

In addition, in Spain, it is mandatory that if you are promoting an affiliate product or doing paid advertising for a product, you notify it. For the sake of your readers and your own, do not break the norm.

#6 – TAKE YOUR TIME

You can try to close a sale after the arrival of a new visitor. Or you can also give free content for a couple of weeks and present your offer when you have already developed a relationship of trust with the reader.

Use an autoresponder system, you will not regret having patience before wanting to close a sale.

#7 – CREATE A MAILING LIST

Although the autoresponder is wonderful because it works alone and without complaint, it will not do you any good if you only have 100 subscribers.

You need at least 1,000. And if you have 1,000 and you want to multiply your income, you will need 10,000.