Secrets to earn high affiliate commissions
Looks like these aren’t secrets anymore now that I have published this page! I wanted to do it because there is rubbish out there published by other bloggers. However, it is fully possible to earn high commissions from affiliation. Writing a whole ebook was an option, but then decided I didn’t want to go down that route just for a bit of extra cash. Making this website better by just publishing my expert advice here is also more fun.
Here goes with the free tips, I’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible.
On this page:
Choose Good Products to Promote
Tip 1 may sound stupidly obvious but the amount of people that just promote crap because it pays well is stupid. Good products will sell themselves. It’s perfect, you will earn high commissions simply from the fact the products will have fewer returns and better conversions.
If you send highly targeted visitors to a great product on Amazon which has brilliant reviews then the conversions will be very nice. I previously promoted HDTV’s and the conversions even for such a premium product were great. During the Christmas season orders went bonkers – my earnings would triple! Think about it from your own personal point of view when you chat to friends, would you rather say, “I promote the Apple iPhone,” or “I promote dodgy health products.”
Plan Your Timing Well
Time your efforts. At Christmas retail products go nuts, you will make loads more money compared to promoting in January or February. There is no point busting a gut in the early part of the year if sales all come at the end of the year. Always plan a few months ahead and get the ground work in, ready to smash commissions at peak time. Whatever niche you are in be aware of seasonal swings and adjust the effort you put in at different times of year accordingly.
Balance Saturation and Under-Serviced Markets
99% of the time I would recommend avoiding saturated markets, the chance of doing well is minimal, the big earnings will only come to a tiny proportion who are well established. At the same time I have found under-serviced markets are just that for a reason, there isn’t much money to be made.
You want to find nice sweet spots where demand is decent but the market isn’t saturated. These tend to be the ones that are most successful. Do you research for a while to nail the best opportunities and calculate potential returns. To be able to view many products available to promote from different sectors in a short amount of time it is worth joining companies like Shareasale or CJ.
If Possible Promote Things you Like or Know About
When you are finding potential referrals, whether that be by traditional article content, social media, videos, apps or newsletters, they want to learn from the best. If you know a good amount about a niche, or have a real strong passion for it and are learning well then it will come across in your work. For example look at hobby sites that people have ran for 10 years, in things like fishing and sewing. They were all started by people for fun and because they knew a lot about the topic. The vast majority of time I only promote things I know lots about, or have a strong passion for, that way I can provide value to the individual and also recommend them great products (tip 1). I feel it naturally gives the benefit of authenticity because I am not trying to copy anyone else, I’m doing my own thing.
Get the Right Potential Customers
Don’t ever buy cheap bulk traffic or anything like that. You want high-quality visitors who are likely to convert. If you set up a website about a topic you love it is better to get 5,000 highly targeted visitors than 50,000 rubbish ones. Don’t get too hung on big raw numbers, quality is vital. The feel and nature of your site is also important. If people just think it is all about the free content then as soon as you promote something which costs money they don’t want to know. Whereas if your website is, for example, all about the best smartphone accessories to buy then people visiting will be in the buyer mindset. The only thing they are looking for, for free, is good information to help their buying decision. But they will certainly click thru to retailers if you are doing great hands on reviews or making cool lists like, “The 10 funkiest iPhone covers available!” They know it’s all about physical products. Whereas if you run a website ‘free hacks and tips on things to do with your iPhone’ and then go promoting accessories then people will be far less likely to convert and it won’t be on topic of the site.
Be Mobile Friendly
These days you can’t afford not to be, so many people use mobile devices it is vital. Google uses it as part of their algorithm too. For most websites they now do ‘mobile-first indexing’ meaning the mobile version is more important than the desktop version. Remember it is not enough to just be mobile friendly, it needs to look really good too and be really user friendly and load fast.
Don’t Predict Anything
Once you have chosen a niche (tip 3), planned your timing (tip 2) and then executed well (tip 4) don’t then expect revenues to come flooding in. And certainly don’t anticipate where they are going to come from. If you decide to promote 100 different products in a specific niche don’t anticipate which products will do best. This is something I learned early on. I would publish articles about the best products for different things, ones I think would do well sometimes wouldn’t, or they would do just ok. Others I would think are respectable but not exactly brilliant would get more visitors, more conversions and make more money.
Don’t try and judge stuff, go thru all the correct processes and let the finances take care of themselves. This is especially true if you join programs that pay lifetime earnings because they build up over time rather than giving quick payouts.
Be Aware of the Money
Commissions are obviously very important. Be aware of the price of the products you are going to promote, and the percentage commission. Don’t bother with products that cost a couple of dollars, it isn’t worth it. The sweet spot can sometimes be products that are around $20 with a decent commission like 8%. Because they can be high volume but still with a worthwhile commission per transaction. But it is all relative. People will be hunting around to buy cars worth tens of thousands of dollars and all sorts. Big ticket items are out there too, but it is no good if you can’t sell any. Be well aware of the money to strike a rough balance between value and volume.
Keep Risk Minimal Without Being Scared
I don’t know how much money you have in your existing or new business venture. But you will need some for; domains, hosting, promotion, freelancers and whatever else, it will depend on your business model of course (for example an app may cost a lot more to develop than a simple WordPress website). I would recommend keeping investments small because affiliate campaigns can fall flat on their face. However certainly don’t be scared of putting money in. I recently paid to make all my websites mobile friendly, including with Adsense ads as well as having affiliate links. My Adsense revenue doubled whilst not affecting CTRs on links. Awesome! For the money I put in I will get it back very quickly. An excellent investment, and shows why you shouldn’t be scared to put a bit of money in, just be sensible with it.
Put Your Heart Into it for the Right Reasons
This is arguably the best advice of them all. People just thinking about the money are unlikely to succeed. Those people end up promoting crap products just because they pay high commissions. They promote them in a horrible way with nasty pop-ups and dodgy traffic. That is gross. That is why I said in tip 4 to promote things you like and have a passion for. It will save you from going to the dark side. When you put your heart into something persistence will be natural. Those who give up quickly will do so because their heart is not in it. Put your heart in and you will create content/apps that people want, and you will get good commissions. Everybody wins! This will also lead to a more sustainable business, making success more long-term.
Thanks for reading these free tips to earn high affiliate commissions. Because you’ve got this far down the page you must be serious! So don’t let yourself down and just walk away. Make actionable plans to take advantage of your knowledge. Good luck, and remember to always work smart and hard.
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