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Tips for bloggers looking to monetise their sites through affiliate commission

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After a study of UK bloggers which revealed that the average individual making affiliate commission from their site makes more than £900 in this way each year, industry experts from the European affiliate marketing company Optimus Performance Marketing have compiled some advice for bloggers wishing to do similar.  
affiliate, have a mint

Recently, Optimus Performance Marketing looked into the average amount of money made by the average ‘lifestyle’ blogger in the UK; finding that they can make as much as £906 per year through affiliate sales and commission alone.

Following this discovery, the team at OPM have compiled a selection of advisory tips for bloggers who may be looking to start taking advantage of affiliate commission on their websites in the near future.

Top tips for bloggers considering becoming affiliates:

Are you doing it for the right reasons?

It’s all well and good thinking that your blog is at the stage where it could start making you money, and it’s true that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to make money online.
However, simply because you want to ‘make money’ should not be the sole reason for wanting to continue a blog. Blogging and writing insightful and imaginative articles that strike a chord with your audience should be the ultimate driving force spurring your blog on. Readers will see through posts that are too promotion-heavy.

Do you have a wide enough following?

In order to start making some money from your blog, you don’t necessarily need to have thousands and thousands of existing subscribers. In our experience, much of the engagement and comments left on a lifestyle blog will be from individuals who have organically discovered your site through social media pages and not by those who are already subscribed to your blog. If you feel as though your content is generating enough unique views, engagement and comments from a wide plethora of readers, then becoming an affiliate site is absolutely something to consider seriously.

Are you driving enough traffic to your blog from social media platforms?

We cannot highlight enough the important role that social media will play in whether or not a move into the realm of affiliate commission is a successful one. By staying active and sharing original content on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google + and Pinterest, you can make sure you are continually building your following and chances of making commissions through sales made through your site. It is also worth actively encouraging shares, retweets and re-pins of particularly popular posts, especially by other high-profile bloggers who may follow you.

Is your content engaging enough for your audience?

If you are seriously interested in making money through your blog, you will need to start writing reviews of products and services with affiliate marketing in mind. You cannot simply throw links out randomly and expect a wave of commission to start rolling in. It is far more effective to think of the affiliate links as added resources that compliment your existing copy, and not the sole reason you have written the piece in the first place.

Do you have the extra time to dedicate to your blog?

Perhaps a rather straightforward point, but chances are you already juggle writing and managing your blog with full-time work or studying. Therefore, an important question to ask yourself is whether you can dedicate the required amount of time to monetising your blog, especially if it starts to do very well for you. Would you be willing to forego the odd night out or shopping trip with friends in order to stay in and work on your blog? If the answer is no, then you might want to re-think your options.

Would you know the kinds of affiliate programs to approach?

Affiliate links will earn you commission if you successfully drive a sale to the merchant, which means that a blog reader will need to click on one of your embedded links, and either purchase or sign up to something before you see any kind of commission. Therefore, the more relevant your affiliate ad is to your reader’s likes and preferences, the higher the chances they will click on the link and make a subsequent purchase.

Mark Russell, CEO of Optimus Performance Marketing, said: “In theory, using affiliate commission to boost your income could not be easier or more straightforward. However, in reality, in such a saturated market, it’s important that one is 100% sure of the things to take into account before committing to affiliate sales. It is our hope that the advice and tips included above will help any bloggers with their decision-making process and help them to avoid making a rushed choice.”

Sally Hooton
Author: Sally Hooton
Editor at The GMA | www.the-gma.com

Trained as a journalist from the age of 18 and enjoying a long career in regional newspaper reporting and editing, Sally Hooton joined DMI (Direct Marketing International) magazine as editor in 2001. DMI then morphed into The GMA, taking her with it!

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