A successful affiliate marketer knows that flashy, ‘promise you the world’ software, is no match for hard work and common sense. If you could simply press a few buttons to replace your salary, wouldn’t we all be doing it by now?
The reality is a successful affiliate is constantly searching for new techniques to improve their marketing, website and consequently drive more sales to their partners. Yes, there are a few ‘short cuts’ to success, mainly in the form of sticking to the proven basics and doing them well, which is what many affiliates neglect.
So with a market that is somewhat saturated with ‘top tips’ for affiliates, how many of these strategies actually work? Here are four that will help you keep moving towards success:
1. Create your own unique content
One of the most useful and successful strategies for affiliates is creating unique content for your own website. Remember I said ‘creating’ not copying or swiping standard content which has been posted by countless other affiliates.
Firstly, content is king . . . or more specifically, original content is king! This is because search engines will respond favourably to it and your visitors are more likely to click on your monetised links. Create as much long, quality content as you possibly can and get a bank of content too, so you can post regularly.
Secondly, great content gives you authority in your niche and looks professional, too. Potential customers will not engage with your website if it’s not full of relevant and product-related content, let alone buy from it.
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Get a variety, too! It’s best to create a variety of content, such as step-by-step guides, valuable info and product reviews, which you can ensure is long content of around 2,000 words. This is important for search engine bait, as you can’t compete with thin posts which are a couple of hundred words long.
Make sure you create questionnaires, quizzes, infographics and videos, too. This sort of shareable and engaging content is much more likely to improve your conversions.
2. Time to go mobile
Making sure your website is mobile-friendly is now essential. Do not, under any circumstances, overlook this as Google is taking it so seriously, too. They have now introduced Mobile-First Indexing, meaning it now ranks its search listing based on the mobile version of a website.
Why is this? It’s simply because the popularity of accessing the internet via mobile has gone through the roof. In fact, 87% of internet users now have a smartphone, the Global Web Index reports (graph pictured right) and mobile ecommerce is on the rise, from $25 billion in 2015 to $31 billion in 2016, comScore research shows.
Nearly 8 out of 10 mobile phone searches for local business information result in a purchase, research from comScore shows.
So, what does this mean for affiliates? Put simply, if your site isn’t mobile-optimised, there’s a good chance you won’t be found.
Don’t get left behind! Use the Google mobile-friendliness checker, which highlights if your pages are mobile-friendly in search rankings or not.
Look at the speed of your site on mobile, remove any pop-ups and design your site with mobile in mind in the first place. Make sure you’re still targeting good quality keywords and don’t forget SEO, too. Making sure your site is mobile-optimised is a great strategy for out-ranking your non-mobile-friendly competitors.
3. Stay ahead of the marketplace
Keeping your website and products fresh and topical is vitally important for your affiliate business. Advertisers and product-owners want to work with affiliates that stay on trend and offer a solid and relevant platform for selling their products. For successful affiliates, this means staying ahead of the game and keeping track of the latest seasonal products and break-out trends.
Seasonal trends are obviously predictable and can be planned for in advance. Use Google Trends to track search volumes at peak times throughout the year, while you can also filter by seasonal trends in specific industries. For break-out trends and product ‘crazes’ there is no quick win. Instead, keep track of what industry experts are predicting for the year ahead in your niche and keep up to date with trend news on a daily basis.
In terms of a strategy, knowing what’s around the corner in your industry and having a game plan in advance is a hugely powerful tool to add to your affiliate arsenal. So keep an eye on the latest news and look out for new product launches coming up.
4. Analyse your data
Data analysis is essential to affiliate success and is often the secret weapon in a super affiliate’s armoury, helping them to successfully scale their campaigns.
The great thing is it’s now easy to benefit from this overlooked, incredibly valuable resource, even for new affiliates. Many affiliate programs have realised the value of providing in-depth data to affiliates and are finally evolving from supplying only clicks and sales data, to a full in-depth tracking solution, with dozens of specific, useful metrics to analyse.
The top affiliates go even further, combining this data with multiple other tools including Google Analytics, Voluum and Adzooma, to ensure they have every drop of profitable information.
Headline performance, bounce rates, best converting adverts and best converting devices, for instance, can all give insights into crafting perfect campaigns. Some affiliates dig even deeper analysing customer demographics including country, city, gender, age and interests.
Copy the smartest, most successful affiliates and invest your time into data analysis, as it’s constantly proving to be the difference between a profitable and costly campaign.
Affiliates that rest on their laurels and don’t embrace a fast-paced and ever-changing marketplace, will struggle to be successful. Keep your content varied and on point, make sure your site is perfectly poised on mobile and enjoy keeping ahead of the curve in your niche. Follow a clear strategy, trust in what you’re doing and work hard and you’ll be well on the way to super affiliate status.
Read also:
How to rank your website around the world: international SEO
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