Getting Hopeless on Affiliate Marketing? Then Here’s to Get Your Hopes Up

I’ve been focusing lately on reviewing a lot of get paid to blog companies which many of my readers have found useful (thank God). This time, let’s redirect the make money subject a little bit farther and go to one of my favorites- affiliate marketing. Why one of my favorites? Well it’s simple, the thing they tell you when you sign up as an affiliate is true, that you usually (depending on the circumstances of course) get lifelong recurring money.

But then, simple things always tends to go complicated right?

I can’t blame many of the bloggers who have a long time ago (or just plans to) ditch the potential of earning through the affiliate marketing system. Sure, everyone gets pulled into it by the great earning possibilities that are offered. I’ve seen a lot of good pays, even the ‘to good to be true’ ones. But then of course, experience tells me that the higher the money offer is, the harder it usually is to luring people to get into the product or service.

I am also familiar with the usual complains of affiliates that it’s just getting harder and harder everyday to make some money out of it. There are times when one places all these affiliate links and banners only to get nothing for months. But the biggest challenge so far is that people usually don’t like it- hate it more of. I’ve read somewhere of a post complaining that readers would more likely to just type in the domain address rather than click on the affiliate link. Guess they just don’t like the idea of other people making money through them.

Yup. It’s getting hard but still affiliate marketing is not that impossible for us to give up

Besides, it’s still good money at the end of the day. All we need is a bunch of good strategies and to stop having that ‘give-up’ attitude. Now listen here you guys, I’ve prepared some helpful (or so I hope) strategies that might give back your hopes back on affiliate marketing. It might not be much, but I think it would help.

Tip Number 1: Write A Post
To make people consider your affiliate link, you must first tell them what it’s all about. Sure, just sticking an affiliate banner in your blog might drive in some curious readers, but I bet a post would be way better. Make it even look like a sponsored post if you want, and YOU are the one sponsoring it (it’s strategy guys). Tell about the product or service and how it would be beneficial to everybody. Subtly add your links in your posts and who knows how many people you might have convinced right?

Tip Number 2: Place Banners on Easy to Spot Places
This is the reason why 125x125 banner ads are so popular on sidebars these days right? Just like using strategical positions with those Google ads (though I’ve quite on Google ads a long long time ago), you should also use a certain strategy on placing your banners. It’s much better if you include it as part of your theme and blend it really well. There’s an art to it really.

Tip Number 3: When all else fails, let’s do link cloaking!
Many of you I bet already know about link cloaking. But since I’m living up with the reputation given to me by other blogs as someone who teaches blogging effectively using mostly simple terms (thereby making this blog a good place for newbies to start with), I think I should give a short definition just to make sure everyone can really get the idea. Link cloaking is really, cloaking your link. It’s just a simple process of making your links shorter and unrecognizable from the real link. For example http://betterbloggingforbloggers.blogspot.com/ is a long link. If you want to make it shorter, you just go to sites like www.tweetburner.com or www.tinyurl.com and let them change the link (example from http://betterbloggingforbloggers.blogspot.com/ to www.twitter.com/1234) either to make it shorter or unrecognizable or even both. And if anyone still doesn’t know, the shortened link still directs to the same site as the original one.

The beauty of link cloaking on affiliate marketing is that it doesn’t give you a choice but to just click on the shortened link because you don’t know what exactly the original link is. Unless, of course if you’ve given them a good hint about what the original domain is. Moving on.

Tip Number 4: Be Honest
I’m not forcing this to everybody, but really, this trick works. The whole point is, just go tell them it’s an affiliate link, they’ll figure it out anyway if there not that stupid. So just go and tell them straight away things like ‘This is an affiliate link. Please help us make money to support this site.’

Believe it or not, things like that really do work. Think about Entrecard and the new affiliate links on your dashboard. See the note under the affiliate image links and look at the proof yourself. Entrecard must have made thousands of dollars already from those affiliate links. The good part is everyone knows in the first place that they are affiliate links, and they still clicked on it. Great right?