Selling affilate products and earning a commission on each sale sounds like a good idea. But how can you do it?

Surely if the product is successful the product owner would be making all the sales?

Well, no, actually. From big products like Windows and Coca Cola downwards, almost every company uses other people to sell their products/

The main difference with affiliate marketing is that unlike most shops, you don’t buy or hold any stock. You just get paid a commission as and when you generate a sale.

So how can you get between the customer and the thing they want to purchase long enough to get them to click your link and earn you an affiliate commission?

Use your own blog

This takes a bit of setting up – get a domain name and hosting, probably install WordPress and then create some content, weaving in links to the affiliate products you’re promoting without coming across as a sleazy salesman.

I find the best approach to take here is the same as if you were talking about the product to a friend.

You’d only want them to buy the item if it was right for them. Whether that meant satisfying their need for a new “toy”, a new pair of shoes or whatever else it was they were looking for.

You wouldn’t approach that with a “Have you bought it yet?” attitude like the donkey in Shrek who was constantly asking if they were there yet.

You’d go at the right pace for your friend, answer their questions as you went along and offer alternatives if they seemed less interested once you’d explained a bit about the item.

That’s not quite as easy to do on the web because the average web page doesn’t talk back to you.

But you can still do it, even though it’s a bit more one-sided than an actual conversation.

Create a resource

Some of the best affiliate resources I’ve seen don’t appear to push an affiliate produce at all.

Instead, they show you how to use the product.

I’ve not delved deep into how this YouTube channel monetises itself but with experiments like this one there almost certainly has to be an income stream and it could easily be affiliate products:

 

You don’t have to be that destructive.

In fact, it’s probably best that you aren’t unless your main aim is to get views.

But demonstrating how to best use a product is a time honoured technique. It works for market traders, it works at shows and exhibitions, it’s pretty much how those long infomercials work as well as most of the shopping channels.

You could be as brash as those.

Or you could almost inadvertently drop in the affiliate links.

Depending on your personality, either method would work. Or something in between.

Use your list

If you haven’t got a list, think about building one.

They’re a great way to interact with people in a “push” direction – where you send your email message direct to their inbox (or even via the phone app they downloaded, but that’s a rather more expensive project). Rather than waiting for them to remember to come back to your website.

Tips pages like this one can work well – write a page, send out a brief message to your list, let them decide whether or not to read the page,

Again, that’s non-pushy.

All you’re doing is telling people that you’ve created something that you think would interest them.

Mention your new content on social media

Social media like Facebook and Twitter are getting more forgiving about commercial content but it’s a lot more acceptable to promote content that’s helpful than it is to just fill your posts to the brim with hashtags and a link.

Think about the posts and Tweets and pins that you’ve clicked on.

Were they blatant adverts?

Or were they subtler?

My guess is you see both but react more to the ones that don’t look like adverts. That’s what most people seem to do nowadays, now that we’re splattered with adverts everywhere we look. Even toddlers know when the commercial break comes on and turn their attention elsewhere until the “real” program starts again. So we’re being trained from a very early age to tune out ads.

Instead, link off to that useful content you’ve created and carefully place an occasional affiliate link in relevant places.

And if you’d like to take your affliate marketing up a level, why not check out my program that shows you how to do just that? (How’s that for a helpful link?)