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Affiliate Marketing Simplified: How To Put Affiliate Links On Your Blog?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. Do you not know what affiliate marketing is? Or how to put affiliate links on your blog? Then this guide will simplify it for you.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most impressive ways to earn an income from a blog. It is also simple, but not everyone can do it. That’s why you need to get the affiliate marketing basics right. 

Stuffing a few affiliate links here isn’t a reliable strategy. And that’s why most new bloggers fail. They’re either not serious about it or are confused.

If affiliate marketing is a bit confusing to you then keep reading this post as I’m about to break it down for you. You will learn what affiliate marketing is, how to get started, and most importantly how to put affiliate links on your blog.

So, how to put affiliate links on your blog?

The right way to put affiliate links on your blog involves these seven steps. You must follow these steps in sequence to make sure you don’t miss anything important.

  • Join affiliate programs in your niche
  • Get your unique affiliate link
  • Write a high-quality blog post
  • Add your affiliate link
  • Disclose your affiliate link
  • Publish your blog post
  • Promote your blog post

This is not it, I will go deeper into each of these steps so you know exactly how to make affiliate marketing work for you.

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affiliate marketing for bloggers

This post may contain some affiliate links that is I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you that I would use to maintain this blog. Thanks for understanding.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is Affiliate Marketing for Beginners?

Affiliate marketing is promoting products or services of others to your readers and getting paid a portion of the total sale amount as commission whenever someone purchases using your referral. 

Neil Patel defines affiliate marketing as, 

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.

Yes, affiliate marketing for beginners is simple and best because when starting you won’t have your products so in that case you can promote others’ products and earn a commission.

Some of the affiliate marketing examples:

Quite simple isn’t it?

How does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing works simply. It involves three types of people – seller, affiliate, and consumer.

Seller

A seller is a person whose products you’re going to promote. For each sale you bring to him he will pay you an amount. This amount is generally a percentage of the sale.

Affiliate 

An affiliate is a person who will sign a deal with the product owner. You’re called an affiliate when you get paid for promoting the products of another person to your readers. 

Consumer

Consumers are your readers who buy the product using your referral. These people complete the cycle and are the most important for making the sale.

Let me clear it with an example, 

Suppose you found out about this awesome web hosting company. You purchased the hosting plan and used it for a while. Some of your readers have told you in the past that they don’t have a great experience with their web hostings. 

Now, you want to let your readers also know about this awesome web hosting. So to become an affiliate for that web hosting company you applied for it.

Upon approval, you got your unique affiliate link. You used it to promote web hosting while telling your readers about it.

The frustrated readers bought the new web hosting by clicking on your referral link. They’re happy because they got rid of their troubling web hosting. You’re happy because you helped your readers and got paid for it.

Ultimately, you and your readers both benefit from this. It’s a win-win for both. 

So you become an affiliate, you promote a product, someone buys through your link, and you earn a portion of it.

The best way to benefit from affiliate marketing is to put affiliate links on your blog and drive blog traffic. The more people who land on your blog posts the more sales you can expect.

Why Put Affiliate Links on Your Blog?

Now, you might be wondering who put affiliate links on your blog. So, here are some benefits of using affiliate marketing to monetize your blog.

Earn regular income

If you want a steady stream of income then affiliate marketing is the best option for you. Even as a beginner, if your readers trust your opinion and take your recommendations then you’ll never have trouble making affiliate sales.

Also, an affiliate link on a blog post stays forever, so if you manage to promote it regularly you’ll be able to earn a regular income from it. 

Create as many blog posts as you want

Once you publish a blog post it stays forever. Over time it will start ranking on Google and you will get organic traffic to it without any promotion. 

So, if you create blog posts by adding affiliate links to products that your readers want then you’re building your income assets. The more blog posts you publish the more the sources of affiliate income grow. 

All you have to do is build trust with your audience and create quality blog posts. 

Free to get started

But the best part is that affiliate marketing is free to get started. All you need is an audience and you can become an affiliate to any product and promote it to them.

Don’t pay anyone to become an affiliate for their products. You’ll get emails that’ll make it sound like a very good deal. But it isn’t, never should you join an affiliate program, pay them, and bring them sales.

Instead, you apply to become an affiliate for free and they will approve/disapprove your application.

Promote your favorite products

You must have a few favorite products that you can’t find any flaws or glitches. I have many and that’s why I never stop marketing them. I recommend them even without my affiliate link.

Similarly, you will promote your favorite products to your readers and nurture your relationship with them. If you love the product and it’s the exact thing your frustrated reader was looking for then if you tell him about it and solve his big problem you’re already his favorite blogger.

So you see affiliate marketing is not only a wonderful way to monetize your blog but also helps you strengthen your relationships with your readers.

Can you do Affiliate Marketing Without a Blog?

Another common question is, can you do affiliate marketing without a blog? 

The answer is yes, but it might not be the best way. Affiliate marketing without a log means promoting links to your social media followers or an email list. 

Sure, an email list is still a good option but you can’t expect your readers to keep buying the products you send them in every email. And they hate getting promotional emails. 

But you can add as many affiliated blog posts as you want. The only condition is that they must be helpful to your readers. Plus, you can use affiliate links on pages other than blog posts. 

So, having a blog is an easy way to do affiliate marketing.

How to Make an Affiliate Marketing Blog?

So, if you don’t have a blog and want to create one, then let me tell you – it’s easy to get started.

You can sign up for my 11-day detailed course on how to start a profitable blog. 

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Or you can follow this step-by-step tutorial to start a WordPress blog now. 

Now, let’s move on to the fun part.

How to Put Affiliate Links on Your Blog?

Putting affiliate links on your blog is simple work. However, you might miss out on extremely important steps if you don’t do it the right way. That’s why here are all the seven steps that you should follow to use affiliate links on your blog properly.

1. Join Affiliate Programs in your Niche

The first step is to join affiliate programs that are in your blog niche. For example, if you’re a food blogger and you share recipes on your blog then promoting a musical instrument like a guitar on your blog is not the right choice. 

None of your audience will be interested in finding out about some guitar. They will not buy it. And soon enough they will lose interest in reading your blog.

But they’re very much interested in finding out which brand’s microwave you used to bake bread for your latest recipe. So, why not give them your affiliate link? This way, you have helped your reader and made some income.

Therefore, you must know what your blog niche is and then pick products to promote that fall in this niche. And your niche can be something tiny, broad niches do not work that great.

If you blog about blogging then here are the best affiliate programs for you to promote.

2. Get your Unique Affiliate Link

Once you get your affiliate application approved, then you must create your unique affiliate link. Your sale will be tracked only if it is made by clicking through your link. If you don’t use it then it will not be called your sale. 

You can easily find your unique affiliate link on your affiliate dashboard. For example, if I want to get my affiliate link from Mailerlite then I will log into my Mailerlite affiliate dashboard.

mailerlite affiliate link to learn how to put affiliate links on your blog

Unique affiliate links don’t have a clean structure. As you can see above, my unique link looks spammy and not trustable. If your readers think that it is a spammy link then you can miss out on many sales. 

That’s why I use Pretty Links. It converts ugly links into pretty links by temporarily redirecting the old link to a new link.

Now the same Mailerlite link is prettier and does not look spammy – https://ektasw.com/mailerlite

So, make sure to convert normal affiliate links into pretty links before using them on your blog.

3. Write a High-Quality Blog Post

Once you have a link, it’s time to write a wonderful blog post to add your affiliate link. Why I don’t recommend promoting affiliate links directly is because it’s not trustworthy. It leaves the impression that you’re trying to get sales only and don’t care about the reader.

Writing an informative blog post solves this problem. Because you’re not pushing your affiliate links but giving information to your readers. 

So what are high-quality blog posts? 

High-quality blog posts are blog posts that help the readers find the solution to a problem. Here are some resources to help you write good blog posts.

Follow these guides to write a brilliant article and make sure to mention your affiliate product so that you can use the link. Talk about how this product helped you do something more quickly or easily. 

4. Add your Affiliate Link

After writing the final draft of your blog post you will add your affiliate link where you talked about the product. To add an affiliate link to a blog post on WordPress follow these steps.

1. Highlight the part of the text you wish to add your link on. Now, click on the link icon from the top bar.

clicking on the link on icon to learn how to put affiliate links on your blog

2. Copy and paste your affiliate link in the bank field. 

pasting a link on the empty space

3. Turn the “open in a new tab” and “no-follow link” options on. 

turning the setting on while adding a link on wordpress

The “open in a new tab” option makes sure the link opens in another tab such that your blog post remains open. And the “no-follow link” tab marks the link as no-follow. Google recommends marking affiliate links as no-follow.

You will only see the “no-follow link” option if you’ve installed the Yoast plugin on your blog. It is a free SEO plugin that helps in improving site SEO. So, if you want to no-follow affiliate links make sure to install the Yoast plugin.

4. Hit the “Enter” button and you will notice the link is added to the blog post.

adding a link on wordpress blog post

5. Disclose your Affiliate Link 

Many new bloggers skip this step. But do you know that disclosing affiliate links is not only important but also legally required? 

You must tell your readers that you’ve used affiliate links on your blog and you might make some income if they purchase through your link.

Most bloggers write a small disclosure in the introduction part of a blog post. For example, here’s how I do it.

This post may contain some affiliate links that is I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you that I would use to maintain this blog. Thanks for understanding.

Some bloggers write a disclosure in the footer section or on the sidebar of their website. Such as this website.

affiliate disclosure on sidebar

You can do it anyway. 

However, the most important part is to have proper legal pages on your blog. Having proper legal pages keeps your blog secure from things like plagiarism etc.

6. Publish your Blog Post

So, you’ve added your affiliate link and disclosure. Now, check if your link is working properly or not. When everything looks good, click on the “Publish” button and make your post online.

publishing the blog post

7. Promote your Blog Post

Blog posts are great places to use affiliate links. But it is not the only option for bloggers. Therefore, to increase your affiliate sales you can use affiliate links in other places. 

Resource Page – Create a resource page where you list all tools that you use to run your blog and add affiliate links. 

Sidebar – Add affiliate links or banners on the sidebar. This is a good option to get some attention to your links. For example, here’s how Lewi does it on her blog.

promoting affiliate products on sidebar

Social Media – I rarely promote affiliate links on social media as they damage your image. But, I do it once in a while and make some affiliate sales.

Send Emails – You can also send affiliate links in your emails. But make sure to not over-promote affiliate links in emails. Focus on building a nurturing relationship with your subscribers first. 

So this is how to put affiliate links on a WordPress blog. Now, let’s look at some affiliate marketing tips to grow your sales.

5 Affiliate Marketing Tips For Bloggers

I know you will want to put your affiliate links everywhere and hope that someone would buy from you but this is not the right way. 

You will have to do things the right way such as

1. Find A Profitable Blog Niche

Don’t join an affiliate program just for the sake of big money. No one would buy from you. 

For example, if a food blogger starts promoting mattresses then her readers would be annoyed and leave her blog. 

Instead, find a profitable blog niche and join relevant programs. 

If you are not sure which niche to choose, here’s a list of 271+ low competitive blog niche ideas that make money. 

2. Understand Your Audience Needs

Find out the problems your target audience is facing then find out the affiliate products that would solve the problem then start promoting them. 

Make sure to write informative blog posts and talk a little bit about your affiliate products. Your main goal should be to help your readers.

3. Write Helpful Content To Promote Your Links 

Always write helpful content to support your affiliate links. If they find what you are saying is true they are more likely to buy the products you recommend. 

For this, you can plan your blog content accordingly. 

Get this blog planner to manage your blog. It also has a separate section for affiliate marketing.

4. Always Write An Affiliate Disclosure 

Whenever you are using affiliate links on your blog posts or anywhere make sure to include an affiliate disclosure to them. 

If you don’t do it you can get penalized for breaking rules. Always read the full guidelines before joining a program.

5. Build An Email List 

One of the best places to promote affiliate products is an email list. Because these are your loyal readers who follow your blog closely and would be interested in the offers you share. 

If you don’t have an email list here’s a guide to get started. 

So these were some of my best affiliate marketing tips for beginners. 

Some FAQs On Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers

1- How do I start affiliate marketing as a beginner?

Starting affiliate marketing is very easy. You can refer to the steps told above to learn how to make money online with affiliate marketing.

2- Can you make money with affiliate marketing as a beginner?

Yes, you can make money but with the right approach. I started monetizing my blog after 8 to 9 months of starting it. I was more focused on publishing content. So you can make money with affiliate marketing only by helping your readers. 

3- How much money can you make as an affiliate marketer?

As much as you can. With the right strategy and engaged audience, you can grow your affiliate sales. 

4- Is affiliate marketing easy?

I wouldn’t say it’s hard either. You need to figure out how it is working for you and once you have found it then all you can expect is growth.  Check out Carly’s course on Affiliate Marketing. Carly's Affiliate Marketing Course For Bloggers

5- How much do Affiliate marketers make?

Affiliate marketers make a lot of money. Michelle Schroeder makes more than $10,000 per month from her blog.

6- What is the best affiliate marketing program for beginners?

There’s no “best affiliate marketing program” for bloggers. It depends on the blog niche. However, some networks to find quality products are on this list. 

7- How do affiliates get paid?

Once a reader buys from the affiliate link using his referral the affiliate marketer is paid. 

Conclusion

Here comes an end to our beginner-friendly guide on affiliate marketing for bloggers.

To summarize, you learned what is affiliate marketing, how it works, some top affiliate programs for beginners, and the best affiliate tips to get better results.

It takes time to start seeing results. So, don’t lose hope if you don’t make any sales in the beginning. I remember how happy I was when I received an email saying I got a sale.

You will get these emails too. With some time, tricks, and quality content.

I hope you found this post helpful. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Or why not subscribe to my newsletter and get blogging and writing tips straight to your inbox every week?

what is affiliate marketing

More resources for you to check out:

16 thoughts on “Affiliate Marketing Simplified: How To Put Affiliate Links On Your Blog?”

  1. Becoming an affiliate has been something on my mind, but I wasn’t sure where to start. I’ll bookmark this for when I’m ready to jump in!

    1. Great! I’m happy to know that you found it helpful. Making passive money online is one of the things that has always captured my attention. I was so glad when I learned about affiliate marketing.

  2. Nice breakdown of what & where to start affiliate marketing. I’m inclined to start service affiliate marketing as I’m starting to play around with my marketing tools myself.

    One question though. When you have an affiliate with a product, do they actually send you the product? How will I be able to review it if I don’t actually have anything to review or show that I actually own? Or will I need to purchase the item to review it?

    1. Thanks Joquim, I appreciate your comments.

      About the product, I don’t think they send you the product or in some cases, they may but I haven’t been getting products so far.

      The best you can do is by actually using the product. That way, you will be able to give an honest opinion. For that reason I recommend you buy the product and use it then you recommend it to anyone. Like I did for the Bluehost post. MY REVIEW OF BLUEHOST WEB HOSTING

      Hope this helps.

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