Quick Answer: You can monetize your blog via affiliate marketing as soon as you want, though it is recommended you have at least 30 blog posts before applying to affiliate programs to maximise your chance of getting approved.
So you’ve been blogging for a while and you’re starting to gain a following.
And you’re wondering if you can start making money from your blog with affiliate marketing?
Yeah, you can do that, but there’s a catch.
You need to have at least 30 pieces of high-quality content on your blog before you can start affiliate marketing.
Here’s why:
The Power Of Quality Content
Quality content is important for successful affiliate marketing.
By definition, affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts.
In other words, you only make money from affiliate marketing if people are clicking on your links and then taking the desired action (such as making a purchase).
If you don’t have high-quality content on your blog, people are not going to stick around long enough to click on your affiliate links. They’ll come to your site, see that your content is not valuable or interesting, and immediately leave.
And even if they do stick around, they’re not going to take the desired action if they don’t trust you or don’t find your content valuable.
This is why it’s so important to have at least 30 pieces of high-quality content on your blog before you start affiliate marketing. Once you have that base of quality content, you can start working on adding affiliate links to your posts.
But until then, focus on creating helpful, informative, and engaging content that will build trust with your readers and keep them coming back for more.
Add Informational Articles First!
Instead of directly posting just affiliate links to your blog posts, it is important to keep a balance of informational and promotional content.
When most people think of affiliate marketing, they think of promotional content like product reviews and sales pages.
And while this type of content is certainly important, it’s not the only type of content that you need on your affiliate marketing blog. In fact, informational articles are just as important, if not more so.
Informational articles serve a few different purposes:
First and foremost, they help to establish you as an expert in your field. When you write informative articles that are well-researched and thoughtfully written, you are positioning yourself as an authority figure that people can trust. And when people trust you, they’re more likely to listen to your recommendations and take your advice.
Informational articles also help to build relationships with your readers. By providing valuable information for free, you’re showing your readers that you care about helping them and that you’re not just out to make a quick buck. This builds trust and loyalty, both of which are essential if you want people to stick around for the long haul.
Finally, informational articles drive traffic to your blog. When people read your articles and find them helpful, they’re likely to share them with their friends and followers. This helps to increase your reach and bring new readers to your blog. And the more readers you have, the more potential customers you have for your affiliate products.
As you can see, informational articles are an essential part of any successful affiliate marketing blog. So, if you’re not already including them in your content strategy, now is the time to start.
The Best Time to Start Adding Affiliate Links to Your Blog
So, you’ve started a blog and you’re beginning to gain some traction. Congrats! But now you’re wondering when the best time is to start adding affiliate links to your blog.
It’s best to wait until you have a decent amount of traffic before adding affiliate links to your blog.
Why?
Because if no one is reading your blog, then there’s no chance that anyone will click on your affiliate links.
Of course, the definition of “a decent amount of traffic” will differ from person to person. Some people may say that you should wait until you have 1,000 visitors per month before adding affiliate links, while others may say that 500 visitors per month is enough.
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide when you feel comfortable adding affiliate links to your blog.
If you are getting your targeted/relevant traffic even if it is 100 visitors per month, you can start putting affiliate links to your blog posts. However, it is important to note that you must have enough quality content posted on your website as we discussed earlier.
Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing On A Blog
1. Finalize Your Niche Market
The first step in starting affiliate marketing on your blog is to finalize your niche market.
In other words, you need to determine who your target audience is and what type of products or services they are interested in.
Once you have a better understanding of your target audience, you will be able to select affiliate programs that are a good fit for them.
2. Understand Your Target Audience
After you have finalized your niche market, the next step is to understand your target audience.
What are their interests? What type of content do they respond well to? Answering these questions will help you create content that resonates with them and eventually leads them to make a purchase through your affiliate link.
3. Create Your Accounts on Affiliate Marketing Channels
Now it’s time to select and create your accounts on various affiliate marketing channels. Some popular ones include Amazon Associates, Clickbank, and ShareASale. Once you have created your accounts, you will be given an affiliate link that you can promote on your blog.
4. Promote Affiliate Content with Your Blog Posts
Now that you have selected the products or services you want to promote and have set up your affiliate accounts, it’s time to start promoting the content on your blog!
The good news is there is no limit to how many products you can recommend. Just be sure to include your affiliate link in any blog posts that are relevant to the product or service so that your readers can make a purchase if they are interested.
5. Get Paid
The final step in this process is getting paid! You will typically be paid based on either a pay-per-sale or pay-per-lead basis.
This means that you will either be paid a commission for each sale that is made through your affiliate link or you will be paid a certain amount for each lead that is generated through your link. Either way, once you reach the payment threshold set by the company, you will receive a commission payout!
And that’s it—you’re now an official affiliate marketer!
Starting Affiliate Marketing On Your Blog: Bottom Line
Before you start affiliate marketing on your blog, consider these three factors:
Your niche, the demand for products in your niche, and quality informational and promotional blog posts relevant to your niche.
If you have a clear understanding of each of these factors, you’ll be well on your way to developing a successful affiliate marketing strategy for your blog.
