New to affiliate marketing or want to increase your chances of success? This article will outline the basics of affiliate marketing and how to develop your marketing strategy. For more information about the SSLs.com affiliate program specifically, click here.
Read on to find out 6 ways to make your affiliate business succeed.
- Understand the product
- Promote the product
- Optimize to drive traffic
- Actually get the clicks
- Monitor your performance
- Learn from the experts
1. Understand the product
Get familiar with SSLs.com and learn about SSL certificates. We have numerous educational articles about SSLs on our blog and knowledgebase, such as these helpful articles on the difference between each SSL type and who needs SSLs and why.
2. Promote the product
Choose where you will promote SSL certificates (for example, website content, social media, emails) and how you will promote them. Here are some ideas to get started:
Create high-quality content and integrate your affiliate link
For success in affiliate marketing, creating content that complements your affiliate links and banners is vital. A great way of doing this is defining a problem your site visitors may have and solving it for them. SSLs are an essential part of web security, so it’s a valuable subject for anyone with a website. Potential content topics could include website security, hosting, comparing SSL providers, or domain names.
Place a banner on your site, social media, or email messages
We have created an array of eye-catching animated banners that will complement any site. Make sure to find a prominent place where the banner will fit organically and be effective.
Refer your customers
If you provide online services to clients that require SSL certificates, web-hosting, or domains, why not refer them to SSLs.com via your affiliate link.
3. Optimize to drive traffic
For people to click on your links, you first need to get them on your site. There are a whole host of ways to attract new users to your site, such as:
Search engine optimization
SEO is the practice of improving your website to rank high in search engines like Google. Ranking high in search engines is key to driving consistent, passive traffic to your site.
SEO involves a whole host of elements, but at its most basic involves: understanding what your target customers are searching for; creating content around those topics; keyword research and link building; and a whole host of backend technical considerations.
Building an email list to communicate with your audience
Whether you want to start a newsletter or simply keep your readers up-to-date, email lists allow you to communicate with your readers and whoever else is interested at any time. Regularly emailing your audience should result in more affiliate clicks and sales. Ensure you build a solid list by including a clear “subscribe” button or pop-up box on your site.
4. Actually get the clicks
Be mindful about where you place your affiliate links and banners. There’s no magic number for affiliate links, but err on the side of fewer, and remember that balance is key. Good content does not necessarily result in clicks, especially if you have your links buried at the bottom of the page, where your typical, easily-distracted Internet user rarely scrolls. Don’t be tempted to hyperlink multiple words in your introduction either, lest you want to look spammy and untrustworthy.
Focus on making your content skimmable and easy-to-read, while placing affiliate links in tables, boxes, or CTA buttons.
5. Monitor your performance
Continually monitoring your affiliate performance is key to success. Identify your KPIs and set realistic targets from the start, and review them regularly. By doing this you’ll learn visitor behavior, understand their wants and needs, and will be able to adjust your link or banner placements accordingly. You can monitor your affiliate performance easily in your Impact Radius account.
6. Learn from the experts
Keep up-to-date with the latest trends and insights by subscribing to the blogs, newsletters, and forums of popular affiliate marketers. These can be a great source of knowledge and inspiration, as well as a way to get advice and connect with like-minded people. Here are a few of our recommendations:
Affiliate Marketing Newsletters and Blogs
- Neil Patel – a major affiliate marketer who regularly writes content about becoming a better affiliate marketer and digital marketing in general.
- Affiliate Tips – solid website content with a weekly newsletter that provides tips and news relevant to affiliate marketing.
- Feed Front – a magazine for affiliate marketers written in conjunction with the Affiliate Summit conference.
- Affiliate Tip – not to be confused with the site above, this helpful blog is run by Affiliate Summit co-founder Shawn Collins, who also writes the Extra Money Answer blog, which features more information on affiliate marketing.
- Marketing Land – a great resource for digital marketing in general.
Affiliate Forums
- Warrior Forum – an old-school forum that’s been around for a long time, Warrior Forum is used by marketers to share insights into successful affiliate marketing methods.
- Digital Point – another great forum with very active users discussing a variety of marketing topics.
- Affiliate Fix – a solid forum with just under 100,000 members and half a million posts.
- Stack the Money – a well-frequented forum with great advice for all levels of affiliate marketing experience.
- AffLIFT – a paid forum with affiliate marketing guides, case studies, and recommendations from its members.