Smart Affiliate Marketing Strategies

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.

• You’re happy because you earned a commission…
• The company is happy because they have a new sale from a customer that they might not have normally been able to reach…
• And the customer is happy because they learned about a product from you that will hopefully fulfill a need or desire.

The beauty of affiliate marketing is that you don’t have to invest the time and effort to create a product to sell. You can begin selling something as an affiliate as soon as you have a platform to sell it on.

Affiliate marketing is something I’ve been doing ever since I started my first business online on my LEED Exam website – promoting a third party company’s practice exam software along with my own published eBooks and audio guides.

I also do affiliate marketing here on the Smart Passive Income blog, sharing many of the tools and services that I use to run my online businesses, and if you or anyone else purchases through my affiliate links I earn a commission. If you’ve purchased from my links before, thank you so much! I greatly appreciate your support!

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT RULES I HAVE FOR AFFILIATE MARKETING

Before I share the strategies that I’ve used to generate over $20,000 in affiliate commissions per month, there are extremely important rules I use when promoting products that are not my own. You don’t have to use these rules in order to become an affiliate or be successful at it, but it’s what has helped me grow my affiliate income tremendously over the last couple of years:

1. I only recommend products as an affiliate that I’m extremely very familiar with – preferably products that I’ve used before and have helped me achieve something. If I’m not confident in the product and I don’t feel it will positively help people, I will not promote it.
2. I never directly tell anyone to buy a product. I always recommend products based on my experience and in the context of what I’ve done or what I’m doing.

Honest affiliate marketing has always worked best for me, so I encourage you to do the same.

Here are my best articles and podcast episodes about affiliate marketing:

• 3 Types of Affiliate Marketing Explained, and the One I Profit From
• 8 Principles for Effective Affiliate Marketing on a Blog
• Multiple Strategies I Use for Affiliate Marketing – Where to Put Affiliate Links
• Affiliate and Niche Site Strategies Revealed with Glen Allsop (Podcast Session #003)
• Crushing it with Amazon Affiliate Sales with Chris Guthrie (Podcast Session #010)
• An Insider Look: My Affiliate Links and Exactly Where They Convert
• Pat’s Top 30 Tips for Successful Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing the Smart Way (My 2012 Blog World Expo Presentation)
• http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/affiliate-marketing-strategies/