Affiliate Marketing Tips for New Bloggers

These affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers are important to know before getting started but are often overlooked.  When you’re just starting out with your blog, it’s easy to dive in headfirst without really knowing the in’s and outs. You’re excited about getting your online business off the ground and are looking to start making money… and fast! We’ve definitely been there and made tons of mistakes which is why we want to make sure we school you so you can avoid making them as well.

When it comes to affiliate marketing, you can definitely make passive income from your efforts. The problem is, you need to know how to start out the right way so you’re not spinning your wheels. Here, we’re sharing 7 important affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers to know before they get started. Read on so you can learn how to get started with these affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers the right way and kill it with your online business.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you use them to make a purchase, I’ll earn enough money from that sale to maybe buy myself some wine. Because I probably deserve it.

First, before we get into the important affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers, let me break down what an affiliate marketer is!

An Affiliate Marketer is someone who promotes a brand, business, product or service to their target audience and receives a commission once it’s purchased or signed up for.
For example: let’s say you have a home decor blog and are an affiliate of Amazon Associates. You post a blog showing how you’ve decorated your home office with items from Amazon Prime. You share the items that you’ve purchased by using your special affiliate link. Now, when your audience makes a purchase using the link to products you share (hello fuzzy office chair), you will earn a commission for each sale made. Cool right?

Now that you know what an affiliate marketer is, let’s jump into the important affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers. Let’s go!

1. Have an Affiliate Marketing Plan and Strategy

You know what they say, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. In order to kill it, you need to follow each of these important affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers; especially this one. Before choosing affiliate products to promote to your audience, make sure that you know exactly where you will promote your affiliate links, how much you want to earn with them, and how well they will work for your audience.

This will help you stand out against your competition because unlike newbie affiliates, you won’t be posting random links all over your blog hoping they’ll click. Instead, you’ll actually have a plan and a strategy to share your links (i.e. Pinterest, Your blog, or Email list) will help you to maximize your audience reach and test the results. Obviously, your goal is to make sales, (duh)  so having a plan will help you to track your affiliate link placements and their results.

2. Know your Niche

When you know your specific niche market (the field of business you want to market. i.e. home office decor for female entrepreneurs) it’s so much easier to market to your audience. The more specified you are about the types of the market you’re going to be working in, the better you will be at dominating that niche. Knowing your niche will allow you to fully understand what products and services your audience needs and wants. By providing your target audience with products and or information they will begin to see you as the go-to person. When your audience feels you have the answers to their issues, or can provide you with the “thing” they need, they’ll be more likely to buy from you! When they buy from you, you make the commission! It’s a win-win.

3. Be Selective With Promoting Products

Of all the affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers that I’m sharing with you, this one is pretty crucial. There are literally TONS of businesses and products you can be an affiliate for. However, this doesn’t mean that you should.  Be as selective with promoting products as you are with swiping left on Bumble.  The key is to stick to a few quality products and services that make sense for your niche. Be sure that you’re only promoting quality products.

One mistake many affiliate marketing beginners make is being too “loose” with the products they share. They sprinkle their affiliate links all over their posts hoping to get a sale. This not only SCREAMS “hey I’m a newbie” but also comes off as too sales-y. This is an instant turn-off to your would-be audience. Desperation is NOT sexy! Being the cool, modest, confident affiliate marketer is so much more alluring. Stick to sharing between 1 to 3 relevant affiliate links per post.

The more selective you are, the more exclusive you’ll appear and your audience will love you for it. So much they’ll feel compelled to pull out their card and buy.

4. Test the Products or Service

For the love of all that is…I beg you to test your products and services before promoting them. Remember that as a business owner, you have a reputation to uphold. Do you want to come across as sleazy or trustworthy?  This is what you need to ask yourself before choosing to back a product or service. I’m thinking you’re opting to be a trustworthy brand your audience can trust. Am I right?

In that case, you need to be sure that you avoid promoting anything you can’t vouch for. If you’ve never used the product, have never heard of the brand, then don’t promote it.  Test out the products and services that you refer to your audience and give only honest reviews. Because your audience will tie you to everything you share, you need to make it worthwhile.

For example, we made the choice to promote the product “Get Paid to Pin” by Dale of Blogging Her Way. She promises to teach how to get paid passive income with affiliate marketing using Pinterest pins. Because her product proved itself worthy of a great product that delivered on its word. It is also exactly what our audience needs to help make money using Pinterest. So, we chose to make it part of our affiliate marketing plan. If it wasn’t of quality, and not beneficial to our audience, we wouldn’t be promoting it.

Bottom line, know your shit and don’t promote shitty products or services you wouldn’t use yourself. It’s really that simple. “Not all money is good money.” Quality over quantity, baby!

5. Break Up With Affiliate Programs

Sometimes, affiliate programs make changes in their products, commission fees, or even overall rules. If you find that the affiliate product or program you’ve been using is no longer working for you or your audience, it’s time to say “Thank u Next”! As stated within these affiliate marketing tips for female entrepreneurs, there are more than enough affiliate products out there. As a bad-ass boss babe, you must refuse to work with anything or anyone that no longer serves you. Sending out a simple email to your customers letting them know why you broke up will show them you’re about your business. This will help them to feel they can trust you further down the line when you introduce another affiliate marketing program you believe in.

6. Don’t Be Afraid to Promote High Ticket Items

As beginners, many female entrepreneurs/new bloggers shy away from promoting high-ticket affiliate products and services to their audience. Let me be the first to tell you to STOP IT! Choose to promote a variety of affiliate products, from low to high-ticket and stand behind each of them equally. If you know who your target audience is, you should know the lowest and highest amount they’d be willing to pay. In my experience, I’ve found that if a product, tool, or program is proven to solve any need, then your customer will pay. Don’t sell yourself short just because you’re just starting out. It takes as much work to promote a lower priced item as it does to promote a high-ticketed item. YOU’RE WORTH IT, and so are your customers!

7. Always Be Candid About Promoting Affiliate Links

Okay, of all 7 affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers, this is one you must follow by law. These days, it’s mandatory that you get candid and disclose your use of affiliate links. You need to make your disclosure obvious and reveal that you’ll make a commission. You often see the disclosure in blog posts, (ours is disclosed above in the pink font).  If you’re using a platform like Pinterest or Instagram to promote an item, be upfront about it. Announce your disclaimer in the description, or throw a few hashtags up stating so. For example: (#ad, #promotion, or #affiliatelinks) are a great way to stay candid about your business through social media! Remember, you want to keep your reputation as a business, as trustworthy as possible.

Affiliate Marketing Tips for New Bloggers – Conclusion

Now you have the 7 important affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers. This means you have no excuse but to be great! By following these tips, you will find that being an affiliate marketer will be just a bit easier. While these affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers may seem a bit basic, they’re often overlooked. By following along with each of them, you will avoid making common mistakes.  If you’re looking to be successful in your online business, you’ll learn that a little goes a long way. We want you to kill it with affiliate marketing and rock it like a boss! Got any affiliate marketing tips for new bloggers we should know about? Let us know in the comments.