You started a blog in hopes of supplementing your income, but now you have no idea what to blog about. Well, today, I am going to share 11 types of affiliate marketing content ideas that can help you make sales.
But First Why Content Marketing?
When I started my first blog back in the day, I used content marketing to help me grow it. Although at that time, I had no clue what I was doing. Every week, I would sit down and publish something on my blog.
If only I would’ve stuck with it long enough to see the results, who knows where that blog would be today. Yup, I made plenty of mistakes with my very first blog because I had no clue what I was doing and I was extremely impatient.
When you choose to use content marketing as your main method to earn sales, you need to know that it takes a long time to start earning.
Related: How Fast Can You Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
However, most affiliate marketers give up way too soon.
Maybe they get tired of writing and not seeing results? Or maybe they quit because they get plagued with writer’s block and don’t have a clue what to write about.
Well, let’s look at some of the ideas that you can add to your content marketing schedule, that will increase your commissions.
11 Types of Affiliate Marketing Content You Need to Write
Before you sit down to write any type of blog post, you need to consider what stage of the buying journey your reader is in. There are 3 different stages readers are in when they land on your affiliate blog posts.
- Exploring stage
- Research stage
- Check out stage
If your content ranks high on Google for keywords that people search for when in the checkout or research stage, your conversion rates should be higher.
So, let’s take a look at some of the types of affiliate posts that every affiliate marketer should have on their websites.
#1 Reviews
One of the best ways to promote affiliate products is to write a review. As a content marketer, you use all kinds of products and services to run your business.
If you find something that you absolutely love, there’s absolutely no reason NOT to share your experience with the product.
Most people who are in the buying mode, the first thing they do is go to Google and type in “product name review.” Whenever I am thinking about buying something online, I always search for reviews, especially if it’s a high-ticket item.
If your product review comes up on the first page of Google, preferably the first 3 spots, you should have no problem actually making sales.
How to Write A Great Product Review
Make sure that you write a complete in-depth review detailing everything you love or dislike about the product. Most people who want to make affiliate sales, tend to leave out the negatives because they think it will hurt their sales.
Yes, it might hurt your sales, but you need to be completely honest with your readers. This is how you build trust with them. Check out this review written by Jeff Goins did when he discovered Scrivner.
Answer every question that you would want to know about the product. The more information you can give them about the product or service, the better chance you’ll actually make sales.
#2 Product Comparisons
In addition to reviews, product comparisons work really well. People who search Google for product comparisons are usually ready to buy. They are just looking for a little bit more information to help them make the right buying decision.
By creating a product comparison post, you are helping them sway towards one, this increases your chance of earning a commission.
I’ve personally haven’t written any of these blog posts, but take a look at this Aweber, MailChimp & Getresponse, which will give you some ideas of how to write one that converts.
Bonus Tip
Make sure that you answer all the questions the buyer would want to know. Check out how top affiliate marketers have written theirs to help you get some ideas.
Using product comparison charts can be a big plus. If you’re using a self-hosted WordPress blog, you can use a special plugin like this one.
#3 Video Tutorials
Video tutorials are great for showing your readers how to use the product or service in question. Videos can be useful if you’re promoting software or products on your blog that are complicated to use.
A visual walkthrough that shows your readers how to use the product, can be more helpful than writing a blog post. Your video should include everything your audience needs to know.
When creating your videos, you want to talk loudly and clearly. Your audience will be using your video to help them understand and use the product. The more helpful you can be and show them where to click and explain all the features, there’s a better chance you’ll earn commissions.
Bonus Tip
For an example of how to video tutorials can look, check out these brief videos by Envato Tuts. Their videos show their audience how to multiple things in Microsoft PowerPoint.
#4 How to Articles
With this type of content creation, you’ll be explaining how to accomplish a certain thing. This strategy requires you to present some of the products that will be beneficial for your readers and how to use them.
These types of articles work best for explaining how to use software like plugins or for creating DIY tutorials. You need to be careful when creating these types of articles. Your job is to show your reader how to accomplish something, and shouldn’t be overly promotional.
Remember, not every reader who reads your how-to article is ready to buy. Most of them are just looking for information on how to accomplish a specific task. I’ve written tons of how to articles and they are easy to create and work well for helping you build up a loyal audience.
Bonus Tip
Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and create thorough step-by-step blog posts with screenshots and infographics that show them everything they need to know about the product.
#5 Gift Guides
Every blogger understands that there are seasonal times when people are willing to pull out their credit cards to make purchases online. Bloggers love Q4 (Quarter 4) because this is when most bloggers make most of their affiliate income.
Regardless of what niche or genre you are in, gift guides should be a part of your content creation. They take time to put together because you want to make sure you’re rounding up a list of great gifts your audience will love.
Include both low cost and some higher ticket items, you might be surprised that it’s easier to sell higher ticket items during the holiday season.
Bonus Tip
Be sure to include images with your gift guide blog posts. Including images can be the difference between making sales or not. Be sure to create compelling content that shares your personal experiences or why you think it will make a great gift for your readers.
#6 Seasonal Content
Everyone who owns a website/blog should have some type of seasonal content on their blogs. I know that some niches do a lot better with season content, like lifestyle blogs. But there’s no reason why you can’t create some type of seasonal content that helps you increase your affiliate income.
Creating both evergreen and seasonal content can help your readers make a buying decision as they move through the stages of buying.
Think coupons and gift guides when you’re thinking about creating these types of articles.
Bonus Tip
As an affiliate marketer, you’ll want to make sure that you create the following types of articles:
- Back to school
- Black Friday deals
- Coupons to help you save money
- Christmas gifts to buy for your family
It takes a little bit of creativity to come up with some ideas that your readers will love. You can write the blog post once and then go back and update it when the season comes around again to drive more traffic to it.
#7 List Posts
Consider creating an article that mentions all the products that can help your reader make a decision. It’s kind of like creating a comparison blog post, without the chart.
Here’s a great example that was written by Blogging Wizard with a list of 5 WordPress Landing Page Plugins. You can see that they reviewed each product individually on the same post and linked at the bottom of each review.
Bonus Tip:
Create an article with 5 products that can help solve the pain problems that users may have. For example, let’s say you do a list post on keyword tools for bloggers. Every blogger understands the importance of keywords, yet so many new bloggers don’t understand how to do do it.
You can create a blog post with 5 keyword tools that can help bloggers find low competition keywords quickly, determines competition quickly, provides related keywords, shows you what is popular with other bloggers.
#8 Favorite Books
If you have not invested in any products or services that you can recommend. You can create a list of books as a post. It doesn’t matter what niche or genre you’re in, there are books available on Amazon that will suit any blog.
It’s important to create a themed list that will help your readers. CopyBlogger put together a huge list of books for blogger, you can check it out here. It takes time to put together a huge list like this, but if done correctly, it can bring earn you passive income.
Bonus Tip:
Most people hate using Amazon affiliate links because of the low commission rates. However, you get a commission on anything they buy on Amazon within 24 hours of clicking on your link.
#9 Resources Page
Every blogger should have a resources page on their website because they have been proven to be profitable. Your readers will want to see what tools and services you use to run your blog.
Take a look at how Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income (SPI) created his resources page. His page continues to make him sales every month, have you checked out his income reports?
I’ve created my resource page and you can see it here. I’ve also created a new blogging resources page that I’ve placed on the navigation menu. My resource page lists all the top products, services, and books that will help new bloggers build a profitable blog business.
Bonus Tip
Make sure you list products that you have personally used or continue to use. A resource page is totally different than a blog post, but you should update it from time to time to make sure that your affiliate links work and add or remove products you no longer recommend.
It’s important to promote your resource page, you can do this by writing blog posts about the products on your resource page. Don’t forget to link to your resource page from the new blog post.
#10 List of Tools or Services
Every industry has a list of tools and services that they use to that can help their readers. It’s kind of like a resource page.
A tools page is a huge list of resources that can help your targeted readers accomplish something. This site does a great job on compiling a huge list of 80 of the best tools for writers.
The difference with a huge list like this is that you’re just gathering a huge list. You don’t necessarily have to have prior experience with the tools and services you list. (this is what makes it different than a resources page)
People love huge compiled lists like this because it saves them time from having to do all the research themselves.
Bonus Tip
Don’t be scared to link to products that actually help your readers, even if you’re not an affiliate for those programs. If you take the time to create a huge list of helpful resources and link to both free and paid products, you should make some affiliate sales.
#11 Alternative Products
Everyday bloggers will be looking for alternative products that are free for the most popular tools online. Mostly because newbie bloggers either don’t have the money to invest in paid premium tools. Or they haven’t made any money with their blog and don’t want to invest money in their business.
You can create a blog post on a premium product that you use, but then don’t forget to create an alternative blog post with a similar product that costs less or is free to use.
Yes, this method may decrease your chances of making sales. But your readers will love that you’ve provided them with an alternative free method that they can use. Some of them will even buy through your link when they can afford to make the purchase.
Bonus Tip
Make sure that you highlight all the features using a table of contents or a bulleted list at the beginning of your article. This will help increase your chances of showing up in the Google Knowledge Graph if you rank in the top 7 positions.
Why Content Marketing Works Extremely Well
Hopefully, these content creation ideas give you some ideas to help you increase your affiliate commissions. Remember, not every blog post you write is going to make sales.
You should have a mixture of all types of content on your blog. It’s okay to sell on your blog and use affiliate links, after all, you should make money for your hard work.
It’s important NOT to annoy your readers by being overly promotional. Once people start trusting you and you’ve built a following, the sales will follow, especially, if you’ve been giving them valuable information that helps them.
Final Tip
Blogging is a long-term strategy, meaning that you shouldn’t expect to make tons of sales overnight. It takes time to build up traffic and build rapport with your audience.
However, if done correctly and you continue to publish new articles on a regular basis, you will eventually see your hard work pay off. So whatever you do, treat your blog like a business from the get go and most of all, don’t give up too soon.
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Have you tried any of these strategies to increase your commissions? If so which one have you used and did it actually work? Let me know, I’d love to hear what’s actually helping you earn more through your blog posts.
