6 Proven Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Affiliate marketing is the most popular to make money online technique for niche publishers and is used by hundreds of sites.

In fact, Affiliate marketing programs are very popular due to a number of reasons, including the potential for success, relatively small audience, and a deep pool of affiliate partners willing to pay for acquiring new customers.

affiliate marketing strategies

Affiliate marketing is a very broad term; under this, there are different strategies that can be used to generate good affiliate revenue.

The most lucrative and appropriate technique depends on a number of factors, like your site’s characteristics and niche. Below is an overview of some popular affiliate marketing implementations, with examples of each.

Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Model #1: Coupons

A screenshot from CouponMom.com, site emails to their members with different ways to save money from grocery stores and retail outlets. You Note that numerous affiliate links at the site:

The intention of these sites is very clear; they provide coupons with access to their visitors and tips for how to use them to save money. (CouponMom.com claims over the 6 million members!)

There is a very logical and direct for affiliates; these sites attract visitors who are already in the market for a product (ideally at discounted rates). It’s the goal of the company to make all its products to as many people as possible to get their coupons and then make a purchase; they make affiliate payments to other coupon sites who will help them to attain their goal.

Here’s we have another example of coupon strategies from “mommy blogger” who writes reviews about the products for the parents. Note,  clear disclosure of affiliate relationships:

Model # 2: Product Review

Products review sites are also popular for affiliate marketing tips and techniques. These sites are focusing on providing information about their entire product for visitors are likely to be interested; affiliate tie-in is very pretty straightforward.

The author writes about the product, highlights its features, and then includes a link where readers or customers can purchase the product.

This model of affiliate works on both the physical products and the “e-products” like e-books or software programs. Here are several examples of affiliate marketing models in action:

  • com Reviews
  • Mom’s Favorite Stuff
  • Jenn’s Review Blog

Note that, all of the above sites highlighted are transparent for any affiliate relationships, whenever the post contains an affiliate link or is sponsored.

There is some obvious conflict of interest in the implementations of that model. Affiliates only get money, if any visitors click at affiliate links and then buy that product. In order to succeed using that model for the long term, you will need the trust of the audience and that can earn only by transparency and integrity.

Model # 3: Boring Ole Banner Ads

Some publishers show their affiliate links like others are displaying their ads on their sites. Below is a screenshot from a site named SugarRae.com, a popular affiliate marketing blog. Notice there, at the right sidebar is labeled as “Advertisement” and containing two ads (one for Genesis and the other for Raven).

Both look like banner ads, but actually, those are affiliate links – in the form of images, not text. There is very little distinction between the banner ads and affiliate links, but compensation structure matters to the publishers and affiliates.

Model # 4: Partner Center / Blogroll

There are some other ways to use affiliate links in the same manner as many sites are using display ads. For example, affiliate links can be used in some sections in the site displaying as “blogroll” or “partner center”.

Check AffiliateTip.com, a popular site for affiliate marketing, run by Shawn Collins an industry guru. The right sidebar of the site features a “Blogroll” that includes affiliate links to third-party sites. The links lead (using affiliate link trackers) to the landing pages where the audience can sign up for the products:

These are some affiliate links for the product & services that will interest the affiliate marketers. And they are efficiently displaying ads but displaying in such a way that implies endorsement through the site (that is highly respected industry publications).

That model can use easily with other models. And It is the most effective for those sites which have a large audience and are viewed as authoritative at particular industry or on a topic.

Model # 5: Product Feed / Aggregation

Here the best example is Shopzilla, this site aggregates the pricing and information of products. For example, the collection of some digital camera specs and prices features affiliate links to third-party sites where products can be purchased.

Shopzilla also adds value by aggregating price information and displaying it in an easy way for affiliate marketers and shoppers who are available. The revenue model always revolves around interested shoppers, completing purchases based on information provided, and Shopzilla cut their affiliate in all processes.

BabyGizmo.com is also an example of that model in action:

Bonus Model # 6: Offline Model

That is the unique model due to the primary traffic acquisition, but rather the word of mouth–literally. Adam Carolla has the most popular daily podcasts and very has loyal viewers, he regularly asks his listeners to do online shopping from Amazon and click from the affiliate link mentioned on his website:

value of the conversion is a bit less in that case, but very effective. Carolla provides services to his viewers in form of entertainment (podcast) and asks for his support in order to pay bills. “Ask” is very effective, since he is only requesting his audience to get to Amazon from his affiliate link and it takes only a few seconds.

Wisconsin Public Radio has started an affiliate marketing strategy; the site feature a customized logo for Amazon affiliate commission, the on-air personalities regularly talk about to their listeners to support the organization by clicking from to Amazon by WPR.org:

Actually, this model works only, if someone has a loyal and large audience. And if you have an audience who used your content offline, there can be still an opportunity to generate online good revenue from them.

Bottom Line

Within the realm of affiliate marketing, there are countless earning strategies that can also be implemented for affiliate marketing tips for beginners. Many sites are using a combination of multiple techniques mentioned above, and the optimization process always involves tweaking the settings of each to get an ideal implementation.

In the market, there are some affiliate marketing sites that use some techniques like affiliate marketing Amazon and it depends on the Amazon affiliate commission rates.

If you have more questions or suggestions let us know below.

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