As affiliate marketers and affiliate site<\/a> owners, we\u2019re always on the hunt for more sales. We\u2019re looking for the next best thing that will increase our revenue but sometimes spend time on complicated tactics that barely move the needle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this article, we dive deep into lesser-known<\/strong> strategies to make your sales skyrocket in 2021 and beyond, along with concrete examples of how they\u2019re working in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sounds good? Let\u2019s get started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Affiliate marketing is a 12 billion industry. The overall worth of affiliate marketing has been increasing from year to year. Nowadays, you can find affiliate publishers that make anywhere between a couple of hundred bucks to millions of dollars a year. To make sure you get your affiliate site value up, you need to apply some of these strategies if you\u2019re not already doing so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since most affiliate commissions are one-time payments, finding affiliates that pay recurring or even lifetime commissions is extremely hard especially after the latest Amazon affiliate commission cut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More often than not, if you refer to customers who turn into brand loyalists and repeat buyers, you won\u2019t see a single cent beyond the commission you made on their very first purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means you\u2019re getting an extremely small percentage of the total revenue (also called the Customer Lifetime Value<\/a>) you brought to the company in the long run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, some businesses are happy to share long-term profits with affiliates. When you refer a customer to a company whose affiliate program pays on a recurring basis, your commissions recurs, too. That means every month the customer pays their subscription, you also get a cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Examples of products with recurring affiliate commissions<\/a> include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another positive side for advertisers is that it rewards customers and affiliates who stay with the product for a long time. So you\u2019ll send more qualified and educated leads, and they\u2019ll stick with the product longer. It\u2019s a win-win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best part? Recurring commissions means your affiliate revenue compounds and becomes more predictable. If you get hit by a Google Core update or lose some important rankings, customers you\u2019ve already converted will keep paying your commissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, you keep getting paid commissions from companies until their customers churn out. It can also increase the overall valuation of your site if you decide to sell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Especially with Google\u2019s product review update, it\u2019s clearer than ever that you don\u2019t want to depend on a single content type to drive your revenue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Product reviews might be the most obvious kind of affiliate content, but that also means it\u2019s some of the most competitive to rank for and doesn\u2019t necessarily convert the best either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, think outside the box and write affiliate content your competitors haven\u2019t tried yet. Here are some great examples of affiliate content<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your tutorials should provide an in-depth overview of the features of the tool with actual screenshots that illustrate exactly how people can maximize its value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This helps legitimize your tutorial and turns you into a trusted brand rather than just another random affiliate site. Not to mention that the conversions will be as high as ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this type of content, you can\u2019t just gather information online or fake knowledge about a certain tool. You need to either purchase the tool and test it out or recommend a tool that you\u2019re already using. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next to helping with increasing conversions and revenue, creating these types of affiliate content hubs help your SEO strategy tremendously as google can crawl your content faster and easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can A\/B test these formulas of content and find what works the best for your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Optimizing your content is the best way to make more money from the same amount of traffic. Instead of sprinkling links throughout your content and praying for clicks, you can be more intentional about your link placement and calls to action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some of the best ways to drive informed clicks to your affiliate offers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This increases our conversions and also helps busy readers skim through our content and get the most important info. Not bad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, labels like \u201cBest for Tall People\u201d or \u201cMost Compact\u201d help people choose their number one criteria and make a buying decision<\/a> quickly. This technique is used by some of the best converting sales pages in the world: those on Amazon.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re not sure which features to compare in a comparison table<\/a>, check out which ones Amazon is using on their sales pages. Here\u2019s an example from lightweight tents:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another variant of this would be having product boxes in your content. These products boxes help you highlight your affiliate offers and increase the overall impression rate on your affiliate links just like I did with this fintech apps round-up article<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This tactic is widely used by big brands like the New Times Wirecutter too:<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a top-performing affiliate, putting them on an exit pop-up is the simplest way to drive more traffic to that offer and generate more conversions for that particular product. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how I like to do this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Time-sensitive offers tend to convert extremely well and lend themselves to an urgent call-to-action. Here\u2019s an example of a very successful pop-up I created specifically for a high-converting surveys page from Hustler Ethos:<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pro tip:<\/strong> Notice how I chose the affiliate with the best offer to promote, not necessarily the one with the highest commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just something to keep in mind when choosing what affiliate products to promote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As affiliate marketers focusing on organic traffic, it\u2019s easy to assume a fresh batch of buyers will land on your site every day. But we both know what happens when core updates or fresh competitors enter the scene. Traffic can change dramatically, and cause big problems when the lion\u2019s share of your revenue comes from just a few pieces of content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needless to say that retargeting your customer through Google, Facebook, and even Twitter ads can be a bit pricey nowadays. On the other hand, email is 40x more effective<\/a> than Facebook and Twitter at customer acquisition and is nearly free compared to PPC, it\u2019d be unwise to ignore it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is exactly where email comes in: Email helps you build trust with your readers, and make sure you\u2019re top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both of these things result in higher conversion rates. Plus, an email list you can reach anytime helps you hedge against losses in organic rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking for a great way to start affiliate marketing with email? Start with an email course. Teach your visitors how to accomplish an important task within your niche, and offer products they can use to get there faster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once you\u2019ve found products that convert and an article template that drives clicks, the next step is to scale out. But unless you\u2019re tracking your affiliate conversions properly, you won\u2019t actually know which content, on-page elements, and copy are responsible for your success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s like fumbling around in the dark even though you\u2019ve got a flashlight in your hand. You just need to put in the batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are various types of affiliate tracking<\/a> but here\u2019s a quick recipe on how to start: For each affiliate network you\u2019re in, find out what their SubID format is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An affiliate SubID is essentially a campaign ID, which will appear in your affiliate reports next to your conversions. You usually add it to your affiliate link as a query parameter, the same way you\u2019d do with a utm_campaign parameter with Google Analytics<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each affiliate network or software has a different format, so you\u2019ll have to adapt it for each link.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are tons of ways to use SubIDs for tracking. You can use the slug of the page (e.g., \u201cbest-lightweight-tent\u201d) to better understand which pages are driving conversions. You can include the product being clicked (for example, \u201cColeman-Sundome-tent\u201d), the element of the page (e.g. \u201ccomparison-table\u201d), or even a unique name for a single link (e.g. \u201cColeman-tent-comparison-table\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting simple with the page name is a good way to go. But even that can be a lot of work because you have to adapt links all over your site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily, it\u2019s possible to outsource it on a platform like Fiverr or Upwork, or use an affiliate tool that can automate this for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Again, we circle back to sending more traffic to your best-performing affiliates. Affiliate marketing is a numbers game. If an affiliate is high converting, then sending more traffic would mean more commission, hence this new strategy to fulfill just that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating freebies and lead magnets doesn\u2019t just help with acquiring emails and generating leads. It can be a great way to funnel your customers back to your best-performing affiliate post. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if you have a page about the best cashback credit cards, you can create a freebie about how to improve your credit score<\/a> and funnel those readers to your post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the time you\u2019ve educated readers about the solution, they\u2019re ready to sign up through the resource you\u2019ve created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other reason this works great? People who\u2019ve bought once already convert at a rate of 60-70%<\/a>, compared to first-time buyers who\u2019re closer to 1-3%. That is a massive difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides being able to reliably and repeatedly contact people who\u2019ve bought before, you can also use these freebies to pitch related products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if someone downloads your freebie on a review about GoPro cameras, it\u2019s only logical you\u2019ll guide them through the accessories next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are already doing affiliate marketing and seeing results, why not double down on what\u2019s working now before jumping to new unproven strategies. Here\u2019s what I like to do to maximize my affiliate revenue: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a lot of posts, start with the most trafficked\/highest earning pages and affiliates. You can even outsource this process to a VA and pay them hourly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best part? Your readers won\u2019t even notice the difference since this is all done behind the scenes while your revenue can go up as high as 10%. <\/p>\n\n\n\nAffiliate Marketing Strategies to Skyrocket Your Sales <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#1: Go for Affiliate Programs with Recurring Commissions<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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#2: Diversify Your Affiliate Content Strategy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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#3: Over-optimize your content <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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#4: Grow an email list: <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
#5: Hone in on your affiliate tracking<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
#6: Create freebies around your best-performing affiliate pages: <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
#7: Make the most of what’s already working<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n