The Truth About Blogging and Affiliate Marketing – Part I
People are losing their jobs these days, and everywhere you look, you see good folks who are desperate to find a new job or start a new business. Blogging is assumed to be one of the best ways to make money online. It looks all so easy when you are on the outside, and the numbers that people tell you can be mind blowing. After all, if Darren Rowse makes 6 figures each and every year, it should be easy to do, right? In reality, for every one successful blogger you can point to thousands of bloggers who are not making enough money to even pay their bills. And to be honest, you can tell when someone is getting desperate. If you have followed a blog for a long time, and you see its author doing more reviews than usual, they are probably making money out of those reviews or running out of ideas. It’s not that hard to find affiliate links these days. Any link that comes with wacky characters with the words ref, aff, or anything like that is probably an affiliate link. In reality, there is nothing wrong with making money from affiliate products right on your blog. But you got to make sure you do it right.
Your readers are not stupid. They understand that you need to make money from your blog to keep it going. It’s not just about making money online, but you’ve got to account for your business expenses as well. So, if you have to make money from affiliate products, so be it. Just make sure it doesn’t affect your judgment. You don’t want to recommend a product just because it earns you a lot of money. You should recommend a product ONLY if you have tried it and can vouch for its quality.
A lot of bloggers have tried to pull a sneaky one on their readers. They use cloaked links and even try to hide their affiliate links. You may get away with it for a while, but your readers are going to find out sooner rather than later that you are trying to make money and trick them in the process. There is a certain stigma around promoting affiliate products on a blog, but as long as you are honest about it, you are going to have more success and your readers appreciate your honesty as well. Here are a few ways to disclose your affiliate links and be honest with your readers:
- Direct Disclosure: you can always tell people that the links you are sharing with them are affiliate links. Top bloggers often put “(aff)” next to their affiliate links. That way you show people that you are being honest with them.
- Indirect Disclosure: some top bloggers disclose their affiliate marketing policy on their “about me” page. Your “about me” page is a great place to share your secrets and tell your users how you go about reviewing products. If you have to hide your links for security reasons, make sure you disclose that as well.
- Options: you can also stay on the safe side and give people two options. An affiliate link next to a direct link. You can then try to persuade your readers to use your affiliate links by providing value to your readers. This is probably the most honest and convenient way to do this, but not every-one’s going to reward you for your efforts even if you provide them with a ton of value. People often get confused when you give them more than one option, so keep that in mind before giving people too many options.
You can also choose not to use affiliate links at all. But not everyone can afford to do that. Whatever you do, you want to make sure you disclose all the details behind your dealings. Just remember that your readers are not stupid. They can see through your actions. So don’t ever recommend a product just because you are paid to do so. That’s the best way to kill your blog.
