How to Use Affiliate Marketing Without Affecting Readability

When it comes to making money with your blog, affiliate marketing is a popular option. In case you need a refresher, affiliate marketing is a program you sign up for in which you are paid a small amount of commission for products your readers buy via your blog. As I’m sure you know, blogs filled with marketing hoopla is distracting and annoying. You came to read, but can’t focus with the flashing advertisements in your peripheral.

Yet, you still need to make money from your blog. And affiliate marketing has your name written all over it. So how do you do this without driving away readers?

Consider Your Target Audience

Your first job is to assess your target audience and reader majority. Your blog is for them, and it’s because of them you’ve been successful. While you are choosing to partake in affiliate marketing to make money, you want your customers to feel like they’re getting something out of it too.

As a successful blogger, you’re constantly putting yourself in your readers’ shoes. What do they want to read about? What do they care about? When you start your affiliate marketing program, you want to do the same thing. This will very quickly narrow down your options, but is very important.

• What do your readers like?
• What would they actually benefit from?
• Are there products that would enhance their experience at your blog? Self help books, small business software, etc.

Products YOU Love

In blogging, your job is to pass on ideas that your readers will benefit from, or tell stories of your own inspiration. Long story short, you’re talking about the things that you love. It is safe to assume that your readers, then, would love the same products that you do. When choosing what program, promotion or product to go with, choose based on what you would find valuable.

• What product would you be glad to have stumbled upon, if browsing someone else’s blog?
• What product merges well with your current content? If your readers like that, they’ll like the product.
• What products speak to your overall message? Choose something that adds value to your reader.

Advertisements That Blend

Using affiliate image linking is when you get into some tough territory. Advertisements take away from your blog zen and overall feel. This can easily turn your readers off or send them running in another direction. It’s important that you take your decisions regarding on page image advertising very seriously.

• Choose advertisements that will blend with your overall theme. You don’t want to have a beautiful layout and color scheme, just to be ruined by an ugly black block of advertisements.
• Try to stay away from blinking or flashing ads. If you need to attract more attention to make more money, you probably need to work on building your network first.
• Choose subtle advertisements. If you combine this with in text link affiliate marketing, you can be successful without disrupting readers.

Vendor Guest Posting

What better way to incorporate your affiliate marketing program than to put it into a post. Not only that, but have someone through the product vendor write it in a guest post. Problogger.net suggested this, and it is one of the smartest ways to incorporate your promotion without disturbing readers. Before you let the vendor turn this guest post into a full on review, consider these suggestions.

• It should be a genuine, well written, unbiased guest post.
• While the guest poster can mention the product, it’s a good idea to have them write about a different topic.
• Choosing a product that fits into your blog niche will allow the vendor to easily write a relevant post while still incorporating the promotional item.

Choosing to take part in affiliate marketing is an intelligent monetary decision. However, it is in your best interest to be smart about the decisions that you make. Always keep your readers a priority, and consider their opinions every advertisement of the way.