Expert Tips: How to Promote Affiliate Links for Huge Profits
Reading Time: 12 minutes 
Knowing how to promote affiliate links, can be a bit of a minefield. Just like everything in life, it can take a little testing, tweaking and occasionally failing before you hit the jackpot.
Affiliate marketing is a great lifestyle business, that can start off as a side hustle and often turn into a full-blown, lucrative career.
As an affiliate partner of various brands and sponsored content, HerPaperRoute may earn commission on qualifying purchases. Disclaimer | Advertise With Us
I would consider myself an expert at affiliate marketing, as I have many years of experience and know quite a bit.
But I don’t know everything! I am always excited to learn more.
My accountant determined that last year my niche sites earned $694,617, and of that, $243,662.85 was income from affiliate links. That’s more than $20,000 per month in commissions, earned mostly passively.
My numbers noted above aren’t NET. I have expenses, salaries and taxes paid out of that. But still, it’s a pretty good income considering I only work a few hours a week, and get to do it from my couch.
But it’s important that I make it clear that affiliate marketing is not 100% passive and it’s not an easy, overnight success kind of thing.
It takes work initially to build things set up. I’ve been blogging for a few years.
However, it is fairly easy to get started. To start, join high-paying affiliate programs, get your affiliate links, and send them out into the wild.
From there, it takes lots of effort upfront, spent writing product reviews and sending targeted traffic to the articles of course. But that effort becomes a passive ROI with time.
It’s the promoting effort that takes the most time. But it is 100% worth it to promote your affiliate links each day.
In this article, I will share my tips for how you can promote affiliate links and increase your conversions this year.
Expert Tips: How to Promote Affiliate Links for Huge Profits
According to statistics;
- 15% of the total digital media advertising revenue is attributed to affiliate marketing
- Groupon is one of the most successful companies built on affiliate commissions
- Jason Stone (the millionaire_mentor) made 7 million in affiliate marketing revenue in one year
The amazing statistics go on, but in this article, we’re going to look at how to promote your affiliate links, so you can get a steady stream of cash coming in.
Let’s take a look at; what are affiliate links, how you find affiliate links and what are the best ways to promote your affiliate links.
What Exactly Are Affiliate Links?
An affiliate link is like a special ID you are given to track traffic sent from your website or wherever you posted your link.
The link takes the person to a site where they can buy a product.
It contains a bunch of random numbers and letters and can initially look quite messy which is why affiliate marketers use link shorteners or link cloakers.
If a person clicks on your link, follows the process through to a sales page and buys through that link, it will be recorded that the person bought through your link and you will get the corresponding commission.
Commissions are usually only made after a purchase, but occasionally can be made from sending leads.
Some affiliate programs will use ‘’sticky cookies’’ which means if that person buys within a certain timeframe, after first going through your link, you will still get the commission when they buy, even if it is months later.
Where Do You Get Affiliate Links?
There are a few different ways you can get affiliate links to promote.
It’s advised to not just sign up to get any random affiliate link, but rather, choose products that really make sense for your niche and audience’s needs.
Consider the products you use or have knowledge about. Some types of affiliate products you could promote are;
- A brand you buy from
- Courses you have taken
- A tool/software you use
- Ebooks you have read
- Platforms like Fiverr where you have purchased services
Do your homework, decide on a niche you are passionate and/or knowledgeable about and pick products you have used.
It’s important you promote something you know is good so you don’t hurt your reputation.
Once you’ve decided what niche you want to promote in, check below on how to get your affiliate links.
Join Large Affiliate Network
There are many affiliate marketing platforms to find great products on.
For some, you will need to sign up and apply to be an affiliate for each product and for some you can simply create an account and be an affiliate for whatever you want.
Do your research when you join each platform. Some of the biggest affiliate platforms to look at are;
- ShareASale
- AWIN
- CJ Affiliate
- Amazon Associates
- Rakuten
- Skimlinks
- ClickBank
- JVZoo
- Also, check out The Affiliate Program Database
Take your time to look through each of the platforms to find reputable merchants and products.
Also, take a look at what the products landing page looks like and what promotional material they give you like banner ads and templates.
The landing page is important, as it will be the first thing a potential customer sees.
Make sure it looks professional and ask yourself if you would buy if you saw it!
Check if the product is selling well, as competition can be good! It means there’s money to be made.
For example, on ClickBank check the gravity score. The higher the gravity, the more affiliates that are promoting the product and the more chance you have of taking a chunk of this lucrative market.
Private affiliate programs can be a great way to go as they often pay affiliates high ticket commissions.
If you’ve taken a course, it will probably have an affiliate program that you can promote.
This is a good place to start as you will know in-depth about the course, how great it is, and be able to talk about it genuinely to people.
Private affiliate programs can pay commissions from 40-100% on sales of hundreds or thousands of dollars!
Another way to find private affiliate programs is to write; (your niche) + affiliate program into Google.
Many private affiliate programs will require you to have taken their course or bought their product before you can become an affiliate.
You will need to check with each one.
How To Promote Your Affiliate Links To Monetize Your Blog And Social Media?
Now we will look at the best ways to promote affiliate links to start making you some cash.
There are many ways to start affiliate marketing, you just have to find the best way for you.
Start with one or two ways to promote your affiliate links and when you get success, you can build up the ways you promote to bring more cash in.
One of the best ways to promote affiliate products is through a blog. Blogs are used as content marketing machines, that sell products.
You can start a blog from scratch or you can buy an established blog that already has traffic and income.
Blogs work well as conversation tools because you write informative articles that build up ‘trust’ with your audience before you show them something to buy.
But even if you don’t want to start a blog yet, you can make money through affiliate marketing through your social media accounts.
Recommended reading;
- The ultimate guide to making money affiliate marketing on Pinterest without a blog
- How to make money affiliate marketing on Instagram and Youtube
Let’s take a look at some of the best affiliate link promotion methods.
Affiliate Banners On Your Website
Your affiliate platform should provide you with customized banners for the product you’re promoting.
If it’s a private affiliate program, you can email the owner to ask if they have promotional content for you to use.
Alternatively use Canva to create eye-catching images related to your product which you can add links to.
You can embed images and banners on your blog’s header, footer, sidebar or in blog posts. Banners may require you to copy and paste some HTML onto your website.
Check out the free sample banner given by Get Response below.
Inside Your Lead Magnets
A lead magnet should be what you use to encourage people to give you their email addresses.
Lead magnets should be highly valuable, easily consumable and solve one or two smaller pain points your reader has.
You don’t want to solve their biggest pain point or teach them the ultimate guide to something, with a lead magnet. (Those in-depth trainings go into your paid products.)
And, lead magnets are prime real estate to put affiliate links in!
If you create a free PDF or E-book for example, you can add in affiliate links to products you use and recommend.
Through Your Email List
To build up your email list, you should create lead magnets to entice loyal followers.
If you make a great lead magnet that is valuable, leads will be inspired to put their email in for the privilege of getting the freebie.
You can also embed sign up forms on your blog, in the description of videos and even ask for people’s email in return for joining your Facebook group for example.
Create a welcome email series where you let people know about you, what you have for them, and how you can help them.
Don’t just sell and fill all your emails with affiliate links. Take the time to share valuable content that will really help the reader.
Serving your audience should come first and selling your product second.
Check out his free affiliate marketing funnel training
Product Tutorials, Software Reviews And Blog Posts
Product tutorials and software reviews are a great way to increase your authority in a niche and really help your customer out.
If someone reads a really in-depth, helpful tutorial or review, telling them everything they need to know, this will likely generate clicks onto your links.
Before writing blog posts, reviews or tutorial articles, make sure you do keyword research in places like Ubersuggest, Google Analytics and even sites like Quora to see what answers people are searching for.
Some things to include in your review and tutorial articles are;
- How to be successful with…
- How to use…
- Where to find…
- What to expect…
- Pros and cons…
- Success stories…
- How much and any discounts…
- Product comparisons…
- The best….
In The Description Of Your YouTube Videos
Just like on a blog, you can build a YouTube channel around a niche subject and create helpful reviews and tutorials.
Under a video, you can write a description and add in your affiliate links.
Make sure you use an affiliate disclaimer to let people know you are using affiliate links, which will make you a small commission at no extra cost to them.
On Social Media
We are lucky enough to have access to multiple free social media sites where we can promote our brand, and our products and build whole businesses on.
Don’t just spam your links everywhere though, again lead with value first to build up your followers.
Use the RVL formula of posting; Results, Value and Lifestyle content. You don’t just want to be a sales robot.
Let people into your world, entertain, tell stories and help people grow.
Some of the best social media sites for affiliates are;
- Quora and Reddit
Resources Page
A resources or tools page on your website is a great place to add your affiliate links in for products you use.
You don’t want to add in anything and everything to make a quick buck, but link to useful stuff you actually use for your business, which you know will help others.
Over time this may change and you can add in courses you’ve taken and recommend.
As your know, like and trust factor grows and you get more traffic to your website, people will want to emulate you and be interested in seeing what resources you use.
Example Promotion Schedule For How To Promote Affiliate Links
Now I want to share an example of what an affiliate promotion schedule can look like, for daily and weekly promo.
Of course, another nice thing about affiliate marketing is you get to determine how often you want to work, when, and where.
So this is just to give you an idea – not a golden rule.
The more effort you put in (especially in the beginning) means the more money you can make over time.
And once your systems are set up and converting your active promotion efforts can switch to a more casual maintenance effort.
To help you plan what your promotion schedule will be, I’ll share what my promotion schedule looked like in my first year below, and then what it looks like now.
Before you can start your promotion plan, ensure you have the foundations in place:
- First, set up your affiliate website (following these steps) or buy an established, turnkey affiliate site (see: the top places to buy blogs)
- Research your niche (here are some ideas about that)
- Connect your email service provider (this one is my fave)
- Join a few affiliate programs and publish some blog posts and video content
Once you have those foundations in place, here is an example promotion schedule I can recommend, to get the ball rolling:
- Aim to write and publish a new affiliate product review each week
- Create a lead magnet for each category on your affiliate site
- Batch write the sales funnel emails that are triggered by each lead magnet and schedule them/turn on the automation
- Batch record 30 TikTok videos / IG reels and publish them 2x day
- Block out an hour on your calendar each day to engage on social media with your target audience
- Block an hour each day to share your links in Facebook groups, Quora and forums
- Block an hour each day to publish Pinterest pins that lead to your affiliate content
- Block an hour each week to reach out to creators in your niche to pitch collaborations and joint ventures
- Block an hour each week to engage with the affiliate managers of the brands you are/want to be partnered with, on their social media, to keep you front of mind.
Take a look at my detailed daily routine as a full-time blogger.
Test And Tweak
With so many options of areas to place your affiliate links, you’ll need to do a little testing to see what works for you best.
Start with one or two methods in the beginning and track how your affiliate links perform.
Remember to give yourself time to get enough traffic to your links. This won’t happen overnight.
If you have a blog or store, you can use Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from.
Link cloakers/shorteners will also show you analytics on where people clicked on your links. A popular one is Pretty Links.
Ultimately, remember to put your audience first.
Think long term over the short term and really build up your authority with quality content.
Do this and the money will follow!
Remember To Disclose Your Affiliate Links
When promoting affiliate products, remember to disclose it, and let your audience know you may make a commission if someone clicks on your links.
Not only is it the law, and good practice, but disclosing that your website uses affiliate links also shows you are trustworthy. (More trust = more sales).
As a website owner, you legally must have a dedicated affiliate disclosure page and an affiliate disclosure on each page.
I have my affiliate disclosure at the top of every article. It is hard-coded into my site. so it appears automatically, without me having to type it out.
You can use a plugin called WP Affiliate Disclosure which automatically applies a customizable, FTC-compliant disclosure statement to your blog posts.
All you have to do is write it out after you’ve downloaded the plugin and every time you add a new post, the affiliate disclosure gets added to the published post.
You can choose to have it at the start or end of your post.
Expert Tips: How to Promote Affiliate Links for Huge Profits – Conclusion
By following these expert tips for how to promote affiliate links, your sales may increase.
As you can see, there are no tricks or hidden secrets to affiliate marketing success! Just best practices, honest content, and dedicated effort.
Read This Next:
- Avoid These Affiliate Marketing Mistakes That Cost You To LOSE Money Every Day
- How To Create An Affiliate Marketing Blue Ocean For Yourself
Follow along on Instagram!
