How to Use Blogging for Affiliate Marketing
Blogging can be a very powerful tool if you know how to use it. And it’s one of the lowest overheads you could ever have. And you do not even have to pay to be part of an Affiliate program. You are advertising for them it’s a win-win.
What is a Blog?
A blog (shortening of “weblog”) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first. It is a platform where a writer or even a group of writers share their views on an individual subject.
In other words its like Facebook but you own the domain, seriously Facebook is based on a blogging platform. You post stories, videos and pictures right? Well you do the same on a Blog.
Now First off I am assuming you have a domain name and hosting you can get from a good hosting company like Interserver. Now I personally recommend WordPress as your Blogging platform but if you choose any others that is fine as well.
Now I suggest a domain name relevant to what you are blogging about and avoid using words like The. Now try to also avoid Hyphens, Trademarks, Numbers but some numbers However There are some exceptions for common numeric terms. And the longer the number, the less likely someone will type it out. If you are a 24-hour store, including 24 in your domain is probably safe because people won’t spell out a number with so many characters.
Avoid hard to spell words, think about it how many times have you typed in a word that was hard to spell. Sooo the easier you make it right?
And of course avoid Homophones, yes you heard me right and yes I do realize your next question is what is a friggin Homophones?
Homophones are words that sound the same but mean something different. Examples include ‘brake’ and ‘break,’ ‘flour’ and ‘flower,’ and ‘here’ and ‘hear.’
If you include words with homophones in your domain name, you need to make sure that the meaning will be clear so that people type it correctly.
A site about cars can use ‘brake’, a recipe site can get away with ‘flour’.
An now being there are new domains getting created everyday, you are just going to have to be creative very creative. I am sure you will do fine.
Your Blog…
Now pick your platform and theme, this blog is powered by word press and features some awesome plugins like All in One SEO (which is for search engine optimization) What is a plug in? A plug in is like an added bonus to your blog to help it perform. There are many out there some are free some you have to pay for. Again you have to see what works for you.
Everything should be explained by your blog host on what to do, now however I do recommend that when you do get your WP Admin Page you save it to your favorites.
Themes…
There are a ton of word press themes you can choose from, and if you get a little more advanced you can have a special theme made for you. But since you are just starting out just Keep it Simple this is like my 5th Blog theme in two years. I like to change the look every now and then.
Content…
What you are reading now is called a post, a post at minimum needs three hundred words or more. I recommend they are at least one thousand words, Include a picture or two and some anchor texts. Such as this one linking to Anchor Texts… Now once you click on it you will be taken to another page, you see how I linked it to a Wiki Page so it can explain Anchor Text in more depth.
IN ORDER to have a successful Blog you need good content, I suggest way before anything even buying your own domain name. You get keyword surfer, I have it for chrome and it helps me search for good keywords and how many hits they get. I do not know what browser you use but this is just a suggestion.
And have good keywords and tags is very important too so I really do recommend some kind of keyword search tool. That will come in handy for you. Some are free some you have to pay for but I was horrible at keywords and tag suggestion and also very hard-headed as well. So I am telling you to download one but always do your research on them. Before you buy or download anything.
Just like when you add pictures to your blog, you can have them link to an affiliate site or wherever you want. But in my opinion, always fill out the ALT Text and Description. Click Here to read more about the ALT Text…
Also remember you also have Google Images than can also send you traffic to your web site. Out of the hundreds of thousands of pictures on the internet you want your to rank up there to be seen. So it’s important to give the search engines a lil more to grab on to.
Remember your post is the body of your blog this is where all your info and affiliate links and banners will go.
Widgets…
These are super important these are the controls to your blog, for your affiliate links, Banners, and Ad Sense (I’ll explain in a bit). As you read this post you will notice my sidebars and each section is a widget you can use it as a reference when you are building yours.
Now The more inbound links you have on your blog the more the search engines will love you. This is why you blog, each post has a separate link going to your blog. The more posts the more links. This is why your content on each post is a big deal.
So if you are using a Word Press Platform the simple links plug in is a must Well in my own opinion anyway.
Now when you are choosing your widgets you want to choose the Custom HTML widgets that are where you will put your Banner or Ad-sense Codes. You can only use one widget per code. I have used two codes on one, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Play around with it and see what happens.
Google Adsense
Earn money with website monetization from Google AdSense. You sign up and create the banner sizes you want use in your widgets and blog posts. They give you a code and put it anywhere on your blog, sidebar, header, Footer, blog post. And whoever clicks the ad you get a little commission, now by all means do not ever click the ads yourself they will ban your account and blog and website. They are Google they are smart.
But if you can build a very high traffic blog with a lot of impressions and clicks. You can make money on Adsense alone.
There are tons of ways to make money on your blog, this is why I am telling you learn as much as you can. Take your time do your research and do it right.
See You Next time…
