As we head into the fourth quarter of the year and the busy holiday season, let’s explore how affiliate marketing can boost your blog’s income. In case you don’t know, affiliate marketing is a reward-based sales system for many products sold online. For example, Amazon has the most popular affiliate system where it pays 4-15% to influencers who direct sales to their site. Other affiliate programs have varying percentage of payouts, but the goal is the same. They hope your influence can help them make more sales. They provide a specific link for you, track sales and pay a designated percentage. We’ll explore how to boost your blog’s holiday season affiliate income below.
Affiliate Income & Holiday Season for Bloggers
Set an affiliate income goal
How much would you like to make each month through affiliate income? How much would you like to make this holiday season from affiliate marketing?
Keep in mind, many affiliate programs have a minimum threshold before payout. For example, ShareASale.com requires $50 in sales before it pays affiliates by check or direct deposit.
Select key affiliate partners
Since there’s a required threshold for payout on sales made through your affiliate links shared on your blog or social media posts, be strategic.
Select key affiliate partners to promote vs. promoting 10 different affiliates and not reaching enough sales to be paid at the end of the month. Instead of joining 12 affiliate programs where you’re flooded with sales emails, focus on ones that the best fit for you and your audience. You’ll have a more successful holiday season with your affiliate links this way.
Talk with an affiliate manager
Affiliate managers are responsible for working with influencers and bloggers on affiliate promotions.
Schedule a call with an affiliate manager to discuss your demographics, what’s worked in the past and what you’d like to know about upcoming affiliate promotions.
Affiliate managers can also help you receive products or services for review. Review products are necessary for our next two recommendations on boosting your affiliate income over the holidays.
Share affiliate promotions in your holiday gift guide
As you craft your holiday gift guide’s categories and themes, remember to add affiliate links to your posts.
Share A Sale recommends you “Create Gift Guides to Increase Your Blog’s Affiliate Income.”
How early do you start seeing holiday gift guide pitches? Some members of our influencer community say they’ve seen pitches as early as June or July!
Write product comparison posts
You may recall our post about the need for more product reviews on your blog.
Readers love to know the features of products and how they measure up against a competitor’s product.
Expect Payment in 30-60 days
Each affiliate program has its own payout structure. You typically don’t earn a commission for sales on Monday and get paid by Friday.
Payouts are usually in 30-60 days. Read each affiliate program’s guidelines, chat with the affiliate manager about payouts and bonus opportunities. Some affiliate programs will give a $10-$20 bonus for a designated blog post with links. Although you may charge more for a sponsored post, an affiliate post allows you to get paid up-front (through a bonus) and from any residual sales, so it’s like getting paid twice.
Note: Affiliate sales you make in December, typically won’t be paid out until January or February. So if you’d like to earn your own holiday cash through affiliate sales, set your sights on October and November sales!
CLICK TO TWEET: How to Boost Your Blog’s Holiday Season Affiliate Income via @TheNetworkNiche #affiliate #affiliatemarketing #affiliateincome
Pin this to your favorite blogging board:
Would you like to learn more about growing your influencer as a content creator? Would you like to be connected to brands for paid sponsorships and invited to cover events in your region?
Join The Network Niche influencer agency, by adding your blog’s name, contact information and your blog’s stats so we can find the perfect fit for future brand collaborations.
