*This post may contain affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information*
Good morning my dears! Today I thought I would share with you a few ways that you can easily make your first affiliate sale. These tips are based on my own experiences. I had my blog for over 3 years before I made my first affiliate sale, and I can’t believe I wasted all that time when I could have been making money, just because I didn’t know how to do it! I wish I’d had someone back then to tell me what to do and how to do it, it would have saved a lot of time… So I’m sharing this with you in the hopes that it will help you make your first sale- good luck!
Before we get started, I am writing this assuming that:
a) You already have a blog
b) You use social media
Let’s get started shall we?
Add affiliate links to your existing blog posts
Find the 5 of your blog posts with the most page views, and change the links for any products you are already talking about, to affiliate links! For example- If you are an artist, you might have a tutorial on your blog for a painting technique with links to the products you have used in the tutorial. You can check with the company selling the products and see if they have an affiliate program. If the product doesn’t have it’s own affiliate program, you can always join the amazon affiliate program and link to the product on amazon! The amazon associates affiliate program is just brilliant. Most people are comfortable shopping on amazon, and if the buyer has other products in their cart, you will get a percentage of the whole basket value. How cool is that!!?
Join Skimlinks
Skimlinks was the first affiliate program I joined, and definitely the easiest to use! You simply sign up for the program on their website, and they will give you a small snippet of code to place on your blog. Skimlinks have a HUGE amount of retailers listed on their affiliate program, and that snippet of code you placed on your blog will change any existing links you have into affiliate links! This is such an easy way to make sales without even trying. Once you have placed the code on your site, you don’t need to do anything else! There is a dashboard on skim links for you to keep an eye on clicks and commissions… It’s addictive!
Write a review of a product you love
If there is a product you love and use, why not review it on your blog? Buyers love to read reviews before they purchase products online! At the end of the review, place an affiliate link to the product, so it can be easily purchased. You can do this with any products relevant to your blog topic. Fashion bloggers for example can link to clothes they love, and tech bloggers can link to recommended equipment.
Promote your links on Social Media
Did you know you can post affiliate links on social media? Aside from promoting your blog posts on social media, you can also link directly to the affiliate products. If you are doing this take care not to come across as spammy- you don’t want to lose friends and followers. If you are genuinely recommending a product that you love, share the link with a genuine comment about how you use the product. People can check it out if they are interested!
Pinterest now also accepts affiliate links! I discovered how easy it is to promote affiliate products on Pinterest after reading “How To Make Your First Affiliate Sale In 24 Hours Using Pinterest” by Elsie McDowell. The book is full of useful information if you are looking to start making affiliate sales. Definitely worth a read!
Have a resources page on your blog
Your followers will be keen to know what resources you use to make your blog so awesome! You can create a separate page for this, so people can find it easily when they need to. On your resources page you can link to everything you use for your blog. Things people might be interested in are your software, hosting provider, email service, templates and themes, etc. You can also list the hardware you use, such as microphones for podcasting, laptop, and your camera/lenses.
I hope that this post has been useful! Have you made any affiliate sales yet? How did you make your first affiliate sale? Let us know in the comments below!