I had a great month in May. I managed to make over $11k in affiliate commissions and it was my best month yet.
Here I’ve put together a cheat sheet with as many tips as I possibly could. If you have any more questions then let me know in the comments.
A. How many products should I promote?
I promote about 5 different products in the same niche. Sadly 99% of my income comes from 1 product. It takes a lot of effort to dominate a niche. The easiest way is to dominate 1 product and then expand from there. If you’re not making money from one affiliate program, you’re not going to make money from 5.
So my advice is to start with promoting one product. Write everything you can about it. Review it, explain how its used, compare it to competitors etc etc. You should be able to write 100 posts about that product. If you don’t think you can, then it may be difficult to promote.
B. How much do you earn per commission?
$100+. I know people who make a lot of money from products that pay much less. I like promoting something that has a really high commission. It just feels more rewarding.
C. How much content should I post?
I try and post new content every single day. I also try and post content every single day that will make me money. This means I am creating content that has “selling intent”. Meaning people who find this content on Google are searching with an intent to buy something. This is where I see 99% people fail. They create stupid blog posts like “5 marketing things you should be doing” etc. Instead of creating a post like “Make money in the next 2 days using X tool”.
D. How many sites do you use?
I currently make money from 2 sites. I currently own around 20 sites. Just focus on building one site to begin with. My money making sites both made money without any backlinks. I try and build backlinks now, but content > backlinks. Focus on that first.
E. What about a PBN?
My PBN is a work in progress. It’s a very slow process. I wish I had more motivation to build it out. I could pay people, but then I would be stuck with shitty sites, that Google would most definitely get suss about. I want to build a PBN that is just a collection of really high quality sites. This takes time. I’ve obviously done ok without a PBN so far. I do believe it will improve my income, but the last thing I want to do is impact my rankings negatively. So i’m being uber cautious. The result is a PBN which isn’t really a PBN but just some kick ass sites. Google won’t have any issues with that.
People who take shortcuts with SEO generally don’t stick around for too long.
F. Social Signals?
Not so much. I post each post I write to Twitter. That’s about it. Would love some more social traffic, but I can’t justify the ROI in terms of time atm.
G. How long is your money making content?
500+ words. With lots of pictures. I write using a conversational tone. No spelling mistakes and good grammar 😉
Remember that with affiliate marketing you’re competing with peeps from all over the world. If you’ve grown up speaking English, use this to your advantage. Google will always rank well written content above shitty content pumped out by content farms written by people with English as their second language.
Writing quality content takes practice. I think it took me about 5 years of writing everyday to get to a point where I can churn out posts that I know will earn commissions on a regular basis.
P.S – don’t use this content as a marker of what I do. I don’t spell check this blog and write 1000 word posts in 20 minutes. I wouldn’t do the same with my money making content.
H. Do you need keyword research
Sure. My most valuable keyword I stumbled upon by accident. Now I at least pretend to do some research. Most of my research is done using the Google Adwords tools. I also just screenshot “related searches” on Google and use these as post ideas later on. It seems to work well, and no one else does this. Related searches show up at random for different search terms at the bottom of the search results on Google.
I. Do you need to track search engine rankings
Yes. I use Serpbook. I have a lot of traffic coming from a lot of different keywords, but I try and track what I believe are the most profitable. Moving up in the rankings is huge motivation. And seeing your site drop is also motivating.
J. Do you spend money on traffic?
Nope. Arbitrage is cool, but I feel like it’s a whole other board game to writing content for SEO. I stick with what I’m good at.
K. Is this CPA marketing?
I mean technically I am getting paid a CPA commission. Most people when talking about CPA marketing mean those shitty content lockers or mobile offers. Gross. I’m promoting an actual product. And weirdly I actually like the products I promote, usually use them, and so I don’t mind writing about them. Honestly don’t know how some IM marketers promote the shit they promote…good on em I guess.
L. Should I use Amazon Associates?
Sure. Lots of people are making money from it. I made money for years promoting a travel product. And never needed to pay for any shit I bought on Amazon (as I got paid in Gift Cards). Of course you can make real money too.
Just remember that commissions are tiny compared to the type of products I promote.
M. What site creation software do you use?
WordPress. And custom built CMS. Because I code, I can create sites that look exactly how I want them to, with lots of built in CTAs. I could custom build wordpress themes too, but building WordPress themes is hell. Any good programmer will want to blow their brains out building a wordpress theme. For my wordpress sites I just use free, minimal esque looking themes.
N. What hosting do you use?
A bunch of different types. But it’s pretty much all shared hosting.
O. How long will I have to wait before making money?
It took me a few years to get things off the ground. But that’s because I didn’t know what I was doing. If you’re writing content that is targeting people just as they want to spend money, and pump out good quality articles (1000+ words with pics) everyday, you can make money in a few months.
I reckon it takes a few months before a site settles down in Google and you’ll start going up the rankings. Of course, you could do all sort of blackhat SEO bullshit, but you won’t be making money for very long.
P. What niche should I choose
Just something you can easily write about. But focus on a niche that will improve someone’s life. Because that way you can easily get people to part with money. I’m talking Self improvement, Fitness, Health, Finance niches. Easiest places to make money 🙂
Got any more questions? Put them in the comments