10 Tips to Recruit DIY & Crafty Bloggers

Affiliate marketing is very much a relationship business. This is important to keep in mind when recruiting Affiliates into your program. Within a network, Affiliates will regularly apply for your program, but some of your best performers will come from your recruitment efforts outside of the network.

You may ask, “Where on earth do I get started recruiting outside of the network?”

Great question! Let’s discuss it. Now, while this post is specific to DIY & Craft Blogger Recruitment, you can certainly tweak this information to target a number of different bloggers – financial, business, lifestyle, fashion, etc..

Part 1: Resources to Find Bloggers

1. Pinterest Boards

Get on Pinterest and search by DIY & Craft. Peruse the pins, posts, and users. Not every user has a DIY or Craft Blog, but every DIY or Craft Blogger is on Pinterest. Look for users who have custom images. Most bloggers on Pinterest re-pin a lot of content, and mix in their content sparingly. So you just need to do a little digging.

2. Technorati Blog Search

Technorati is an index of blogs – over 112.8 million blogs to be specific. Blogs are categorized and searchable.

3. Search Engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing

Search engines are a very powerful, yet underrated tool for blogger recruitment. Get creative! Don’t just search for “Craft Blogger”, use long-tail search terms to find potential bloggers. If you sell supplies for custom magnets, search for “DIY Magnet Bulletin Board” to see related posts.

4. Twitter Search

Search twitter for relevant hashtags such as #DIY and #Crafts. Many bloggers also utilize twitter to announce their exciting posts or retweet their friends crafting posts.

5. Feedly

Use Feedly to search for and organize blog feeds. Not only is it a great resource to search for bloggers, but you can subscribe to the bloggers’ RSS Feed to keep on top of what they are writing!

Part 2: Getting a Blogger’s Attention

Tips 6 – 10 are all about recruitment. Once you find targeted Affiliates, how are you going to recruitment them into your program? Take a look at some of the strategies in the article below!

In the words of Brian Littleton, “To be very blunt, while you work for (or own) your retail site, and know how good the products are – most Affiliates have dozens, or even hundreds of solicitations coming in from retailers.   For a blogger this can be overwhelming and turn any solicitation into an unwanted email, no matter what it says.

You MUST focus on overselling and overpaying for bloggers and websites that you individually recruit.   Failing to do so will result in low-response rates.  Bloggers are extremely valuable, and in high demand not only in Affiliate Marketing but across the board as brands try to reach out through other marketing channels.  Use your individualized research to find the exact target that you want – and go after them with the best offer you can provide.” [read the rest of this article]