As ShareASale’s Blogger Liaison, I’ve been working with bloggers every day for the last eight months and I’ve attended seven blogger-focused conferences in the past year. While every blog I come across is different and tells a unique story, much of what I hear about blogger’s experiences with Affiliate Marketing is very similar. It sounds something like this…

Does this sound like you?

I have good news if it does! When you’re a brand new blogger, you don’t have many eyes on your website. Your following is very minimal and the audience you do have hasn’t built up the trust and loyalty to keep coming back to your blog quite yet. You’re probably writing amazing content, but building and engaging an audience takes time. You may not see success and commissions rolling in right away with Affiliate Marketing, but the beauty in this is that Affiliate links can live forever! The hard work you put into your blog at its early stages can still pay off!

It’s important to note that Affiliate links within content are typically the highest revenue generators. There are a few different ways to optimize your previous posts once you have more visitors to your blog:

Scenario 1: Not Monetized

Let’s say you have a craft/DIY post that you absolutely love that was written a couple years ago, but you haven’t monetized it. Search for some new Merchants in the interface by product keyword to find items you used, and insert the Affiliate links and images into the post. Maybe you can feature a sewing pattern from Annie’s Catalog or a stencil from Simon Says Stamp that is very close to your project. If it’s a travel post, check out Merchants like CityPass and Viator to see if they provide tickets to the show you saw or tour that you did. Then, bring that post back into the spotlight by featuring it on your social media channels and in your next newsletter. 

Scenario 2: Already Monetized

If you have a popular post written a while ago that you did include Affiliate links in already, it’s very important to refer back to that post as much as possible! Especially if it’s already made you some money. You can do this at the end of your most recent posts by stating ‘Like this post? Check out this {relevant post} over here!’ A good example of this is your recipe posts. Be sure to link popular breakfast posts to each other. This is a great call-to-action and helps keep a reader on your website longer. You can also include the popular post in your newsletters when you get new sign-ups. Maybe Bake Deco has some cookware you used, or The Prepared Pantry has the main ingredient, so you can insert some additional Affiliate links. 

Scenario 3: Attempted Monetization

You have a solid post with Affiliate links that gets a lot of views, but it didn’t make you any money. Now what? Try to build a new storefront with our Make-A-Page feature within the post that includes updated products to show your readers some fresh ideas! It’s important to educate your reader on what’s available to let them make the decision. If you’re able to feature different Merchants, I would recommend doing so. It could be that the current brand isn’t the right fit for your audience, and I’m sure there’s other brands that you also love out there selling similar products! Take, for example, a blog post regarding the best furniture for a nursery. Include rocking chairs from Dot & Bo, domino & The Land of Nod! Then, the post will be ready to bring back into the spotlight. 

Take a look at your blog and old posts to see where the opportunities are to make some additional income with content you’ve already worked so hard on!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES