The Affiliate Marketer’s Toolkit: Part 1

The foundation of a successful affiliate website encompasses a variety of different marketing components. Each of these components helps an affiliate gain trust and grow readership which leads to more traffic and higher conversions. Generally, this would include…

• Website & Mobility
• Original & Beautiful Content
• Email Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Testing & Analytics
• Affiliate Links
• Social Media

To help you maintain and build upon each of these stepping stones, we’ve put together a list of resources, plugins, and services to use as an affiliate marketers toolkit, both paid and free. The goal of this toolkit is to provide you with as many resources as possible for a successful and profitable affiliate website.

If you think we left something out – make sure to send us your recommendation or your favourite tool, plug-in or resource and we’ll check it out!

Most Affiliate Networks have a variety of tools to help both their merchants and affiliates succeed in affiliate marketing. Specifically on ShareASale, we’ve developed a number of tools to make it easier for affiliates to find relevant merchants and incorporate affiliate links into their website.

SHAREASALE MAKE-A-PAGE

…for displaying specific products

Displaying products can be a far more engaging and effective way to utilize Affiliate links. The challenge, however, faced by most part-time affiliates is the technical ability to cleanly display these products. ShareASale has solved this problem with the newest version of Make-A-Page. Affiliates – techy or not –  can build a custom table or a scrollable gallery of curated products to display on a post or page. ShareASale provides all the code necessary so it’s just a simple copy/paste; and in no time at all you have a beautiful presentation of products.

Timesaver Tip:  If you work with more than 10 Merchants, the product search can be overwhelming, so plan your Make-A-Page in advance. For example, if you are writing a post about the Chicago Blackhawks first game, avoid searching Make-A-Page for “Blackhawks”, instead try “Blackhawks T-Shirts” or “Blackhawks Accessories”.

Additional Resources:

Make-A-Page Updated, and a New Feature for Bloggers 
How I Made A Fun Interactive Creative – in 4 Minutes

Make-A-Page Gallery View

Make-A-Page Page View

SHAREASALE PRODUCT SHOWCASE

…for displaying rotating products

The ShareASale Product Showcase is an interactive widget, primarily for your sidebar, but can be placed anywhere on your website. This widget will showcase products by Merchant, Keyword or Merchant + Keyword. The biggest difference between the Product Showcase and Make-A-Page is that you do not control the specific products that appear in a Product Showcase. This tool operates with a hands-off approach, rotating products automatically based on Merchant or Keyword (or combination of both). The Product Showcase is another creative way to utilize affiliates links outside of the standard text link or banner advertisement. It's a more eye-catching and higher converting way to advertise your favorite brands.

Additional Resource:

Create A Product Showcase For Your Blog in 5 Minutes

Here's how it looks:

SHAREASALE BOOKMARKLET 

…for capturing product links on the fly

The ShareASale Bookmarklet (aka Product Discovery Tool) allows users to capture affiliate links on the fly. Imagine you are browsing on Fanatics, one of your favorite Merchants, and BAM! - you realize their Chicago Bears Nike Women's Hoodie would be the perfect addition to your blog post on Fall Football Fashion. Simply click the "Bookmarklet Button" that you previously added to your browser toolbar, and the ShareASale Product Discovery window will pop up. From this window you can quickly copy and paste the HTML code for the product image + affiliate link directly into your blog post. It saves you the time and hassle of logging into your account, searching for the merchant, and then searching for the specific product in that merchant’s datafeed.

Basically, it’s a HUGE timesaver!

Additional Resources:

Product Discovery Bookmarklet Tool

4 Ways the Product Discovery Tool Saves Time

SHAREASALE DEALSBAR

…for automatically showing deals from your select Merchants to your readers

Your readers will be shown all current deals from Merchants on ShareASale.  You get to choose which Merchants to show on the Dealsbar, so if you only want to choose 1, 2 or all you can do that! It's a simple plug-in for WordPress and uses the ShareASale API to automatically keep you up-to-date.

SHAREASALE CREATE A CUSTOM LINK 

…for creating an affiliate link to a specific page

Let's say you find a new product or an amazing landing page on a merchant's website, but they have no affiliate link to it in their creative inventory (no banners, text links, product datafeed, etc). Don’t worry! You can create your own!

The ShareASale Custom Link Tool allows you to transform any link on a merchant’s website into an affiliate link, as long as you are a member of that program. You can also opt to shorten this link, which is perfect for social sharing! Plus, it just looks classier.

Additional Resources:

Can’t Find the Right Text Link? Create Your Own!

Best Practices for Creating A Custom Link

EXAMPLE ->http://shrsl.com/?h7tc

ShareASale Merchant Lookbook

…for finding relevant Merchants and content inspiration

The ShareASale Merchant Lookbook is a biannual publication of popular Merchants, products, tips and tricks, and more. Browse through our Lookbook in the comfort of your own home or checkout our online version. If you find a few Merchants you want to work with, we make it easy for you to find them in the interface, with a ‘Spring 2017 Lookbook’ category. 

Sign up to receive a FREE copy of the next Lookbook.
(shipping available to the United States only) 

MERCHANT DISCOVERY BOX

…for a fun and hands-on way to find new Merchants in your niche

If you are looking for an easy (and fun!) way to find new Merchant partners, the Merchant Discovery Box can help! This program allows bloggers to enjoy swag, browse from a group of niche, curated ShareASale Merchant recommendations, choose a FREE product from the featured Merchants, and have a chance to earn some affiliate sales.

This is a fantastic opportunity to challenge yourself and make some money while you are at it!

Affiliates can sign up for the box for a $25 one-time quarterly purchase or $80/annual subscription (4 boxes). And if they are really feeling adventurous, Affiliates can earn money back!

Learn more about how to sign up & receive the Merchant Discovery Box. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Affiliate Marketer's Toolkit.