Being an online affiliate is all about one thing — the referrals! The goal of any affiliate is to refer people to a product or service and get a commission or referral fee back in exchange. So how do you get more referrals? If this was easy — everyone would be doing it. But the best way to increase referrals is to create content. Content is the driving force behind everything as an affiliate. You can create blog posts, you can create creative images, you can do live video, and on and on. There are literally dozens of forms of content. But if you create content, you have a better chance of increasing referrals. Let’s look at four ways content can boost your affiliate referrals.
The Accidental Referral
What do we mean by “accidental referral”? Well, let’s say you create a nice piece of content and place some affiliate ads to a product you are selling within that content. “Joe” comes along and reads your article. He doesn’t have a lot of interest in it but a call to action you have catches his eye. He clicks the CTA. He doesn’t buy the product but is introduced to another product at that site. This site has cookies set which means you (the affiliate) gets credited on all sales from Joe over the next 30 days. Joe comes back a few days later and buys that “other” random product. Boom, you get commission on that sale. We consider that an accidental sale because it’s not really what you were selling, but your content produced the referral.
One Time Call to Action
This is probably the most common way content produces referrals. For every blog post or piece of content you have out on the web, you will have call to actions in place selling your services or products. As people read your content, these ads relate to them and they click through, and ultimately buy the product/service. This is a one time sale and one time referral that comes directly from your content streams.
Creating a Raving Fan
Probably the most desirable thing you can get from your content is a RAVING FAN. A what? A raving fan is someone that loves what you do. After reading your articles, they instantly follow you on Facebook, Like your Twitter, bookmaker your site, sign up for your email list, etc… They are sold on YOU or your brand. This is very powerful as you can now carefully “sell” to this individual forever. You have to continue to deliver valuable content to them, but you can mix in sales along they way, making this person a repeat referral for many of your affiliate offers. And as you can imagine, the more great content you have, the more raving fans you can create.
Word of Mouth
The last way to get referrals from your content is via word of mouth. Maybe Joe read your content but didn’t click anything. As he was reading, you thought, Mary could sure benefit from reading this. Joe sends Mary the link to your content. Or better yet, Joe SHARES your content on social media. This doesn’t generate a direct referral right away, but as word of mouth spreads, more people are turned on to your content and you begin to see more referrals.
So those are just a few ways that your content can general more referrals as an affiliate. The real key and takeaway is — create content! Content will drive traffic and traffic drives referrals.
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