What Are Affiliate Links?
To succeed in affiliate marketing, you need to know everything there is to know about affiliate links. So let’s start with the logical first question. What are affiliate links?
While we’re at it, why don’t we also cover how affiliate links work, how to use them, and how to find them.
What are Affiliate Links?
Put simply, affiliate links are the links you put on your site that take your customers through to sites where they can buy stuff. Affiliate links are given to you by companies in your chosen industry.
How you choose to scatter these links across your pages is entirely up to you, you can use organic links in your text or add a ‘click here’ if preferred.
You can use bare links if you choose to, but that can feel clumsy on a page, it’s much better to hyperlink from your text.
In our opinion, you want an organic, contextual anchor link, attached to a specific word or phrase in your text that is relevant to the affiliate program you are linking to.
For example, if you are linking to a site selling CBD dry flower, then find a way to organically get the words ‘CBD dry flower’ into your text and anchor a link to those words, as we have above.
How do Affiliate Links Work?
When your readers click the affiliate links on your sites, they will be taken to the site owned by that company, where they sell their products.
If your customers use these links and ultimately buy whatever these sites are selling, you will be paid a small commission, this is where the revenue for an affiliate marketing site comes from.
This is why how you use your affiliate links is so important because you want to tempt your readers to not only click on the link, but also to purchase whatever it is they find at the other end of the link.
There are obvious ways to do this, for example, sing the praises of every company you have an affiliate link for. This used to be a popular method, but it is starting to lose its appeal, purely because readers are not stupid.
If you do nothing but say positive things about every company you have affiliate links for, your readers will realise that your site is there purely to make you money and for no other reason. If those visiting your page don’t think you care about them, they won’t click on the links, and they won’t keep visiting your sites.
Instead, the sensible thing is to focus on honesty. If the products from a particular site are inferior to others, say that, even if it means you get less clicks on that particular affiliate link. If your readers know that you’re bringing them facts and honest opinions, they will be far more likely to click on links when you are positive about a company.
Sure, find the good in everything you can, if you can list benefits, even for those inferior products (they may be cheaper, for example) then do so, but maintain honesty.
How to Find Affiliate Links
Here’s a badly kept secret. Companies really want affiliates.
As a result, finding affiliate links is rarely difficult, there should be a link or a shortcut easily visible on any site with an affiliate program. Click on this link, and you’ll be taken to the affiliate homepage.
On this page, you will normally have to put in a fair amount of information, this is to make sure you’re above board, to ensure you can’t get the company in problem by making false claims about their products, and most importantly, so you can get paid the commission.
Once you’ve given this information, you will have access to affiliate links which you can simply copy and paste into your content as outlined above, it’s that easy.
Succeeding in affiliate marketing is hard work, we’re not going to lie, but getting the links and setting them up on your page is very much the easy part, and lays the necessary groundwork so you can start working on building up your readership and developing that all-important passive income.
The CBD industry is one of the best opportunities for affiliate marketing in the modern world. If you want to get involved and see if you can benefit from this fast-growing industry, click here and become a Plant & Hemp affiliate today.
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