What is an Affiliate Link?

What is an affiliate link? This question is often asked by people who are starting their blogging and affiliate marketing adventure.

An affiliate link is a simplest and also most effective tool to make money online.

Blogging is hard work and that’s why it’s good to be rewarded over time.

If you create interesting and valuable content, you can make profits by placing affiliate links in your posts.

Links properly integrated into the content of the page look natural, and readers whose trust you have gained will be happy to buy from you.

This is a win-win situation – you are blogging and making money, and your readers are getting valuable information and reviews of proven products.

How to get affiliate links?

When you sign up for an affiliate program, you become an affiliate. However, for you to start making money by recommending other people’s products, you will need the right tools.

One of the most effective, and simplest of these is an affiliate link, also known as a referral link.

How do affiliate links work?

An affiliate link is a unique URL that leads to a specific advertiser’s website.

In each affiliate link is encrypted the unique ID of the person promoting the product.

Every affiliate has individual links, so it is possible to get accurate information about clicks and orders placed via them.

By promoting various products online through an affiliate link – whether it’s physical items, online courses, or digital products, you’ll be sure to earn a commission when someone makes a purchase from your referral.

In addition, you can also track other actions that the user performs after going to the advertiser’s site.

This may include registering or filling out a form, activating a trial version of an application or software.

When was affiliate marketing invented?

It is worth knowing that the first affiliate links appeared in the USA in the 90s.

Exactly it was in October 1994 and they were used by PC Flowers&Gifts.com company.

In the following years, other companies also started using affiliation as an effective method to promote their products.

Today, one of the most popular affiliate programs is the Amazon Associates Program launched by Jeff Bezos in July 1996.

There are plenty of blogs and sites on the Internet that makes money just by promoting Amazon products.

Today, the affiliate is the backbone of internet marketing in the US.

As you probably know this is just one of many ways to make money online. You can read more about the other methods here.

How to create affiliate links for your website?

Links in affiliate programs can be created in various methods.

The most common way is that you should sign up for a particular affiliate program, then a unique URL will be assigned to your account which you can promote.

Some networks also offer special affiliate link generators so you can create different links for different campaigns.

This is very useful because when you are promoting a product using different methods, you want to know which one is most effective.

The advantage of affiliate links is that they don’t expire – as long as a particular affiliate program is active, you always have a chance to make money.

I will show link creation using Clickbank.com as an example.

Clickbank is a very popular affiliate network where creators of various digital products and publishers promoting those products come together.

Both of them often earn a lot of money in the process.

How to create affiliate links?

What does an affiliate link look like?

After registering and creating an account on Clickbank.com, the next step is to choose the product you want to promote.

Let’s say you have a blog about internet marketing and you want to promote a product related to that niche.

Go to the Marketplace tab and then choose the product you are interested in from the E-Businees&E-Marketing category.

Let it be a product called The Fast Tracks webinar.

Click the Promote button.

As you can see, your unique Account Nickname is already assigned automatically. 

You can also optionally fill in the Tracking ID field which will allow you to differentiate between the links if you plan on running multiple campaigns.

So you can enter YT – which will mean that you will use this affiliate link to promote this product on your YouTube channel.

Then click Generate Hoplinks.

You have just generated your first affiliate link, which will look similar to the one below:

https://61218h7a09uhn5orgi1xwd7.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=YT

As you can see, it is not very readable for users visiting your site. Therefore, to increase the click-through rate such links are often cloaked.

You can read more about what link cloaking is here.

How to use affiliate links?

Just creating an affiliate link is not enough to make money online.

The next step is to promote it skillfully according to the regulations of a given affiliate program.

And this is the key to success.

Choosing the right way is very important. Different affiliate programs have guidelines on how affiliates should promote their products.

For breaking certain rules, your account may be banned and the money you have earned will not be paid out.

This is why it is so important that you carefully read the terms and conditions of the program you are participating in.

How to promote affiliate links?

There are very many methods to promote affiliate links. One of the most effective in my opinion is to have your blog or YouTube channel.

On a blog, you can describe a product in great detail, review it, present all its advantages, and thus easily convince the reader to buy it through your link.

An affiliate link embedded in the text looks natural and is therefore very effective. So you can link words, whole sentences, and images representing the product.

Additionally, you can place your affiliate link under a graphic or banner on your blog’s sidebar.

Similarly, when you have a YouTube topic channel. By reviewing a product in a video, you can also encourage viewers to buy it. 

All you need to do is to put your link in the description below the video.

Besides, you can also promote affiliate links:

– on your Facebook fan page,

– on your Instagram profile,

– through thematic forums,

– in your online store – as long as it is allowed by the rules of the program,

– in comments (do not spam) on other blogs, forums, groups on FB,

– through email marketing, which is sometimes a very effective method (you can read more about it here).

Remember that it is always good to test different methods and ways of placing affiliate links.

Over time you will learn which ones work best and which ones you should focus on the most.

Link tracking tools are very useful here and will give you all the information you need.

This will make your campaigns more successful and you will achieve a higher ROI.

How to add affiliate links in WordPress?

As I mentioned earlier, one of the most effective ways to promote affiliate links is through your blog.

Therefore, below I will show you how to add an affiliate link in WordPress, which is the most popular blogging platform.

It is quite simple, however, if you are a beginner blogger, this knowledge may come in handy.

So, after logging into WordPress, you should create a new post that can be about the product.

Now, to insert an affiliate link, select the word or sentence snippet of your choice and click on the Insert link icon.

Paste the previously generated affiliate link into the window that appears.

However, it is still worth clicking on the Link options icon and ticking “Open link in a new tab“.

If you don’t do this, the user will leave your site after clicking the link and the session will be terminated. 

But this way the visitor will still have a view of your blog, so he will have a chance to go to another page or perform another action you care about.

Finally, click Add Link.

How do I add an affiliate link to the image?

The same goes for adding affiliate links to photos and graphics. This method is especially effective for product reviews. 

The user clicking on the picture of the product can go directly to the store, where he can make a purchase.

So at the place where you want to insert an image in the post, click on the Add Media button.

Then select the photo or graphic you want to insert.

Once you have done this, click on the image and select the Edit option hidden under the pencil icon.

Then in the Display Settings row, change the setting from None to Custom URL.

You can also check the option: Open link in a new tab.

How many affiliate links can I put in a blog post?

At this point, you may be wondering how often to place affiliate links on a particular page?

Some suggest adding one link per page or a given batch of material. 

I believe that there can be several links on one page.

Of course, it depends on the length of the text. The rule of thumb is not to overdo it with too many links. 

Users interested in the product will click on the link anyway.

Adding affiliate links probably does not affect your search engine position.

However, keep in mind that your website should be valuable and reader-friendly first.

Too many affiliate links can look unnatural.

Finally, one more point. Bloggers who earn big money from their sites never hide the fact that their content contains affiliate links.

If you want to be transparent to your readers – don’t be afraid to let them know that you recommend products through an affiliate link.

Your ultimate goal is to build trust with your audience. When you succeed – you will start making more and more money.

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