Tempting, isn’t it? But building an affiliate blog from scratch can seem daunting, but it is not as hard as it might sound.

This beginner’s guide will walk you through the process step-by-step and show you how to create a successful affiliate blog in no time. You’ll learn to choose a niche, set up your website, create content, attract readers, and much more!

So, are you ready to get started? Let’s go!

What Is The Affiliate Blogging?

Affiliate blogging is when you – a blogger – promote a product or service in your articles and include a unique link or discount code related to that item that identifies your blog as the traffic source. When readers click on your link or purchase the item, you earn a commission.

Therefore, an affiliate marketing blog is different from a personal or a blog that complements a company’s business. You must create content for people looking to buy products and services. Moreover, you have to monetize the traffic and ultimately generate sales through affiliate programs and offers.

Creating a blog which one can use for affiliate marketing is a simple way to make money right at home. No specific experience is needed, but there are several rules one should follow to improve the chances of success.

How to Choose a Niche for Your Affiliate Blog

Choosing the right niche is essential for building a successful affiliate blog. You need to select a topic that:

1. you are interested in,
2. you know something about
3. has a significant enough audience to generate traffic & make sales.

There are many different ways to find niches for your blog, but here are a few tips to help get you started:

• Ask yourself the right questions: What are you passionate about, regardless of your skills or experience? What are you good at? Now pick the topics that appear in both answers. If you have many, pick the top 3 you love the most. For each topic, set a timer for 3 minutes and write down as many post ideas as possible. Which topic was the easiest to write about? Congrats! You just found your zone of genius and the niche you should focus on in your affiliate blog. Make sure it is not broad but as specific as you can in order to stand out from the competition.
• Do some research online: Use Google or other search engines to do some preliminary research on popular topics and keywords related to your niche. This will give you an idea of what people are already searching for online and can help you come up with ideas for blog posts or other content that will be useful to your audience.
• Look at what’s trending on social media: Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are great places to find out what people are talking about right now. You can use these platforms as inspiration for new ideas and content-creation strategies!

How to Set Up Your Website

Now that you have chosen a niche and created some content, it’s time to set up your website. This is where the real work begins! There are a few things you will need to do to get started:

• Choose a domain name and web hosting: The first thing you need is a domain name (the address of your website) and web hosting. You can buy both of these items from various providers or use one of the many free options available online.
• Install WordPress: Once you have registered your domain name and set up your web hosting account, you will need to install WordPress. This software powers most websites today and is very easy to use. If you want to get into more detail in web development, there are many sources from which you can learn web development fast.
• Choose a theme: The next step is to choose a theme for your site. There are thousands of free themes available online and many premium ones too! You can also create your custom design using HTML/CSS knowledge or hire someone else who does know the code well enough.
• Add plugins: Plugins are pieces of software that add new features to your website. They can be installed from the WordPress dashboard or downloaded directly into the theme’s folder on your computer. You’ll want at least two: an SEO plugin (such as Yoast) and a social sharing like Shareaholic. In the future, we recommend having a great affiliate tracking software that gives you data & insights your competitors lack.
• Create pages for important content: It’s always a good idea to have an About page where visitors can learn more about you and why they should care. This page will help your readers feel connected with what they’re reading.
• Write a blog post: Once your website is set up, it’s time to write your first blog post. You can start by writing about anything you’re passionate about. Knowing basic SEO will help you significantly to stand out. However, if writing many high-quality & SEO-friendly articles is too challenging for you, hiring a content writer on a side is an option, too. The right content & SEO experts who increase your search traffic value and maximize your growth way faster.

Set Up the Affiliate Network

• Contact companies in your niche: After creating content and setting up your website, it’s time to look for affiliate programs. You can do this by contacting companies directly or searching online for relevant ones that match the topics on your blog posts (e.g., if you sell sports equipment, then you might want someone who blogs about how great their products are).
• Join an affiliate network: Once you’ve found a few good candidates, sign up with them through an affiliate network like ShareASale or Commission Junction. This will allow your commissions to be tracked and paid out easily.
• Start promoting! Now it’s time to start promoting your blog posts! You can do it via social media, email marketing, community forums or any other distribution methods you can think of. The more people who see your content, the better chance you have of making affiliate sales.

Final Thoughts

And that’s it! Now you can officially become a blogger with an affiliate website.

It may seem like a lot at first, but with a little hard work and dedication, you’ll be able to achieve great things in no time.

Remember to always focus on providing valuable content that will help your audience somehow, and everything else will follow suit naturally over time. So get to it and have some fun with it!

Remember: Rome wasn’t built in a day, so don’t expect everything to happen overnight; Give yourself time to grow and evolve as a blogger while building valuable relationships with your audience.

The post How to Build an Affiliate Blog from Scratch: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners appeared first on SiteProNews.

However, the best brands managed to find their way pretty quickly. We’ve seen some awesome social media campaigns out there ever since the pandemic started.

As the months passed, we’ve had a chance to look back and learn from previous experiences.

Get inspired by these 4 amazing social media campaigns of COVID times!

Getty Museum’s #MuseumChallenge

Dressing up as famous art? Count us in! The Getty Museum was probably the most successful art institution in mobilizing its audience. It has been challenging their followers to recreate famous works of art with objects and/or people they have around themselves.

The rules—according to the Getty Museum’s Twitter account—were simple: Choose your favorite artwork. Then, find three things lying around your house, and recreate the artwork with those items. Share it.

The Getty Museum has received thousands of entries, ranging from classical and renaissance masterpieces to modern art. The results are amazing and are worth checking out when you have a free minute.

Why Getty’s Museum Challenge Worked

It was a campaign that truly engaged—whether you were an observer or a participant. User-generated content (UGC) is always a hit with social media users because they feel the brand sincerely cares about them.

It establishes trust and social proof for brands and creates a community around their products and services. 

And, it gave social media users something to do over a lockdown evening with Getty providing entertainment and distraction for art fans worldwide.

Buzzfeed Tasty’s Saturday Night Seder

Let’s talk about live videos for a minute.

This form of communication has reaped massive benefits for brands over the past months. It helps brands to communicate with their audiences in-the-moment and create a more human connection with their customers.

Buzzfeed Tasty (most commonly known for its delicious short and snappy recipe videos) tapped into the medium to encourage their audience to connect online when they couldn’t connect with others in real life.

At the same time, they added another layer to the whole proceeding: charity. The Live Seder event brought together musicians, comedians, and celebrities as part of a fundraiser to help people who had been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thanks to this event, they have raised funds for the CDC Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.

The event was promoted across several different social media platforms and aired Live on YouTube and Facebook at the same time.

Why Buzzfeed Tasty’s Live Seder Event Worked

Live video was the perfect medium for reaching people while they were stuck at home. Not only did it make them feel a part of something, but Buzzfeed Tasty’s audience could get involved in something bigger than themselves.

The brand knew that a live video would hit the spot with viewers—especially since video forms a crucial part of their everyday content strategy.

Hello’s BC Explore BC Later Campaign

Tourism took a real hit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tourist boards around the world were flummoxed at how they could continue to raise awareness of their destinations without coming across as insensitive and tone-deaf.

Many simply did nothing.

But that wasn’t an option for Hello BC.

Instead, the brand launched their #ExploreBCLater campaign that highlighted the need for social responsibility during trying times. It was a twist on their usual #ExploreBC hashtag that created a space for travelers to share their stories of BC and live vicariously through user images and videos.

As well as UGC, Hello BC also shared posts from industry partners and kept BC front of mind so that when travel restrictions are lifted, it’s the first place people want to go.

Why Hello BC’s #ExploreBCLater Campaign Worked

The pandemic was never going to be an easy time for tourism boards.

Promoting a destination that’s not accessible is an almost impossible task, but Hello BC managed to get the tone just right. They continued to celebrate the beauty of BC through traveler pictures and industry partners to keep the love for BC alive.

And we had something to look forward to.

Guinness’ Stay at Home Campaign

When the pandemic hit the world, we were all facing a huge amount of uncertainty. 

However, many brands didn’t let it paralyze them. Marketers were proactive and tried to use their talent to help spread hope, positivity and powerful messages. And Guinness was one of them.

Created by copywriter Luke O’Reilly, this concept Guinness ad is being praised online for its simple perfection.

It uses a technique called invisible branding which uses well-known images and replaces them with perfectly placed objects to create an optical illusion. Thanks to the illusion, your brain has to fill in the gaps.

In this case, the iconic pint of Guinness’ foam head has been substituted with a sofa, in the signature creamy colour, of course. The middle is stamped with the old Guinness logo and harp icon, and a simple, well-positioned ‘Stay at home’ message at the bottom provides all your brain needs to complete the image.

Why Guinness’ Campaign Worked

This ad is a very creative way of spreading the message ‘Stay at home’, fabulously combining humor and an important call to action delivered with sensitivity. It perfectly taps into the nation’s mood during the pandemic and makes them feel connected.

Also, let’s face it: such ads work because of years of investments in Guinness branding, awareness and engagement.

COVID Was a Challenge Accepted for Social Media Campaigns

The past 2 years were challenging years for most of us.

For a while, it was a minefield for brands that didn’t want to come across as insensitive or playing the Covid card too much.

But we think the brands here got it just right. From Tasty’s live videos to Guinness, this year might have been the most fruitful and creative year yet when it comes to social media campaigns.

Many brands also started using social media for social selling and moved from traditional ways of selling online. Ecommerce has become a vital part of the global retail framework too, yet the direct selling industry remains one of the best industries to stay profitable.

Examples used in this article show that in every difficulty lies opportunity.

The post 4 Inspiring Social Media Campaigns of COVID Times appeared first on SiteProNews.