Affiliate Marketing Playbook: 4 Tips for Blogging BeginnersI am very excited to reveal our Affiliate Marketing Playbook. This is a playbook we will be building on over time to create a complete guide for affiliate marketing beginners.

Today I will share the top 4 tips for blogging beginners that I have learnt on my journey so far.

No-one should be ashamed of being a beginner, even the Super-Affiliates had a first day on the job so to speak. Affiliate marketing is such an inclusive industry because anyone can be successful in this field, and therefore we are made up of a diverse and dynamic group of people.

Successful affiliate marketers all have one thing in common their desire to help others. To do this you need to be able to blog. It is crucial to your ongoing success because it is the blogging that builds trust, rapport and ultimately revenue.

You can’t simply set up an Amazon Shopfront website, stock it with affiliate links and then sit back and watch the money roll in. It simply won’t work. You will have no traffic and therefore no-one to sell too.

But provide valuable blogs, build your reputation over time and stamp yourself as an authority in your niche and you will build a loyal following as well as become trustworthy to new visitors to your site.

So how do I build this fantastic website full of quality blogs you may be asking? Keep the following 4 tips in mind and you will be building a profitable business right from the word go.

Top Tip #1 – Be Passionate about your Niche

You may have read that you don’t need to be particularly interested in your niche. That you should pick a niche that has lots of people looking for that product on a constant basis and even if you don’t love it, you will do OK because the traffic is there and people are buying this stuff.

Others may advise you to just knock up any old website, slim on content but big on products, so you are providing something for everyone and people will be sure to buy. Wrong!

Iphone cases on a sales rackLet’s take an example – iPhone cases! I often see this suggested to beginners who say they aren’t passionate about anything, they don’t have a hobby or they really aren’t interested in learning about anything.

iPhone cases are certainly one of those things that people often buy, there is an ongoing market, people do research and buy them on the net, there are plenty of affiliate partners to run with and they are generally pretty affordable.

Sounds good right?

Understand that your enthusiasm for your topic comes through loud and clear in your blog, you can’t fake it, if you are not really interested in the topic and just doing this for money, your readers will know it.

How enthusiastic are you about the various features and benefits of any particular iPhone case? Are you really excited about this particular product and what it will do for your visitors? Do you believe it will truly enhance their life and bring them joy and fulfilment? OK that might be a stretch too far but you get what I mean.

I know personally I could perhaps write 5, maybe 10, blogs on why people should have an iPhone cover, do a few product reviews of the latest and greatest covers and then I would be bored to death with the topic.

It is simply not something that interests me. How am I going to write enthusiastically about this area when I feel absolutely no enthusiasm for it what so ever?

Let me assure you that any niche can be profitable.

I know plenty of online entrepreneurs who’s blogs might be considered to be a little kooky, things that are a bit obscure or out of the ordinary, but they are areas that they are passionate about and they are making anywhere from pocket money to a full-time income and some even more.

Karate

Some of the niches my colleagues are into are:

  • Karate for beginners
  • How to write an erotic sci-fi novel
  • Conspiracy theories through the ages
  • Benefits of cloth nappies

They are doing fabulously well because they love their niches.

They can blog for hours about various topics to do with their niches, you don’t want to get them started talking about it (hard to shut them up!).

They are genuine about helping their readers out with answers to problems or suggestions which may interest them.

When you are up to your 78th blog about iPhone cases and you just can’t be bothered writing content anymore how are you going to motivate yourself to get that blog written? How are you going to write from your heart and express your true self?

By choosing a niche that you are passionate about the rest of the tips given here become easy because you are so excited by your topic and you want to help those people who are in your tribe that you will be jumping out of bed to work on your business and your success will flow from that.

I am really excited to pass on what I learn and to show you how you can succeed and change your life forever. I hope this shows in my writing and my intention to help you as much as I can.

Top Tip #2 – Build a Strong Reputation for your Blog

Once again this takes time. Even if you actually are an expert in your niche in real life you need to develop an online following for you as a person and for the expertise you can impart.

AdviceYour blogs need to be full of top quality advice. There is no need to hold back on any of your experience or knowledge. In today’s ever-connected, fast-paced world people have access to all the knowledge and information they could ever hope for.

There is no “secret advice” that you have that isn’t already out there on the internet just waiting to be searched for and found.

Share your knowledge freely, really help your readers and you will build a hugely successful blog.

Great information gets shared around and as bloggers that’s what we want. You want someone to read your article and say that is SO GOOD I need to let my friend know about that or I was just talking with my Mum about this last week I will share this with her.

If you are not an expert that’s OK too, it just means you need to do more research and make sure you are presenting the facts. This is one very good reason to choose a smaller, targeted niche. It is much easier to become an expert in growing organic herbs as an example than it is to become an expert in sustainable living as a whole.

As long as you are yourself and tell your stories from a place of truth you do not need to lie to your readers. 

As I write this blog I am not a guru on blogging, I am always learning the same as you, but I also don’t pretend to be an expert. I am sharing the knowledge and my experiences that I am gaining as I travel the path.Permanent vacation by the poolI am not going to fabricate a completely fake story and say I have 10 years of affiliate marketing experience, I have made a million dollars over this time and now live on permanent vacation by the pool and you should listen to me!

While that’s the end game I am not there yet and if you haven’t read any of the other pages on my site, you can read my story here.

I don’t need to do that, I am being genuine and honest with you, my reader, and I feel people understand and appreciate that honesty. That is how I will always write my blog posts and I feel this way I will continue enjoying the time I spend blogging – see Tip #4 for more on that.

Top Tip #3 – Have a Plan but be Patient

Affiliate marketing is a long-term gig. You will NOT be posting a blog today and becoming an online influencer by the end of the week. Attracting insane numbers of visitors to your website, achieving excellent rankings for your blog posts within the search engines and nurturing a social media following all take time.

Facebook LogoPlease do not fall for the get-rich-quick scams that litter the internet. They are simply false, they will promise you the world, take your money and leave you with nothing.

The harsh reality is that if you have no skills or experience then you need to educate yourself first. No-one is going to pay you money simply because you have a Facebook account!

Find a platform that will teach you the skills to build a profitable business that you own outright and can scale it as time goes on. It might cost you a little in training but if you invest in yourself now and then make a plan for success you will make it.

To really reach your true potential it is necessary to set goals and you can read the best way to set truly motivating goals here.

If you are serious about changing your life, which I like to think you are because you have ended up here at the Rat Race Escape Project, then affiliate marketing can do it for you – but it takes time and effort. I am so grateful to have found an honest company who are teaching me step by step everything I need to know to become super successful.

If you want to really change your life and you’d like my help then click on the How To Affiliate Marketing Guide at the very bottom of this blog and I will explain everything you need to know to be successful and provide you with links to the platform I use as well as a sweet bonus for joining me.

Our community has so many stories of what to expect as you grow out your business.

These are examples of people who have been there done that so you can get a realistic sense of the timeline you can expect from the amount of effort you put into your blogging and your website.

Surreal floating clocks

As with all businesses that rely on blogging you need to do the work today and put it out there on your website and then wait for it to mature.

It might be a matter of a few hours before your blog is on Page 1 of Google or it might be 6 – 12 months as your site matures and suddenly a blog you wrote last year rises to the top and appears on Page 1.

All of a sudden you are getting sales from a blog that’s 12 months old and that you didn’t think was doing anything. This is the real beauty of affiliate marketing and why it is the best way to create a passive income that lasts.

You may also have seasonal blogs depending on your niche. Maybe last winter you wrote a blog about the benefits of teaching kids to swim, and you’ve only had 5 visitors in the past 5 months. It’s now coming into summer and guess what … your blog, that’s probably going to have a link to children’s floatation devices in it, suddenly starts getting hundreds of clicks and sales as people start thinking about the warmer months to come and spending time with the family.

That blog might need refreshing with some new information before next summer but the bulk of the hard work has been done and you have a great blog that gets lots of visitors around the same time year in and year out.

Make a plan but be patient, your rewards will come.

Top Tip #4 – Write for your Own Enjoyment

Be True To Your Voice QuoteThis tip is closely related to Tip #1, if you do not enjoy your subject you will never be able to write just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

If writing your blog has become a chore then I’d be guessing you are in the wrong niche. Sometimes if you are a long way down the track with your affiliate site it can be hard to acknowledge that you are just not enjoying it anymore.

If you have say 60 blogs written, and perhaps you enjoyed the first 30 but the last 30 have been a real drag then it would be wise to sit back and re-assess before you go any further.

Really successful blogs are many years old and sometimes have hundreds of blogs. The bloggers of these successful sites are putting up content regularly because they always have something to say. They are writing their blogs for their own enjoyment, and they have a following because of this.

To write a blog which will be beneficial for your audience and rank well in the search engines you need to have a minimum of 1000 words per blog. Many experts recommend 1800 – 2000 words per blog to increase your chances of ranking well.

Imagine, or maybe you already know, how hard it is to write 2000 words on a topic you don’t love! There will certainly not be any enjoyment on your behalf. And when the going gets tough if you are not enjoying your blogging then procrastination sets in.

“Oh I haven’t got a blog up in a week I really should do that today” but you know how it goes, it just never gets done and then before you know it you haven’t posted a blog for months.

Rubber duck

What good is a blogger who doesn’t blog? About as useless as a rubber duck that doesn’t float!

Another surefire way to enjoy blogging and to be successful is to stay true to your own voice. Write so that the words flow, you don’t need to keep checking a thesaurus for bigger, fancier words. Write how you speak normally and always remain true to yourself. Do not compromise your principles for the sake of a safe blog.

If you feel strongly about a subject, let your readers know through your blog. It is after all your blog and they have arrived on your site because they thought you might have something interesting to say.

Be outspoken if the topic deserves it and you feel that way. Playing it safe, being wishy-washy about your subject, or worse still, not really saying what you think in case it upsets someone is no way to write a blog.

Be bold, be brave and get your thoughts out there.

Let’s get Blogging!

I hope our first instalment in the Affiliate Marketing Playbook: 4 Tips for Beginner Bloggers has stimulated your thoughts on how to write better blogs.

As I eluded to earlier if you would like more information on the platform I use to host my sites, do all my training and interact with a wonderful supportive community click on the Ultimate How To Affiliate Marketing Guide below because all the info is in there. Plus a sweet bonus!


Being new to the world of blogging does not set you at a disadvantage, if anything it means you are fresh and excited by your blogging. 

If you put into practice the 4 tips above, plus what I show you in The How To Guide, you will be writing fantastic content that will get you lots of visitors to your site and result in lots more sales. 

And that's what we all want right?

Let me know in the comments below if you found my tips helpful and if there is anything you will be putting into practice for your blogs.

And of course if you enjoyed this blog it would help me out a lot if you share the daylights out of it through any of the social media buttons on the side of this page

See you at the top sign off

About the Author

Heidi

It doesn’t matter where you are starting from, what you currently have or don’t have, if you too feel like there is more to life than what you are currently experiencing and you want to take charge and create a better life for yourself (and your family) then join me and we will do this together.

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  1. These are such great tips! One of the things that held me back from getting started was feeling unconfident about writing. I just didn’t think that my writing was good enough and that my content was doomed to be bad. I think that this is where tip number 3 can come in- you need to be patient with yourself as well as the process. Even though my writing still doesn’t live up to my standards, I can see how it has improved which is truly motivating. Thank you so much for the tips! I wish you the best on your blogging journey!

    1. Thanks for stopping by and having a read. I agree I think it’s one of the biggest hurdles for those starting out in the blogging world, we always doubt our abilities. Will any one want to read it? Will they enjoy it if they do? 

      Sometimes the perfectionist in us makes this doubly difficult. I am sure you will find with time and patience (with yourself) that your writing will just get better and better, but in the mean time don’t beat yourself up about it I bet your standards are very high 🙂  

      If you would like some more information I have another content article which breaks down the process of content creation into easy bite size steps – you can check it out here. 

  2. Very great advice Heidi.

    Think you are right that passion really helps drive a blog forward. It will also help create a great brand for the blog, as people can feel passion when the are reading.

    There are too many blogs that are too superficial, because people forget quality to make a quick buck. Usually these will lead to no bucks at all:-) So agree that it is best to find a niche you are passionate about and then work on it passionately.

    Thanks,
    Mike

    1. Thanks for stopping by Mike I agree wholeheartedly. Blogs need to be written from the heart and I find those I want to stay and read more of come across that way. Best wishes to you on your blogging journey, go with passion my friend.

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