Chadrack
Building a blog that builds multiple streams of income is definitely the dream of many blogger. Of course, as a blogger there are different ways you can make money from your blog.
This could be through selling your knowledge or services, like consulting, selling your own products, like an ebook or a software, or selling ad space on your blog.
One thing that is sure is that no matter the income strategy you are presently using, adding affiliate marketing as an extra channel will greatly increase your bottom line.
There are different ways of making money from affiliate marketing as a blogger. Most of these techniques and tactics can be learned easily. A simple search online will help you uncover most of them. However, as a blogger there is actually one tactic that has always proved very effective, and that will be our focus in this post.
Selling Affiliate Products Using Recommendations
Affiliate marketers have successfully used product recommendations as a winning tactic over the years. But considering the fact that the success of product recommendations is hinged on trust, a blog is definitely a powerful platform to do this.
A blog by nature is great for building trust with your potential customers. And, if your blog readers trust you enough, they will definitely trust your recommendations.
However, you will need to be very careful in using this approach in trying to make money from your blog readers. If you start promoting everything by recommendations, your credibility will eventually wear thin. This is more so if the recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.
How to Use Product Recommendations as a Blogger
To make your product recommendations truly effective as a blogger, you'll need to build the following into your strategy:
1. Sound like the true and leading expert in your field
Marketers over the ages have always recognized the fact that price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your potential customer can trust you, making a purchase will become much easier. Of course, we are always quick to trust those who we recognize as experts. This is why we will readily seek the advice of a doctor when we have medical need. We don’t just seek their opinion but their expert’s advice and when they give that advice, we are readily follow through without question!
The same way, if your blog readers feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they will be more inclined to make a purchase based on your recommendation. However, if you fail to exude any confidence and self-assurance in your endorsements, they will probably feel that same way too. Of course, that will make them to go in search of another product or service which is more believable.
But how do you establish this aura of expertise?
- Offer unique and new solutions they would achieve from using the product – In your recommendations, use demonstrations that will show proof that the product works as promised.
- Avoid hype at all costs – Ensure you have personally tried the product so you can sound confident and self-assured in your recommendations. Remember that prospects these days are well informed and may have actually known what you already know. So don’t think they are stupid. Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. This will actually increase your credibility instead of losing any points for you.
- Back up your claims with hard facts and data – Remember that if your blog readers are truly interested in the product, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how it will benefit them. This way, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions.
2. Use promotional freebies
This is a powerful strategy that many affiliate masters readily use to up their game. Unfortunately, many just starting out in affiliate marketing rarely do this. Many think that offering promotional freebies is something that is peculiar to people who are promoting their won products.
The truth however, is that by adding some promotional freebies as an incentive for those who buy through your affiliate links will greatly increase your bottom line. Before you promote the affiliate product/service, search for a suitable bonus gift you can use to entice your blog readers to make that purchase. Simply ask those who purchased through your affiliate link to send you an email with their receipts and then you can send them your bonus gifts. Of course, this freebie should be able to add valuable to their purchase.
3. Test the product support
Beyond testing the product/service it is important also that you test the support. Some of the things you want to find are: How soon does the affiliate merchant respond to inquiries? How helpful are they when they respond? Etc.
It is true that you may have tested the product and it worked fine but truer still is the fact that not everyone who purchase through your recommendations will find it easy to use the product since we are all at different levels of understanding.
Such persons will therefore need some form of support. If they are not able to find this when they need it, you will be the one who will lose credibility. And, remember how long it took you to build that credibility and trust among your blog readers. A little mistake on your part can easily destroy that in a matter of days. Of course, you really don’t want this to happen!
Conclusion
Product recommendations are a very good way of adding an extra income stream to your blog. A blog already has the foundation for this – credibility and trust! You can work to profit from this by taking a look at the products you are presently using as a blogger and then offering these to your blog readers using product recommendations.
But beyond just trying to make some money from your blog readers ensure that you have 100% confidence in the products you recommend. Test the product support by sending emails and if possible calling on phone and asking some basic questions. Even if you did not have problems with the product, do this to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.
Besides, use product recommendations with care. Trying to promote each and every product you come across using recommendations will soon erode your credibility.
Over to you: Do you promote affiliate products on your blog? Do you use product recommendations? Share your story with us in your comment below.
Excellent post and very useful!! thank you!