Tips for Success in Content and Affiliate Marketing

Success in content marketing is largely dependent on you remaining consistent and developing lots of diverse content you can use to test with. Any blog, even one focused on technology or finance, is going to have a lot of smaller sub-categories that are related. For example, a finance blog might have a category for Bitcoin or real estate.

Learning how to divide your content, gather data about what your consumers are doing, and applying that data to create a more personalized experience is the next set of steps. From there, you can focus your advertising budget on putting that quality content in front of the eyes most hungry to read it.

Data is King

One of the basic principles affiliate marketing for dummies will teach you is how important data is for moving the needle in your campaigns. That’s the difference in a super affiliate, someone who can look at a low paying offer and see the potential for success.

High paying offers are a trap that many fall into because you’re often too focused on that single metric. Affiliate marketing is all about figuring out which data points will lead to your success. If you run an offer with a high payout, and you don’t convert well, then you’ve blown your budget trying to experiment with nothing to show for your work.

Try split testing some campaigns so you can get a good volume of conversions, clicks, and impressions. Look at which categories and articles are getting the most traffic and split test some offers related to those pieces as well as high paying offers. This way, you’ll form a realistic picture of what your audience really cares about.

Create a Style Guide

Content marketing is strongest when you’ve developed a voice for your blog or website. Many large blogs will utilize a style guide because they usually have more than one person writing for them. A style guide provides guidelines that help establish how to write. In the beginning stages, such a guide can help focus your writing and keep you on topic. As you grow more familiar with your own content, revising that guide will help you recruit other writers and teach them from your mistakes.

There’s a great deal of value in presenting a unified voice for your brand. A style guide is essential if you’re trying to create a presence in the blogosphere.

Make it Personal

Content that is written to sound generic usually doesn’t bring any value to readers. Your blog should be a place for your ideal customer to learn more about the things he or she is most passionate about.

So, how do you write personal content?

Focus on the problem, not yourself. Readers don’t really care about your brand, for the most part, they just want the solution to their problem. The better you accomplish that, the more they’ll stick around.

Invest in Advertising

Advertising is a necessity in content and affiliate marketing, so you’ll want to put together a budget before you get started. A few hundred should suffice (many start with a budget of $300-500 each month), but you’ll need to do some research on how to spend that money wisely.

Social is a very strong driver for content marketing, and often more affordable than something like AdWords. It’s also great at gathering feedback from users who can comment on the posts you make to your social network. Retargeting is another affordable way to gain traction because you pay less for an impression. Retargeting (or remarketing) shows ads to users who have already seen your content, and it’s a powerful tool for building brand awareness.

With a decent advertising budget and quality content, you will have all the tools you need to split test and find success in both content and affiliate marketing.