Today I'm going to show you how I made $2000+ in affiliate income on my blog using Pinterest to promote a SINGLE blog post.
If you are a beginner blogger wanting to make your first affiliate income, this post is THE ultimate guide you need to read!
| This post may contain affiliate links. It means that at no additional cost to you, I might be compensated from your purchase. I only recommend products and services I personally love and trust. |
From knowing absolutely nothing about affiliate marketing to making more than $2000 within just 6 months, I reckon I did a FEW things right!
I would love to share everything I know about why I succeeded in making affiliate sales from just ONE product on my blog and promoting the affiliate article using Pinterest.
Contents
How To Make Substantial Affiliate Income Using Pinterest To Promote My Blog
Are you ready to learn about my “secret”? Before I spill the beans on exactly how I did it, I would like to clarify that affiliate marketing is NOT EASY and requires consistent, hard work.
In the beginning stages in your blogging journey, it is important to understand your audience, what kind of product you can promote to make a difference in their lives AND work towards creating good quality content for your blog.
So here's how I did it.
Basically, I promoted the product that helped me launch my Pinterest virtual assisting career: the Become A Pinterest VA Today online program by Kristin Larsen. I wrote a few articles about my REAL results from taking the said course, shared it on my Pinterest account and got featured in a few interviews.
From there, I would sometimes promote the affiliate articles using Pinterest promoted ads and build my email list with a free e-course.
That's how I consistently made around $200-500 per month just promoting ONE affiliate product.
Within 6 months, that amount has snowballed into $2266.60!! The best part, these affiliate sales keep coming even when I have not done anything to further promote the product!
Since Become A Pinterest VA Today is a high value affiliate product I love, I have no problem sharing it with anyone who wants to learn how to make money as a Pinterest VA. Besides, my authority and experience in the subject also makes me trustworthy.
What If You're Just A Beginner Blogger-How Can You Copy What I Did?
All this did not come from just reading up a few FREE blog posts from experienced affiliate marketers and bloggers.
I can definitely tell you that I invested quite a lot of time, energy and money into this. So, how can you copy exactly what I did and make substantial affiliate income within a short amount of time?
Here are a few tips for beginner bloggers to succeed in making affiliate income:
1. Learn how to write effective copy
Copy is everything you write to sell. From billboards, social media postings to blog posts promoting affiliate products, the words we write are those that will make us sales.
In order to make money doing affiliate marketing, the most important skill you need will be learning how to write copy that sells!
One of the key factors that help me continuously make affiliate sales from ONE product is investing in a course that taught me how to do so.
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner's Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing definitely taught me how to structure my blog posts, what kind of content to create as well as how to build trust with my audience. You can read my detailed review of the course here.
2. Practice, practice, practice
No matter what you want to excel at in life, practice definitely sharpens your skill and eventually makes perfect!
If you would like to make consistent income doing affiliate marketing on your blog, it's important that you practice writing copy everyday.
What I mean by that is simply write social media posts and new blog posts that will eventually sell affiliate products and make you your very first affiliate income.
When it comes to making money from this, consistency is key. In order to write affiliate articles and posts that are not “sales-y” but ultimately make you consistent income, daily and regular practice is essential.
Start by blocking some time each day to write. Remember that 15 minutes everyday is more effective than 1 hour a week!
3. Promote the results, not the product
The biggest reason why this particular affiliate product made me $2000 in 6 months is because I focused on talking about the results!
In the beginning stages of doing affiliate marketing through my blog, I made the fatal mistake of talking about the product ONLY.
Guess what? No one cares about the product so much as the RESULTS the product can bring. That is why you should talk at length about how a product has changed your life for the better. Better still, show your loyal readers how they can do the same by sharing your experience!
4. Choose a product you actually LOVE(like for reals!!)
The most important thing to do when it comes to successful affiliate marketing is talking about products and services you GENUINELY love.
Most affiliate marketers make the rookie mistake of thinking that “more is better”. They just keep spamming their followers' feeds with constant promotion of products.
It's no wonder that being this “sales-y” is not exactly a good strategy.
When it comes to affiliate marketing, being sincere and building trust should be your top priority.
Without the “know, like, trust” factor, it is nearly impossible for you to make ANY affiliate sales. In order to build long-term trust online, it is very important for you to promote products that have actually made a difference to your life!
So, the next time you decide to join any affiliate program ask yourself if you actually LOVE the product.
Think about how you would enthusiastically tell ALL your friends and family about your favorite restaurant, yoga pants or the handsome neighbor you have a crush on…Your genuine love for these things makes you the perfect “candidate” to promote it(without you knowing it).
5. Understand what you audience is actively searching for: user intent
The key to deciding which affiliate products to promote, when and how lies in your understanding of your audience.Put yourself in their shoes.
Before you write your next blog article, think about your audience's pain points.
What problem would they want desperately to go away RIGHT NOW? Try to think about the difficult things they are dealing with in life and how you can be the person who provides them with solutions.
For example, let's say if my target audience is stay at home moms who are desperately looking for work at home job opportunities they can do to help towards household expenses.
It would make sense for me to write about PRACTICAL ways of making money either online or offline that will be applicable to my target audience RIGHT NOW.
My thought process is along the lines of “how can I help them find work at home jobs that will be suitable and is not a waste of their time?”.
From here, I will usually brainstorm ideas, write them down and plan a series of content to write and promote!
6. Invest in learning
Learning about affiliate marketing through Michelle's Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course definitely helped make me $2000 within just 6 months.
However, I believe it is not the online course ITSELF that helped me do so. Ultimately, it is my commitment to continually invest in learning, practising and improving my affiliate marketing skills that contributed to this!
Sometimes when I feel a little stuck and want to increase my affiliate income, I will go through the course again and learn something new.
If you're ready to start making money from affiliate marketing WITHOUT A BLOG, then the Create Your Own Affiliate Marketing Business course is your best bet.
For beginners who already have a blog or plan to start a blog, invest in Michelle Schroeder-Gardner's Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing early on!
I believe that I COULD HAVE made $2000 from affiliate marketing eventually but it would take me at least twice longer if I had not invest my time in learning how to do affiliate marketing right from the start!
7. Learn Pinterest marketing and use it to promote affiliate products
The key factor to making consistent and substantial affiliate income, at least for me, is Pinterest! By employing effective Pinterest strategies to promote affiliate products that are really useful to my readers, I continue to make affiliate income. The best part: I sometimes make money in my sleep.
Among the most important Pinterest strategies when it comes to affiliate marketing includes:
- Having a good mix of non-affiliate articles with affiliate and sponsored content
- Pinning your content more than pinning other bloggers' content. Generally, I aim for at least 60% of my original content
- Using Tailwind to share my best content and bank on my viral pins, as well as consistently share my older blog content(Side note: Tailwind is not only the official partner of Pinterest, but is also a goldmine of info such as when your pins perform best, your most popular boards as well as pins that your audience engage with etc.)
- Running promoted ads on Pinterest to boost high performing affiliate articles as well as older blog content
Resources Corner
Get your FREE month of Tailwind and save $14.99 here.
If you would like to learn Pinterest strategies that are relevant for you as a blogger, I highly recommend Create and Go's Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course.
Pinterest Traffic Avalanche is THE COURSE that completely transformed the way I thought about Pinterest as a lead generator and referral, as well as improved my pin design 200%!! Trust me, as a Pinterest manager now, I still sometimes return to this course and learn new things about Pinterest marketing.
Want to know more about how the pros do it? Dive into this interview with Jeff from DollarSprout.com to learn more about how he makes more than $150,000 a month from affiliate marketing!
If you're ready to jump in and start making SERIOUS money doing affiliate marketing, I highly recommend Michelle Schroeder-Gardner's Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course! It's a great starting point for beginners who are serious about making affiliate income from the get go.