How To Start A Blog For Affiliate Marketing (Ultimate Guide)

Last Updated on July 19, 2023 by Jordan Alexo

Did you know affiliate marketing expenditure will reach about $13 billion by 2023? That’s a whole lot of dough up for grabs! And guess what? 

You can grab a slice of that pie with the right strategies, a dash of creativity, and a sprinkle of persistence.

In this guide, we’re going to dive deep into the world of affiliate marketing.

You’ll start from scratch, setting up a blog for affiliate marketing. Then, you’ll discover how to choose the right niche, find affiliate partners, and create content that converts. 

You’ll also delve into the nitty-gritty of SEO (Search Engine Optimization), audience engagement, and analytics. 

By the end of this post, you’ll have a roadmap to start your affiliate marketing journey with a big bang! So, let’s rock our socks!

Key Takeaways

1. Setting Up Your Blog: The first step in your affiliate marketing journey is setting up your blog. Choose a reliable web host, pick a catchy domain name, and select a professional theme. Remember, your blog is the foundation of your affiliate marketing business.
2. Choosing Your Niche: Your niche is the specific topic you’ll focus on in your blog. Choose a niche that aligns with your passions and has profit potential. Remember, the best niche is a perfect blend of passion and profit.
3. Finding Affiliate Partners: Once you’ve chosen your niche, it’s time to find affiliate partners. These are the companies whose products you’ll promote on your blog. Look for companies that offer high-quality products, attractive commission rates, and reliable support.
4. Creating Killer Content: Content is the heart of your affiliate marketing blog. Create content that’s valuable, engaging, and designed to promote your affiliate products. Remember, content is king in affiliate marketing.
5. Mastering SEO: SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is all about making your blog visible in search engine results. Use keywords, optimize your website’s speed, and build backlinks to improve your SEO.
6. Engaging with Your Audience: Building a relationship with your audience is key to affiliate marketing success. Respond to comments, create interactive content, and use social media to engage with your audience.
7. Tracking Your Success: Use analytics to track your success and guide your decisions. Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into your blog’s performance.

5 Reasons To Create A Blog For Affiliate Marketing

Okay, you’re probably wondering, “Why should I start a blog for affiliate marketing?”

Well, good you ask because here are five reasons to get you pumped up:

1 – Monetize Your Passion

Got a knack for knitting? Crazy about coffee? Whatever your passion, there’s an affiliate program out there for you.

By starting a blog, you can turn your passion into profit. Of course, not always. Sometimes your passion may not be profitable or competitive.

But later, I’ll explain what to do in these situations.

2 – Low Startup Costs

Unlike traditional businesses, starting a blog doesn’t require a huge investment. If you have monthly money to pay for a coffee at Starbucks, you must put up your first site.

3 – Work From Anywhere

All you need is a laptop and an internet connection. For this reason, you can work at the beach while drinking mojitos. Or like some people do while bathing in their bathtub (probably not a good idea.)

But it gives you a lot of flexibility to work from anywhere imaginable.

4 – Passive Income

Once you’ve set up your blog and affiliate links, you can earn money while sleeping. Now, passive isn’t the same as pushing a button; boom, money magically jumps into your bank account.

Building a successful takes hours of dedicated work. So, be prepared to put in the work. But after you publish a blog post, it can make money for months or years without any extra effort.

5 – Help Your Audience

Last but not least, by starting an affiliate marketing blog, you can help your audience.

Whether recommending the best yoga mats or video games, you’re helping your readers.

See, an affiliate marketer works as a middleman or middlewoman. You help people decide which products or services are worth getting.

3 Downsides Of Creating a Blog For Affiliate Marketing

So, while there are plenty of reasons to start a blog for affiliate marketing, it’s only fair to talk about the downsides too. Here are three things you should keep in mind:

1 – It Takes Time

Rome wasn’t built in a day, nor will your affiliate marketing blog. It often takes six to one year to start seeing some good results.

This depends on several factors, such as:

• Niche: more competitive niches may take longer to see results
• Content: the more content you produce and the higher quality, the faster results you’ll get.
• Link Building: the more links you have from higher reputable sites, the faster your blog will gain credibility and rankings in search engines

So, if you’re looking for a quick cash scheme, this ain’t it. Building a money-making blog is a real online business.

2 – Competition is Fierce

With over 600 million blogs worldwide, standing out from the crowd can be tough.

You’ll need to bring your A-game when it comes to SEO, content creation, and marketing.

But don’t worry! Because you can cut a great part of your competition by choosing less competitive niches.

3 – Income Can Be Unpredictable

Unlike a regular 9-5 job, your income from affiliate marketing can fluctuate. Some months you might be rolling in the dough, and others, well, not so much.

So, it’s important to be prepared for the rainy days. One way is always to save money from your affiliate marketing earnings for the months when income may be lower.

Or later to build a YouTube channel or another extra source of income. This diversifies your ways of making money online. In other words, you don’t put all your eggs into one basket.

But hey, don’t get discouraged. Every business, job, or whatnot has its challenges.

Step 1 – Starting Your Affiliate Marketing Blog

Okay, let’s get our hands in the dough and set up your blog.

Now, don’t let the tech stuff scare you off. In fact, it’s easier than you think, and I’m here to guide you through it.

1 – Choosing the Right Blogging Platform

You need a platform to host your blog. A popular and free choice is WordPress, and I recommend using it.

Around 43% of all sites online are powered by WordPress.

Because it’s easy to use, you don’t need coding knowledge. Also, you can freely change your blog design with thousands of themes.

And you have plugins (or apps) to add extra functions to your site. Imagine you easily integrate social media sharing buttons, email opt-in forms, and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools to improve your search rankings.

2 – Selecting a Domain Name

Your domain name is your blog’s address on the internet. For instance:

• YouTube.com
• Amazon.com
• JordanAlexo.com

And it’s how people can find you. So, make it count. Here are a few tips:

• Your Name: You can use your name as your domain name. For example, if your name is “Peter Bibi,” you could choose “PeterBibi.com” as your domain name.
• Don’t Use Keywords: Some people have the habit of using keywords. I don’t suggest doing this. It ends up looking unprofessional, but also it locks you down on a particular niche.
• Keep It Simple And Short: People easily remember a shorter domain name. So, you want to keep it simple and easy to remember.
• .Com: You have many extensions nowadays, like .net, .org, .ai. But just stick with a .com extension if possible.

My favorite place to buy domain names is either Namecheap or Godaddy. Often they have good prices.

3 – Setting Up Web Hosting

Think of web hosting as the home for your blog. It’s where all your blog’s files are stored.

I suggest WPX Hosting. It’s a fantastic option known for its super-fast speed, excellent customer service, and free site migration.

Besides, it’s a top choice for many bloggers.

4 – Installing WordPress

Once you’ve sorted your domain and hosting, you want to install WordPress.

Most hosting providers, including WPX Hosting, offer a one-click WordPress install. Just look at the image below to get an idea of how easy it is:

5 – Choose A Theme

Now comes the fun part – making your blog look pretty!

See, WordPress offers thousands of free and premium themes. My favorite themes are lightweight. Meaning they are optimized for fast loading times. And more than ever, you want your blog to load quickly on someone’s screen.

Nobody has time to wait for a slow-loading website. So go for Astra, Kadence, or GeneratePress.

Also, these themes come with many options to customize your blog’s look.

Plus, they’re compatible with most page builders (Elementor, Kadence Builder). These builders have a drag-and-drop system to help you build web pages however you want.

6 – Setting Up Essential Plugins

Some essential ones to start with include:

• RankMath: lets you easily optimize each page for search engines.
• Lightspeed Cache: improves website speed and performance.
• Akismet: Blocks annoying spam comments.
• Easy Table of Content: Helps create a table of content for your blog posts.

And there you have it; your blog is up and running! So, what’s your next step? Start brainstorming content ideas that align with your chosen niche.

Step 2 – Finding Your Niche

So, let’s talk about one of the most important aspects “What the heck should I blog about?”

Your niche is the specific topic or industry that your blog will focus on. It’s what sets you apart from the millions of other blogs out there.

So, how do you choose a niche? Here are a few tips:

1 – Follow Your Passion

If you’re passionate about a topic, you’re more likely to stick and put in the work needed to make your blog successful.

Plus, your enthusiasm will shine through in your content, making it more engaging for your readers.

2 – Look for Profit Potential

While passion is essential, you also want to choose a niche with profit potential.

One way to do this is to check out YouTube and other online websites to see if people promote affiliate products in your potential niche.

If you find plenty of affiliates, that’s a good sign that it’s a profitable niche.

3 – Consider the Competition

Some niches are highly competitive, making ranking in search engine results harder.

Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or SEMrush to analyze the competition in your chosen niche.

Or Google several keywords: if you constantly see highly reputable sites ranking most search results, it might indicate that the competition is tough in that niche.

4 – Think About Your Audience

Ultimately, your blog is for your audience. Think about their needs, interests, and problems. How can you provide value to them through your content and affiliate offers?

Choosing a niche is a crucial step in your affiliate marketing journey. It can make the difference between a blog that’s a fun hobby and one that’s a profitable business.

If you’re still not sure about what niche to choose, read “best low competition niches.”

Step 3 – How to Find Affiliate Partners

Now, it’s time to find affiliate partners. These are the companies whose products or services you’ll be promoting on your blog.

Before we dive into the specifics of different affiliate networks, let’s talk about the two main types of affiliate programs: physical and digital.

Physical Affiliate Programs: These programs allow you to promote physical products. Think of everything from books and electronics to clothing and home goods.

PROS	CONS
Wide range of products	Lower commission rates
Tangible products can be easier to sell	Shipping and handling can affect customer satisfaction

Digital Affiliate Programs: These programs focus on digital products like eBooks, online courses, software, and subscription services.

PROS	CONS
Higher commission rates	It can be harder to sell without a tangible product
No shipping or handling issues	Quality can vary greatly

Affiliate Networks Vs. Direct Affiliate Programs

You also have two main options such as:

1. Affiliate Network: You have several online platforms that connect you with affiliate programs. These networks work as middlemen, tracking sales, calculating commissions, and more.
2. Direct Partnerships with Brands: Don’t limit yourself to affiliate networks. Many companies run their own affiliate programs. So, if there’s a brand you love that aligns with your niche, you can search for their affiliate program on their site. Or Google “company name + affiliate program” to find out more details.

What Affiliate Networks Should You Consider?

Some popular affiliate networks include:

• Amazon Associates: As the most popular affiliate network, Amazon Associates gives you access to millions of physical products. No matter your niche, you will likely find relevant products to promote. It’s a great choice for blogs focusing on product reviews or shopping guides.
• ClickBank: Specializing in digital products like eBooks and online courses, ClickBank is a great choice if your blog focuses on personal development, digital marketing, or health and fitness. It offers high commission rates, making it a lucrative option for digital product promotion.
• CJ Affiliate: Formerly known as Commission Junction. CJ Affiliate offers a wide range of physical and digital products from well-known brands. It’s a great choice if you’re looking to promote products from multiple categories.

Tips to Help You Choose The Right Affiliate Programs

When choosing affiliate partners, consider factors like:

• Commission rates: Often, digital products offer higher commission rates compared to physical ones.
• Payment terms: some affiliate programs have a minimum payment threshold.
• Relevance of the products to your niche: You want to choose products that make sense to promote on your blog. Don’t promote something irrelevant just because it offers a high commission rate.

Also, think about your audience. Will they find the products useful? Will they trust the brand?

Finding the right affiliate partners is a crucial step. It can make the difference between a blog that makes a few bucks and a full-time income.

Step 4 – Crafting Blog Topics to Promote Affiliate Links”

Alright, you’ve got your blog, you’ve chosen your niche, and you’ve found your affiliate partners. Now comes the fun part: creating content.

But not just any content. We’re talking about content that’s engaging, valuable, and designed to promote your affiliate links. Here’s how to do it:

1 – The Importance of Keyword Research

Keywords are the terms that people type into search engines. You want to include those keywords in your content. This helps your blog posts rank for those search terms.

See, you could rank here if you wrote an optimized post, “best seo tips for beginners.”

Some tools like Google Keyword Planners or SEMrush can help you find keywords related to your niche.

2 – How to Come Up With Blog Topics That Promote Affiliate Links

Start by thinking about your audience. What problems are they trying to solve? What questions do they have?

Then, analyze these questions and problems through SEMrush to see their:

• Monthly Search Volume: This shows the number of people searching for this keyword monthly
• Competition Level: SEMrush gives you Keyword Difficulty (KD) score. This score tells you how challenging it is to rank for a specific keyword.

But you can also Google your specific keyword. If you see highly reputable websites ranking with titles optimized for that keyword – then it’s overly competitive.

3 – Examples of Successful Blog Topics for Affiliate Marketing

Product reviews, how-to guides, and list posts (like “Top 10” and “Best Of” lists) are all great formats for promoting affiliate links.

Based on Backlinko: list posts get 218% more shares than “how-to” posts and 203% more than infographics.

Creating content that promotes your affiliate links is a crucial step in your affiliate marketing journey.

You also want to provide informational content that supports your money-making pages. For example:

You have “10 Best Strength Programs ” (a money maker) and have several informational posts around it. Such as:

• The Benefits of Strength Training
• How to Safely Increase Your Strength
• The Benefits of Strength Training for Beginners
• How to Choose the Right Strength Program for Your Fitness Goals

You don’t want to make a blog only promoting stuff. Google doesn’t like it! So, have about 70-80% informational content and 20-30% promotional content.

Step 5 – Building Trust: Engaging with Your Audience

Alright, you’re creating killer content and mastering SEO. But there’s another key piece of the puzzle: your audience.

See, engaging with your audience is crucial for building trust and loyalty and boosting your affiliate sales. Here’s how to do it:

1 – Why It’s Important To Engage With Your Audience?

The more you engage with your audience, the more likely they will trust you and buy from your affiliate links.

You do this in many ways, but one of them is not to promote garbage products or services. Believe me, once someones get a bad experience, they won’t ever trust you again.

2 – Responding to Comments

Whether it’s on your blog or social media, respond to your audience’s comments. Also, make an effort to give helpful replies.

This shows that you value their input and helps to build a sense of community.

3 – Creating Interactive Content

Quizzes, polls, and surveys are all great ways to engage your audience. Besides, they’re fun and interactive. And can give you valuable insights into your audience’s needs and interests.

4 – Using Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for engaging with your audience. You can use it to share your blog posts, ask questions, and start conversations.

Fun Fact: Based on Datareportal’s report, the average internet user spends 2 hours and 24 minutes daily on social media.

So, engaging with your audience is a crucial step. It’s how you build trust, learn more about your audience, and ultimately, make those affiliate sales.

Step 6 – Understanding Affiliate Marketing Analytics

Results are the name of the game. So, how do you know if your effort is paying? Well, that’s where analytics comes in.

Understanding your blog’s analytics can help you see what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve. Here’s how to do it:

1 – Why Analytics Are Important?

Analytics can show you which of your blog posts are most popular, how people find your blog, and which affiliate links generate the most sales.

You want to know these details to see what sticks and doesn’t.

2 – Using Google Analytics

Let me share a secret: I don’t like Google Analytics.

But I still use it every day because despite its horrible interface – you still get good analytical info, and it’s free.

Google Analytics shows where your traffic comes from, what keywords people use to find your blog, and much more.

3 – Understanding Affiliate Dashboard Analytics

Most affiliate programs provide their analytics.

These can show you how many clicks your affiliate links are getting, how many sales they generate, and your conversion rate.

4 – Making Data-Driven Decisions

Use the insights from your analytics to make data-driven decisions. For example:

• If you notice that a particular type of blog post is making bundles of affiliate sales, you might decide to create similar posts.
• Or, in case you see an info post gluing people like magnets, you might consider writing more similar posts.

Understanding your analytics is an essential step in your affiliate marketing journey. Because you can track your success, make better decisions, and continually improve your strategy.

Step 7 – Growing Your Affiliate Marketing Blog

So, you’re creating great content, engaging with your audience, promoting your affiliate links, and tracking your success.

Now, it’s time to take things to the next level. Let’s talk about how to grow your affiliate marketing blog:

1 – Leveraging Email Marketing

A study by Litmus: for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $36.

As they say, “The money is on the list.” And it’s pretty darn true! It’s not something you need to build immediately.

But as soon as you have some traffic, you should start building an email list. You need an autoresponder like GetResponse, Aweber, or Mailchimp. These services let you automate emails to send to your subscribers.

I mean, you don’t want to do all that work yourself (because it’s freaking boring.)

Also, they come with a drag-and-drop email builder. This helps you easily create an impressive landing page where people can opt-in.

Make sure to build one and have a lead magnet like a free ebook, mini-course, or webinar to incentivize you to subscribe.

Then you can send emails promoting affiliate products, older or newest blog posts, giving niche-related tips, etc.

2 – Expanding Your Content Strategy

Don’t limit yourself to blog posts.

Consider other types of content like videos, podcasts, and infographics.

Based on Wyzowl’s report, 91% of consumers want to see more video content from a brand or business they support.

For this reason, build a YouTube channel, or choose another platform. Or you could start a podcast where you interview people in your industry or share expert tips.

It’s also a great way to diversify your income sources. Because despite everything, websites often get hit with Google’s algorithm updates. And, one day to another, lose rankings and traffic.

3 – Investing in Paid Advertising

Once your blog is rolling money from your affiliate sales, consider using paid ads.

Although it may seem risky, but if done right, you can roll more dough to your bank account faster and reach more people.

Here are some popular ad platforms:

• Google Ads.
• Facebook Ads
• Instagram Ads

Choose one and run with it. Learn as much as possible about it. You can take online courses, watch YouTube tutorials, and read books. But make sure you know what you’re doing.

Otherwise, you may overspend all your budget like a novice gambler at a casino.

4 – Build Backlinks

What is that? Well, backlinks are links from other websites that point back to your affiliate marketing blog.

The more links you get from relevant and higher authority sites, your blog’s search engine ranking will be higher. Meaning your content will rank more easily for competitive search terms.

Some common strategies to build backlinks are:

• Guest Posting: You write a post for another website or blog and leave links back to your blog.
• Create Link Bait Content: Create a highly valuable source of information that people can’t help but share with others, which can naturally lead to backlinks.
• Broken Link Building: Search for relevant websites that have broken links. Then contact the website owner and offer to replace the broken link with your blog link.

Building links is an ever going process that requires consistent work. But the payout is worth it!

How Much Can You Earn from Affiliate Marketing?

Okay, time to talk about how much dough you can make with affiliate marketing. Everyone loves to know this part, right? Well, let’s check.

1 – The Potential of Affiliate Marketing

The earning potential in affiliate marketing is enormous.

Based on Viglink’s survey: 9% of affiliate marketers earn more than $50,000 annually.

But remember, these results aren’t typical. They come from hard work, smart strategies, and a bit of luck.

2 – Factors That Affect Your Earnings

Several factors can affect your earnings:

• Including your niche
• The products you promote
• Your audience size
• Your conversion rate.

For example, high-ticket affiliate marketing consists of products or services where you can earn a few dollars per sale. You can make hundreds to thousands of dollars more easily with only a few sales.

3 – Realistic Expectations

While earning a substantial income from affiliate marketing is possible, having realistic expectations is essential.

Most new bloggers give up after a few months because they expect overnight success. But no, it can take building traffic to your blog and earning a decent profit.

So, set apart a year to blog seriously (this means not publishing a post once in a blue moon) before you can start seeing consistent income from affiliate marketing.

4 – Examples Of Highly Successful Affiliate Marketers

Let’s check a few examples of highly successful affiliate marketers. There’s nothing better to get ourselves pumped up than seeing real-life success stories.

• John Chow: John Chow is a true rags-to-riches story in affiliate marketing. He started his blog as a hobby, but it quickly turned into a money-making machine, earning him over $40,000 per month at its peak. His secret? Consistently providing valuable content, mastering SEO, and promoting high-ticket affiliate products.
• Pat Flynn: Pat Flynn is another big name in the affiliate marketing world. His blog, Smart Passive Income, is all about teaching people how to create multiple streams of passive income. One of his main income streams? You guessed it, affiliate marketing. His income reports show he’s earned over $300,000 monthly from affiliate marketing alone.
• Shawn Collins: Shawn Collins has been in the affiliate marketing game since the 90s, and he’s one of the co-founders of the Affiliate Summit, the leading industry conference for affiliate marketing. He’s also the author of ‘Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants,’ one of the top-rated books on affiliate marketing. While his exact earnings are not disclosed, his influence and longevity in the industry speak volumes about his success.

Remember, the road to riches in affiliate marketing is a journey, not a sprint. So, keep learning, keep experimenting, and keep pushing forward!

Next Steps To Start a Succesful Blog For Affiliate Marketing

See, building a blog for affiliate marketing isn’t a walk in the park.

2 – Stay Consistent & Patient

Consistency is like the elixir for success. Most people nowadays aren’t consistent with anything. And that’s why they don’t accomplish anything fruitful.

There was a time when we knew “plant the seed and watch it grow.” But now, people want to immediately jump to the growth part without spending time nurturing and taking care of the seedling.

So, you must be extremely consistent and patient. See, search engines like Google take months to trust and rank your content. It isn’t an overnight process.

Just because you don’t see immediate results on your Google Analytics, don’t give up. Instead, keep publishing new content and doing all the rest.

2 – Keep Learning

I’m constantly learning new things related to my business. For instance:

• How to improve my content skimmability
• How to use AI tools like ChatGPT more effectively
• How to better optimize my content for search engines
• How to improve my outreach emails to get maximum response rates

Gosh, you have so much to learn. You can take online courses, watch YouTube videos, read books, and participate in forums or communities.

Keep in mind the “Kaizen” philosophy which focuses on continuous improvement.

If, every day, you improve bit by bit, sooner or later, you’ll see impressive results.

3 – Celebrate Your Wins

Whether it’s your first affiliate sale, your first 1,000 blog visitors, or your first guest post on another blog, celebrate your wins. They prove that you’re making progress and that all your hard work is paying off.

I actually framed a screenshot of my first affiliate sales online. It was about $17, but it meant the world to me.

So find your way to celebrate each win, big or small.

Last Thoughts

Alright, we’ve covered a lot of ground in this guide. We kicked things off by setting up a blog and choosing a niche that aligns with your passion and profit potential.

Then, we dove into finding affiliate partners, creating killer content, and mastering SEO.

We also touched on the importance of engaging with your audience and tracking your success with analytics.

But remember, the world of affiliate marketing is constantly changing.
So, staying ahead of the curve means keeping up with the latest trends, testing new strategies, and always being open to learning.

It’s a challenging journey but also filled with opportunities. And with the right strategies, a dash of creativity, and a sprinkle of persistence, it’s a journey that can lead to financial freedom.

So, what are you waiting for? The road to affiliate marketing success is right in front of you.

Go ahead and take that first step. If you haven’t, set up your blog, choose your niche, and begin your journey. Remember, the only limit to your success is the one you set for yourself.

Also, don’t be shy to leave a comment below with a question or just to say “hi” there.