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Convert More Affiliate Sales With These Credibility Boosting Tactics

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Make Money, New 53 Comments

Strategies for Boosting Your Affiliate Commissions

Being an affiliate marketer can be tricky sometimes.

You want to make money, but you don’t want your audience giving you the side-eye every time they see a recommendation with a link. 🙄

It’s about striking a balance, and here are some effective tips to help you promote your links in a more credible way.

Don’t Just Show The What, Show The How

My tools page is a good affiliate income generator for me. If you don’t have a page like this on your site, then you need to create one immediately.

These pages tend to convert well because people are naturally curious about what you use, especially if your site is tutorial-based.

Now here’s something you might not have thought about doing on this page that’s really helpful.

Don’t just list the products you use. Show specific examples of HOW you use them with pictures, links to content or video.

Here’s a snippet from my tools page…

Powtoon Snippet

This just kicks the credibility factor up a notch and will help with your conversions.

Ask for a Personalized Landing Pages

Once you start making sales, some affiliate program managers will have a personalized landing page created for you that’s hosted on THEIR servers.

These can often look more credible/official than self-created landing pages.

I happened to mention AWeber in a tweet earlier this year and the affiliate manager reached out to me via email and asked if I wanted them to create a personal landing page.

TIP: Always tag companies on Twitter when you are sharing fun or useful info about their services. They love this, and you never know what can come of it! I got a landing page out of the deal! 🙂

So if you belong to a program and are bringing in sales regularly, reach out to them and ask if you can get your own landing/sales page.

They don’t typically create these for everyone, but if you have a steady flow of sales, you may qualify!

Be Ethical & Announce Your Policy

I don’t like affiliating with products I don’t use myself. And I make it a point to mention that over and over again.

When you remind people that you are selective about what you promote, they take your recommendations more seriously.

You’ll even find that people will often ask you for your affiliate link before they buy something.

This happens to me on YouTube all the time.

YouTube Comment

YouTube Comment

Mention The Good & The Bad

My Visual Composer post from earlier this year brought in a good amount of sales.

But if you read the blog post, I also revealed a few things I don’t like.

Most products have cons. And you might be afraid to mention some negatives because it will turn people off.

Ya know what? It just might. But the net effect is more important.

In other words, you might prevent a few from buying, but in the long-run it builds trust so when you do have a glowing recommendation, people will trust your recommendation more.

Disclosure Is Not A Bad Thing

Back in 2009, the FTC updated their policy and declared you must disclose all your affiliate links, and stated that the disclosure needs to be clear and obvious.

They haven’t really enforced this at all, but you should at least have an affiliate disclosure link on the footer of your site.

What I typically do here on the blog is put (affiliate link) in parenthesis after every link.

But I ALSO disclose when I’m not an affiliate. There have been times that I mention products I don’t use. You may have seen (no affiliation) next to the link.

I do this to reinforce my own policy about only affiliating myself with products I use.

Some people are afraid to disclose their affiliations because it could discourage sales. It may, but I still believe the overall net effect is positive.

Put Ethics First & You’ll Be Rewarded

Who doesn’t love to make money? And those potential commissions can have you salivating sometimes. 🙂

And I’d be lying if I said affiliate commissions don’t influence certain content. I mean c’mon, this is a business at the end of the day.

But when you are selective about what you promote and show how you use products, it will make a tremendous difference in your conversions.

And since we’re coming off the official Holiday of thankfulness, this is a perfect time to say “thanks” to all who have supported me throughout the years.

This year, I reached my 10 year anniversary of working online full time, and I never take a single thing for granted.

Appreciate ya! 🙂

Comments

  1. Thanks for the tips, Lisa. Will definitely be helpful in my newest project — https://startablogonline.com

    Looks like I’m doing same thing as you have (in the past, perhaps), so I’m doing some digging around. 😉

    For the record, I’ve been a subscriber for about 3 years (perhaps more). Yeah, I know when PSP began!

    Thanks again, Lisa!

    Reply

    • I would say any topic is fair game as long as you have a strategy.

      Today you have to do more than just blog. It’s about creating an online presence through trust. So what are you going to share that people cannot get from just googling “health supplements” and finding big brands?

      Today blogging is not enough. You need social media, YouTube, a podcast, something to help you create a unique brand.

      So the topic doesn’t matter. What matters is do you have a strategy? Otherwise you’ll be swallowed up in the sea of one million and one other health blogs.

      Reply

  3. “You’ll even find that people will often ask you for your affiliate link before they buy something.”
    Wow that was pretty cool people xD
    Thanks for the advices Lisa

    Reply

  5. Hey Lisa,
    I dropped a comment earlier on your post “My WordPress Malware Nightmare You Must Learn From” and popped a question. I think I got answered here 😉

    You’ve just added a couple of things to my knowledge in affiliate marketing. The tools page is what I teach and recommend and I think your presentation of how it should be is an addition to me.

    In my book “Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers”, I brought out a couple of result-driven tactics including the co-branded sales page which you mentioned here. This helps boost conversion big time 😉

    When you promote a product you use successfully, you share your results and your hows. This also has a huge impact on conversion.

    Oh! I suspended my resource page in the past. Was doing some work on it and now I think it’s time to speed up.

    Thanks for the beautiful reminder 😉

    Reply

  9. Hi Lisa,

    Great post and I liked it. As always you’ve shared the best affiliate marketing tips. I’m new in affiliate marketing and I’ll follow your tips for sure.

    Honesty with readers is the key to bring them back to our sites and we should be very honest with them, after all they are our assets. 😉

    Oh, I forgot to create the resources page on my site huh? I’m so dumb. I’m going to create the page right now.

    Thanks for sharing the wonderful post and congrats on your 10 years hard work!

    Cheers!

    Reply

  11. Thanks for the tips Lisa. Right now affiliate sales are little bit low. I will try to follow some suggestions from you to see the effect. Hopefully results will be positive.

    Reply

  12. Hi Lisa,

    Thanks for this post, the timing is great.

    I loved what you covered but I think another way to show credibility is to get influencers in your niche to provide a sentence or two for a testimonial.

    Plus if you have been featured on the likes of Forbes posting a I’ve been featured section can really boost trust.

    Thanks Again
    Joe 🙂

    Reply

  13. Using disclosure is great for increasing affiliate commission, and AWeber is a great email marketing tool to use. Love your Udemy course, keep up the great work.

    Reply

  14. Hi, Lisa. I watched your Youtube videos several years ago. it’s your 10 year anniversary of working online full time. That’s great! I’ve been working online part-time for 8 years. Internet gives freedom and independence as the Constitution xD

    Reply

  15. Awesome Tips 🙂

    I really liked the part where you say it’s a good idea to try the product your selling so you have knowledge on if it’s worth the price tag… I also like your tip about having a resources page and have included one on my blog thanks to this post, it doesn’t look as good as yours but it will do for now 🙂 anyways… thanks for sharing

    Reply

  16. Hi lisa,

    Such an awesome post i got here ! Love the affiliate marketing tips you provided especially about being selective on the products you are promoting. I really try to stick to sharing products that I know will help my peeps…

    Reply

  17. Transparency and honesty is always important to readers it keeps them coming back and they will appreciate it. Your Articles are always on point Lisa, they seem to just come in time or have a great points we can learn from.

    Reply

  19. Hi, Lisa. I watched your Youtube videos several years ago. it’s your 10 year anniversary of working online full time. That’s great! I’ve been working online part-time for 8 years. Internet gives freedom and independence as the Constitution xD

    Reply

  20. Hey Lisa!

    I hadn’t stopped by your blog, here, in a few weeks and just stumbled upon this awesome post. You always have something unique to offer, that I don’t find elsewhere, and this time it was the personalized landing pages.

    I, honestly, had no idea that some people offered these, and this info is going to come in handy as I finally spread my wings and 100% pursue my true passion through blogging.

    Ethical marketing has always been something I’ve done my best to practice and I, like you, DO NOT recommend or advocate anything I don’t believe in or haven’t tried for myself. Honestly, I can’t imagine doing so. It seems like a losing strategy in the long run. Sure, you might make a few bucks real quick, but you’ll lose a load of trust and loyal followers when they start to realize you’re just throwing products out there to make money off of them.

    I always try to visualize real people, maybe friends and family, when I’m recommending something. This might sound weird to some people, but for me it puts me in that vibrational place where I can feel how someone might feel if they bought some lousy, not what it was advertised to be service or product that I recommended. If I wouldn’t recommend it to a friend or family member, I ain’t recommending it on my blog.

    I think that’s something I’ve always liked about your website and blog; I know what I find here will be the goods, because you don’t affiliate or recommend stuff just to make a quick buck. You can’t say that with everyone else out there.

    On another topic, I was wondering how your other project was going? Maybe I missed it and you’ve mentioned it somewhere in a podcast or blog post? You were talking about setting something up somewhere else I believe. You were going to teach skills, etc., rather than how to get traffic kind of stuff.

    Oh, before I check out… Happy 10th Year Anniversary of working online full time! 🙂

    Sean Carey

    Reply

    • Hey Sean!

      Seeing your comment makes me realize how much I miss the community we had at Website Babble. Glad to see you here. I’m looking forward to having another community in the elearning niche. Yes, I’m still working on the new site. I decided to change how I’m implementing all this that will make it less confusing for my brand and keep me from having to manage too many accounts, etc. So that’s what is taking so long. But I will be launching next year.

      Good luck on your new venture with blogging and thank you for those wonderful words. Keep in touch!

      Lisa

      Reply

      • Will do!

        I miss the community at websitebabble also. I’m going to have to see if I can find a forum that will even come close to what was there. I haven’t yet… I’ve managed to semi stay in touch with one person from there and you as well.

        That keeping things less confusing for my brand thing has always been a fun one for me, too. Seriously, right now even, I’m wondering should I link out to my G+ account which was heavily associated with the other niche I was involved in. Ugggg… lol. I changed the headline title on my G+ to match the niche I’m now getting involved in, but… blah. Yea, sometimes I wonder if I think too much about those little details.

        I appreciate the encouragement on the new venture; I believe I’ve finally found my way. I’m finding I’m just excited, feeling freer by the day, and releasing loads of fears and limiting beliefs I had no idea I had inside of me.

        Your website and blog, including especially your approach, has always been inspirational and educational to me. It’s much appreciated, and I’ll be sure to follow your new venture, as well. 🙂

        Reply

          • I know what you mean, Darren but I will never do a forum like that again without being smarter about management. At the end of the day, it was not adding much to my business anymore and the work/maintenance outweighed the business benefits by far. That was so much fun connecting with people, but a LOT of work to maintain. I learned so much from that.

          • Hey Darren! I just saw this. You’re the other person I’ve stayed semi in touch with. 🙂 I’ll have to go follow you on my other Twitter account. My new blog might interest you some, too, in the future as it grows. Mindfulness, personal development, spiritual topics, and self-limiting beliefs are what I’ll be writing about there.

            Hope all is well with you. 🙂

          • I as well miss website babble. Haven’t even bothered looking for the same kind of community as I was sure there wasn’t any. How everything got explained in a way newbies could really understand played a significant role for me coming back once and a while…

            Lisa really was (is) a role model to me

  21. Your style is refreshing and exactly my intention for conducting a business. Thank you for the tips and I enjoy following your work.

    Reply

  22. Hi Lisa, your strongness in every recommendation you write is your brave to describe the good and the bad of a product. Not many blogger can do that.

    Reply

  23. Such an awesome post you got here Lisa! Love the affiliate marketing tips you provided especially about being selective on the products you are promoting. I really try to stick to sharing products that I know will help my peeps…

    Have a great one chica! ?

    Reply

  26. Hi Lisa,

    You’ve now become one of the people that I’ll read, regardless of my interest in the topic.
    This post was fun, informative and gave me an idea for my site, even though affiliate sales is not something I do anymore. (Hint, the tools page works for your own products, too! LOL)

    Also, I love reading the comments and seeing how much fun you have with your readers.

    Cheers,

    Mitch

    Reply

    • Mitch, we go waaaaaaay back and I always appreciate seeing you here time and time again. Thanks for all the support over the years. Great point about the product page. So true, it can work for that too. Yep. 🙂

      Reply

  28. Hi Lisa

    Thanks for this helpful article.

    Really do enjoy reading your blogs.

    I actually just wanted to let you know that in your resources you state that you can use Thrive on multiple websites with a single license. While looking into this I noticed that this is no longer the case. They now have separate pricing for multiple licenses (multiple websites) unless you become a member. Just wanted to let you know 🙂

    Carlos

    Reply

  30. Love this! And this happened to me, too. I keep recommending Thrive Content Builder to everyone and their grandma, and some of my subscribers said they’ll wait until I register as their affiliate before they buy it. 🙂 How sweet!!

    Reply

  31. As always Lisa, I love getting emails from you. Always helpful, easy to read and adds to my life. Thank you for doing what you do. I recommend you to everyone.

    Reply

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