Blogging vs. Affiliate Marketing
Blogging and affiliate marketing – what is the difference?
Let’s look at the similarities:
- Both are online via the internet
- Both offers have income potential
- The two appear simple; both may have a learning curve
- The skill set is relatively the same; for example, driving traffic to your site, marketing skills, creating ads
- Both allow you to work in your pajamas and from home.
While they may seem very similar they are in fact different ways to generate income.
Read below information on understanding blogging and affiliate marketing and the best way to do it. Keep in mind I have other articles that will also help you decide if affiliate marketing is for you.
What is the difference between blogging and affiliate marketing?
Blogging
Blogging is the process of creating content and publishing it about a specific topic and niche. Writing on a particular topic, you will discover themes that interest the most people. For example, you can write on specific topics like health, fitness, and travel; or choose a more general topic like lifestyle that can contain all three. In fact, I enjoy writing about different topics that relate to the over 50 crowd. However, much of the material is relatable to many other age groups.
Pros of Blogging
- Share your knowledge and experiences
- Opportunity to make money by selling your products or services
- No one else dictates your blog content – you are your own boss
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is an opportunity to make money by promoting products and getting paid a commission in varies methods. Essentially you get paid when:
- Pay per lead: Commission is paid when a customer follows an affiliate link and completes a required action such as downloading a document
- Pay per sale: In this, if a customer follows an affiliate’s link and makes a purchase, the affiliate gets paid. However, these types of programs usually have the lowest conversion rate.
- Pay per click: The affiliate gets paid based on visitors to a site – it does not require a purchase.
Pros of affiliate marketing
- Income potential is higher than blogging
- Does not require extensive amount of time
- Promoting various products and services is pretty easy
Do you have to choose between blogging and affiliate marketing?
While both are separate entities what I suggest is blogging while advertising for your affiliates. Combine methods to make money with affiliate marketing while getting people to see the products you promote in your blogs.
Different ways to get paid as a affiliate marketer
1) Paid Ads
Using paid ads such as Google adsense, Shareasale and other search engines can be pretty effective. Ads are typically created for you and all you have to do is copy and paste in either your widgets or in a advertising plugin.
The downfall here is if you are new to the game, it might take a bit to learn how to place ads in your blogs. Another issue is that some ad networks are pretty strict rules that could get in your way to getting accepted.
2) Social Media
You can advertise affiliates on your social forums.
However, many sites ban promoting affiliates directly so you will need to build your website, landing pages and encourage people to follow you from social media.
3) Vlogging
I just recently learned to term vlogging which is doing affiliate marketing on UTube. This method can be pretty effective considering UTube works like a search engine and people often search for solutions and information on this site.
The cons is UTube blocks many affiliate links when they catch affiliate marketers have spammed in the past. Once again, you will need your own website and landing page.
4) Forums
Some industry forums still exist! You can find people who have questions posted and you can answer their problem with useful products and services via your affiliate link.
Con here is that not many people utilize forums anymore and others won’t allow any marketing.
5) Email Campaigns
This is another way to do affiliate marketing that can be done without a blog…or with if you prefer.
With email marketing you can promote your affiliate products to your list of emails over and over. Now consider that, how do you feel when advertisers email you over and over? First, you have to be able to collect emails and establish credibility -one more time website and landing page.
Summary
As an affiliate marketer it is probably best to start to build credibility with a website and landing page. Choose your niche, create some blogs, invite people to follow you and jump into affiliate marketing.
Keep in mind once you start publishing ads on your site you have to keep on top of expirations on commissions. Some affiliates will only pay you if you get action on your links within 30 days. So don’t waste your time and space advertising for those that aren’t paying you! I suggest taking time once a week and review your ads and update.
If you are interested in other articles I have written about affiliate marketing check out the list below:
