Article Marketing as an Affiliate

Article marketing is something that’s long been appealing for Internet marketers. The dream of working from home and/or having your own business is that you get to work when you want and earn great money doing it—articles are a dream for many people in that regard.

It’s not secret that the web revolves around great content. Whether it’s short or long content, content on social media, content on blogs and websites, or content found in article directories.

You’re an affiliate marketer, or you want to be, and you want to have the best possible chance of effectively marketing the products you’re promoting as an affiliate. It makes sense to turn to content to do that.

Writing and posting great content on the web is a phenomenal way to promote products as an affiliate. When you write content, you’re going with the natural flow of the web. It’s what people want and need.

It’s learning how to write effective article content that’s important. Then, you have to know where to post it, how your audience will respond to it, and how you can make that sale.

What Article Marketing Is

Article marketing can mean a variety of different things, so let’s simplify it. It’s simply writing an article for a particular audience with the intent of promoting a particular product.

In some cases, you’ll write the article to address a niche topic or subtopic more generically—you’ll address the issues, problems, and solutions surrounding a topic and then you’ll point to an affiliate product in a resource box that can help the reader. That’s the sort of article you’d write when you’re restricted as far as promoting directly within the body of an article.

In other cases, you’ll write an article that directly talks about a particular product you’re promoting as an affiliate. You might review the product, talking about its pros and cons. You’ll help the reader make a buying decision. Your goal with an article like this is to presell the reader on buying the product.

When you presell in an article, you’re targeting those who are on the fence as to whether they’re going to go ahead and buy. They want just enough information to know whether the product is right for them. Your article will give them the answer that, yes, they should buy the product.

You’ll use the power of persuasion and your understanding of who the reader is and what they really want at their core so you can make sales of the product that you’re an affiliate for.

That’s right—promoting products as an affiliate via article marketing isn’t about writing dry, boring articles and praying someone clicks your link. It’s about understanding your reader and doing a good job of moving them toward the buying decision—whether you outright talk about the product in the body of the article or not.

How to Write Great Articles to Make Sales as an Affiliate

Now, let’s talk about how to write great articles so you can make sales as an affiliate with article marketing.

First, research your audience. Who’s most likely to buy the product you’re promoting? What do they really need and want? What are their emotions? What’s most likely to impact their buying decision?

You can learn more about your audience on forums, social media, through blogs, and more.

After you’ve gathered some information, consider where you’ll be posting the article. The way you’d write an article for an article directory that doesn’t allow direct promotion of products in the body of an article (only in the author’s resource box) is different than the way you’d write an article for your own blog or website or somewhere else.

In some cases, you’ll write two articles. You’ll write the more general article for the article directory and you’ll write the more specific, product focused, article for your own blog or website. You’ll link that article directory article or guest post article or whatever to your product review and specific pre-sell article.

For a more general article, choose a hot-button topic, problem, or desire the people in your niche have that directly relates to the product. You’re not going to specifically address the product at all at this point.

Write a great, attention-grabbing article title. Write an introductory paragraph that’s filled with emotion and will really draw the reader in. Give them great tips and hints throughout the body of the article. Trail off in the conclusion… leading them to your author’s resource box where they can click through to learn more about the exact product that will be the answer to their prayers.

By the way, that sort of article style is mostly geared toward the “problem/solution” type articles and products. If you’re selling a physical product on Amazon your approach will be a little different. If you’re at all confused or unsure, visit an article directory like EzineArticles.com and take a look at some of the top related articles there so you can get a feel for what others who are promoting similar things are doing.

When it’s time to write a specific product-focused article, you’ll introduce the problem people have, lead them to the product, talk about the pros and cons of the product, and guide them to the sale. You can give a call to action at the end for them to go ahead and buy the product because it’s the best there is and will help solve their needs perfectly.

You need to include your affiliate link in your product review article, of course.

Article Marketing In Article Directories

What are the most popular article directories for the niche you’re targeting? Go ahead and find the answer to that question. Then, take a look at the types of articles others are successfully posting on these sites.

You’ll have your own style, of course, and you’ll want to test and tweak your results—but this kind of digging can really lead you to some great answers.

Write several articles on your topic, all pointing to a squeeze page or a product review article on your website. You’ll put this link in the author’s resource box that is typically allowed on article directories.

Usually, you’ll have to write many articles over time to really build your income up with article marketing as an affiliate.

Article Marketing Via Guest Blog Posting

A much more effective method these days is contacting highly trafficked blogs in your niche and asking if they accept guest posts. Many do—they love the hands-off way they can get great content.

Write an article that will be effective and interesting to their audience. You’ll generally be allowed to include an author’s resource box just as you would with an article directory.

Link to your product specific post on your own blog or website or to a squeeze page. You’ll either ask for the sale right away within your product review or you’ll give people more information once they enter a name and email—and you’ll ask for the sale once they’ve joined your list.

Blog owners only want great content that will really help their audience—so make sure you focus on quality so you can then drive people to your own site, list, or article so you can make affiliate sales.

Article Marketing Via E-Newsletters

Another way to make sales as an affiliate using articles is by submitting content to e-newsletters. Are there popular email newsletters in your niche? There are many out there that accept submissions.

Do some searches or ask around to find them.

You can write great content that will be sent out to email subscribers. You’ll then point to your own properties to make sales of products you’re promoting as an affiliate.

Succeeding With Article Marketing As an Affiliate

Now you have a few ideas to get started with. Article marketing isn’t like it was years ago where all you had to do was write hundreds of articles for an article directory to make sales.

These days, you have to be more strategic about it. In the end, it’s all about great, helpful content that will really resonate with your audience. Focus on that, put your content where your audience is, and write content that makes it clear that the product you’re promoting as an affiliate is the answer to what they need and want.