Affiliate Blogging System for Seniors

If you’ve made the decision (or are considering it) to become an affiliate marketer with a blog as your chosen workspace, then you’ll want to plan strategically before getting started to help you forge ahead on an easier and more profitable route.

Many senior marketers flounder online because they make decisions based on research or a gut feeling, but then fail to hunker down and create a plan of attack for carrying out the mission.

As an affiliate blogger, there are several things you want to do to ensure that all of your content creation efforts pay off for you. These don’t require any fancy tools or expensive services.

It’s merely a bit of common sense thought mixed with some research to ensure you’re not wasting time targeting the wrong products and topics for your audience. This system will also help you speed up the posting process so you can earn more in a shorter period of time.

Position Yourself as the Go To Expert for Product Advice

Many senior marketers fail to brand themselves when they pursue a career as an affiliate. They assume that someone else is putting themselves out there as the vendor, so there’s no reason to create a name or brand for their affiliate site.

But thousands of domains review products. You want to become known for being the go to person for whatever niche you’re in when people seek advice on how to spend their money.

Your affiliate reviews will be doing more than simply sharing a fact sheet of information about a product, anyway. You’ll be researching how to use it, tips for getting the most of their purchase and other aspects that go above and beyond merely linking out to make a quick commission.

You want to think about how your audience responds to the others leading people in your niche. What are their slants? For example, FlyLady.com is a site where people learn how to clean and organize their home fast (among other things).

Originally, she would make recommendations, but now she has her own line of products. But her slant, and her brand, was to create habits by doing smaller, bite-sized “on the fly” tasks that were easy to carry out.

Give your brand some thought before you put your content out there. You can even hire someone on Fiverr to create a logo for you and help visitors remember you by name, rather than having to bookmark your blog and try to remember what it was about.

Conduct Keyword Research for Your Niche Commission

If you skip this very important step, then you won’t truly know exactly how people are shopping online for the products they want to buy. You may have it in your head that everyone searches for the same phrase you do.

That might be something like, “best cookware.” But if you use a keyword tool, whether free or paid, you’ll find out many additional details that help you get more visitors to your site.

For example, other people might looks for best cookware set, or best affordable cookware or best cookware brands. These little details help you rank higher when you use them in your content because long-tail keywords (keyword phrases with more than 1-2 words) have less competition.

Keyword research also helps you cater to their needs, because you’ll be able to find out what’s truly important to them whenever you create your review content. One example above is when you see the word affordable.

That tells you that cost is important to some people. You might also see other words that act as clues in your research. That might be things like best cookware for backpacking, best stainless steel cookware, best cookware for a gas stove, and so on.

Make a list compiling all of these phrases because it can help you create content later. If your affiliate site was all about cooking or even as narrow as cookware, then you would know that a review where you list the top 10 affordable cookware sets might be a hit, as would things like best dishwasher safe cookware.

Whenever you’re conducting research, look for things that tell you how consumers shop. In the cookware niche, you find out a lot just by conducted a search for best cookware.

You find out that consumers want to know what professional chefs use, how they clean the cookware without ruining it, how to buy the best cookware on a budget, and even which ones are best for dieters or healthy eaters.

Let all of this insight help you shape your content so that your blog is of high interest to those who are in the market for new products in that niche. Also, learn how to conduct keyword researches in the first place.

For example, not everyone will type in best cookware or even a variation of it. Some people will type in something like, cookware that … lasts a lifetime, is oven safe, that’s made in America, that won’t scratch or warp, etc.

More clues telling you exactly what kind of content your readers hope to learn from your affiliate blog. And if you can tell them which products meet their needs (and why or how), then you’ll likely convince them to click your link and purchase it so that you earn a commission.

Many keyword tools also let you drill down with your phrases. So for instance, if you type in best cookware and get a result that shows best cookware for camping, you can drill that phrase down and find that people are searching for best cookware for car camping, best cast iron cookware for camping, best camping cookware for open fire cooking, and more.

Take these clues and make an entire blog post out of it just for those who search for such specific answers. As you populate your blog with many of these long tail keywords many others aren’t touching, you’ll begin to see your traffic build and your commissions climb.

See What’s Selling So You Can Tell Your Hungry Audience About It

Even if you have high enthusiasm for your niche topic, you still don’t know exactly what others are spending their money on until you research it. Part of your systematic approach toward higher income will be to see what’s selling.

It may not be what you would prefer, but find out why others do prefer it. Of course if you do have a differing opinion, you can also tell your audience why you think differently. After all, they’re tuned in to get your opinion, so don’t hold back.

Do recognize, however, that everyone has different priorities and preferences. When you look at the bestseller list for products in your niche, such as cookware on Amazon, you might turn your nose up at the basic non-stick cookware set that sells for anywhere from $40 to $80.

Your preference might be the more expensive, more durable ceramic cookware set. But not everyone has the budget for that or the pickiness of even having a preference. The bestseller lists will give you some great information about what people like.

It will show you if certain brands are popular, if materials (like stainless steel) are a big hit, the size that sells most – such as sets of 8 versus 12 pieces, which colors are being ordered more, and so on.

If you see that there are seven different sets of blue cookware in the top thirty listings, then you might want to create an affiliate review blog post for the top 10 blue cookware sets on Amazon.

Then you can include those top sever, and add on three more blue cookware sets. You can also drill that type of detail down in your review. If you notice that turquoise is the specific blue outselling the others, make a review for the top 10 turquoise cookware sets online.

Your blog post will be so specific that it will have a very high chance of outperforming other affiliates who simply create reviews for the best cookware sets, or even best blue cookware sets.

Shoppers are specific when they’re wanting to buy online. If someone knows they want to match the other turquoise items in their kitchen, you can bet they’re going to use that in their search phrase – and seeing your post pop up is going to entice them over someone else’s broad, vague title and post.

How to Craft a Profit-Pulling Review for Your Blog

This is where many senior (and otherwise) bloggers go horribly wrong. They forget that consumers can read. They can go to Amazon and type in best cookware set and get a slew of results to sort through.

They can read the specifications, like what the cookware is coated with, how many pieces, how big each pot is, and so on. What they can’t immediately do is evaluate the pros and cons of it versus another set.

They often don’t have time to sit down, run comparisons and analyze all of the consumer reviews that Amazon has listed. That’s what they need you to do. They also need you to provide them with more information than what’s listed.

So in order to wow your audience, approach your reviews with a system you follow to cover everything they may need to know. On your blog, you can even have a table of contents for the review, so they can skip aspects they don’t care about and go to sections that matter to them.

Go to the comments and reviews on the products and see what matters most to them. You’re still going to cover the basic details that the vendor provides on the site, but you want to go a bit further.

The vendor and the consumer think of things differently. A vendor will say things like, “Has a non-stick surface.” But a consumer says, “Easy to clean.” So when you see a feature like “non-stick surface,” add your commentary about how frustrating it is when you buy cookware that is impossible to clean or that can’t be put in the dishwasher.

Hype up the fact that this particular cookware set gets rave reviews for being so easy to clean. Amazon even has a word cloud of popular things people say about their products.

Click on the “easy to clean” tag and you’ll see the reviews that mention it. You might see where someone mentions how it’s easy to clean so it stays pretty or it stays shiny, and that’s another talking point for you to mention in your review.

You want to use casual consumer lingo in your reviews, touching on their frustrations with previous purchases and explaining why the solutions you’re presenting will eliminate their worry and deliver satisfaction.

Level Up with Your Affiliate Blog Profits

Once you have a system for your affiliate blog – maintaining branding, researching keywords, seeing what’s selling, and writing reviews with more than bland details, you’ll want to work on increasing your profits.

One way to do this is by branching out into other things the consumer may want to know. Make sure it’s relevant. For example, if you review the top 10 cast iron cookware sets, then you might also mention a cast iron cookbook they should get.

Think about accessories. A cast iron cookware owner needs a silicone hot skillet handle cover. They need the cast iron seasoning, the cleaning and conditioning scrubs, and even wall hooks to hang their cookware on.

Accessories and related items are easy add-ons whenever someone is already in a buying mood. Remember, if you’re merely mentioning it – such as, “Don’t forget to buy some wall mounts for your cookware,” you can link to the search results page on Amazon.

You don’t have to link to one specific product. With accessories like this, you don’t know their décor, so linking to a rustic white hook set might not appeal to them. But a page of dozens of different styles might get them to add one to their cart easier.

You can also offer bonuses for people who buy through your link. This applies to digital and tangible products on various sites. Sometimes, if it’s a digital product, you can upload a bonus guide for the buyer that they’ll be able to download immediately once their purchase is complete.

Other times, you might have to have them email you proof of purchase (a receipt) so that you can send them the bonus directly. This is what you’ll do if the site has no way of allowing you to connect a bonus to your affiliate link.

Being a senior affiliate blogger is a fun way to get started earning money online. Create your own system in the order that works for you. You’ll be able to churn out more quality reviews when you strategize than those who simply slap up bland content that doesn’t appeal to anyone.