We continue the tutorial on how to do affiliate marketing blogging. This time we will discuss about the blog’s content.

Once the blog created, it should include original content, the type of content that can bring some added value to the information already on the advertiser’s website.

The type of blogs where you only send the users to a discount campaign, with a banner and a short text like “Sales here…” or blog posts that only copy information from the advertisers’ sites, will never be able to bring enought traffic to generate affiliate commissions. Also, this type of blogs are not well seen by advertisers because it harms their websites in the search engine results.

Google stated in an article the basic rules for an affiliate link containing blog to be well indexed in their search engine. Even if you care about SEO or not, these are valuable rules for any affiliate marketing beginner.

• To have more than affiliate generated content;

Blogs are not online stires and blogs that only have content to generate sales will bot be of interest for users.

• To have content that can help the user in the purchase process by supplying additional information to the advertiser’s website.

A good blog is the one that brings along additiona information. Articles that are fit for affiliate marketing are: product reviews, a personal perspective over a sales campaign or announcing a new product with its corresponding review. This type of articles can be a big hit in affiliation.

• The sites and products promoted through affiliation must be connected with the blog’s topic.

A blog that introduces the latest gadgets should bot promote women’s fashion. Therefore, if you have  a blog about books, the best thing to do is to partner up with advertisers from the book industry.

• Constant and regular communication with the website’s users.

Together with the website’s visitors you will also receive comments and questions. These should not be ignored. Communicating with your blog’s users is essential to create a community around it.  

• The blog needs to be updated regularly and to include new information for the respective topic.

Once the users get to your blog, they will keep wanting new information on the topic. Chasing new subjects can become addictive, but the subject’s quality and its conversion to an attractive form for your users should also be a priority.

These rules are the foundation of any new blog. This is the key to successful affiliate marketing for you and for your partner advertisers as well. It will be a win for you because all your effort will be turning into a positive outcome on the short and medium run. It will also be a win situation for your advertisers who will receive well targeted audience on their websites, with a real purchasing intent for theur products.

Blog posts are the backbone of your blog. These should be built around an interesting subject and in a pleasant manner. To get to such results, any small detail matters.

• Choosing a title 

The title – those few words the reader first comes across at the beginning of an article and which contains a small part of the whole material, can make a difference between a viral blog post and one that will be lost in your wbsite’s archive.

“The title’s purpose is to make the potential customers read the first line of the content you have created.”

David Ogilvy – Ogilvy on Advertising 

I recommend you start by writing a title that expresses the article’s main subject, without thinking too much of it – like a working title. Once the article is done and ready to publish, come back to the title. You will be able to refine it easily once the article is done.

Try identifying an attractive element and state it by communicating a benefit for the reader or generating a debate through a question. However, do not write a confusing title that could mislead the reader because even though initially attracted on the post, the visitor will easily leave if the promised information is not found there and label you blog as a clickbait superficial website.

• The blog post’s content 

The main rule for any post’s text is to have an impeccable grammar. The grammar slips or misspells can cost you a lot. The readers can be very reserved in going back to a blog where they saw such obvious errors.

A blog posts with poor grammar doesn’t look trustworthy and therefore the information may not be seen as reliable.

Just like any text, blog posts must have an introduction, a body and an ending.

a. Introduction

The first sentence and the first paragraph. After the title, this piece of text helps greatly to catching and keeping the reader’s attention. A simple yet attractive statement of the post’s main topic will make the interested ones stay and keep on reading.

To make the introduction more interesting start with a question that will be answered along the entire post or with a promise that you will keep by the end of your post. Alternatively you can start with an analogy or some unexpected approach that is relevant for the topic.

No matter what the methods you use to start your post, keep in mind that an online reader can easily lose interest if you fail to make him curious from the very first sentences.

b. Body

Along the body you need to offer what you promised in the introduction paragraph. This is important as a sign of respect to your blog post readers.

Also, remember to use analogies, graphic metaphors or stories that can explain better whatever you have to say. Adding relevant quotes and giving examples also bring an extra truthfullness to your account.

And not lastly, adding your own personal opinion. This is a very important aspect for any blog post since, after all, readers have decided to get their information from a blog and not an encyclopedia.

c. Ending

On this level, if you have managed to keep the reader close, you should use some loyalty tactics. This is besides the conclusions you have to include in every ending. To bring your reader back on your blog, you should add open questions that would trigger comments (to which you must reply).

Also, suggest to your readers to take some action. As them to share your blog (on social media and more) or to check the discount or product described to see for themselves or invite them to return to your blog to say what they think.

There are some simple guidelines for these proposed actions: 

1. Be very clear in the action you demand;
2. Don’t ask for too many actions and try to identify the relevant one for your blog post;
3. Any action demanded should bring a benefit to the reader and this must be stated clearly;
4. Use all the available tools to make the requested action as easy to make as possible;
5. Don’t ask for the same action on every blog post and don’t be a nag with your requests.

• Formatting

Another element that makes a blog post attractive and easy to read is the text formatting.

WordPress helps you a lot with that, offering a generous text spacing and making the text more legible. However, for big chunks of text, spacing is not enough to generate readable text.

Besides the classical formatting elements like bold or italic text, you have other options offered by wordpress to keep the reader’s attention and to break the text block.

a. The quote

You can use the quote feature, that substantially modifies the text formatting not only to include actual quotes. You can use it also to emphasize an idea that you are about to discuss in the following paragraph.

b. Numbered or bulleted lists

Lists help a lot in navigating over a text because it sums up and helps deposit the information. Lists can be used to prepare the subjects you are about to discuss or to shape up the structure.

c. Headings

When you have a longer text, breaking it into more idea helps a lot for its leagibility. Use a heading or a sub-heading to mark each idea. These are very good at breaking the classic full text flow.

d. Images

Adding images is a big plus for any post. You have to make sure that the added images are in harmony with the text. If they are wide, place them in the middle, between 2 paragraphs and if they have a small width, place them in the left.

Just like when picking a theme, the first blog posts should be treated as tests and you should give yourself time to play with titles, with the way your write and format the text in order to get the best version for what you want to say.

Once you get your blog enhanced with fresh content you will want to start monetizing this effort.

Here you can see the main ways you can connect your blog and yoir 2Performant affiliate account.