Hey everybody. Today I'm sharing these second coolest takeaway from my week at an amazing blogging conference I just returned from and we're going to talk about affiliate marketing. So yeah, I'm talking about TBEX a travel writers conference, I just returned from an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but these key points are helpful regardless of your niche. So I hope you stick around. Shelley Marmor from Mexico Solo Travel -I hope I'm pronouncing her last name right - was one of the speakers and she shared a great presentation on her success with affiliate marketing and I'm going to break down for you the three things that most resonated with me from her talk.
My name is Lesli Peterson and I help bloggers turn their modest websites into thriving online enterprises with SEO, email marketing, and a little hard love encouragement to always move forward consistently and with a plan.
So I'm going to be the first to admit that I always get into the game a little bit late. I got into the game late when it came to monetizing my site two years at well over 200,000 page views a month before I decided to put ads on my site. Thank you, Katie Mann for pushing me on that one.
And I'd really didn't dabble in affiliates. So I had someone else pushing me on that. So Krystyn Hall, I if you're listening, I hear you, I see you. And I definitely thank you for pushing me on affiliates back in the day.
But I didn't know what to do. So I just kind of dabbled in Amazon affiliates, and didn't make much money, nothing worth even talking about. And so kind of gave up. And it wasn't until about two years ago that I decided to try again. And I went kind of hardcore on hotel affiliates.
And I've been very happy with the money that I've been making from Stay 22. For those of you who are in the travel or hyperlocal space, I highly recommend Stay 22.
But that's kind of where I stopped. I am pushing some hotels in some of the things to do posts, I've got a few hotel roundups, but haven't really been focusing on that, and especially not in the psychological aspects of affiliate marketing. So that's really what I kind of had an ear to the ground for when I was listening to Shelly speak.
So I did not write down her exact statistics. So there she was kind enough to share her financial numbers with us down to the dollar. But I'm just going to share with you what I remember from that talk. And that's that she only started this Mexico blog about three years ago, she lives in Mexico.
She's making in the neighborhood of about $250,000 a year from her blog. But over $160,000 of that is coming from affiliate sales.
So she has a six figure affiliate income making up over 60% of her blogging income. I think that's really impressive. I'm blown out of the water.
When I think about the number of pageviews that we have, and how we're not even close to 60% affiliate income on our site, I just go wow, I've just missed an incredible opportunity.
And I do not want you to make that same mistake.
So here are the three things that I took away from Shelley's talk, so grateful for, for what she shared with us.
The first one is that picking the right keyword is everything. And it boils down to intention.
Now, I'm going to tell you, this is not a new concept that I've been teaching. If you're a student of mine, it's not a new concept at all at all, but I never really thought about it from an affiliate perspective. I'm so embarrassed to say that quite frankly.
So she went over the four primary intentions that we all know especially if you done any SEO research or you have an SEO tool, there's usually an indication of what the keyword intention is from one of four categories.
Informational sites where someone is looking for basic information. If you're the travel space, it's things to do and blah, blah, blah city. The other is navigational. That's typically when they're looking for a website. So if somebody's looking at Disney, they're not looking for your Disney posts are looking for the Disney website.
Number three commercial and number four transactional so these are very close to each other. But a commercial term is usually when they're trying to compare things. So a lot of those best keywords are going to be in that category. And then transactional is when they're ready to buy when they're ready to to pull the trigger or pull out their credit card and get going.
So a lot of us, myself included, focus on informational keywords because they're usually the highest volume keywords. So when it comes to monthly search volume, those are the highest. And that's where, if you're looking for traffic, that's where you want to focus your efforts.
And Shelly challenged me and everybody in the room to really think about those transactional keywords. And I love the analogy she gave, she said, so there's some keywords that maybe are commercial keywords, she called them grey area keywords. And they, they're about the person kind of searching for something, but they're not really committing. And she talked about transactional keywords where people are actually pulling out their credit card, she calls this the hell yes, keywords, I love that. And those are the ones that you want to focus on.
And I'm going to talk to you at the end here, a little bit about some steps that I've taken to look for those kinds of those sort of keywords in in my space and how you can apply that to you.
So number one, look for the hell yes keywords, those transactional keywords where people are ready to pull out their credit card, and buy.
The second thing she talked about is don't let volume stop you. So monthly search volume, again tends to be higher for informational keywords. So I've got some keywords where the monthly search volume is, you know, target keywords for us where it's 35,000 55,000 85,000 people a month searching for those terms.
And the truth is, those are usually informational terms. So it brings me a lot of traffic when we rank for them. But they're not, they're not keywords that people are using in order to make a purchase.
So she said, Hey, don't look at that volume so much. Because if you're, you know, if you're ranking number one for something that's like 85,000 keyword search volume a month, and nobody's buying from it, then you're just making their ad revenue. But if you take a keyword where maybe only 500 people a month are searching for it, maybe only 100 people a month are searching for it, but it is a transactional keyword, it's a hell yes keyword and you can rank for that, then you can make a lot of money.
And I've heard that before. But I didn't understand that a lot of money was 60% of your ad of your of your blogging income. So that really, that's really changed my mind set, it makes me want to look for, you know, what are those low volume keywords that I've dismissed in the past.
And I'm not saying go for a low volume keyword that's informational. I mean, it has to be a low volume keyword that, that you can use to make money on, where you've got a really great affiliate partner, or partners that you can leverage in that post, then maybe it is something that we need to reconsider, especially if you can rank number one or number two, I mean, if you can rank number one for a term that has only, let's say, 200 people a month, well, if 200 people a month are coming to your blog to buy something, not cold, hard cash right.
Now, the thing she didn't talk about, and she's a smart woman, I'm sure she understands that she just didn't have time to go into it. And that's talking about difficulty.
So I'm not sure how she manages difficulty, what her difficulty numbers are, how she balances that low volume with high difficulty. Obviously, if you can, you're looking for transactional keywords with low difficulty, but that's not always the case.
The other thing I asked her about, which has to do with both intention and volume is what she does when she doesn't see other bloggers on page one.
And let me give you some framework for this. I teach my students and I shy myself away from writing a blog post for a term where there's not another blogger on page one already. Because that's a signal to me that Google intention isn't matching. So the best example I can give you again, sorry for the folks who aren't in the travel space. But the best example I can give you is in travel.
If you're looking for a hotel, let's say you're looking for pet friendly hotels in I don't know Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and you look at page one and everybody on page one is an Expedia property. So it's the hotels.com and a booking, and VRBO are just all of the different Expedia properties. I tend to shy away from that.
Now I have dabbled in that in the past. In the Atlanta market, I've tried my hand out. And I've said, Okay, regardless of the fact that there's only Expedia properties on page one, I'm gonna go ahead and try to rank on page one. And I haven't had a lot of success. So kind of stopped doing that.
And when asked Shelly about it, she said, she thinks she does not let that stop her. And she said, I think, tends to be the case that Expedia doesn't show or or that Google doesn't show another blogger, because there's not another good post out there.
So that makes me think the reason I'm bringing this up here is because it makes me think that that's about that's the difficulty level. So in that case, maybe the difficulty is kind of low. And Google's just waiting for that right blogger, to put them on page one.
And then afterward, just as a side note, and a quick shout out to Anna, she said she's been following advice from Shelly. And she tried this with a with hotels post with a city in North Carolina. And she actually did make it to page one, even though previously, there had only been Expedia properties there.
So now I'm back to the drawing board of re thinking, that strategy. And I went to look through some keywords for my Atlanta market. And the difficulty was really, really high. And I have to wonder if this isn't a market by market, problem or issue or decision, and that that difficulty number really needs to be taken into account.
So I'm curious to know, if any of you have tried that. Have you written a transactional post where it wasn't on or you didn't see any bloggers on page one, you wrote the post, and it did make it to page one, and how difficulty weighed into that decision and that outcome.
So I've got to do a little more experimentation before I land on my own conclusions. But love, I love learning something that challenges and assumption that I have, so I'm thankful, thankful for that.
So the third thing is that I learned from Shelley is do not be shy about pushing those affiliates. So a couple things that she does in the format of her posts that I love, is that at the very top, she's got like an introductory, not paragraph but like an introductory sentence.
That starts with a question where she's really just reminding people of why they're on her page kind of validating that question that this that the searcher had, she explains in one to two sentences, why she's qualified to answer it.
And then she gets right to the point. She's like, I'm gonna give you a list of let's say, the 10 zip lines in this particular city, but this is the best one. Right away, she links to it.
And then she puts a little block, right under that in her post. It's got a shaded background. Sometimes it has a photo, sometimes it doesn't. But it's like, Hey, if you don't want to read this article, if you're too busy to read, this is the best one, just click here. And bye.
Sometimes she's always got a link sometimes she's also got a button in there. But she's like, let's just get to the point. This is the one you need to buy. I know this. I live here. I've lived here for a long time. I've done a lot of zip tours also, you know and she goes on and on and explains at some qualifiers, you know, don't just take my word for it. This got 8005 star reviews. Here's me swinging across a zip line.
And I loved that especially because we know from the recent helpful content update, Google wants you to get to the point immediately and she's done that and she's done it in such a way that it's driving people to her affiliate link.
So also she added really contrasting links and I love what she did with her links that are by link so she's adding buttons into her posts, but she's also adding highlighting links in such a way that when somebody hovers over them I think I think her color is red so a link for her if you're just looking at the page would be a white background with red text but when you hover over it it blocks it highlights that text in red and makes the the text actually white so it really stands out a really highlights the link and then again adding buttons I don't have buttons for any of my affiliate links or maybe one of my posts and she does buttons and she has big buttons that say book now.
So she's really driving people. She's really being I don't wanna say aggressive but very assertive, to in pushing people to do This link, click here, this is where you go.
And she's not shy about using those buttons and using those links, all throughout her entire article and really making it easy for people to click on that affiliate link. So I've been looking at a couple of her posts, and just kind of examining them from that, from that psychological perspective from the formatting perspective.
And I've really learned a lot. And we're actually putting together a new kind of SOP to give to my publish team about what an affiliate post should look like. So I'm excited to take some of the ones that we already have. And you know, writing them writing new ones with new keywords is is a new step that takes a lot more effort, but just taking the ones we already have, that we're already ranking on, and adding some of those formatting features and taking advantage of some of those psychological components like, Hey, you don't have to redo the whole post, just click this one right here, this is the best one, and seeing how that moves the needle. So I'm very, very excited about that.
So those are the three things that I took away from Shelley's talk, really look at the keyword intention. And don't be scared to pick those Hell, yes, transactional keywords, don't let volume stop you. You don't have to look for really high volume terms if you're focused on good affiliate partners, because you can make but you might not make as much money from ads. But who cares, because you're probably making more money from people clicking those affiliate links.
And I've just wanted to do my own research to see how difficulty plays into that. And then don't be shy about pushing those links, with buttons with clicks. And with all of those kind of formatting features, because I think the biggest thing I learned from her as well adding one link in the post and hoping somebody clicks, it is not going to move the needle on your wallet, you know how much money you're making, you've really got to be assertive about saying, Here are all the options. Here's some buttons here, some links are all spread out through here.
And again, I think my favorite thing from the whole talk was, don't have time to read this whole article, no worries, I got you covered, click this link, you're gonna love this one, this is the best one just don't You don't even have to finish reading the post.
Let's talk about some do's and don'ts.
I do want you to make sure you shop around for the right affiliate partners because you want that, you know, you want the ones with the highest payouts and the ones with the longest cookies.
Not all the programs out there are created equal even if they're all offering the same tour. So especially if you're writing about if you're ranking on a post, and you've you've got that affiliate traffic, just continue to make sure that you're in the right program continue to evaluate those affiliate partners. And then when you do find that right program, I think it's so important to build a real relationship with those companies. So I mentioned Stay22, one of my favorite affiliate partners.
Not just because it's a lucrative partnership, but because they have taken the time to really build a relationship with me, they reach out to me, they answer my questions on a regular basis, they helped me improve my process, they let me be part of beta programs that keep me in this in the loop.
They know my name, they know my blog, they understand my business. All of those things, I think are important components of why that partnership is so lucrative. So when you find the right program, don't be shy about reaching out to your account manager and building a relationship with them.
So the other thing that Shelly demonstrated that really made me fall in love with her is that she knew every dime she was making, she knew how much should be attributed to affiliates, I mean, right down to the dollar.
And while she didn't share it with us, I'm sure she would be able to also break it down and say I make this much money on each of these posts. And I make this much money with each of these affiliate partners. I mean, she knew her stuff. And I can't emphasize enough how critical that is to transitioning your blog from just a hobby to a business, you've got to know exactly how much money you're making. You've got to know your numbers, you got to know where those numbers are coming from where that revenue is coming from in order to replicate what you see working and take focus off those things that aren't working.
And anyways, I just I don't hear that a lot. And I just really loved that about her and I would encourage you to get your head around your numbers if you don't know them already. So Affilimate is a really good tool for that.
I used them for a while. And then when they weren't partnering with Stay 22, which is one of my bigger affiliate programs, and it just wasn't making sense for me financially.
But I'm excited to say that they're going to be bringing a Stay 22 relationship to the party probably later this year, maybe early next year. So I'm going to be partnering back up with Affilimate, a really good tool for understanding which posts are working from an affiliate perspective and which ones aren't.
And I love that they have a heat map. I think that is one of the coolest things about the affiliate program, so you can see where people are clicking. So if you can rearrange the items in your list, let's say again, let's go back to that ziplining of your showing, you know, sharing the 10 best zip lines in your area. If you see one that is continuously getting clicked, but it's near the bottom, let's move that puppy to the top. So love the heat map. Heat maps there.
If if this resonated with you go and look at your your tool of choice, type in a term that's in your topic cluster. So for me, I typed Georgia, then look filter all those keywords that come back with Georgia and the title by transactional.
And then search by things with low difficulty. So for me, I was searching for everything in SEMrush everything below 49. So whatever low is to you in the tool of your choice, you know, filter out those that are high. So you're just looking at low volume, transactional keywords in one of your topic clusters, and then just scour that list and see what's out there for you that you already have an affiliate relationship with.
So for me, again, I have a hotels partner. So pet friendly hotels in Savannah, Savannah is one of my clusters, it just made sense for me to do this post.
So go through that exercise. Do one of the posts, really taking advantage of being assertive about where you're putting those links and how you're placing those links.
And then report back, let me know how did it work out for you.
Did you did you rank fairly quickly? Are you getting conversions on that that make up for the fact that it doesn't have a high volume from a from an ad revenue perspective.
So I'd love to hear that from you. I'm going to reporting back reporting back to you on my pet friendly hotels post once it's up and getting some traction. I'll let you know how that goes.
So I encourage you do as I say not as I did, and put some emphasis on affiliates early on in the game.