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Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
In our ongoing series for new web builders, we’re taking another look at how to add affiliate links to your blog posts. We’ve previously covered how to add Amazon products and Commission Junction products to a blog. Promoting products and services for sale is how you will make money on the Internet. In this article, I’ll show you how to find and add ShareASale affiliate links. Keep in mind that:
- This is basic information and does not address data feeds and other tools.
- When promoting affiliate links, it’s best to write about and review a specific topic.
- You can have more than one browser window or tab open at the same time. This will make it easier to go back and forth between your blog and the affiliate site.
In today’s example, we’ll use an article from one our brand new bloggers, Laura, who is blogging about eating disorders and weight loss. Her blog can be viewed at CalmingFood.com.
Search for Merchants.
The first thing you need to do is to log into your affiliate account, where you are taken to a welcome dashboard. If you have not affiliated with any merchants yet, you can find companies that sell products that are related to your niche by clicking the “View and Search Merchant List” option.
Once you click the “Review and Search Merchant List” option, scroll down the page. In this example, we’ll use the basic search, but you can also use the category and advanced search options to find companies that meet your criteria.
Since Laura’s blog covers a variety of food obsession and weight loss issues, our basic search includes the word “weight.”
After you click “Begin Search,” you will see a number of merchants who match your basic keyword. One of the things that’s nice about ShareASale is that it lets you know at a glance what merchants will automatically approve your website into their affiliate program. Until you have an established website, it is probably best to select the merchants in ShareASale who have the “Auto Approve” feature.
Click the [ JOIN PROGRAM ] link for each of the companies that you are interested in promoting. They might ask how you are promoting their program, so write something basic such as website reviews. You will also need to agree to each company’s terms and conditions before signing on as an affiliate.
Searching for Products by Keyword.
My opinion is that it is better to search for specific products and “write around” the products in your blog posts. To find specific product offerings in ShareASale, click the Get Links option.
A datafeed search option will appear. Enter your keyword. You can select merchant programs that you are already a member of or include all programs, regardless of whether you are a member. There are other filtering options available that you can play with.
To display the products that match your search criteria, be sure to click the button that reads, “Refresh Report.”
Upon clicking “Refresh Report,” a list of merchants will appear who carry the types of products that you are interested in promoting. In Laura’s case, Hocks Pharmacy showed up for her search, sugar-free.
As you can see from the screen shot, she is not a member of the program yet. Fortunately, Hocks is an “Auto Approve” site, so all Laura needs to do is to click the “Join Program” link.
After agreeing to the terms and conditions, you will see a screen that looks similar to the one below. Click the “Get Links” option.
Hocks is a large merchant with numerous product and linking features. You can view any of the creatives or categories to find something that will fit your blog article. In this example, we’ll just select the Sugar Free Products category.
A number of different banners and text links offered by the merchant will appear. When you see one that you like, click the “Get this Banner’s HTML Code” option.
The HTML code will display. Copy all of it. If you miss part of the code, your link will not display correctly.
After you have copied your code, go back to your blog dashboard and paste it into where you would like it to appear in your blog article. When pasting HTML code, be sure to paste it in the HTML view of your blog dashboard, not the Visual view.
I added a few more affiliate links into Laura’s article, as shown below. I’m not sure that she will get affiliate commissions off this post, since it is best to write a product review. Nonetheless, it makes her article a bit more colorful and who knows … she just might get a sale. You can take a look at the entire post here.
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nice.
Thanks for giving us the hints and the necessary steps in order for us to be able to add an affiliate links every time we posted something in our blog posts,.