One of the most popular ways to make money online is through the promotion of affiliate products.  This is a process where you are using your online presence to sell other people’s products and make money by earning commission on each sale.

There are a variety of methods that you can use to promote your affiliate products.  However, there are a few proven methods that work better than others.  You’ve probably seen people who continuously tweet or DM their affiliate links.  They blast away on social media sites.  However, these methods are not efficient ways to promote your affiliate products.  It’s simply spam.  The idea is not to annoy your potential customers, but to build a relationship and make thoughtful recommendations that will give them value.  When you promote your affiliate products in a thoughtful and useful manner, you will find much greater success in your online endeavors.

So where do you start?

Identify Your Target Audience

First off, you want to identify your target market.  Figure out the needs of your audience before you promote your affiliate products to the general public.  This way when you promote your affiliate products, you will start with a targeted effort instead of random spam.

Begin by picking your niche.  This is the subject matter that is the focus of your online endeavors.  Pick a topic that you are passionate about and focus your web presence on that topic.  This can be any subject, such as internet marketing, fitness, health, etc…  The key is to find something that you enjoy and can personalize for your audience.

Once you find your topic, then you want to identify the people who are likely to be interested in the same subject.  There are a variety of different people in all walks of life.  You want to identify the ones that fit into your particular niche.

• Other internet marketers
• people looking to get into better shape or lose weight
• businesses
• other bloggers who want to promote their blogs
• people with multiple social media accounts
• people who want to save time
• Other people interested in making money online
• investors
• aspiring entrepreneurs

The list goes on and on…  But the key is to not only identify your niche, but also the target audience that will make use of your affiliate products that you will promote within your niche.  This way when you promote your affiliate products, you are not just randomly blasting away, you are focusing your efforts on the people most interested in your products.

Promote Your Affiliate Product

There are three key ideas to remember to successfully promote your affiliate products:  Authenticity, Trust and Personal Experience.

Think of most Television ads these days.  They attempt to show real people giving a testimonial about how they used and benefit from the product.  The other vision that comes to mind are the breakfast cereal commercials that show a family gathered around a breakfast table eating the cereal.  These are no accidents.  Making the personal connection with your audience is a method that works.

You want to do the same thing when you promote your affiliate products.  You want to build a personal connection and give that sense of authenticity to your audience when you talk about a product.  That’s the way you build trust.

Here’s a simple process that you can use to promote your affiliate products that incorporates all the elements that I discuss above:

1. Use the product yourself. You can either purchase the product or contact the sellers and see if they will give you a free trial so that you can get personal experience with the product.  This way you can relate your personal experiences when you promote your affiliate products.
2. Take detailed notes about what you liked ad didn’t like about the product. Make sure you explore specific details about how the product helps you out in specific areas.  If you are writing about time management, make a note about how the product saves you time.  Make a comparison of before and after using the product.  Do the same thing if you are discussing weight loss.  Take before and after photos.  The key is to document the process as thoroughly as possible.  Don’t forget to record your experience with images as well.  If you are able to capture a video, do that as well.  You want to be as thorough as possible in recording your personal experiences.  Also, don’t shy away from taking notes about any negatives regarding the product.  Remember that part of the key is authenticity
3. Write a blog post about the product. Now, take your notes and write a detailed blog post where you tell your visitors about your own personal experience with the product.  Tell them how YOU used the product and how YOU benefited from the product.  If you don’t have a blog, then you can just create a new one.  Use Tumblr, blogger, or wordpress.  Or you could create a Squidoo lens or a new Hubpages page.  It doesn’t matter that it’s a new blog.  You just want to create a landing page that contains your first hand, authentic personal experience with the product.  On this page, you will include your affiliate link in several places.  Make sure that they are clearly visible to make it easy for your visitors to find and click on your affiliate links.
4. Promote your new landing page. The final step to promote your affiliate products is to promote your newly created blog post which doubles as your landing page.  This point is where you start using your social media outlets.  The key is to give people a link to your landing page.  Don’t send out your affiliate link directly.  For instance, if you want to tell your audience about some financial investment services, you want to direct them to an article that you’ve written about different ways to invest.  Put out tweets, DMS, Facebook updates, etc. with a link to your landing page.  Tell people why they should go to that page and read what you have written.  The key now is to focus on your target audience.  Identify the problems that they want to solve and write a quick message about how the product solves that problem.  Your message can be as simple as: “Read about my personal experience losing weight using {product].”  Even just a short message like that gives your audience a much more personal connection with you.  You are no longer sending them off to some distant product page, you are inviting them back to your home for a personal story.  This is no longer an anonymous sales pitch.

Why Does This Method Work?

This is a simple process, but it is a powerful way to promote your affiliate products.

Why does this method work?

This method starts with developing and telling a personal story.  YOUR story.  You can tell people how You used the product and how it was successful for you.  Your landing page will demonstrate your day to day use with the product and show people how it can benefit them.  People will far more easily identify with your story.

Then when people follow your affiliate links from your landing page, your personal story will be fresh in their minds.  It will be much easier for them to visualize how your product will help them.  This is exactly the process that you want to trigger.  You want to your visitors to evoke their own visualization and imagination.  If you can accomplish that personal touch, then you will have much more success when you promote your affiliate products.

With this two step process, you may send fewer people directly to your affiliate link.  However, you will have a much greater percentage of conversions.

In the end, you will more than make up the difference by the number of people who actually follow your advice and purchase your affiliate product just by sharing your own personal experience with your affiliate product!