25 Best Affiliate Marketing Tips for 2022

Affiliate marketing requires dedication and hard work to be successful. As a 6-figure affiliate marketer, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to be successful in this industry. Here are my top affiliate marketing tips for 2022.

1) Be a Useful Affiliate

The most successful affiliate marketers are those who provide value to their audience. This means creating helpful content, whether it’s in the form of blog posts, videos, or even just answering questions in forums.

Miles Beckler explained it well in this video, where he explains that documenting a process and then teaching it to others is one of the best ways to succeed as an affiliate marketer.

Teach people how to do what you do and then promote the products that you use to help them achieve those results.

For example, I teach people how to build websites. Real Estate agents, for example, often build their own WordPress websites. They need hosting, a theme, and tools like IDX to show properties on their website.

As an affiliate, I earn commissions on every sale of those products if they use my link, and make a purchase within a certain amount of time.

This type of content is helpful because it’s teaching people how to do something they want to do (build a website) and then provides them with the resources they need to do it (hosting, themes, plugins, etc).

And as an added bonus, it also happens to be very effective in terms of conversions and generating sales.

2) Be Selective With the Programs You Promote

There are thousands of affiliate programs out there, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed and promoted products that you don’t really believe in just because they have high commissions.

But as an affiliate marketer, your reputation is everything. If you promote products that are low quality or scammy, you will quickly lose the trust of your audience.

A great way to find high-quality affiliate programs is to join an affiliate network like ShareASale or Awin. These networks vet the programs on their platform and only allow those that they believe to be reputable and trustworthy.

Additionally, most of the big companies like Amazon, Walmart, and eBay have their own affiliate programs that are definitely worth promoting.

Neil Patel, a leading blogger that ranks on Google, paraphrases Warren Buffet in this video, saying “If you have a choice between making money in the short run or something that’s going to burn your brand, take the option of not making the money and protecting your brand”.

3) Build an Email List

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to generate sales as an affiliate.

When you have a list of email subscribers, you have a group of people that you can promote products over and over again. And the best part is, they’ve already said yes to receiving marketing messages from you by subscribing to your list.

I build my email list by making offers of lead magnets in exchange for an email address. A lead magnet is something of value that you give away for free in order to get someone’s email address.

It could be a PDF guide, an ebook, a video course, or even just a simple checklist. As long as it’s something that your audience wants and finds valuable, it will work as a lead magnet.

I use Optinmonster to make the offers and collect the email address.

Once you have the email address, you can then send them helpful content and promotional messages whenever you have something new to promote. I use Mailerlite for the email sales funnels.

And over time, as you continue to build a relationship with your subscribers, they will be more likely to make a purchase from you when you do promote something.

One of my favorite examples of a marketer who sends a great newsletter is Steve Toth with https://seonotebook.com/. I highly recommend subscribing to his newsletter if you’re interested in SEO and online marketing.

While he curates top tips in the industry, he’s able to monetize his newsletter with affiliate links, sponsorships, or any other way he sees fit.

4) Build an Audience

It’s better to have a small group of engaged and loyal followers than a large group of people who don’t care about you or your content. Location Rebel discussed why building an audience is more important than building traffic in this video.

When you have an engaged audience, it’s so much easier to make sales as an affiliate.

An audience, or as I call it, a tribe, is a group of people who are interested in what you have to say and are willing to follow you and engage with your content.

Your tribe is the group of people who will buy from you, share your content, and be loyal to you and your brand. You can sell to an audience. You can influence an audience. You can build trust with an audience.

And when you have trust, you have the ability to make affiliate sales.

Building an audience takes time and it’s not something that you can do overnight. But if you’re consistent with your content and engage with your tribe, you will be able to build a loyal group of followers who will eventually become customers.

I built my audience by hosting webinars and publishing Youtube videos that help bloggers build their businesses.

I also have an email list of over 10,000 people who I can reach out to anytime I have something new to promote.

And because my audience knows, likes, and trusts me, they are more likely to buy from me when I recommend a product or service that I use and love.

5) Pay Attention to Affiliate Marketing Trends

One of the biggest trends right now is influencer marketing. And while this trend is still in its early stages, I think it’s something that every affiliate should be paying attention to.

Influencer marketing is when you partner with an influencer in your industry to promote your product or service. And while it can be used to promote just about anything, I think it’s especially effective for promoting physical products.

The reason why I think influencer marketing is so effective is that people are more likely to buy a product that they see an influencer using or talking about.

And as an affiliate, you can get in on this trend by finding products that you can promote and then reaching out to influencers in your industry to see if they’re interested in promoting the product to their audience.

Not only is influencer marketing effective, but it’s also a great way to build relationships with other people in your industry.

So if you’re not already using influencer marketing to promote your affiliate products, I would recommend that you start.

6) Master the Algorithms of Affiliate Marketing Platforms

Whatever platform you choose for affiliate marketing, master it. Whether you choose Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, or Google, it’s so important that you know how to work the algorithms.

The algorithm is the code that determines what content is shown to users and when. So if you can figure out how the algorithm works, you can get your content in front of more people. But figuring out algorithms can be difficult because they’re constantly changing. 

Almost all platforms today are using personalization. Your content is shown to those people that would be most likely to engage with it.

And because of that, you need to be constantly testing and experimenting to see what works and what doesn’t.

I recommend that you try different types of content and see what gets the most engagement. Then, double down on the content that performs well and produce more of it.

7) Build on One Platform, Cross-Promote on the Others

When you focus primarily on building your content on a single channel, such as your blog, Youtube, or podcast, you get to master that one platform.

You understand the ins and outs of how that platform works and you’re able to produce content that does well on that specific platform.

But once you’ve mastered one platform, you can then start cross-promoting your content on other platforms.

For example, if you have a successful Youtube channel, you can cross-promote your content on Instagram or TikTok.

Or if you have a popular blog, you can start promoting your blog posts on social media or through email marketing.

By cross-promoting your content, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience and grow your business even faster.

I spend 80% of my time blogging on my WordPress blog. Then, I make videos that support the content I wrote in the blog post and promote those videos on Youtube and Instagram.

Occasionally, I write a blog on Medium to drive more visitors to my blog. And sometimes, I make pins for Pinterest to help people find my blog posts.

But the vast majority of my time and effort goes into creating content for my blog because that’s where I get the most return on investment.

8) Create a Balance Between Evergreen and Trending Content

When you’re creating content, you’ll ideally create a balance between evergreen and trending content.

Evergreen content is the type of content that will always be relevant, such as how-to guides and tutorials.

And trending content is the type of content that’s popular right now but might not be relevant in the future, such as news articles and blog posts about current events.

It’s important to create a balance because you don’t want all of your content to become outdated quickly.

At the same time, you don’t want all of your content to be about topics that aren’t popular right now because people might not be interested in reading it.

Creating a balance between evergreen and trending content will help you attract a larger audience and keep them engaged over time.

9) Try Different Types of Content

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for content, I recommend that you try different types of content. For example:

Create a case study that features one of the items you promote. I promote Jasper AI, the writing software. I could create a case study that might be titled “I built a 100-page Website using only AI and this is what happened”

Do a review of one of the items you promote. I could do a review of the Jasper AI software and give my thoughts on it.

Create a list post, such as “The 10 Best Products to Promote as an Amazon Affiliate” or “The 5 Worst Products to Promote as an Amazon Affiliate.”

Compare two products side by side. I could do a post that compares Jasper AI to Frase.io and talks about the pros and cons of each.

Interview someone in your niche. I could interview the creator of Jasper AI or someone who’s had success promoting it.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to content, so don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things.

10) Follow the Breadcrumbs

Spending some time studying your traffic, conversion, and monetary analytics can give you some great ideas on what’s working, and what to double down on.

Look at what content is already performing well and try to come up with similar new ideas.

For example, on my real estate website, my blog about tiny homes is my third highest traffic earner, according to Google Analytics. In addition, it has the highest ad earnings at $18.77 per 1000 views.

This tells me that I should create more content on the topic of tiny homes. I could potentially build a topic cluster using Surfer SEO and cover all aspects of tiny homes, from the cost of building one to where you can park them.

By following the breadcrumbs, you can easily come up with new ideas for content that are likely to perform well.

11) Use a Content Strategy Tool

If you’re having trouble coming up with ideas for content, I recommend using a content strategy tool like Surfer SEO for written blogs or VidIQ for video blogs. I keep a spreadsheet of all the content ideas I get from these tools, as well as any other ideas that come to me. This helps me make sure I’m always creating new, relevant content.

I constantly run competitive analysis reports using SEMrush to discover topics that my competitors are writing about, but I’m not. This helps me come up with even more ideas for content.

For example, one of my blogs teaches other bloggers how to monetize their websites with affiliate marketing. This past weekend, I discovered a new competitor in the space that is generating a considerable amount of traffic from Google.

I was able to reverse engineer their entire SEO strategy and found that they’re ranking for several key phrases that I’m not. I hadn’t completed the topic cluster for my website yet, so I was able to quickly add the missing pieces and start ranking for those terms.

This gave me some great ideas for content that I can create to start ranking for those same phrases. SEMrush allows me to add competitors to my dashboard where I can watch traffic and ranking metrics at a glance.

12) Collaborate with Other Bloggers

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for content, I recommend collaborating with other bloggers in your niche. This can be done in a couple of ways:

Guest blogging – You can write a guest blog for another blogger’s website. This is a great way to get your name and your work out there, as well as generate traffic back to your own website.

Cross-promotion – You can promote each other’s content on your respective websites and social media channels. This is a great way to get your content in front of new eyes and grow your audience.

Product Reviews – You can review each other’s products on your respective websites. This is a great way to generate traffic and sales for both parties involved.

There are endless possibilities when it comes to collaboration, so get creative and see what you can come up with.

13) Automate Your Affiliate Links

If you’re promoting affiliate products on your website, I recommend using a tool like Thirsty Affiliates to automate your affiliate links. This will help you make sure that you’re always getting credit for any sales that are generated from your content.

It’s a simple tool that allows you to cloak your affiliate links and track your clicks. It notifies you when a link is broken and has no-follow settings, affiliate disclosures, and more.

You can add an affiliate link, and then choose a keyword, or set of keywords that Thirsty Affiliates will auto-link each time you publish an article with those words.

For example, every time I type Jasper, which is the AI writing tool I promote, my hyperlink is automatically linked. And I can remove those on a page level in WordPress if I want to.

But the best thing about Thirsty Affiliates is that I can change the URL within the tool, and it will update every instance throughout my website. Affiliate programs are constantly moving to other networks.

When that happens, I simply update the URL in Thirsty Affiliates, and all of my links are updated throughout my website automatically. No loss of sales. It’s a game changer.

14) Disclose your Affiliations

It would be a shame to build a great blog or video channel, build an audience, generate traffic and sales, and then lose it all because you didn’t follow the FTC guidelines.

The Federal Trade Commission is the government agency responsible for regulating advertising and marketing. They have guidelines in place that require you to disclose your affiliations when promoting products or services on your website.

For example, if you’re promoting an affiliate product on your website, you need to let your readers know that you will be receiving a commission for any sales that are generated from your content.

You can do this by adding a simple disclosure at the beginning of your blog or mention it next to a link. It must be obvious, and can’t be buried in a footer. I used my WordPress theme to add it to the header of every page, and at the beginning of my blog.

When I make a Youtube video, I add it to the description, and also mention that I benefit from sales in the video itself. If you are using WordPress, type affiliate disclosure into the plugin search bar and you’ll have plenty of options.

15) Promote Your Content

After you’ve published your content, it’s time to start promoting it. If you don’t promote your content, nobody will see it, and you won’t generate any traffic or sales.

There are many ways that you can promote your content:

Social media – You can share your content on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can also use social media ads to promote your content to a larger audience.

I use a tool called MissingLettr. It takes my blog posts and creates social media posts for me. I can then go in and edit them, or schedule them to be posted at a later date. This is a great way to get your content in front of new eyes and grow your audience.

Email marketing – You can promote your content to your email list. This is a great way to generate traffic back to your website, and increase sales. I mentioned that I use Mailerlite to send out my email newsletter.

You can also use Mailerlite to create automated email sequences. For example, you can set up an email sequence that goes out to new subscribers, and promotes your best content to them.

For example, when someone signs up for a free trial of Jasper AI, which gives them 10,000 credits to try the AI writing software, I add them to a group in Mailerlite called “Jasper Affiliate Trials”. Then, Mailerlite sends them the drip campaign that I built containing Jasper tutorials created.

I also have an RSS feed campaign that sends my subscribers my published blogs and videos for that week.

Paid advertising – You can use paid advertising to promote your content. Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are two of the most popular platforms. While I prefer organic traffic (the earned in kind), there’s a place for paid ads.

For example, let’s say I launch a video course on how to start an AI writing business, and I ran a Facebook ad campaign promoting it. The ad would look something like this:

“Start your own AI writing business. Watch this free video course to learn how.”

The ad would then link to the landing page for my video course.

Content promotion is an important part of affiliate marketing, and there are many different ways that you can go about it. Find the method that works best for you, and stick with it.

16) Join an Affiliate Network

An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers with publishers. Advertisers are looking for people to promote their products or services, and publishers are looking for things to promote.

Some of the most popular affiliate networks are:

Shareasale – Shareasale is one of the largest affiliate networks, with over 4,000 merchants. They have a wide variety of products and services, ranging from fashion to software.

Clickbank – Clickbank is an online marketplace that allows digital marketers to promote products and services in exchange for a commission. For bloggers, this presents an opportunity to make money by writing reviews or producing other content that drives traffic to a Clickbank product page.

Amazon Associates – Amazon Associates is the affiliate program for Amazon.com. They have a wide variety of products that you can promote, and they’re a very trusted brand.

Impact Radius – IImpact Radius is a partner marketing platform that provides companies with the tools and insights necessary to drive more conversions and grow revenue.

AWIN – Awin is the perfect place for bloggers who are looking to monetize their sites through affiliate marketing. As a global network, Awin has relationships with some of the world’s largest brands, which means that there are always new opportunities for bloggers to partner with brands that align with their interests.

And because Awin is performance-based, you only get paid when your readers click on an affiliate link and make a purchase—so you know that your partnership is delivering results. 

To join a network, you’ll need to create an account and apply to be a publisher. Once you’re approved, you can start promoting products and earning commissions.

17) Diversify your Affiliate Programs

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Diversify your affiliate programs to maximize your earnings potential.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when diversifying your affiliate programs:

Don’t just promote products from one company – This is the most common mistake that new affiliates make. They sign up for an affiliate program and start promoting the products from that company. While there’s nothing wrong with promoting products from one company, you should also promote products from other companies. This will give you a more well-rounded affiliate income.

Don’t just use one affiliate network – Many affiliates make the mistake of only using one affiliate network. While there’s nothing wrong with this, you should also consider using multiple affiliate networks. This will give you access to a wider variety of products and services to promote.

Don’t just use one type of marketing – There are many different types of affiliate marketing, such as email marketing, social media marketing, and content marketing. If you only use one type of marketing, you’re missing out on a lot of potential earnings. Try to use a variety of different marketing techniques to reach the widest audience possible.

18) Keep Track of your Affiliate Sales

It’s important to keep track of your affiliate sales so that you can focus on your top-performing offers, or pivot quickly if an offer isn’t working.

You could use a platform like Affilimate to keep track of your affiliate sales. Affilimate is a web-based tool that allows you to see which offers are performing well, and which ones need improvement.

It also gives you insights into your audience’s buying behavior, so that you can further tailor your affiliate marketing efforts.

Most affiliate networks provide reporting dashboards that include sales data. However, these dashboards can be difficult to navigate, and they don’t always provide the most actionable data.

That’s where Affilimate comes in. Affilimate takes the data from your affiliate networks and presents it in an easy-to-understand format. This way, you can quickly see which offers are performing well, and which ones need improvement.

If you’re serious about affiliate marketing, then you need to be using Affilimate. It’s the best way to keep track of your affiliate sales and make sure that you’re always focused on your most profitable offers.

I also track income from each offer in Quickbooks. I add each affiliate program that I promote as a customer in Quickbooks. Then, when I get my monthly report from a network like ShareASale for example, I split the transaction crediting each “customer” (affiliate offer) for the sale.

This allows me to see in Quickbooks which offers are making me money, and which ones aren’t.

This is important because it allows me to focus on my most profitable offers, and quickly ditch the ones that aren’t working.

19) Find Affiliate Models that Work for You

There are many different affiliate marketing models, and not all of them will work for everyone. It’s important to find the model that works best for you and your business.

Here are a few of the most common affiliate marketing models:

Pay-per-sale – With this model, you earn a commission on every sale that you generate. This is the most common model for affiliate marketing, and it’s also the most lucrative.

Pay-per-lead – With this model, you earn a commission on every lead that you generate. This is a less common model, but it can still be effective if you’re promoting the right offers.

Pay-per-click – With this model, you earn a commission on every click that you generate. This is the least common model for affiliate marketing, but it can still be effective if you’re promoting the right offers.

Find the model that works best for you and your business. If you’re not sure which model to use, then start with the pay-per-sale model. It’s the most common and most lucrative model, so it’s a good place to start.

20) Promote Offers that Pay Recurring Commissions

Recurring commissions are commissions that you earn regularly, typically every month. This is different from one-time commissions, which are paid out only once.

Recurring commissions are a great way to generate passive income from affiliate marketing. Once you’ve referred a customer, you’ll continue to earn commissions from that customer as long as they stay with the company.

This is a great way to generate passive income because you can continue to earn commissions from the same customer for months or even years.

Promote offers that pay recurring commissions, and you’ll be able to generate passive income from your affiliate marketing efforts.

For example, I earn more than $8,000 per month on a single affiliate offer. This offer pays me a recurring commission, so I continue to earn this income every month.

I would have never been able to generate this much income with a one-time commission offer. That’s why it’s important to promote offers that pay recurring commissions.

21) Promote High-Ticket Offers

High-ticket offers are offers that cost a lot of money. They typically pay high commissions, but they also require customers to spend a lot of money.

For example, a $5,000 course might pay a 50% commission, which would be $2,500 per sale. But the customer would need to spend $5,000 on the course.

Promoting high-ticket offers is a great way to generate a lot of income from affiliate marketing. The commissions are high, and the customers are spending a lot of money.

However, find offers that align with your brand. You don’t want to promote an offer just because it pays a high commission.

Make sure that the offer is relevant to your audience and that it’s something that they would be interested in buying.

22) Promote Exclusive Offers

Exclusive offers are offers that are only available to affiliates. They typically pay higher commissions than non-exclusive offers, but they’re also much harder to get approved for.

If you can get approved for exclusive offers, then they’re definitely worth promoting. The commissions are higher, and the competition is lower.

To get approved for exclusive offers, you need to have a good relationship with the merchant. You also need to have a good reputation as an affiliate.

If you can get approved for exclusive offers, then promote them on your blog and social media channels.

23) Follow Successful Affiliate Marketers

If you’re looking to get into affiliate marketing, or if you’re already an affiliate marketer but looking to take your game to the next level, then you need to follow people who are already successful at it. But who should you follow? Here are six successful affiliate marketers that you should be following.

1. Pat Flynn 

Pat Flynn is the man behind the very popular blog Smart Passive Income. He’s been involved in affiliate marketing since 2008 and he knows his stuff. If you’re looking for actionable tips and strategies on how to make money through affiliate marketing, then Pat Flynn is someone you should be following. 

2. Adam Enfroy

In 2019, Adam Enfroy began his career as a blogger. A blogging millionaire,

Adam creates content that compares software, services, and tools in various industries. He covers topics like affiliate marketing, eCommerce, email marketing, and more. If you’re looking for someone who knows how to make money blogging, then Adam Enfroy is the guy to follow.

What caught my attention with Adam, is how fast he rose the ranks on Google. He writes SEO-optimized content that ranks quickly. As a former affiliate manager, Adam used his experience, and relationships to build backlinks to his blog posts, helping him gain domain authority, in just 2 short years.

While he earns 5-6 figures in a month on affiliate income, he also monetizes his efforts with display ads, sponsorships, and course sales.

3. Matt Diggity

SEO. For many bloggers, the three letters are synonymous with headaches, techy terms, and “the nebulous thing I’m supposed to be doing to get more traffic but have no clue how.” But for Matt Diggity, those three letters represent a whole lot more. They represent a path to financial freedom, early retirement, and a successful business.

Matt Diggity’s focus on affiliate marketing, client ranking, lead generation, and SEO services has made him one of the most sought-after experts in the field. His proven track record speaks for itself. In addition to his numerous companies and ventures, he also created the successful Chiang Mai SEO Conference, which has been attended by some of the biggest names in the industry. 

I enjoy watching Matt Diggity on Youtube. His videos are well thought-out and planned, and include just the right amount of humor. He’s engaging and knows how to keep your attention.

4. Lori Ballen

Lori Ballen is a Las Vegas real estate agent turned full-time affiliate marketer, and blogger. She’s been involved in affiliate marketing since 2013 and loves to share her experience with others. While Lori didn’t intend to become an affiliate marketer, she stumbled into the income stream by teaching her tribe how to build a website, blog, and create content.

In addition to affiliate marketing, she also earns revenue from digital products, coaching, and events. 

She’s down-to-earth, relatable, and has built a strong tribe.

5. John Crestani

John Crestani is the founder of the Internet Jetset and Super Affiliate System. He’s been involved in affiliate marketing since 2012 and his experience shows. His courses are some of the most popular in the industry, with over 100,000 students enrolled. 

While I’m not a fan of his “salesy” style, what I like most about John Crestani is his focus on building an email list. He knows that the money is in the list and he provides actionable tips on how to grow a responsive list quickly.

24) Don’t Quit 5 Minutes Before the Miracle Happens

This is one of the most important affiliate marketing tips that I can give you.

Most people give up right before they see any results. They quit 5 minutes before the miracle happens.

Don’t be one of those people.

If you’re not seeing any results from your affiliate marketing efforts, then keep going. Keep working hard and don’t give up.

The only way to fail at affiliate marketing is to quit. As long as you keep working, you will eventually see results.

24) Have Patience

This ties into the previous tip.

You need to have patience when you’re doing affiliate marketing. It takes time to build an audience, generate traffic, and make sales.

You’re not going to see results overnight. It takes time, effort, and consistency to succeed at affiliate marketing.

So be patient and don’t give up. The more patience you have, the more likely you are to succeed.

25) Take Action

I probably should have made this point #1 because it’s the most important tip on this entire list. My little brother once told me that the secret to my success is that I take massive action.

And he’s right.

The only way to succeed at affiliate marketing is to take action. You need to put in the work and take consistent action every day.

There are no shortcuts. You can’t just read a few blog posts and then start making money. It doesn’t work like that.

You need to take action and implement what you’ve learned. Only then will you start seeing results.

Affiliate Marketing Tips

In closing, affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online. But it’s not easy. You need to be willing to put in the work. Find models of success, study their methods, and then take massive action. Be selective about the programs you promote, and diversify your traffic sources. By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.