Knowing how affiliate marketing works is essential. So is being able to create content that attracts the right audience. But once you know the fundamentals of operating as an affiliate online, you’ll want to employ the use of a few tools that can help you do your job quicker, better and more efficiently.
WordPress themes are one type of tool that can help you increase sales. Each blog comes with free themes installed that you can choose from – but there are themes that have specifically been engineered to help affiliates make conversions.
One example is called the Thesis Theme and it’s very popular among professional bloggers. It costs a bit of money, but it is highly customizable, so once you begin seeing some profits, you may want to advance your theme design to the next level.
Keyword tools are the best way to get an edge on the competition. You can dig down into your niche and compile a huge arsenal of longtail keyword phrases that will attract tons of traffic to your affiliate site.
There are both free and paid keyword tools. The free tools typically let you do a limited amount of research. They’ll return a list of keywords and phrases, tell you the global monthly volume, and give you a word like “low, medium or high” for competition levels.
Then there are the advance keyword tools like Market Samurai, Spyfu or WordTracker. These types of paid keyword tools help you get even more information, including the profit potential of the words and phrases.
Plugins are great for affiliates to put on their blog because they help your blog automate certain tasks. Or, they provide others with the ability to do tasks. You can add a social bookmarking plugin so that your visitors can share your reviews with others on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter or via email.
There are plugins that allow you to easily embed Amazon product listings into your blog post. Some help your site become mobile friendly in an instant. You can research all of the latest plugins for affiliate marketing online.
There is some software on the market that helps affiliates optimize their sites for search engines, or gain backlinks from other good resources. You’ll have to evaluate each one to ensure it’s not engaging in spammy behavior before you use it for your own site.
Using affiliate tools is something you should do gradually. Trying to automate too many elements at once can overwhelm you. You want to have a hands-on understanding about what makes you site grow and convert before you replace yourself with an automated system or tool.