How I Made My First Affiliate Sale? (2022 Update)

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Are you brand new to affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to create passive income from my blog and it works really well no matter your niche.

It’s also great for beginners because you are selling someone else’s product that already has an audience and a sales page set up for conversions.

You don’t have to create a product and you definitely don’t have to have a large audience to make money with affiliate marketing.

Of course, it’s not as easy as it often sounds and does take some strategy.

If you’re ready to start making money with your blog, I highly recommend affiliate marketing even if you are a beginner.

Today, I’m going to dive into how to actually make your first affiliate sale with your blog no matter your niche as well as how to promote your blog to drive quality traffic.

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1. Understanding Your Audience And Their Problem

Affiliate marketing is about solving a problem your audience has with a certain product or service that can make their life easier or simply give them the answer.

To make any kind of money blogging, you need to understand your audience.

Think about why someone would come to your blog.

It may not be as obvious at first but your audience is coming to you for something. So take a look at what your blog is and dig into what pain point your blog is focused on.

Are they looking for the best gifts for dog lovers for the upcoming holidays?

Or maybe they’re coming to your blog for advice on the best cribs and blankets to buy for a newborn.

Getting a clear understanding of why someone is coming to your blog and what they are looking to find once they get there can help you pick the correct affiliate products and programs once you want to start promoting.

2. Choose What Kind of Blog Post to Write

Not all blog posts are great for affiliate marketing and that’s fine.

Some posts you write will be geared towards getting people to your blog, especially as a beginner and others will be geared towards making money through affiliate sales.

I go into detail on the best blog posts for affiliate marketing in this post but here is an overview of them:

How to’s/Tutorials- These types of posts are simply showing your audience how to do something meaning, they came to that post with a problem and they’re looking for a solution.

You are either showing your audience how to use the affiliate product or how to solve a problem using the affiliate product.

One of my highest converting β€œhow to” posts is this one.

Why?

Because it starts off with a problem, (learning how to blog) and gives people a solution with the right products to use as well as valuable information and step-by-step instructions.

Reviews- Review posts are great for promoting online courses or a particular product because you are showing your audience the results you got from that product.

These work really well if you share your story, give a little background on the product and mention how it worked for you.

Gift Guides- With the holiday’s quickly approaching, gift guides are fantastic for affiliate marketing because all of the guesswork is done for your audience.

You compile a list of products that are perfect for someone specific and write about them.

This is great for your audience because they get all the information compiled into one post instead of having to search the internet for presents to buy.

List Posts/Round-Ups- List type posts are similar to gift guides but can be used for pretty much anything.

A roundup of the best free courses for new bloggers.

Or a list of the best jeans to wear for fall under $50.

Your affiliate links can easily be added to these lists posts with each product. Just make sure to write a small blurb under each product and not just a straight up list.

Read this post for a breakdown of how to write affiliate posts that actually convert.

PRO TIP: Only promote products you have personally used or done extensive research on. The point is to provide the best possible products to your audience and if you lose their trust, affiliate marketing will not work for you.

3. Get Eye Balls on Your Affiliate Post

Marketing is key when it comes to driving high-quality traffic to your blog and if you want to make your first affiliate sale that’s what you’re going to need.

I am all about Pinterest for marketing my blog posts because it drives 80% of my daily blog traffic. But, like everything else on the internet Pinterest marketing isn’t as easy as pinning all of your blog posts like a madman.

YOU NEED A STRATEGY.

And the point isn’t to get the whole world on your posts, you only need the RIGHT people. The other thing about Pinterest is that you can even use Pinterest to make your affiliate sales whether you have a blog or not. I personally use this as another strategy to make money with affiliate marketing and it works every time.

You can grab the exact strategy to make money with Pinterest from this course by Elise of House of Brazen.

CREATE MULTIPLE PINS FOR PINTEREST

There are a few different ways I like to promote my blog posts and of course the first one is Pinterest.

For every single blog post, I create multiple pins to be pinned on Pinterest because you want to try out different wording to see what resonates with your audience so they click through to your blog.

I recommend pinning your different pins for the same posts scattered throughout the week using Tailwind.

This will help to reduce the look of spam, give yourself more chances for repins and click-throughs and make sure more of your audience sees your pins.

ADD LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT BLOG POSTS

Go through your other blog posts and add a link to your new blog post that has the affiliate links.

Of course, only do this where appropriate.

This can also help with your bounce rate and keeping people on your blog longer because they are looking at multiple posts per visit.

You can also add affiliate links to older posts where it’s appropriate and remember why your audience is visiting that post.

UTILIZE SOCIAL MEDIA

Don’t forget to use your other social media platforms to promote your blog posts.

I like to share my blog posts to Twitter right after I’ve posted them, then I share to my other social media platforms throughout the week to ensure my post is being seen by my audience.

You can also utilize Facebook groups to help get your blog posts out there if you are a new blogger.

If you want more organic social shares on your blog posts (who doesn’t) check out this post.

SEND IT TO YOUR EMAIL LIST

Whether you write a monthly or weekly newsletter to your email list chances are you can easily slip in your latest blog post.

And it can be as simple as a blurb and then a link to your new blog post or you can create an entire mini-lesson in the email and then send it to your list.

If you haven’t started building an email list check out this post.

Serve Your Audience

The point of affiliate marketing and blogging is to serve your audience.

Give them a reason to trust you and to actually decide to purchase a product you promote.

Do that and you will be able to make your first affiliate sale and continue to make sales.

I heard a quote the other day that’s really helpful, β€œnobody who bought a drill wanted a drill, they wanted a hole. So if you want to sell drills, advertise information about making holes, not making drills”.

Basically just meaning, your audience has a problem such as wanting to make a hole, use your blog post to tell how to make a hole with a drill and make that drill an affiliate link.

You solved your audience’s problem with your affiliate link. That’s how you make consistent sales regardless of the size of your audience.

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72 comments

  1. Hi Ali
    Read your article link on how you made your first wealthy affiliate sale, everything comes to those who persist and believe in self determination, a bit of faith then success must surely follow.

    Well written with lots of relevant and Very Valuable Information indeed.

    Thank you so so muchπŸ˜ŠπŸ‘
    Bill.

  2. As a newcomer to this field Iapped up this information. You obviously know what you are talking about. I will be taking your advice and using your ideas. Thank you Ali.

  3. Hi Ali, thanks for the link to this article, i found very useful tips here. Hopefully i can gain lot more knowledge and guide from you and again thank you so much.

  4. Hey Ali,
    Thanks so much for sharing this info! Your information has been so helpful. I appreciate all your help and support.

  5. Thank you friend Ali
    It’s too enough, that’s the blueprint of how to take the first sale,(All-in-one).

  6. Thank you very much for sharing your invaluable knowledge for those of us who are new in this field

  7. Thank you for showing me this content. It gives me hope that this is possible to do, and to not give up. Honestly, I was starting to feel a little discouraged, but this gives me some hope again. Thank you, it came right on time.

  8. Thanks Ali for the info. I am very new to this so most of the things you mentioned, I did not understand. Hopefully as I progress through the lessons things will become more clear. I will circle back to this article once I know how to apply it.
    Nina

  9. Thank you Ali for sharing this helpful content. I’m not clear on the meaning of ‘affiliate banner’ in one of your earlier points. e.g Place banner within a popular post. Is this the same as the actual affiliate link?

    I’m also not sure where you attached an affiliate link to your menu, it sounds like a good tactic but I’m not clear on it.
    Also one of your last points was huge, write blogs by offering and focusing on the result and not the product itself! Great post my friend.

    1. Hi Michael, banners are some different than the link you inset inside your articles. They are ads that you normally see around websites. You can put your affiliate in banners as well but mostly affiliates put them inside the articles.

      Best,
      Ali

  10. Very Well, That is a great tips my friend. It’s also important issues Contents, Website speed & still we need some more tips for our situation as a starters. bro.

    Thanks very much.
    Theeb

    1. Hello Ali, I just went through your I am not certain of the difference between a Blog & a Post. Is a post from my website. A blog from another platform? I have been informed that I cannot include links to my site in the WA comments section. does that apply to WA posts? If you include content in your blog, should you insert a link or actually enter content into the blog? Thanks, Ali for your continued support and help. Alex Psomas

      1. Hi Alex,

        Blog is where you put your posts. Your blog can be hosted in WA or WordPress. Yes you can’t put link in WA comment section but you can do with when you put it in your own website and it’s better to publish your posts on your own website.

        Hope this helps πŸ™‚

        Best,
        Ali

  11. Hi Ali,
    Thank you for the tips, its very useful. I want to start a new blog on siteground and as you know I am very new to blogging so I need your help to help me start. Talk soon
    Regards
    Celin

  12. Hello Ali,

    Thank you so much for the content you have provided to the audience. I am following the advice which you share here. Really helps a lot.

    Sumit.

  13. Thanks Ali this Post really for me because I am new in affiliate market I’m trying all I can to increase traffic to my website but it’s not been easy thank you very much really I appreciate thanks a lot sir

  14. Hi Ali,
    Thank you so much for your generosity. You’re almost helping me by hand. I am really sick of getting my first sale due to financial struggle I am with right now. Thank you so much for this tips. I will surely follow and implement this on my niche site.

    Be rewarded more in return as you are helping more and more people.

    God bless you and best regards,
    Joey

  15. Hi Ali!
    Thanks for all the tips that you mentioned in this article.
    You said that you give up the first educational website because you have spent about 3 months but there is no return. However, I’m wondering whether you will give up the educational website if you have all the knowledge of affiliate marketing.
    Is education industry a bad niche? In your other article about what niche is good to sell, there is no educational niche.

    Best,
    Ian

    1. Hi Ian, no education is not a bad niche and it’s not in my list, it’s because there are tons of good niches in affiliate marketing that I could not list them all in one article. What you need to do is creating quality content in your niche and post it in your site. There are affiliate programs for all niche and if you stick on it, you’ll definitely get success.

      Best,
      Ali

  16. Hello Ali,

    Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and tips. As usual you are very helpful. May God bless you more.

    Chuna

  17. Thanks a million Ali. This has bee so helpful.
    They say knowledge is wealth. This is indeed true wealth and nobody can pay you sufficiently for this.
    There is a kind of blessing that money cannot buy. I pray that the Lord will provide all your desires. As we succeed. You too will be lifted up higher and higher.
    Thanks again.
    Joyce.

  18. Hi Ali,
    Thanks so much, these stuffs are very useful and informative for me. I think I might need to hire someone who can assist me with professional contents that will enable make my first sales, especially during this time that I’m very busy.
    Once again, thanks for sharing various strategies on how you made your first sale.
    All the best.
    V/r
    Benson

    1. Thank-you Ali,
      I am still in the beginning stages but I will contact you as soon as I need the writer.
      Your help is so very appreciated. Can you email me as to what you charge for wrighting. Even if you give me a range that will allow me to budget it into my costs.
      Shaylene

  19. Hi Ali,
    Thanks a lot for this useful article! As am a new to affiliate marketing am trying to read about others first sale because that what am looking to, My First sale! Here in this article i found some methods that i really didn’t know about but because of you i might get my first sale after start using what you just wrote here!

  20. I love this! Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it with visuals. This was exactly what I was looking to see. Your article gave such good insight and hope <3! Thank you!

  21. Hi Ali,

    Thanks for such a detailed and informative article.

    I must admit that one of my favourite ways of affiliate marketing is the free e-book method.

    Firstly, I’ll typically ask someone to sign up to my email list in order to receive the e-book. However, I will ensure that the information I provide in the e-book, and indeed the email series, is geared towards helping my readers as much as possible.

    I will always tell them that the e-book contains affiliate links purely for reasons of honesty and transparency.

    The free e-book is something my reader can always dip back into whenever they please and this has brought me affiliate sales many weeks, months, and in some cases years, down the line.

    Thanks again for sharing and well done for your bluehost affiliate sales.

    Keep up you the good work.

    Partha

    1. Thank you Partha for your comment. You’re definitely on the right direction of affiliate marketing by taking advantage of power of creating and promoting free e-books.

      Wish you best success,
      Ali

  22. Congratulations on your first sale.

    As a beginner in affiliate marketing, I have not yet become an affiliate of many programs. It makes sense to affiliate with host companies such as Blue Host because we are are in regular contact with them anyway and we can advise on their services etc as we use them.

    Do you have any other affiliate programs in this niche that you would highly recommend?

    1. Hi Lawrence and thanks for your comment. Yes I’m preparing a new article about the best affiliate programs of 2020 so follow the upcoming posts. )

      Best,
      Ali

  23. Hi Ali, great post. I like how you tried creating two different blogs but they were unsuccessful. But you didn’t give up and this third blog worked for you. I think focusing on providing detailed informative articles for solving problems is the best thing you can do for getting sales. Thanks for sharing the strategies that helped you get your first affiliate sale!

  24. Excellent content. So many “make Money blogs” post the same review on marginal online opportunities and then shift directly over to… “here’s what I found to be the best online opportunity…”. Your post is personable, you share your failures and then your modest “win” instead of jumping into the… “I went from zero to hero and now you can too…” hype. You showed that 1st sale, then the second… and as a beginner, that’s what you really want and can identify with. As a beginner you can’t internalize making $1,500 a day… it’s too big, but you can relate to getting that 1st sale, because it validates the belief that you had that you could earn money online… as a beginner you can relate and it’s emotional!
    Love the value in this post …following you on Pinterest

    1. Thank you Bob for the comment and your kind words. I try to put people in the right direction of blogging and affiliate marketing and if someone finds my posts helpful then I would be very happy. )

      Wish you best success,
      Ali

  25. Hi Ali,

    This is an excellent, informative post, that is broken down brilliantly for me to understand.
    I am new to the world of affiliate marketing (only 5 weeks in), so this is a handy tool for me to refer to for future sales. I will be using your article as guidance when looking to make my first sale.
    I will definitely be looking at the other information on your website, and be keeping and eye out for any future posts you make.

    Great work,
    Adam

  26. Hello Ali

    Many thanks for these simple but really great tips which I will definitely be trying. I also love your analogy about no one buying a drill wanting a drill – they want a hole! Solve the problem and the sales will follow naturally. I look forward to checking out more of your content.

    Many thanks,

    Jean

    1. You’re welcome Jean and thanks for your comment and kind words. Comments like yours motivates me to keep publishing helpful articles about blogging.

      Best,
      Ali

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