I have a full post on everything you really need to know to begin making money within links share. So I’m going to cover how I use it and then also go through some examples of websites and social profiles that are pushing traffic through some of the affiliate programs.
Inside of link share. I’m just going to coop link share. It used to be just to keep it simple going forward, but essentially link share itself was started in 2005 over rather 1996 and was purchased by rattin for 425 million in 2005, so within link share.
This is lingsha right here. You can see that I’m logged into my account. The primary programs that I’m promoting are udemy and Walmart jet doesn’t really do much for me, so you can see right here that last payment that I received was 284 dollars this month.
So far it says November. 8. 2018. I have $ 57. This is not like my biggest and best performing affiliate network, but you know it’s. Like I say in my post and the picture here of a check. You know it’s, nice to get a couple hundred dollars a month and udemy has been doing very well every so often it’s.
Like you see a big spike here. That was because you to me was doing some sort of promotion yesterday and that was $ 35, but usually is six dollars. Eight dollars, ten never eats every day. Usually every day is generating a couple bucks for bait and then, as you could see, that amounts to you know several hundred dollars a month which is always nice to get.
You know a check in the mail, as you could see here, so just to take a kind of an overview of link share some of the they’re, a bunch of prominent affiliate programs inside of it. That includes udemy offering 15 % Commission Izod lifts Lending Tree Assurance AT & amp T Urban Outfitters, Hilton Hotels, booking.
com, that’s, just a small sample of the the different programs that you can find inside of the Affiliate Network and so essentially affiliate networks. They arbitrate the relationship, publishers and advertisers, so it allows publishers like me to create the affiliate links to get paid when they send traffic that converts to the different affiliate programs.
So you know if I am promoting Izod, I could generate links to be a Izod store and get a three percent commission on conversions on Izod Zaid. So whenever someone buys a hundred dollars worth of isodd material theoretically, I’d, be receiving three percent commission.
Unless maybe you know it’s, I’m, promoting something that’s. You know an excluded category. That’s, always stuff. We need to be aware of that. Sometimes these different affiliate programs have restrictions, so you always want to read the fine print before you join up.
This is something you should be aware of with an affiliate marketing. So these are the some of the notable programs, and I thought I would just kind of go high-level things that I like about LinkShare and some things that I don’t like, and then I have a ton of content on this post.
It really should just hop over and look at this after you’ve watched the video, because I have some step-by-step information here. That would be useful if you’re interested in working with things share.
So some of the things I don’t like there’s, no keyword search so, for instance, this advertiser search right here. As of this video recording like if I wanted to promote baseball, let’s enter. This search is really just for advertiser name and it doesn’t, let you see products or I think that it takes a while for the search to actually occur.
So if I were, if I was in the baseball niche – and I was just trying to find some some baseball products to promote, this is really just to find specific advertisers so like by winning. I’ve been good you to me.
There’s, a little drop-down that’s, how it & # 39; s meant to be used, which is really not that great. If this is ShareASale and share a sale, they recently revamped their whole user interface and it’s, just a lot better.
So if you know, if you think you want to search for merchants, this has a comparison with link share. It’s much simpler and if I were to type in baseball here whenever it decides to load potentially, I would get a view of the different affiliate programs that I could join and also some of these products that are available individually within the affiliate Programs, so I’m just waiting for this baseball query to load on link on share of sales and it’s.
All with that, I’ll. Let that load now share ourselves making looked at, but in general that that is one big big issue is that it it’s, not that easy to search through the inventory. Some reason it’s taken forever, but suffice it to say it is much easier to search to this inventory here, because ShareASale does give you the ability to run a generic keyword, searches on it.
Okay, there we go it finally loaded. So here you can see it breaks down, merchants that match the query 533 and then products which is really cool because then it’s like you get a an overview very quickly of individual products that sit within the different affiliate program.
So you could toggle between the two, and this also leads into the other. The other criticism that I have a link share and again this is taking forever to load as you toggle, between the two, but it’s worth it, because ShareASale makes it much easier to understand the different opportunities that are within their network.
So I’m gonna click back into merchants, so you can quickly see what you what you get with and share a cell. So the other thing that I don’t really like about link share is that they don’t include performance data.
So if I wanted to promote baseball – and I typed in this keyword – I quickly see a bunch of performance stats and here’s. The power rank where it’s telling me this is you know a thousand plus power rank which power rank is their proprietary statistic that rank orders all of the different programs? So if I were looking at baseball products, would I choose this or would I go and want to promote MLB shop comm with a 34 power rank offering a 57 or with a earnings per click of almost $ 58 compared to this up here, but within link Share it, just doesn’t have that capability.
It doesn’t report on the actual performance of the different affiliate programs, so the publisher performance, so that’s, the big detriment with it and then also the the old user interface. I really don ‘
T like, as you can see, ShareASale is a bit brighter. It’s more intuitive within reporting there’s, a lot more. It’s, a lot easier to kind of get an overview of how you’re doing just generally a much easier interface to use, but the really the big one is.
The lack of performance data within blings share the things that I do like that it does have a link generator extension. So actually I don’t, have it enabled on this particular browser, but I do have a video inside of my post.
That shows you how I generate links, and so essentially you just click up here. You install as an extension, and so if I was on udemy right now, I could promote any any program. Just by going to the product page clicking the extension and then I’m, given the affiliate URL.
So that is very good. It does make it a lot easier to use then going into here and then finding the program and finding the product within the program it would take forever and plus the search this finding the product you want to promote on a site through Google even is much Simpler than finding it within here, I also like the timely payments it link share has never failed to send payments on time, which obviously I mean that’s.
The whole point that you’re, getting they’re. Getting payments reporting is actually pretty decent within link share. What I like about it when you log in you, you have a very intuitive dashboard like every a couple of days.
I’ll check in to see you know my trend last 30 days how it’s, how it’s. Looking you know, and every you know and as you can see here here’s, a $ 35 day, which I was pretty happy about. So this is really it’s, pretty it’s pretty good, and then, if you actually dive into the reporting over here, they have these pre-built templates that are pretty decent as well.
Essentially, they’re, like generic templates that you could build so choose report. If I click that and then I click view report very quickly, I get to see you know the report is generated so instead of building a new report which actually is not so great in my experience, but you can just use these individual item report or rather The the generic templates that they have and you can see these are the things that I’ve, been you know the Commission’s that I’ve generated the individual items that were purchased in the actual commission amount so That’s kind of a quick overview.
The things I like, the things they don’t like and in terms of making money with, link, share, really affiliate marketing is very simple: it’s, as I say right here. The the general formula is, you need traffic, you need an affiliate offer and that will equal commissions, of course, that will vary by how much traffic you have.
How good is the traffic you know if you’re just buying, you know junk traffic and put in sending it to a bad quality landing page it’s, not gonna do so well, but if you have high quality traffic, if You produce really good content on something and then you’ve optimized, a landing page experience for click-throughs.
You know you, you’re practicing best CRO conversion rate, optimization practices, you’re, likely going to succeed. You know, and there’s, a bunch of niches within link share that you can promote. There are 21, specifically of that you have access to so that leads into my next point, basically like.
How do you find something within link share to promote? So a lot of times like if I was looking for an affiliate program, I would just be googling, okay, say, for instance, I saw affiliate program and then it would just see.
Oh okay, it’s already and link share. All this go to link share. I don’t, so much go into link share to find what I want to promote, for the reason that I guess I’m already using a couple. Affiliate programs and I’m comfortable with I’m, not really looking outside of it.
As of yet too much I mean one of my biggest sites is Amazon affiliate, so it’s like every physical product in the world. Already on there, I have a whole process for creating those links and, in my experience, other programs are not converting as well as you can see.
I you know walmart and jet or within link share. I use them. They don’t convert that well, so I mainly just stick with Amazon, at least for that one specific site and then again it’s, also difficult to say to find specific programs within here.
So if I had a particular post like, for instance, the baseball topic, finding baseball affiliate programs in here is not so great with this. It’s. Much better say I had a baseball post, for instance, I would rap much rather go into ShareASale, where I could see all these statistics upfront and be comfortable, pushing traffic to an offer.
That is, you know, a top 30, or rather a top 50 power ring, so that’s. That’s. The issue that I have with link share. So if you do want to kind of take a look at your inventory, I have a full step-by-step on the site, showing you how to do that.
You see that right here. If it’s, pretty easy just go to programs, you go to categories and you can dive into these individually just to see. Look at what’s in the candy niche within link share, and so you can see.
Okay, there’s, 18 of them top chocolate, candy kitchen, it’s a baking and then, if you want to apply you just click apply, then it gives you, the commission or what you can do is you? Can click see all advertisers? Let that load, and then you see there’s 1848, as of November 8 2018, and this isn’t that useful, obviously, and then it’s.
It’s where the new advertisers, which I don’t think, is correct, as these are not all new advertisers sure all the advertisers, not just new ones. If you wanted to get really specific, you could just do a filtered search.
They could do like auto status. You could like look for it, get sorted by the status of whether you’ve been denied or you’re enrolled. You can sort it by a different link, so you’re able to create banner saw and then the banner stuff it’s like I just find it so outdated.
No one’s, putting banners on their website anymore. That’s, that’s, really old, old-world affiliate marketing. Even this, I don’t find that that useful. If it had like a keyword, search functionality, I would like it, but it is somewhat.
At least it gives you a bit more granularity in terms of finding stuff to promote, but it’s. Not it’s not ideal. So essentially, if you’re trying to make money with LinkShare, you’re going to want to have qualified traffic.
You’re gonna want to select an affiliate offer that you’re, confident converts well, which is, as I keep going referring back to why I prefer something like ShareASale, where I’m, actually able to see what the Performance data indicates about the conversion potential of the specific affiliate program.
So how do you generate traffic? I mean that’s, that’s. Everyone! Everyone is, you know, looking for that that solution, so on the post, I cover a couple of interesting strategies using specifically some of the affiliate programs that are within link share, so I found an example of a site that’s, promoting udemy and Instagram, And so they have this that just drive towards success program, and you can see here they have a post here where to learn new skills for free and then there is, you know, a udemy in there.
Obviously you can’t link to you to me from within Instagram, but you know this is this is solid. You know this is a way that somebody is mentioning you to me and I’m, actually not super familiar with how you know all the current trends of how Instagram is used, but you know you could put a link in your your account page To to you to me an affiliate link, you could use something like that or you can just push them to your website where you’re using udemy as an affiliate.
So I’ll, just open this up, so you can see, see it in the wild and so all this stuff. Here I’m sure you can do some creative stuff about. You know how you, how it’s promoted for this guy drive for success.
Obviously it’s like it’s. Ways to improve your your life, and obviously you to me, makes sense because you to me provides like very cheap online instruction. Tutorials very affordable, definitely high quality.
So this is the way you can do it. I mean look at the content. He’s. Creating it’s, you know it’s, it’s. Pretty good. I mean I’m, not an Instagram person, so I can’t necessarily my critique really yeah.
Take it with a grain of salt, but you know he’s got a lot of followers, so that’s. One way you could do it do something like this. If you want to promote you to me or any any affiliate program, but something like you to me, it’s really.
Obviously your other, because there’s, a you enemy, one that I didn’t see before so. This is kind of a way how to use you to me a 542 likes. He’s, doing all sorts of hashtag stuff free courses. So it’s, not bad.
You know he’s. Probably I found him because he was ranking for you to me as a hashtag, so that’s. One example. Another example: is this YouTube guy right here, booking.com that’s, another affiliate program within link share, and so I have a you.
Can see right here? These are affiliate links that he’s cloaked, or rather they may just be it looked like they’re. Actually, actually, I won’t speculate how these links are created, but I did quick through to them and they they do have an affiliate ID associated with them.
So this video has it’s, another it’s an example of another way that you can promote an affiliate program outside of just doing SEO and writing a product review. Another example is interest, so — lifts it’s within link share and it lifts also is in other affiliate networks as well.
So if you went onto Pinterest, I’d. Add the image here so I typed in lift – and you can see these all these posts. You know if you click through to the website. There are gonna be affiliate links so that’s.
Another another way that you can you know, find find ways to rank for terms associated with the affiliate program and then push traffic to your website or directly to the affiliate landing page from on other other websites and then moving on to SEO.
For instance, assurance that sits within link share. I’m, a big fan of nerd wallet. I think it’s, an amazing website. He has there’s, an assurance review on the site, and you know there’s. The call to action right there to visit, assure and sign up – and I’m – pretty sure that they’re, getting paid on traffic that converts whenever they send it over to esurance and just in terms of SEO like I ran a Keyword, I actually I looked up the I plugged esurance, the age reps and so all the different terms if they rank for so we see they rank for car insurance.
Renter’s, insurance, auto insurance. So if you were, you want to promote assurance. These, the sort of terms that you don’t want to be creating content around and pushing the traffic to esurance, because they obviously provide solutions for all of these things, and obviously some of these are really competitive, keyword difficulties.
So, like 74 like that would be a hard one. I would just try to niche down into things that were like say below 25, like yours, homeowners, insurance calculator, another one is cell phone insurance. That may be something you can create quality content around.
I’m sure, like within every this search volume for every cell phone carrier like AT & amp T Verizon, probably so, if you’re really about Verizon cell phone insurance, I’m sure that’s, an Even a lower keyword difficulty that you could create content for and then link to esurance and then there’s, email marketing.
I also used nerd wallet as an example with here like when you’re on the site and you click join. This whole pop up here that lets you sign up and you’ll, be getting emails from from nerd wallet. I’m sure they probably are like doing some lead scoring to figure out.
You know who you are what you’re interested in, because there’s, a lot of different buckets within nerd wall. You can see in the little corner right here there’s. Investing mortgages, loans, insurance, money travel, so they really.
They’re gonna qualify. You on this site figure out. Are you into travel or are you looking to buy a home and you’re interested in mortgages? So how could they serve? You best and promote affiliate offers as well, that’s.
Really the secret to everything is keeping it really contextual. You know how: how can you best serve the leader and in the process, generate an affiliate commission for yourself? So these are some interesting examples of promotional strategies, a lot of people.
What they do is they do only SEO and they just try to rank for motorcycle insurance and then they get like ten visits a month and they get pissed off and they stop my approach. Really is much more integrative like.
I would want to be creating great website content, because that’s. What I like anyway, but then finding ways to create good content on other platforms that push back to the website and then capturing emails so basically be creating, like you know, a little ecosystem of different traffic funnels that are passively pushing people onto your list.
People pushing people into the affiliate program and that’s, that’s, really sort of a long-term traffic acquisition strategy that yields commissions pretty passively. Obviously, you want to keep pumping out quality content, so in general I you know there’s, a lot of good programs that sit within LinkShare.
I would recommend just signing up and exploring it getting a feel for it. I’d. Also say I was interested in Izod, I would see if Izod is in with it within the share or sale and see if, if it were between the two, if they was in both both networks, I would definitely go with ShareASale, just because I would want the Performance data, but that’s, basically, how I use it.
You know I don’t dive into too much of the other stuff. Here like this is just account information there’s. Some this stuff, I don’t, really find useful. It’s, a it’s kind of old world old world stuff that really isn’t that relevant anymore.
So that’s. That’s. My review definitely head over check out the check out my post. It has a bun of a bunch of extra information side of the year about how I use it and definitely just think creatively when you’re generating or you when you’re, deciding on doing affiliate marketing just think creatively in terms Of traffic acquisition it’s, not just SEO it’s, not just writing.
500 words on motorcycle insurance and expecting to you know, rake in tons of money. It ‘ S is definitely an inflow of landscape to affiliate marketing and traffic generation, but figure out like okay.
What platforms do I want to be on, and how can i generate? How can I create a for the ecosystem of traffic at traffic generation by creating quality content cross-platform, as my as my basic advice when it comes to so in marketing and working with affiliate network? Okay, never do click link in description subscribe now with new content, a regular basis and on site I’ve got a great word, some different pitches, that’s.