It can be really hard to make any headway as an affiliate—especially if you’re new. How are you going to get your links in front of people? There are tons of other affiliates trying to do the same thing you’re doing. You can drive free and paid ads, sure. But one of the best ways to get people to take a look at your content, click through your links, and buy what you recommend is to release free reports.
People love content. They need content. They read content to learn things and to find solutions to their problems. They often buy content and infoproducts to find these solutions. Again, it can be hard to stand out in a crowd when you’re trying to sell content—especially if you’re new.
The solution of releasing free reports that contain your affiliate links solves all of the above. You’ll get your links in front of people. You’ll attract people who want and need solutions—and you’ll stand out from the crowd because they can get your great content for free.
We’re not talking about any old content—we’re talking about fantastic content people would otherwise pay for. If you expect to make sales, then it’s really important to focus on quality. You’ll be building relationships and truly helping people through the free content you put out. They need to know they can trust you and the things you recommend. You might not be there sitting next to them as they read the book, but they can almost feel like you are because of the way you write and release your freebie content.
If you’re going to write great content that people want to download and learn from, then it’s really important to understand your audience. What are the people of your niche actively buying? What are their biggest sticking points and problems? Figure this out and you can do very well with this content.
Once you know what people want, you can deliver that to them. You can research and investigate the solutions they need. You can lend your voice and personality to them, through your writing, in a way that no one else can. That’s invaluable—and they’ll love you for it.
How do you get started? You have to choose a niche where people are actively spending money. You have to research the niche, as we’ve talked about.
Then, you have to figure out what you want to write about. Choose a very specific, very narrow topic you can easily write about. Write about the topic in a way that will create content people will otherwise pay for.
You can also work backwards with this. Choose the product you’d like to promote as an affiliate first. Make sure it’s something that’s actually selling really well—and that it would be a good fit to promote within the body of a free report.
By the way—you don’t have to write a huge volume of content for people to download for free. You can write a quick report and insert your affiliate links. A report of 3,000-5,000 words can work just fine. If you focus, you can finish this report in a day or so.
Make sure you outline your free report ahead of time. That will save you a lot of time, stress, and trial and error when you’re trying to write. Keep your content well organized and easy to follow for those who are reading it and learning from you.
Don’t be afraid to be open and use your personality within the content. You don’t want to be boring and dry—you want to be you! That’s how you’re going to win the reader over and make them feel like you’re really on their side as you share your ideas and solutions with them.
It’s important to write in real connections with the product you’re promoting as an affiliate. How does it connect with the solutions you’ve included in the book? Does it take things further? Does it cut the process down and make it easier in some way? Is it an upgrade? How is it related?
Think about this—it should be a natural thing for the reader to want to buy the product you’re promoting. If you can’t answer why your reader would want to buy the product you’re promoting, it’s time to figure that out before you release the content.
Generally, you include a regular affiliate link in the report. Make sure it’s an active link as you save the report as a PDF file. That way, people will click the link and you’ll be credited for the sale if they go on to buy.
How are you going to drive traffic to this free report? You might choose to put it behind a squeeze page. That way, you can drive people to the squeeze page and give the free report away for people who sign up to your list. It’s always a good idea to get names on your email list. Once they’ve signed up and read your report, they might click on your affiliate links and buy. In any case, they’ll be on your list and you can build a relationship with them and promote to them over time.
You can also offer your report to others to give away for free. They’ll have to keep your links intact. They get free content and you get free traffic.
You can also upload your document to document sharing sites. You’ll need to check the rules of where you upload, though, because you won’t always be able to include your affiliate links with all sites.
Imagine what could happen if you have several of these freebie reports out there building your list and making sales for you, hands off. You could build a nice, passive income. You’ll be earning as an affiliate and building up a real asset in the form of a list. You could even choose to do this in several different niches.
Get started writing free reports that contain your affiliate links. It’s an easy, fun way to earn affiliate income. You’ll make people happy with great, free content and you’ll make sales at the same time.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download