The key to running a successful affiliate marketing business is down to choosing the right products to promote. While there is some merit in opting for proven bestsellers, a more recommended approach would be to sign-up to affiliate programs related to a subject matter you have experience of. If you specialise in photography affiliate marketing could be an excellent way of boosting income. As a form of cpa advertising the amount of commission you can earn will correlate to the amount of customer interest you can generate in your photographs.
Understanding the operation
Before setting up your photography affiliate website you need be aware of how this form of marketing actually works. When you sign-up to a program a retailer will forward code to paste into your site – hyperlinks that will drive traffic from your landing pages to the point of purchase. But this should be the start of your endeavour, not the end. Rather than expecting customers activitating these click-throughs as the drive for your enterprise, you will need to begin the longer-term activity of creating inspiring web content about your photographs. Affiliate marketing is all about engaging with your potential customers in a much more proactive way that simply presenting a series of links.
Website basics
As the route to your products it goes without saying your web presence is all-important. Your domain name needs contain photography-related keywords. Similarly, each page in your site must be seeded with pertinent words and phrases, both in the metatags contained in the code, and the articles at the front-end. If your photography products are particularly niche, such as 3D images, portraits or whatever, this should be worked into your keywords. You should try to hire a product animation team; this will help you have a good-quality website. As with any business website, it would be preferable to opt for a .com address.
The good news when it comes to attracting the attention of search engines is Google focuses on large sites focused on niche areas. Photography is ideal for this, as you can spread your portfolio over a number of pages.
Content
In building a photography affiliate the most crucial aspect of your enterprise is your content. This isn’t just the photography itself but the way in which you present this to site visitors. It is impertive your articles are engaging enough to develop a reputation in such a congested marketplace. Although you are only the third-party between customer and retailer, in selling your wares you need to think along the lines of promoting a brand. Always think of ways to keep making your photographs and the layout of the surrounding web content dynamic. Approach your site from the customers’ viewpoint. Consider how your pages will seem to visitors. Are they easily navigable? Is the content engaging and topical? Are the sales links arranged organically as opposed to simply slotted into prominent positions?
The latter approach will only give the impression of a desperate sales venture rather than a professional photographer who is enthusiastic about their products and honestly believes their customers would benefit from investing in them.
Social media
Photography is such a popular subject that competition will be intense. But if your work is excellent there is no reason why you can’t create a considerable buzz around it by thoroughly engaging with your social media platform. This needs to be a multiple-channeled operation, and since we are talking about a visual medium there is so much scope to promote yourself via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and many others. As well as harnessing your social media outlets, offer mailing list subscriptions. By building an overall awareness of your business, if you have tie-in the affiliate products your customer base will focus on both aspects.
