Hello and welcome to Boost Travel Affiliate Revenue Using SEO.
My name is Sharon Gourlay. And I’m partnering with Travelpayouts to bring you this super informative course about how to make more money from travel affiliates using the power of SEO.
This lesson is all about the types of articles that work best for affiliate marketing. And that’s exactly what we’re going to be covering: what types of articles you should write and why they will work best for affiliate marketing.
To start this off, we’re going to talk about the buying cycle. If you’ve never heard of it before, basically the buying cycle is the process people go through before or when they’re going to buy something.
Usually, it starts at the top here with awareness. They’re aware they’ve got a problem, and they want to buy something to fix it. So you go and research the options that will fix your problem. You compare the different alternatives, and then you finally decide to make a purchase on the one you think is best for your situation.
So once you’ve done that, you then move up to this retention stage. And that’s about whether what you bought or booked in a lot of the time in the case of travel was right for your needs. And if it is, you know your retainer, great, you’re done, and you’re done with the buying cycle for that item. Otherwise, if it’s not quite right, you will go back to that awareness stage at the top, and it all starts all over again. So when you’re looking at this buying cycle, where do you think your travel content can fit into this?
I think it can work really great at the research and comparison stage. When people are already aware they’ve got a problem, so they’ve got that reader intent we talked about in the last lesson where they really want to buy something, they’ve already sort of entered this buying cycle they’re ready to spend some money on your blog content and can definitely come in at that research and comparison stage and then push them to that purchase stage, right?
You give them all the information they need to solve their problem, compare the different options, so they can work out the best alternative, and then give them that affiliate link, so they can make that purchase. Okay, it’s super helpful, and it’s like the way to make those big dollars in affiliate marketing.
Some content does come in at that awareness stage, but it’s like you’ve got to then tell people they’ve got a problem and make them aware of it. And while that can work, it’s just not going to be anywhere near as effective as getting those readers that already have the intent that they want to solve that problem by buying or doing something. So really try to fit into that research and comparison stage with your content.
How can you use the buying cycle and read intent for success on your site?
Hopefully, you have a fair idea of this by now. You want to have your content at that research and comparison stage. You want those readers with the intent that they want to solve this problem, and you know your content will help them do that.
And of course, you’ll have those handy affiliate links so that they can make that purchase, so they can complete the buying cycle. Also, you know, just thinking about that affiliate marketing sweet spot we talked about in the last lesson, you know SEO content overlaps, the affiliate link overlaps. You know, the affiliate links are relevant, they help you to solve that problem that they come to your site, wanting to solve. Now that you hopefully understand that, let’s test it out.
Let’s see, if you do, which type of article do you think would work best to make money from affiliate marketing?
I’ve got two articles here. They are both ones I’ve written on different sites. So one you can see is The Best Hotels in Port Dickson. Hey, so it’s got a whole lot of hotel reviews, 10 of them probably guess. It compares the hotels, there are lots of Travelpayouts affiliate links to Agoda in this case so that people can make that purchase.
Now the article is on the right: That Time We Moved to Asia to Become Digital Nomads. It’s about our experiences, how we’re going to go live in Asia and try to be digital nomads, right and build my business at that point in time.
I’m hoping, even just from that brief introduction, you can work out which article would work best for affiliate marketing.
Now, I would really look at the headlines when you’re thinking about this. I think about Best hotel in Port Dickson. So it’s like, why would someone click and read that unless they were interested in booking a hotel in Port Dickson? Whereas That Time We Moved to Asia to Become Digital Nomads, you know, I don’t think someone’s clicking on that thinking: I’m going to book a trip to Asia right now and book all these hotels. They just want to hear that story.
So it’s a really important distinction. And when it comes to affiliate marketing, you know, even if you have got a ton of affiliate links in that article on the right, they’re probably not going to convert, right? The intent of the people coming to that article is not to buy anything, it’s not to book anything. They want to hear my story.
The one on the left is 100% they want to book a hotel. So affiliate links have a lot more success in that article.
Let’s talk about some problems that people, your readers, might have that you could help them solve.
Those problems of course don’t have to be big, you’re not trying to end world hunger, right? You’re just helping them do something in their travel journey. So it could be “I need somewhere to stay in Kuala Lumpur”. So look, here you go, I’ve got the solution on my site exactly where to stay in Kuala Lumpur.
This article discusses the different areas, the pros, and cons of them and then has the best hotels in a different budget. So it really helps people do that research phase and do that comparison.
You can see here an example of a review in the article, and you know it has got
Another problem could be I need a new suitcase. In travel, it doesn’t just have to be hotels or day tours or things like that. It could be physical products as well related to travel. So if you need a new suitcase, how could you help a reader with that?
Well, here’s my answer. It’s an article from my website as well, Australian best suitcase.
You know, it goes through reviews of suitcases, it goes through what to look for in a suitcase, and it also has a really good comparison. So it’s a comparison chart works in many levels that I find really great for getting people clicking and converting into affiliate revenue:
It also obviously hits off that comparison stage of the buying cycle. So around this comparison chart, there is tons of research: what to look for in a suitcase and how heavy it is, how big it is, or those types of issues, you know what to look for. It’s got individual reviews on at least two cases.
And it also has that comparison chart, so it’s very easy for people to compare and move from that stage in the buying cycle to wanting to buy.
As you can also imagine if you think about this article or the last one, and think back to that affiliate marketing sweet spot you know, we’ve got that reader intent, we’re attracting those people who already want to buy our book something. We’re giving them the exact content they need to be able to make that choice and the best affiliate links for them to be able to make that purchase.
This is how you really hit that affiliate marketing sweet spot. You use your understanding of the buying cycle to your advantage, and it really is the secret to making a lot of money from affiliates.
In this lesson, we learned all about the best types of articles that can help you hit that sweet spot to hit those revenue goals.
