If you’re an affiliate marketer or looking to get into affiliate marketing for the first time, we’ve got some good news. Affiliate marketing isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

The space is only getting bigger. According to Statista, the affiliate marketing space is set to grow to $8.2 billion in 2022

Are you looking to find success with affiliate marketing next year? Well, you’re in the right spot. Let’s get started.

You Have to be Fluid

Affiliate marketers who are trying to run the same tactics that they did ten or even five years ago aren’t going to have the same success as people who are willing to evolve and accept change as it comes.

When Google comes out with a new update, get on top of it. Make changes.

You also need to keep in mind that affiliate marketers wear many hats. You need to be an expert content writer, SEO, and social media specialist. It’s also a good idea to stay on top of the best niches for affiliate marketing, which could require you to own a portfolio of sites.

As your business grows, you can delegate this work to other experts. For now, you should focus on doing everything yourself so you know how to run your business the right way. Below are some of our tips on how you can do just that.

How to Prepare Your Affiliate Marketing Website for 2022

Have you ever wondered why some websites and blogs are more successful than others? There are really only a few major factors that separate the winners from the losers. The key is you have to do all of them well. Not just one or two.

Content is Still What Matters the Most

It doesn’t matter what kind of website you have, you have to play by Google’s rules. With one of their most recent updates, they’re paying more attention to the quality of review posts than ever before.

This means that trying to scam the system or your readers is going to end poorly. If you’re just starting out, focus on finding the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners. Keep in mind, these products should be something you use and believe in. Your reviews need to be honest, in-depth and focused on providing real value to your audience.

You don’t have to be a great writer to be successful with affiliate marketing. Most of us aren’t. There are free tools, such as Grammarly and the Hemmingway App, that can help you be a better writer. 

Put in the right effort and focus on the intent of your audience. What are you trying to do and what do you want them to do?

Even the best writers struggle with this sometimes. But the best marketers usually hit the nail on the head.

Practice Proper On-Page SEO

As soon as you build your website, you probably had some good ideas for content you wanted to write. You cranked it out, edited it, got it posted, and then nothing happened. What gives?

What keywords were you focusing on and how difficult is it to rank for those keywords?

This is a problem many people run into when they first start. The content is good but it will never rank. The keywords are too tough. Here are a couple of tips to deal with this problem.

Tip #1 – Build content using easy-to-rank keywords and then include internal links to blog posts that contain higher quality affiliate links. You can do this in a few different ways.

• Include links within the content
• Use them as a call to action – Check out this post on x
• In the middle of a post, you can add links – Related – link to post – This is the last resort. The first two options are preferable

Tip #2 – Secondary keywords are a thing. There is even AI software that will help you identify secondary keywords when you enter the main keyword. 

All affiliate marketers should be using a premium keyword research tool. That’s how important this topic is. Can’t afford other premium marketing software? That’s fine. We get it. But you need to research keywords and you should be willing to pay for it.

If your main keyword is too hard for you to rank for, you stand a chance at still ranking your content if you choose the right secondary keywords in the right combination. 

How often should you use your main keyword? As weird as this is to say, less is more. You want it in your title, in the first 100 words of your content, and then sprinkled throughout the content and headers. Make it natural. If it reads funny, readers will pick up on it and so will search engines.

Feel free to use images, videos, and gifs as you see fit. Keep in mind that anything that makes your website load slower can hurt your rankings. If you want to use pop-ups or opt-in boxes, stay away from full-page versions and anything that pops instantly.

On the back end, you want to use the right plugins to help your website operate quickly and smoothly.  These include basic SEO plugins, caching plugins, and possibly an image optimizer. There are premium plugins that deliver an all-in-one kind of package. If it’s in your budget, these options are worth a look.

When it comes to SEO, you really don’t have any control. Except for what you can do on your website. You have complete control over what you own. So go out of your way to make it stellar.

Off-Page SEO

On the other side of the coin, we have off-page SEO. As far as changes in the new year, the power and necessity of social media are still in place. There are more than 4 billion social accounts worldwide, and this number is growing.

YouTube has become an SEO powerhouse. Not only can you grow a channel by repurposing your website content, but you can bring in additional revenue through affiliate marketing, AdSense, sponsored content, brand deals, and memberships.

It’s like having a successful hot dog cart and then deciding to put another one across town but you’re able to work both of them by yourself. 

Link building is another huge part of off-page SEO and has a large impact on your Google rankings. More than ever, you need to be careful with link building in 2022.

Google is constantly tightening the reins in this department to slow down black hat link builders and SEO agencies trying to be slick and cheat the system. You don’t want to be that person.

This being said, you want quality links and you want a lot of them. Given the sheer number of websites in highly competitive niches like finance, travel, and real estate, your best chance at being ranked well is through link building.

One method that still works well is guest posting. You go to other websites and ask to write a piece of content in exchange for a link back to your own blog. There are several other ways to build links that work but if you’re just starting out, guest posting is going to be your best bet.

Build Your Email List

Without your own professional marketing team or being an expert yourself, you’re going to be limited with your marketing efforts. You’re never going to compete with large companies. But that doesn’t mean you can’t win the battle against other people in your niche.

Yes. You can practice on-page SEO, write the best content, build links, and still lose to someone who is doing all of that and building (and using) an email list.

Using email lists effectively can be the difference between zero income and making a ton of money with affiliate marketing.

The first thing you need to do is create a pop-up that converts. Design it well with great copy that convinces your audience that the value they receive from these emails is worth their time. 

Then you need to decide how and where you’re going to make this opt-in page visible. Google will punish bloggers and website owners that use full-page pop-ups as soon as a visitor lands on your website.

Go with small pop-ups that don’t show themselves until someone is about to leave your page or at least halfway through your content.

As an affiliate marketer, you need to understand that even the most loyal of readers aren’t going to visit your website every day. Use your email list to tell your audience about new content on your website or YouTube channel, new affiliate offers, your own products or courses, and special discounts and deals from your partners.

Final Thoughts on How Affiliate Marketing Is Set To Change In 2022

As you can see, there are plenty of recent changes to affiliate marketing this year and leading into the next. However, most of what’s working now will work in the future. You just need to focus on doing it better than everyone else.

There is no substitute for hard work. Go out of your way to learn everything you can and be the best at it. If you’re the best writer and link builder in your niche with the coolest products, you’re going to make the most money.

Thanks for sticking around all the way to the end of this post. If you have the time, check out this one on how to fix small business supply chain issues.