Affiliate Links Explained & Why are They Important to Bloggers

The blogging industry is still relatively misunderstood and remains a mystery for most. There are many behind the scenes aspects that you don’t realize until you enter into the industry yourself, and you can often forget that those on the outside are left in the dark.  It’s important to have your audience understand parts of your business because let’s face it blogging is a business.

In this post, I am sharing what are affiliate links (not scary I promise), and 3 main reasons why they are so important to bloggers. Hopefully, this not only sheds more light on the blogging world but also how you can support your favorite bloggers.

Top//J.Crew (see how I styled this top for a holiday party, similar style here)  Jeans//New Look  Shoes//Sam Edelman Handbag//Zara (similar styles here and here)  Earrings//BaubleBar  Watch//Skagen 

WHAT ARE AFFILIATE LINKS?

I know it sounds scary, but I promise you it isn’t. An affiliate link is basically a link to a website that has been encoded with a tracking cookie (see above links). It notes if you make a purchase so the “owner” of that specific code can receive a small commission for referring the sale. It’s a simple way for a store or business to say thanks to online influencers for expanding the reach of their products and bringing more awareness to their brand.

If you want to know more about how affiliate links work from a reader’s perspective (i.e. non-blogger) then this is a helpful post by Bonjour Blogger.

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WHY ARE AFFILIATE LINKS IMPORTANT TO BLOGGERS?

REASON #1: THE OBVIOUS…REVENUE

When a reader purchases an item through a blogger’s affiliate link we do make a small commission on this – small being the operative word. Just to give you an overall idea of what we’re talking about, I’ll use my numbers from a recent sale. A reader made a purchase of $160 through one my affiliate links, and I received $10.80 for directing them to the item.You can see that we aren’t talking about big bucks here.

However, if you think about it, we as bloggers are essentially small business owners so when you purchase through our affiliate links, it helps us to continue to fund our business.

We can put this money towards buying more products to feature in our blog posts so that means more content for our audience, higher-quality cameras, and equipment, hiring photographers, or even some behind the scenes aspects that you won’t realize such as working with web developers so our audience can have the best user experience on our sites.

REASON #2: UNDERSTANDING WHAT OUR AUDIENCE LIKES

If you think about it in terms other than money, purchasing through an affiliate link allows your favorite blogger to know exactly what you’re loving and that you appreciate what they recommend.

When a sale is made through one of your affiliate links we can see the amount, the date, and what link you clicked on in order to make the purchase. It is another way to help us better understand what our audience is loving, and the types of items they are interested in buying. We’ll never know if you loved our recommendations unless you a) tell us by commenting on our blog or social media or b) purchase through one of our affiliate links.

Blogging can be a lonely business as there is little face to face interaction with our readers. To know that our audience is loving our content and the products we recommend really does make the hours of work behind the scenes worth it. I promise you!

REASON #3: CONTENT PLANNING

Along the same lines of reason #2, purchasing through our affiliate links not only allows us to know exactly what you are loving but also helps us to plan for future content. A successful blog requires continuous content, and sometimes this is more difficult than others to come up with (especially when in a creative funk).

If we see through our affiliate link analytics that our audience continually purchases items we recommend from Nordstrom then that can tell us when Nordstrom has their big sales throughout the year, a post on our favorite sale picks or tips on how to best shop the sale would be well received and helpful.

If our audience loves to purchase our skincare recommendations then it can signal us to create more blog posts sharing our favorite skincare products, our routine, or skincare new arrivals that you may not know about. You get the idea! It essentially helps us provide our audience with the content that they truly want to see.

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I hope this post was helpful for non-bloggers to better understand another aspect of the blogging industry and how you can help us to make a successful business. The truth is we cannot do this without a supportive audience. I hope this resonated with all of my fellow bloggers out there and feel free to share with your audience so they can understand one way to better support you!

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