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How To Get Affiliate Sales Even If You Don’t Get Much Traffic

Since the launch of our affiliate program, we’ve paid out thousands to bloggers and business owners happy to recommend our services. One of the surprising things we’ve noticed is that it’s not always the people with the high traffic and followers that get the most sales. In fact, many smaller, newer website owners make a lot of our sales, even if their traffic and followers are in the hundreds or less. Here’s how.

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Before we dive into this post, a quick note: If you’re new to affiliate marketing, we have a free beginner’s guide when you sign up to our affiliate program (it’s also free, and there’s no obligation to make sales). We also have a big resource center with tons of done-for-you assets, such as infographics, banners, copy and paste descriptions, and more! And if you’re an experienced affiliate, we have a separate free guide for you too.
 

And now on with the post! The best part? This advice works for plenty of affiliate programs, not just ours!
 

01. Comment in social media groups

Side note: Lyrical Host customer? There’s a list of 200+ awesome relevant Facebook groups you can join in the Resource Library.
 
Now you may be thinking, “But promotion isn’t allowed in most of the groups I’m in,” but that’s fine! What you’re looking for is other people’s posts asking for recommendations, where you can drop a comment with an affiliate link or discount code along with some sentences that answer the original poster’s requirements and/or express why they’d be making a great choice going with your recommendation. Resist the temptation to drop an affiliate link or a blog post link and run: people much prefer in-depth comments that explain how your suggestion meets their requirements and why you’re so passionate about what you’ve recommended. People quickly pick up on which comments are genuine and have had a lot of effort put into them, and which are purely to make a sale.

Web hosting comes up a lot, especially in blogging groups, and it doesn’t hurt to search for keywords and add a recommendation to old posts either. Plenty of people check for old posts before creating a new thread.

Make your comment stand out compared to other people’s by saving some of the done-for-you images in the Affiliate Resource Center, or by making your own! You can save them on your phone along with a quick message so you have easy access even when you’re not at a computer.

If you’re in any communities away from standard social media, such as forums or even real life groups, you may discover opportunities there too!

 

02. Post on social media channels

What separates out the most successful affiliates here is that they post regularly, post a different message every time, and are genuine in their recommendation. Many people post once or twice and then forget to post again. It takes a while for people to be interested, so use different selling points and/or blog posts and images so they don’t get bored. Sometimes people are interested but it’s just not the right time for them. The post they see in May could go forgotten, but the post they see in September when their current contract is up could be perfect timing.

If you don’t have many followers, or your followers aren’t your target audience for affiliate sales, head to Twitter and Instagram and use blogging and/or hosting hashtags to find bloggers actively looking for hosting recommendations. On some social media networks, it may even be worth boosting a post so more of your followers see it, or running a cheap ad that links to your affiliate blog post.

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Tip: Make sure you’re spending time engaging with people on social media and creating relationships. You’ll have better reach, people will be open to your recommendations, and even with a small following you can make a big impact.

 

03. Make the most of search engines

Web hosting terms are notoriously difficult to rank for in search engines, but we’ve got a hack for this too. Create a post targeting something low competition, such as “lyrical host review” or “lyrical host discount,” do a competitor comparison with named competitors, or create a “how to” guide. If you’re a vlogger, YouTube has additional untapped potential.

Creating a few posts based around different phrases and carefully interlinking them can help too (if you need ideas for posts and other content, there are PDFs in the Affiliate Resource Center). Once your post or posts start ranking well, you have a great source of passive income.

 

04. Send an email

If you have a mailing list, send an email out to your subscribers. If it feels too salesy, try framing it as your experience and thoughts, or pick a particular feature and focus on that (e.g. a way to get exclusive free stock photos). We also do limited edition bundles and giveaways from time to time to give you something new to talk about. Don’t have a mailing list? Try adding an affiliate link to your email signature for your regular emails.

 

05. Incorporate affiliate links into your products & services

If you create for a marketplace site (such as Creative Market or udemy), for example courses or WordPress themes, you can add in recommendations/how tos as part of your instructions or read me files. If you sell courses to bloggers, you can integrate your recommendation for hosting as part of them. Or if you provide services, for example you’re a virtual assistant or business coach, you can provide recommended services as part of your onboarding process or on a Resources page.

 

06. Take full advantage of the traffic you do get

It only takes one person to make a sale, so even if you don’t get a lot of traffic to your website, you can still make it happen. When you’re reviewing your site analytics, look at your highest traffic posts and see where you can add in affiliate links or test/improve their prominence or positioning. If the same posts come up regularly, it’s a good reminder to keep tweaking and building on your success.

 

Extra tips

Enthusiasm is more important than technobabble – Don’t worry if you don’t know the ins and outs of the technical side of hosting – that’s our job! What’s more important is that you’re genuinely enthusiastic in your recommendation and it’s completely sincere.
 
Make notes – If someone replies or comments on your post expressing an interest in signing up, consider making a note to follow up with them and ask them if they’re still considering buying and if you can answer any questions they have, or simply direct them somewhere they can learn more (for example our live chat or sales email address). People get busy and just forget to sign up, even though they’ve been intending to!
 
Mention your affiliate code or link before you go – Sometimes people will see your recommendation but then google discount codes separately, so make sure they know about yours first! Sometimes they won’t reply to you but just go ahead and buy, so don’t count on there being a follow-up comment for you to respond to.
 
Switch things up – Different images and angles appeal to different people, and the same text and images on repeat can get stale, so remember to switch up your message when you post. This is also a great way to test the types of images and selling points that work best for the types of people you reach.
 
Keep at it – People don’t always click links or express interest until after they’ve seen a few posts about a brand. Just like any other industry, hosting has peaks and troughs, and as most people are tied into long contracts (blergh!), it might be purely that they’re not ready to switch just yet.
 
Offer something extra – You could offer to help them if you’re comfortable with that, or provide a fun extra like stock photos, a discount off your services, or a workbook or checklist. Just ask them to send you their order number, and we can confirm they purchased hosting so they can claim your freebie.
 
Be visible – There are so many places you can share affiliate links, from social media to emails to different places on your website. If you prefer your affiliate links to be more subtle, try creating a Resources page on your site and How To blog posts that naturally incorporate affiliate links.
 
Don’t just sell to anyone – If you send referrals that are a good fit for the company, those customers are much less likely to cancel a service or return an item before your commission is confirmed, and the company gets to know who you are in a good way! You never want to be pushing someone into buying something they’re not sure about or isn’t right for them. How do you tell if someone is a good fit for a company? A quick rule of thumb is that you can see elements of yourself in them. (For typical traits of Lyrical Host customers, check out the PDFs in the Affiliate Resource Center).
 

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Have questions about our affiliate program or need help getting started? Message us on Facebook or email sales@lyricalhost.com and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
 

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Jenni Brown
Co-founder of Lyrical Host, Jenni has been in the web hosting industry for years and specializes in social media, copywriting, search engine optimization, and email marketing. She loves cats, baking, photography, and gaming.

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