MoreNiche Affiliate Tutorials:

Writing articles and blogs well isn’t difficult and taxing, but if done well, can really help increase the quantity and quality of the traffic going to your website.

Use headings properly!

One of the biggest blog and article writing crimes an affiliate can make is to use headings and subheadings improperly. Often a beautifully written article will be ignored because the affiliate has attempted to write a header that is clever, poetic and funny.

What works best to describe an article aimed at kidney stone sufferer?

“The end of the stone age!”

Or

“Fast and effective relief for sufferers of kidney stones”.

The latter is clear, concise and identifies immediately what the article is about.

What a lot of affiliates need to remember is that they aren’t just writing for people, they are also writing FOR search engines. When writing headings and subheading don’t forget to write using keywords so that search engines can find you.

After all a sufferer of kidney stones will be looking for articles with the keywords “kidney” “stones” and “relief” in its title. NOT “stone age.”

Use sub-headings properly!

Subheadings are fantastic in helping you write a structurally sound article. It makes writing an article easier and, more importantly, makes reading the article easier.

According to research by Sun Microsystems, only 16% of people will read a article word-by-word. This means that the other 79% will merely scan your article.

In other words, sub-headings have an incredibly important role: to help people find what they are looking for and to know what paragraphs to read and which to ignore.

Therefore use sub-headings to help people find what they are looking for.

How to use links in articles and blogs

One of the key reasons why most affiliates write online articles and blogs is to create strong and relevant back links to their website. These back links will tell Google and other search engines that you are relevant authority site and help you appear higher in search engine rankings.

However there are ways to do this properly.

1) Include links on strong keywords. E.g. if your writing a article about property, you may want the links to be on such keywords as “property investment” or “property management.” This will tell Google that your website is related to that keyword.

Don’t waste your valuable hyperlinks on such generic terms as “click here” or “find out more”.

2) Use links as a means of navigation. If there is anything relevant to your site, include a link. E.g. if your website can offer “free legal advice”, then include a link on the words “free legal advice” that can take people to the most relevant page to your site.

3) Use one of our banners and make money! Moreniche has a wide variety of advert banners that you can place into your article or blog, from which you can receive a commission.

Remember, your article or blog should be helpful, informative and appear “impartial”, but as long as an advert dosen’t get in the way of this, then there is no harm including one.

4) Sometimes you just need to tell people what do to. Typically used at the end of the article, an article or blog is the ideal opportunity for a affiliate to use a ‘call to action’.

E.g. “Save 50% now on weight loss product by clicking here”, “Find out how good your credit rating is” and “register now for your free trail of Size Genetics.” Combine these with a hyperlink and you are well on your way to moving people through a decision process. 

A little advice on writing style

How you write your article / blog is very important. Most online users are too busy to read ‘intelligently’ and ‘well written’ essays. Which is why your articles / blogs must be highly accessible.

• Remain positive. Reading positive articles and blogs is much more engaging than articles that threaten or attempt to intimidate the reader.
  
  
• Write as your speak. Most article and blog readers are actually listeners! Don’t be afraid to break a few English Literature rules if it means you are able to write as you speak. Writing in this style will help you massively in engaging with your audience.
  
  
• Use more “yous” and less “mes”. Remember you are writing about and for your customer, not about your company. Readers are more interested in how many people like them the product has helped, not how many of the product has sold been sold by the company.
  
  
• Show your personality. Don’t be afraid to show your personality in your articles and blogs. It will help your article appear much more authentic and natural, and will also help readers to build a solid relationship with you that they will cherish.
  
  
• Can a 11 year old understand what you have written? When you keep your articles and blogs clear and concise (to the point that a 11 year old can understand it) then you can be sure in the fact that everyone of your readers will know what you are saying.
  
  This means that you should make an effort to remove jargon, complicated technical information potentially risky long English words that not everyone will understand.
  
  

Increasing your article’s readability

You may have an article that answers the meaning of life, but if it appears as a big unreadable block of letters, then the likelihood is that no one will read it.

However there a handful of small tips as an affiliate that you can employ that will make your articles easier and more enjoyable to read.

• Aim for paragraphs of 3 lines. Tightly edited paragraphs make articles easier to read, particularly when the typical online reader tends to skip over content to find the information that they really want. There are exceptions to this rule, but 3 lines is just about right.
  
  
• Use highlighting selectively. If you look through this article you will see I have highlighted words and sentences which I feel help direct people important content. Words can be highlighted using colour, boldness, underlining etc, but ensure you use it sparingly. If everything is highlighted then ultimately nothing will stand out.
  
  
• Don't be scared to use bullet points. Bullet points can not only break up your writing, and thus make it appear more interesting, but can also display information more clearly and effectively than a block of text.
  
  

How to improve the success of your article

So we’ve covered the basics, but there are still a few more things you may like to know before you attempt to write your own blog or article.

• Use keywords regularly. Remember, your trying to tell the search engines that this article, and any sites it links to, is related to a certain topic. Do this by making your article keyword rich.
  
  E.g. if you were writing for a weight loss article, you would want to include keywords such as “weight loss”, “calorie control” and other related terms.
  
  
• Make the article relevant, interesting and helpful. One of the greatest temptations for a affiliate is to write a article talking about how wonderful your company or product is. Ultimately, potential readers are looking for answers to their questions.
  
  E.g. How can I lose weight quickly? How can I save money on my mortgage? What is the national average penis size? etc.
  
  By answering these questions and the needs of your readers, you are improving the chance that your article will be read by those who will ultimately become your customers
  
  
• Learn to write ‘just enough’ copy. It is important that you do not fill your article with filler. Every article and blog you write must be full of useful and solid information to ensure that it will be read well from beginning to end.
  
  Do not worry about your article having too much copy or too little copy, just make sure it has enough copy to get across your point.  
  
  
• If in doubt "borrow." Obviously writing it is easier to write articles and blogs about something that you know a lot about, however if in doubt then “borrow” content from other sites.
  
  However if you do “borrow” content from other sites, just be aware of the importance of rewriting them. Google and other search engine will penalise your website if the content is a clear duplicate of another site.
  
  
• Don’t exaggerate your content or claims. People are reading your articles and blogs because they wanted trust and impartial information. If you exaggerate too much people will naturally become suspicious and you may potentially talk your way out of a customer.
  
  
• Include email capture systems (if possible). You won’t be able to publish them on every third party blog and article site, but if you can include a email capture field with the promises of a special offer, free report or a monthly newsletter. It is a great opportunity to gather potential customer emails.
  
  
• Include interactive elements. Interactive elements, such as calculators and other similar functions, can help give an extra level of communication and interaction between your article and the reader.
  
  Moreniche will be making more interactive elements available to its affiliates, such as the male size calculator as seen on the Penis health and Sizegenetics websites.
  
  

Andrew Coyne is a product manager for Moreniche, the leading affiliate marketing supplier of niche products for the gambling, weight loss and male enhancement industry.

If you would like to learn more about affiliate marketing and how it can help you make money from your blog, website, forum posts, social website and other online presences, then you can do so by going to the Moreniche homepage.