Not enough affiliate income – optimize like a football coach

Many affiliates, especially beginners, have the problem that the income from affiliate marketing is too low. This is not unusual and is usually due to the fact that it is not that easy after all and high income can only be achieved through optimization.

Therefore, in the following, I present two optimization strategies for affiliate websites that I derived from football. A football coach has to work with what he has and make the best of it.

This helps to understand them better and also to derive your own ideas and measures.

Affiliate marketing tips

Being a big football fan and also thinking a lot about strategy and optimization (both football and websites) I saw some parallels between being a football coach and being an affiliate.

If things are not going well with a football team, as a coach you have 2 basic solutions that you can take. Some trainers prefer the first way, others the second way.

1. New strategy for the existing team

The first method used by football coaches is to adapt their own strategy to the existing squad.

For good affiliate income, you need above all 3 requirements on your own website: good traffic, a high click rate, and suitable sources of income.

The first optimization strategy for affiliate websites is the same as used by soccer teams that don’t have that much money. You don’t invest in new traffic (i.e. new players), but concentrate on monetizing existing visitors better (i.e. better use and training of existing players).

• Of course, the sources of income of the affiliate websites must be put to the test:
• Do the existing sources of income even match my visitors?
• Are there any other affiliate programs that fulfil a visitor’s buying interest?
• Where have affiliate banners and affiliate links been installed so far? Are these even noticed and what is the click rate?

Which affiliate banners are used? Are there others that work better?

So you try to get the best out of the existing visitors with this method, just like a coach tries to get the best out of the existing players.

Among other things, special plugins that ensure a higher click rate are helpful. For example, I have had very good experiences with the WordPress plugin AAWP.

The premium version is cheap and has many other useful features.

2. Bring new players into the team

The second method used by football coaches is to adapt the player material to their own strategy. So new players are brought in who fit the existing system and are simply better.

Applied to affiliate websites, this means on the one hand that you analyze your own visitors and then try to get more suitable visitors (or more of them).

“Better fitting” means 2 things in affiliate marketing. These visitors should be interested in the product or offer that you are presenting on your own site. In addition, there should be an interest in buying, since affiliate marketing is primarily about finding buyers. It helps a lot if these people have a problem or need that can be solved or fulfilled with the linked products.

This method is a bit more involved, as attracting new groups of visitors takes longer and requires major adjustments. For example, you have to create new content, build backlinks and more. There are detailed tips on this in my eBook and this online course.

This way also has the advantage that you improve the “quality” of your own visitors and thus generate more sales or leads. Plus the additional visitors, also generate more revenue.

You should also consider whether there are other sources of income that you can test. Here, too, the team is expanded, so to speak, which often results in more income.

Use both for more affiliate marketing income

Of course, it makes sense to combine both strategies and successful football teams do exactly that. By ensuring better matching and more visitors to your own affiliate website on the one hand and optimizing the partner programs, affiliate links and banners on the other, you get the most out of your own affiliate website and ensure more income.