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Unlock the potential of your website
No website is perfect—not even one earning high commissions or generating large revenues. There are always improvements that can be made, and your website will always need continual development and optimization. It makes sense to periodically check for opportunities for increased revenue potential and then make improvements that help you earn.

Eyes on the prize

First, define what is especially important for your website by thinking about the specific goals that you originally set out to achieve. Ask yourself: have these changed? With these reassessed goals fresh in your mind, you can focus on what exactly it is that influences these goals—that is, which "screws" you have to turn. For affiliate websites, commission revenue is the bottom line and almost always the most important factor. To achieve it, you’ll need to pay close attention to conversion optimization. Of course, the traffic to your website has a significant impact on the amount of revenue that can be earned. High volumes of traffic and high conversion rates are the ultimate metrics for an affiliate website, so always make changes with these goals in mind.

Find traffic potential

It’s always possible to get more traffic to your website. Look at your site statistics, find the most popular articles with the most page views, and then simply write more content similar to those. Use the same structure, content, and topic area; if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

Quite often you can further optimize existing articles as well. If an article has a lot of visitors but ranks lower down in a Google search than you feel it should, then you should look into techniques for search engine result page (SERP) optimization, which are ways to try to improve both on-page and off-page optimization. Also, look at the top search terms that are displayed in Google Search Console. You can then write more articles around what appears to be attracting the most visitors.

Shout about good content

You may also have very good content that’s had very few visitors. One way to optimize it is to add internal links to the article from other places on your site. You should also re-share such posts or pages on social media, emails, and newsletters so they gain broader reach.

Related topics

One useful way to improve your search engine ranking and drive more traffic is to write about related topics. Look at some of your blog’s previous subjects and then create new articles that explore those themes in more depth or explore themes that are only broadly related. You’ll then be able to take advantage of synergies between existing and new articles (and improve SEO) with internal linking.

New topics

No topic remains truly static and most blog sites will shift the subject area they focus on. Be on the watch for the launch of new products, new technologies, and changes in the market that may be of interest to your readers. New developments are also a good reminder for you to review your old content and see if it is still relevant, needs updating, or needs to be replaced.

Traffic sources

Leverage analytics to see where your visitors are coming from and get insights into who they are. Install easy-to-use tools to see what visitors are reading and tailor content to meet their needs.

Social media

Try to pick the social media channels where your content will be well received. You want to be relevant to the audience so that they become interested in your content. Look for third-party tools that analyze the types of content most often shared on social media to get ideas for topics that should be created or posted more often.

Analyze the competition

Know who your competitors are and analyze them regularly. What traffic potential do they have? When you find competitors with a lot of traffic, look at their content and examine how they market their websites.

Keep your house in order

The sources of income on your own blog or website must be optimized so they reach their maximum potential. Try the following:
  • Conversion-rate optimization: Conversion rate is defined as the percentage of an article’s visitors who perform a specific action. As an Amazon Associate, you’ll mostly be interested in a sale or a click-through. To optimize your conversion rate try other advertising media, change the position of your ads, or change other content within the article. Heat-map analysis is a very revealing tool to use as well. It displays where visitors click within an article to help you place the affiliate advertising content where most users will see it. Try variants; optimization is based on the principles of testing and comparing.
  • Repeat success: Look at your existing well-functioning revenue sources. Because you know what works well with these, you should use these good sources of income more often and write similar content more frequently.
  • Improve the underperformers: Find the problem areas and evaluate whether any optimization is possible. Almost every source of income can be optimized; you just have to try to learn from best practice and have patience.
  • New revenue sources: Whether you are phasing out an obsolete income source or have simply found a new source of income, you should regularly try something new. Remember, though: always perform tests and compare the results with the "old" sources of income.
  • Optimize top products: If a particular article or page on your site attracts many visitors, take advantage by performing a full conversion optimization. Try installing new affiliate links and other sources of advertising revenue together within the article to help increase the click-through rate.

Be sure to include regular optimization in your marketing plan

Success in affiliate marketing is intertwined with the continued optimization of your website. It is about many factors: content, monetization, traffic, and more. Each site has a lot of potential—you just need to test to find what works best for your own particular audience. This is, of course, an ongoing process.
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