Hey, it's Sam Oh and in this lesson, I'm going to show you how to write money-making blog
posts for an affiliate site.
And when I say "money-making," I'm referring to the three types of commercial posts we
covered in module 3.
And these are general comparisons like "best golf balls", product reviews
like "Titleist Pro V1 Golf Ball Review," and branded comparisons like "Titleist Pro V1
vs. Taylormade TP5 Golf Balls."
Now, when you're writing these kinds of posts for your affiliate site, you should
have one primary goal in mind for your content.
And that's to serve the intent of a visitor, meaning you want visitors to be happy
with the information they find on your page.
Now, the reason this is important is because when content satisfies the intent of visitors,
you increase your chances of ranking higher in Google because Google wants to show
the most relevant pages for any given query.
And because these queries have commercial intent, when visitors are satisfied with the content,
they're more likely to buy something from your affiliate merchant, leading to an affiliate commission.
Fortunately, creating content for these three types of keywords is quite similar.
So I'm going to give you some flexible templates you can use to give yourself
the best chance at ranking high and earning more commissions.
So, let's talk about the first type of commercial post which is for
general comparison keywords.
Again, these posts are going to be what you use when you're targeting keywords
like "best [product name]."
So, "best garden hose," "best booster seat," "best golf balls," etc.
Now, because the word "best" implies that a comparison needs to be made, the format
you'll use for these general comparisons will most likely be a listicle, which is just
an article in list-format.
And these general comparison posts will typically have four main parts:
The introduction, the summary, the list points, and the conclusion.
So let's start with the intro.
Plain and simple, a listicle is not meant to be read from start to finish.
Nearly all readers will go in with the mentality to skim.
So with our intro, we want to keep it short and sweet, while building credibility so they'll
actually trust what you have to say about these products.
For example, if we're writing a post on the best car seats for 3-year olds, in the intro,
I might say something as simple as:
"We tested 10 car seats and rated them by comfort, price, and safety.
In this post, we'll share our research to help you find the best convertible
car seat for your 3-year-old."
It's short and sweet, instantly builds credibility, and also tells the reader
that they're in the right place.
Alright, next up is the summary.
As I mentioned before, listicles won't be read in full.
And that's because some, if not most people just want the answer to what
the best product is.
That's why I suggest having a section like "Best [product] at a Glance."
Here, you can simply add bullet points for different categories like "best overall car seat,"
"best car seat money can buy," "best car seat for travel," and "best budget car seat" to name a few.
Not only can this help improve clicks on your affiliate links, but it provides
good user experience for those no-nonsense skimmers.
Alright, now we're on to the list points, which is going to be the meat of your post.
Now, a list point is made up of a heading and description.
The heading will usually be the name of the product you're recommending.
For example, my post on "best car seats for 3-year-olds" might have headings like "Diono
Radian 3RXT," "Britax Marathon," "Britax one4life," and so on.
As for the description, you're just describing the heading in more detail.
You want to give only necessary information to help the buyer make
an informed purchasing decision.
Now, when it comes to writing descriptions, it's best to keep the format consistent
throughout the post.
For example, if we're reviewing car seats for 3-year olds, then we might have one sentence
to describe the car seat, a few sentences about how that specific car seat scored
on our test categories like build quality, safety, and performance – a supporting
image of our analysis, and then perhaps an overall score with a concluding statement.
Predictable formats help people absorb information more efficiently and that's
what we want for our readers.
Now, last but certainly not least, we want to include links to the affiliate products and
your product review page in the description.
We'll get into writing product review pages in a bit because first we need to write a conclusion.
Here, you'll want to wrap up the post.
You can do this by summarizing your top picks and recommending other posts on
your site that might be interesting to that reader.
For example, it might make sense to link to a post on the best car seat accessories
at the end of our best car seats post.
Now, these general comparison pages tie in directly with product reviews because if you
remember from module 3, a part of our overall strategy is to build "product clusters."
And product clusters are simply content structures that connect a general comparison
post with multiple product review posts.
Now, when you're writing product reviews, the intent of most visitors will likely be
different than the intent of those visiting a general comparison post.
People who visit a "best of" post most likely don't know which products they're interested in.
Whereas someone who visits a product review page titled something like "Diono Radian 3RXT
review" has likely narrowed down their search to a few products that interest them most.
They're likely closer to making a purchase, and want to dive deep before they spend money.
So your goal for product reviews should be to outline the positives and negatives
to help visitors decide if that specific product is right for their needs.
So with that said, here's how I think a product review should be written.
First will be the introduction.
And much like the "best of" post, you'll want to keep it short, sweet and on point.
And the two things that I think are important for product reviews is to
a) show the reader they're in the right place, and b) to internally link back to the general
comparison post to complete the product cluster structure.
For example, if I was writing a post titled "Diono Radian 3RXT Review" I might say:
"With its slim size and high safety ratings, the Diono Radian 3RXT has become one
of the most popular car seats for kids.
In fact, we classified it as one of our best car seats for 3-year-olds.
But it's not all glitz and glam.
The Radian 3RXT is one of the heaviest car seats and scored surprisingly low on
some of our hands-on tests.
In this review, we'll share the results of our research to help you decide if this car seat
is the right one for your toddler."
Alright, now we're on to the body of the content.
What you decide to cover here will vary based on your niche.
Basically, you want to cover the most important categories that shoppers in
your niche care about.
For example, with car seats, that might be safety, size, comfort, ease of installation,
portability and specs.
For golf balls, that might be distance, spin control, materials, feel, and price.
These are the things you should cover in your product reviews where each category
will be your heading.
And these categories are essentially what will create your product review template.
Now, with the conclusion, you'll just want to wrap things up and perhaps suggest
who the product is best for.
For example, for our Diono Radian 3RXT post, I might say:
"The Diono Radian 3RXT is a solid choice for children ages 2 - 6.
In fact, it scored extremely high in all of our tests.
On top of that, it's the only car seat we tested where we could easily fit 3 of them
in the back of a small sedan.
If budget is not an issue for you, then you won't be disappointed with the Diono Radian 3RXT."
And we're done.
Alright, the final commercial blog post type I want to talk about are "branded comparisons."
And these are your typical "vs posts".
For example, Diono Radian 3RXT vs. Britax Marathon.
Now, when we think about someone who's coming to a page like this, we know that
the visitor has likely narrowed their product research down to two or more products.
But, they can't really decide on which one is right for them so they want to do
a side-by-side comparison.
Basically, they're coming to your page to weigh out the differences.
So just like with the product review posts, we want to address that in the introduction
and again, help them make an informed purchasing decision throughout the body.
So here's what the intro might look like:
"The Diono Radian 3RXT and Britax Marathon are the heavy-weight champions of convertible
car seats.
They both have all the bells and whistles, yet, they're completely different in just
about every way.
In this post, we'll compare the main features of both models to help you decide which car
seat is best for your little one."
Now, as for the body, we want to take a similar approach to product reviews
and cover important topics that someone looking to buy a car seat would want to know.
So again for a car seat shopper, that might be safety, size, comfort, ease of installation,
portability and specs.
But a key difference here is that instead of highlighting these things for one product,
we want to compare the differences between the different models.
Think of comparison tables that I'm sure you've seen on sites like Apple
or your favorite ecommerce store.
Now, for the conclusion, it would be much the same.
Just wrap things up.
Now, two important things to note from an SEO perspective in these branded comparison posts,
is to internally link to the individual product reviews as well as the general comparison guide.
And this is going to help you complete your product cluster and create that beautiful
structure we talked about in module 3.
Now, writing money-making or commercial posts is pretty straightforward for an affiliate site.
Creating informational content on the other hand is a bit more nuanced.
So in the next lesson, I'll show you how to write informational blog posts that are likely to rank
and show you how you can turn informational pieces into silent profit generators.
I'll see you there.