How to Use Content Marketing To Generate Traffic to Your Affiliate Links

Another powerful tool in affiliate marketing is content marketing. Content marketing essentially means creating a website or blog, rising in prominence, and then using that in order to sell your product.

The great thing about content marketing is that it works so well in tandem with numerous other sales techniques. In particular, content marketing is highly compatible with having a landing page, and in fact, often the objective of content marketing will be to send people to your landing page.

Content marketing's broader objective though is to make you into a trusted expert in your niche. In the business, this is referred to as being a 'thought leader' or an 'authority'.

This way, when you then recommend a product, people will be more likely to listen to you and to buy the product you suggest. So how do you go about using content marketing?

How To Get Started With Content Marketing

To start with, you will need a blog and that will be where you will publishyour posts and let people know about your business. At the same time, you can then combine this with a strong social media presence, heavy branding, and maybe even a YouTube channel, such that your audience can get to know you.

Be successful at this is largely about posting regularly and offering real value to your readers. Don't try and sell right away but instead spend your time building up trust and respect in your niche. Every time you publish a blog post, you should ask yourself: Is this something you would read? Is it comprehensive, engaging, and unique enough to stand out from all the other posts in this niche? Does it make you look like you really know your stuff?

Spend time designing your logo and website and then work to ensure you are creating a consistent vision that will help you to establish yourself on the net. This might all sound like a lot of work and you might find the idea of becoming a thought leader to be nerve-wracking.

However, it is very much worth it. The main reason for this is that when you are an authority in your niche, you will not only be able to sell the one product – but really any product

that you subsequently want to. You'll have a direct route to market' letting you directly reach thousands of buyers and they will always be happy and willing to take your advice. This is the strategy that most affiliate marketers will use to become truly wealthy but it does take a little longer.

Note as well that if you're going to use this strategy, you do need to think carefully about the quality of the products you recommend. If you promote a very substandard product too forcefully you will lose the respect of your buyers and ultimately they'll; be less likely to consider your future recommendations.

Promoting Your Blog

Running a highly successful blog is essentially a license to print money but getting there is a long road. This is not a case of 'build it and they will come' – but rather something you need to work hard at if you're going to be successful. Even if you post the best quality content to your blog in the world on a regular basis, if no one knows it's there, then it's not going to provide you with many benefits.

So how do you get the word out?

- Social Media

One option is to use social media and social bookmarking sites. Over time, you can use social media synergy in order to build up a large following, and in the future, you'll be able to use that to instantly reach a huge selection of people.

In the short term though, to get those initial viewers it makes a lot of sense to use social bookmarking sites. These are sites like Reddit and like Digg where people share their favourite sites. The reason this is so effective is that it allows you to communicate to a captive audience, all of whom have a shared interest in your specific subject.

Thus, you can gain a massive amount of shares and reads almost immediately as long as the title of your blog post is enticing enough. Head to the Reddit fitness page (reddit.com/r/fitness) and post an article on 'How to Get Great Abs' and you'll get 'downvoted' to a bad extent. On the other hand though, if you post something that sounds more unique

and more interested 'New Study on the Best Training for Superhuman Strength' and you can potentially get thousands of views overnight.

If you've then incorporated your social media into your page, this can, in turn, help you to build a large amount of Twitter followers, Facebook 'likes', YouTube subscribers, etc.

- Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is another form of the social media marketing that is incredibly effective when used correctly. Essentially, this type of marketing allows you to leapfrog the competition and get much more quickly to a point where you're reaching a much larger audience and influencing them all the more.

How does this work?

Simple: by taking advantage of the groundwork that other marketers have already done. Influencer marketing means finding someone in your niche who already has a lot of influence (an influencer) and then contacting them and requesting that they broadcast a message on your behalf.

You might pay them to do this, you might create content specifically designed for them to share, or you might agree to do each other the same favor and thereby share your existing audiences. This technique can be immensely powerful when used correctly.

- SEO

At the same time, you should also be using SEO to try and further your efforts in promoting yourself online. SEO stands for 'Search Engine Optimization' and it essentially means managing your content, your website, and your marketing in such a way that it will enhance your site's visibility on Google.

In the past, SEO was very simple and all it really entailed was creating lots of content with your 'keywords ' (the search terms) in it and generating as many links to your website as possible (with the keywords as your anchor text). Over time though, Google has evolved and has become much smarter.

A lot of internet marketers were using SEO to manipulate their position on Google and this resulted in Google having to update its algorithms. Now Google is sensitive to anything that looks like obvious SEO and instead the only way to climb the ranks of the search engine reliably is to update your site regularly with high-quality content and to use natural language.

At the same time, you still want to gather inbound links, but they should be a wide range of varied different links from different sources and that are written differently.

As such, content marketing and SEO are largely inseparable these days. Good content marketing and good SEO involve populating your site with lots of very high-quality posts. At the same time, if you do this well, it will encourage people to share your content and link to it of their own free will.

- Guest Posting

One more strategy that still works well for SEO – as long as you don't overdo it – is guest posting. Guest posting essentially means that you are writing a post for a blog other than your own and offering them to publish it free of charge. As a result, they get more content for their site and this helps them to provide their visitors with more value.

But of course you aren't just doing this out of the good of your heart, as in exchange you ask them to include a link back to your website along with some description about who you are (called an author box). This way, they get free content and you get a link from a well-known blog and an authority.

- E-Mail Marketing

E-Mail marketing can be used as a supplement to content marketing, as a separate endeavour or as a bit of both. Of course the whole idea behind e-mail marketing is to create a mailing list of people who have shared their email with you because they want to hear about your products, services and deals.

From there, you can then provide them with newsletters and value directly in their inboxes, or you can sell to them by promoting your best products and services as an affiliate. The links will work the exact same way directly through e-mails (and JVZoo is even optimized for this) and the process either way is a very personal and direct way to influence your audience.

The first step in e-mail marketing then is to build that audience. Interestingly, you can do this in the very same ways you might get sales for an affiliate product (and in that way it might appear to be somewhat a step removed from this more direct form of marketing).

For instance, a landing page can be geared up to generate e-mails and leads and this is when it's normally called a 'squeeze page'. Likewise, you can add sign-up forms, also called 'opt-in forms' right into your blog posts, on your home page or in your right hand column as a widget.

However you go about this, just make sure that your mailing list is prominent and that you're effectively communicating why it is that your audience should listen to you and enter their e-mail address. In other words: how are you offering value. You can also aid this process by incentivizing your audience to sign up. You can do this for instance by giving away a free e-book, or a free discount for your product.

Either way, this means that they get more value simply by providing their e-mail address which many people will view as a good deal!

- Setting Up An Autoresponder

In order to make your mailing list work, you need to be able to manage people subscribing and unsubscribing and you need to be able to verify emails, store them all, back them up and generally do a lot of management. This is where an 'autoresponder' comes in, which is essentially a tool designed specifically for this purpose.

Autoresonders are unfortunately not free and that means you need to pick which one you're going to use carefully. As with affiliate networks, there are three big choices that people tend to pick from when they select autoresponders and these are:

- MailChimp

- AWeber

- GetResponse

There are others but these three are the ones you will hear about most often and that generally have the most support in terms of WordPress plugins etc. Working out which of these options is the most cost effective isn't as simple as comparing a flat rate as the amount you pay will depend on how many subscribers you have.

- E-Mailing

Again, we're going to get into persuasive writing in a bit but just note that when using e-mail marketing to sell an affiliate product it pays to take a more gradual approach. In other words, don't make your first message something that's trying to sell a product. Instead, use a 'sequence' where you start by providing value and generating trust (to get them to open future e-mails), then move on to talking about your 'upcoming amazing deal' and then eventually provide the link.

The more you generate buzz and excitement around your product, the more likely you'll be to get sales.

How to Start a Successful Freelancing Business

This post will walk you through the steps for how to start freelance writing as a successful home business and actually make very good money. We’ll cover how to make money writing articles, how to price your work, the best freelance writing course, freelance writing niches and much more.

You’ve probably heard that freelance writing is a thing but maybe you aren’t sure exactly what that means. You may have questions like:

DO YOU NEED A DEGREE TO BE A FREELANCE WRITER?

HOW DO YOU BECOME A FREELANCE WRITER?

HOW DO YOU FIND PAID ONLINE WRITING JOBS?

WHO PAYS WRITERS?

HOW MUCH DO FREELANCE WRITERS MAKE?

These are all great questions about starting a freelance writing career, and you deserve good answers. Read to the end and I’ll answer everything, so you can decide whether this is the right online job opportunity for you.

Freelance writing is typically a work-from-home job in which you’re self-employed and offer writing services to companies, colleges, blogs, magazines plus hundreds of other online writing job possibilities.

Consider the fact that almost every business, corporation, magazine, newspaper — even hospitals and healthcare services — have a website nowadays. The need for written content is practically endless.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme, so don’t get me wrong. Freelance writing work from home takes dedication and willingness to put in the hours to get started and established with great clients.

The opportunities are out there — thousands of them. But you’ve got to do the hard work first and do the right thing at the same time.

HOW TO START FREELANCE WRITING (8 CRITICAL THINGS YOU’LL NEED)

These next eight steps are critical to your freelance writing success. Don’t skip on any of them, or you may end up very disappointed in how little money you make.

INVEST IN A GOOD FREELANCE WRITING COURSE.

CREATE A WEBSITE TO ADVERTISE FREELANCE SERVICES TO CLIENTS AND SHOWCASE YOUR WORK.

FOCUS YOUR WRITING ON A MAIN TOPIC [OR TWO]. THERE ARE MANY GOOD FREELANCE WRITING NICHES.

BUILD A STRONG CONTENT WRITING PORTFOLIO TO ATTRACT GOOD CLIENTS.

WRITE EVERY DAY [WHENEVER POSSIBLE].

BE PERSISTENT IN PITCHING FOR FREELANCE WRITING JOBS.

DETERMINE AHEAD OF TIME HOW TO GET PAID FOR WRITING [SET YOUR RATES].

WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS OF FREELANCING

STEP ONE: INVEST IN A GOOD FREELANCE WRITING COURSE

This step will pay for itself over and over again I pinky-swear promise.

The ONLY reason I’m able to write for clients and get $300 paid online writing jobs is because of Earn More Writing Course.

HINT: You do not need a writing degree or journalism experience to be a good freelance writer. Most of the successful Freelancers come from dozens of backgrounds including me. I’m a “high school teen” without a bachelor’s degree yet.

As you can see, a freelance writing career can be life changing. However, not everyone will earn the same amount of money but sure you will make money writing.

There are always variations in how hard people are willing to work, how persistent they are at searching for good clients, and the amount of time they have to dedicate to freelance writing projects.

Set yourself up to succeed by investing in the top freelance writing course.

Learn from a professional freelance writer who has successfully doing the writing business. There are thousands of free online courses for Freelancer.

Will a free course give you the same tools a professional freelance writing instructor can? Not at all but you can start from the beginner side and advance.

EARN MORE WRITING INCLUDES:

How to find your writing niche and establish your portfolio and brand.
How to pitch to clients including the perfect cold pitch.

Defending your workday. Establishing your work-from-home routine for the best writing productivity.

How to go from “broke writing to rich writing” — boost your income and maximize your earning potential.

How to get ahead of the competition when it comes to finding work.
Finding and keeping your dream clients.

Establishing payment terms and the confidence to get paid what you’re worth.
Learn how to take your income into the stratosphere — structure your workload to earn six figures!

How to make great money ghostwriting for CEOs PLUS the secrets and tips of being a good ghostwriter.

STEP TWO: CREATE A WEBSITE TO SHOWCASE YOUR FREELANCE WRITING

Whether you create a business website or a blog, you’ll want a professional space to house your writing samples and portfolio.

Either one is fine. You simply need a place to write regularly. Obviously, you’ll want to market your services to clients, showcase examples of your work, and give them a way to contact you. A website does all of that.

You might consider a domain name (the URL of your site) that highlights the fact that you’re a writer.

For example:

• Write Your Way
• The Wandering Writer
• The Write Solution
• Writing for Dough
• The Writer That Could

These may be silly examples but you get the idea. Think of something clever, and then type it into a domain name provider and see if it’s available. You can also name your site after yourself using your own personal name as a brand.

Don’t let the idea of creating a website or blog scare you. I have a simple, 7-step guide for beginners… to show you exactly how to start a website at a very low price.

You don’t need anything fancy or any web design expertise. Just follow my easy instructions and choose a simple theme for beginners that’s no-fuss. I’ll walk you through it.

STEP THREE: FREELANCE WRITING NICHES

When deciding what writing niche to “specialize in”, don’t get too caught up in being an actual “expert”. Focus on topics you really enjoy, stuff you know like the back of your hand, or find a sweet spot in between. You may even change directions once you start writing for clients! That happens a lot.

Just be sure to choose a couple or a few, at most main topics to concentrate on at first. Don’t be that writer who tries to be everything to everyone.

You won’t end up with many clients that way. If you’re too broad, you won’t be seen as someone who’s knowledgeable in any specific area.

Increasing your knowledge and expertise of a topic includes writing regularly, doing thorough research, and simply honing your skills.

WRITING NICHES TO CONSIDER:

• Travel
• Parenting
• Health
• Business and marketing
• Sports/outdoors
• Pets/pet care
• Finance/credit cards
• Technology

This is only a very small list of possibilities. There’s nothing magical about these specific topics. Give some serious thought to what you already know or what you wouldn’t mind writing about frequently.

At the very least, make sure you choose a niche you won’t grow to hate over several years of writing.

STEP FOUR: CREATE A WRITING CONTENT PORTFOLIO

You’ll need a handful of high quality articles (content) before applying for serious writing jobs. I suggest at least 5-10 posts on your blog or website that are specific to your chosen writing niche.

You can research an area within your topic and write a few in-depth articles to start building your portfolio. It’s also a great idea to write a few free guest posts for blogs in your niche to use as writing samples.

Sites like Fiverr and the BloggingPro job board have entry-level writing projects you can use to build a strong freelance writing portfolio. You have to start somewhere and these beginning jobs build confidence.

If you’re really not ready to start a website or blog of your own yet, there are some temporary solutions for housing your portfolio.

STEP FIVE: WRITE SOMETHING EVERY DAY

Even seasoned writers say that it’s good to write something every day. For beginners, it’s the best way to perfect your skills, get faster, and learn more about your topic.

Stick to a daily writing routine whenever possible to build confidence and a set schedule. If you condition your mind to know that “it’s writing time” there will be less struggle when you “have” to write for clients and meet their deadlines.

If sticking to routines is hard for you, you’re definitely NOT alone! I’m here to encourage you that it CAN be done… it’s my most popular post.

STEP SIX: BE PERSISTENT IN YOUR SEARCH FOR FREELANCE WRITING JOBS

Anytime we do something new, success takes time and patience, am I right? As you’re searching for jobs and pitching to potential clients, don’t let rejections get you down. Persistence is key.

Applying for writing projects and finding those perfect clients is a numbers game. If you pitch your ideas and samples to enough people, some of them will love you. And, before you know it, you’ll be a happy freelance writer with plenty of work to keep you busy.

Paid online writing jobs are everywhere; you simply have to connect with who’s hiring. The key to success as a freelancer is not to give up!

STEP SEVEN: HOW TO GET PAID FOR WRITING

I mentioned before that it’s a good idea to do some free and cheap writing to build your content portfolio. When you’re brand new, that’s reasonable. However, don’t settle for getting paid pennies on the dollar once you’ve created several quality writing samples.

It’s very hard at first to not take any and all writing jobs that come along, even if the pay is crap. As a new freelance writer, you’ll doubt your worth and be tempted to work for free or very low pay.

This will not build a good income for the long haul, and you’ll get burned out quickly.

You’ll want to set some beginning rates. Maybe $20-$50 per 500 words (or 1000 words) for starters. It’s pretty common to charge per project length and not per hour. In fact, I don’t take hourly pay.

It’s very hard to keep track of your time when you write an article in the span of a few days to a week! You’ll learn with experience what good clients pay and what your writing is worth. Some niches pay better than others as well.

There will be times to negotiate, as well as times to walk away. I personally did my first few articles for $50 each. After that, I only took jobs that paid $100 or more. My rates are now closer to $150 per 1000 words.

Freelancing rates will vary depending on niche, skill level, technical difficulty, length of project, and other things. The key is to decide on a REASONABLE starting rate for your time, and stick with it. You’ll gain more respect as a serious writer, too.

STEP EIGHT: WEIGH THE PROS AND CONS OF FREELANCING

There are many wonderful things about being a freelance writer!

Is being self-employed for everyone? Most likely not. It’s always good to begin a new adventure with your eyes wide open.

THE DOWNSIDES OF FREELANCING:

You need discipline enough to stick with a schedule and be productive at home. A great planner really helps!
Working from home is solitary. One way to combat that is to work from a public place sometimes, go where people are.
Writer’s block is real. It’s not unfixable, but it’s a pain in the rear. Taking a walk or a long break can make all the difference.
There are deadlines you must meet. So, it’s not unlike a regular job in that sense.
You’ll work really hard, and potentially long hours while you’re first building your business. There’s no way around that part.

THE BENEFITS OF FREELANCE WRITING FROM HOME:

The amazing flexibility you’ll have in your working hours and free time.
More family time and the ability to vacation during the off-season.
You are in charge of your income and how much you earn. Period.
You’re also in charge of your rates and giving yourself raises.
You can work from anywhere, literally. Some freelancers live on sailboats full time, some in RVs touring the country, and others are camped out in outside countries. The world is your oyster.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON HOW TO START FREELANCE WRITING

I hope this post has given you plenty of information about the amazing opportunities you can find in a freelance writing career or side job. The sky really is the limit for what you choose to do with your own writing business.

Becoming a freelance writer has been a dream come true for me. Earning an income from home. That’s simply priceless.

WHAT ABOUT YOU… HOW WOULD PAID ONLINE WRITING JOBS CHANGE YOUR LIFE?

You can click and sign up on Fiverr here and start making money right away.

Reply to me after you read through and what you decide to do NEXT.

5 Ways To Get More Traffic And Make Money From Your Website

Aside from publishing high quality content, the most important thing is to get visitors (traffic) to your website. How do you get visitors to your website?

Here are the best ways to get traffic for your new website right away.

1. Post on Twitter using hashtags
Twitter is an awesome marketing tool for website owners. One of the best ways to get your content noticed is to use hashtags relevant to your audience.

A handy free tool like Hashtagify allows you to search for hashtags you’re considering using and view popular related hashtags. 

From these results, you can find well-known hashtags to add to your tweets – just be careful not to use too many tags. Two to three are best to avoid looking spammy.

If you don’t have time to spend on Twitter, consider using TweetDeck to schedule and plan your social media content for the week ahead.

2. Share links on Facebook groups
There is likely to be at least one active Facebook group related to your topic (use the search field on Facebook). And because they are already focused on a niche, they are a powerful way to build a loyal audience and traffic quickly.

Many groups offer ways to share your content with others, for example, posting links on particular days. If you’re sharing your content, it’s important to be authentic by creating conversation with other members and never just spamming.

Feel free to share your website on my Starting a Website Facebook group.

I also recommend creating your own Facebook group to complement your website. It means you have full control over it, and you'll soon attract new members searching for the topics you cover!

3. Join Pinterest groups
Pinterest is one of the most underrated methods of growing your blog traffic. Engaging with other users is guaranteed to boost your website hits, providing you use the right strategy.

A Pinterest group board is one with several contributors and it normally has a small two-person icon in the bottom right-hand corner. Group boards tend to have more followers than regular boards, meaning more people will re-pin your content and visit your site.

To find groups boards in your niche, take a look at PinGroupie. This free tool reveals how many subscribers and re-pins a board has. If you want to join a group board, you’ll usually need to email the Pinterest account holder to get an invite to pin on that board.

4. Comment on well-known blogs in your niche
While commenting on popular blogs in your niche may seem like an exhausting exercise, it’s still one of the most effective methods for getting traffic to your site.

Instead of spamming other blogs with your website URL, craft thoughtful comments related to the blog content and leave your site link as a by-line – this is a genuine way of attracting new readers to your website.

Set up Google Alerts for related phrases to be emailed to you when blogs post on a topic you can comment on!

5. Facebook Ads
Despite it being a form of paid traffic, Facebook Ads is insanely effective at building you an audience in literally no time. When you create an advert on Facebook, you're able to hone in to reach a very, very specific demographic.

For example, at Save the Student we could target ads towards Facebook users who are at university, live in Manchester, are interested in doughnuts and are single.

Facebook Ad targeting
You can start with as little as $10, but I appreciate most new bloggers aren't in a position to spend right away (unless you're already monetising your site), so this is just something to keep in mind.

Click here to join my Private Facebook Group for new webmasters. Share your website and connect with others!

Generally building social media pages and links to your new website should be your main focus. Not only do they directly send new visitors your way, but they're also the main indicators search engines like Google use to rank websites (SEO). And free Google traffic is the best kind of traffic.

How to make money from your website

Once you have some kind of traffic, your website can then be monetised in dozens of ways.

The most lucrative business opportunities for new websites to make money tend to be:

• Sponsored articles
• Google AdSense
• Product reviews
• Consultancy (or freelance work)
• Email marketing
• Affiliate marketing (the big one!)

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is earning commission from a company for promoting an online product or service to your website visitors. The retailer or merchant provides you with a unique link that will track any sales which originate from you. The link could be placed within a relevant article, an email or on social media.

This is now a huge industry in itself, which is unsurprising when you consider how many e-commerce websites there are today!

But don't get overwhelmed by the scale of the business opportunities yet.

Sign up to Affiliate Window from day one. They are an established and large affiliate network giving you instant access to thousands of online retailers and services who pay you a commission for any leads. It's just a case of copying the link across and including it within your content.

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Get My FREE Email Course!

How to start a successful blog, in 20 ways to monetise your site from day one!
You'll also be invited to join my Private Facebook Group to ask me anything.

For more of an insight into how business websites generally make money, have a look at our guides on making money as a blogger and passive income.

Start today

I started my first site way back in 2002, it wasn't pretty, but honestly it was the best decision I ever made. It ultimately led me to found STS in 2007 and kick-started my career (read about my 10 year journey).

Every week I come across more and more bloggers who have quit their 9-5 job and are making a living from blogging.

Obviously this doesn't happen overnight, but you have to start and take the first step.

That's why I wrote this guide to creating a website, and thankfully today it's MUCH easier to get a site live. You don't need to know a thing about coding or servers - as my own grandma has proven - thanks to Bluehost and WordPress.

If you still haven't created your Bluehost account, click here to take advantage of the limited discount and free domain name.

Don't forget to join my free mailing list for more tips and tricks!

Jumia Affiliate – How To Make Money With Jumia Affiliate Program

Today we are going deep dive into Jumia Affiliate Program. Jumia is a Nigeria Number 1. Onlinestore when it come to shopping online. They offer wide range of services and all kinds of products. You can enjoy great prices and offers. They also provides secure payments and fast delivery.

Affiliate Marketing simply means the promotion of products and services sold by a merchant or service provider in return for a commission. This mean the companies that offer the affiliate program pay you certain amount of money in exchange for recommending their products or service to people. The money they paid you in returns for deriving sales is what is called commission. Also you can read more about affiliate marketing here Comprehensive Guide on Affiliate Marketing. 

In my experience, since my journeying as digital marketer and affiliate marketer I can proudly say Jumia Affiliate Program is the best affiliate marketing program in Nigeria. They offer the best commission. It is the best over-all paying affiliate program in the country. TOP 5 LEGIT AND LUCRATIVE BUSINESS YOU CAN DO ONLINE WITH NO MONEY

My Journey with Jumia Affiliate Program 

However, with Jumia affiliate, one thing have remained constant and that is Jumia’s commitment to its Affiliate program. While like other ecommerce sites in Nigeria Konga, WhoGoHost and Wish etc. are cutting back on Affiliate marketing, but Jumia Affiliate programs is waxing stronger with their commitment to offer their customers up to 11% commission on sale. You can see Jumia commission table here. 

Since I joined Jumia Affiliate Program back in 2016, I have sold hundreds of million Naira worth of products, referring people to the program and earning thousands of Naira in commission for doing so and it is something I do not see myself coming back from in the near future because I make a lot of money doing it. 

How to Join the Jumia Affiliate Program 

If you are wondering or not sure if this is true, well that’s where I was before I finally made up my mind to join in 2016 when I was devastated looking for something to do to add extra income to my monthly salary. I know it’s not getting rich quick something but sure I am going to make some money from it one day. You can see the screenshot of my earning below.

If you are interested and want to join. Go to https://affiliates.jumia.com, fill out the online form to apply. Your application will be reviewed and if you are qualified, you will be welcomed to the Jumia Affiliate Program. Just as simple as that, no hard work. Once you have sign up and received a welcome message. You are all set to go. 

You can now login to the affiliate program site with your login details you entered while signing up to start promoting offers and start make money on the go

How to Promote the Jumia Affiliate Program 

Once you login to the affiliate marketing site, you can build your referral links or use banners. One good thing about the affiliate program is, you can promote your unique links on your website or share it with your friends on social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Once someone or your friends click on your link and buy something from Jumia you automatically make money! 

Some of the things you may like to know about Jumia Affiliate Program 

Links, ads, and other types of visual references that can be shared on websites and even on social media.

You get a Bonus of N500 for the first month plus your commission when someone purchase or order something with your referral links. 

Promotions and special benefits on a regular basis – eg Every Friday and Christmas special is coming up soon and even the popular Black Friday Sales coming up in November. 

You get 100% direct service support from JUMIA affiliate manager when you need help. 

Jumia pay you every monthly via bank transfer! So no stress about payment method. 

You can click here to sign up or register.

7 Smart Ways to Build Backlinks to Your Website for FREE

You have created amazing content, but you’re not getting any organic traffic to your website.

All you need to do to attract visitors is create great content, right?

Wrong.

Even if you’re creating fantastic content, it doesn’t mean search engines automatically notice it. Building backlinks is one of the best strategies to boost traffic and domain authority. As a website owner, you must learn how to get backlinks to your website.

Some businesses pay top dollar to gain a single link on high-quality websites. But not all businesses can afford to buy backlinks. For owners of new businesses, getting backlinks might seem out of reach.

Here’s the good news:

Even for someone running a newer website, getting backlinks is entirely doable.

We’ll give you seven smart techniques on how to get backlinks for your website in this guide.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

What a backlink is

Why you need to get backlinks to your website

How to get backlinks to your website on high-quality websites

Backlinks: What They Are and Why You Need Them

A backlink is a link to your website on another company’s website. The link can be text, an image, or a button.

It goes both ways. A backlink tells search engines how your content relates to other websites and pages on the internet.

Why Do You Need Backlinks To Your Website?

Getting backlinks for your website is one of the factors Google and other search engines use to determine your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking. Backlinks also foster brand recognition by reaching people who might not otherwise be aware of your business.

When you know how to get backlinks to your website, you’ll be empowered to improve your website’s domain authority.

Domain authority is a metric that determines how powerful your website is with search engines. Small businesses and new websites in the early stages of growing traffic have low domain authority.

When high domain authority websites link to your website, it tells the search engine crawlers that your linked-to website is valuable.

To improve visibility on search engine results pages (SERP), you need high-quality backlinks.

Practical Tips for How To Get Backlinks To Your Website

You have already written and published your content. Perhaps the question in your mind right now is,“How do I get backlinks to my website?” This can be the hardest part of SEO, especially for small startups.

Relax.

Many website owners don’t know how to score a backlink from high domain websites. But, a variety of tactics and link building strategies can help your website earn high-quality backlinks and improve ranking.

Here are seven of the most practical tips to get you started as you consider how to get backlinks to your website.

1. Convert Unlinked Brand Mentions to Links

You might find people mentioning your business across the web without linking to you. That’s a missed opportunity to get quality backlinks to your website.

Unlinked brand mentions are one of the easiest backlink building opportunities for your link building campaign. These people already like your brand and understand what you do — that’s why they mentioned you.

Converting unlinked mentions requires you to track the mentions and reach out to the website owners to get a backlink..

So, how do you find unlinked mentions?

Here is what you need to do:

Use the SEMrush Brand Monitoring Tool. Set it to notify you as mentions of your brand occur.

Use Content Explorer to look for existing unlinked mentions. This is a mini search engine within Ahrefs.

Reach out to authors who have mentioned your business positively and ask them to link to your brand.

Look for unlinked mentions of branded products, services, company representatives, and slogans

2. Help a Reporter Out (HARO)

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is an online platform that helps journalists get feedback from the public to use in their stories. You generate backlinks on authoritative news sites and reporters get relevant content.

Here is how to get backlinks to your website from HARO:

Sign up as a source on HARO’s homepage and select a pricing plan. Journalists are always looking for expert opinions to include in their articles.

Check your email three times a day from Monday to Friday. HARO will send you a list of articles that the reporters need information for.

Look for articles that cover your area of interest. You won’t be able to respond to every single query.

Send in your pitch. Include your answer and your contact information, as well as a link to your website.

You are not guaranteed to get a backlink from every single HARO query you respond to. But you will likely get a backlink for most of the responses reporters use. It is also an opportunity to get free referral traffic.

3. Write Guest Blogs for External Publications

Your first concern should be to bring people to your website. But unique, valuable content makes people stick around. And low-quality, spammy content will hurt your backlinking efforts.

One of the best tips on how to get backlinks to your website is to submit guest posts to well-established websites with high domain authority and lots of traffic. Even Google accepts guest contributors on its Google Analytics blog.

Here are tips to get your guest blogs posted:

Show that you’re qualified as a writer. A testimonial could be an important asset.

Demonstrate your qualifications by sharing links to your previously published content.

Make sure you have unique, high-quality content. Writing spectacularly might be your only bargaining power.

Present your pitches to medium domain authority websites if you’re just starting as a guest writer with no previous work to show.

Keep pitching. Websites will not always respond to your pitches, but don’t get discouraged.

4. Check Out Your Competitors’ Backlinks

As an entrepreneur, you probably know that it’s important to gather as much information as possible about your competitors.

This empowers you as a blogger to decide if the most effective SEO digital marketing techniques that work for them will do the same for you. Spying on your competitors’ link building strategies can give you ideas about how to get backlinks to your website.

Analyze your competitors’ strategies by:

Identifying their resource page links and finding which of the websites you can add to your connections.

Creating a Google alert for when they publish new content. This lets you monitor backlinks to their websites.

Following them on social media.

Subscribing to their newsletters to learn what strategies they implement in their business.

5. The Broken Link Building Method

With the broken link method, you contact a webmaster to report a broken link on their webpage. At the same time, you recommend a link to your website as an alternative to the broken link.

The chances of getting a backlink to your website are high since you’re helping them improve their page’s quality by reporting the broken links.

Here are the steps for the broken link method:

Search for relevant websites in your niche and go to their resource pages.

Type any of the following on Google to find the links and resources:

Main keyword + links

Main Keyword + resources

Keyword inurl:links

Download and install the Check My Links plugin for Google Chrome to find the broken links on those pages.

Download the search results with Ahrefs SEO Toolbar or the Scraper extension.

When you reach out to the webmaster, introduce yourself and be professional. Tell them in a friendly way that they are linking to a resource that no longer exists. Give them the broken links’ exact locations so that they can find them easily.

6. Share Infographics

An infographic is a graphic representation of information or data. Visual data is easy to understand and share — which puts them among the most popular methods to drive traffic to your website.

Here are some tips for creating shareable infographics for your website:

Make well-designed images with well researched statistical data for your audience.

Ensure that your visuals address trending topics.

Research topics that people care about and consider useful.

Take the time to collect good-quality data. You can choose to use secondary data from trusted sources or collect data yourself.

Make your infographic easy to share. Their value lies in their ability to be shared and promoted to others.

7. Legitimize Your Website

Content marketing requires you to prove to your visitors that your website is trustworthy. They want to feel safe interacting with your website.

Here are a few ways to legitimize your website and give the right impression to your visitors:

Prove that you are a real business by including your phone number and address on your contact page. You can also post profile photos of you and your employees.

Cultivate a professional appearance. Avoid cluttering your webpages with unnecessary elements like sponsored ads. Ensure your images and graphics are high-quality, and the layout and typography are clean.

Correct errors. Misspelled words or images that don’t load properly can lower your website’s credibility. Remove broken links as they give the impression of a neglected website.

Add trust badges to show that your business partners are trusted industry experts and your website is secure.

Update content to show your visitors you’re an active business.

When it comes to building backlinks, you can use any of the strategies above. The winning edge in search engine results pages (SERPs) goes to marketers who know how to implement these backlink building techniques.

Now that you know how to get backlinks to your website, ensure you are not violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Avoid paying for links or participating in illegal link schemes.

5 Quick Ways to Improve Page Loading Speed - Bloggerinstinct

Have you created a beautiful website for your brand or business, but visitors are leaving your site quickly? This might be due to your page speed. After all, a fast website provides a much better user experience than a slow one. Google even stated that the speed of your website will affect your site’s rankings in the search results. That’s why it’s important to keep tabs on your page speed. And try to find ways to improve it. Read on to learn more!

What is page speed?

The simple answer: it’s how quickly all the content on a specific page is displayed. Page speed is measured separately on desktop and mobile devices, because they both have a different technology. Now, you might be thinking: “But my website loads really quickly on my computer!” And you’d be right. Unfortunately, this is only the case for you, because the browser stored your website’s files in the cache when you visited it the first time. In other words: if you’ve visited a website before, it will load faster the next time you visit, because your computer saves information about that site. But you want your website to load quickly for first time visitors too!

The nitty gritty of page speed

Now, let’s look at the complicated answer. Because there isn’t just one way to measure your page speed. When you look at page speed, you can look at multiple things. For example, how long it takes:

– for a page to be fully loaded

– to start the loading process

– before a visitor can read the content on a page

As you can see, there are multiple ways to measure page speed. And there isn’t one right way. Determine what works best for you, and focus on improving that first. You can always revisit the others later.

What affects page speed?

Everything on the page. Images, videos, text. Even the web server you are hosting your website on will affect the speed of your pages. In fact, we’d argue it’s one of the most important reasons for slowing down your website.

Most hosting companies, such as Bluehost, offer a range of hosting plans, starting with inexpensive shared hosting and moving up through virtual, dedicated, and cloud servers. The prices increase as you move up, but so do the number of resources dedicated to your website. If you’re just starting out with your website and business, it’s okay to use shared hosting. Just make sure you regularly track your traffic volume and resource usage. If your site gets slower, we recommend you upgrade to a better hosting plan.

Why is page speed so important?

People don’t like to wait. Think about it: how often do you quickly look something up on your phone? The keyword being quickly. Most visitors expect a page to load within two seconds. If it takes longer than three seconds, studies have shown you will lose around 53% of your mobile users. That’s more than half of your audience! Now you know why it’s so important that your page speed is fast.

How to check your page speed

It’s good to check how your efforts have been doing. Luckily, there are loads of tools available online to help you check your page speed. For example, Google PageSpeed Insights is a free and insightful tool. Pingdom and GTmetrix are other popular tools with excellent free versions.

These tools will run a series of tests on your website to identify performance issues. They even give feedback on how to correct these issues!

How to improve your page speed

Reduce the size of your images

This is a really useful and quick fix. Images look beautiful on your website, but they can also take a long time to load. That’s why we recommend you size them down, using image editing applications or online apps like Squoosh. WordPress users can also opt for using plugins like Smush. Smush is a free WordPress plugin that compresses your image sizes without affecting their quality.

Don’t overdo it with plugins

Plugins are a great way to streamline and optimize your website. After all, they can do a lot of the hard work for you. But they can also slow down your website. Consider which plugins are vital for your business, and which you could do without. Then remove the plugins that are just taking up precious space.

However, it’s not just the amount of plugins that could slow down a page. The quality of the plugins also plays a part. A poorly coded plugin can generate a lot of queries on the database and load several scripts, which will put a massive strain on your website’s speed. That’s why it’s important to spend time looking through the plugins you have installed and only keep the best ones.

Enable caching on your website

If caching is enabled on your website, visitors can store parts of your page in their browser cache. But what is cache? It’s a technical term for storing data in a temporary storage area. If you don’t have this enabled, visitors will have to download web files every time they want to view a page on your website. This can take a lot of time. However, if page caching is enabled, these files will be temporarily stored and can be easily fetched. Meaning, they are displayed much faster.

We recommend you use the caching plugins provided by Bluehost. You can find these in the cache settings in the performance page of the Bluehost plugin or WordPress section of the control page.

Use a CDN

A really effective way to speed up your loading time is by using a CDN, otherwise known as a content delivery network. How does it work? A CDN is a global network of servers that allows you to store your site’s static elements and files, like CSS, Javascript, images, documents, and videos. When a visitor lands on your website, these files are then delivered to them from a server closer to their physical location. This is useful, because the further away users are from a server’s physical location, the longer their loading times are. A content delivery network will solve this issue.

For example, if your website is hosted on a U.S. server, visitors from other parts of the world will have to have to wait a (relatively) long time for your content to reach their browsers. A CDN reduces this time dramatically, since the static content is provided from a local server much closer to them instead of one from across the world.

Tip: Bluehost offers the TrueSpeed CDN inside the control panel, making it quick and easy to improve your page speed.

Compress your code

Large parts of your website are built with CSS and JavaScript. Both use text files that can get pretty large. And sometimes, these files can be outdated. For example, when they still contain code from a feature you don’t use on your website anymore. The larger the files, the more data needs to be transferred when people visit a page on your website. If you compress or minify these files, you will reduce the loading time.

If you’re not a developer, this might sound confusing or complicated. But trust us, it’s not. There are multiple plugins that can help you compress your code! WordPress plugins such as WP Super Minify and Better WordPress Minify will automatically do the job for you. If you want to do it manually, consider tools like Closure Compiler.

Keep your website up to date

Research has shown that people don’t buy from or engage much with slower sites. That’s why you need to make sure that your site speed is as fast as can be. Test how fast your website is now, then look at ways you can improve it. And keep improving it! Make sure your website is always up to date and, if necessary, delete whatever isn’t working for you.

And if you’re looking for a reliable web hosting provider for your website, then feel free to contact our Bluehost customer service today. We will help you choose the right web hosting plans for your website.

7 Ways to Make Money Online Blogging on WordPress in 2023

WordPress is the world’s most popular site builder and content management system. Designed for publishing but used for sites ranging from small blogs to large corporations, this free and open source software allows anyone to establish an online presence – and make money. Depending on your goals and interests, you can create one, or many, different income streams with a little time and minimal expense with your WordPress skills and the tools of your self-hosted Word Press site.

How Can You Make Money With WordPress?

WordPress was created to help all kinds of users create a basic website, and from that core code it’s possible to design sites for many different purposes with the many theme options, plugins, and extensions that are available from WordPress itself and third-party developers around the world.

WordPress itself is free to download and install with the web hosting provider of your choice, so it’s possible to create a WordPress site or blog that can make money for the price of a domain name and a web hosting package, using only free WordPress themes and plugins. Depending on the nature of your site and your goals, you can also choose from a variety of premium themes and plugins, as well as other tools and services for setting up and monetizing specific kinds of WordPress sites, such as membership or eCommerce websites.

Your self-hosted WordPress site is your “home base” online, and you’re free to use it to develop a number of different avenues for earning money; but just as you would need to investigate local laws and regulations before setting up a physical business or service, it’s important to consider the legalities of online commerce, too.

For example, if you’re planning to sell products or conduct business that involves collecting personal information from users, it’s important to be sure that your site follows national and international regulations regarding collecting and using that information. You might also need to investigate issues like taxes, shipping charges or local laws pertaining to your physical place of business. If you’re freelancing, you might need to look into the legalities of writing contracts and negotiating with clients.

Your WordPress site can be used to earn income from the things you create like from a blog, the services you provide, or the space you offer to others. Your site can become a business in itself, or it can become another tool to support a business you already own. While it may be hard work at first, monetizing your website is a great way to earn an extra income or it can even turn into a full-time job. For example, a local small business might find that a website provides another tool for maintaining an existing customer base.

Whatever your goals might be, your WordPress site can open doors to a global marketplace of possibilities for making money with WordPress with these 7 tips.

1.) Sell Your WordPress Skills

Whether you’re a seasoned WordPress user with development skills or a relative newcomer to the platform, you can leverage your WordPress skills to earn money. Opportunities include:

Building WordPress themes and plugins

Designing WordPress sites

Teaching others how to set up a WordPress site

Setting up blogs or other kinds of sites for new users

Creating tutorials or “how to” articles and videos on WordPress

2.) Sell Products on Your WordPress Site

Your WordPress site can become an online storefront for selling just about any kind of physical or digital goods. Products ranging from e-books and digital images to T-shirts, apparel, and electronics can be marketed from your site using free eCommerce plugins, such as WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. Integrate with third-party print-on-demand and shipping services to fulfill orders for physical products, or connect your site with online marketplaces and shopping sites. Once you’ve built a strong WordPress website, you’ll be able to start selling and earn money in no time at all.

3.) Create a Freelance Business

The Internet is made for freelancing and creative entrepreneurship, and your WordPress site can help. Photographers, designers, freelance writers, and other creatives can set up portfolio sites, build professional profiles and offer a variety of goods and services with the tools of WordPress themes and plugins. Your WordPress site can showcase your services and rates and establish you as an authority in your niche. Free and premium plugins can provide tools for creating landing pages, email and newsletter campaigns, and building forums and social networks on your site.

4.) Become an Affiliate Marketer

You don’t have to offer your own goods and services to make money with WordPress. Affiliate marketing is a way of earning money by promoting other people’s products on your site. Whenever someone clicks on a link you provide in a post or page, or buys a product you recommend, you receive a commission from the sponsoring company. Affiliate networks provide extensive lists of companies with affiliate programs you can join, but to be approved, you’ll most likely have to provide a link to your site. Make sure it’s ready for visitors before you sign up.

5.) Offer Memberships and Subscriptions

Although many sites are accessible to everyone, “members only” sites are growing fast. A membership site makes the content available only to paid members, or through a variety of subscription plans. If you can provide valuable content not found anywhere else, such as exclusive news stories or a niche-specific magazine, putting it behind a paywall or creating a members-only section with a variety of WordPress plugins can be a way to generate income.

6.) Host Content from Others

Another way to make money with WordPress is to make space available for others to post content. Host advertising from affiliate sponsors (or through services like Google AdSense), or create a directory or classified advertising site that charges users to post listings. Create a forum or niche-specific social network using WordPress plugins like BuddyPress, and charge membership fees to join and comment.

7.) Offer Courses

If you have skills to share, consider creating online courses or tutorials and posting them to your WordPress site. Courses can be sold as downloadable products or offered through subscriptions and memberships to your site. Some WordPress themes are designed with e-learning in mind, and premium plugins like LearnDash and WPCourseware have all the tools you need to turn your WordPress site into a classroom.

Whether you make money blogging, offer online courses, or start your own eCommerce website, there are many ways to make a living through WordPress. One reason WordPress is so popular is that it allows users to create virtually any kind of site; and with thousands of themes and plugins to help you get started, you can make money with your WordPress website in just about any way you can imagine.

How to Disable Comments on a Single Post or Page in WordPress

Comments can be wonderful. They’re a way for readers to interact with you. You can get new insights from thoughtful comments, and stimulate discussions that could build a dedicated community. But that’s not always the case. Spam and hateful comments can be an unfortunate occurrence. And when this happens regularly, you might want to consider disabling the comments on your post or page. Want to know how? Then read on!

Should you disable comments?

There is no right or wrong answer. However, consider the consequences of a barrage of spam comments. They take up a lot of space, and you need to delete them all by hand. This can be annoying and time-consuming. After all, you want to work on your business or your brand.

Another thing to consider are offensive or harmful comments. Even if your site made its commenting rules very clear, these can still creep in. With horrible results! Your readers can be alienated and hurt by these comments, preventing them from returning to your site. And the worst case scenario: your website’s reputation could be damaged. That’s why it might be good to disable comments for a particular piece of content. Especially if it could be seen as controversial.

Time-consuming

It’s always good practice to manage your comments. Depending on your website’s comment settings, comments must be moderated, approved, or marked as spam and deleted. As we said before, this takes time. Especially if you’re also using other channels to connect with your customers and readers. If you don’t have time for consistent monitoring, it might be a good idea to disable comments on your blog posts or website.

Note: it’s good to offer website visitors a way to contact you. For example, by providing an easy-to-use contact form or setting up a link to another platform where they can contact you, such as social media

A helpful guide to disabling WordPress comments

Good news! WordPress offers ways to disable comments on single posts, pages and even your entire website. You can either use the tools included in your site’s default settings, or use a variety of free and premium WordPress plugins. We’ll discuss both options below.

Disable comments on a specific post

Let’s say you’re writing a blog post and you want to disable comments on that specific post. Click on the cog icon in the upper right corner.

Scroll down to ‘Discussion’. Here, you can uncheck the box in front of ‘Comments’.

If you want to enable comments on a post again, simply return to the ‘Discussion’ section in the settings menu and check the ‘Comments’ box. From then on, readers can comment on that specific post.

Disable all comments using the dashboard settings

If you want to disable all comments, you need to head to your Admin dashboard. On the left, you’ll see the menu. Hover over ‘Settings’, until you see a little menu.

Next, click on ‘Discussion’. You’ll see a page with lots of different options regarding comments on your website. It’s good to read through them all and see which appeal to you. For now, we’ll focus on ‘Default post settings’.

Here, you’ll see a box called ‘Allow people to submit comments on new posts’. Simply uncheck this, and you’re good to go! People won’t be able to comment on new posts that you upload.

Disable comments with WordPress plugins

Now you know how to disable comments for a specific blog post and for every new blog post you publish. However, sometimes it’s more effective to completely eliminate the comment function for your website. Luckily, there are multiple free and premium WordPress plugins that remove the commenting feature on your entire site.

Plugins such as Disable Comments and No Page Comments both have their own settings and options available for disabling the comment feature. You can choose whether you want to disable comments on an entire WordPress website or a particular page. Both plugins can be downloaded from the WordPress plugin directory or purchased from third party plugin developers.

Keep in mind that when you use Disable Comments or a similar WordPress plugin, it’s important you delete any existing comments before you activate the plugin. Otherwise, the old comments will still be visible, which might confuse your audience.

Decide what works best for your business

As we’ve discussed before, there is no right or wrong way when it comes to managing comments on your website. Comments can boost your brand’s authority and create a way for readers to interact with your site. On the flip side, they can become a nuisance if managing your comments becomes too time-consuming. Especially if you receive a lot of spam messages! Luckily, you can control whether comments appear on your blog posts or WordPress website by using default WordPress tools and free plugins.

Do you want more information on how to build a WordPress website? Or do you want to learn about our different web hosting plans available? Then check out our blog, or call one of our Bluehost representatives. We’d be more than happy to talk to you.