Popular sales provide a unique opportunity for lifestyle bloggers to boost affiliate income. For many lifestyle bloggers, these sale periods are their highest earning periods of the year — beyond even Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Think about the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, Amazon Prime Day, and Sephora Savings Events. The people who are most interested in lifestyle content know about these sales and plan for them in advance. They budget around these events and start their wishlists early.
And, unlike Black Friday and Cyber Monday, these sales don’t have competition. Your audience is wholly focused on one retailer during the sale period.
In short, your readers are already ready to buy — you just have to help them find the right products for their wants and needs.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. You put a lot of time, care, and effort into creating content — and sale content comes with some extra challenges. You’re creating content at the last minute and juggling out-of-stock items. Not to mention the competition with everyone else sharing sale recommendations!
In this post, we’ll guide you through 5 easy steps to promote popular sales and boost your affiliate income.
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Step #1: Determine which sales to promote
Let’s be honest: It takes a lot of time and effort to create your regular content. And more often than not, that content can be repurposed for years to come.
But sales have an expiration date — which means your sales content does, too.
Plus, you’re often creating content under a time crunch, because you get little to no advance notice of what’s included in the sale and what the pricing is. You can prepare in advance — but you can guarantee you’ll be adding in some details at the last minute.
And after you publish your sales content, it’s not set-it-and-forget-it like your average blog post. Products sell out quickly, and you need to update your content accordingly to maximize your affiliate income.
Sales can offer a huge boost to your affiliate income in return — but only if your audience is actually buying.
Don’t promote a sale just because everyone else is doing it. You can always test it out and see how it goes, with the understanding that you’re putting in the time so that you can experiment and learn.
But ultimately, pay attention to your analytics and ask yourself: Does this retailer convert well enough for you that it’s worth the time and effort to create sale content?
Step #2: Plan out your content
Popular sales typically occur around the same time each year — so put them on your calendar so you can be prepared and maximize your affiliate income.
Remember: You’re probably going to have to add in some details at the last minute, and that’s ok. Prepare what you can in advance so that you can simply pop in those details when you have them.
Here are a few things you can do to prepare:
- Review your analytics. What content performed well for you during the last sale? Plan similar content for the upcoming sale. Also, look for products and product categories that typically convert best for you, and use that as inspiration for new sale content.
- Consider your essentials. While popular sales heavily feature new trends, don’t forget that everyday essentials are usually on sale, too. The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale in particular revolves around fall fashion trends — but it’s also a great time to stock up on items like beauty favorites and lingerie staples. Plus, everyday items never go out of stock or out of style — so you can extend the life of your content beyond the sale.
- Repurpose old content. Have you already written in-depth reviews on products on sale? This is a perfect time to update and repost. Don’t be afraid to get creative — pull from your old content to create something new, and save yourself the time of creating from scratch. For example, turn multiple product reviews into a product listicle post to cover a product category or trend.
Overall, think strategically about the products you promote and the content you create. The better you understand what your readers are looking for, the more likely they are to shop your links — and generate more commissions for you.
Step #3: Make it easy to shop your content
The goal of any content you create is to offer some kind of value for your reader. Value can come in many different forms, whether you’re inspiring them to enjoy trends, or curating products for them to find the perfect fit for their needs.
As a lifestyle blogger, you already know the importance of engaging, valuable content. In this industry, there’s a lot of people posting about the same topics as you — and that is even more true during popular sales.
If you want your content to stand out, you have to make it your own.
Styled content is how you capture the attention of your readers and keep them engaged with your content. Your personal images and thoughts are what will make readers want to buy through your links.
But if you want your content to convert, you have to make it convenient.
If you’re only including text links, you’re leaving money on the table. Give your reader multiple ways to shop your content — not just with text links, but also with buttons and shop the post widgets.
Buttons are more eye-catching than a text link and give readers a clear call-to-action, making them more likely to click. Shop the post widgets display product thumbnails and offer a more intuitive experience that mimics online shopping.
Want to know more about shop the post widgets? Check out our post on how to create shop the post widgets with any affiliate platform, and get started with our Shop the Post plugin.
Step #4: Give readers one easy place to browse
Throughout the sale period, you’ll be posting a lot of content and products. And you aren’t the only one — your readers likely follow someone else promoting the sale, too.
With so much content to consume, most of your readers aren’t going to see everything you post.
That’s why it’s a good idea to create an affiliate shop page dedicated to the sale.
With an affiliate shop page, you can organize all of your product recommendations into easy-to-shop categories. You can also add links to your blog posts on that page, to give readers easy access to your detailed content.
Promote your affiliate shop page throughout the sale, so that readers know they can browse everything through one link.
Check out our Boutiques plugin to create your own affiliate shop page in WordPress.
Step #5: Make your sales content easy to find — Update your blog home page
Sales are fast-paced, and as we’ve already established, they require a lot of time and effort. So make sure your readers can actually find your content!
Here are a few items you should update on your blog during the sale:
- Swap out featured posts. If you share featured posts at the top of your home page, instead of the latest posts, make sure to swap those spots out for sale content while the sale is active. That way your sale posts are the first thing readers see when they visit your blog.
- Use WordPress tags. Tag your sale content so you can link to the tag. When you link to a tag, WordPress will display all posts from that tag. Generally we recommend using a tag in this instance, rather than a category, as categories should be used for broader topics that you post about regularly.
- Update your menus. Make sure the link to your affiliate shop page is clearly labeled and easy to find. If possible, create a dropdown menu and link to your sale content tag, and your blog post on the sale details if you have one.
- Update widget areas. Make sure to highlight your affiliate shop page in your sidebar. You can also get creative and share your top sale content and product recommendations.
When you update these areas, take note of what you removed so you can easily put it back after the sale ends.
If you’re completely changing a menu, create a new one instead of editing an existing one, and assign the new menu to that location. Then you can easily assign the old menu after the sale in one click. For widgets, move any you aren’t using to the Inactive Widgets, which will save them for future use.
And don’t forget to set a reminder to update these areas back to normal when the sale ends!
Overall, when it comes to promoting popular sales, remember that you are providing value and deserve to get paid. Sorting through everything on sale is a huge task for the average consumer, and even with a discount, people still want to make smart purchases. Your readers want to find the best deals and the products that are right for them — and you’re helping them do that.
As long as your audience is interested in the sale, creating sale content can provide a huge value to your readers — and a huge boost to your affiliate income in return
And if you’re looking for more ways to boost your affiliate income, don’t miss our 17 ideas to improve your lifestyle blog to increase affiliate income.
