Writing Stories For Affiliate Sales On Medium!
Simple But Effective Sales Strategy!
Medium Non-Members Can Read The Full Story HERE!
What you will learn from this article.
Note to the reader.
Affiliate marketing with Medium.
It must never be about sales.
Long-form content and illustration.
Basic rules when using affiliate links.
Note to the reader.
Although Medium allows you to share your affiliate links, there are a few requirements to adhere to. This article is about a content marketing strategy, and we will not be diving deep into the legalities of things. Kindly pay attention to the Medium Rules and read them carefully.
Affiliate marketing with Medium.
Medium allows you to share your affiliate offers, but there are rules which were mentioned in the “Note to the reader”. Affiliate marketing with Medium is an excellent way to generate sales.
Personally, I share a quote block with a quote from the affiliate offer site and then include the link as the “source”. Which in fact it is. But in order for this to stand out, you want to double-click on the quote icon when editing your Medium story.
Clicking on the quote icon once will turn the text into a quote block. Clicking the icon a second time turns it into a pull quote that stands out a lot more.
The latter places more exclamation on the message as illustrated below. You can see how the pull quote stands out, and perhaps even add to user experience because it is much easier to read.
Affiliate marketing on Medium has the same requirements as any other means of driving traffic, besides the Medium rules of course. It will always be about the quality of your content.
If your content solves a problem, answers a question, or offers a guide that works. Then you are well on your way to starting generating sales with affiliate marketing on Medium.
Because when the solutions that you offer in your Medium stories actually work, it will create enough curiosity for your reader to want to check out your affiliate offer.
It is your job to create curiosity, so your reader wants to see what the affiliate offer is about. That can only be done through quality content that solves problems.
Basically, you offer advice with your Medium story, people search both Medium and the internet primarily for only a few reasons. Solutions to problems, answers to questions, guides to achieving goals, and free stuff.
Concentrate the content of your story on that, based on an identified common need and you’ll be more than “halfway there.”. Be sure that the affiliate offer is directly related to the Medium story topic.
But also be sure that you have either purchased or tested the product personally. Or you are using the product still. Or you have thoroughly browsed the reviews and done extensive research on the product.
It is your job as an affiliate marketer to be sure that what you choose to offer, will solve a problem as mentioned in your content (Medium Story).
It must never be about sales.
You will start generating more sales with no sales pitching at all. Your content must do the talking and convince your visitor to buy. Your solution to their problem, answer to their question, or the guide they need.
If it is going to be all about the sales for you, then you might end up rather disappointed. Because the sales will start slowly, and in many cases after months of hard work. It is not going to happen instantly!
Above are illustrated some of my own realistic sales statistics. It might not be millions…yet. But it serves a far more important purpose. It serves as confirmation that my content marketing strategies are working!
Once you have several content marketing strategies and start seeing sales. That is when you know you’re on the right path, all you need do then is keep going in that direction. Growth will follow.
It must never be about the sales, instead, it must be about building recognition and gaining your audience’s trust. Although I mentioned this several times, I will say it again.
The only way to get recognized and build trust is to solve people’s problems. Generating sales with Medium means being a problem solver and a solutions encyclopedia. Not a salesman!
Long-form content and illustration.
Personally, I find that writing for beginners tends to attract a bit more attention. And through experience, I know that beginners are more likely to respond to and follow your advice (solution).
Do not disappoint them, once someone places their trust in you then you do not break that. You do your utmost best to help them as best you can. Write how-to guides with illustrations.
Especially beginners appreciate guides to complete the more technical side of internet things. I know how I struggled to get started, especially with English as my second language.
A proper guide, in my opinion, is going to be long-form content anyway. If not, then I doubt it will be a proper guide. Screenshots and illustrations form a crucial part of a proper guide.
It helps your reader in ensuring them they are following the steps correctly. Always explain and guide like you would someone that has never done a particular thing.
Once you have simplified what they thought would be impossible, I can almost assure you they will be curious to see what your affiliate offer is about. Solve problems and get recognized.
Basic rules when using affiliate links.
In the “note to the reader,” you have access to the Medium rules. But we can just take a quick look at the basics. Although you can share affiliate links.
I still suggest using cloaking strategies using plugins like Pretty Links Lite. This is also a way to index affiliate links in search engines, but you can read more about that in another post.
Medium requires that you include an affiliate disclosure with every Medium story that contains affiliate offers. Inform your reader that there are affiliate links in the story, and you will earn a commission should they choose to purchase anything.
Above is an example of such an affiliate disclosure. But please DO NOT copy this affiliate disclosure as illustrated. You must write your affiliate disclosure.
You can simply search your browser to get more ideas because the above image serves only as an illustration to give you a basic idea of the affiliate disclosure requirement on Medium.
Always spend a little more time understanding the Medium rules, I know it’s “boring” to read through everything and understand what is required. If you don’t understand the first time, read it again.
If you still don’t quite understand, read it again, and again, until you do. If, like me, you’re not much of a long-content-reading fan. Allow me to suggest you make use of Medium’s audio option where you listen to the story.
Personally, I take more in that way. Because we all have our ways of learning and remembering things. For me, it’s more the audio and video kind of content I learn most from.
As you can see illustrated above, a screenshot of the Medium Rules page. Just next to the logo, date, and reading time, you will see a tiny little “play” button. (Green on my side).
Simply click on that to listen to the post and keep doing that until you understand the rules. This way you will avoid your account getting restricted or banned.
Trust me, I had to start over on Medium because of a really stupid mistake. But my stupid mistake admittedly. These days I contact Medium support a LOT more…lol! Just to be sure.
Previously I have been on Medium since 2017, you can imagine what was lost because of 2 stupid mistakes. But that is an entire topic on its own, which I have already covered in another post.
Currently, at the time of writing this Medium story. I have only been back on Medium since October 06, 2022. But I have also set myself a 90-day goal or rather challenge this time. 90 high-quality posts in 90 days.
But this time around I have also discovered and started digging deeper into Medium publications. Medium publications must be one of the best ways to get more exposure to your work on Medium.
Both getting approved as a writer for large publications and also having your publications on Medium. But, that too is a topic I have already covered several times.
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AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: Some of the links in this post are links to affiliate offers. If you visit them to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is entirely up to you. All offers come with a full money-back guarantee!
Free Stuff For My Medium Subscribers.
All new subscribers on Medium will receive 4 free gifts. 2 of my top traffic eBooks, and 2 free memberships (invitation only) for buyer traffic tools I use. Subscribe to me (Deon Christie) on Medium and your free stuff will be emailed to you asap. Medium has no affiliation, nor do they endorse the free giveaway in any way. It is my personal free giveaway to all new Medium subscribers.
