How to Use Affiliate Links on Your Website
Affiliate links are an inevitable part of your online business and if you plan to start your online business and make money from your website, you have to plan using affiliate links and do it wisely.
Without affiliate links your website will be just a great source of information which is already good but it won’t be making money if you don’t make one simple thing I’m going to explain further in my post.
Why use affiliate links
If you build an affiliate website you need to first think how you are going to monetize it. It’s not a secret that some niches are better monetized than others.
Thanks to affiliate links you can earn an affiliate commission from merchants. Not all affiliate programs can accept you if you don’t get enough traffic to your website.
Most of them require at least 400-500 visitors a day before they can approve your affiliate request. Some programs pay 5-10% while others pay up to 50%.
So, affiliate links are important for monetization of your website.
Time to use affiliate links
Many people ask very often when to start adding affiliate links to their website and it is a very reasonable question.
It doesn’t make sense to add links if you don’t get any traffic to your website.
If you add links without having a massive traffic, no one will be clicking on your affiliate links which means you don’t make any money.
Also, when you start building your affiliate website to get it ranked on Google top search positions, it’s not a good idea to add affiliate links to your website.
It would be better to keep your website free from affiliate links to let your website first rank on Google and show that the main purpose of your website is not about links rather than providing value to people.
Once you start getting a massive traffic, at least 300-500 visitors a day, you can start adding affiliate links to your website to start monetizing your site.
How to use affiliate links the right way
You should also know how to use affiliate links on your website. Many affiliates prefer using short instead of long links that look weird.
For this you can use plugins like Pretty Links that shortens links and makes them look nice.
The plugin is free which satisfies the needs of most affiliates but if you want some advanced features, you can pay for the plugin.
Types of links: internal, external links
There are different types of links being used on affiliate websites, internal and external links.
Internal links are an important part of your website because when you write a post, you interlink your site articles. This has a huge impact on your website rankings.
First of all, when you interlink your site articles, you give your visitor a chance to visit other pages on your website.
The longer your website visitor stays on your website, the more authoritative it will be in the eyes of Google which in turn will affect your site rankings in a positive way.
Every 1000 word article requires at least 5-10 internal links.
External links are also very important for your website rankings and traffic.
When you write a post for your website it’s recommended to add at least one external link to an authoritative website related to your niche.
When you write an article for your website and link to an authoritative website, it means you back up your opinion by linking to someone people can trust.
This definitely impacts your website rankings in a positive way.
All this means that both internal and external links are part of your website SEO plan and must be done on a long-term basis.
How to use links wisely or how many links are TOO many
Using links on your website such as affiliate, internal and external links also must be done wisely to avoid issues with Google.
If you use too many affiliate links, your website will look spammy in the eyes of Google, especially, your readers won’t like it. Most likely they will leave your website very quickly.
No one likes when you throw a ton of affiliate links into someone’s face before providing value. 2,3 affiliate links per post will be ok and safe.
Using too many links is also not recommended. If you add too many internal or especially external links, your website will look like a link farm.
Your website success mostly depends on the quality of content you plan to write for your website, not links. Adding 2,3 affiliate links per 1000 word post is safe.
Adding 1,2 external links for the same post would be ok too. And adding 5-10 internal links per post is good for your website rankings.
How to make money without affiliate links
Some people think that making money without affiliate links is impossible. In fact, you can do it by joining display ad networks like Google Adsense, Medianet, Mediavine, Ezoic etc.
In that case you still need to use internal and external links but you don’t need to use affiliate links.
Your main task will be writing high quality content and driving traffic from search engines.
Once you start getting at least 400-500 visitors a day you can sign up for display ad networks, such as Ezoic or Medianet. Mediavine requires at least 50.000 visitors a month before you can apply. Google adsense has no restrictions. You can sign up any time.
The more visitors you get to your website the more chances that your visitors will be clicking on the ads placed on your website which means you will be earning a certain amount of money for each click.
This way you can make money without using affiliate links.
About the Author: Adam
My name is Adam. I'm the founder of Your Income Advisor. My goal is to help others succeed online, by exposing scams and reviewing top rated products. I can help you start your own business online 
