In this article, I want to address the benefits of combining YouTube with an affiliate blog.
Doing affiliate marketing as a blogger and YouTuber is one of the best, combined ways to make good money online. Here, I’ll be telling you why that’s the case and how you can get started today for free.
With blogging and YouTube, you can work towards the goal of a passive income-generating online business that attracts traffic organically from the internet. Best thing is, it’s NOT that difficult, plus you can be original and ENJOY what you do.
Amazing, isn’t it?! To be able to have your brand out there and continuously grow from strength to strength. The more content you produce, the better it gets and the faster you get at creating it. In time, this means MORE free traffic from the web and MORE revenue potential.
So let’s dive in and explore this strategy and it’s great benefits. A strategy that’s proven to be legit, affordable and successful for a very long time and for great many affiliates out there today. Honestly, it’s a gradual process, but you pick up momentum as you go and it’s extremely rewarding in the long-run.
Google and YouTube – the Two Giant Sources of Traffic
As Adam Enfory stresses, we should focus on the two biggest sources of internet traffic which are Google and YouTube.
Most people searching for something online are either going to do a Google search or go to YouTube.
And a good number will do both.
It basically boils down to the two main formats of information:
- Written information
- Audovisual information
Google by far owns both the largest search engine and the largest online video platform.
When it comes to YouTube, Google likes to rank its own content which is why you sometimes see a YouTube video popping up as one of the top results on a Google search.
Most successful online marketers use both blog posts and YouTube videos to reach their the majority of their audience.
They also use other mediums but SEO and YouTube are usually at the forefront.
As a blogger and YouTuber, I have seen for myself that sometimes a blog post I created will not appear on page 1 of Google but a related YouTube video that links back to that post does show up as a result on the first page of Google.
The affiliate blog on its own can only reach so many. But a good portion of your target audience out there want to see video rather than read articles.
Let’s now nail down the reasons for why you’re better off combining YouTube with an affiliate blog.
The Great Benefits of Combining YouTube with an Affiliate Blog
We all get the general idea: written content + video content = more traffic.
But what specific benefits are going to be part and parcel of combining YouTube with your affiliate blog?
Let’s look closely at this:
- Your business enjoys additional backlinks
- You can reach both halves of your target audience
- You gain more trust
- Your brand stands out more
- You become more of an authority in your niche
- YouTube is free – You can make money at zero cost
- YouTube ads are effective and a worthwhile investment
- YouTube shorts are another quick and easy way to reach your audience
Let’s flesh these listed benefits out a little so you can get a good grasp on what comes with combining YouTube with an affiliate blog. Then we can get into some tips on some of the best and easiest ways to get started.
Your business enjoys additional backlinks. An important element getting a blog or blog post ranked is the backlinks it has.
A backlink is simply a link from some external source that leads back to your site. Some backlinks are more useful than others.
A backlink from an authority site can be more useful than a backlink from a new site.
But a backlink is always going to be useful.
So, each time you create a post on your affiliate blog, you can make a related YouTube video to go with it.
In the YouTube video description box, you can leave a link to your website and mention to your viewers that the full/related article from your site can be found via the link below.
What you can also do is insert the YouTube video link into the related blog post using the code editor.
That way, your blog features text and video. It also provides backlinks for your YouTube channel.
Backlinks are like a vote of confidence and help both blog content and YouTube videos reach higher rankings.
You can reach both halves of your target audience. Your niche is one thing and your audience is another.
You aim at people interested in whatever your online business is about.
To reach these people you can use a monetised blog, a YouTube video, or both.
Some of your target audience out there prefer to read, while others prefer to watch a video. Having both a blog and a channel is a great way to reach both halves as it were, of your audience.
You gain more trust. If you have a good blog, something that looks professional and doesn’t come across as too salesy or lacking in value, you will gain trust from your readers.
The same can be said of a good YouTube channel.
To gain maximum trust, you should be both a blogger and a YouTuber. Your presence being both on a website and on video is a great combination calculated to win you the most trust.
You are using multiple means to get your message out to people and you are not afraid to show yourself on video. (Some people just don’t like being on camera which is fair enough, though it can help build trust more efficiently if people get to actually see you).
Your brand stands out more. There’s not much more to add to this. Your brand is more visible, more widely known if you have a presence on both Google and YouTube.
You become more of an authority in your niche. This boils down to trust again. But trust from both people and search engines.
Authority sites and successful YouTubers are seen as a big go-to in their particular field of expertise.
YouTube is free – You can make money at zero cost. It’s true, you can gradually build up a channel over time and make good money with it.
There are many ways to make money with YouTube. But one that I would focus on most, at least to start with is with affiliate marketing.
Related article: How to do Affiliate Marketing with YouTube (2022) – 3 Easy Methods
YouTube ads are effective and a worthwhile investment. This is something you’ll probably want to try once you have some success with your business, or if you already have the budget and know what you’re doing.
YouTube ads are one of the good ways, so to speak, of driving paid traffic to your business/offers.
YouTube shorts are another quick and easy way to reach your audience. Not only can you reach a lot of people in a short time with YouTube shorts, but you can also refer them to your site.
Video on Running an Affiliate Blog and YouTube Channel:
How I Started My Affiliate Blog
I started my first website with Blogger. One of Google’s free web hosting services.
But I didn’t know what I was doing and unfortunately, didn’t persevere.
Later, I found Wealthy Affiliate and that’s where I learned how to do everything properly.
The actual building of the website can be done in under 30 seconds. Then they show you what to do next. How WordPress works, how to set everything up properly and legally (the legal stuff mainly involves things like affiliate disclosures etc.)
The building of the website can be done on their free starter membership. But for the full training, tools, extra support and everything else, you would need to upgrade to Premium.
Things to Know When Starting Your YouTube Channel
All you really want to do when starting a channel is have a good plan and stick to it.
Here are some pointers that can help:
- Make it clear what your channel is about
- Focus on delivering value
- Create expressive thumbnails that have vivid colour (you can use Canva.com)
- Plan your uploads in advance
- Have a regular posting schedule that you keep to
- Direct people to your website and use affiliate links in the description and pinned comment
If you just focus on these things and try to have titles that are relavant, but not to short or competitive, you should be able to build a successful YouTube channel, capable to generating passive income for years to come.
You can have a combination of informational and review videos; a strategy you should also be using with blogging.
I hope this has been of some use. If so, leave us a comment down below!
