Personal brands in affiliate marketing: is it worth it? Three bloggers give their opinion
ProTraffic
ProTraffic.com is a site with expert content about traffic arbitrage
Publicity helps to promote one’s brand. Or does it? Affiliate marketing has its peculiarities that need to be respected: the competition can be fierce and scamming is not unheard of. A hater or a dishonest colleague might follow your channel, and then you can expect all kinds of filth in the comments that will hinder your personal blog or channel development. Is that really so? To find out, we decided to talk to experts working with different vertical markets and ask them what they think about developing and maintaining their own media presence and sharing useful content.
Table of contents
Why might an affiliate marketer want to go public?
The main goal of any media or blog is to let the world know about you. You might want to show that you’re good at what you’re doing and make a name for yourself as an expert and a professional.
A personal brand is a business card and helps you to establish quick contact with your target audience. Irrespective of the marketer’s experience, creating a personal brand will single them out among their colleagues, and unique content and experiences published in the blog will only further the cause of showing their competencies and reliability.
The point of personalized blogs is that their authors and followers are always on the same page. Professional jokes, expert information and discussing the latest relevant news create a warm space with a personal touch. The followers can identify with the author, and they can ask questions related to posts, to which the author will reply. These personal interactions are helpful for all parties: the blog author increases their reputation and authority, and the followers get useful feedback from a specialist.
Of course, the authors are free to close the comments or impose heavy moderation, and that is their right. However, most channels are open, as it greatly helps to create like-minded communities.
A personal brand is a business card and helps you to establish quick contact with your target audience. Irrespective of the marketer’s experience, creating a personal brand will single them out among their colleagues, and unique content and experiences published in the blog will only further the cause of showing their competencies and reliability.
The point of personalized blogs is that their authors and followers are always on the same page. Professional jokes, expert information and discussing the latest relevant news create a warm space with a personal touch. The followers can identify with the author, and they can ask questions related to posts, to which the author will reply. These personal interactions are helpful for all parties: the blog author increases their reputation and authority, and the followers get useful feedback from a specialist.
Of course, the authors are free to close the comments or impose heavy moderation, and that is their right. However, most channels are open, as it greatly helps to create like-minded communities.
Loyalty
People who follow a blog usually rate its content highly and support and trust its author. This means that a loyal audience is ready to recommend the blog author’s services to advertisers and acquaintances, so it becomes much easier to promote your own services on the market. For example, the author can post about their experiences with a service after a mutual collaboration; and a loyal audience will react to the post positively and actively share it. As a result, the reputation and influence just keep growing.
Recognizability
A media-savvy affiliate marketer will get invited to conferences and will be asked for interviews for professional media and platforms, such as, for instance, ProTraffic. When you develop your personal brand, your contacts and reputation grow, thanks to which you can get noticed by companies offering the best collaboration conditions.
Networking
A strong personal brand gets a marketer noticed, which allows drawing on useful contacts on the market. People will want to work with you if you share expert opinions and experience regularly. Interacting with other marketers and experts in your field is profitable, as you can exchange knowledge and experience with colleagues and grow and develop as specialists.
Cheap hormones of happiness
When we receive positive reactions, likes, and reposts, our brains start producing happiness hormones — endorphins and dopamine. These compounds are related to the feelings of accomplishment and happiness, as our brain rewards us for social recognition and affirmations of our value to others. Thus, a blogger is rewarded with a better mood, as these hormones are natural antidepressants.
Income
The more you grow, the more advertisers will come to you to buy ads: these can be conferences, partnership programs, services, or your fellow bloggers. A personal brand supplies you with an already active audience to promote your services or ads. One way to earn from this is to sell ad posts, and the prices for these depend only on your agreements.
Some channels are overflowing with ads, but a lower expert content means less reputation. You need to remember that affiliate marketing is not only about ads, and you need to treat your audience with care and limit the number of ad posts.
Some channels are overflowing with ads, but a lower expert content means less reputation. You need to remember that affiliate marketing is not only about ads, and you need to treat your audience with care and limit the number of ad posts.
The downside
As great as all this may sound, many affiliate marketers decide against going public. For instance, some are engaged in risky niches where publicity might hurt rather than help, so it is easier to work anonymously in peace and quiet.
It’s important to remember that going public entails a great responsibility to yourself and your audience. Once you create your own blog and a loyal audience, you are responsible for their trust, so your personal brand becomes an investment in your reputation.
What’s more, things get outdated quickly in our line of work: the quicker everybody learns about a cool trick you can learn from public channels, the quicker it stops being effective, not to mention those affiliate marketers who venture into riskier niches.
That’s why many affiliate marketers ultimately decide against going public. However, we wanted to talk to three who chose to run their blogs: what do they think about the pros and cons of going public?
It’s important to remember that going public entails a great responsibility to yourself and your audience. Once you create your own blog and a loyal audience, you are responsible for their trust, so your personal brand becomes an investment in your reputation.
What’s more, things get outdated quickly in our line of work: the quicker everybody learns about a cool trick you can learn from public channels, the quicker it stops being effective, not to mention those affiliate marketers who venture into riskier niches.
That’s why many affiliate marketers ultimately decide against going public. However, we wanted to talk to three who chose to run their blogs: what do they think about the pros and cons of going public?
Interviews
We have asked three specialists who have gone public about their affiliate marketing experiences:
- Denis Denisenko, author of the Telegram channel Traffic Arbitrage;
- BigMax. author of the Telegram channel BigMax 2.0;
- Hokage1703, author of the Telegram channel Hokage.
When and why did you start your own blog?
- Denis DenisenkoMy friends and acquaintances were constantly bugging me: teach me, show me, tell me, I also want to do this. But we all know that running a blog is not as simple as it sounds. You don’t always know where to start, how to find time to teach people you don’t know, and you’ll have to do this eventually. But then I realized that we need a system of teaching specialists who join our team, one way or the other. Different specialists come with different areas of expertise, and there’s no guarantee they’ll know exactly what you need them to know. That’s why I decided to start creating niche content in 2022.
- BigMaxI started in 2019 on Telegram, when I was exploring the dating niche, and later I decided to switch to working with OnlyFans.
- Hokage1703I started in the summer of 2019. I lost a lot of money back then, and I decided to start documenting my experiences.
What are the goals of your blog, why do you run it?
- Denis DenisenkoI need my blog to share my experiences, answer my followers’ questions, teach them about affiliate marketing, explore automation possibilities, etc.
- BigMaxTo me my blog is first and foremost my business card, and also a way to share something useful or unique in my niche.
- Hokage1703I have no distinct goals, I simply like it.
Have you managed to get better offers because you are a media personality?
- Denis DenisenkoYour blog gives you certain advantages, that’s for sure. But it also raises expectations of you. People expect more content, more interviews; you almost become codependent with your audience.
- BigMaxYes, certainly, I have managed to agree on special conditions. Moreover, I have managed to offload expenses on ads, pushes, teasers, ets.
- Hokage1703Making a deal should be on mutually beneficial terms. Of course, I like to get some perks for nothing, but it's too uncomfortable for me. That's why I try to help in return, so that the guys will be pleased too. I take the standard terms like everyone else, but I get them out myself through face-to-face meetings. I don't think media exposure plays a big role here. Rather, it plays more in the worst way, as I can leak everything to the public. That's why I'm in favor of fair competition.
Are there any pitfalls waiting for somebody looking to go public?
- Denis DenisenkoI’ll be honest, I thought that building up my personal brand would be easier. I decided not to do it the easiest way, simply talking about my activities on social media, because sometimes we covered topics that were not welcome there. However, I contracted agencies and communities to whom I could simply delegate the whole process of the launch of my project. What was important for me was to digitize the conceptual side of my work using the optics of my ideas, and that was not easy.
- BigMaxI have been doing this for 4 years, and I have not run into problems because of my media presence; what’s important is that you have fresh ideas and a clear understanding of what you’re doing. My channels’ thing is that I show what actually works, and you need to be completely devoted to your niche. People don’t like boring theories, they want to read about your actual experience and real-life cases.
- Hokage1703No, no problems at all. Just be yourself and it will all eventually work out. The most important part is to start. 5 years ago I didn’t even know how to properly write posts and had only 10 followers. However, with time and practice I learned how to convey exactly what I want, and with this came a feeling of responsibility for what I write. I cannot simply publish easy mass-market information, and I always try to add a personal touch.
Let’s sum it all up
If an unqualified blogger tries to pose as an expert, this will simply annoy their audience. However, if a qualified expert has a blog, it can only help them and their audience. Creating and maintaining a personal brand gives an affiliate marketer something greater than mere popularity and an authoritative voice. A large number of followers is a valuable traffic source that can be monetized. Moreover, once you develop your reputation as an expert, you can sign more lucrative deals and influence your niche as you see fit. As a result, a personal brand becomes a powerful tool for achieving professional goals.
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