Slingshot Affiliate Commissions
An Underutilized Keyword Strategy!
When growing your affiliate income, product reviews are powerful. They are also super obvious, so many times they are also competitive keywords. Unless you have a low competition niche, a new website can sometimes struggle to rank for product review keywords.
Not a problem!
There are still TONS of opportunites to earn affiliate commissions from low competition keywords.
An Example
My wife recently bought a product called Fab Fit Fun. It's a seasonal subscription box sent to the house which has girly stuff like makeup, hair products, or fun things like waterproof speakers for the shower.
Fab Fit Fun Review is a highly competitive keyword. Page 1 is filled with established beauty bloggers competing for that easy affiliate commission. So should we give up? Nope.
Many people will then try to go for keywords directly related to Fab Fit Fun. Things like:
- is fab fit fun good?
- fab fit fun vs [other beauty box]
- best beauty subscription boxes
- fab fit fun negative reviews
Sure, those are pretty good keywords, and you can use those to write informational posts, then link to product reviews. So you could do something like write an article called Fab Fit Fun VS StitchFix, then link to your Fab Fit Fun review, which has your affiliate link.
That's a solid strategy, and it's part of what you learn here at Wealthy Affiliate.
But there's a whole bunch of other keywords you're still leaving on the table, and these keywords can convert DIRECTLY to affiliate commissions. These keywords are what I call "slingshot" keywords, because they don't have a direct relationship to the product, but you can still earn commissions.
I like to think about what problem the product solves, then brainstorm keywords around that.
For example, this particular subscription box is meant for girls, and it's a luxury item. So it's a gift. What occasions would you buy a gift for a girl?
- 10 creative gift ideas for your wife 2019
- what to buy your sister last minute
- fun gifts for your millenial daughter
You can even get less obvious. What about something like:
- how to get your girlfriend to forgive you
You can list 10 different strategies to ask for forgiveness for your girlfriend, and one of those things is a year subscription to Fab Fit Fun! I'm sure there's plenty of crying boys out there willing to spend $100+ to get his girlfriend back. lol. Problem solved!
What about something like:
- best anti-aging regimin for women
You can review a couple strategies, and list a Fab Fit Fun subscription box as a way to test new products you could potentially use for a custom DIY home solution. They always have some kind of eye and skin care stuff in there.
Anyway, the point is that for every product you promote, there's more than just a single review keyword to target. There are hundreds of potential ways to drive traffic to your affiliate links. Not just a review page!
If you find a product you like, and especially if you already made a couple sales, brainstorm what problem the product solves, or what situations would there be where someone would need that product, and you might discover a treasure trove of low competition keywords.
Recommended Webinar On A Similar Topic: How to Write Content That Converts
Learn the steps of Awareness > Consideration > Decision to get people to convert to sales when reading your content.
Recent Comments
71
This is incredibly clever! Great approach. I took a few new things from this. I like the idea of being able to drive traffic to a page that doesn't rank from a page that does. I haven't thought of that yet.
Also, really good ideas for being creative and thinking "around" the keywords and focusing on what the product can solve in less-obvious ways.
Amazingly good post.
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Hey Nathaniel,
You may have solved problems for a lot of people trying to find a niche with good keywords. Your idea of going beyond the obvious high usage keyword & looking for lesser used one was spot one.
I've done a lot of studying about keywords and was able to get some more valuable information from your post, so thank you.
It doesn't look like you scored any points for buying the product for your wife. Too bad! It would have made good ammunition for your arguments in the future. LOL
Have a good one,
Don
Hehe. Maybe I'll have to find a better subscription box and get her that for Christmas!