Boost Affiliate Earnings: A Guide to Granular Reviews & Links

Some links are affiliate links. If you shop through them, I earn coffee money—your price stays the same.
Opinions are still 100% mine.

Hey everyone, Tom here. When I got started with affiliate marketing, I followed the conventional wisdom: pick a product, write one big full review of that product, and put a "buy now" link everyplace. It worked... sort of. As I looked around, though, I always felt like I was leaving money on the table. My traffic was adequate, but my conversions were less than stellar.

Then I discovered a more granular approach to affiliate marketing that completely rocked my world. Instead of one review for each partner, I started writing reviews for each important page of that product. And within those reviews I now used multiple, diversified affiliate links that pointed not to one, but to various relevant pages.

This sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but the benefits in terms of greater trust by my customers and client companies, Search Engine Optimization, and most importantly conversion ratios has been well worth it for me. Today I want to let you in on my exact formula, my editorial plan, if you will, that I have used to produce affiliate reviews with diversified links that have been literally a gold mine for me.

The Basic Concept: Why Go Granular?

Here's what I mean by this affiliate marketing strategy. Instead of doing one big "AI Companion Review," think about producing multiple detailed articles such as:

• "A Thorough Review of candy.ai's Pricing Page - Worth It or Not?"
• "Review of Nomi.ai's 'Pro' Feature - A Real Look"
• "SecretDesires's Free Trial - What DO You Get?"

In each of these pieces of content, you will not just link to the homepage, but will deep link. So, for example, if you're discussing the pricing, you link directly to the pricing page. If you are complimenting a certain feature, you will link to the page describing that feature.

Ultimately, this is a great tactic because it fits in nicely with user intent. You are not just a salesman, but a guide, linking your reader directly to the information they want. This creates such tremendous trust, and makes their conversion path so much shorter.

My 5-Point Editorial Plan for Affiliate Success

A great tactic is useless without a good plan. A well-thought-out editorial plan for affiliate marketing is what allows you to not drown in overwhelm, and what ensures you are producing high-quality content on a regular basis. Here is how I design mine.

Step 1: Create a Map of Your Affiliate Partners

Before writing a single word, I get organized. I create an easy spreadsheet of all my affiliate partners and then for each I identify all the important pages I could potentially review.

This list then becomes the basis for my content calendar.

Step 2: Perform Highly Targeted Keyword Research

For each of the pages above, I do highly specific keyword research. I am not looking for: “product review”. I’m looking for long-tail keywords for niche sites that actual people are searching for.

• For a pricing page review: “Kupid.ai pricing,” “how much does Joi.com cost,” “Nomi.ai pro plan review.”
• For a feature review: “Candy.ai feature name review,” “how to use SecretDesires feature.”

This is vitally important for SEO for affiliate sites, as it allows you to rank for dozens of specific search queries, sending highly qualified traffic to your site and strengthening your topical authority.

Step 3: Structure your Reviews for Conversion

Every affiliate review I write follows a tried and true structure. I’m a big believer in the classic AIDA model for reviews:

• Attention: A catchy headline and an introduction that grabs the reader’s attention by addressing their specific pain point.
• Interest: A detailed breakdown of the page/feature. What is it? Who is it for? I include all the pros and cons of the products.
• Desire: This is where we talk about my personal experience. I describe how the feature was a solution to a problem I was having or why the pricing tier is a value. This naturally builds a bond. You can see this in action in my review of Candy.ai.
• Action: Something like a Call-To-Action in the clear. Instead of "Click Here," I give descriptive text such as "See the full pricing breakdown for yourself," or "Start your free trial and test this feature now."

Step 4: Materialize Your Content Calendar

I take my pages mapped out and find the keywords and create my content calendar. I just use a basic Google Sheet, but tools such as Trello or Asana work great, too.

Step 5: Monitor, Analyze and Optimize

My work isn’t done once I hit “publish.” I am constantly reviewing my analytics to see which reviews are doing the best and which links are being clicked the most. This data-driven approach allows me to refine my strategy and double-down on what is working.

The Challenges (and How to Overcome Them)

I want to be transparent here: this approach is more challenging than writing a single review. Here are the main challenges and my solutions.

Final Thoughts

Embracing a strategy of writing individual product reviews with diversified links requires a mind shift. You are moving from a broad stroke advertiser to a expert niche provider, and trusted guide. It requires more planning, work and organization.

Yet in creating a sound editorial plan, and working for the massive value to your reader, you are basically creating your own pipeline for not only more commissions but a sustainable, authoritative, online presence that will reap rewards for long years to come. To see how I put all of this into practice, check out my breakdown of the best NSFW AI girlfriend apps.