Tips & Tricks

Making money with SmugMug’s photography affiliate program is easy.  Here are some tips and tricks that can help you get your campaigns up and running.

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

PPC is a great, but risky, way to promote an affiliate program that requires consistent testing, observation, and maintenance. However, SmugMug is a high-converting site that can be profitable if you find the right terms to build your ads around.

Keep in mind: we do not allow the use of our trademarks, urls or any variation or extension of the brand name as keywords. But your affiliate program manager can easily help you find a few non-branded terms that have a good chance at converting.

If you want to try on your own, here is an example of how to take a generic keyword (website) and make it longtail for a PPC engine.

• Website
• Photo website builder and storage
• Website builder
• Photo website builder and secure storage
• Photo website builder
• Best secure photo website builder with storage
• Free photo website builder
• Professional photo website builder with unlimited storage
• What is the best free photo website builder

The trick with succeeding at PPC affiliate advertising is knowing how to use modifiers. The right modifiers will make your keyword phrases more relevant for your users, and more likely to catch their attention.

You can also use negative keywords to help you build a successful PPC affiliate promotion.

Negative keywords are used to prevent your ads from showing when a similar, but not relevant, keyword is searched for. So, if you’re bidding on a generic term like

If you’re bidding on a generic term like “photo website,” but you don’t sell prints, accessories, gear, etc., negative keywords like “photo lens website” will prevent your ad from showing up where it’s not relevant.

Article ideas

Articles are an easy and straightforward way to give your readers value and insight while also supporting your affiliate programs.

For SmugMug’s affiliates, articles that address the needs of today’s photographers are a sure-fire way to get the attention of site visitors and customers. Photo storage, photo security, sales, and portfolio building are just a few of the topics our partners have seen success with. Here’s a list of ideas to get you started:

Many of our partners find success by writing SEO-friendly articles that address these popular topics, and include our affiliate links built in organically. If you write well and your articles rank in the search engines, this can generate a solid stream of passive income for you.

Social media

Social media is the perfect way to make money with photography affiliate programs. Because many interactions start with gorgeous photos and catchy copy, you have a head start vs. other affiliates.

Please remember that you cannot use our trademarks as hashtags, promote your links on our pages, or create accounts pretending to be us. We also ask that you always use an FTC disclosure like #ad or #advertisement when using an affiliate link on a social media site.

Here are some ways you can get started promoting the SmugMug photography affiliate program using social media.

Twitter:

• #ad Need a website to sell prints on? Try this easy-to-use software (insert link)
• #ad Want to sell your photographs online? Check out this service (insert link) #photographers
• #ad Want to make money with your #photography? Check this out (insert link)
• #ad Create stunning photo websites in minutes. Click this link (insert link)

facebook:

• #advertisement Need an easy way to set up a website and sell your photos? Check out this site. (insert link) They have easy-to-use website building tools, unlimited secure storage, social media connectors, and built-in sales.
• #ad Want to take your photography business online? Create stunning photo websites with secure storage and easy payment options using this service. (insert link). You can be live in minutes!
• #ad Take your photography business online in minutes. Use this service (insert link) to build a stunning photo website, store every photo securely, and make money with built-in sales tools.

Pinterest boards:

Pinterest boards are fun and easy to make. They can also be a great way to drive sales with photography affiliate programs. The trick is to create useful articles on your website with photos that you can also turn into a pinterest board, linking back to your website and your affiliate links.

Here are a few ideas to get you started.

• A blog post about the best photography site layouts that shows between 5 and 20 samples from SmugMug. Make sure the images are large enough to pull into Pinterest, then make a board called Photography Website Templates.
• A series of posts about selling photographs online. Post each article individually (picking photos, setting prices, marketing yourself, etc.) then post them to a board called Starting an Online Photography Business.
• A post featuring your twenty favorite prints that also shows examples of products those photos can be printed on (canvas, metal, homegoods, etc.) through SmugMug. These images can be pinned, bringing people to your site and guiding them to your affiliate links.

Newsletter marketing

Newsletters are an awesome way to make sales as an affiliate. If you have an audience of hobbyists, customers, or fellow photographers, you can use photography affiliate programs to provide high-value content to your followers, and make money from affiliate traffic organically. 

Here are some ideas for newsletters based on your audience:

• Customers and hobbyists – A newsletter that talks about building websites, selling prints, specific types of photography, or editing software would make a perfect, natural, and non-spammy place for SmugMug affiliate links.
• Professional photographers – A newsletter that includes marketing tips, resources to drive sales, or professional networking events for photographers is a great fit for SmugMug affiliate links.

You can also run your SmugMug affiliate links within the header and footer of your emails, on your newsletter sign up pages, confirmation for subscribing emails and other places to help drive sales.

Two-tier links

A two-tier link is a link you send to friends, peers, website owners, or other people you know who have an audience of their own that might be interested in SmugMug. The link lands on the affiliate sign up page and whenever your friend, peer, or colleague makes a sale (once they’re enrolled as an affiliate), you’ll earn a commission as well.

For example: If you belong to a group of photography teachers on Facebook, you can ask them to pass along your affiliate link to their students. As their students buy SmugMug, the teachers earn a commission and so do you.