How Affiliate Bloggers Can Maximize Productivity

Intro

As an affiliate blogger myself, I can completely relate to feeling overwhelmed.

With so much to do and so little time between creating content and managing relationships, finding ways to maximize every minute is essential.

I’ll highlight some tips and strategies based on my experience that can help you become a more efficient and effective affiliate blogger.

Plus, you’ll learn about time management techniques, tools, and resources that can help you get more done.

So if you're ready to take your productivity to the next level and start seeing real results with your affiliate blog, keep reading!

What’s it like to be a productive affiliate blogger?

Being a productive blogger means staying organized, showing self-discipline, and using your time wisely.

I know it’s difficult, but that’s why it’s worth doing.

Many bloggers aren’t consistent with their productivity habits and put in the work distraction-free every day.

Over 80% of the 63 million new blogs created this year will fail in the next 18 months. [source]

If you want to avoid being another statistic, you gotta be on top of your blogging game.

Why should I be more productive at blogging?

Knowing why you want to become a more productive blogger will help you stay focused and disciplined on a regular basis.

For example, my why is to achieve complete time and financial freedom in 12 months.

For you, this might look like quitting your full-time 9-to-5 job and becoming a digital nomad, working a few hours a day while you see the world.

If you’re considering starting a blog to make money and have time freedom, you’ll be more prepared for success than most beginners after reading this.

More content, more opportunities

The more productive you are, the more content you can create.

And as an affiliate blogger, content is your bread and butter.

The more high-quality content you produce, the more opportunities you have to attract readers, build an audience, and ultimately make money from promoting affiliate products.

Stay ahead of the competition.

Affiliate blogging is super competitive, so you gotta make fresh, engaging content.

Being productive allows you to consistently deliver valuable information to your audience, which helps you establish yourself as an authority in your niche and stand out from SERP competitors.

Efficiently manage multiple tasks.

Affiliate blogging involves various tasks, such as keyword research, writing blog posts, promoting content on social media, and analyzing analytics.

You can efficiently manage these tasks on your to-do list by maximizing productivity without feeling overwhelmed or sacrificing quality.

Time for growth and expansion

When you're productive, you free up time for strategic planning and exploring new opportunities in the affiliate marketing world.

Whether developing new monetization strategies or expanding into different niches, increased productivity allows you to focus on growth and take your affiliate blogging to new heights.

Actionable Productivity Tips For Bloggers

1. Time Blocking

It's easy to lose track of time if you’re not disciplined enough to follow a set routine.

I used to write randomly during the day whenever I could squeeze in some time.

Then, I realized I should use time blocking in my calendar to focus on one task and move on to the next.

And so, I created repeating daily tasks in my phone calendar to remind me of what should be done now.

This allows me to write articles, do outreach for guest posts, and share my new articles on social media, like relevant LinkedIn groups and my connections, without jumping back and forth between tasks because multi-tasking is actually unproductive.

The best time for you to write might be early morning or late at night when everything is quiet. I found that between 10 am - 5 pm works best for me.

2. Set clear business goals and priorities

What are your content and link-building goals?

Your content calendar guides what your site is known for and how Google sees your topic clusters, which completely affects if you can rank high for “money” keywords or not.

At a minimum, you should have one month of content planned out ahead of time for both your site and if you’re doing guest posting or freelancing work.

For example, my priority is to write and publish 2 long-form articles per week for my site and 1 guest article per week.

I always keep an eye out for any new or trending product categories in my niche to get a head start on the SERP rankings before others come on the scene.

If there is a topic that can’t wait till the next month, it’s completely fine to fit it into your calendar.

Do you have revenue goals?

Want $5,000 or more of recurring revenue every month? It’s not gonna happen…

If you don’t set clear financial business goals for your affiliate blogging business, you might as well call it a hobby.

Hitting revenue targets should be motivation enough to stay productive all the time as life permits.

Write your revenue goals down on a real paper notepad: "How can I achieve X in Y days?”

Read it before bedtime, and your mind will try to solve it while you’re sleeping.

3. Use a productivity system or tools to stay organized.

Affiliate bloggers should stay organized to speed up content output for their site and any guest blogs they’re writing that month.

Being more productive on the content side also gives you more time to build links that raise your domain rating.

One of the best ways to maximize how you’re spending time is by using a productivity system to prioritize your tasks, set deadlines, and track progress.

CODA.io is a great productivity app for this and has a free plan that is enough for most affiliate bloggers.

Trello is another favorite many people use with its “cards” format.

I keep it simple by using Google Sheets to track everything and Google Calendar to send me tasks reminders when I’m supposed to do them. 🤓

It’s not a mind-blowing productivity hack, but the simpler your system, the more likely you’ll stick to using it.

Adding AI productivity tools for bloggers to get more done in less time can increase your productivity too.

4. Break tasks into smaller, manageable chunks

I know it’s easy to panic about how much stuff needs to be done.

That’s why doing the highest leverage activities first is better, like writing a guest article for a high DR site vs. a lower DR site instead.

Once you’ve decided on what specific tasks to prioritize, break them down into smaller, more achievable steps, such as creating an engaging title, creating an outline, adding topical relevance, and including descriptive images and engaging videos.

The point is to accumulate easy wins with a checklist approach to bigger tasks.

Smaller wins boost your confidence so that you can conquer the big tasks quicker.

5. Minimize distractions and create a focused work environment

Are you easily distracted by notifications, messages, emails, or other tasks while trying to work on your blog?

All your devices have options to get the serenity you need while working.

Set up Focus on your Macbook or iPhone to indicate what app notifications and from who you’ll accept during the dedicated work hours that you’ve set.

While working on your Macbook, you can use multiple virtual desktops to separate each space for a specific purpose.

Windows offers many ways to stay on task, such as:

• Decluttering your taskbar
• Simplifying the Start menu
• Using Focus Assist to manage your alerts
• Using Immersive Reader to reduce visual distractions when browsing Microsoft Edge.
• Keeping only essential work tabs open.
• Using a 2nd virtual desktop only for work.

If you have an Android device, you can use Digital Wellbeing with options to temporarily stop incoming messages and bedtime mode because phone light 30 minutes before sleep can harm your sleep quality.

There is also a Zen Mode app on certain devices.

The phone restricts and hides all apps and blocks all messages and notifications (except calls) for up to 2 hours.

Horrifying, right? 🤣

Get yourself a physical timer (not your phone) because you’ll be tempted to “just check something quick” and get pulled in for 10 minutes or more.

If you have to put your phone in another room, do it so you have a “laser beam” focus.

6. Utilize automation tools and resources to streamline processes

Some of the most effective ways affiliate bloggers can use automation tools are content creation, social media scheduling, email marketing, and analytics.

Automating repetitive tasks frees up time to create more high-quality content and build relationships with your audience and affiliate partners.

My favorite way is to use MixMax to send templated emails in Gmail for guest posts and freelance SEO work outreach.

And then, you can add new people to an automated email sequence with set rules like if they opened the email or not.

MixMax can even track whether the email led to a booked meeting, which is super helpful if you’re providing SEO services on the side.

After your campaign has been sent, you can see all kinds of useful analytics.

7. Outsource tasks that can be delegated to save time

If you’re just starting out as an affiliate blogger, you might not have the financial resources to hire someone at all.

After six months to a year after, you might be able to hire some freelancers or a part-time contractor on a regular basis.

I’ve found that **Fiverr **is a reliable place to find freelance professionals to create unique infographics and videos for articles and social media promo.

It’s also a solid resource to find people to build email lists and other outreach-related tasks.

Fiverr recently added a category for AI content editing and AI artists too.

Legiit is kinda like Fiverr but attracts more talented freelancers who could be savvier with AI.

For example, if you’d like an SEO-optimized article using Surfer AI, many capable people are offering services here.

There is also a bigger selection of SEO services compared to other freelancing sites.

Upwork is best for finding freelancers with writing, marketing, and web development expertise on a contract basis.

Contra works similarly to how Upwork does but is on a whole new level from both a client and freelancer perspective. The user interface is sleek, modern, and easier to communicate with each other on the platform.

By outsourcing tasks to these platforms, you can benefit from the expertise of professionals who can save you time and money.

8. Take breaks and practice self-care to avoid burnout

Many people are doing affiliate blogging as a side hustle, plus doing their full-time job.

Taking breaks and practicing self-care to maintain a healthy work-life balance and prevent burnout is key to staying motivated and productive.

Total sitting and screen time could be anywhere from 10-15 hours per day, which can take a toll on your mental and physical health.

I’m one of the crazy ones that does this, and is a reminder for me too. 💯

Taking breaks and doing activities that help you relax and recharge will give you the energy you need to tackle your tasks and produce high-quality content.

9. Surround yourself with a supportive community to learn new skills

Affiliate blogging communities can provide training, valuable feedback on your content, offer tips and advice on how to grow your blog, motivation to keep going, and even lead to content and link collaborations.

I’m a part of the best mastermind community specifically for people who want to treat affiliate blogging like an online business called Blog Growth Engine (BGE), owned by Adam Enfroy and Colin Shipp.

To join this elite group of affiliate bloggers, you gotta invest $3,800 USD (if no sale price) now that they are on version 4.0 of their training program.

The BGE community is full of people becoming financially successful in months, not years which gave me all the inspiration I needed to join.

Adam generates $200K+ per month with his own personal brand blog just from affiliate revenue.

RankIQ’s founder, Brandon Gaille, runs another excellent blogging mastermind groupon Facebook, but you must be a customer of their software.

Brandon also has a podcast to learn from called The Blogging Millionaire.

It seems his focus is on teaching people to grow their blog traffic with easy-to-rank keywords in their niche so that they can earn a lot of money from ad revenue eventually.

If you’re strapped for cash…

Try joining some Slack groups for SEOs recommended by Ahrefs or 7 other affiliate marketing communities recommended by Outbrain, where you can build some relationships and learn from each other.

I’d rather be a part of a community that follows a proven system like BGE offers.

10. Regularly evaluate and adjust your strategies to maximize productivity

Bloggers who rely on affiliate marketing to make a living should always be aware of other strategies that can give them an advantage.

For example, many affiliate bloggers focus on one niche instead of doing the “brand of you,” which is becoming more popular because you can experiment and pivot at any time.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve and continue to grow your affiliate revenue, you must learn, pivot, and use leverage to maximize productivity.

Wrap up

Remember that productivity looks different for everyone, so find what works best for you.

Experiment with different techniques such as time blocking, setting realistic goals, eliminating distractions, and leveraging automation tools to boost your efficiency as an affiliate blogger.

Most of all, don’t give up and apply what you’ve learned because a lot of money is on the line.

The global affiliate marketing industry is worth more than $17,000,000,000,000, and you can get a chunk of it, too, with a combination of the right skills and productivity.