affiliate_opinionsMany affiliate marketers write very bland content. They believe it’s their job to simply provide the user with end facts and gradually persuade them to buy the product. They worry that including diverse opinions on their site will confuse the reader and diminish the overall cohesiveness and structure of the site.

While this approach can work, I take a slightly different position. I’m a firm believer that you should include references to content and opinions that you don’t necessarily agree with.

Here are 3 reasons why I think including affiliate opinions and beliefs on your site is important:

Shows Confidence and Authority

The first and most important reason that I include differing opinions is that I feel it helps demonstrate confidence and authority within a niche.

If you’re able to succinctly summarize a competitor’s (or ally’s) opinion, and then explain why you do or do not think its valid, you’re probably able to demonstrate to your reader that you really are an expert in your industry. Read about more things you can gain from your competition.

This not only shows that you know the space in which you’re operating, but it shows that you aren’t afraid to confront other leaders in your space. This could even spark additional dialogue and help get you further exposure within the blogosphere.

Provides Fodder for New Content

Secondly, providing a variety of opinions helps give you a larger base of material from which you can pull content ideas. This works especially well if you’re trying to target a series of related keywords and need to provide different approaches to the same theme.

Not only that, but once you get into the habit of writing on different perspectives, you’ll be able to further derive new content from those posts, giving you even more ideas for what to write on.

Targets a Variety of Users

Finally, this technique helps you target a wider variety of users that otherwise might not have been attracted to your blog.

Remember that not every reader has to agree with you, and even those who don’t agree with you can come to respect your opinion and buy products through your affiliate links.

Engaging different reader sets also helps lead to some added bonuses like increased comment engagement and discussion, which can help prove the social value of your site and get you to rank higher in search.