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How to Monetize Your Blog With Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate marketing for beginners: step by step basics for newbies

What is Affiliate Marketing? A guide for beginners

 

Wondering how to make money with your blog?

 

In my earlier post, we talked about 5 proven ways to monetize your blog that generates under 1,000 visitors a day.

 

There are many different ways to make some serious money with your blog.

 

Among all the other options, affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and best blog monetization methods for new bloggers and for those who prefer something easy to start and hands-off.

 

Even if your blog doesn’t have a huge amount of traffic yet, you can still make pretty sum with affiliate marketing if done correctly.

 

And the best part is you’re building a passive income stream.

Who doesn’t like the idea of the 4-Hour Workweek?

Waking up every morning with a screen like this:

 

The hard part is it’s not going to happen overnight.

 

Just like any other business, it takes time, effort and strategy to see results.

 

In the beginning, you’ll need to put in some upfront works to build this income stream. Then, the money would keep coming in days, weeks and months, even years after you put in all that effort.

 

Related Reading:

 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the process of generating an income by promoting and recommending other people’s (or company’s) product or service.

 

It’s based on the concept of revenue sharing. When you help another company generate sales by promoting it to your audience, you’ll get a cut!

Basically, affiliate marketing is a relationship between 4 main parties:

(i) The Merchant: Also known as the advertiser, the retailer, the creator or the seller. Or it can be anyone who has a product to sell. This is the party who is ready to pay other people to help promote and sell their product or service.

 

(ii) The Network: This party works as an intermediary between the merchant and the publisher. They provide a platform, technology and expertize to accommodate both parties needs.

 

(iii) The publisher: Also known as the affiliate, the content creator or blogger. An affiliate will select one or multiple products to promote on their blog and get rewards with a commission.

 

(iv) The Customer: Customer is the most important component in affiliate marketing. No sale= no profit= no commission.

Here’s how affiliate marketing works

  1. You’ll sign up an affiliate program – it can be another online business or an affiliate network.
  2. Choose the product or service that you like to promote on your blog
  3. You’ll be given a unique affiliate tracking link that is used to drive the traffic to the seller’s products. Usually, sellers will provide text link banners and other creative material too.
  4. You can then place this link within your content such as in a blog post or link to a banner.
  5. When one of the visitors clicks on that link and make a purchase at the merchant’s site, you’ll earn a commission.

 

Note: Customer won’t pay a higher price if they buy through your affiliate link since the cost of the affiliate network is already included in the retail price.

 

How do you get paid?

Different affiliate programs offer different percentage commissions.

 

As an affiliate, you are paid for results.

 

For example, you can get paid a commission when someone clicks your affiliate link regardless if they make a purchase. While some companies pay a fixed commission for every action taken like visitors complete a short survey, enter their email address, install an app and many others. Most of the time, companies will pay you when someone clicks your link and make a purchase within a certain amount of time.

 

In affiliate marketing, companies use cookies on a visitor’s browser in order to track the conversion as coming from you, the affiliate. Each company has a different duration for cookies. Some cookies stay on the customer’s computer for up to 3 months, others only last for a day.

 

For example, if you join an affiliate program that uses a “60-day cookie”, you’re entitled to get a commission if your visitor makes a purchase within 60 days period.

 

Affiliate Marketing is Awesome!

Here’s why:

 

Earning an affiliate income is almost too easy. All you have to do is drive traffic through the specific affiliate link to the product’s page and that’s it.

 

However, there obviously are unscrupulous marketers and influencers who try to take advantage. Abusing the powers, promoting products and services primarily for the commission and many others. 

 

Regardless of what you might have heard, you can actually help your audience and make money with affiliate marketing when done the right way.

 

To achieve long-term success in affiliate marketing, here are 3 things that you need to keep in mind:

  1. Only promote products or services relevant to your market.
  2. Only promote products you’ve personally used. If not, make sure that you only promote products that you’re confident in.
  3. Always include a disclaimer or disclosure on your website, to inform your readers that you’ll receive commissions if they purchase through your affiliate links.

 

Can You Put Affiliate Links on a WordPress Blog?

WordPress is available to bloggers in two forms:

  1. Hosted version: it’s available for free at WordPress.com.
  2. Self-hosted version: This software is available for free at WordPress.org but you must install it on a separate web host.

 

The free blogging platform (like WordPress.com, Blogger or Wix) is intended mainly for personal and non-profit use. And thus, if you’re using a free host for affiliate marketing, make sure you comply with your host’s Terms and Conditions. If your blog is found to violate their terms of service, your host has the power to delete your entire site without warning. 

 

On the other hand, with a self-hosted blog, you will have full control and authority over your blog. You can do whatever you want with your website and customize it as much as you wish. And use affiliate links at your own disclosure. 

 

If you’re serious about monetizing your blog, you’ll need to have your own self-host WordPress blog.

If you haven’t started your blog yet…

I have written a helpful guide to help you start your profitable blog with Bluehost (Only for serious beginners). For less than $4/month, you can create your own blog and get a FREE domain name! click here to get started now.

 

If you’re still unsure about hosting your own WordPress blog, this article may help you >>> Why you should use WordPress for blogging.

 

Best Affiliate Networks for New Bloggers

So, by now you should understand what affiliate marketing is all about and how it works generally.

 

Let’s get started.

 

The first thing you need to do is find the right affiliate networks to work with.

 

If you’re just starting out with affiliate marketing, I would recommend you start working with large affiliate networks.

 

The most amazing aspect of affiliate network is that it offers a database of lots of products, from over hundreds to thousands of companies, which you can choose to promote.

 

You can also track all your payments from multiple different merchants all in one place. It will save you loads of time (trust me). Plus, it much easier to hit the minimum threshold for payout when you accumulate your commission all in one single account.

 

Of course, not all merchants join affiliate networks, you might need to do some research in your niche. And certain companies are only available in specific affiliate networks, so you’ll need to join a couple affiliate networks to get started.

 

There are many reliable and popular networks in the market. In this article, we will go through some of the trustworthy and highly reputable affiliate networks which you can join and start earning commission.

1. Awin

 

Awin allows you to connect with companies like Etsy, Lonely Planet, Fiverr, Superdry, Swagbucks and Booking.com. With the pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale programs, it’s easy to reach the $20 payment threshold.

 

To get started with Awin, you’ll need to pay a sign-up fee of $5 with your credit or debit card. However, this $5 will be credited back to your account as commission. You can get your payments via check, direct deposit or international wire.

 

Click here to sign up for Awin

2. ShareASale

ShareASale is one of the largest affiliate networks for bloggers.

 

With ShareASale, you can work with over 4000+merchants that offer a wide variety of products to promote such as clothing, web hosting, WordPress theme, food and drinks, book publishing and even pet niche.

 

If you’re using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, then you should know about Tailwind. Tailwind’s affiliate program is exclusively run through ShareASale. 

 

You’ll need to reach the minimum payout of $50 before you can receive payment via direct deposit or check. I’ve written a comprehensive guide to help you start making money with ShareASale.

 

Click here to sign up for ShareASale

 

3. Ultimate Bundles

Ultimate Bundles is an amazing affiliate program for every blogger. No matter which niche you’re in, there is something valuable that you can find to promote. And your readers will definitely love it.

 

Why? Simply because your readers can get those bundles at ridiculously low price.

 

So what are Ultimate Bundles?

It’s basically a collection of eBooks, eCourses, templates, workbooks, planners and other digital products that packaged and sold as a bundle for a steep discount of 90-97% off.

 

As an affiliate, not only you can earn a whopping 40% commission on each sale, you can also learn about marketing from the best.

 

They offer free marketing training, ready-to-send emails, social media posts and webinars to help you get the most from the sales.

 

There are bundles on all sorts of topics such as personal finance, blogging, photography, meal planning, healthy living, essential oils, productivity and more.

Click here to sign up for Ultimate Bundles

4. CJ Affiliate by Conversant

 

CJ Affiliate by Conversant (formerly known as Commission Junction) is another great affiliate network for new bloggers. There are thousands of products from different categories that you can market.

 

They have programs that are pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale, pay-per-click and even pay-per-call, so there are many different opportunities to make money via CJ Affiliate.

 

With CJ Affiliate, you can work with popular web hosting companies like Hostinger, HostGator, Bluehost, and Namecheap.

 

The minimum payout is $50. You can choose to receive payment via direct deposit or check.

 

Click here to sign up for CJ Affiliate

5. Amazon Affiliates

Amazon is one of the biggest retailers in the world and so do their affiliate program. You can promote almost anything using its platform.

 

Whether you’re writing about travel, lifestyle, fashion, parenting, craftwork or business, there’s an endless choice of great products to advertise.

 

It’s free to join and easy to use. You can earn up to 10% commission of the sale amount.

 

Although the commission is quite low, you can actually get paid for items that you didn’t even advertise. For example, when someone clicks on your affiliate link and decides not to buy, but ends up buying something else, you can still get a commission for the total orders placed within 24 hours.

 

Compared to other affiliate networks, Amazon Affiliates has a very short affiliate window of 24 hours.

 

But wait…What if no product purchased during the 24 hours of landing on Amazon?

 

Don’t worry, you will still earn commissions if item added to cart within 24 hours period BUT purchase must be made within 89 days (cookie period). That sounds great, right?

 

There is no minimum threshold for payment via direct deposit.

 

However, if wish to pay via check, you’ll need to make at least $100 and to receive payment via gift certificate a minimum earning of $10 is required.

 

Click here to sign up for Amazon Affiliate Program

 

Here’s an ultimate guide to the Amazon Affiliate Program for beginners. Follow this step-by-step tutorial to signup for an Amazon Affiliate account and learn how to create Amazon Affiliate Links.

Click here to get started with Amazon Affiliate.

 

 

6. ClickBank

If you’re looking to promote digital products like software and eBooks, then ClickBank would be the best choice for you.

 

ClickBank is another popular affiliate network that offers great commission structure. You can earn up to 75% commission on qualifying purchases.

 

You can choose your payment threshold from $10 to $1,000,000. If no changes made to the payment setting, the default payout is $100. ClickBank offers 4 payment methods: Check, direct deposit, wire transfer and Payoneer.

 

Click here to sign up for ClickBank

 

Affiliate Marketing Training Bundle

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money blogging for beginners.

 

If you are a blogger or content creator, looking to make make money online by promoting products, services or brands of your choice, I recommend you take this Affiliate Marketing course by Ana from The She Approach.

 

Ana will show you, step-by-step, exactly what you need to do to create and make from your own successful affiliate marketing – from scratch. Click here to find out more…

 

How can I promote affiliate products?

Alright, now you’ve joined some affiliate programs and have your affiliate links ready. Next, you’ll want to promote these products to your audience that will actually benefit them. So, how’re you going to do that without sounding too salesy?

 

There are countless ways to promote products or services that you like, but here are few ideas that you can implement instantly

 

  1. Create quality content

Content is the most important asset of your blog. You’ll need to publish articles or blog posts presenting content that’s relevant to your audience.

 

Actions:

(i) Create a resource page, list down products and services that you use with links.

For example, I have compiled a list of useful tools that I’m using for this blog. By doing so, people can find great resources to grow a successful blog all in one place.

(ii) Write a comprehensive step-by-step guide on the products or services

(iii) Include products in a list.

 

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Everyone wants to rank their blog post on the first page of Google and get free traffic from search engines naturally. But no one knows what is the exact algorithm for Google crawlers.

 

Here’re few quick SEO tips to improve your blog content:

 

To optimize your web pages, you’ll need to know both on-page and off-page SEO.

Click here to learn morea about the 5 best tips to improve your on-site SEO in 2018

Related reading: Digital marketing simplified for SMB owners

 

  1. Social media marketing

There’re lots of effective and fun ways to market your affiliate products using social media.

 

You can promote your blog on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and many other social media channels.

 

Running live video stream on Instagram or hosting a Twitter chat can be a great way to promote your products and services.

 

Of all the many different social platforms, Pinterest works like a charm for me. Pinterest. I create multiple beautiful pins for each blog post and circulate my posts using Pinterest. If you’re not using Pinterest to drive traffic to your blog, you’re missing out! Click here for our Pinterest guide for beginners.

 

We use Tailwind to boost our blog’s Pinterest exposure. 

 

Here’s my gift to you >>> sign up here to get a FREE month of Tailwind 

 

  1. Email Marketing

Growing your email list is the best way to build a deeper relationship with your potential customers in a creative and personalized way. Unlike blog posts, pins or tweets, you’re getting into someone’s inbox. Which means you’re in their house!

 

Your subscribers are potentially your loyal followers and it’s much easier to promote services or products that you genuinely believe in to your mailing list.

 

We have tried few email service providers in the market like MailChimp, Aweber and Convertkit.

 

Now we’re using Convertkit for our email newsletters. I can’t recommend Convertkit highly enough.

 

MailChimp offers a free plan for 2000 subscribers but they don’t allow affiliate marketing– but they allow affiliate links in your emails. This means you can include links to affiliated sites, but you can’t promote them. Click here to learn more about MailChimp vs ConvertKit : which email marketing tool is better?

Related Reading:

 

Conclusion

I hope this beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing will help you get started.

 

If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, check out this Affiliate Marketing Training Bundle. It’ll help you craft a successful affiliate marketing strategy and make your first sale!

 

And also, get this spreadsheet of affiliate programs (along with sign-up links, commission rates and minimum payout threshold). It’s totally worth it.

 

Do you have any other questions? Feel free to leave a comment below.

And lastly, if you liked this post, don’t forget to Pin this!

 

Also, read:

 

I live and breathe making an income online. 

I’ll be sharing more ideas and guides soon. Stay tuned.

If you haven’t already, sign up here to receive my emails.

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