Running a blog is a great way to explore your creativity, write about your passions and hobbies, help others, and connect with people who have similar interests.
Besides all of those wonderful things (and they ARE very important!) you can also use a blog to make money.
As a website owner you are considered a “publisher”.
Retailers have been using publishers to advertise their own products and services FOR AGES.
What is an ad in a magazine? It’s a retailer or service provider using published content to gain business or name recognition.
Television and radio ads are the same thing.
With that kind of advertising retailers throw the ad out into the world and some small percentage of people who see the ad may remember the company name and go to that company to make a purchase at some point in the future.
That kind of advertising can help build brand awareness but it doesn’t always lead to sales.
Bloggers provide retailers online content they can use for advertising.
Affiliate Marketing
Promoting products and services with your content
The practice of promoting services and products with blog content in exchange for compensation is called “affiliate marketing“.
In the case of affiliate marketing the retailer only pays a commission when a sale has taken place. The return on their investment is guaranteed.
Retailers don’t have to hire an advertising company, run tests in various markets, or spend time determining which advertising campaigns are most effective.
They wait until a blogger has done all the work to make a sale and then they pay that blogger a percentage of the price of any products that were purchased.
You can use your content to advertise for retailers and service providers in exchange for a commission – a percentage of the price of items sold as a result of your content.
You do this by including affiliate links inside your published content or in widgets on your site.
Affiliate links are special links that retailers give approved bloggers for use on their site.
If a visitor clicks on an affiliate link on your site and buys something from the retailer within a defined period of time you earn a commission.
Amazon runs one of the easiest and most popular affiliate programs in the world.
Consumers trust Amazon. If you become an Amazon Associate (Amazon’s name for their affiliates) you can include Amazon affiliate links in your website and earn commissions from your site visitors.
There are SO many products on Amazon that a blog in just about any niche can find products related to that niche that they can promote on their site.
Amazon isn’t alone in using affiliates. Retailers are expected to pay affiliates $6.8 Billion in 2020.
Home Depot, Target, Walmart – the biggest retailers in the US – all have affiliate programs.
How do you, as a blogger, include these links in your content?
Bloggers who create written content often mention products in their posts.
You might create a post on how to remodel a teen’s bedroom. That kind of project often requires supplies – paint, brushes, new lighting, etc.
While writing your post you could include links to the products you used that can be found on Amazon.
People reading your post will want to replicate your successful project and may click the links to order the same supplies you used.
You don’t have to be a sales person at all!
In fact, showing people how to do things they want to do is a great way to get people to click your affiliate links.
It costs nothing to sign up as an affiliate marketer with Amazon so it’s a risk-free method of monetizing your blog.
There are lots of other affiliate networks you can join, too, such as ShareASale (my referral link), Commission Junction, and Rakuten Marketing just to name a few..
These networks manage the affiliate programs for retailers. (Amazon manages their own program rather than using a 3rd party network.)
If you join a network you must first be approved by the network and then by the individual retailers inside the network but applying is an easy process.
How it Works
You can start and stop at any time
You are not an employee of the retailer or affiliate network. You can choose to start or stop doing the work at any time.
The internet makes being an affiliate marketer something that can be done from almost anywhere in the world. Those in the United Kingdom can participate in Amazon’s affiliate program in the United States, for example, and target a larger consumer population.
Affiliate marketers help retailers sell more products by creating content online that attracts buyers and sends those buyers to the retailer to make a purchase. “Content” may include website articles, blog posts, or videos.
People who want to be an affiliate must apply to the program they want to promote. Upon approval, the affiliate can then access the affiliate program’s tools to create the special affiliate links that need to go into their content (website posts and widgets).
If a consumer visits an affiliate’s content, clicks an affiliate link to go to the retailer’s website and then purchases something, the affiliate gets credit for the sale and receives a commission.
How Much Can You Make?
The #1 question
The number one question from beginning affiliate marketers has to do with income potential.
Just how much money can you make as an affiliate? The answer is the sky is the limit.
It’s all in your approach.
There are individuals who build their own sites and do all of their own work or outsource some tasks (like writing or website maintenance) who make anywhere from a few hundred a month to four or five figures a month.
Then there are those who think on a grander scale. They may hire a team and build a massive website much more quickly than one can working by themselves. That kind of approach can make five or six figures a month over time.
Therefore, anything from $100/month to hundreds of thousands a month is possible and you don’t need a team in order to get started.
A single site built by one person can make thousands of dollars a month.
You can always turn it into a massive operation in the future if you so desire.
How to Get Started
Choose your program and apply
You do need a website in order to get started with most programs.
The Amazon Associate program is the easiest to join as applicants are granted a temporary account with no or limited website review process.
Once the required minimum number of sales are made Amazon will then review the website to make sure it adheres to their program terms and convert your Associates account to a permanent one.
If you don’t make the minimum number of sales the temporary account is closed but you are invited to reapply and the clock starts all over again.
That means that most people can become an Amazon Associate as soon as their website is live.
The only challenge is to make those minimum required sales.
Following a proven strategy for success is the fastest way to make sure you hit that hurdle.
I have ebooks about a number of proven strategies I use with my own websites here: Affiliate Marketing Strategies.
One of the easiest for beginners who don’t like to write is Cluster Madness Blueprint.
For those who want to create a more blog-like site I suggest my AZON Breeze method.
If you want to increase the number of clicks you get on your affiliate links you can also put some kinds of affiliate links on Pinterest using my Pinterest Affiliate Explosion strategy.
All you need to do is pick the strategy that is best suited to the kind of site you want to create and the kind of writing you want to do and follow the steps.
It’s time to grow your site and start seeing results!