How to Start Earning Affiliate Income from your Blog Now
You’ve started a blog and you don’t know how you’re going to make money from it. How do bloggers make an income from writing? What can you do today that will help you start earning an affiliate income from your blog? I have a few actionable ideas that you can actually do right now!
Before I get into these ideas, it’s important that I note that affiliate marketing is a long game. It’s unlikely that you will make your first sale overnight (although not impossible!) and even if you do, it can be up to 90 days before you ever see that money. This tends to deter people because it’s not immediate gratification, but I promise that affiliate marketing is not only worth it, it can be a lot of fun too.
Assess your current blog posts for affiliate potential
You probably already have some blog posts worthy of affiliate links. What do you regularly blog about? Do you find yourself talking about a brand again and again, or raving about a service you enjoy using? These are the perfect affiliate marketing opportunities for you.
Another way of assessing your blog posts is to determine which of your blog posts you might fit a link to a helpful product or service. Even if the blog post isn’t exclusively about a product, your readers may find it to be a helpful addition to solve their problem.
Join an Affiliate Network
There are no shortage of affiliate networks you can join for any blogging niche. I love networks because they tend to have a variety of brands that you can work with all under the umbrella of a single network. This often means meeting your payout threshold faster because the amount you’ve earned is under one network, rather than scattered across a bunch of different companies.
Find out what networks your favorite brands host their affiliate programs with. You can usually do this by visiting their website, scrolling down to the footer of the website and clicking on their ‘Affiliates’ link.
Here are some of my favorites:
Amazon Associates – Everyone shops via Amazon. The earnings are even better if someone buys a Prime membership.
AWIN – If you’re into talking about handmade or you have your own Etsy shop, consider AWIN. While they represent many more companies, the Etsy program is my favorite.
ConvertKit – Perfect for b2b bloggers or other marketing professionals. They pay you 30% concurrent – meaning that every month someone is still a paying customer, you earn 30% of their bill.
Creative Market – Great place to buy third-party files like commercially licensed fonts, pre-made social media templates, stock photography, etc.
eBates – A website that allows you to shop your favorite stores through them and get cash back on purchases. It’s a great opportunity to refer others who may be doing shopping at big name stores during the holidays who are looking for a good deal.
ShareaSale – There’s a wide variety of programs to join. You won’t have a hard time finding a company there to work with.
Ultimate Bundles – They sell a variety of differently themed bundles containing ebooks, courses, webinars, and other goods. There are a few evergreen bundles and some that are around for a limited time. Highly recommend! There’s even a second tier affiliate system so that whenever someone joins under you, you get a small % of the sale too for 90 days.
Love Hello You Designs? Click here to join the affiliate program where you can earn 30% every time your link helps sell a theme!
Write more Blog Posts!
Once you’ve found the brands you want to work with, you can start writing more blog posts so that you can incorporate their affiliate links. “How to” and review posts are great for affiliate marketing because you can help solve a problem for your reader and direct them to the problem-solving product or service that you use.
It’s fact that review posts work really well because people searching for them are usually already ready to make a purchase, and just want opinions from others on what to buy.
Create a Resource Library
Do you have some favorites you talk about constantly? Maybe you love a certain product and you couldn’t recommend it enough. Create a page of resources so that your audience can see on a quick, easy to read page what your faves are and what you recommend. Mix in some non-affiliate links and make it a genuine list of good resources that are worthy of being shared.
What steps have you taken?
What are you doing today to start earning money from your blog? Let me know in the comments below.
