Blogging for Profit – Part 5

There are a variety of methods to making money blogging and I’d advise you to try a number of them and figure out which works best for your market and audience.

Do try a number of methods and do constantly be looking for new ideas, but don’t try everything at once. Slowly experiment with a few at a time to see what your best results come from and always be tweaking things as you go along.

One of the easiest way to make money blogging is through affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are when you sign up to promote a product, get a special affiliate code or link to use when promoting that product, and then use that code to promote it. When someone clicks on a link or graphic on your blog with your special code on it and they place an order, you get a percentage of the sales.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of affiliate programs out there to choose from. Start with things you already have, love, and use. Add affiliate links in your sidebar to helpful books you’ve read which are along the lines of what you blog about. Consider an occasional product or book review. If you are going to link to a product or resource in a blog post, check first to see if the manufacturer’s of that product have an affiliate program so you can earn a little kickback for the free advertising you are giving them.

One thing to take note of though is that most affiliate programs have a pay-out level you need to reach before you actually get paid. For instance, many programs require you to $10 in affiliate sales before you’ll receive a check or Paypal payment. Having a payout level saves the affiliate program manager from spending lots of time sending out $0.50 checks. It also serves as an incentive for you, the affiliate, to produce more sales. This creates a win-win situation. To read more about affiliate programs and how to earn money with them, I check out The Affiliate Master’s Course which you can download here for free!

There are thousands of affiliate programs out there to sign up for. You can start with a place like Commission Junction which has hundreds of affiliate programs for all sorts of markets to choose from. Since all of the programs are through one main site, you don’t have to wait to be paid for each individual program; instead, you’ll be paid when you reach payout collectively.

Another of my favorites is to be an affiliate for Clickbank products. We sell our ebooks through Clickbank so if you have purchased any of them and would like to tell your friends about them, you can earn 66% by doing so! Clickbank has a payout level of $10, and requires you to have a few sales from two different types of payment options in the beginning to start getting paid (this is to reduce fraudulent orders). Read more about their payment rules here.

After you receive your initial payment, they send you a check faithfully every two weeks if you reach the payout level. I’ve used Clickbank for a few years as both an affiliate and selling my products through them and have received thousands of dollars worth of checks from them and been more than pleased with their program.

My best advice for making the most through them is to pick a few ebooks or downloadables that you really like and promote each of them at least once per month. Also, consider putting together your own ebook to promote through them (we’ll talk more about this later) and your earnings will really skyrocket.

A few other affiliate programs I have received checks from include: Logical Media, CashCrate, Cash4Books, Vision Forum, Refund Cents, and Ebates (earn $5 whenever anyone signs up under you–works well for blogs with larger readerships).

There are literally thousands of other affiliate programs. My best advice is to think of some of your favorite products which you’d like to promote on your blog and check their websites to see if they have an affiliate program. If they do have an affiliate program, when you recommend them on your blog, use an affiliate link and if anyone orders on your recommendation, you’ll receive a percentage of the order (usually somewhere between 5-20%).

Let me be quick to say that I think one of the best ways to actually see a good profit earned from affiliate links is to not overdo. A few strategically placed affiliate links (in posts every now and then) and a few on your sidebar (which you can rotate around and change every once in a while to keep things fresh) are much more effective than just throwing up 150 affiliate links all over the place on your blog page. Too many ads just clutter the page and could cause you to
lose readers.

In addition, use discernment and discretion when promoting an affiliate link. If you wouldn’t feel comfortable promoting something without an affiliate link, you likely shouldn’t promote something with an affiliate link. Developing a trust and loyalty from your readers is much more important than making a quick buck.

Those are just a few of my thoughts on affiliate programs. I’d love to hear from those of you who have used them in the past or currently use them. Which programs have worked well for you? Which ones have not worked? Tell us about it in the comments section.