Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers
by Melanie Nelson

I am new to making money with my blogging. I didn't start out with the intention of making money--it was a happy accident. Having said that, I am definitely interested in making more money with blogging and, because of that goal, I have worked hard to make blogging my career. Although I'm not making much, I'm making enough to encourage progress.

When I attended Blog World Expo in September, what I heard about making money with a blog is a) it's really hard to do (which I already knew) and b) ditch the AdSense or GoogleAds and focus on affiliate marketing or direct ad sales.

The panel Affiliate Marketing Secrets for Bloggers had some great take-away points and advice. The panelists were

The information below is a combination of the panelists ideas and my own expansions.

Before you apply to be part of an affiliate marketing program there are several things you need to have:

  1. Buy and map a domain name for your site. Like it or not, YourBlogName.typepad.com or YourBlogName.blogspot.com is not perceived as professional. Affiliate marketers want to deal with professionals who are considered to be experts in their fields. You need the domain name.
  2. Have your site close to perfect. The design should be complete and clean. Remove any sidebar clutter.
  3. Increase your traffic. You can do this by commenting on other blogs, encourage discussion in your comments, using social media (e.g., Twitter, Plurk, FaceBook, etc.) to alert people to what you're discussing (but don't over do it and play by the unwritten Twitter rules), and visit forums in your niche (e.g., Yahoo! Answers and StumbleUpon) and jump into the discussion. Offer advice. Participation in your community helps to drive traffic to your blog and positions you as an expert.

These items all take time. Don't rush through these steps, even though you want to move forward right now. The affiliate you choose to apply with will be looking at your site; if you aren't approved now, it's hard to be approved ever.

Once you have your site done and you're comfortable with your traffic, find an affiliate manager and contact that person directly. It may take some digging, but it will be worth it to have an actual contact.

More articles on affiliate marketing:

You can read related posts at Blogging Basics 101:

Melanie Nelson writes tips and instructions for beginning bloggers at Blogging Basics 101.

Submitted by Melanie Nelson (view blog) on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 11:31

Comments

 

Patience to new bloggers

Excellent advice! It's surprising how difficult it can be for new blogger to get consice information and avoid making mistakes that can blackball them right from the get go. Once you have a rep for not "following the rules" it can be tough to redeem yourself.

Patience is key!!!!

Submitted by repliderium.com on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 10:02
 

A couple of things

I've been both an affiliate advertiser and publisher. So I love the fact that more bloggers are learning about using affiliate ads to make cash!

I think the advice to ditch the google ads or other ad networks isn't necessarily sound. I make constant, steady revenue from my ads, whereas affiliate revenue is sporadic. I would definitely suggest sticking with ad networks, particularly if they're working for you. 

Commission Junction, Linkshare and others are big networks with thousands of advertisers and publishers, and it can take a while to get the knack of really charming the $$$ out of being an affiliate. I agree with the advice to start smaller, with perhaps an individual site with a 1:1 affiliate system rather than joining a large network. Once you have the knack, then wade into the networks and see if you like what you find.

Great article.. thanks!

 

Visit my blogs at ThreeSeven (all that's irrelevant and amusing) and
ecochick (all that's green, cool and Canadian).

Submitted by zchamu on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 11:40
 

Before you dump google...

Good advise.  I would add one little factoid if you've already got google ads on your site:  ditching them will cause your google pagerank to suffer.

Amanda
Mrs.W's Kitchen

 

Submitted by MrsWsKitchen on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 12:41
 

Just caught an unauthorized

Just caught an unauthorized reprint of one of my posts on a blog called "A Pretty Mess" today and this one of yours is on there too!

It looks like they're just pulled automatically from BlogHer because it's an exact reprint. Yours does have the attribution line at the bottom telling who wrote it, but mine did not. I sent an email to the server affiliated with that IP address after I found out that unauthorized reproduction of material is a violation of their Acceptable Use Policy.

Wasn't sure if you were aware. Love the post, by the way :o)

Rebekah

http://shesgotbaggage.net

Submitted by shesgotbaggage on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 13:58
 

Thanks for the heads up!

We'll look into it! Thank you for letting me know.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't Try This at Home

Submitted by Melanie Nelson on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 15:28
 

Thanks for the article!

Melanie,

I've got the content, but now I have to work on building traffic. Then I can work on ads! :)

Thanks for a straightforward and helpful post. It's just what I needed to read today.

Judy

Submitted by Final Days Forum on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 19:56
 

Excellent points

Zchamu and Amanda, you make excellent points. I have never used Google Ads or AdSense myself so I cant' speak to whether they are good sources of revenue or not. Thanks for chiming in.

Judy, thanks for stopping by! I'm so glad you liked the article.

Melanie
Blogging Basics 101
Bloggy Giveaways
Don't Try This at Home

Submitted by Melanie Nelson on Thu, 10/16/2008 - 20:23
 

Adsense

Nice article Melanie. I don't believe in ditching adsense entirely though. I think most bloggers focus mainly in Adsense as their main revenue source and this is not good. Adsense should be a spice but not the main ingredient. Just my 2 cents.

 Fredricka

Submitted by fredricka on Fri, 10/17/2008 - 09:02
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