There is nothing wrong with monetizing your blog provided you do it in a manner that benefits your readers and does not compromise you ethically.
IMHO, as long as you only recommend products and services you truly believe in and never add anything solely for the potential income, what you choose to offer enhances the content of your blog.
If you are a subject matter expert, your evaluations and reviews can be positive additions that enable your readers to make decisions.
The easiest way to start generating an income online is by adding affiliate links. I recommend starting with magazine subscriptions because they offer high commissions (30+%) and there are magazines related to almost any niche.
Our first step is to evaluate affiliate programs:
- Do they pay their affiliates promptly and frequently? (How frequently? – some only pay quarterly.)
- Are their retail prices competitive?
- What percentage do they pay their affiliates?
- Is there a minimum payout?
It won’t matter how high an affiliate program’s commission is if they don’t pay you. Before using an unknown program search for online reviews, complaints (try the program name and the word scam), or any other information you can locate. It may be better to go with programs known to pay consistently than to test an unknown.
Do not assume that higher commissions and higher retail prices will generate more income for you. Magazine prices are usually consistent and Internet users will shop around. You would do better to promote the best retail price to your readers rather than a higher price that will generate less sales.
Some companies offer their own affiliate programs and others work with one or more affiliate services. In all cases you join a program and they provide tracking links, images, banners and text links. You can use these as a start; however, the best results come from offering your own unique content.
Magazine subscriptions generated more affiliate sales for me than any other source. I featured a link from the home page to a page that offered an image of the cover plus a custom description of each magazine in my niche. I mentioned what the magazine covered and who would most benefit from reading it.
I sometimes ran inexpensive ppc (pay per click) ads using keyword phrases including the magazine names (where allowed – some may restrict their use) and any searches that might result in subscriptions. PPC advertising was once very dependable but is more dangerous now than it was when I recommended it.
While researching this post I found Magazines Affiliate which offers commissions higher than any I received from similar programs at Commission Junction (CJ). CJ is popular because they were one of the first major affiliate management companies and are known for collecting from their advertisers and paying their affiliates consistently.
I had hoped Affiliate Scout would have reviews of the affiliate programs I wanted to evaluate. While they are often listed most of the time there are no actual reviews. I will continue to seek out the most timely, accurate affiliate review sites and share them here. In the meantime, here are the major programs similar to Commission Junction:
- Clickbank – read the fine print; hard to get payout if you sell primarily on PayPal because you need credit card sales. They debit fees that can eat up all earnings.
- Commission Factory
- Commission Junction
- JV Zoo – often used by bloggers to sell info products
- ShareaSale – Highly recommended
- LinkConnector – Check out their new Naked Link Technology
- LinkShare
- PepperJam
- Performics
RESOURCE: Choosing the Right Affiliate Marketing Networks
MAGAZINE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
- Magazines.com (Linkshare – Recommended)
- MagMall.com (Not recommended – 20% commission only paid on immediate sales)
You may wish to subscribe so you don’t miss the next post that explains how affiliate sales are tracked. Affiliate programs are NOT created equally and you need to know how they differ to maximize your results.
AFFILIATE MARKETING RESOURCES:
- Good Overview of Affiliate Marketing: Learning the Ropes
- Top Ways to Increase Success with Affiliate Marketing
- How To Grow Traffic To Your Affiliate Website
Originally published 2/27/2009; updated 8/19/17 to remove Bridaluxe (out of business) and add new affiliate platforms.
Gail Gardner
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Great Post on monetizing blogs. Blogging will help you get your message out to the public, and you can make money blogging as well.A common beginner blogging mistake is thinking that once you create a blog, viewers and money will start rolling in.blogging can be very rewarding.
.-= JUSTIN @ gunshot money bonusx´s last blog ..Who Is Mark Dulisse? Does He Make Real Money? =-.
Thank you for a nice step-by-step explanation of the essence of affiliate programs. Unfortunately, I only came across 2 types of blogs: those that are strictly personal (which I do find very valuable) and those that are aggressively commercial (which I believe are highly unethical). I guess it is great when people are able to find a happy medium between making money and sharing their thoughts & experiences.
—
Regards, James
Hello James,
This blog is proof that there is a third type of blog. My highest priority is sharing the very best information and recommending only what is proven to work and sometimes what I am testing and the results.
I NEVER recommend ANYTHING solely because there is the potential to make money with it.
I am not adverse to using affiliate links for products that I have discovered and am recommending. It is tiny compensation for all the hours I pour into research, writing, and working one-on-one without pay to assist those who most need me.
I may even encourage a company to create an affiliate program and ensure that I introduce them to the only extremely ethical Affiliate Management company I know of that will work tirelessly to improve their program.
There is absolutely no reason why someone who has clear ethical standards can not use affiliate links and maintain them. Simply refuse to do anything solely for money and encourage those worth recommending to use affiliate programs.
It should be simply for any discerning individual to immediately recognize those who write only for the money and those who only write about what they can honestly recommend.
Some bloggers may even do both and you can tell by what they write about a product or service whether they are strong believers or just writing informatively. I recommend that when they blog about something they really love they let that enthusiasm shine through in what they write.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..MEME: BizLuv in Support of Small Businesses =-.
@Affiliate.Solutions There are many who are interested. Thank you for sharing your link so we can check out your blog. We will be adding related additional content as time allows.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy
Hey, thanks for the great content. Its nice to see some other peoples thoughts are similarI have been involved in a bunch of JV’s recently gather MANY marketing tools.
I just created a very informational post about Joint Ventures and how they can increase your profits and traffic.
– Affiliate.Solutions
Make money Blogging: Blogging to make money
@YS You’re absolutely correct and you’re leading into my next post on pre-selling. Whenever you recommend anything there has to be a WHY – if YOU don’t know why there is truly no reason someone else should listen to your suggestions. This is the most important aspect of making money – you have to have sincere reasons and – as you mention – personal experience – behind your recommendations.
Nice write up. I find it the best way to make money from affiliate products to write an honest and transparent reviews not based on “hearsays” but personal experience.
To some, PPC can be a steep learning curve.
Yan
YS’s last blog post..Where Are You? So They Ask
@Dennis It does make sense not to limit marketing efforts your affiliates are willing to fund; however, some corporations want more control than that. The great thing is there are so many merchants that publishers (bloggers) can be selective in what they promote. We can avoid programs that don’t suit us.
As in most other things in life, the majority of affiliates don’t earn much money or sell very much. Only those who invest in learning how to become a super-affiliate are likely to be VERY successful. Anyone can make some money though.
I don’t know much (yet) about affiliate marketing, but it seems to me that if you have an army…several thousand at least…it might be in your best interest to give them as much power as possible rather then competing against yourself as I see it.
i.e. running your own ads.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..February Link Review – Blog Review Winners – TC Contest March – Guest Posts Wanted – I’m Outa Here!
@Dennis Some have concerns about protecting either their image or their trademarks while others run their own pay per click ads and don’t want to compete with their affiliates.
That has been an ongoing argument among merchants for as long as there have been affiliates and ppc ads. Some argue that it is better to have all the ad spots taken up by you and your affiliates than to have your competitors there.
Google partially eliminated that issue when they limited the number of ads that can appear that land on any one domain. Many affiliates were landing ads directly on the merchants’ Web sites. Now they must create their own pages or bid for the top affiliate spot.
Affiliate programs have pros and cons for both merchants and publishers. I’ll be covering some of those in an upcoming post. It is not as simple for either side as it might first appear.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..What NOT To Do With Your Existing Web Site When You Upgrade or Remodel
You’ve raised a question I’ve had before. You said some have restrictions on using their name. I’ve seen this a few times; can’t use their name, can’t link to them, etc…isn’t that just hurting them in the long run?
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..February Link Review – Blog Review Winners – TC Contest March – Guest Posts Wanted – I’m Outa Here!
@Jerry Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Your last post certainly does target a unique niche which is larger than many realize. Since I live in a rural area I am aware there are a lot more snakes around than most people ever see. (They hid effectively which is why snake proof boots are probably a pretty good idea.)
The key to success online is selecting the right niche FOR YOU – and that is key for both developing content and selecting products or services to offer.
There is still plenty of room for quality content on specific subjects and a lot more affiliate programs now than there were when I got started online around 1996.
It surprises me that so few are promoting magazines in their own niche as they sell easily, pay far better than average commissions, and creating unique review content for them is easy. I hope those reading this post take action to start an income growing in their own blog.
i agree NICHE is very essential..that what we are concentrating on right now..great blog by the way!
Great post on affiliate programs and monetizing. I agree, there’s nothing wrong with monetizing a blog as long as you’re not trying to intentionally rip off people. I’ve also found that you can sometimes find great niches by thinking about the odd little things that certain groups of people need to have (like desert survival kits for desert hikers, etc). There are a lot of great options out there for people willing to work. It’s also good to see a review where you honestly recommend one affiliate and not another. Thanks for sharing.
Jerry’s last blog post..Snake Proof Boots & Other Snake Proof Clothing