There are many guides online to show you how to make money with affiliate programs. Some of these guides are super helpful, while others seem to be just a place for them to push their own Amazon affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing works so well to make money that you’ll see many pros use it to monetize their content. And yes, this can include educational courses about affiliate marketing!
I just wanted to share some of the best ways to make money with affiliate programs today, and what programs you should join to make money blogging.
How to Make Money with Amazon Affiliates
The first affiliate account most bloggers sign up with is Amazon Associates. It’s free to sign up and they offer an associate (aka affiliate) account in multiple countries.
Below are some tips to help you make money with Amazon affiliate links. After this, I’ll dive into the topic of other ways to make money with affiliates and share some affiliate programs you can sign up for.
You Need the Right Tools
I recently invested in AzonPress for my current WordPress plugin to promote affiliate links. They have a license for one website or up to 20 websites at the second level, well worth the investment.
I’ve already begun making affiliate revenue on one of my sites that had otherwise not been making much affiliate earnings!
AzonPress has some amazing options that help you share comparison tables, graphs, boxes, widgets, and just plain old product links. Learn more about this tool to promote affiliate links.
Use Amazon Associates SiteStrip
Okay, so now that you have a recommended plugin to make money with Amazon, you’ll want to know another way to make money with this revenue stream.
I installed the Amazon Associates SiteStrip a long time ago, after all, I’ve been blogging since 2008.
This SiteStrip is easily added to your Amazon account so that every time you’re logged in on a web browser, the Amazon Associates SiteStrip shows at the top of every Amazon page. This allows you to easily create affiliate links of any product that you want to share.
Please note, some products on Amazon aren’t available under the Amazon Associates program, but you’ll see the note for those products when you try to create an affiliate link.
Always Disclose Your Links
Now, just a quick reminder that the Amazon Associates program does have rules to adhere to. As with every affiliate program, when you’re sharing something that you’re getting paid to share or will earn money from, you must disclose this, as per FTC rules & guidelines.
Amazon goes a step further and wants you to have a sentence to notify your readers on all social media and blog posts that your links are affiliate links.
You can use something along the lines of:
“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.”
You’ll also notice another disclosure on the sidebar of most blogs that use Amazon Associates affiliate links. This looks something like the text below:
“All links on this site may be affiliate links and should be considered as such. We only showcase items we believe in and can stand behind. This site is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program.“
Where can I post my affiliate links for free?
Now that I’ve shared some tips on how to make money with Amazon Associates, it’s time for you to think about sharing your affiliate links for free.
This will reduce the costs involved with marketing, and help test out what products or services you’re an affiliate with that your audience enjoys most.
Start Sharing on Social Media
Social media is one of the best places to start sharing your affiliate links for free. You should have a Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram profile for your blog or website.
If you just started a blog and don’t have any social media accounts created, please go do that now. You won’t want to spam your friends and followers with links all day long, but you can schedule a link or two each day using the free version of Hootsuite for Twitter and Facebook.
Create a social media marketing calendar and start planning when you’ll share the links from various affiliate programs to start testing which products and services seem to capture your audience’s attention.
Add Affiliate Links in Blog Posts
As you continue to signup for new affiliate programs, please remember to go into old blog posts and add some affiliate banners and links into your old content.
When you update old blog posts and continue to add at least 1-2 affiliate links into new blog content, you’ll soon find that you start earning a steady stream of affiliate revenue.
How do beginner affiliate marketers make money?
Affiliate marketing is an increasingly popular field of work for those that work from home or want to. It is also great for those that want an additional income source.
There is a lot of money in affiliate marketing but so many people shy away from this industry, for some reason. This means you have a huge pool of cash that’s sitting there, waiting for your start making money with your blog.
Being able to make a good amount of money through affiliate sources can be difficult because of how many factors are involved in it. You can’t really just jump right in and instantly be successful; at least most people aren’t able to.
However, with some tips and tricks, you should be able to start off or become a lot better off through affiliate marketing. Here’s how to make money in affiliate marketing.
Create a Plan
Planning can be a great asset to your business strategy. It’s important to consider all options and possibilities before diving into the marketing headfirst so that you can start off a little better. You aren’t going to be able to predict everything that can come your way and hinder success, but starting off on a more planned and stable footing can help a lot.
Plan out what type of affiliate programs you want to do, how you’ll market your programs (social media, YouTube, websites, etc.), and anything else that can factor into your affiliate marketing business.
Research
Researching ideas before fully starting can help you weigh out your options and thoughts on everything available. Research the niche you’re considering to figure out if you can draw in an audience from it and how you should market to do so, and do some research on what platforms you’re considering for your marketing.
There are lots of pros and cons to different niches and platforms, so it’s really up to you to research them and weigh out the options to find what will work best for you.
- Join Shareasale.com to connect with hundreds of brands seeking affiliates
- Sign up for Amazon Associates for free to earn cash promoting Amazon products
- Join the Impact Radius affiliate program
- Scroll to the bottom of the website for any of your favorite brands to see if they have an “affiliates” section.
As an example, you can see that TruDog has an affiliate program because they have “Become an Affiliate” listed in the footer of their website. Many brands have this on their website, if they have an affiliate program.
Keep an eye out for any brands, services, or products you just LOVE because becoming an affiliate marketer for something you use every day is rather helpful to promote and sell using your affiliate links.
Start Small
You probably want to start right off with pushing for sales or marketing strategies, but that’s not going to do the best for you. Starting off small can help you create the best business plan over time.
You should start by focusing on traffic more than sales, such as gaining subscribers on YouTube or getting good SEO practices and traffic coming in for your website.
This will give you the audience to bring your affiliate products or programs so that you can actually make money or sales from your affiliate marketing when the time comes.
Find Programs
Once you have traffic and a plan ready, you’ll have to find programs to pitch to that work with your niche. Be sure to take your time with this to get the best option.
Weigh out what programs work for your niche, what they offer, how you can make sales for your commission, how much sales and traffic you need to make a good amount of money, and so on.
Since there are many factors to affiliate marketing, it’s a given that you should consider which ones you promote. Resist the urge to instantly sign up for a program and start pitching a company.
Keep Organized
Once you begin it can become really easy to lose track of your organization, sales, schedule, and more. It’s important to create a schedule for content creating and referrals, as well as increasing your traffic and sales.
Keep yourself organized the affiliate programs you’re a part of and what you need to do to make money. Understand what content you need to upload, how to make sales through your affiliate links. It’ll ease your stress of keeping track of a lot of stuff at once.
Start Your Affiliate Marketing Journey
In conclusion, the key to making money in affiliate marketing is to consistently promote your affiliate links. Affiliate marketing can become incredibly profitable for many people with some time.
You just have to put yourself out there, make a schedule, share some links, be confident about the products you feature. Know that you will make money with affiliate marketing!
With the right dedication and mindset, you’ll soon start making some cash with affiliate programs.
