5 Ways to Earn More Affiliate Income

If you’re a full time blogger, you’re probably trying to earn a full time income to make up for those incredibly long hours that you put in. If you’re not a blogger, you might wonder what this whole post is about. Well, affiliate marketing is a way for the people who create online content to be able to keep doing what they love. I strive to educate and entertain. I love to write. I love to tell jokes. I love to connect. But, this is still a job. So, to be able to keep connecting with you awesome peeps that read my site, I have to earn enough to help cover the costs of this site. And a great way to do so is affiliate marketing. Let me explain why…

A lot of people have negative ideas about affiliate marketing. Let me say – that’s crazy! :) {And FYI: Yes, this post contains a couple of affiliate links….} As long as you do it authentically, and only promote brands, services, and sites that you truly use, and honestly believe in, there’s no reason not to earn an income from helping to support those awesome things that you love. It’s just like when I worked in the men’s department at Macy’s – a lot of men would come in looking for dress clothes for a big event, but be clueless of where to start. I would measure them, find their size in dress shirts, match them up with ties and slacks, maybe even help find shoes too. They were appreciative that I could quickly give them suggestions of some great options, and I was appreciative to earn a small commission. Win-win, right? Affiliate marketing is similar – you’re introducing your readers to great items they might not be familiar with, supplies they might need to complete a tutorial you’re sharing, or cool gift ideas that help them wrap up holiday shopping. I know that I do almost all of my shopping online, and have made many purchases from the blogs and websites that I follow and trust!

5 Ways to Earn More Affiliate Income

So now that you know what affiliate marketing is, and how it can be really helpful to your readers, I’ll cover the biggest complaint I hear from bloggers about it – that it’s hard to earn an income with it. It’s not worth the time. Their readers never click the links. I’ve spoken about affiliate marketing at a couple of conferences now, and that’s always the number 1 reason I hear for why people don’t use it. So, I’ll share 5 ways to earn more affiliate income, that I hope can jump-start you and help you think of more creative ways to use it too.

1. Be authentic. As I mentioned above, only promote stuff you really love. When you do that, you don’t have to try to be authentic, it will easily come across that way. If you are a crafty type and love the Cricut, it would be totally natural for you to link to their Project Center. Or, find some cool deals to share, like 50 Free Prints from Shutterfly.

2. Diversify. You definitely want to join at least a few different affiliate companies. My personal favorite is shareasale.com, which includes both of the brands I mentioned above. But there’s also Escalate Network which is a great one if you share coupons, survey sites, etc. Another good one is CJ.com, because like Share a Sale, it offers a huge variety of brands to sign up with. And a brand new one I just signed up with after hearing good things is Shopify. {If anyone is using them, I’d love to hear your tips!} There are a few ways to find brands that are good fits for you – simply search by category on the affiliate site. Call up your affiliate manager, and ask them to give suggestions. Or, make a list of 10 brands that you naturally talk about and love. Go to their websites, and scroll to the veeeeeery bottom. You’ll often find a link to sign up for an affiliate or blogger outreach program. Easy peasy!

3. Use the product in a post. I’ll use the Cricut example again – if that’s a product you normally use, then add affiliate links in any post where you talk about it. I find that what works best to get clicks is this: I link once the first time I mention the brand or product in the post. Then I link once again the last time I mention the brand or product in the post {that’s the one that usually gets the click.} And if the brand has eye catching banners I can use, I add one of those at the very bottom. You can often do this on sponsored posts too – check with the brand or network to be sure their not using a special tracking link. If not, most brands LOVE for you to join their affiliate program and add links to the post to drive sales!

4. Experiment. Sometimes I just share a cool deal, like this Fashion Fridays from Cent’s of Style post – because I LOVE their accessories and shop there often. Plus, they send out emails in advance with content you can use, and include your links right in the email, making it easy to share cool stuff. Or, I’ll put together an info post, like this one about using baskets to organize your house – then at the end if they’re thinking, “Hey, I should look for some new baskets too…” there’s a link to go and shop for some. When I was more of a frugal blogger, I wrote this post, my most popular ever, 10 ways to make money from home, and added affiliate links to survey sites into it, which still brings me regular residual income every month. And, I’ve seen this on a few other sites and am creating a couple myself right now – build a resource page on your site. Example: If you’re a food blogger, make one page on your site that shares all of your favorite, must-have cookware, tools, gadgets, and appliances. At the end of each post, link to that page. Your readers trust you, and would probably love to know more about what you recommend. There are so many different ways to use affiliate links in posts, so experiment to see what appeals most to your own readers.

5. Social Media. If you want to just kind of dip your toe into affiliate marketing, but aren’t sure about writing whole posts on your blog, or adding links to your site, try using affiliate links just on social media. Most brands will allow this – but make sure to check, some don’t. And a great way to earn that I recently started using is Sverve – you can paid just for sharing a tweet, for writing posts, or get paid per click when sharing giveaways.

I hope you found some of these tips helpful! If you have other tips to add, please leave them in the comments, or feel free to tweet me, or come chat on Facebook. Do the same if there are any questions I can answer for you! And… If you’re ready for some additional awesome reading today, check out the list below….

For more posts on sales and selling, visit a few of my favorite bloggers:

• How to Sell an eBook on Your Blog Easily by Ellen Blogs
• How to Get More Sponsored Posts by Biannual Blogathon Bash
• What is Affiliate Marketing and Will I Actually Make Money by Day by Day in Our World
• Blogging for Profit Without Selling Your Soul by Pretty Opinionated
• Sell Yourself on Yourself by Mama Knows It All