Blogging 101: How to Make Money Blogging With Affiliate Marketing

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you! I never endorse products/services that I don’t personally use and/or trust. You can view my full disclosure policy for details.

This post may contain affiliate links.  This means if you click on a link or make a purchase, I may get a commission at no extra cost to you.  I only endorse products or services that I use and/or trust.

If you plan to monetize your blog, you should be looking into affiliate marketing.  If you’re not earning money through affiliate marketing, then you are leaving money on the table.

If you ever give advice to your readers on what to buy, use, or invest in, then you should go ahead and find an affiliate that matches you and your content!  Why not profit from your work?

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Quite simply, affiliate marketing is earning a commission by promoting products, either from other people or companies. You find a product you like, promote it, and earn a profit for each sale that you make.  You are basically marketing products to your readers.  (Only promote products you trust or use yourself, as you want your audience to trust YOU.)

This fits into the blogging world perfectly.  Most blogs are going to already suggest products, ideas, and services, so why not get paid to do this?

What Affiliate Marketing Is Not

There is a lot more to affiliate marketing than just sticking links into your post.  Be wise in making sure you are promoting something that is useful to your readers.  Readers can pick up on the fact that you aren’t genuine or sincere.  No one wants to see a bunch of links that aren’t useful or adding to the content!  If you are genuine, and the product actually fits into your post, you will see a lot more conversions.

This is why I never promote something I wouldn’t use myself, and most of what is promoted here are something I DO own and use already.

Where to Get Started Finding Affiliates that are Right Fit for Your Blog

Affiliate marketing needs to be something that is the right fit for you and your blog.  If you are a mom blog, you need products that line up with what you discuss.  If you are promoting personal finance, you would want an entirely different cast of products.

One thing you can do is to google what you would LIKE to be an affiliate for.  I went looking to be a Craftsy affiliate when I started because I actually own several of their courses and love them.  I googled “Craftsy affiliate” and it led me straight to where I needed to be.

There are some major networks of affiliates that I would recommend to beginners.  They have a wide range of companies and products to choose from, with a very user-friendly format.  I would start with Share-A-Sale and Flex Offers.  Between those two alone, you will have thousands of affiliate marketing options.

The Best Online Class for Affiliate Marketing

You know that I believe in investing in yourself and your blog.  You would be happy to pay for a college course, so why wouldn’t you buy courses to support your blog and become better?

I found the best class online to learn about Affiliate Marketing is Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.

I’ll be honest; I almost didn’t purchase this class due to price. The last thing I wanted to do was spend more money on my blog. The whole point of my blog was to make money, and not spend it.

The thing that changed my mind was the day I made my very first affiliate sale. I made $1.60 from Amazon. It sparked my desire to keep going. Since I knew it could be done, I wanted to know how I could do it better!!!!

Michelle earns over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing, and she shares all of the best tips in this course.

What will you learn in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing?

In this course, there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, over 20 worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful exclusive Facebook group, and more, and she goes through everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, such as:

• What affiliate marketing is and how it works

• Why affiliate marketing is great

• The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post

• How to pick the right affiliate products to promote

• How to increase conversions

• How to build trust and not lose followers

• Required disclosures that you need to know about

• The one major tool you need for affiliate marketing

• Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products

• How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing (yes, this includes the newest Pinterest affiliate rules!)

I splurged and bought Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. It was worth every single penny. When Pinterest changed their algorithm and threw everyone into a tizzy, she did an updated section on Pinterest when they made changes to their algorithms! To me, that’s high quality – when she continues to add great content and information even long after we’ve all paid.

When Should I Start Affiliate Marketing?

Now.  It doesn’t matter if you are a brand new day one blogger or a seasoned blogger.  If you aren’t doing affiliate marketing, then start now.  Even if you have very little traffic, you can still utilize affiliate marketing.  It only takes one person who wants a product or service you mention.  One click.

I made money on a day that I had 4 unique views.  SERIOUSLY.  One of those 4 people looking at my blog felt interested enough and motivated enough to click through and purchase an item I promoted.

Some affiliates won’t take you if you don’t have a certain amount of views a month.  They may turn you down.  So what?  Many many will accept you, and let you start from Day 1.  If you get turned down, move on, and find those who DO want to have you as a partner.  To be honest, I’ve been accepted more than I’ve been denied.

I hope this look into affiliate marketing gets you excited and interested.  If you are already blogging, get paid to blog!  If I can do it, you can too.