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You’ve been writing content for your blog and are already self-hosted, you’ve been promoting it on Pinterest and you have finally got some traffic. Go You! Now you want to turn this from a hobby to an income earner. Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways to add an income stream to your blog. I’m going to go through the basics for you.
If you are still looking to go self-hosted on your blog. Click below to download my free step-by-step guide on setting up your self-hosted site in less than 15 minutes. By using my link within the free guide, you will get a great deal on hosting! NOTE: if you are not self-hosted, there are different rules on monetizing your site and it is difficult to do. When you self-host, it is the only way you own 100% of your content. Click below to download the free guide on setting up your self-hosted site or Read this post about the benefits of self-hosting.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
If you’re wondering what affiliate marketing is. It is where, as a blogger, you write about a certain product, or recommend a product through your content, your email newsletters or your opt-ins. You can even write gift round-up ideas and use affiliate links for the gifts you include. You are then rewarded by the company, business or person whose product you have linked to from your blog.
Is Affiliate Marketing Really that Simple?
Unfortunately not. Although you can have private affiliate deals with individuals, it is usually done through affiliate networks that you join. Many bloggers also offer affiliate marketing opportunities for the products they sell.
The simplest form of affiliate marketing is by joining an affiliate network. The three I recommend are:
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AWIN (<— that’s an affiliate link!)
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Rakuten
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Amazon
AWIN was the first network I joined because they do not have requirements for you to join. Some affiliate marketing networks require you to have a certain amount of traffic before you will be accepted. AWIN does not have this, which makes it perfect for newbie bloggers wanting to monetize their site. Once you have been approved, you can start applying to join different advertiser programmes. This is so you can link to their products and gain a commission each and every time a visitor from your site buys something through your special link!
AWIN’s dashboard and the user interface is really quite simple to use. It is also the easiest of the three above to understand. I really recommend using AWIN first. It means you can wrap your head around all the terminology before moving onto networks like Amazon (which is honestly still confusing me slightly).
A great thing about AWIN is that once you are a publisher and refer someone to joining the network, once they generate a sale through their site. You earn £30. How amazing is that?
Like most affiliate marketing networks. AWIN has a minimum threshold you have to meet before they will pay out your earnings, which is £20. Not a lot really when you think about it. It means that you won’t have to wait long for a payout which is awesome.
I really cannot recommend AWIN enough for your first affiliate marketing network. I love it.
This is the best affiliate network to join if you are a new blogger. #affiliatenetwork #affiliatemarketing #blogger #newblogger Click To Tweet
What Do I Do Once I Have Affiliate Links in my Content?
Market and. promote it! You will not earn any income (or traffic) if no one knows you’ve written an awesome blog post, then how are they going to click your links? I mean, of course, you already promote your content. We all know that Pinterest is a blogger’s best friend. Read my 10 Pinterest tips here.
Don’t forget to go through older posts and monetize them where appropriate.
Related: How to Make Sure your Pinterest Profile is Fully Optimised
Will People Know that These Links Earn me Money?
This is a fabulously important question Ema, well done! No, not always, unless they are familiar with blogging and how we can monetize our sites.
Do They Need to Know?
OMG, absolutely yes!! This is a legal requirement. You need to disclose that you use affiliate marketing links within your content. This HAS to appear before any links within your content.
You do this via a disclosure statement. I have mine at the top of every post. This can get tricky to write the same thing every single time, plus you have to remember to put it in. To combat this, I use ‘FMTC Affiliate Disclosure‘ plugin. This enables you to write your disclosure statement as you want it and then the plugin automatically embeds this at the top of every post you write. That way you know you are always covered, especially if you go back and monetize older posts. It also means that, if you have rich pins enabled for your Pinterest business account (which I hope you have both!), you don’t have your disclosure statement as the snippet of text when someone looks at your pin.
Another way of doing this is by having a page for your disclosures. You still need to have a short statement about using affiliate links within your post, but you can then link to your disclosure page where you can have a much more detailed affiliate disclosure. As some affiliate network require you to have specific wording in your disclosure.
That’s the Basics to Get Started
That is the basics of what affiliate marketing is, the best affiliate network to join as a newbie blogger who is just starting out in affiliate marketing and the plugin that will cover your behind and put that all-important disclosure on each of your posts.
One last thing guys!
Make sure all the content you write has value! you are much more likely to get click-throughs on your affiliate links if your post is packed full of value for your readers. Another tip, don’t overdo it with your links, keep it in proportion to the amount that you write. No one wants to appear spammy!
Are you ready to start affiliate marketing? Any questions? Ask me in the comments below.
Save this post for when you’re ready to start monetizing your site.