In How to Start a Blog for Income we pick up on the next steps to making money online with your blogs and article posts, and through monetizing, Blogging is fast becomming a best online business to start today
Hopefully you will have read my previous articles on; How To Start A Blog For Money Making and Start Blogging and Make Money Online where you will have learnt the basics of starting a blog, How to choose content to write about, How to publish a blog for free, as a start, plus other tips on getting set up up to make money online with your blogs by choosing a Domain name and launching your own business.
This Post is now going to focus on the steps you can take to monetise your new site, to earn an income from it. Once you learn this, you will have a skillset for life that you can use to build an income, over time, and at your pace that can grow into a complete lifestyle choice and change.
3 Steps to Monetising Your Blogs
So, as a recap, you have chosen your specialist subject (Niche) that you are actively writing about. You are Publishing the articles (blogs) on your site and people can see, view and read your posts online. You now have the opportunity to earn money from your articles.
In very simple terms, what you are going to do is ‘recommend’ and ‘promote’ Products and/or services to your readership in your articles.
Your recommendations should be linked to your niche area. So, from my previous posts if we look at my fictional Site on ‘Kite Flying’ I would look to find products to recommend on Kites. this might be Kites themselves, Books on ‘How to Fly a Kite’ or other associated services, maybe courses on Kite flying as an example.
It really is down to your imagination as to what you can promote and recommend in your subject area, but to give you an idea of types of product available: They Might Be:
Digital Products
Physical Products (eg: Kites ! Lawnmowers, Training Shoes, BBQs etc something linked to your niche)
Books (Physical and Digital)
Services (Professional type such as Business Solutions, Accountancy etc)
Training Courses and Programs
Step 1. Where to Find Products to Promote
The process of finding products and services to promote is fairly straight forward. There are key players in this sphere who you can register with as a ‘Promoter’ of the companies and products in their data base.
When you register with a company, you are in fact registering as an ‘Affiliate’ To promote what product you choose, by way of what is called an affiliate link. I will cover more on setting up links later.
Each company tends to follow the same process for registering, that is, you set up an account with your email address, and give details of your business name/Website.
Some Companies may have specific terms and conditions to you becomming an ‘Affiliate’ for their products. At time of writing, Amazon, requires an Affiliate, after Registering to make 3 verified sales through their links in a 180 day period. Amazon then checks your site to make sure the sales are genuine (so no ordering for yourself, They do find out!)
The Products available through the affiliate Companies can be vast and diverse. You can find anything from Health Products to Basketball Training Programs. The choice, as they say, is yours.
But, Choose a product that is aligned with your theme and subject matter. Dont promote say a cleaning product on a Blog site for Kite Flying. It will confuse your readership, and you will lose them as an audience.
What Companies Offer Affiliate Programs
This is not a definitive list but one that will give you an idea of where to get started
Amazon Affiliate Program
AWIN
ClickBank
Shopify
CJ Affiliate
Rakuten
The above are what I would call more of your traditional Market Place where you can find a whole array of products and services to promote.
However, the above is not the only source open to you. For Example there are specific companies that operate ‘Affiliate Programs’ you can register with. Global Corporations are waking up to the idea of Affiliate Marketing as a means of product promotion.
So, are you writing articles on Travel? If so, Booking.com or Tripadvisor might be an option. Maybe you’re Blogging about a Cruise? Why not look at Virgin Cruises, or Royal Caribean Cruises as potential Affiliates?
Pick an Option, carry out your own research so you are happy with the Terms offered and the commission rates paid to you for an Affiliate sale, work, and sign up. Once you have done this, you then need to post the particular companies link, that goes from your site, to the Company.
Step 2. Creating Affiliate Links
The way to create a specific link from an Affiliate program provider is reasonably easy, and just takes a couple of Steps. Whilst each company may be slightly different, the overall process is pretty much standard.
I am Going to Use ‘CLICKBANK‘ as an example
The first part is to register with CLICKBANK and once done so, you will have your User Name (you can choose this and I make it relevant to the Website or Niche I am promoting)
Log into your CLICKBANK Account using your log in Details and Password. When You do, you will be taken to your own Dashboard. On the left hand side you will see a menu, and from this you want to click on ‘AFFILIATE MARKET PLACE‘
This then presents you with a screen like this.
Across the Top bar you can see various categories. Pick one that is aligned with your Article subject and Niche idea. In my example I have clicked on ‘Home and Garden‘ and the first two companies presented that I can promote are shown.
For example purposes, suppose my website, a fictional one, is about Garden Sheds, Man Caves and Garden Bar Ideas. I want to promote on my website the offer by ‘MY SHED PLANS’. So what I do next is click on the Tab that says PROMOTE.
I am then taken to the Affiliate page for ‘MY SHED PLANS’. and will see a screen that gives me an option to Enter my:
‘AFFILIATE NICKNAME
This is your Clickbank ‘USER NAME‘ you chose when setting up your Clickbank account.
When You have Done this, press the Button at the Bottom that says
‘CREATE HOPLINK’
You will now find that a unique to you, string of letters and numbers will appear, and this is your Affiliate Link for ‘My Shed Plans’ (in this example.)
The Link may look like this (I have changed the characters so this doesn’t work, but gives you an idea: https//hopclickbanknet/custom=0&affiliate=(your user name)=myshedplans=new
Copy your unique link (whatever it is, for whatever product you are promoting) as this is what you are going to insert into your blog article on a relevant subject, and save it somewhere (maybe a word Document for now)
You have just created your Affiliate Link, and now you need to embed it into your blog article on your website.
Step 3. Embedding an Affiliate Link into an Article
Again, This is another straighforward task. However, one point in mind to bear is that you dont want to just stick your link anywhere in the content.
Usually, you will want to make your content flow, so that the link will appear naturally for your reader, who will then be inclined to click the link and be taken to the Companies promotion page. Where hopefully they go on to purchase the product or service, and you get paid commission on that sale for recommending the product.
If we take the fictional Shed and Man Cave Website, I may have an article on ‘How I Built My Man Cave’. This could be a good article to lead someone to the ‘My Shed Plans’ Opportunity.
Therefore, I will open up the Dashboard of the website Platform I use, and look to Edit my Blog Post and What I would do, is put a line into my article, somewhere relevant, that might say…
‘Check out the plans I found and used for my Man Cave build… Here’
When I have inserted this new sentance I go back and High light it in the Edit and usually (depending on what platform you use) a mini screen opens up and one of the logo’s looks like a sideways paper clip. If You Hover over it it will say something like ‘LINK’. click This and you will be asked to insert a link.
You now enter, your Unique, Hoplink that you generated and saved from the CLICKBANK MARKETPLACE.
In my Man Cave example I would enter the ficticious link https//hopclickbanknet/custom=0&affiliate=(your user name)=myshedplans=new into the box and press return.
And that is it. It is that straight forward and simple. Remember you will need to generate a unique ‘HOPLINK’ for every product you promote (One Hoplink does not work for all products) and away you go.
To summarise, You have written and published Blogs online. You have joined a few Affiliate Maket programs. You have now searched out products that are aligned with your content, and generated unique links to promote those products, edited your articles by embedding your links and published online (with links now included)
You are on the way to making money from your Blogging and Article writing. Where this takes you, is now up to you. In the next article I will write about fine tuning your content and promoting your articles to drive more traffic to your site, to make more money for you.
If you would like more indepth material and articles on the above, and how you can earn an income from Blogging and Article writing check the article on the Right Online Business Opportunity, Read Here.
Let me know how your Link embedding goes, what products are you promoting? If you have any questions on this please leave a comment below and I will come back to due.
Best Regards and Good Luck
Del