Have you ever heard other bloggers talk about the income they earned through various affiliate programs and wondered how you could do the same? If so, you're in luck! In this post, we will break down everything for you so you can retire feeling ready to take on affiliate marketing in all its glory.
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to monetize your blog, essentially, you are promoting the products you love and getting paid to do so. Let's say I'm writing a blog post about a new kitchen scale that I've really been enjoying (because hello, kitchen scales are the best) and I want to promote it among my readers. I could write a regular blog post about that, share a link about the scale on Amazon and leave it that way.
However, with affiliate marketing, you could include a special ✨ link to the scale and make a commission every time someone clicks on the link and purchases it. How good is that
In this post, we will analyze:
What affiliate marketing is
What affiliate programs are
What affiliate links are
How to disclose affiliate links in your post
How affiliate programs work
Common affiliate programs you can join
5 ways to earn affiliate income with your blog
Let’s jump in!
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing can have a couple of different definitions depending on the lens you are looking at. If I had to squeeze it in a sentence, I would say:
Affiliate marketing is a way for product sellers to sell more products by leveraging influential people (large and small) by providing commissions to those influential people when their recommendations lead to sales.
However, it can be more easily understood by looking at the definitions through a pair of different lenses. Let's see how affiliate marketing can be defined from the product seller, the influencer and the customer.
👉 For the product vendor, affiliate marketing can be understood as a way to reach more customers by encouraging influencers to recommend their products in exchange for a commission for the sale.
👉 For the influencer (bloggers, social media participants, people who recommend products to friends), affiliate marketing can be understood as a way to earn money by recommending products to my audience, resulting in being paid commissions when People I recommend make a purchase.
👉 For the customer (the final buyer of the product), affiliate marketing can be understood as a way to meet new products from people whose recommendations I trust (I can or cannot).
Because there are three very different parties involved, the definition of affiliate marketing can be a bit cumbersome. However, breaking it down between the parties involved helps clarify it a bit.
Now that we understand what affiliate marketing is, there are some other things that we should familiarize ourselves with: affiliate programs and affiliate links.
WHAT IS AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM? 👩🏫
Let’s start from the beginning. An affiliate program describes a relationship in which a merchant pays you a commission to promote their products on your site.
Typically, you’ll only make money when a sale is made, so everyone wins!
Just as with the definition of affiliate marketing, there are three parties in an affiliate program: the merchant, the affiliate (that’s you!), and the consumer (aka your readers). The merchant is the one paying their affiliate to promote their products to the consumer.
Screenshot depicting WP Tasty's affiliate program on ShareASale
WHAT IS AN AFFILIATE LINK? 🔗
This is how the magic happens. When you sign up for an affiliate program, you’ll be assigned a specific ID or username. You’ll use the affiliate program software to generate links to the products you are recommending. Any affiliate links that are generated will contain this ID or username. That way, the merchant knows who’s promoting their product and who to pay!
As an example, ShareASale includes the affiliate id directly in the link itself:
Amazon, on the other hand, usually presents you with a short link. This link doesn’t contain your user ID, but when the link is routed through their system the correct affiliate is accounted for.
Example of an Amazon.com short link
Affiliate links also come with affiliate link cookies! When you visit a website, cookies are stored in your browser to track various pieces of information. When someone clicks on an affiliate link, a cookie is similarly stored in that person’s browser to keep track of whether or not a purchase was made through that link.
Note: Like regular browser cookies, affiliate link cookies also have an “expiration date.” So for example, if the affiliate program has it set up so that their cookies expire within 12 hours, the consumer has 12 hours to make the purchase and have the sale connected to your affiliate ID. The consumer can bookmark the link and come back to the product page later on, but as long as they make the purchase within that time, you’re golden!
Do I need to disclose affiliate links? 📝
If you’re including affiliate links in your post, you’ll also want to include a disclosure so your readers know that you’ll earn a commission off of their purchase. If you’d like, you can set this up with Tasty Links so that a disclosure either follows each link or is inserted above your post content! Here’s an example of a blanket disclosure on Pinch of Yum:
Example of an affiliate link disclosure on Pinch of Yum
The FTC has some guidelines that you can follow:
If you disclose your relationship to the retailer clearly and conspicuously on your site, readers can decide how much weight to give your endorsement.
In some instances – like when the affiliate link is embedded in your product review – a single disclosure may be adequate. When the review has a clear and conspicuous disclosure of your relationship and the reader can see both the review containing that disclosure and the link at the same time, readers have the information they need. You could say something like, “I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.” But if the product review containing the disclosure and the link are separated, readers may not make the connection.
As for where to place a disclosure, the guiding principle is that it has to be clear and conspicuous. The closer it is to your recommendation, the better. Putting disclosures in obscure places – for example, buried on an ABOUT US or GENERAL INFO page, behind a poorly labeled hyperlink or in a “terms of service” agreement – isn’t good enough. Neither is placing it below your review or below the link to the online retailer so readers would have to keep scrolling after they finish reading. Consumers should be able to notice the disclosure easily. They shouldn’t have to hunt for it.
Also, when adding an affiliate link, make sure to include the rel=”nofollow” attribute; this lets search engines know that you’re going to be getting paid for this link, so they don’t need to take it into account in their search rankings. Tasty Links lets you add this attribute with just one click!
Screenshot showing how to add a the nofollow attribute in Tasty Links
How do affiliate programs work? 🤔
So now that we know what an affiliate program is and what affiliate links are, let’s break the whole thing down.
First, you need to actually sign up for the affiliate program! Affiliate programs are typically free to join, so it’s a pretty seamless process.
From there, you’ll be able to generate links and/or banners to promote the product on your site or to your email list. Once someone clicks on your link, that affiliate link cookie will be stored in your browser and they’ll have a certain amount of time to make a purchase and have it be associated with your link.
Screenshot of the process of getting affiliate links for WP Tasty on ShareASale
If they do make a purchase, the commission will be paid out on a set schedule and/or when you reach a minimum (the minimum depends on the program!). For example, ShareASale, the third-party affiliate network we use, issues payments on the twentieth (20th) day of each month when your account balance reaches over $50 or more for the previous months’ transactions.
Common affiliate programs 🌟
There are tons of affiliate programs out there, so we’d recommend looking to see if one is available before you promote a product on your site. Here are some popular ones:
AMAZON ASSOCIATES
This is a really great program for recommending just about anything that’s available on Amazon! It’s also super flexible in that the commission applies to anything that anyone buys after clicking your link, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be the product that you recommend.
Screenshot of landing page for Amazon Associates program
TARGET
You may be interested in Target’s affiliate program if know your target (hey0) audience are Target consumers—think: millenials, savvy shoppers, etc.
Screenshot of landing page for Target's affiliate program
WALMART
Similar to Target, Walmart’s affiliate program is great if you know your audience shops at Walmart (families, bargain hunters, etc.)!
Screenshot of landing page for Walmart's affiliate program
WORDPRESS PLUGINS
There are tons of premium plugins out there (eg. Easy Digital Downloads, WP Engine, WP Rocket, etc.) that offer affiliate programs, typically through an affiliate network such as ShareASale. If you’re not sure if this is an option for a plugin you’re using, contact the plugin author for more information! Which leads us to our next point…
WP TASTY’S AFFILIATE PROGRAM
We use ShareASale to issue payments and bloggers of all levels are welcome! You can learn more about our affiliate program here. 🎉
Best ways to earn affiliate income 💰
Now that we’ve talked about what affiliate marketing is and listed out some of the most common affiliate programs, let’s get into some of the best ways to make some actual $$$ from this!
SEND OUT EMAILS ABOUT AFFILIATE PRODUCTS
If you’ve found a product that you’re over the moon about, feel free to share that information with your email subscribers. Note: per their Participation Requirements, Amazon affiliate links are not allowed in emails.
Below is an example from Kate Ahl from Simple Pin Media. Here, she’s recommending a course that’s very relevant to her audience – Pinterest marketers. Kate can make money through recommending this course without having to actually create the course herself – a great example of how affiliate marketing can be such a good revenue stream.
Screenshot of an email from Kate Ahl of Simple Pin Media containing an affiliate link
CREATE A RESOURCE PAGE FOR YOUR READERS
Bloggers are often looked to for inspiration and in-depth knowledge about their topic of choice. That’s a great reason to put together a resources page!
If the resources page recommends products for purchase, affiliate links are right at home there. Your readers trust your recommendation and can learn what you use in your daily life.
Pinch of Yum has a Shop page that lists some of Lindsay’s favorite kitchen tools:
It also helps to think outside the box. Pinch of Yum long ago set up a blogging resources page, which talks about which host to go with, what sort of plugins you need to use, which theme to use, etc. Because some of these products are recurring (eg. hosting affiliate programs), this page continues to bring in money over time, long after someone makes the original purchase.
Official Website:- https://uscsc.org/