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Thane West

Why DIY Home Bloggers Should Work with Hometalk

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If you want to know how to use Hometalk in order to make money as a blogger and/or DIYer, then you will want to read this post!

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I recently posted about what Hometalk is and how you can use it to earn thousands of page views for your blog, as well as earn subscribers and make money from the traffic you receive (go ahead and read that post first if you are unfamiliar with Hometalk).

However, did you know that Hometalk, the world’s largest DIY community which boasts 66 million page views a month and over 6.6 million Facebook fans, partners directly with Home and Garden DIY bloggers, paying them for sharing content on Hometalk’s Facebook page and for sharing Hometalk content on their Pinterest account? Because they totally do!

Hometalk regularly pays content creators (bloggers and DIYers) $75-$150 to share amazing content directly with them and/or their Facebook pages and pays an $8 CPM to Pinterest users who drive traffic to their site!

If you post about the following topics on your website, then look into making money with Hometalk!

  • cleaning
  • crafts
  • gardening
  • home decor
  • home maintenance and repair
  • makeovers (not the beauty kind)
  • organizing
  • outdoor living
  • painted furniture
  • painting techniques
  • party decor and ideas
  • remodeling
  • repurposing
  • seasonal decor
  • woodwork

There are three main ways you can make money with Hometalk directly:

  • The Hometalk Pinterest Influencer Program
  • The Hometalk Live Streaming on Facebook Program
  • The Hometalk Video Footage Program

How to Make Money with Hometalk’s Pinterest Influence Program

This is a fairly new program and one that I am in love with!

Launched in June 2017 directly to Hometalk Bloggers (and not published on their site or in their support forum that I can find), it’s a program that Hometalk Bloggers can apply to be apart of. However, priority for joining will be given to Hometalk Bloggers who post actively and partake in their direct traffic program. But, any Hometalk blogger, regardless of the size of your Pinterest following size, is eligible for the program!

The Hometalk Pinterest Influence Program is set up to reward Pinterest Influencers (Pinterest users) for driving traffic to Hometalk by pinning specific Hometalk-created pins. They pay you for driving clicks from your pins to their site. They offer a $8 CPM, meaning for every 1000 clicks you earn $8! Get the right pins on the right boards and you can make at least a few dollars every single day.

This program is in compliance with the Pinterest pinning policies (they flew out and made sure). In fact, Pinterest recently named Hometalk as a prime example of a great affiliate program to use on Pinterest.

Hometalk also recommends being transparent on your pins and follow FTC guidelines for sharing paid content, but how you do so is up to you.

If you want your Hometalk posts to be featured in the Pinterest library, fill out this form.

How does the Pinterest Influencer Program Work?

If and when you are accepted into the Hometalk Pinterest Influence Program you will be given access to the Hometalk Pinterest library and a dashboard where you can see your clicks, earnings, and which pins are getting the most clicks.

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In order to make money for the traffic you drive to Hometalk, you much pin directly from the Hometalk Pinterest Library with the red “Pin It” button listed below the various images. You cannot pin directly from the Hometalk posts as there will not be a tracking code associated with those pins.

Everyday Hometalk uploads three (or more) new pins to the Pinterest library (and send you an email about the pins being added as well as any updates about the program). They also offer a search bar so you can search for content that does well for you on Pinterest.

Note that most of the pins they create are not what many bloggers consider “pretty pins” or pins stylized with bright, clear pictures and text. Some aren’t even vertical and most don’t even have text! But, know this is intentional. Hometalk ran several experiments with “designed” pins versus their “in-process” images and the latter leads to more clicks. Clicks are what they are after (and what they are paying you for) not repins or engagement!

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If your personal Pinterest branding doesn’t jive with these “ugly” pins then this may not be the right program for you, but if you are open to non-standard “pin-images” as part of your pinning strategy and want to monetize your Pinterest account, then this likely a great program for you!

Browse or search through the pins they’ve provided to find pins that you know will do well on your personal and groups boards to which you belong. And start pinning!

When you pin from the Hometalk Pinterest Library, they provide a pin description already, but most are pretty click-bait like… things like “WOW this looks amazing!” or “This is the coolest thing you’ll see all day!” I tend to leave those there, but then also add in related keywords so people searching on Pinterest will find these pins.

To make sure I’m adding the right keywords, I always click through to the project page on Hometalk and see what materials are used, what the end product is, and so on, and then put those in my pin description.

Once I pin something from the Hometalk Pinterest Library, I go directly to that pin in my account and schedule interval reshares of the pin via [eafl id=”9073″ name=”Tailwind” text=”Tailwind”] to any all applicable group boards and personal boards, spaced about a day apart.

To help you evaluate what pins are doing well, and which aren’t, simply use the Hometalk dashboard reporting. Repin content that has already done well after it’s been a little while since they went through your circuit of boards by simply clicking the “Pin It” button in your dashboard.

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How do you get paid from the Hometalk Pinterest Program?

At the beginning of every month, Hometalk will send you an email with a statement about how much you earned through the program. You need to send them a Paypal invoice for that amount by the 15th. You will then be paid around the 20th of the month for the previous month’s earnings.

Since I began pinning with them on June 18, 2017, I have earned $296.61 or an average of $2.88 per day!

You will earn more money from the program the more pins you share. There are no limits as to how much you can pin from the library each day nor limits on how much you can earn. They are always adding fresh new content too so you don’t have to keep resharing the same pins to your audience.

And that’s it! If you are already pinning content from others regularly, it’s very easy, and quick to schedule some pins from Hometalk and get paid for them right away! I love being able to monetize my Pinterest account in such a direct way! No having to make affiliate sales!

Hometalk Live Video Streaming on Facebook

If you like Hometalk on Facebook, you are probably aware that they regularly have people do Facebook Lives!

Their vidoes garner lots of engagement, views, new followers, and share great new tutorials in real time with their audience. And YOU can be the presenter in this videos!

Launched in September 2016, Hometalk has welcomed all bloggers to reach out and pitch your Hometalk posts for a Live by emailing live@hometalk.com. Be sure to include a link to the Hometalk post you’d like to demo live. Note that everything you want to demo Live must be on Hometalk.

Hometalk also regularly identifies posts on Hometalk that would be good for a potential Hometalk Live and reaches out to the author directly.

Compensation for your first Live is $75 and full training, and compensation for every Live thereafter is $150. Know that Hometalk Live featuring products for sale by small businesses, brands, and stockists are not compensated.

The benefit of doing Hometalk Lives are that they drive exposure, reach, and new subscribers for you, the host. Your Facebook page is tagged prominently in your Facebook live description and you’ll have the opportunity to invite readers to follow you directly on your blog during your live broadcast!

Plus, your videos are shared to Hometalk’s Youtube channel and added to your Hometalk posts, with light editing, and when applicable turned into a one-minute shortened version for the Hometalk FB page.

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I have done six Facebook Lives over the last year. Assuming your first Live goes well, they will likely contact you about doing another right after you are done with your first, and from every future Live you do.

Here are some important things to know about doing Lives for Hometalk:

  • You have to have an iPhone or an iPad in order to do a Live.
  • You will receive a show outline document before your Live with details about the giveaway question, what to say at the beginning and end, how to increase engagement, and so on.
  • You must have a camera person. (I pay mine)
  • You must have a good Wi-Fi connection in your home or wherever you are filming.
  • Your Lives should be between 25-45 minutes long or longer.
  • You should prep as much as possible before your Live starts and have some easier and/or boring steps done ahead of time (mixing materials, cutting stuff, etc).
  • You must invoice them via Paypal within 48 hours of your Live.
  • You will be paid up to 2 weeks after your Live.
  • It’s nerve-racking. You’re LIVE in front of thousands of people and people are leaving comments in real-time about you and your project!
  • It’s fun.

Once you get started doing Lives for Hometalk, and they decide they like you (and their audience likes you), you have the opportunity to do regular demonstrations for them! For a while I was doing one a month, and once even did two Lives in two weeks! They have multiple time slots available every single day.

Plus, if you are available to go Live last minute, they offer additional compensation for being “on-call.”

The additional benefits of earning the $150 for going Live on their Facebook pages is the number of new Facebook page likes you receive! I’ve seen anywhere from 25-50 new likes on my page from a Hometalk Live! Considering I am lucky to get 50-100 new likes on my Facebook page in a single month, it’s a huge boon to my follower count!

Learn more here.

The Hometalk Video Footage Program

Hometalk offers a compensated video opportunity for Hometalk bloggers to create awesome videos together with Hometalk’s brilliant video team!

If you love teaching people to DIY through video, this might be your chance. Participating bloggers send Hometalk original footage, so they can edit it, and get paid! They feature these videos on your corresponding Hometalk posts and on Hometalk’s social channels.

Here is an example of a video you could make together (and has 113 million views and over 1.8 million shares!).

Compensation for approved footage is $75 plus training for your first video and every video after that is $150. Your blog will be credited in the video and you will be able to use the video on your blog and social channels as well.

How to apply: Hometalk welcomes all bloggers with experience in video to reach out and pitch your ideas. To be considered, please email kara@hometalk.com include an example of a past video you’ve done and a link to your Hometalk profile.

I have not personally participated in this program (creating short videos are not my strong suit) but do know that Hometalk has had several videos receive millions and millions of views on their Facebook page. I can only imagine that with the credit to your site, you’d also see additional Facebook followers! Plus, they’re essentially editing video for you to use yourself on your channels, which I think is pretty amazing!

I hope that as you look for ways to monetize your blog you’ll think about how to monetize with Hometalk! They offer some really great compensation opportunities for bloggers, videographers, personalities, and DIY crafters to make money from Hometalk!

Everything You Need to Know about Being a Hometalk Blogger

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Want to know more about being a Hometalk Blogger and how you can use Hometalk to drive more pageviews, gain subscribers, and earn money? Then read on.

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I first heard about Hometalk back in 2015 from a blogging friend – Amanda of It’s a Fabulous Life.

She was raving about how she was gaining massive pageviews from the Hometalk for a recent post she shared there about how to dye Easter eggs with silk ties (totally cool by the way!).

However, others in our common local blogging group said they didn’t like sharing posts on Hometalk because they didn’t see pageviews back to their site and were then essentially giving free content to Hometalk, which they didn’t like.

So Amanda filled me in on her secrets of capturing some of the thousands and thousands of views her post on Hometalk was gathering so that I could do the same thing.

I am forever thankful for her!

Over my 2.5 year relationship with Hometalk, they’ve driven nearly 100,000 pageviews to my site, earned me over 700 email subscribers (at least), helped me sell multiple copies of my ebook, and earned me over $1000 from promoting their content on Pinterest and doing live demonstrations on their Facebook pages.

But, let’s backtrack a little bit, shall we?

What is Hometalk?

Hometalk is the “world’s largest DIY community.” It’s a user-generated sharing site for all things Home and Garden DIY. Hometalk receives 66 million page views a month and boasts over 12 million DIYers who share content, ask questions, and answer questions about all things Home and Garden regularly.

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From Holly at Hometalk

Content found on their site includes ideas, photos, and answers to things about:

  • cleaning
  • crafts
  • gardening
  • home decor
  • home maintenance and repair
  • makeovers (not the beauty kind)
  • organizing
  • outdoor living
  • painted furniture
  • painting techniques
  • remodeling
  • repurposing
  • seasonal decor
  • woodwork

They also have a huge social following: their Facebook page is massive with over 6.5 million fans. Their Instagram account has over 63,000 followers, and their Pinterest account has over 915,000 followers. Their email list is in the millions as well.

This is not some small site. It’s a site that is full of real, engaged followers and it’s growing. 

Who Can Join Hometalk and How Do You Join Hometalk?

Anyone can join Hometalk and start sharing their latest DIY projects and asking questions about Home and Garden DIY, not just bloggers. It’s a true community of commenters and engaged users. Joining is super easy.

When you head to Hometalk.com, go to the top right-hand corner of their homepage and click the “Join Now” button.

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You can either signup with a Facebook account, or sign up manually by simply putting in your email address, name, password, and zipcode. They also ask you to upload a profile picture (or you can import your profile picture from Facebook).

However, underneath the profile photo, they ask an important question: “Using Hometalk for your blog or business? Click here.”  Click it.how-do-you-join-hometalk-as-a-blogger-4979425

You will now see “Get more visibility and reach for your blog or business today! Find out more.”

When you hover over “Find out more” it says:

Promote Your Blog on Hometalk

1,000,000+ people per month view the projects that bloggers just like you post on Hometalk. Get ready for referral traffic!

Promote Your Business on Hometalk

Get your business discovered on the largest home & garden social platform on the Web. Share photos of your work and answer questions to generate business.

There are also two new boxes available to you to click on “My blog” and “My Business.” When you click the circle for “My Blog” it will provide another new drop-down option where you will enter your blog’s url.how-do-you-join-hometalk-as-a-blogger-or-business-5677300

Hit the blue “Save” button and you are officially the newest member of Hometalk!

How Do I Use Hometalk as a Blogger?

First, set up your profile. You can do this under your profile picture in the top right corner. Fill in all the information about yourself, create a custom profile page name (likely your blog handle), fill out the About Me section, and even your favorite area of home improvement.

If for some reason you didn’t tell Hometalk you were a blogger when you first joined the site, simply click the button that says “I am a blogger” and enter your blog url.

Next, go to your Account Status tab. It should say “You are currently a Blogger.” You can change the status of your account here to a regular member account, a professional account, or totally deactivate your account too if you wish.

Next, fill out and connect all your social media channels by visiting that tab in your profile settings. You want people to follow you!

And now it’s time to post a project!

How Do You Post a Project to Hometalk?

Every user is welcome to post a project to Hometalk. It’s how the community works!

As a blogger, you will post projects to Hometalk just like every other user – by clicking the “Post a Project” button at the top right of your screen.

When you come to this screen, you’ll be promoted to title your project and start sharing your project.

It gives you options to add text, add pictures, add video links, add hashtags, materials used for the project, estimated costs, difficulty level, and even add hyperlinks (you’re limited to three per post). Photos are added between text blocks in the editor and can be moved around (drop and drag style) as needed.

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Fill out all the extra details as it makes your post more searchable and more user-friendly.

Every Hometalk Project Post has to meet the following requirements in order for it to get posted:

  • 100 words
  • 3 Pictures
  • No more than 3 hyperlinks

Hometalk also automatically saves your drafts now too, so worries if you want to come back to it before hitting “Post,” or your computer freezes while you’re working on it.

You can schedule the project to go out at a certain time or day (I’ve never used this feature) or simply hit “POST” when you are done creating the content. You can also preview it before you hit “Post” to make sure it looks okay.

Posting projects is really super simple and doesn’t take much time at all, especially if you’re mostly copying and pasting from your own blog posts.

After you post your projects to Hometalk, others can find your posts in search and on the homepage, your Hometalk profile, and other places. You will likely receive at least a few comments and some traffic to the post without having to do much of anything to promote it.

Be sure to reply to any comments and questions you receive on your post!

You can keep track of the number of views your post has received at the top of the post underneath the title of the post after the first day of it being live on Hometalk; the first day it will simply say “New” there instead.hometalk-project-pageviews-6641702

If you are lucky, Hometalk may even pick up your projects and feature them on their Facebook page or emails! They regularly select new high-quality content to share on their social channels (namely Facebook) which can bring you Hometalk followers and referral traffic back to your site (more about how to get more click-throughs in a bit).

To increase your chances of people naturally finding your Hometalk posts, use relevant hashtags (Hometalk regularly emails their Hometalk bloggers with a hashtag calendar so be sure you’re on their email list), post seasonal and trending projects, use beautiful photos, clear well-written instructions, and in-process photos.

Hometalk Traffic Program for Bloggers

Because Hometalk values its best content contributors (bloggers), it’s created several various blogger programs. Their main one and easiest one to participate in is called “The Hometalk Traffic Program.”

Basically, the Hometalk Traffic Program rewards Hometalk bloggers who share regular high-quality content to their site with direct links to your website from their emails.*

This is huge. HUGE. Their daily email list is massive and the traffic goes straight to your site, not to your project on Hometalk first.

Being featured in their emails has brought me over 6,000 and over 7,000 pageviews in a single day and additional perks like hundreds of email subscribers (I’ll talk more about that in a minute too).

*One note about the program: your direct feature will be one of a “rotation of direct links” in their email. This means Hometalk will feature four different blogger links within the same email, with the links rotating so that email subscribers will receive any one of the four links. This means if you receive their daily emails, you might not see your link there, though other subscribers will.

To take advantage of this amazing opportunity as a Hometalk blogger, you do not need to do anything special. You do not need to “sign up” for it.

If you are a registered blogger user, you automatically qualify for this program if you meet the following criteria:

  • Share 3 high-quality posts (projects) within a 90-day period. The 90-day period applies retroactively.
  • Your blog must be in the English language.
  • You must have three blog links saved under your account settings for the Hometalk editors to choose from.

In order for a Hometalk post to be considered “High Quality” it must meet the following criteria:

  • At least 200 words
  • Contains 4 pictures
  • Includes a before picture and a completed after picture
  • Includes a maximum of 3 blog links, all of which must be hyperlinked to your blog
  • Include a full description of what you accomplished in your post
  • Include enough instruction so that the reader can understand what you did and generally replicate your project

They give this Hometalk post as an example.

To maximize the amount of click-throughs your direct feature will receive, choose to submit links to blog posts that have in-process, or step-by-step, photos! Hometalk is all about the process photos and has trained its readers to like them. These have done better for me than other content I’ve submitted to them to feature.

Featured on Hometalk.com

How to Drive Traffic from Your Hometalk Post to Your Website

Remember how at the beginning of this blog post I said that there were some bloggers who did not like sharing their content to Hometalk because they didn’t see much traffic come from sharing their content on Hometalk? Well, it’s because you have to write your posts in such a way to encourage people to click through. If you don’t, you will not see the traffic you’d like to see!

If you give away all the details on how to complete your project, the incentive to click through to your blog post on your site is little to none.

Which is why you should consider the following tactics when posting a project to Hometalk in order to drive more traffic to your blog:

  • Don’t give away measurements in the post. Say things like “Mix the hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, liquid dishwashing soap, and lavender essential oil altogether in the spray bottle. See my post for full directions [hyperlink].”
  • Don’t share every step. Instead, write something like “Find out the final steps on our blog! You won’t believe how easy it is! [hyperlink]”
  • Only share a small portion of larger multi-step projects, like room reveals and makeovers and encourage people to click through to see how the small project looks in the larger completed project that is on your site.
  • Don’t share where you bought certain non-common supplies. Instead, say something like “Find out where I found this great [piece] on my blog!” in your post.
  • Don’t share all the fine little details and processes involved in your project (meaning don’t copy and paste your entire blog post). Encourage them to get the full instructions on your site in the middle of the post, not just at the end.
  • Tell them you have more great content on [topic] on your site and link to the landing page of projects on that topic on your website.
  • Create an email opt-in incentive that relates to your project and link to a blog post about it. It can be a handy printable instruction sheet of the project, additional tips and tricks about [topic], or pretty printables that go along with the project somehow.
  • Include a link to a relevant product you sell. For example, at the bottom of my cleaning Hometalk posts, I say “If you love these type of practical cleaning tips for everyday things, be sure to check out Speed Clean the Deep Clean: A Collection of Time-Saving Cleaning Tutorials and Tips for Busy Moms! It has 50+ cleaning tutorials and tips to help you get every area of your home looking great, including this one!”

Even with using the above tactics, never expect to see a click-through rate higher than about 10%. People are busy and looking for inspiration often rather than full details right now. Many also don’t want to leave the Hometalk site, and simply want the full tutorial on Hometalk and are too lazy/busy or stubborn to click through for all the details in your post.

But, if Hometalk shares your post on their social channels or in their emails, and it does well, 2-10% referral traffic can add up, especially if it starts to amass tens of thousands of views, if not more!

My best Hometalk project has garnered an astounding 1,629,000 views. But, despite using many of the above tactics to encourage people to click through, I’ve only seen about a 3.5-5% click-through rate to my blog. But, that still equals out to about 34,500 pageviews!

In total for the various projects I’ve written for Hometalk over the last 2.5 years (which is only 27 at the moment), I’ve seen 56,456 referral pageviews from their site. But, I’ve seen another 40,307 pageviews from their email direct features, for a total of 97,063 pageviews! And that’s just for the traffic I’ve been able to see show up in my Google Analytics.

Those pageviews equal huge spikes in ad revenue. Those pageviews equal huge spikes in email subscribers. Those pageviews equal spikes in affiliate income. Those pageviews equal more sales of my cleaning ebook.

Optimize Your Blog Posts for Earnings and Subscribers

Whenever you share content to Hometalk, make sure your corresponding blog post is optimized for the traffic coming your way. It’s a fresh new audience checking out your site so be sure to wow them and capture them the best you can.

For me, this means I have email subscriber incentives related to the blog post content and multiple sign-up forms and pop-ups encouraging them to signup for my email list. And it’s worked. The day I received a direct feature in a Hometalk email, I received about 300 new email subscribers (and it could have been more but my ESP thought there was something spammy going on and temporarily suspended my account)!

If you have related products that you sell, be sure to highlight them prominently in your posts to help drive new sales.

Make sure you have ads set up on your site and have optimized with your ad provider so that you can make the most money possible.

Lastly, add in relevant affiliate links wherever possible in the post to increase your affiliate commissions! Any easy place to add affiliate links is your materials list!

To help your traffic continue, be sure to install easy to use and find social share buttons! You can turn direct traffic into on-going Pinterest traffic if enough people start pinning your content (it’s happened to me!). You can also have it take off on Facebook or other networks so have share buttons installed on your site!

Gaining traffic, subscribers, followers, and money from Hometalk is a fun and rewarding endeavor that involves very little time and effort! I highly encourage you to become a Hometalker and start sharing your amazing blog content with a fresh new audience!

Be sure to check out my second post about working with Hometalk to make money directly from them! 

Affiliate programs for Finance and Frugal Living Bloggers

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I love saving money. Most people do. Most people like getting a great deal on a product that is high quality and/or useful to their life.

That’s why there are so many deal blogs, finance blogs, and frugal living or thrifty lifestyle blogs out there. People are drawn to the idea of cutting expenses, living below their means, and affording the necessities even easier.

As a blogger in this niche, it can seem hard to promote affiliate programs, as how can you tell people trying to living a frugal lifestyle to buy something or sign up for something?

The good news is that you don’t need to worry about being a sell-out if you promote things that help them save money, that help them coupon, that help them refinance or are for a product or service that will save them money long-term.

Also, keep in mind that people are still spending money, whether or not they are frugal. Often your job is to teach them where to shop to get the best deal! Never underestimate the power of a “How to Save on ______” post or a “How to Save When You ______” post. Both of them allow for lots of affiliate links!

Below you will find a list of great affiliate programs that deal, frugal, and coupon bloggers can promote and feel good about! Keep in mind it’s always helpful to sign up for the major affiliate marketing networks first so it’s easy to apply for specific programs later.

 

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Affiliate Program for Frugal Living Bloggers

Affiliate Programs for Money Saving Phone Apps

  • Ibotta. Get $5 for each friend who uses Ibotta plus escalating bonuses. Earn $20 for 2, $50 for 5, $100 for every 10 after that. No limits. Sign up for the app and then refer “friends” (blog readers) with your special referral code.
  • SavingStar. Earn $1 for every completed registration and $0.15 for every coupon redeemed. 30-Day cookie window. Sign up on [eafl id=”8961″ name=”Impact Radius” text=”ImpactRadius”] or on [eafl id=”9044″ name=”Panthera Network” text=”Panthera Network”] (higher payout).
  • Checkout51. Earn $1 per lead. 15-Day cookie window.  Sign up on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale”].
  • ShopKick. Get 250 kicks for each friend who successfully joins and completes a walk-in or product scan within their first 7 days. Up to 100 invites. Sign up in their app.
  • Favado App. Sign up here. You can connect affiliate links within the app!

Coupon Affiliate Programs

  • Coupons.com. Earn $0.42 per print session. Sign up with [eafl id=”9037″ name=”Escalate Network” text=”Escalate Network”] (my preference) or CJ.
  • SavvyShoppers Coupons Widget. Earn $0.42 per print sessions. Sign up with [eafl id=”9037″ name=”Escalate Network” text=”Escalate Network”].
  • Redplum.com. Receive $0.01-$0.07 per print. Sign up with [eafl id=”9037″ name=”Escalate Network” text=”Escalate Network”] or [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • SmartSource.com. Sign up to promote their coupons in the footer of their page.
  • Savings.com and Favado App. Sign up here.
  • Hopster Coupons. $0.04 per coupon. Sign up on [eafl id=”9044″ name=”Panthera Network” text=”Panthera Network”].
  • Cellfire. No clipping required. Sign up here. (Not sure it’s working.)

Groceries and Food Affiliate Programs

  • $5 Meal Plan. 30% commissions. 90-Day Cookie. Sign up here.
  • Emeals. 30% commissions. 45-day cookie window. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • FreezEasy. This super simple freezer meal program lets you customize your menu and then make 10 meals in under an hour. 20% commissions. Sign up Here.
  • Grocery Budget Makeover. 5-Week step-by-step course that starts at $39 and teaches you how to reduce your grocery budget with meal planning, couponing, and simple prep.  25% commissions. Sign up HERE.
  • Grocery University by Money Saving Mom. $9.97 audio course on making the most of your grocery budget. 50% commissions. Sign up HERE.
  • Restaurant.com. Earn 3-20% commissions. 45-day cookie window. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • Amazon Prime Pantry. Earn 5% on groceries from Amazon. 1-day cookie. Sign up to be an Amazon affiliate.
  • Boxed. Buy wholesale groceries. Sign up through [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • Jet.com.  Unique pricing algorithm for savings and offers fresh groceries and more. 2.5% commissions. 7-day cookie. Sign up on LinkShare.
  • Walmart Grocery Referral. Refer friends to try it out and they receive $10 and you receive $10. Max of 10 referrals but codes work for up to 1 year (multiple uses). Sign in and click green “Refer & Get $10” button to sign up.
  • Shipt. $20 commissions for new customers. Sign up with PromoAffiliates.

Saving Money Online Shopping

  • Ebates. $5 per referral with a generous bonus scale for bloggers where more than one referral a month can mean an extra $25-100+. Sign up for Ebates and grab your Refer-a-Friend code.
  • TopCashBack.com. $1 payout per validated signup. Sign up on [eafl id=”8960″ name=”Flex Offers” text=”FlexOffers”] and [eafl id=”9036″ name=”CenterPoint Media” text=”CenterPoint Media”].
  • ShopAtHome.com. Earn commissions per action or per-click. Sign up here.

Discount Deals Sites Affiliate Programs

  • Groupon. Earn 5-10% commissions on Groupon purchases. 3-7 day cookie window. Sign up on Groupon.
  • LivingSocial. Earn 3-15% commissions. 3-day cookie window. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • Zulily. 2%-4% commissions. 1-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • Rue La La. Private sale boutiques. 2.4% commissions on sales. 1-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8960″ name=”Flex Offers” text=”FlexOffers.”]
  • HauteLook. Top designer brands up to 75% off. $15 commissions on first purchases. Sign up here.
  • Jane.com. Boutique marketplace. 10-11% commissions per sale. 15-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale.”]

Surveys Sites with Affiliate Programs

Survey sites are a great way to make money via affiliates! People love to get paid for their opinions. I have personally made good money with a single post about surveys.

There are lots of affiliate networks that offer links to various survey companies. I cannot look them all up and hunt them all down. Plus, survey offerings frequently cap or end. If you have interest in promoting surveys to your readers, I suggest signing up with [eafl id=”9044″ name=”Panthera Network” text=”Panthera Network”]. They have an extensive selection of high-paying survey offers in their database.

I will mark all survey sites on the Panthera Network with an asterisk. I cannot disclose exactly how much each one pays out, but it ranges from $1-$5.00 or more per qualified registration. Considering that a single person can frequently sign up for multiple survey companies at once, it can add up fast.

  • American Consumer Opinion
  • *Cashback Rewards
  • *CashCrate
  • *Consumer Opinion Panel
  • *Crowdology
  • *Finger on the Pulse Community
  • *Global Test Market Panel
  • Harris Poll Online
  • Inbox Dollars – Take surveys from home to make small amounts of money while you watch TV Lead (signs up with email address) – $1.40
  • *InboxPays
  • *Ipsos Panel
  • *iSurvey World
  • *Mindfield Online Panel
  • MyPoints. Earn $2.50/lead. 30-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • *MySoapBox Panel
  • *MySurvey Panel
  • *Nielsen
  • OneOpinion
  • *Opinion Bureau
  • *Opinion Outpost
  • *OpinionPlus Panel
  • *Paid for Research
  • PaidSurveys
  • *Panda Research
  • *PanelBucks
  • *Pinecone Research
  • Prize Rebel
  • Product Report Card
  • *SaySo4Profit
  • *Smart Panel
  • *Survey Consensus
  • *Survey Downline
  • *Survey Junkie
  • *Survey Round Table
  • *Survey Savvy Connect
  • *SurveyClub
  • Survey4Profit.com. $1/sign-up. 45-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ.”]
  • *Surveys4Moms
  • *SurveyQueen
  • *Swagbucks (Also on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”])
  • *Toluna Opinions
  • *Vindale Research
  • *VIP Voice Panel
  • *YouGov

Secondhand Clothing Stores with Affiliate Programs

People love to save money on clothing and buying thrift and secondhand online is a great way to save every day on clothes and other items.

  • ThredUp. Give your friend $10 and earn $10 credit to Thredup. Credits expire after 30 days. Max $580 earnings per calendar year. Sign up for a ThredUp account.
  • Schoola. Earn 10% per sale.  45-day cookie window. Earn money for your school while you shop for clothes! Sign up on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale”].
  • Swap.com. They sell clothes, sporting equipment, toys, books, and more! $10-15 commissions per new customer. 5-10% on existing customers. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • My Kid’s Threads. Designer Consignment. 8% commissions. 30-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale”].
  • Ebay. Sign up on the Ebay Partner Network.

 Other Affiliate Programs for Finance Bloggers

  • TurboTax. Earn money from people using your link to file their taxes. Sign up here on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ”].
  • Gazelle. Buy and sell used phones for large discounts. 15% commission on all trade-ins. Up to 5% commission on all certified pre-owned purchases. 60-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale”].
  • Grove Collaborative (Formerly Epantry). Organic cleaning, home, beauty and baby products delivered to your door for less than you would spend at your local retail store. Earn $8 per checkout you drive. Sign up here.
  • Ultimate-Bundles. They offer many niche-specific highly discounted digital bundles. The Ultimate Homemaking Bundle contains financial books and resources. Sign up here.
  • Fiverr. Promote people finding cheap design and digital services on Fiverr. Sign up here.
  • FreshBooks. Invoice and Accounting services. $5 per free trial signup plus $55 per paid subscriber. 120-day cookie. Join on [eafl id=”8968″ name=”ShareASale” text=”ShareASale”].
  • Target REDCard. $8. 7-day cookie. Sign up on [eafl id=”8961″ name=”Impact Radius” text=”ImpactRadius.”]
  • MOTIF Investing. Investment and advisory firm. $25 per application. $45 per approved application. Sign up on [eafl id=”8992″ name=”CJ” text=”CJ.”]
  • MyScore. Credit Check. $12 after paid subscription starts and free 7-day trial ends. Sign up on [eafl id=”9044″ name=”Panthera Network” text=”Panthera”] (need approval).

I’m sure there are plenty more great programs that frugal bloggers can promote. If you have a program you love to promote to your thrifty audience, leave me a comment and I’ll add it!

In the meantime, pick a few from the list above that fit your audience and site and get promoting!

affiliate-programs-for-bloggers-thrifty-frugal-saving-money-444x1024-8738461

If you are looking for more niche-specific affiliate programs, check out these posts:

 

Affiliate Programs for Homeschool and Education Bloggers

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Want to monetize your website? Here’s an awesome list of affiliate programs for education bloggers!

If you write about education, preschool, or homeschool, or write about teaching in a public, private, or charter school, there are so many amazing affiliate programs out there for you promote in order to monetize your site!

The most popular affiliate program is always Amazon Associates (assuming your state allows you to participate in it) as it is so easy to link to any product on Amazon and enjoy great conversion rates generally. Check out how to get started with Amazon Affiliates if you aren’t already on there.

However, sometimes Amazon doesn’t have the services or products you’d like to promote on your site. That’s where this list comes in!

I categorized the affiliate programs to make it easier for you to find the programs that are a great fit for you, your blog, and your audience.

Not all programs will work stellar for you. I am not encouraging you to join all of these programs. That’s nuts. Focus instead on products you use first, then products that would work naturally with the content you already have or will produce in the future.

Some of the affiliate programs are run by individual bloggers or companies while other are managed by affiliate networks like CJ, ShareASale, and Impact Radius. I list the current affiliate commission rates and the cookie-length. A “cookie” is simply how long you have after someone clicks a referring link to make a purchase or action for you to make a profit. Please note that all rates and cookies are subject to change at any time, as are programs able to close or change. Always read their terms carefully and promote according to their policies.

Also, higher rates are available for several of the CJ affiliates listed below if you become CJ Content Certified (find out more and apply here and put in referral code 4098150).

portrait-of-a-school-boy-looking-through-a-magnifying-glassAffiliate Programs for Homeschool and Education Bloggers

Preschool and Early Grade School Products with Affiliate Programs

There is a lot of early education and early elementary school blogs and these programs could be a great addition for you!

Grade School Homeschooling Products with Affiliate Programs

If you write for the grade school aged child in school or homeschool, these are some great affiliate programs for you!

General Homeschooling Help Products with Affiliate Programs

If you write about homeschooling, or teaching children at home, look into these books and products to promote on your education website.

joshs-office-1024x764-7086432Affiliate Programs for Classroom Teachers

If you are a classroom teacher and write about teaching in the classroom, here are some great affiliate programs for teachers inside the classroom!

Sensory Products with Affiliate Programs

Whether in a classroom or at home or for early education purposes, sensory products are very popular right now. Here are some great ones to promote.

educational-subscription-boxes-for-kids-1-1024x538-2315747

Educational Subscription Boxes with Affiliate Programs

Many parents (and grandparents) love gifting these to kids! They come every month with educational resources and activities already planned and ready to go for inside.

Test Prep, Tutoring Services, and Other Education Courses with Affiliate Programs

Another great thing to promote are websites that help with things like test prep courses, learning second languages, or developing other skills or talents.

  • The Economist Test Prep. GMAT and GRE prep courses. 15% commissions. 30-day cookie. Join on CJ.
  • DriversEd. Students complete online driver’s education so they are ready for behind-the-wheel training. 30% commission and 45-day cookie. Join on CJ.
  • Rosetta Stone Language Programs. Help others learn a new language. 10% commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on CJ.
  • Craftsy. Adults, teens, and children can take online courses to learn creative skills and crafts. 75% commissions and 30-day cookie for first-time course buyers, 15% and 7-day cookie for existing customers. Sign up on ShareASale!
  • Gentle Guitar offers online guitar lessons for kids ages 5-12. Earn a $50 commission for each new student who signs up. 180 day cookie. No minimum payout threshold, payments issued monthly via PayPal. Sign up HERE.

Other Education Related Affiliate Programs

Here are a few more programs that you may find to be a good fit for your website.

  • Grammarly. Grammarly is the world’s leading software that checks for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, enhances vocabulary usage, and suggests citations. $20 per sale, $0.20 per lead. Sign up on ShareASale.
  • SimpleTuiton. $0.75 per every initial student loan search. Sign up on CJ.
  • Mobicip App. Lets you block distractions when your kids are doing schoolwork online. 20% commission on each sale. Sign up HERE.

startup-stock-photos

Educational Apps/Movies with Affiliate Programs

Who doesn’t love a good educational app for a phone, tablet, or computer?

You can link to many various free or paid apps (and movies) on iTunes (they have an affiliate program that offers 2.5% for all app and in-app content and 7% commissions on music, movies, books, and TV, and 50% commissions on memberships) or on Amazon Associates (for Android versions).

Amazon currently offers 5% fixed commissions on digital music and movie downloads, 10% on digital video games.

The commissions may not be super high on a $5.99 app download, but it can add up if you sell a lot of downloads. Also, when linking to Amazon, you can make commissions on anything else they put in their cart and buy within 24-hours after clicking your affiliate link! I wrote a post about some top educational apps on my other website to give you some ideas.

Amazon also offers a flat $3 commission for getting people to download the Kindle Reading App as well as for people trying the Kindle Unlimited Free Trial, and a $3 flat fee for everyone who signs up for a 30-Day Audible Free Trial Membership.

I also personally recommend promoting the following apps:

  • Cozi – The #1 family organizing app. Free to download and use. $1.50 commission per every signup. Join via ShareASale.

Want more on affiliate marketing? Join my blogger Facebook group and watch our exclusive live video all about affiliate marketing, check out great affiliate networks to join, check out 3 simple tips for doing better with affiliate marketing, and check out my list of affiliate programs for marriage and relationship bloggers!

Affiliate Programs for Marriage and Relationship Bloggers

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If you write about marriage or relationships or dating on your blog, the following is a great list of affiliate programs for marriage bloggers and relationship bloggers.

I love promoting affiliates for my dating and marriage content on my blog What’s up Fagans?. It has proven very profitable over time. But, it’s hard to know exactly what to promote, or what does well. It also might depend on what type of marriage advice and topics you are discussing on your blog as to what products would be a good fit for your site and lead to conversions, and thereby commissions for you!happy-young-man-giving-his-girlfriend-a-piggyback-ride-outdoors

Affiliate Programs for Relationship Bloggers

I have not personally promoted all of the following ideas. I simply searched for affiliate programs online, and am listing them here for you to consider, as your audience, niche, and other content will vary and some products may resonate great with your audience while others, not as much. I highlight several website specific and blogger affiliate programs in this list as they offer high commissions usually, as well as courses that your audience may find more beneficial than just a book about relationships.

As with all things, trial and error is key, as is knowing your target audience. I hope this list will help! If you know of other marriage affiliate programs, please let me know.

Marriage and Relationship Ebooks Offering Affiliate Programs

Affiliate Programs for Strengthening or Rebuilding Marriages

Date Night Products with Affiliate Programs

If you are an Amazon affiliate, you can always link to anything on Amazon! From games you can play on date nights, movies to rent, or relationship books, the ideas are pretty endless!

Affiliate Networks for Bloggers

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Affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable for bloggers and website owners, but many don’t know where to find good affiliate networks for bloggers!

Affiliate networks provide companies with a managed platform to reach out to affiliates, bloggers, and website owners and it manages their creatives (ads/banners), links, promotions, and payments. An affiliate network also gives a company more exposure to people (bloggers).

As a blogger, it’s great to work with an affiliate network because you can work with multiple merchants within one platform and get paid quicker. Many affiliate programs require you to have a balance of $25, $50, or $100 before you get paid.

The benefit of working with a network is that if you make $5 from Company A, and $18 from Company B, and $0.20 from Company C, all of those payments get lumped into the affiliate networks’ system and works toward your minimum payment thresholds. Whereas working with a company individually as an affiliate where you only make $5 every few months and they require a $100 payout means you may never get paid. Working with an affiliate network as a blogger means your earnings add up faster, allowing you to get paid faster.

What blogger doesn’t want to get paid?

The following list contains some of the most popular affiliate networks for bloggers (all of which I have an account with), an overview of some of the more popular companies are on their network (a complete list would be way too long!), and what I like and dislike about each one.
passive-blog-income-affiliate-network-for-bloggers-681x1024-5867082

Affiliate Networks for Bloggers

1. Amazon Associates

The Amazon Affiliate network is by far one of the most popular affiliate program for bloggers. Amazon is great for bloggers because you can easily create a custom referral link to almost any product or page listed on Amazon, yet be paid for (almost) any purchase made on Amazon even if you didn’t link to that specific item.

There are also flat rates offered for their bounty programs – Audible, Amazon Family, Amazon Prime, Amazon Music, Amazon Kindle, Baby and Wedding Registries, and cell phone phones with service plans. They also payout monthly with a $25 balance. But, the cookie is only 24 hours long, and the commissions rate is low, starting at only 4%.

However, it is volume based and is easily bumped up the more items you sell. It only takes 7 shipped items in a month for your rate to increase to 6%, 31 items shipped to reach 6.5%, and 111 items to reach 7%, and so on. You can earn up to 8.50%. Some products have fixed advertising fees however.

2. ShareASale

This is one of the most popular and easy to use affiliate networks for bloggers. With merchants like Craftsy, Tea Collection, Grammarly, Costume Express and Birthday Express, StudioPress, and so many, many others, it is very easy to find a company that is a good fit for your niche and audience. You have to earn at least $50 cumulative over all of your affiliates to be paid, but with good commission rates and cookie duration on most merchants, it can be achieved fairly quickly. They were my first affiliate network to pay me!

3. FlexOffers

FlexOffers is a great affiliate network if you want to link to some very popular merchants like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macys, Nordstrom, Sears, Walgreens, JCPenney, Kmart, Oshkosh B’Gosh, and Carters among many other very popular and recognizable brand names.

What I liked about FlexOffers is that once you start making commissions, especially in your first 30-60 days, they may put you on their VIP list which means you can get auto approvals on hundreds of programs, and it allows you to get paid faster too. Payout is at $50.

4. Commission Junction (CJ) 

Many popular merchants work with Commission Junction (CJ) – Home Depot, Sears, Oneida, TurboTax, HSN.com, Office Depot, Old Navy, QVC.com, Kmart, Lands’ End, American Eagle Outfitters, Bed Bath & Beyond, Care.com, and many more. The payout is at $50. They have some neat features like their custom widgets, as well as their CJ Affiiliate Content Certified Program for style, home, tech, lifestyle, and business bloggers.

5. Rakuten | Linkshare

Linkshare is a fairly robust affiliate network with thousands of affiliate programs, however many are less common. They still have some very popular companies as well like Kohls, ThredUp, Macy’s, PetSmart, NutriSystem, Best Buy, Destination Maternity and others on their platform. One of their nice features is that companies can send you Private Offers for higher commission rates than their base rates. Payout is at $50. If you live in the UK sign up with this link. 

6. Affiliate Window

Affiliate Window is a fairly large network, and its most popular merchant is Etsy. With 4% commissions and a 30-day cookie period, Etsy is a great way for many different blogs to earn some revenue. People love Etsy and you can be the means of helping people find great unique products. But, there are hundreds of other companies on AW as well, and they offer an easy to use booklet tool.

7. Pepperjam Network/Ebay Enterprise

Pepperjam Network, also known as the Ebay Enterprise Netowrk, is another fairly large network with hundreds of affiliate partners. I personally haven’t done much with them, but signed up to work with Melissa & Doug and Shutterfly. Other companies there are Bebe, BJ’s, CanvasOnDemand, Destination XL, Discount School Suply, Dollar General, Dressbarn, Edible Arrangements, GNC, Puma, Step2, and Sports Authority. They offer live customer support, easy to access creatives and various report options. They payout through PayPal when you reach at least $25.00.

8. Impact Radius

I find Impact Radius‘ system very hard to figure out. To actually see all 300+ companies in their network you need to completely fill out your profile and then in the bottom gray footer click the tiny “Join Platform” on the bottom left hand side of the screen. In their network are Diapers.com/Soap.com, Education.com, Savings.com, Target, Cabelas, Oriental Trading Company, Tommy Hilfiger, Children’s Place, West Elm, Restoration Hardware, and Pottery Barn. The payout threshold starts at $50.

9. Panthera Interactive

Definitely one of the smaller affiliate networks designed for specific niches and content, the Panthera Interactive Network is a great place to earn high commissions through strategic promotion of their links. I regularly earn over $100 a month from just two blog posts that contain their links: 21 of the Best Survey Sites for Moms to Make Money Online and The Great Big List of Free Stuff for Moms.

Most of their links and companies are for coupons, deals, contests, email sign-ups, free samples, and surveys. They also work with bloggers in many different countries beside the US (UK, AU, DE, CA). Shari’s Berries and ProFlowers are also in their network.

10. Escalate Network

The Escalate Network is a leading affiliate network for family friendly blogs and brands. They offer printable coupons from Coupons.com, pregnancy and kid freebies (like Mother’s Lounge products), surveys, sweepstakes, contests, and JustFab. Payout is at $50. I make most of my commissions with them through this post.

11. CenterPoint Media

CenterPoint Media is another kids and family-friendly affiliate network to belong to. They have many similar offerings to Escalate Network. They have freebies, surveys, giveaways, free trials, discounts, and coupons. However, some deals come and go, as there are caps on leads, which can lead to broken links if you aren’t paying attention. They payout at $100.

12. iTunes

A lot of people own and use Apple products. When you link to movies, games, apps, podcasts, etc available on iTunes as an affiliate, you can make 7% in commissions. It may not be a lot, but it can add up. It’s a great program for tech bloggers.

13. E-Junkie

E-junkie is the affiliate network that many bloggers like to use to sell their personal digital goods like ebooks and printables. I recommend signing up for an account because as you start looking for products to promote, you will inevitably come across someone who is selling their product on E-Junkie. If you are already signed up, it makes it as easy as clicking a button to join a blogger’s affiliate program and start promoting.

Unlike many of the other networks I mentioned above, there isn’t (usually) a payment threshold. The blogger runs their affiliate program through their platform, but will pay you any and all earnings each month, even if it is only $5. The great thing about promoting other bloggers’ products is that many have high commission rates of 20-50% even if their products are less expensive. It’s a great way to make money blogging.

Honestly, working with bloggers or directly with companies is often a better way to go in order to make passive income. However, many great smaller companies have partnered with these above networks so it’s worth having an account already set up.

Other affiliate networks to consider are BrandCycle who works with over 150 popular retailers, RewardStyle or ShopStyle if you are a fashion blogger, CPA-DNA, and AvantLink.

What are your favorite affiliate networks?

March 2016 Traffic and Blog Income Report – What’s up Fagans?

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One of the main reasons I started What’s up Blogging? was to share more about my blogging journey and to create a resource of information for other bloggers, creatives, and website owners, so I have decided to start a blog income report.

There are various reasons why. Mostly, I like the idea of sharing my successes and how I am earning money so you how to be successful as well. I am NOT doing it to brag in any way shape or form. I am humble about the money I earn. Every. Single. Penny. I am blessed beyond measure to be able to work from home only 20-30 hours a week, homeschool, and make a full-time income.

However, I will not be including exact numbers in my income reports. Let’s just say that last year, 2015, my full-time income was a small full-time income, only slightly less than my husband earned via his graduate assistantship stipend from the University. Sadly, it was still more than his first full-time high school teaching position a few years ago. But, a full-time income (no matter how small) from a job I love, that I work when I want, how I want, and if I want, is pretty incredible.

For now I am only including information on my main blog, What’s up Fagans?. What’s up Blogging? is brand spanking new, so I am making $0 right now. I spent over $400 setting it up and hiring someone to design it for me. Definitely not seeing a positive return yet since I haven’t even started promoting it. That’s what I hope to do in April, I assuming I get around to it, cause, Life.

So, let’s get to the details about my money making blog. Several links are my personal affiliate links. It’s one way I make money. Thanks for continuing to support me.blog-income-report-march-2016-681x1024-5340545

What’s up Fagans? Blog Traffic March 2016

March was a depressing month of low stats, even lower than February which had two less days. Considering I had over 350,000 pageviews in January, my best month ever, this was a big low. Pinterest made some major changes and it majorly affected my traffic, about 50% of which is driven from Pinterest.

Sessions: 190,682
Pageviews: 225,924
Users: 178,194

Average Session Duration: 2:20
Bounce Rate: 23.11%
New Sessions 86.39%

Where I get my traffic:

43.4% Direct (this is larger than usual this month because Pinterest changed its reporting so now much of it is counted as direct rather than Social. Last month Direct was only 27.5%)
38.4% Social (last month it was 55.2%)
— 93% from Pinterest; 4% from Facebook; 1% from BuzzFeed; 2% Twitter, SU, G+, and everything else
12.5% Organic Search
5% Referral
0.7% Email/Other

As you see, I rely heavily on Pinterest for traffic, which is why I saw a major decline this month as Pinterest made some major changes across the board, affecting about every blogger I know. I have some new pinning strategies in place for April, so I hope to see my traffic go up.

New Posts:

On What’s up Fagans? in March I put up 12 new posts, which is good since I am shooting for 3 posts a week, M/W/F.

Six of the twelve posts were sponsored. One was a guest post from my friend Courtney.  One was a round-up post on Easter Traditions (see THIS post about how to use round-ups effectively).

My most popular post was “Dealing with Potty Training Regression? Ask Your Toddler This One Question.” It earned almost 3500 pageviews this month, somehow gaining lots of pins. For a new post, it’s great to see something take off again on Pinterest again!

What’s up Fagans? Blog Income March 2016

Despite having the lowest traffic in more than a YEAR to my site, I was paid the MOST I have ever earned in a month. Which reminded me that I need to stop comparing myself and my blog to others. There is no one way to make money from a blog. This is also why I decided to share my numbers.

Here’s what you need to know about my site:

I sell ZERO of my own products. No ebooks. No courses. No printables. No crafts (goodness no). I make almost all of my money from three things – Ad networks, Affiliate Marketing, and Sponsored Posts.

I also have a fairly small social media following, especially considering the amount of traffic I receive, and my mailing list isn’t very large either. I have between 2,000-3,000 followers on each of the following platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Email List. I have less than 1000 followers on Instagram. Pinterest is my biggie with over 20,000 followers. I gain about 400 new followers on there a week. Every other platform grows at a snail’s pace.

I recently purchased Strategies Worth Sharing: How I Grew My Facebook Page from 2,000 Likes to 100,000 Likes In Five Months to hopefully learn how to do Facebook right. The author is a good blogging friend of mine, and I really do love following her Facebook page. It’s one of my favorites! I have almost finished reading it and it has lots of great information about the various and common blogging Facebook strategies people try and which are actually good to do or not.

Ad Income: Down $100 from February

I made the switch on March 4 to ditch The Blogger Network for my ads, as well as a few miscellaneous ad networks (Media.net, TripleLift, and SwayyEm), to have MediaVine be my exclusive ad network for all of my desktop ads.

I had heard great things about them from a few blogging friends. It was rough the first few weeks, but it’s definitely going up in RPM and income. I don’t know if I will make as much as I was before from all the other ads I was running, BUT, that’s kinda the point. I had so many ads in my sidebar. Now I just have two. And they load way faster and cleaner than the ads I ran with The Blogger Network, which means my site doesn’t crash or lock up, which was an almost constant issue I was having with TBN. Plus, their customer service is great. I actually made great money from The Blogger Network and still recommend them for many people, but MediaVine is even better.

I also definitely recommend PadSquad for mobile ads. I have been with PadSquad for over a year and a half, and I am very happy with them, especially lately as we’ve (not just my site) seen consistent income every month, which is fantastic for someone who is self-employed and relies on this payment each month to schedule bill payments.

March had extra high ad income because I also got paid for a 2 week ad placement in my sidebar for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints promoting their Easter initiative. I worked with them during December as well.

Affiliate Income: Down $300

I have been working very hard to beef up my affiliate income over the last 6+ months. I am all about building up passive income streams!  I work with many different affiliate programs and individuals. I work (and get paid) from the following Affiliate Networks. An * denotes my affiliate link should you sign up with them.

Sponsored Post Income: Up 36%

Call me weird, but I actually really enjoy doing sponsored posts. I get a thrill out of getting paid to write something, and paid well to do so. I like the challenge of organically promoting a product without alienating my readers. My goal for this year is to take less sponsored work but for higher payouts, so that I won’t have to take as many anyway. In March I got paid for sponsored from:

For a comprehensive list of sponsored post companies, see THIS post. 

Products Received

As a blogger, I often receive product in addition to compensation for posts, in order for me to try out and use a product, take photographs, or buy my own supplies in order to complete the post. This month I received:

  • A StemBox
  • Amazon eGiftcard
  • AMEX Gift card
  • Mr. Clean Gift Basket
  • Purex Detergent
  • Calphalon Pan

Other Blog Income

I do some freelance work for a local (free) magazine, and got paid $40 for my feature this month, which was an interview I did with Heloise. I also did a little side job for a blog friend, and came up with 20 headlines for posts that she had written for her. If you are interested in headline help for your blog, see this post, and consider joining my Headline/Image Help Facebook Group. If you want specific help on headlines, and want to hire me, click over to my contact page.

What’s up Fagans? Blog Expenses March 2016

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to keep all the money I got paid this month. I had some major expenses, including a brand new computer as my previous one was on the fritz. It’s been rough being without certain things which are on the other computer as our storage solution has been proving very difficult to use and access. In total, my expenses this month were more than half of my earnings. This months’ expenses included:

  • New Computer
  • Paypal Fees
  • USPS P.O. Box Renewal for 1 Year
  • Facebook Ad
  • What’s up Blogging? Website Design
  • BoardBooster* Pinterest Scheduling (See this post on how to use BB)
  • ViralTag Pinterest Scheduler* – Paid for a year. I have a shared account with other bloggers.
  • Event Parking
  • Email Mailing List with ConvertKit
  • Stock Photos with Adobe Photos (switched over from Dollar Photo Club this month because they made me)
  • IZEA* Membership Fee
  • Sticky Blogging* Workbook

Generally speaking, I don’t have a lot of expenses every month. I pay yearly for web hosting, and some other services (like my PO box and ViralTag listed above) so that I don’t have to pay monthly, which saves me more money in the long run. I also do not have anyone who works for me, like a Virtual Assistant.

If you are interested in starting a blog, or are already blogging and want more tips, see this page for more information. 

 

Where to Get Sponsored Blog Post Opportunities – B2B Companies

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Putting up ads and signing up with affiliates is fun and a relatively easy way to monetize a blog, as they both serve as passive income streams, but it doesn’t usually equal a lot of income, especially for smaller blogs. So thank goodness for sponsored posts! Sponsored post opportunities are a fabulous, fun, and sometimes easy way to get paid! Many bloggers don’t where to go to get them, though they want them, especially if they aren’t pitching companies directly. For many it is easier to have the opportunities come to you, instead of actively seeking them out.

If you want to know where to get sponsored blog post opportunities through an agency or PR firm, and start monetizing your site, then below is the list for you.

Below is a fairly comprehensive list of companies, many of whom I work with or have worked with in the past. Instead of looking for companies yourself, they connect you with them, and vice versa.

sponsored-post-networks-for-bloggers-681x1024-8223611Sponsored Blog Post Opportunities Companies

Which agencies did I miss? What are your favorite networks to work with?  How many do you belong to?