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Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate programs for Finance and Frugal Living Bloggers

August 14, 2017 by Thane West 3 Comments

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!

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

  • Affiliate programs for Marriage and Relationship Bloggers
  • Affiliate programs for Homeschool and Education Bloggers

 

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Programs for Homeschool and Education Bloggers

April 5, 2017 by Thane West 5 Comments

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!

  • God’s Little Explorers Preschool Curriculum by Stacie Nelson of Motherhood on a Dime. Retail $17.00. 30% Commission. Sign up here.
  • Christian Homeschool Preschool Curriculum – 50% sign up
  • The Preschool Journey curriculum by Angela Thayer of Teaching Mama (and other products). Retails $6.99. 40% Commission. Sign up Here.
  • The Encompass Preschool Curriculum by Kathy Gossen of Cornerstone Confessions. Retails $10.00. 40% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Blue Manor Education Books and Curriculum by Janine LaTulippe. PreK-1st Grade. 30-40% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Reading Eggs. 10% Commissions. Join via CJ or Ebay Enterprise networks.
  • ABCMouse.com Early Learning Academy. PreK through Kindergarten. $4 for each FREE first month’s signup. Join on CJ or LinkShare or FlexOffers.
  • 123 Homeschool 4 Me  products by Beth Gorden. 20% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Letters and Numbers workbook – 50% email sleepingshouldbeeasy@gmail.com to sign up.
  • Basic Shapes for Beginners ebook by Heather Greutman. Retails $8.99. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Mama’s Learning Corner Products. Retails $1-$8. 50% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Montessori Services. 10% commissions. 30-day cookie. Join on ShareASale.
  • We Choose Virtues. 10% Commissions. 90 Day Cookie. Sign up HERE.
  • Every Parent Can Teach Their Toddler (Tot School Guide) by Kara Carrero (+19 other wonderful KBN contributors!) 50% Affiliate commission on $9.99 book
  • Adventures of Dot: And Early Geometry Book by Kara Carrero and on Amazon (Print & eBook)
  • Read, Create, & Share ebook by Growing Book by Book. 40% commissions. Sign up here.

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!

  • Real Science 4 Kids. 20% commissions on all products. Sign up here.
  • Ultimate Brain Breaks by Heather Haupt. Retails $7.99 (ebook) or $14.99 (print). 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Classical Copywork Resources by Amy Maze. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Weekly Homeschool Planner by Jolanthe Erb of Homeschool Creations. Retails $20. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Homeschooling with Dyslexia. 20% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Chalk Pastel Drawing ebooks by of Southern HodgePodge. Retails $4.99-$24.99. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Bright Ideas Press Products. Sign up here.
  • Hands-on Learning by Susan Evans. 50% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Mixed Media Art Courses for Kids ecourse by Alisha Gratehouse. 30% commissions. Sign up here.
  • Science Logic Curriculum by Eva Varga. Retails $2.95-$19.90. 30% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Math Games & Resources, Geography Field Guide, and more from Crystal Wagner of Triumphant Learning. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • All about Learning Press Resources: All About Reading and All About Spelling. 15% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • NaturExplorers Studies by Cindy West of Shining Dawn Books. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Harrington Harmonies Products. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • SQUILT: Music Appreciation Made Simple by Mary Prather. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • We Choose Virtues. 10% Commissions. 90 Day Cookie. Sign up HERE.
  • Hymn Study Pack, Reading Journals, and Christian Studies from Not Consumed. Sign up here.
  • STEAM Kids ebooks. Hands-on activities for kids. 50% commissions. Sign up here.
  • Write Shop Writing Curriculum. 15% commissions. 180-day cookie. Sign up here.
  • Art History Kids 25% recurring commissions. Sign up here.

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.

  • Circle Time: Plan the Best Part of Your Day by Kendra Fletcher. Retails $4.99. 30% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Preschoolers and Peace: Homeschooling older kids with success while loving the little ones at your feet ebook by Kendra Fletcher. $2.99. 30% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Every Parent Can Teach Their Child Ebook – 50% commissions. sign up
  • Plan Your Year ($14.98) and Latin Printables ($2.99-$6.99) by Ed Snap Shots. 30% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Single Mom Homeschooling ebook, Homeschool Checklists and more from Not Consumed Homeschooling resources. Sign up here.
  • Help! I’m Homeschooling! ebook by Tricia Hodges of Southern HodgePodge. Retails $4.99. 25% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Large Family Homeschooling ebook by Amy Roberts of Raising Arrows. Retails $7.99. 30% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • The Ultimate Guide to Field Trips in Canada for Families, Students, and Teachers by Sharla Kostelyk. Retails $5.99. 40% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Dyslexia 101 by Maryanna Sunderland from Abundant Life. Earn 30% commissions on the book ($4.99-$9.99). Sign up HERE through eJunkie.

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!

  • ETA Hand2Mind. Math manipulatives and other supplies. 10% per sale and 30-day cookie. Join on ShareASale.
  • Dollar Tree. Stock up on supplies like Ziplock bags, school supplies, and organizational bins. 5% commissions. 30-day cookie. Join on ShareASale.
  • SeatSack. Offers over-the-chair organizational caddies and more. 10% commissions. 60-day cookie. Join on ShareASale.
  • Oriental Trading Company. 5% commissions and 7-day cookie. More info here. Join on Impact Radius.
  • Michaels. 3% on purchases and 3-day cookie. Join through CJ.
  • Crayola. 3-5% commissions and 14-day cookie. Join through CJ.
  • Carson-Dellosa Publishing. Online store for educators. 10% commissions on sales and 45-day cookie. Join through CJ.
  • Staples. 1-5% Commissions. 1-day cookies. Sign up on CJ.
  • Textbooks.com. 5% commissions and 30-day cookie. Sign up on CJ.
  • OfficeSupply.com. 5% commission. 30-day cookie. Sign up on CJ.
  • Newegg Business. 3% commission. 7-day cookie. Sign up on CJ.
  • Nest Learning. 11% commissions. 30-day cookie. Sign up on CJ.

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.

  • Sensory Bins: The What, the How, and the Why ebook by Sharla Kostelyk. Retails $2.99. 40% Commissions. Sign up here.
  • Hands on as we grow – 50% commissions. Sign up!
  • Sensory Bins ebook – 40% commissions. Sign up!
  • Color Rice Play Ebook – 60% commissions. Sign up
  • Sensory Products and Printables – 5%-25% commissions. sign up
  • Sensory Processing Ebook – 50% commissions. sign up
  • Kinetic Sand Activities ebook – 40% commission. sign up

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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.

  • Green Kid Crafts. My personal favorite. $20 commission on any new order. 60-day cookie. Sign up on ShareASale.
  • Cricket Crate for ages 0-36 months. $20 commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on Impact Radius.
  • Kiwi Crate for ages 5-6. $20 commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on Impact Radius.
  • Koala Crate for ages 3-4. $20 commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on Impact Radius.
  • Doodle Crate for ages 9-16+. $20 commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on Impact Radius.
  • Tinker Crate for ages 9-16+. $20 commission and 30-day cookie. Sign up on Impact Radius.
  • Groovy Lab in a Box. STEM box for ages 8+. $10 commissions. 90-day cookie. Sign up on ShareASale.
  • Little Passports. Travel to a new country or state each month for ages 3-12. $15 per Sale. 90-day cookie. Sign up on ShareASale.
  • The Magic School Bus Science Club Kit. Ages 5+. 10% commission. Sign up to promote them through Groupon.
  • The Young Scientist Club. Ages 5-12. 5-10% commission and 45-day cookie. Sign up to promote them through Groupon.
  • BitsBox. Teach kids to code. $4-12 commissions, 3.2% on shop orders. 30-day cookie. Sign up on Flex Offers.
  • Bookroo. Children’s Book Subscription service for kids 0-5. 10% commission and 90-day cookie. Sign up on ShareASale.

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!

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Programs for Marriage and Relationship Bloggers

March 8, 2017 by Thane West 4 Comments

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

  • 31 Days to a Better Marriage ebook from Learn to Speak Life. $4.99. 50% Commission. Sign up here.
  • Biblical Encouragement for the Modern-Day Wife ebook by Carlie Kercheval. $4.99. 50% Commission. Sign up here.
  • Encouragement for Christian Wives ebook by Carlie Kercheval. $4.99. 50% Commission. Sign up here.
  • Ultimate Homemaking Bundles – There are often marriage courses and books in the Ultimate Homemaking Bundles! 40% commissions. Sign up here.

Affiliate Programs for Strengthening or Rebuilding Marriages

  • Marriage Fitness with Mort Fertel – $10-$200 commissions on products and services are offered to fit every situation and budget. They include CD’s, DVD’s, home learning kits, tele-seminars, maintenance programs, and private 1-on-1 sessions with Mort Fertel. Sign up HERE.
  • Save Marriage Forever and Break Free From the Affair. 50% commissions on products, 10% on coaching, 5% on secondary affiliates. Minimum $50 payout. Sign up HERE.
  • Married and Happy – A System for Men. 40% commissions. $6-$320 per sale. Sign up HERE.
  • Save My Marriage. 75% commissions on front-end, 50% commissions on recurring offers. Sign up HERE through ClickBank.
  • Save Our Christian Marriage “Marriage Miracle” package. 50% commissions on $97. Sign up HERE through ClickBank.
  • Boost Your Libido eCourse from Sheila Wray Gregoire of To Love, Honor, and Vacuum. Earn 50% commissions or $19.50 per sale. Sign up HERE.

Date Night Products with Affiliate Programs

  • 175 Best Date Ideas by Alida Quittschreiber of The Realistic Mama is only $9.95. 50% commissions. Click here to sign up to be an affiliate for it.
  • LoveCoups and LoveBooks. Sign up for these programs on ShareASale here. I’ve sold several of these.
  • The Game of Love Bedsheets. 4-10% commissions. I’ve sold several. Sign up here.
  • MELT: Couples Massage Course. 25% Commissions. Sign up to be an affiliate here. I’ve sold a few of these as well.
  • Groupon. Up to 10% commissions. Sign up through Groupon. Great for events, travel, and date ideas.
  • LivingSocial. 3-15% commissions. Sign up through CJ.
  • Restaurant.com. 20% commissions. 45-Day Cookie. Sign up through CJ.
  • Care.com with $15+ per sale and $1 per lead (free membership sign-up) – Sign up on CJ.com
  • Sittercity with $30 per Premium membership purchase and $1/registration completion. Sign up through ImpactRadius. 
  • Fandango. $0.10+ for every movie ticket sold, $2 for every gift card transaction, 4% movie rentals. Sign up on CJ.com.
  • Fancy Home Dinners – Hello Fresh with $20 commissions on CJ or Blue Apron with $15 commissions on [eafl id=”8961″ name=”Impact Radius” text=”Impact Radius.”]

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!

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing

How to Setup Amazon Native Ads and Make $$

October 20, 2016 by Katie Clark 4 Comments

I got an email today from Amazon stating that starting on November 1st, any commissions generated through Amazon Native Ads would earn a 12% commission, which is INSANE.

I think Amazon typically caps out at 8.5%, so to raise that commission during the hottest time of the year amazing.

Amazon Native Ads have been pretty successful for me. They have a higher conversion rate than text links (for me, at least), and I love how customizable they are. I have had a few people ask me how to get these set up, so here are a few tips.

First off, there are three different types of native ads available:

  • Search: Select a search phrase that you want to use to generate the items that show up. I think this is good when you are want a specific category of products, but not necessarily a specific product. You can see an example of that here.
  • Recommendations: Select categories of products that you want to show up (this is best for when you put them in the sidebar or bottom of posts automatically – doesn’t have to be as niche. My highest conversion rate is with these at 12%).
  • Custom: You select the items you want to show up in these ones. I select this option when I am talking about very specific products in a post. You must select four products in order for a code to be generated.

Next, where should you place them? The thing about Native Custom Ads is that they are very flexible to where you want to put them.

I recommend placing one at the bottom of your posts that shows up automatically – especially if you are a very niche blog. For Clarks Condensed, we write about multiple topics, so this doesn’t work as well (I don’t want to scare away my food fans with breastfeeding products!). You can still accomplish for multiple topics by using the custom sidebars plugin, but that’s a tutorial for another time.

I also recommend placing one in each post with products related to the topic of the post. For instance, if you are writing about a slow cooker recipe, put in an ad that has a slow cooker, slow cooker liners, etc. It’s up to you what kind of native ad you want to put here. I recommend starting with your most popular posts and going from there.

Now, how to get your Amazon Native Ads code!

First, login to your Amazon Affiliate account. At the top of your dashboard is a tab that says “Product Linking”. Hover over this, and then click on Native Shopping Ads.

When you get to this page, on the left hand side you will see something that says “Create Ad Unit” with an arrow. Here you can select what kind of ad you want. For this, I selected the Recommendation ads (I’ll show how to set up the other ones after the main tutorial):

Once you get to Recommendation ads, you can select the categories you want to show up. You can select more than one. You will move the categories you want from the “Available Categories” to “Selected Categories” using the arrows.

Then, there is a box underneath the categories that says fallbacks. If you select “search keywords” you have to put in a search keyword that will show up if no other products are available. When you do this, your code will finally appear. You can select no fallbacks and get the code…but I think it’s smart to have a fallback.

Before you copy the code, go down to “Advanced Settings”. You can select if the unit shows customized ads (based on the users search history) or not. Then, you select the ad size. I actually always choose “One Size” and “one row”. Otherwise, the responsive unit often shows up with two rows, which I think looks a little spammy.

Installing the Code

Now, select the entire code. This is what you will put on your site. If you are putting it in a post, paste it directly into the text or html mode of your post composer. Press save, and then go look at the post.

You must NOT navigate back to the visual mode, because this will mess up the code and make it not render correctly.

You can also install the code in your sidebar using a text widget (in WordPress) or an HTML unit (in Blogger). Just make sure you press save.

After you’ve installed your code, it should start showing up right away in the post!

 

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Networks for Bloggers

June 15, 2016 by Thane West 5 Comments

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.
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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?

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Monetization Tagged With: affiliate networking, affiliate networks, Blogging, passive income

Three Simple Tips to Maximize Affiliate Marketing

April 21, 2016 by Katie Clark 4 Comments

For Bloggers

Affiliate marketing has been kind of my jam lately.

I shied away from it for so long, and I’m kicking myself for that. It’s quickly becoming my favorite monetization method.

If you aren’t a fan of ads or doing outright sponsored posts, affiliate marketing is an awesome option for you.

But even if you do like ads and sponsored posts (which I do!), then you should still be doing it. It’s an amazing passive way to make money.

My friend Kristina are going to be writing an affiliate marketing class soon, and I’m SO excited about it. Because of that, I don’t want to give away too many secrets. However, today I thought I’d share three simple tips that can help improve your affiliate marketing efforts!

and if you like them, be sure to sign up for my newsletter so you can find out as soon as we release the course! 

1. Look at outgoing links

This is HUGE, and I’ve increased my affiliate revenue quite a bit by doing this. Every month, go and look at your outbound links. While many of these will probably be to other sites that aren’t selling something, you can occasionally find links to products or services.

When I first did this, I realized a lot of people were clicking to survey sites I had recommended in a post about my favorite survey sites. I wasn’t sure if any of these survey sites had a referral program, but a few quick Google searches revealed that they did! I quickly signed up for their affiliate programs, put the links into the post, and BAM. I was making more money instantly. Just today, I realized a bunch of people were clicking over to Happy Baby Wraps – I found out they had an affiliate program, so I signed up!

If you are on WordPress and use the plugin JetPack, it’s very easy to see outbound links. This is honestly one of the only reasons I still use that plugin. Otherwise, you can follow this tutorial to track outbound links in Google Analytics.

2. Optimize Top 10 Posts

I think a lot of people get intimidated by affiliate marketing when they have a lot of posts – where do you even start?!

I recommend going into Google Analytics, setting the time frame for the past six months, and then optimize your top 10 posts. First, go through them and see if there’s anything obvious that could be an affiliate link (so if you are writing about your favorite cooking products, it would be pretty obvious to link to those!) Then go through with a separate set of eyes and think “are there any products/services that would make sense to put in this post?”

For instance, in my post “Third Trimester Checklist“, I had no affiliate links for the longest time. So dumb, because it’s one of my more popular posts. So I went through, linked up all the obvious links, and then I tried to find ways to put in other links. For example, at first glance, you wouldn’t think that there wouldn’t really be an affiliate program for a prenatal class. However, my friend, Hilary, actually offers an online prenatal course, so I was able to sign up for her affiliate program and use it in that post. You just have to be creative!

I also recommend swapping posts with a friend – I’ve done this a few times with Hilary, and it always helps to get input from another!

3. Change Font Color

Finally, this one is really simple. Change the color of your links to really stand out! I’ve been on sites before where the link color is the same color as the plain text, and it’s very difficult (if impossible) to even realize it’s a link. You want your links to stand out – make people want to click them!

You can either change your link color in your CSS – look for something that says a { and there should be a place to change your font color. If you can’t figure that out, you can easily change your links colors manually within a post!

BONUS:
Not sure where to start? Here are a few of my favorite affiliate programs (they have tons of different companies they work with. And as you might expect, this are my affiliate links!)

Share-a-Sale – My main sales here are from Grammarly, Baby Merlin’s Magic Sleep Suit, VitaFive, and occasionally VidAngel
Escalate –
I use this mainly for survey sites
Dating Divas – if you post about any parenting, marriage, or relationship type content, this is one of the BEST programs out there! They pay a nice 50% referral fee, and their cookie is crazy long!
FlexOffers – I use this to promote SwagBucks (which, if you aren’t a part of, you should definitely sign up now!), Swap.com, and U-Pack
AffiliateWindow – this is how you can become an affiliate with Etsy. You pay $5 to get started, but you’ll get that back 🙂 Being able to be an affiliate for Etsy is an awesome revenue opportunity.

I hope that this was helpful – please make sure to sign up below for our newsletter – especially if you want updates on our upcoming affiliate course!

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Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Monetization, Popular Tagged With: Affiliate Marketing, Monetization

How to Get Started With Amazon’s Affiliate Program

February 1, 2016 by Katie Clark Leave a Comment

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modern laptop with cup and diary on table

Well, if you are a blogger in Colorado you have may heard the news – we can officially use the Amazon Associates Program for affiliate marketing.

This is HUGE news. While Amazon doesn’t offer the highest commission rate, the fact of the matter is this – people LOVE Amazon and do a lot of shopping on there. I was making a good amount of money from the program when we moved to Colorado and were banned from participating. I tried to swap out links to Walmart, Target, etc., but they just did not convert as well.

I mean, I may .30 cents from Walmart in December. It was bad.

Amazon can be a great program to participate in, so I thought I’d share a brief tutorial on how to best use it and get started!

First off, go to Amazon Associates and sign up!

After doing that, you’ll just have to login. On the homepage, you will see this:

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This is pretty much where you’ll spend most of your time. If you have a specific product you want to link to, just type that in to the “Search for a product” section that is in orange above. If you aren’t sure exactly what you want, switch over to the “Browse for a Product” and use that.

Once you have the product you want, click on the arrow to the right of the product. At this point, you can choose to copy the full link there, or a shortened version.

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Alternatively, you can click on “Get Link” and you will be given a bunch of different options. You can get an image/link widget, just an image of the product, or just a link. I know a lot of people like the image/link widget because it will sometimes convert more people to buying the product.

And that’s really all you need to go started. You can start an Azon store where you can basically make a store to put on your site with your favorite Amazon products. Here is a basic one I started for The Food Nanny. I’ve also heard great things about the Amazon Native Ads if you are looking to monetize a little more through display advertising.

If you want to skip even logging into the affiliate website and just grabbing links directly from Amazon, once you become an affiliate, there is an affiliate dashboard that will show up at the top of your page. You can grab links from there.

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You also must disclose on your site when you are using Amazon links. Here is a great post on how to properly do so, so you don’t get shut down!

Tips for Using Amazon Affiliate’s Program

Here are just a few ways to jump right in. I do find that it takes a little while to get traction, and you have to experiment with what your audience responds best to. Some of these tips are good for affiliate marketing, regardless of if you are using Amazon for those efforts.

  1. Find your top postsI think the best thing you can do right now is figure out what your best posts are, and then see if you can incorporate Amazon links into it. For instance, one of my most popular posts is this post about alternatives to crying it out. I will go in and put Amazon links to the book I reference, essential oils, the Wubbanub, and more. Don’t try and force the links in – try and be organic. My friend, Hilary, has a great post about what to pack in a hospital bag where she’s put in helpful Amazon links that I recommend checking out.
  2. Look at outgoing clicksNot everyone will easily be able to tell what people are clicking on to leave their site. If you like Jetpack in WordPress, you can see this information, and you can also set Google Analytics up to help you figure this out as well. Once you can see where people are clicking, you can find places to put links in.

    For instance, say you linked to a set of pots and pans that you enjoy using in a post and people are ALWAYS clicking on it! Well, go find that same set on Amazon, replace the link, and

    I find this to be super effective, because you know that people are clicking on that link, and chances are, someone is going to buy from it. I do this every month or so, just because some links start performing well out of nowhere.

  3. Make links open in new windowThis is just a good technique for any outgoing link – but make sure your links open in a new window so they aren’t taken away from your site!
  4. Keep your eye open for salesThis is really helpful especially during the holidays. People are always up for a good deal, and Amazon is so easy to buy from. If you see something that looks like a killer deal, don’t be afraid to share with your readers. Just make sure you put #affiliate in that post!
  5. Make a “Best of” or “Recommended Products” section on your siteMake it easy for your readers to know what products you recommend they use! You can put this at the end of posts (I’ve seen people put the image widgets at the end saying “these products were used in this post). Or you can do something like Tried and Tasty did at the bottom of her home page, where she has niche specific guides to different products.
  6. Put links in Every postDo this organically, but if you aren’t putting affiliate links in every post, you are missing out. You never know when a post will go crazy, or when people will just really be interested in a product you have to mention.

    And the thing is, even if they don’t buy that specific product, they may buy something else. So many of my former Amazon sales were from products people bought after they initially went to Amazon through my link.

  7. Share interesting productsThere are a couple Facebook pages I follow that are always posting the most interesting (or hilarious) products from Amazon. Ask a question or people’s thoughts on them – even if they don’t buy that product, there will be a 24-hour cookie to your Affiliate account so you’ll get credit for anything they do end up buying!
  8. Don’t Rely On ItI know first hand how frustrating it is when all of the sudden you can’t use Amazon. I had to really learn a lot about affiliate marketing and experiment with different companies and methods to even make the amount I’m making right now from other venues. There’s no guarantees that you’ll always be able to use Amazon links. Affiliate marketing can be incredibly powerful, but as with most things when it comes to monetization, diversify. I definitely recommend using Amazon’s program, but I also recommend finding other programs that work well with your readers. I’ll be sharing a post soon on how I’ve been successful with affiliate marketing with Amazon soon, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss that post!
  9. Be AuthenticAs with most things in blogging, be authentic. Don’t just shove affiliate links in your readers faces. I’ve seen many posts people have written that are obviously written just to make a sale, and I don’t like it. You want your readers to trust you and your recommendations. I’ve found that when they do, they are far more likely to buy something from your links anyways!

Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Monetization Tagged With: Affiliate Marketing

How do you make money blogging?

June 26, 2014 by Thane West 21 Comments

How do you make money blogging? I get asked this question a lot in real life. While it seems most people are familiar with the terms “blog” and “blogger,” most people reference them in connection with family update blogs, ones that don’t make money, but contain lots of pictures of happy kids and happy families with the occasional rant or thoughtful or helpful post thrown in. While my blog still also contains pictures of my happy kids, the occasional rant, and hopefully thoughtful and help advice, I make money blogging too. It may not be very much money right now, but I do earn money from blogging. So, I bet you want to know how can you make money blogging, especially if you a blogger, or looking into earning money online.

There are three common ways how bloggers earn money. The most common way to earn money from blogging is through ads and ad networks. The second most common way you can make money blogging is through affiliates and affiliate networks (i.e. trying to sell products to earn a commission). And the third most common way to make money blogging is through sponsored posts by either directly working with companies or working with go-between organizations that connect bloggers with businesses.

In this post I will only be sharing about companies I have personally worked with. There are still hundreds of other resources and companies to monetize with in the following three ways. And there are still additional revenue streams for bloggers to look into besides the following three.

*My affiliate links are used in this post. Thanks for using them and helping support my family and my blog!*

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Ads and Ad Networks

The easiest thing a blogger can do to monetize their website is to put up ads. Everyone know what ads look like on websites. It’s easy for bloggers to monetize with ads because all you need to do is grab some code and put it in your sidebar, header, or footer, and start making money! It’s very passive; no promoting necessary.

Each ad network has different pay structures and requirements. Some only work with really big bloggers. Others will take on the little guys. Some have 100% fill rate (which means an ad will always show up in that spot instead of being a big blank white spot in your blog sidebar) and some pay solely on CPM (cost per 1000 impression) while others are structured more for CPC (cost per click). And many have a limit as to how many of their ads you can have on your site at once and where they are placed (ATF – Above the Fold – or BTF – Below the Fold) , which is why many bloggers will sign up with a few different ad networks in order to optimize different ad spots on their website.

The most common and well-known ad provider is Google Adsense. So far I have only cashed out once from Google Adsense, which requires you to meet a $100 threshold, but I will hit my next payment in a month or two. But, there are hundreds of other ad networks for blogger besides Adsense!

I signed up with Today’s Mama’s ad network for my website and just got approved with Riot as well. Riot ad network has offered me a very high CPM and has been good to work with.

Plus, I also implemented a few in-post ads from Media.net on my most popular posts as well. They appear after the main image on these posts: Beginner Running Tips, How to Make a Year of Dates, and Spring Cleaning Tips and Tricks. Each month I am averaging about $20-30 each from Adsense and Today’s Mama and about $15 a month from Media.net. The nice thing about Today’s Mama is they payout every month with no threshold requirement. However, their CPM is pretty low, at about $0.22 a month or less.

My general rule is I try not to be too obnoxious with my ads, although I have several on my blog in various locations. Some people really like Infolinks, which does pay well (I tried it out months ago for like two weeks), but I feel like they are tricky because the ads look like text links taking you to something related, but then take you to an ad page. Or Infolinks will popup at the bottom or sides of the page. I generally try not to interfere too much with my reader’s experience, because I don’t want them to click away because of flashing, popping, or music-playing ads annoying them. But, it is up to each blogger to earn money in whatever way suits them and their needs.

I also signed up PadSquad, which is an ad network for my mobile visitors. Since about 70% of my traffic was coming from mobile, but only made up about 45% of my ad revenue, I knew I was missing out on making money on all the great mobile views of my site. Padsquad shows ads and reformats my site so that it is mobile friendly. They also have a very quick response team and want to make you happy, and will change things if you ask them. Working with them has been very profitable! And has increased my pageviews tremendously, as it is mobile-friendly, and because mobile pageviews are reported differently to Google Analytics. I highly recommend them. However, if you are primarily a food blogger, you can’t join the PadSquad network right now. In that case, I’ve heard great things about Marfeel.


Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Sales

Being an affiliate is probably the second easiest way how you can make money blogging. To earn money as an affiliate, someone needs to click through your unique affiliate tracking link and (most often) buy something or sign up for something (like an email list, or an entry into a sweepstakes, etc). There are lots of items, products, and companies you can be an affiliate for. Pretty much anything that can be sold online has affiliates for it. Some affiliate programs also have really long cookies, which means if a person who clicked on your link doesn’t immediately buy something, but come back and buy that product later in that month, you would still make a commission! The amount of commission you make is up to the advertiser and companies and products you are promoting. Some have huge commission rates of 50%, but most fall somewhere in the 3-20% range. However, most are willing to raise your rate if you sell several items through their link.

It can be hard to determine what products you should promote on your blog. While you can have some control over the ads that appear on your site, you have 100% control over the affiliate programs and companies you work with as a blogger. I would start by asking yourself what products and companies you personally love; it makes it easier for you to share and promote about things you are already really passionate about! Go to those company’s websites and look for “affiliates” in their footer and figure out how to work with them. However, you also want to make sure that the things you love also fit with the theme of your blog. Trying to sell your fave brand of toilet paper may not prove successful on your food blog (and might give the wrong impression… ha ha ha).

And once you are signed up and approved to be an affiliate you can start putting up banners (like ads, but usually with a fixed image) in your sidebar and hope people click on it and complete the required action (purchase/lead/subscribe) so you can make some commissions! Or, you can be more proactive (which chances are you will need to be if you actually want to make money as an affiliate blogger) and include affiliate links in your blog posts as text links, or put banners within posts, like I did in these posts – Freebies for New Moms, How to Save Money on Web Hosting, Father’s Day Gift Guide, and Kellogg’s Family Rewards. You can also often (though not always) share your personal affiliate links on your social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. It can be subtle or overt, but however you do it, the point is to get people to click and complete the required action. Because, you don’t make a commission or advertising fee if they only click and look.

But, be sure to let your readers know that you are using affiliate links in a post, before any affiliate links are used per Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requirements and mark all affiliate links as rel=”nofollow”.

When you start looking into affiliates, chances are you will likely have to sign up for an affiliate network or two. Don’t be scared to join them! These networks often work with 100s or 1000s of companies and make it very easy to find and join other affiliate programs. But, we aware that many have thresholds (usually $15-50) you have to meet before you can make money blogging with affiliates!

Here are some of the affiliates and affiliate networks I work with:

Amazon Affiliate

This is (I believe) the most popular affiliate network. Everyone knows Amazon.com and most people feel super comfortable buying from Amazon and are already buying from them. So, it just makes sense to work with them and try to make a commission! However, the cookie window is only 24 hours and the commission rate is low, starting at 4% or so and you can’t be an affiliate in some US states. However, they make it super easy to grab widgets, codes, text links, and banners for any item available on Amazon. And, your readers don’t have to buy the particular item you linked to, which is a huge advantage of working with them. You may get lucky and have someone go on a shopping blitz after they click on your link, because they remembered that they needed to buy something, and you’ll make a commission! Plus, another big benefit of the Amazon Affiliate network is they payout on their account at only $10! I like to put any specific product I mention (like Bar Keeperes Friend) in a post as an Amazon affiliate link.

Commission Junction or CJ Affiliate by Conversant

Commission Junction, or CJ Affiliate by Conversant is the first affiliate network that I joined (after Amazon), way back in September of 2013. However, I’ve only made $3 to date with them. Part of my frustrations with CJ.com is that it is a little difficult to use their interface and links, and I just haven’t had much luck with them, yet. They boast thousands of companies to work with as an affiliate, so I’m sure that you can (and many do) earn a lot of money from them. I just haven’t really been working hard on earning through the affiliate networks I’ve joined. With CJ I’m an affiliate for Cardstore, ABCMouse.com, LivingSocial, Minted, Reading Eggs, TheCuteKid, and Upromise, among a few others.

Escalate Network

I have been using Escalate Network heavily in the last month or two and have indeed made some affiliate sales through them! They are great to work with, run fun giveaways and promotions and have a great staff who is always there to help answer questions, get you the best commission rates, get new banners, or whatever it is you need!  Plus, The Escalate Network also offer a coupon widget (which I have installed in my lower sidebar) that I make money from based on CPM (impressions) as well as their own ENfluencer network for sponsored posts! Also, they payout when you reach just $15!

Mommerce

Mommerce is both an affiliate network and a blogger campaign network. But, foremost they are an affiliate network. I did a campaign with them for Father’s Day, which essentially was getting paid to write two posts and promote their network affiliates. I haven’t done much with Mommerce besides those posts.

Impact Radius

Impact Radius is very small (as far as I know). I only have two affiliates associated with them – diapers.com and savings.com. Savings.com is also a blogger campaign network, which I’ll share more about later in this post. You can also sign up with the Diapers.com sister sites as affiliates.

ShareASale

This is one of the more popular affiliate networks as they partner with some great companies (especially for “Mommy bloggers”) and eas(ier) to navigate (although I am still pretty confused often on it), and offer some great commission rates! There are some great popular companies you can sign up to be an affiliate for, like KiwiCrate, Craftsy, Little Passports, Tea Collection, and Gymboree, just to name a few. So far I’ve only made two sales through my affiliates associated with ShareASale, but I’m thrilled as I haven’t been advertising that product for very long! Payout is at $50.

Panthera Network

The Pantherea Interactive Network is a smaller affiliate network, but I have been successful at making some commissions with them and the companies they work with! And they payout monthly.

LinkShare Network (Rakuten)

The Rakuten LinkShare Network is a pretty large network that deals with some large companies like LeapFrog.com, Kohl’s, Melissa & Doug, and more. I haven’t really done much with the affiliates I am signed up with and as such, haven’t made any sales through Rakuten or its affiliates yet. They have a $50 payout threshold.

Groupon

While anyone can refer their friends to Groupon and get a referral friend bonus, you can become a Groupon affiliate, where you can still tell all your friends about great deals and offers, but make a commission on the sale, which, depending on the Groupon could be much more than the $10 referral credit. Once you are an affiliate, you download a marklet tool which lets you easily grab code for any deal on their website. Pretty sweet! And because people know and trust Groupon, it’s easier to sell and market their products. The payout threshold is $25.00.

ShopAtHome.com

I have been a ShopAtHome.com customer for a long time, and decided to sign up for the affiliate program, because I wanted to let my readers know that they could score cash back on stuff they are already going to buy online! They also have any easy to use interface that allows me to grab any particular merchants page from their site. ShopAtHome.com‘s affiliate program is a little different in that they pay per lead. So, anytime someone clicks through to one of their merchants, I make $0.35. However, I still haven’t cashed out with them yet, as you have to hit $50 before you get paid.

HEDUA – Home Educating Family Association

I only recently signed up with HEDUA, but haven’t really touched it since. So far I’ve seen some blog planners and original homeschool planners in their affiliate program, which look pretty awesome.


Sponsored Posts

Putting up ads and signing up with affiliates is fun and relatively easy, but it doesn’t usually equal a lot of income, especially for small bloggers who are just starting to monetize, unless you just happen to have an audience that is already looking to buy something. So thank goodness for sponsored posts! Sponsored posts are a fabulous, fun, and sometimes easy way to get paid!

Sponsored posts are blog posts that you are commissioned, or hired, to write on behalf of a company and or campaign and products. Usually there are very specific parameters to the assignment, links to include, hashtags to use, and perhaps some images to include as well. The really great sponsored posts are the ones that allow for a lot of your own voice, because unfortunately, the big problem with sponsored posts is that they can start sounding like a giant ad for a product, which can definitely turn off your readers. Chances are they like your blog because of YOU and your voice and your opinions. So, my advice is to only promote products that you like, use, or that fit your readership. Don’t be swept away by the paycheck! Think about how the sponsored post and its product could benefit your blog. I haven’t always been perfect about this, because it is easy to just want to promote anything for money. So, be wise with what you apply and accept as offers.

And NEVER accept working with companies who ask you to put in links without pay, or who will pay you but ask that they are dofollow instead of nofollow or you could get in trouble with the FTC.

The following are some companies I have signed up with that work with both advertisers (companies/businesses) and publishers (bloggers). Instead of looking for companies yourself, they connect you with them, and vice versa. I’ve even included a little as to how much you can expect to earn from them and some of the posts I have done on my blog with the various companies.

Business 2 Blogger

Business 2 Blogger was the very first blogging influencer network I joined. It’s simple and easy and great for small bloggers. Most of the compensation is in the form of free stuff, particularly books. If you are book reviewer, it’s a great place to look for books to read and review for free or for a small profit. I wrote the following book reviews thanks to Business 2 Blogger: Fear and Carnival of Death, Every Natural Fact, and The Iron Duke. I also wrote about An Entreprenuer in Every Home.

Tomoson

Tomoson is another great company to work with for beginning bloggers as they mostly do free products in exchange for reviews. However, they recently added the option of doing paid reviews, although I haven’t had any luck with those yet. I did a review of a Picture Puzzle and BeltLock. Most of the products are books, beauty, health, fashion, and kids, but new products are added weekly.

US Family Guide

US Family Guide doesn’t usually offer much in ways of cash compensation, but they do often offer you tickets in exchange for promoting state, regional, or national events. Last year I did a sponsored post with them about getting a Free Photo of Santa by your Christmas tree. My compensation was also getting the free photos with Santa for myself. However, I did get some decent traffic and present my readers with something fun for their families.

Sverve

Sverve is one of the first influencer networks I joined. Basically, people endorse you for being an influencer in various genres, and that helps your Sverve score. A lot of companies want you to have a Sverve score of 50. Thankfully, it’s not necessarily based on the amount of traffic or followers you have, just the amount of influence (or klout) you have. I have done three blog post campaigns with them. The first one was for the Girls Empowered Network (GENAustin), the second for Preggonista (which I became an affiliate for) and I just completed one for COGITO watches. The compensation varies from just a product or affiliate opportunity, to $100 or more. Also, Sverve hosts Pinterest, Twitter, and Youtube campaigns which operate like affiliates.

BlogHer Social Media

BlogHer has never accepted me as part of their blogger network, but thankfully they have into their social media influencer program! They accept influencers for Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. I have completed three campaigns with them so far. The Facebook and Twitter campaigns consist of 8 touts (tweets or status updates) over the course of several weeks using certain hashtags and urls. It’s pretty simple to schedule out ahead of time with tools like Buffer or HootSuite (my preferred tool). And 45 days after the end of the campaign you will get a $50 check in the mail. Just make sure to regular input the touts on Blogher.

Clever Girls Collective

Clever Girls Collective runs some campaigns, but a lot of Twitter parties with some big prizes. I have yet to work on a campaign through them, and have participated in a few of their twitter parties. They almost chose me for a campaign as a backup but I was just a tad too slow in responding back to the email! Darn! Most sponsored posts pay in the hundreds.

Collective Bias/Social Fabric

Collective Bias is also Social Fabric and is not just a business to blogger platform, but a support network for bloggers, with their SoFabUniversity blog program. Collective Bias offers shoppertunities for bloggers. Basically, you can apply for various shops on their network website which ask you to go in store to Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, or regional grocery stores (and so on) to buy specific products (taking pictures in-store), test  them out at home, and then write a post based on a prompt, incorporating the product into your story and images. They not only compensate you for the products you purchase, they also pay pretty well, usually $120-160 or more. I have completed three shoppertunities – one for Disney’s FROZEN, one for Walmart Family Mobile, and a recent one on summer legs. They have been great to work with too!

Find Your Influence

Find Your Influence is also a company that will let you know when an advertiser has selected you to work with them on a campaign. No applying, or being rejected. However, I still am waiting for my first campaign!

Linqia

Linqia is different from a lot of the influencer networks because you actually get paid per click ($.80 or so), not just per post/shares. This is often stressful for a lot of bloggers, because you worry that, even though you have the potential to earn $200 for a campaign, you can fall very short of that mark. For my very first campaign, for FruitShoot, they set my click max at 246 clicks! Talk about a LOT of action needed, especially for a smaller blog! Needless to say, I didn’t reach it in the allotted 3 week window for the campaign. This was partly because I didn’t post earlier in the campaign window. I ended up with only 178 clicks. But, I still got paid, and quickly, after the end of the campaign. I just started my second campaign for them – for Huggies and Diapers.com – and they lowered the amount of clicks needed to 212 with a lower max payout, based upon how my first campaign did. The key to making Linqia truly profitable for you is work. Linqia campaigns involve a lot more work than most campaigns, but pay well and quickly. Just make sure to post the first or second day of the campaign, tweet out the link at least once a day, pin to several Pinterest boards, preferably group boards, and ask for your blog friends to also retweet and share you post to their audiences.

Markerly

I have applied to some campaigns with Markerly, but haven’t yet worked with them. They send out emails with opportunities for you to apply for about once a month or more. I don’t know how well they pay.

Mom Central

Mom Central frequently sends out emails about twitter parties and sponsored campaigns which you have to individually apply to. They cover a wide range of genres and products. Most things are paid product reviews. It took me months until I got my first campaign, despite applying for a dozen or so (some that I really wanted too!). Just make sure you email them once a month with your current (and better) stats to improve your odds of getting one. I did two campaigns with them so far – Huggies Little Movers at Target, and Vitafusion Multivites. The compensation is usually in the form of products and $50-150 in gift cards.

Mom It Forward

Mom It Forward runs #gno (Girls Night Out) Twitter parties, Google Plus Hangouts, offers family and blogging retreats, free Printables, and also paid sponsored campaigns, and they generally pay in the hundreds for their campaigns. I just got accepted for my first campaign with Mom It Forward, which will involve a guest post on a toy company’s site, and a post on my blog, as well as free toys from them to try out. I’ll get $50 per post plus product. They are definitely a company worth connecting with as they are very family focused and value-oriented.

Pollinate Media Group and Weave Made

Pollinate also offers high paying campaigns and opportunities. I haven’t done any yet as I only recently signed up. They send out promotions through email. They also have a sister company called Weave Made which is specifically for bloggers with 20,000 or less monthly pageviews.

Savings.com

Savings.com runs sponsored campaigns, as well as an affiliate program, often for exciting coupons and sweepstakes, where each print or entry into a sweepstakes through your link pays you $0.10-$0.20 or more depending on the opportunity. I have really enjoyed working with Savings.com so far. I did a sponsored campaign with them for my How to Make an Easter Bunny Cake post and affiliate type post for an HP Pavilion Laptop Giveaway.

Social Swayy

This is one of the newest network I’ve joined, and there’s been some hubub about their name, as they are competing with the SITS Girl’s Massive Sway brand (see below). I haven’t done any campaigns with them yet, although I was offered one but denied it because it was asking a lot for a lot social shares (and a post) for not a lot of money. Plus, I couldn’t agree to the commitment at this time. But, Social Swayy is another platform to potentially work with.

She Speaks

She Speaks runs Twitter campaigns, surveys, and occasionally campaigns. I have only done one campaign with She Speaks – Make Springtime Memories with #FebrezeSpring. I received Walmart gift cards, as well as the Febreze products I reviewed.

The SITS Girls – Massive Sway

I have completed one post for the SITS Girls or Massive Sway. It was to promote Home Run Inn frozen pizza. They regularly send out emails with their newest campaigns for you to apply for though they don’t offer a ton of campaigns, and most pay well, usually $100-$300.

 IZEA

I really like Izea, even if I haven’t always made a lot of a lot per sponsored post (most between $15-60) but some people make a lot with them. They are different in that you write the sponsored post in their network, putting in any required images or links, and then submit it to be approved. If it isn’t, they’ll tell what changes need to be made, you’ll resubmit it, and then you can post it on your blog, or have them auto-post it for you. I’ve had to rework some posts before, sometimes because of my error, and once because of theirs, but they more than compensated the error on their behalf, which let me know that they take their work, and mine, very seriously; IZEA is fabulous to work with! I’ve done the following posts with them: Keep Good Going, Dare to Compare White Cloud Laundry Detergent, Swap.com Online Kids Consignment, How to Care for Your Mattress, Kids are Messy, and EmbarK12 Online Preschool. You can also negotiate the prices, and you get paid 30 days after the post goes lives via paypal.

Right now IZEA is a place for you to put in bids on twitter tweets, and blog posts, with more options in the works. With the $1 a month plan, you can get unlimited bids each month, and cash out at $50 instead of $100. Basically, you check out what’s available and place a bid (how much you want to get paid) and they’ll come back with their offer or a denial. I’ve done several sponsored tweets so far, each for a few dollars each. IZEA is an easy way to make some extra money with your influence!

Tap Influence

TapInfluence is kind of nice because you don’t have to apply for the campaigns! Companies look at your profile and media kits and determine if they would like to offer you a campaign and then you receive an email telling you about it, and you can either choose to accept or reject the offer. In fact I just received my first offer from TapInfluence!


I hope I didn’t make your head spin with too much information all at once on how to make money blogging. But, the truth is, there is not just one way you can monetize and earn money blogging. There are several and certain people feel more comfortable with one method over another. Do what feels right to you and trial and error is always fine. Good luck!

For more great blogging tips, follow my Blogging board on Pinterest!

And if you are thinking about starting a self-hosted blog, check out my blog post on how you can save BIG money ($15-$65) on hosting costs!

Filed Under: Ad Network, Affiliate Marketing, Monetization, Sponsored Posts

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