So before you learn about affiliate marketing, I thought you might want to know how much passive income you can make with it.
And you’re gonna hate this answer, but there isn’t really a limit.
BUT to give you a better idea, I’ve got some examples of bloggers killing it with affiliate marketing for you.
BLOGGERS MAKING $$$ THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING:
Check out these other bloggers making loads of money through affiliate marketing:
- How Lidiya Built A Successful $6K/Month Blogging Business From Scratch
- Anastasia from Anastasia Blogger made $1529.09 from affiliate marketing here.
- Shirley from Smart Cents for Life made $1866.26 with affiliate marketing in this income report.
- Slaying Social made $1,626.95 from affiliates not including Amazon (they made $3,175.55 including Amazon sales).
- FinSavvy Panda earned $4,399.10 from affiliate marketing.
- Tom and Anna from Adventure In You made $6512.68 from affiliates here.
- Caroline from Caroline Vencil made over $9,000 from affiliate marketing in this income report.
- …And Breaking The One Percent made $102,354 from affiliate marketing here!
Isn’t that just crazy?!
BLOGGERS MAKING $ THROUGH AFFILIATE MARKETING
Seeing the large amounts some bloggers are making through affiliate marketing can be kind of intimidating.
But please don’t think that you can’t earn passive income as someone new to affiliate marketing,
To show you you can be earning a “normal” amount, here are a few bloggers making smaller amounts through affiliate marketing:
- Heather from Very Anxious Mommy made $46.40 from affiliate marketing.
- Clary from Oh Clary earned $1910.42 in this income report, and $503.46 was from affiliate marketing.
- Dana from Dana Nicole Designs earned $2,258.36 in this income report; $182.45 was from affiliate marketing.
- Victoria from Blog Ambitious made $987.50 with affiliates here.
So you can see that you can make anywhere between a few dollars to six figures with affiliate marketing.
DON’T I NEED LOTS OF PAGE VIEWS?
One misconception is that you need millions of visitors every month to earn passive income with affiliate marketing.
But that’s not true!
Yes, the more page views your website has, the more money you can make (because the chances that somebody uses your affiliate links increases).
BUT, you can certainly make affiliate sales with a small audience.
I made my first affiliate sale with less than 3,000 page views a month!
And if I can do it, you can too.
AFFILIATE MARKETING: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE
Below is a step by step for affiliate marketing, so you can start making passive income!
STEP 1: SHARE RELEVANT CONTENT
To start with, you need to share content on your site (blog posts, pages, etc).
This is because:
- You need content to actually include your links in, so people can read your content and be interested in the product/ services you are promoting.
- Many affiliate programs will want to take a look at your site before you start recommending their product or services. They need to see you are for real and the right fit for their product (not a scammer sending affiliate links to anyone in a hope you’ll make money).
So make sure to have a few blog posts (it doesn’t have to be loads) so they know you’re legit.
Think about the affiliate programs your ideal site visitors will be interested in whilst creating content.
If your site is about travelling for example, have a couple of post on travelling so you can effortlessly include affiliate links for travel related products.
STEP 2: FIND AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Once you have shared some content, you need to start finding affiliate programs so you can promote their links in your content.
Here are some of my favourite affiliate programs, which might be helpful for you:
MY FAVOURITE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
- ShareASale: This is an affiliate marketing platform full of programmes you can sign up for.
- Bluehost: A website hosting that pays $65+ per qualified sign up.
- Tailwind: Pinterest scheduling tool, $0.50 per lead and 15% commission.
But if you’re in a niche like travel or beauty and none of them were helpful for you, you can find affiliate programs in the following ways:
1. Google “your niche+ affiliate programs”
Other bloggers may have already made lists of some affiliate programs depending on your niche, and you should be able to find these by simply searching on Google or Pinterest, e.g “beauty affiliate programs”.
2. Ask bloggers in your niche what affiliate programs they love
If you’re a blogger and you’re not getting in touch with other bloggers, start now! Just join some Facebook groups and Pinterest groups for bloggers, search “affiliate programs” in these groups and see what comes up.
3. “Stalk” big bloggers in your niche
This is kind of a joke, but bloggers who are making lots of money sometimes share their income reports (I linked a few further up). If they are making money through affiliate marketing, they will break it down into how much they are earning from each affiliate. You can find income reports from bloggers in your niche, and take note of what affiliate programs they are earning money from.
Once you have found some affiliate programs, it’s time to apply!
STEP 3: APPLY FOR THE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Now you need to apply for the affiliate programs you have found.
This can be quite time consuming.
Different affiliate programs will have different requirements, and will want you to take different steps in your application.
But make sure to follow each step thoroughly. You do not want your application to be rejected!
STEP 4: FIND YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS
Once you have applied and been accepted you need to find your affiliate links and copy them, ready to prepare them for your blog.
Where your affiliate links are located will vary depending on what platform the affiliate program is on.
You can see for one program I am an affiliate for, the product is on SendOwl.
On this platform, the affiliate links are found by:
- Clicking on the program you are an affiliate for
- Selecting “See all affiliate links”
- Then you can copy your affiliate link using the button pictured here
STEP 5: PREPARE YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS
Once you have your affiliate link, you need to prepare it to be used on your website.
One of the best ways to prep your affiliate links is using a free plugin called ThirstyAffiliates, pictured below:
The plugin:
- Makes it simple and quick to add affiliate links to your content
- Cloaks your affiliate links so instead of looking like “https://transactions./stores/8114” (which looks kinda like spam to your readers) your affiliate link looks like “https://easyblogemily.com/recommends/product/”
- Allows you to easily add the proper coding to your affiliate links, so Google doesn’t penalise your site
INSTALLING THE THIRSTY AFFILIATES PLUGIN
To install the plugin:
- Go to Plugins on the left hand side of your WordPress dashboard, and select Add New
- Search for “Thirsty Affiliates“
- The first option should be the one pictured above
- Click Install
- Then press Activate
And the plugin will be installed!
USING THE THIRSTY AFFILIATES PLUGIN
To use the plugin:
- Go to the ThirstyAffiliates section that should have appeared on the left hand side of your WordPress dashboard
- Click “New Affiliate Link”
- Name what you want the affiliate link to be called (I usually call it the name of the product that is being linked to)
- Copy in the Destination URL (the long one that look like spam)
Now here comes the important part.
If you scroll down , you can see the Link options on the bottom right hand side.
It’s really important to get these settings right if you want Google not to penalise your site.
The most important one is:
- Making sure your affiliate links are “No follow“
You can see it gives a brief explanation, but in simpler terms it is good for making sure your site ranks well on Google as Google specifically asks your affiliate links are no follow.
So make sure this is set to “yes”.
I also make sure the affiliate link opens in a new tab, so that anyone who clicks through to an affiliate link isn’t taken away from my site completely.
Once you’ve adjusted the settings properly, press Save Link on the top right hand side.
And then your affiliate link is added!
STEP 5: INSERT YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS
Then you are ready to insert the affiliate link into your content.
This is very simple- when you are writing a blog post or page, just:
- Select the text you want to be linked
- Click the downward arrow that appears above the text
- Then click TA Affiliate Link, as shown below:
- Then just search for what you called your affiliate link
- Click your affiliate link
- Press enter
And your affiliate link will be added!
STEP 6: DISCLOSE YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS
Now this is the kinda scary bit, but it is seriously important.
You MUST disclose your affiliate links correctly.
If you don’t, you might actually be breaking the law.
So wherever you use an affiliate link:
- You must disclose on the same page that you use affiliate links.
- The disclosure must be shown immediately, without the reader having to scroll.
- The disclosure has to be obvious and easy to read.
- The disclosure must be clear, and not ambiguous.
Pretty serious stuff, right?
And the rules will vary from location to location.
So I’m a UK blogger, but in the USA the FTC has made certain rules.
And I have to stick to these rules even though I’m in the UK, as some of my readers are American!
However, you should not stress yourself out over this. It’s actually really simple.
Here’s how to easily insert an affiliate disclosure on all your blog posts and pages that use affiliate links:
Creating an affiliate disclosure
As always, I have found a plugin to make this easier.
It’s called Shortcoder, pictured below:
Once you have installed and activated the Shortcoder plugin, you can add a piece of code that will make an affiliate disclosure appear by:
- Going to Settings on the left hand side of the WordPress dashboard
- Then selecting Shortcoder
- Clicking “+ Create a new shortcode”
- Then write and name your affiliate disclosure
For mine, I have written “This post contains affiliate links; I will make a commission at no extra cost to you, should you click through and make a purchase. Read my disclosure for more info.”
And then I have included a link to my disclosure page.
It’s bold, it’s easy to read, and it clearly states I use affiliate links and what that actually means.
(Please note I am not a legal expert. You might want to get in touch with one or invest in a course about laws for bloggers to make sure you are getting this right).
- Once you have written your disclosure, scroll and click “Create shortcode”
And your shortcode will be created!
Then you can easily insert your shortcode into the top of all your posts or pages by simply:
- Going to the shortcoder homepage
- Clicking <> to be shown your shortcode
- Selecting and copying your shortcode
- Then when you are creating a post or page, at the top of the page/ post click the + button on the left hand side of a block
- Then click “Shortcode“
- And copy your shortcode into that space
And then your affiliate disclosure will appear at the top of the page.
AFFILIATE MARKETING: FINAL THOUGHTS
Now you are ready to create awesome content that features your affiliate links to start earning passive income!
And tomorrow, I will be showing you 24 “Proven” Ways to Make Money Online Blogging with WordPress
I’m so excited