Monday, July 16, 2007

Affiliate Programs

There are many ways that one makes money from simply blogging. We agree that Google AdSense is the number one choice when it comes to monetizing your site, but, as more and more bloggers are enrolling their sites into this type of contextual advertising program, it's quite common we find that their earnings are somewhat low at times. So, many bloggers nowadays look for alternatives to add on-top of their usual AdSense ads. This is totally a different story if you're John Chow or Darren Rowse as their traffic goes into the thousands.

So, what is the alternative here? Joining the right Affiliate program, is the other option. But, unlike AdSense ads which works on CPC (cost-per-click) and CPM (cost per thousand impressions) these Affiliate programs require your readers to click on the links and requires them to purchase a product, thus concluding a sale. So, for the majority of blogs that get low amounts of traffic, the idea of making more than $3.00 in a day can even sometimes be hard to achieve. But this all changes if you're a publisher in a certain Affiliate program.

By joining an Affiliate program, advertising a product at your site becomes so much easier as merchant ads and product links are easily assessable to your readers. You can also attach them into your e-mail campaigns thus giving you an additional edge in converting a sale. Another good thing about them is that they're free to join.

Commissions from such programs can vary depending on the Merchant's pay-out based on a percentage that they would preset. This can range from somewhere between 4% - 10% commission when a sale or other qualifying actions are completed. This is called CPA, or performance-based marketing. Definitely getting a 4% commission on selling a product worth $10-$15 is not going to be much for you, but, imagine this, what if someone buys a $6,000 product? And the best part out of this is that, the more you sell, the higher percentage of commission you will receive. That would give you an income that would probably take a couple of months to earn out of those AdSense ads alone. Trust me, there are a lot of people out there who are making a reasonable amount of money solely through these sort of Affiliate programs.

As there are many Affiliate Marketing companies out there for you to choose from, It's not going to be too difficult to find one that suits your site. For me personally, companies like : LinkShare and Amazon, works well. As both are trusted brands, I find them to be highly effective on my site. Chances are, once your readers are referred to these Affiliate sites they might end up buying more than one product, now how does that sound for passive income?

So what are you waiting for, if you're not already a LinkShare publisher, sign up for it using the following button.

LinkShare  Referral  Prg



12 comments:

One Wacky Mom said...

OOOOh my dear friend, you have an award of at my place...stop by when you have a chance!

Interesting post by the way.

NIHAL said...

Hi Ev!

Wow, an Award for me??? You're too kind. I'm all excited, now that I've heard this :)

Glad you found this post interesting as well.

Thanks Dear!

Yasmin said...

Thanks Nihal, this is sure some good information. Now I know why some people blog full time, there is potential to make money :)

NIHAL said...

Yasmin, good to hear from you :)

Anyway, one things for sure it's not about all money when somebody blogs but sometimes it's their passion for writing that is important. If monetizing your site is your aim then be prepared to slog for at least 6 months to a year before you see any signs of a stable income.

Affiliate programs are just one of the parts that one puts in their money making package, there are other things you could inculcate as well. Hopefully I'll be able to share more of them in the near future :)

Anonymous said...

hi nihal ! I have tagged both ur blogs on CellTechHub !

NIHAL said...

Hi Aayush, my friend.

You have really surprised me on this, Thanks a million :)

Johnny Ong said...

i blog bcuz of the passion too

NIHAL said...

Hi Johnny,

Thanks for joining us. Yup, you're right, majority of the bloggers out there share the same, "passion". But then again, there also a large number out there who would love to make money too. The options are always out there for them to choose :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Nihal. Thanks for dropping by :) Sometimes it's also not about the qty of visitors on your site, it's how creative you can take an convert a visitor into a clicker. Quality of ads vs. quantity of visitors.

NIHAL said...

Hello Sharon,

It's so nice of you to come by, I'm really delighted :) Well, you're definitely right on track on that one, no point of having a large amount of traffic but your conversion rates are low, right?

It's just that I feel that inculcating an Affiliate program together with AdSense is always a better choice, rather than relying on just one method :)

Anonymous said...

True. I am a big believer in Affiliate advertising :) Whoever got me hooked up with Linkshare is making a lot of residual income with me ....

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