How Bloggers Make Money: Affiliate Accounts

(Click here to read part one of this series - How Bloggers Make Money: Advertising)

If you’ve never heard about affiliate accounts, this is the blog post for you because I’m going to keep it all very elementary. I am NOT going to be discussing strategy around affiliate accounts (mostly because I’m not yet that good at it so I’d be a hypocrite advising you!).

So what is an affiliate account?

Let’s say you have a blog about sewing. And you write a blog post about a bag you made. And you happened to mention that you used a particular kind of sewing machine or other piece of equipment to make it. There is value in those words on your blog.

An affiliate network allows you to create a link to that sewing machine or equipment on a website like, say, Amazon that your reader can click and be taken straight to where they can buy that sewing machine. And when they do, YOU will receive a percentage of the purchase price. And not only that but many affiliate networks will give you the purchase price of anything that person purchases during that site visit.

Now before you get too excited and go off to join every affiliate network known to man, a few caveats:

• We’re not talking a huge percentage most of the time. Through Amazon Associates I typically get about 6 - 7% of the purchase price. Which is cool if you’re selling big ticket stuff BUT on smaller purchases it can sometimes be pennies.
• Which brings us to an ethical issue and one that I face a lot. When talking about products you use, do you automatically link your readers to the most expensive offering so that you get the highest return or do you link them to the most affordable to show them that you care? You gotta think about stuff like this!
•   Having a bunch of affiliate networks can get a bit confusing especially if they all work on different pay mechanisms and schedules. Coordination is good!

Having said that, how exactly does one get paid for this? Well, most affiliate networks will offer you several payment options. You’ll be able to receive a check (and many times you have to reach a payment threshold – for example, $100 — to get a check). Some places offer you store credit (Amazon does this). And most places will allow you to be paid by electronic funds transfer, again with a minimum earning threshold.

But like I said above, having a bunch of these accounts can be something of a logistical nightmare. Many pay on different dates and based on different pay periods. For example, my Netrition affiliate account (which does NOT perform well for many reasons, some of which are not my fault!) pays you when you reach $50 in a month. My Quest account through Commission Junction (I’ll explain in a minute) pays you every month a portion of what you’ve earned (and I’m still trying to figure out their logic). Amazon has a staggered schedule so in July I’ll get paid out for my May earnings.

See how this can get wonky? I personally keep an earnings spreadsheet to try to project my monthly income and it’s not easy!

Now remember I mentioned Commission Junction? They are an affiliate network provider. This means many companies use them to attract bloggers and website owners to their affiliate networks. In turn, Commission Junction manages all those affiliate accounts in one place. This means one very important thing to you, dear blogger: all your money is coming from one place at one time every month. This is a good thing!

If you decide to go the affiliate route I highly suggest you do it through these types of services just to make management of your money easier.

But how do I get paid?

Now…let’s talk about how you get those sales. There are several ways to get your readers to buy things through your affiliate accounts.

Ads

Most affiliate networks will offer ads that your readers can click to purchase something and have the credit come back to you.

THE PRO’S: It’s a relatively low intensity way of doing affiliate sales as you just place the ad and direct people to it. The coding is in the image so people don’t have to do anything special for you to get credit for the purchase!

THE CON’S: Remember I said that every scrap of space on your blog has monetary value? Well I’d suggest you only use affiliate ads if you are selling something that can essentially “sell itself.” And when I mean sell itself, the threshold is that it should be able to make you as much or preferably MORE than your monthly charge for ad space. Otherwise you’re losing money. Also, ads are finite. There’s only so many of them you can put on your blog and, moreover, only so many you can put at first pageview.

Links

These are the more common way to do affiliate sales. You can place a link (with your affiliate code built-in) in your blog posts OR you can post them in other places, like on your Facebook Page or other websites.

THE PRO’S: Links are portable. You can Tweet them, Facebook them or post them on other sites. They are especially good because you can respond in a conversation about the product with a link to the product. For instance, I often get asked what protein powder I like. I often respond with a link to the protein powder I like to my affiliate account.

THE CON’S: Some affiliate networks are more tech advanced than others. One of my networks has me actually manually writing the links myself to get my affiliate code in there (for what it’s worth, this is a sign that maybe I want to drop this affiliate account!). Otherwise, links are a good option.

In Summary

Here’s what I want you to remember about affiliate accounts:

•  Use them organically! Don’t talk about things for the sake of selling them. But if you genuinely do use a product or service and would mention it in a blog post, by all means link it to any affiliate account you may have.
• Don’t think you are limited to marketplaces like Amazon. Many services like domain hosting companies, newsletter hosting sites (like Survey Monkey) and print-on-demand publishing sites. Heck, even my affiliate network has an affiliate network. You can get credit when other people join! Do a Google search. You’d be surprised!
• Consider using an affiliate network provider, like Commission Junction, wherever possible. They offer accounts for many brands that people know and love and you get the added benefit of getting paid out from one source at one time.
• Be advised, though, that many affiliate accounts are by application only and the company does NOT have to accept you. Some companies require a certain level of traffic or Google Page Ranking (we’ll go into that later
• Like many other forms of passive blog income, your level of earnings has to do with two things: traffic and your marketing skills. For affiliate accounts to work you have to constantly remind people (without reminding them per se) to click on the link or ad. You must decide if that’s something you want to do. And even then the return may or may not be worth it!
• Finally, just because you join an affiliate network does not mean you HAVE to use it. But be advised that companies are free to drop you if they see no activity from your account.