If you have a website or blog the chance is you want to know how to make money from it. In this post I am going to walk you through the process of making money from any blog or website.
I am assuming at this point that you do, at least have a chosen niche and have built a website. If not click on the links in the previous sentence to find out how.
I also want to make you aware that before you can sell you must be able to help. I urge you not to try selling on your blog before you are offering value to your customers or visitors. Being a dumping ground for promoting products will not sit well with either google or visitors. First and foremost your visitors will come to your site to find out information they have searched for. And if they find it, they will stay and read, and then google will reward you by boosting you in their rankings, which in the end will mean more visitors.
One of the most common mistakes we make is promoting to a customer or reader before we fully understand who our readers are. It is so easy to waste money promoting what you “think” people want, rather than what they actually want.
Don’t make assumptions about your customers, gain an understanding of them and then you will be much more successful.
If you feel that you don’t yet understand who your customers are, then read my post on the customer purchasing lifecycle.
The most popular “money making” technique is called Affiliate Marketing.
How Affiliate Marketing Works
The affiliate model is very simple, but people tend to over complicate things. Affiliate marketing allows you (The Affiliate) to promote product or services online for companies (The Merchant) This is done through affiliate programs. If you can buy something online, chances are you can promote the product as an affiliate through their affiliate program. When you join an affiliate program, they give you a special link to put on your site to promote their products.
When someone is on your site and they click your “affiliate link” you will get credit for the sale if this person goes on to buy something. Amazon for example pay affiliates 6% as a base commission. Let’s say you have a link to a sofa which is priced at £1500.00 .Your commission as an affiliate here would be 6% of this. £90.00 for simply referring people to a site where people can buy the product. This can be done within absolutely every niche and every website. There is an affiliate program for everything. Some are independent and some are based within larger affiliate networks, like Shareasale or Clickbank. Search “Affiliate programs” in Google and all the main companies will be there on the first page.
To find a relevant Affiliate program for your own niche just type in “your niche + affiliate program”. For example “handmade furniture + affiliate program” There really is an affiliate program for every niche.
All you have to do is sign up and then promote the product via a link on your site. The trouble is people won’t just click on a random link in your website and buy. Would you?
What we need to do is make the link relevant to your post or page and the best way to do this is by doing a product review of the said product. Tell people what you like about it and what you don’t. Be honest and even if you are not so keen on it, say so because the reader may still click the link to buy because what you didn’t like about it may not bother them. Totally negative reviews still get product links clicked.
What you also need to do is include some kind of call to action in your post. Don’t leave it to chance. Say “Click here to purchase product xyz” you can also put in subtle links in the post which could easily be put in when you name the product in question.
I want you to know that Google, Bing and Yahoo or the big three, hate websites that are full of affiliate links and will punish them harshly in rankings. To get around this you can put an internal link to your review on any of your posts. For example, I may write a post about the process of making a sofa and put a link into it that sends them to a review on that sofa you want people to buy from Amazon.
How Much Can You Earn as an Affiliate?
As much as you like is the answer but remember your revenue is closely tied to the amount of traffic you get. In order to get traffic you need a website that has relevant and helpful content.
You will hear stories about people earning £1,000 a day off of a single keyword, and while that is possible it is not the norm. You will also hear stories about people earning a residual income, year round, from home. This one is a reality and this is usually accomplished through affiliate marketing one way or another. Most of the best ones with higher % pay outs are the Independent ones. These are the ones not tied to the big affiliate networks.
For example, I belong to an affiliate network called Wealthy Affiliate. It is an independent (or “in house”) affiliate program. In 12 years, they have never been late with a payment and have paid out MILLIONS of dollars to affiliates. You can check out my review here.
In conclusion
We all want to earn a profit but we have to know that earning money is done by building relationships with real people who will read your content and then possibly become a customer. They become a customer because they trust what you say. Writing blogs or creating websites is a people business and you will be dealing with REAL people. REAL people are coming to your site. REAL people will be reading your content. REAL people are going to take action and buy if they trust you.
If you understand your customer and treat them as if they are the most important person in the world, then the money will naturally follow towards you.
I hope this has been useful in understanding how to make money from blogs. If you have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Hey Karen, one of the best, most real articles I have read on the subject. I myself am also in to the affiliate marketing thing and I couldn’t possibly agree with you more about creating content that’s helpful.
People usually have a problem that they want help with in order to solve it and you’ve hit the nail on the head regarding the importance of genuinely helping others.
Now, where I do agree that you can make a living with affiliate marketing, I truly think that it’s a blend of niche choice, traffic and luck. Niche choice probably directly affects traffic which in turn affect luck.
I don’t think one can make a full-time living within any niche – at least not in a niche that doesn’t drive much traffic.
What do you think about that? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Hi Michael and thank you for taking time to read my blog.
In answer to your question,I believe you would be hard pushed to find a niche that doesn’t have potential customers and therefore potential traffic. Finding those customers in order to drive traffic is the key to success. Knowing who your potential customers are and then finding where they hang out online will help you to target them to come see your site. A targeted, consistent and appropriate social media campaign will usually drive all of those potential customers right to your site.
If you have a niche that you don’t think has many potential customers let me know as I love a challenge.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
I agree with everything u said. Sometimes u go on these websites and it’s just so annoying to navigate through website with all the pop ups and promotions trying to get u to buy. In all cases I just leave. I have just started my blog, I have content on it but want to now monetize it. Do you think directly posting products on my website from Amazon is a good idea? or all the search engines would hate that?
Hi Sara,
I agree that pop ups are annoying if done badly but I have seen sites where they pop up at appropriate times.I don’t use them as I don’t think they currently add value to my readers.
As for directly posting products from Amazon on your site then yes it is a good way to earn revenue but they are better placed on a review page of that product.
Placing them all over your site will confuse the customer and google will hate it.
Good luck with your site.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Hi Furkan. Thankyou for reading my post and hope you found it useful. The question you pose is a bit like how long is a piece of string. For some,reaching that figure can happen very quickly and for others a couple of years. You can definitely earn that in a year, if you create with the customer in mind and do so consistently. Make sure to review products that you have affiliate links with and guide your customers gently to read those reviews as I say in my post.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Interesting idea! I have been blogging, and I have been making a few cents with ads. i think I can earn a lot more this way! With ads, you can earn maybe a few cents per click, but this sounds like something that can actually bring in good money. would you say it is better than adsense?
Hi there Ben and thankyou for taking the time to read my post. You can definitely do a lot better than a few cents from adsense. I do use adsense on my site but it earns very little and I think it often gets in the way of the readers comfort. So it is currently under review so to speak. Promoting a product with a good and honest review will definitely bring in more revenue than adsense.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Hi Karen,
Great article! And truthful too.
The info is detailed, and precise. I like the example about the commission by Amazon. Are there affiliate programs that offer higher commissions? If there are, could you highlight some of them please?
Hi Timotheus and thanks for your kind comments about my post. Always be truthful when writing online or you will be found out.
There are lots of affiliate programs that pay out a lot more than Amazon(50 or 60% in some cases)but I use Amazon as an example because most people have heard of it and it will be within their reach.
I suggest you check out Shareasale or Clickbank. In there you will find lots of products that will be suitable for your customers and you can see clearly what the payouts are.
I hope this is helpful.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
I am just starting to work more on my website and affilate program, right now I am focused on getting more traffic before I start earning an income, thats the first step before I can accomplish anything right, right now im only averging 5 – 8 ppl per day so hopefully when i get more.content targeted keywords I will achieve more traffic
Hi Todd and thank you for dropping by to read my post.
5 to 8 people a day is a great start to a new site and something you can build on with great content. Build it well and they will come.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Michael Pawlik
atHey Karen, one of the best, most real articles I have read on the subject. I myself am also in to the affiliate marketing thing and I couldn’t possibly agree with you more about creating content that’s helpful.
People usually have a problem that they want help with in order to solve it and you’ve hit the nail on the head regarding the importance of genuinely helping others.
Now, where I do agree that you can make a living with affiliate marketing, I truly think that it’s a blend of niche choice, traffic and luck. Niche choice probably directly affects traffic which in turn affect luck.
I don’t think one can make a full-time living within any niche – at least not in a niche that doesn’t drive much traffic.
What do you think about that? I would love to hear your thoughts on this!
Karen Noone
atHi Michael and thank you for taking time to read my blog.
In answer to your question,I believe you would be hard pushed to find a niche that doesn’t have potential customers and therefore potential traffic. Finding those customers in order to drive traffic is the key to success. Knowing who your potential customers are and then finding where they hang out online will help you to target them to come see your site. A targeted, consistent and appropriate social media campaign will usually drive all of those potential customers right to your site.
If you have a niche that you don’t think has many potential customers let me know as I love a challenge.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Sara
atI agree with everything u said. Sometimes u go on these websites and it’s just so annoying to navigate through website with all the pop ups and promotions trying to get u to buy. In all cases I just leave. I have just started my blog, I have content on it but want to now monetize it. Do you think directly posting products on my website from Amazon is a good idea? or all the search engines would hate that?
Karen Noone
atHi Sara,
I agree that pop ups are annoying if done badly but I have seen sites where they pop up at appropriate times.I don’t use them as I don’t think they currently add value to my readers.
As for directly posting products from Amazon on your site then yes it is a good way to earn revenue but they are better placed on a review page of that product.
Placing them all over your site will confuse the customer and google will hate it.
Good luck with your site.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Furkan
atHey, I really want to know how long it takes to reach 1000 dollars per month with a blog? Do you think can I reach this goal within a year?
Karen Noone
atHi Furkan. Thankyou for reading my post and hope you found it useful. The question you pose is a bit like how long is a piece of string. For some,reaching that figure can happen very quickly and for others a couple of years. You can definitely earn that in a year, if you create with the customer in mind and do so consistently. Make sure to review products that you have affiliate links with and guide your customers gently to read those reviews as I say in my post.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Ben
atInteresting idea! I have been blogging, and I have been making a few cents with ads. i think I can earn a lot more this way! With ads, you can earn maybe a few cents per click, but this sounds like something that can actually bring in good money. would you say it is better than adsense?
Karen Noone
atHi there Ben and thankyou for taking the time to read my post. You can definitely do a lot better than a few cents from adsense. I do use adsense on my site but it earns very little and I think it often gets in the way of the readers comfort. So it is currently under review so to speak. Promoting a product with a good and honest review will definitely bring in more revenue than adsense.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Timotheus
atHi Karen,
Great article! And truthful too.
The info is detailed, and precise. I like the example about the commission by Amazon. Are there affiliate programs that offer higher commissions? If there are, could you highlight some of them please?
Karen Noone
atHi Timotheus and thanks for your kind comments about my post. Always be truthful when writing online or you will be found out.
There are lots of affiliate programs that pay out a lot more than Amazon(50 or 60% in some cases)but I use Amazon as an example because most people have heard of it and it will be within their reach.
I suggest you check out Shareasale or Clickbank. In there you will find lots of products that will be suitable for your customers and you can see clearly what the payouts are.
I hope this is helpful.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen
Todd
atI am just starting to work more on my website and affilate program, right now I am focused on getting more traffic before I start earning an income, thats the first step before I can accomplish anything right, right now im only averging 5 – 8 ppl per day so hopefully when i get more.content targeted keywords I will achieve more traffic
Karen Noone
atHi Todd and thank you for dropping by to read my post.
5 to 8 people a day is a great start to a new site and something you can build on with great content. Build it well and they will come.
With Grace and Gratitude
Karen