So, after all the action on my last post in which I revealed all my blog stats, including exactly how much I made last month (and then so many of you did not disappoint and shared your stats and numbers too in the comments — thank you!!), I thought I'd go into a bit more depth about where exactly that money comes from and how it works.
The bulk of my $500 last month came from affiliate sales.
What are affiliate sales?
Affiliate sales work like this:
- I recommend a product or service to my readers by writing about it on my blog.
- I provide a link to that product or service. The link contains my own unique "affiliate code."
- If my readers click through that link and purchase said product or service, I receive a small commission for the referral.
It's a win-win-win situation. My reader wins because they get a word-of-mouth recommendation for a great product or service from someone (I hope 
) they can trust. (I only recommend products in which I have complete confidence.) The company wins because they get a customer they might not have gotten otherwise. And I win because I get a small reward for connecting the two.
If you're a blogger, you can make money as an affiliate for all kinds of products and with all kinds of companies. (If you're interested in a list of companies with affiliate programs by the way, check out this one I compiled from the input of a bunch of fellow bloggers.)
Amazon might be the most well-known affiliate program (although their affiliates are called associates).
Things I've learned about monetization so far
- Experiment. Tweak & test things constantly. Come up with new ideas. Always be on the lookout for better ways to add income streams to your blog.
- Do what others do. Learn from the experiences of others. Watch what they do, where they place ads, what kind of ads they use, who they are affiliated with. Especially watch those in your same niche.
- Don't do what others do. Having said all that above, don't assume what works for someone else will necessarily work for you. You've gotta go back to #1 and find the right combination for your blog!
- Keep your day job…for now. This is hard work! And it takes a while to get some traction!
Other ways I make money online
While affiliate sales are my biggest direct income-producer, I do make earn other ways too:
- Swag Bucks – The nice thing about these is that they're easy, anyone can win (blog not required) and they're just plain fun. (I wrote about 'em here.)
- Consulting – My blog has been a launching pad.
- Design – Again, my design business only took off after I started actively networking online, specifically on Twitter.
It's certainly exciting to see that it's possible to make money while doing something I really enjoy. It definitely works for me!
Disclosure: This page contains affiliate/referral links.
Thank you for all of these great tips!!!
WOW! I can't believe I've missed these posts. I've saved the pages to my favorites and will go back and read them. I fairly new to blogging and was curious how people were making money doing it.
I found your linke through Works For Me Wednesday. I'm now following.
Thanks for stopping by Michelle!
We make a lot from doing affiliate sales of our e-books. We have a list of 60 or so people who run our sales from time to time. Of that sixty 5-8 usually run the sale. We have about 3 big sales a year.
If you have written an e-book this can be a good source of income but does require a LOT of customer service with people who don't understand e-books, don't want an e-book, have a missing e-book (we are expected to find it on their computer
, or e-books that won't work because they don't follow the directions to download it right.
But… having said all that we can make $5,000- $10,000 on a e-book sale with 1 weeks work not including writing the e-books.
I've been trying to stay away from twitter and facebook, but from what I've read recently, I really need to look into this.
Thanks for all of the advice!
I was late to the Twitter and Facebook game too.
I have to say though, Twitter has been huge for me in the way of networking and making connections with others. Huge.
Hi Amy, newbie here. Enjoy your site. It has been exactly what I'm looking for.
Will an affiliate 'accept' you before you have traffic? I guess which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Self-generated traffic to my blog, THEN I can apply for affiliates or will they take any & all opportunities to have their button (or whatever) on anyone's blog, before traffic begins?
Thanks!
Thanks for sharing Amy!
Do you need to have a Tax Identifiction Number to accept affiliates and advertising on your blog?
Do you mean an EIN? No, you can use your SS# if you're a sole proprietor.
Any tips for someone who has never ever made a single sale from Amazon, even though I use associates links for every product I write about on my review blog? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong!
Hmmm…not sure what to say on that. I'd so some googling I think and see if anyone else has had the same problem. Although, I'd first contact Amazon and see if they can shed some light on it first, I think. They might be able to tell you if you're using the wrong code, etc. Sorry, that's a bummer!
Can you please tell me how I get comments to appear at the bottom of my postings? Like your comments are here? On my WordPress blog it just has a "Comments" link at the end of every post.
Thank you!
It might be because you're not looking at the single post entry. If you click on the title of one of your posts, it's likely there's a comments form at the end of the single post. If you're looking at your homepage, there might only be a "comments" link.