Lots of people believe that they can’t make money online because they don’t have any products to sell. The great thing about the Internet is that you don’t have to sell hard goods that you actually own. One of the best ways for the average person to make money online is by trading information and knowledge for income. Each of us has information and knowledge that others do not. I know a lot about some things that you know little about. You know a lot about some things that I know nothing about. When you share your knowledge base via your blog, others get to learn from you, and you make money when you monetize your blog.

There are many ways to monetize an informational web site or blog, and each site owner has to determine the best methods for her own site. And as I’ve mentioned before, since Diversity is a key, you will usually want to have several methods of monetization working for you at all times. Today, we’ll touch on earning commissions from affiliate sales. I’ve earned quite a bit of money from affiliate sales over the years, and along the way I’ve learned a thing or two about it.

First, let’s make sure everyone understands what affiliate sales is all about. Let’s say you know lots about kites, but you don’t actually sell kites or anything related to kites. You’ve set up a blog where you can teach the rest of us everything we might need to know about kites and kite-flying. You can join a kite store’s affiliate program which allows you to refer your readers to their online kite store. If any of your readers purchase anything from their store, you earn a commission because you referred the customer to the company. So, you see, you don’t have to sell your own products. You can simply make commissions when your readers purchase a product you’ve recommended.

When you join a company’s affiliate program, you’ll be given special code to use that will create either links or banner ads. You place the code on your blog (either in a blog post or in the sidebar). When one of your readers clicks the link or banner ad, they are taken to the company’s site. At that point, the company knows that the reader came from your site, and any purchase that reader makes will earn you a commission. (Some affiliate programs pay based on actions other than sales, such as leads, but affiliate sales is what I’m most familiar with).

As in all monetization methods, you’ll need to test things and determine what works best for you. However, in general, I’d say that actually reviewing products and using the text-only affiliate link within the review itself is often the best way to market affiliate products. Banner ads are fine, but actual text links within reviews nearly always work better for me. This way, the reader knows that you’ve tested the product and your recommendation is more likely to cause them to purchase the product.

If you need to find products that relate to your niche, or companies in your niche that offer affiliate programs, you can simply search for “your niche keywords affiliate” in your favorite search engines. That’s a great way to find some independent affiliate programs that may not be known by everyone. I always start with this type of search first. Once I’ve exhausted all possible affiliate programs this way, I then move on to the affiliate networks to see what they have to offer in my niche.

There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of affiliate networks, but I’ve only dealt with a few of them. I’ll list the ones I’ve used below. These are the ones most people have heard of, and they are at least reliable in that they make payments and they’ve been around for some time. I don’t make any guarantees about them, of course, but I’ve personally never had a problem with any of them. I usually use at least 2 or 3 networks for each site.

Naturally, Commission Junction is first on the list, as they are the “biggies” of the group. They have thousands of programs offering tons of products, with many of them being major brands. I always check here to see what programs fit my niche.

Next up is LinkShare.com Similar in scope to cj.com, they are large and have lots of programs and products, including major brands.

I also like Shareasale because although they have lots of programs and products, most of them are from smaller, more unique companies and there may be less competition for these products.

Delving into the even more unique niches is the Niche Retail Partner Program which is much smaller, but caters to some nice unique niches such as baby strollers, watches, etc. If your niche fits with these programs, it’s a great fit. Mommy bloggers especially should check it out.

If your niche lends itself well to software products, then OneNetworkDirect is worth joining.

And along those same lines, but on a broader scale, ClickBank is the place to go for all kinds of digital products (ebooks, software, etc.)

Finally, I’d check out AffilateBot. I haven’t used them yet, but I’ve been hearing good things about them, so they may be worth looking into.

You might also want to subscribe to Revenue Magazine (ad shown below). The affiliate articles are interesting and informative, but the ads are as well. The ads are a great way to find new affiliate programs that might be perfect for your niche site.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on September 4th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Making Money Online