If you are wondering how to make money on your new blog, this post on affiliate marketing is for you. Perhaps you are are considering starting a blog, or you just started and are worried you won’t ever make money, this post is for you.
I recently have been asked by some friends and followers how I got started into blogging, and if I had any tips!
As a newbie, & complete beginner, I thought I would share my personal experience with my blog, and how I keep it going. I am not a giant success story, but just sharing an average experience for those who may feel overwhelmed or worried of failure.
And let’s be honest, I’m still figuring it out. But through all the readings and blog posts I read, everyone seemed to be a long-time professional. I’m just a newer blogger that wants to share what is like. So if you’re wondering if there are bloggers out there that try and fail and then make small successes, you’re in the right place.
I am not a big giant success story that made hundreds of thousands within a few months. I’m just you’re regular type mom who loves home décor and motherhood and loved writing essays in high school. So I started a blog and have found I can combine all three.
And you can do it too. Whether you’re looking at starting a fitness blog, or sharing about cooking and yummy recipes, or maybe just a blog on creative toddler meals and snacks, there are hundreds of options you can try.
You don’t have to pay thousands of money to start and find success, or pay money upfront. You can start on your own, taking small risks and then take time fine-tuning your skills and learning at your own pace while juggling life. That is completely ok too.
Blogging: It’s okay to not know what you’re doing
When starting a blog, you will want to find a platform to host your blog.
Then you will pick out your domain name, and then start creating. WordPress is a very common blogging platform to create and write and build your website.
Your upfront starting costs can be minimal. I highly recommend starting with the cheaper plans. No need to invest hundreds of dollars on your hosting, website builder, themes, and website protection programs.
I am here to tell you the honest truth, its okay to start small, and build up overtime.
My Journey
I love big, overnight success stories. Amazing, and very happy for those people. But some people are just average like me. And we won’t see success overnight and that’s okay.
When I started blogging I had big dreams I was going to make lots of money within a couple months. And a girl can dream, right?
But I quickly learned that it takes money, time, talent, and constant improvements, fine tuning and additional learning to keep going.
I learned the hard way that you have to be consistent. And every time I wasn’t consistent I paid for the consequences by dipping views that I then had to build up overtime.
When I started I didn’t have the funds to jump with both feet in and invest a ton of money. I didn’t have the ability to buy these blogging courses for hundreds of dollars. And I’ve learned that its okay.
For some people, making the jump and investing a lot of money and buying expensive courses helps them get their big break.
And for others, well, we start from the bottom and we meander around a little bit. But it doesn’t mean we lack passion or skill.
When I first began blogging, it was so difficult on me, I would call my Mom in tears and she would help calm me down and remind me that it would get easier. And in many ways it has! Thanks to her help and guidance in pointing me to videos and help guides and then doing some guessing herself. She’s a genius!
I soon found out after I started blogging that the money doesn’t just flow in. The millions of readers I had dreamed in weren’t popping in. There’s were not large automatic deposits coming in weekly like I had dreamed.
At the time I was selling these enormous, custom, handmade wreaths. I was getting so many customers but I couldn’t keep up on my own. It was requiring a great deal of labor and time to complete these wreaths, and I still had a home to manage, a baby to tend to, and a husband that I needed to spend time with as well.
The tricky thing about blogging is that you need ALOT of views to start getting paid advertisements and banners. That type of easy, passive income sounds amazing right? But if you’re anything like me, you’re starting from the bottom and working on up, right?
I also wasn’t ready to start paying for Ads, or paying for promoting my blog. For quite a while I felt stuck. Thankfully I have a sweet Mom who I could call and she was able to walk through some steps with me, and then encourage me to not give up.
I also learned about SEO. This is a huge factor in getting views on your blog.
I knew I needed to help compensate for the money I was investing into my blog, so I soon found myself tip-toeing into affiliate marketing. Although the results were not immediate, and I am still not a “top earner” or “Natural Success Story”, I am here to tell you that affiliate marketing works, even if you don’t blog everyday. You can still make money from links in a blog post from two years ago. Amazing right?
I have been able to find a balance of my own in blogging. I can write about motherhood and life, and I also can post my projects from organizing to cleaning & redecorating. I also post affiliate posts where I round up great deals from decor, to baby gear. Because my niche is about all things home & motherhood, I have a wide range of topics and links I can share within my posts. For instance, my post on thoughts on motherhood here, or my trending post on luxury baby gear here.
Many posts don’t go viral, and others become viral months after posting. (Such as my playroom post) Sometimes just one blog post can be the source of nearly all my income in a month.
Affiliate Programs for Beginners
An Affiliate is someone who promotes a product or service, and if a product or service is sold, can receive a commission. There are different types of Affiliate Marketing. The giant success stories of “High Ticket Affiliate Marketing” and the simple ones, such as a Target, Walmart, or Amazon Affiliate.
I first started with Amazon Associates. Essentially, it is the same thing as an Amazon Affiliate. It is really easy to be part of their program. The Associate program allows me to share links and banners on my website that my readers click, and then I may receive a commission on.
I personally decided for myself that trying to get my social media moving and growing that wasn’t my top priority. I didn’t want to feel obligated to be on social media daily and I didn’t want to feel like I had to share about all these deals throughout the day, or video myself putting on teeth whitening strips. That’s just way out of my comfort zone and too much pressure for me.
Even though I am not an Amazon Influencer, as an Amazon Associate I earn commissions on qualifying purchases made through links. I put these links throughout my blog posts, and it gives me the liberty to share these links in a variety of ways on my blog. I can create graphics of favorite products, share items used in my decorating projects, or just share favorite baby must-haves I have found throughout my motherhood journey.
With a little bit of training, anyone can share Amazon links on their blog or website. And then after a few times it becomes easy. I personally have been surprised that without any effort, I can still make a small commission just from previous trending posts. This helps run my blog and allows me to afford to keep going. I don’t share links everyday, or all the time. And the links previously share in blog posts will still help me gain that commission. So many people are participates of Amazon’s Influencers and Associates programs. This can cause a little competition when it comes to your links. So you must know that not all your click will turn into money. Try to aim for a good click conversion rate. Even 10-11% is really good with how much competition is out there.
If you have a large following on Facebook, Tiktok, or Instagram, you could apply to be an Amazon Influencer. The nice thing about being an influencer is that is will give you many optional ways to make additional money in your sleep! Such as building lists, making a storefront, and simply adding your favorite items to these.
Becoming an An Amazon Influencer has many perks, and with a large following you would have a greater potential to make more money by simply curating lists and your storefront to what your followers are interested in.
Since Amazon has just about everything from fitness, clothing, to baby products to kitchen appliances and crafting supplies, Amazon is a very easy company to find the links that work with your niche and lifestyle to share on your blog.
Share-A Sale
I didn’t join affiliate programs for quite a while. First of all, rejections are scary. Second, I was scared I would mess up. I began with CJ Publisher, but I was having a really hard time getting things going there. After several rejections I gave up.
But I am here to tell you there is an easier way. And if I can, you can too!
Share-A-Sale has a very popular affiliate program, and it currently is one of my favorites right now. It is SO easy to use. I highly recommend it. It’s not expensive, it’s not complicated, and you will most likely find some companies that within the niche you personally share about on your website or blog.
With Share-A-Sale you do have to apply to most programs, but to do that you simply click “apply” and then you type a message letting the company know what you’re about, what your niche is, and how you plan to promote their products.
However, non of them asked about social media followings. And I was approved to many! Many of the programs offer 5-10% commission on products purchased, and many have at least 15 day cookies ranging up to 30 days.
These “cookies” are the best because once a link has been clicked, you can have that sale up to that 15-30 day expiration if bought within that window. (and obviously a few other terms)
With Share-A-Sale, I was signed up within an hour, and it has been a breeze to navigate. I highly recommend this affiliate program to beginners who don’t know where to start. This is a great start. You can even become a Share-A-Sale affiliate quite easily, they were the first ones to approve me. I am Share-A-Sale affiliate myself, thanks to their easy program. Since then, I applied to several programs and even though I received a handful of rejections, I also was able to get a large amount of affiliate invites and approvals.
The shareable links are organized for you on their site, and all you have to do is copy . The company offers great training and they also have a free Youtube channel to watch step-by-step. I have told so many people about this because of how easy their signup process was combine with a sleek and simple website to navigate in finding possible affiliate companies to partner with.
You can also be a merchant and sign up for Share-A-Sale, and/or promote it to other merchants for an even higher commission!
Although you and I might not be the “big winners” and giant moneymakers of the century, you would be surprised how easy it is to make a few extra dollars just after putting on link in your website or blog.
