Affiliate Marketing ↓
Finally! See Which of Your ClickBank Affiliate Programs are Converting and ACTUALLY Making You the Most Money!
Posted in Affiliate Marketing
ClickBank has been a source of endless frustration for so many of us who not only make money online, but actually make a living purely online!
On one hand the ClickBank network offers some of the best converting affiliate products anywhere. So, we all work with them. They also reliably make payouts every 2 weeks, yet another strong point in their favor.
But the major problem until just recently - they refused to show you how much traffic you’ve sent them, so you could never accurately figure out which affiliate products are converting better than others. AAAhhhhh!
So what’s the problem?
While this may not matter much to someone who’s happy to get a $50 ClickBank check every few months, for those of us who bring in several thousand dollars a month from affiliate revenue (from sales of many different affiliate products), optimizing your conversion funnel matters. It matters A LOT.
Can’t you track affiliate conversions yourself?
In short, no. The best you could do was to use OpenAds to track your outgoing clicks for each affiliate product, and then compare that with the actual sales at the end of the month. But that’s error prone.
What you want is to see a per-product breakdown of how many clicks you’ve sent and how many sales you made. THEN you can see what’s actually making you money, so you know where to focus your energy the most. Read: do more of whatever works the best.
So how can you see product conversion stats from ClickBank?
Well, this is a new feature, and it’s buried down deep. But, if you look deep within their reporting tools, and select just the right combination of options (see the image), you’ll get… drumroll please… conversion stats broken down by product! Yeah!!!
Note that currently this is only available for the "by publishers" report, and only for the past 30 days.
And this is what you’ll be seeing… Note how neatly the crucial numbers are computing for you. You see "clicks per order" and how much money you actually made per click. Looking at this graph, can YOU pick out the obvious winner?
While we found it quite by accident while reviewing our top money makers for the past several months, we’re very happy and grateful to see this new feature.
Any great tips to optimize affiliate conversions?
Absolutely. More on this in a future article, but here are some big ones…
- Use OpenAds to split-test ad headlines, and see which attract more clicks to each affiliate products. Every couple of weeks, choose a winner, and add a new contender to "beat the control".
- Use "goals" in Google Analytics to track how well your pre-sale review of the affiliate product is performing. You can see how many clicks to the product sales page you generate, and what your abandonment rate is. You DO pre-sell your affiliate products, don’t you?
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Affiliate Marketing EXPOSED - The Holy Grail of Making Money Online with a Blog
Posted in Affiliate Marketing
Can you Make REAL Money with Affiliate Marketing?
Ah, the mysterious and sometimes black art of affiliate marketing… the well kept secret of the most successful Internet marketers.
Many people have tried and failed to make any money online with affiliate marketing… usually because they give up way too quickly. Fact is, affiliate marketing takes some up front effort to get optimized and working right, but when it’s working, life is very, very good.
Most bloggers only use Google AdSense to monetize their sites. AdSense is a great revenue option, but affiliate marketing can easily bring in double your AdSense revenue, WITHOUT impacting your AdSense earnings.
What’s more, the work you put into developing a good affiliate marketing strategy will pay off for months and years to come. You only do the work once, and it keeps on giving! Now that’s working smarter, not harder.
Passive income, and Blog Monetization Zen.
The best kept secret of affiliate marketing…. Shhhhh!
The biggest secret to successful affiliate marketing is this… It’s all about the pre-sale.
Putting up banners and links will get you some conversions - if you’re lucky. But if that’s your main attempt at affiliate marketing, then it’s a big waste of your time and effort.
People visiting your site (your readers, web visitors) are looking for information. And if you’re doing your job well and putting together great information, then your articles and reviews will be indexed and well ranked by the search engines - making it THAT much easier for these searchers to find your site instead of someone else’s. The more search engine traffic you’re getting, the better.
This is because people WHO ARE MOSTLY READY TO BUY search for reviews and articles about their products of choice. Sometimes they want to see their options for a product category, but often times they just want to justify to themselves why it’s OK to buy that product they really want.
So - they want to see an honest, objective review of a product before they buy it. They want your personal seal of approval. So find great products, provide and honest review with benefits and weaknesses, recommend the product, and offer affiliate links to purchase them.
But what if you don’t like the product you’re recommending? Is that dishonest? Will it still work?
A question plaguing most beginners with affiliate marketing… "Isn’t it dishonest to recommend something you don’t like?"
Of course it’s dishonest to recommend something you don’t actually believe in. And here’s a little secret. If you write a dishonest review, your readers will pick up on that, and they’ll probably move on and NOT buy using your affiliate links.
So here’s a radical solution. Focus on doing reviews and writing articles for products that you LIKE and can actually RECOMMEND. 
Where to find the BEST affiliate products to promote
You know your niche inside and out, don’t you? If not, go back to the drawing board and learn it!
To make thousands of dollars every month in passive income from your blog, your information must be top notch, and for that you have to be an authority on your topic. It’s that simple.
OK, so now that you have an idea about what types of products MIGHT be interesting to your nice, you set out to find the best performing products. No, not just any products… you want to find the ones that are performing well for others, and you start there. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
ClickBank tips and tricks - how to start making money today
ClickBank is a huge marketplace for selling digital products. And it has the easiest to use affiliate program out there. You literally just sign up, search for products to promote by keyword, and get the code to promote them on your site.
You can also see how much you’ll get for every sale, and what percentage of the sale amount that is. Hint - - don’t look for the larger total price, but rather the program that offers you the highest percentage of each sale.
The downside: ClickBank has the worst stats tracking of any affiliate network out there. They don’t show you how many clicks you’ve sent to a product, which can be really frustrating. They only tell you when you’ve made a sale, and how much you made. This approach also doesn’t allow for testing to make sure your links are good. But alas, it’s basically a must for any serious affiliate marketer. So go sign up for ClickBank and find some products to promote.
Commission Junction
Comission Junction is another top affiliate network. It provides great stats for clicks sent, and also gives you great comparative numbers on how much others are really earning for sales across all merchants.
But their products are generally not as juicy as those on ClickBank. Nevertheless, sign up for Comission Junction as well to round out your list of affiliate products, and find yourself some well converting products to try out.
Other affiliate marketing networks and programs
There are some other affiliate networks out there that are worth paying attention to, but it’s very important to not spread yourself too thin. Do your research and find the programs you’ll be focusing on, and go from there.
SharePayNow vs. Clickbank
Another affiliate network similar to ClickBank that’s starting to gain some ground is SharePayNow.
This network is very similar to ClickBank, but unlike ClickBank, it DOES show you how many clicks you’ve sent to a campaign - which is always nice. However, unlike ClickBank, it doesn’t show you which programs in their marketplace are converting and how well. But SharePayNow is definitely worth checking out when you’re choosing products to promote on your site.
AzoogleAds vs. LinkShare - alternate affiliate networks
If you’re looking for some banner ads to check out, you’ll need to find an affiliate program that provides those. AzoogleAds and LinkShare are both large affiliate networks that are worth checking out.
But there’s a big difference, and having dealt with both we’ll be avoiding LinkShare in the future. LinkShare feels like a large, sluggish company, while AzoogleAds is young and on the ball. The AzoogleAds support is great, and you get your own very responsive dedicated account manager that’s actually eager to work with you and help you find well converting campaigns for your site. Wow, imagine that.
Here’s a major difference though - AzoogleAds tends to offer well paying promotions for affiliates, which pay out significantly better than their counterparts on LinkShare.
Check out AzoogleAds and see which of their promotions could work for you.
The Amazon affiliate program
And of course, the most popular affiliate program of all time, the Amazon affiliate program.
For some truly bizarre reason, the Amazon affiliate program is one of the most popular and successful affiliate programs in the history of Internet marketing.
Maybe it’s because it’s downright easy to set up Amazon affiliate links for your site, and start making a little money. More likely, it’s because we all BUY books and other products from Amazon regularly, so we’re comfortable with it. And we know that others buy from Amazon as well.
Here’s the catch though. Amazon pays you roughly 5% of the revenues you generate for them. That is lower than just about ANY website and blog monetization scheme out there.
While it is another monetization option, there are just too many other better options with much higher payouts.
Knowing this, should you still sign up for the Amazon affiliate program?
Yes, you should definitely still sign up for this program. You will eventually either refer to or actually review various books on your website. These books will likely not have direct affiliate options, so the only way to monetize these referrals will be through a quick link to the Amazon product page.
Also, that Amazon affiliate link is a great way to provide your reader more information on the book you’re talking about, and make it easy for your readers to purchase the book.
Amazon also has a really neat feature for affiliates, which creates a dynamic preview of the book when your readers hover their mouse cursor over the book link on your site. All it takes is a tiny JavaScript snippet you’ll get from Amazon.
For an example of the Amazon product preview pop-up, check out this post on AskDanAndJennifer.com answering a reader question about steamy date night DVDs - hover over the DVD titles.
So go ahead and sign up to the Amazon affiliate program as well, but don’t spend a lot of time putting up their banners and other sales tools. Instead, us this as a laser focused way to monetize reviews and references to popular books that you include in your articles.
And suddenly you have ONE MORE revenue source paying you every month…
The eBay affiliate program and AuctionAds
Yeah, the whole "make money with eBay" thing was and still is a great opportunity for some, but it’s become more of a fad. Starting a blog is a solid way to make long term income - just for doing some writing on stuff you actually like and care about. Imagine that!
Unlike Amazon, eBay shows some serious lovin’ for it’s affiliates. In fact, in June 2007, eBay nearly doubled it’s affiliate payout amounts. That’s some serious affiliate lovin’.
eBay pays you both a flat reward for each referral you send them (a customer who creates an eBay account and eventually buys something) and also a percentage of the sales generated from the referrals you send them. Now that’s pretty cool.
What’s the best way to add eBay listings to your site and make money?
Until recently, it’s been a challenge to add eBay listings to your site in a visually appealing way, so as to really get your visitors engaged. But AuctionAds makes it very easy to do this, with their easy to customize widgets. You can customize the ad unit on their site, copy the little code snippet, and add it to your site. Done - you’ve got eBay auction ads.
Can you make more money with eBay by using AuctionAds?
YES! The eBay affiliate program is tiered to pay you a lot more money as a high traffic affiliate. So if you have a lot of sales and referrals every month, you make much more PER REFERRAL than someone with just a few sales / referrals per month.
By joining AuctionAds, your commissions are based on the entire AuctionAds member base, not just your own sales. So each referral and sale you generate are compensated as a very high traffic affiliate. Again, this is working smarter, not harder. Sign up for AuctionAds to add eBay auctions to your site - and make money as a high traffic eBay affiliate.
Adult affiliate programs - web cam girls, kinky adult personals, and more… Oh, my!
Wait a minute - is there really money to be made in the adult industry?
Where’ve YOU been? Oh yeah, most definitely. Where there’s demand (as in 50% of all the web traffic today), there’s money to be made.
OK kids, everyone who’s going to be offended here please cover your eyes and skip this section like good boys and girls.
What’s the best adult affiliate program to get started with?
One of the most successful and best paying affiliate programs in "the business" is ClickCash. They’ve been around since the mid 1990’s. Their iFriends site connects people with webcams (a.k.a. cam girls, or "content producers") with web surfers (a.k.a. "consumers"). They provide web cam streams for every possible sexual interest that might have enough consumers who posses credit cards. And they provide a way for many content producers to make a LOT of money from the privacy of their own homes.
ClickCash offers a variety of well converting banners and sites, but some of their best converting sites are Sizzling Cams and Totally Free Cams - WARNING, these are adult sites. Before you click, cover your eyes - and if you’re at work, turn your speakers off!
And get this… you actually make $40 for every FREE signup you send them. These referrals only have to sign up with them and provide a valid credit card, but they’re not charged anything. This person is signing up for a free membership, and they’re asked for their credit card to "verify their age".
Admittedly, getting a credit card is indeed a more accurate way of verifying adulthood than asking your visitors to "click here if you’re over 18".
Anyway, their profit margins are so high, that they will pay you $40 or more (up to $80) per sign-up you send them. And the pay scale is graduated - for more than 5 referrals in a week, you get $45 each, and it goes up to $80 per FREE referral.
Downline referrals
Oh, and if you get other affiliates to sign up, you’ll receive an extra 10% for all the money THEY make. So, you refer your friend who gets 10 conversions next month. That’s $400 for him and $40 for you more than you’re making now. Think of it as a gift for referring your friend to such a successful affiliate program.
So if you’re a little adventurous and open minded, sign up with ClickCash today and start making serious cash from sending FREE signups to ClickCash and iFriends.
But what about adult personals sites, like Adult Friend Finder?
An adult personals site is an excellent complement to promoting ClickCash streaming video sites. Providing more options for your visitors is Always a good thing.
Adult Friend Finder is the most popular adult personals site on the Internet today. What many people don’t realize is that AdultFriendFinder gets more web visitors every day than Match.com, eHarmony, and Yahoo Personals put together. Hmmmm… perhaps there’s money to be made in this niche anyway.
Adult Friend Finder pays between $30 and $85 for EACH paid membership you send them, depending on the promotion they’re running at any given time.
But remember - unlike ClickCash, these visitors need to actually buy something. Regardless, the conversions here are much better than traditional non-adult online dating sites.
Sign up to the Adult Friend Finder affiliate program and give it a try.
Must have affiliate marketing tools
Don’t waste your time and money fumbling around in the dark. You can so easily waste too much of your already scarce time and energy. You should be spending that time laser-focused on doing the things that will MAKE YOU MONEY!
Don’t re-invent the wheel. Find successful affiliate marketers and do what they’re doing!
First, check out the Super Affiliate Handbook. Rosalind Gardner, one of the most successful affiliate marketers in recent years, laid out all the basics on how to really succeed with affiliate marketing in the Super Affiliate Handbook. She goes into great detail about what she did, how she did it, and how you can follow her example. No, it’s not going to show you every step of the way and guarantee your path to amazing riches, but it’ll get you started and on the right path, fast.
Download the Super Affiliate Handbook and get the basics down BEFORE you spend lots of time and money with trial and error.
Then, when you’re ready for advanced affiliate and ClickBank tactics, you’ll want to check out Affiliate Project X. This guide reveals some really well thought out, advanced tactics for making more money on ClickBank, and shows you how to easily figure out what the successful affiliate marketers are doing - so you can do it too! Some people really like it, while others think it’s not so great. We consider it well worth the time to read it, as well as the modest monetary investment. Here’s our recent review of Affiliate Project X.
How to get these guides, and why you should do it
These books are well worth getting, and they’re electronic, so you can actually be scouring them just a few minutes from now.
What’s really great is that you can basically "try" them to see if you like them, so there’s no risk to you. Just because we like them, that doesn’t mean you will. But the great think is that you can download them and make up your own mind. If you don’t feel you got an excellent value, they both offer an immediate no-questions-asked refunds. That’s a major reason we’re very comfortable recommending them both to our friends.
So there’s no reason to put this off. Download Super Affiliate Handbook today.
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Affiliate Project X - Indispensible Guide or Bogus Hype?
Posted in Affiliate Marketing
Most affiliate marketers agree that Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook is THE must-read guide for new affiliate marketers. And we strongly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.
But when it comes to Affiliate Project X…
There seems to be a serious disconnect between many bloggers and Internet marketers. Some love it, and other say it’s utterly worthless. Wow, it’s unusual to see such a drastic difference in opinion.
Maybe this drastic difference comes from the very salesy and hypey Affiliate Project X website. This article was prompted in part by one of our readers who commented that he finds no value whatsoever in Affiliate Project X, and asked what redeeming value we possibly saw in it.
The short answer is yes, we definitely found it valuable, which is why it’s one of just 2 or 3 affiliate marketing guides that we recommend to our readers.
To take a step back though - Jennifer and I put a LOT of value on always learning and growing. As such, we spend hundreds and thousands of dollars a year on books, guide, programs, and lectures. We’re always absorbing something new. And for those people hoping to make it on their own, and make a good living from their blogs and websites (read: small business), learning is a make it or break it reality.
There is a huge difference between very successful people and those that always seem to fail at everything they attempt.
And that difference is man-made
First and foremost, it’s the can-do attitude that always gives away a truly successful person. Successful people don’t make excuses as to why they can’t do something. They KNOW there’s a way, and they go after it. They also never use the words "someday I’ll do this". "Someday" is the refuge of a person lying to themselves and their friends. We all know someday never comes. Yesterday is just a memory, and tomorrow is a hollow promise. All that is real is TODAY.
The four little words that stop success in its tracks
Your attitude toward the world a huge difference in your life. When I look at something new, I NEVER pick it up saying "I already know this". You know those words… your mind whispers them in your ear every time it’s too lazy to actually think about something.
Rather, embrace it as a challenge to find some new tidbit of information that you’ve been missing. And without fail, you will always learn something new, something that makes you that much more knowledgeable and successful.
Destiny or coincidence?
We believe that you always come upon the information you need, when you need it in life. Call it what you will, but we’ve seen too many instances of this to chalk it up to "coincidence". So when something comes at us, especially when it comes at us from two or three sources in a short time span, it’s generally time to take action.
So back to the question… do we think there’s really any value to Affiliate Project X?
Absolutely. It’s not a huge book, but it gives you the insights of a seasoned veteran. You’ll get a glimpse into how he works his ClickBank affiliate promotions, and how he analyzes and defeats his competition.
Is Affiliate Project X the end-all, be-all dynamite Rosetta Stone that will make money FOR YOU on autopilot while you sit on the couch with your favorite beer watching the game?
Nope. There’s no such thing. But it IS a great stepping stone to becoming a much more successful affiliate marketer - this means you’ll know more tactics that work, so you can employ these to make MORE money while working LESS.
Passive income and the free money myth
Remember, we’re talking about "passive income" here. You write a good article and promote it, and it keeps on bringing in money for years to come. We are NOT talking about "free money", i.e. winning the lottery.
What if you get Affiliate Project X and your worst fears come true - you don’t like it?
Well, you could cry and get mad, or you could do what we would do in that case. Politely ask for your money back.
The funny thing is that we’ve only requested two product refunds, out of all the dozens and dozens of information products we’re always scouring. And in both cases it was only because the sales copy was completely different from what you actually got in the box. Rarely is there a case when you don’t learn something of value.
We recommend Affiliate Project X because we like it, but also it has a full refund guarantee if you’re not happy with it for any reason - for as long as 60 days. Read that again - if you get it and you truly believe you didn’t learn anything of value, you can just ask for your money back - and they will give it to you. It’s that simple.
Next steps
Give Affiliate Project X a try and see what YOU think. If this or any other product doesn’t meet your expectations, then do the right thing - ask for a refund. But we’ll be surprised if you feel that need.
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How to REALLY Make Money Online with Your Blog - Passive Income 101
Posted in Make Money Online
We’ve all heard about people making money online… But what about REALLY making money online? How about staring a blog and generating some passive income so that you can quit that job and escape the rat race.
We’re not talking about making $2.47 a month from your hobby. We’re talking about making hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars every month doing something you enjoy.
Selling your time for dollars is one of the worst ways to make a living, but people do it because it SEEMS safe. But how many times have you seen hundreds or thousands of people without a job because of some corporate layoff? And do you really enjoy fighting traffic twice a day and barely getting an hour or two with your family when you get home exhausted and ready for bed?
Whether you’re seeking freedom or just some extra money, this is the best time to start a blog and make real money online.
Is Passive Income a Myth?
Well, it depends on your definition of passive income. Many people think that passive income is sitting around doing nothing while the checks roll in. This is not passive income, this is free money, like winning the lottery! Our definition of passive income is doing the work once and reaping the benefits (read passive income) for years to come. We call this mailbox money and making money while you sleep. There is nothing more refreshing than taking the day off and checking stats at the end of the day to see that, even though you were not working, you still made money!
Can You REALLY Make Money Online With Your Blog?
Absolutely! But, there’s a catch, the golden rule: it’s all about CONTENT. If you provide extreme value with great content, people will come back again and again, and you’ll make more and more money. It’s that simple.
Some people spend tons of time trying to trick the search engines only to find their income stream ripped out from under them the next time Google updates their search algorithms.
Content is king! Provide lots of good, relevant content for your readers and Google will love you for it.
What about all those people making $2.47 a month with THEIR blogs?
As with everything in life, there are people who are very successful, and there are people who are not successful. Those who make a meager effort and quickly throw in the towel end up just wasting their time and telling everyone else that this blog thing doesn’t work.
But the successful ones, the ones who are willing to put in the effort, have escaped the corporate world and set themselves free!
And what about choices? There are many who choose to keep their corporate jobs and enjoy making a few thousand extra dollars every month.
Which group do YOU want to be in?
In just a few months we went from nothing to bringing in over $2,000 every month with our Dating & Relationship advice blog. We have personal friends making anywhere between $500 and $40,000 per month, all from their blogs.
STOP! Think about that for just a minute. What are the possibilities for you? What do you enjoy talking about, writing about, reading about? Why not turn your hobby, or obsession, into a passive income stream?
What TYPE of monetization will work best on your site?
Depending on whether you have a product-focused blog or an information blog, different monetization options will work best. But regardless, the most important concept here is to make an educated guess and actually implement a few of the following money making options. Only then will you know what will work best on your blog.
And remember - test, test, and test some more to truly optimize. We are constantly testing and trying new monetization schemes.
Top 10 Tips to REALLY Make Money with Your Blog
Tip #1: Make Money by Showing Ads
Is it right to show ads and make money with your blog?
Hmm… the age-old question that’s been plaguing bloggers for years.
Should you provide great information to people free of charge? Do ads make your blog seem cheap and of lower quality?
To be honest we never had this problem, in part because we started our blogs specifically to help people and make a good living at it. Why go to a job when you can make better money actually enjoying what you do?
Visitors expect to see ads on successful sites. In fact, not showing ads can make your site seem small and unimportant because people EXPECT to see ads on popular sites. Every major website shows ads. Just look at Netscape.com, Amazon.com, About.com, etc… They ALL show ads.
Another example. You go to a job every day, and ask your employer for money if they want you to show up for work. Really, would you show up if they didn’t pay you? Nobody has a problem with that and yet many will not ask for money or show ads on their blog for fear that it will devalue the content.
Get over it and monetize your blog. You don’t have to market products or charge a subscription fee, but to us, ads are a no-brainer.
How soon should you put ads on your blog?
Ok, now that we feel fuzzy about making money online with our blog, where to begin? Should you place ads from the very beginning? Do you need to wait a minimum of 90 days? How about waiting until you have 2,000 visitors a day?
The answer is simple - do it now!
You COULD wait until the magical day when you receive 2,000 visitors a day, or even 10,000 visitors a day. Unfortunately it’s likely that day will never come unless you monetize your blog to help it pay for itself.
How would you like to see 1,000,000 people visiting your site every single month?
Guess what - that type of busy site costs money to run, and takes a LOT of time invested on your part. But here’s the wonderful part - if your blog is well monetized, you can quit your day job and work on your blog full time, writing about and promoting things that make you happy.
What is the best ad placement?
Different placement works better for different niches and for different ad networks.
Test, test, test. Changing the placement of an ad can make you dramatically more or less money, so test and track your results carefully.
What types of ads are NOT OK?
It’s all about relevancy.
Ads that provide value to your readers are generally welcomed by them. For example, recommended books and services that are truly related to the content your visitors came to see are great. But ads that are NOT related to the content your visitors came to see, will annoy and alienate your visitors - and will NOT make you money.
Use quality, relevant, ads that actually provide value to your readers, and you’ll be surprised at how well the ads are received.
Make it easy for advertisers to buy ad space on your blog.
This is the first step to making money with your blog - make your intent clear.
Always make it EASY for people to take whatever action you’d like them to take.
Create a visible page on your site to tell people exactly HOW to go about advertising on your blog. The easier you make something, the more people will go for it.
If someone comes by your site and would like to advertise, but they don’t immediately see how to do it, they’ll lose interest and move on to someone else’s site - and they’ll advertise with THEM.
Create a page that explains in simple terms what types of advertising spots you’re offering, what the rates are, and how someone can go about purchasing your ads right away. Don’t make them email you to find out the details. They won’t.
Make it simple and it’ll happen.
Tip #2: Make Real Money with Affiliate Marketing
Ah, the art of affiliate marketing… the well kept secret of some of the most successful Internet marketers.
Many people have tried and failed to make any money with affiliate marketing… usually because they have given up too quickly. Fact is, affiliate marketing takes some up front effort to get optimized and working right, but when it’s working, life is very good.
Most bloggers only use Google AdSense to monetize their sites. AdSense is a great revenue option, but affiliate marketing can easily bring in double your AdSense revenue, WITHOUT impacting your AdSense earnings.
What’s more, the work you put into developing a good affiliate marketing strategy will pay off for months and years to come. Now that’s working smarter, not harder.
How do you find affiliate products to promote?
You know your niche inside and out, don’t you? If not, go back to the drawing board and learn it!
To make thousands of dollars every month, your information must be top notch, and for that you have to be an authority on your topic. It’s that simple.
OK, so now that you have an idea about what products MIGHT be interesting to your nice, you set out to find the best performing products. No, not just any products… you want to find the ones that are performing well for others, and you start there. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
ClickBank
ClickBank is a huge marketplace for selling digital products. And it has the easiest to use affiliate program out there. You literally just sign up, search for products to promote by keyword, and get the code to promote them on your site.
The downside: ClickBank has the worst stats tracking of any affiliate program out there. They don’t show you how many clicks you’ve sent to a product, which can be really frustrating. They only tell you when you’ve made a sale, and how much you made. This approach also doesn’t allow for testing to make sure your links are good. But alas, it’s basically a must for any serious affiliate.
So go sign up for ClickBank and find some products to promote.
Commission Junction
Comission Junction provides great stats for clicks sent, and also gives you great comparative numbers on how much others are really earning for sales across all merchants. But their products are generally not as juicy as those on ClickBank. But sign up for Comission Junction as well to round out your list of affiliate products.
The secret to affiliate marketing
The secret to successful affiliate marketing is that it’s all about the pre-sale. Putting up banners and links will get some conversions. But people want to see an honest, objective review of a product before they buy it. They want your seal of approval. So find great products, provide and honest review with benefits and weaknesses, recommend the product, and offer affiliate links to purchase them.
Must have affiliate marketing tools
Don’t waste your time fumbling around in the dark. You can easily waste too much of your already scarce time and energy. Find successful affiliate marketers and copy what they’re doing!
Rosalind Gardner, one of the most successful affiliate marketers of all time, laid out all the basics on how to really succeed with affiliate marketing in the Super Affiliate Handbook.
Download the Super Affiliate Handbook and get the basics down BEFORE you spend lots of time and money with trial and error.
When you’re ready for advanced affiliate and ClickBank tactics, you’ll want to get Affiliate Project X.
Tip #3: Create True Passive Income with Paid Text Link Advertisements
Don’t sit around waiting for advertisers to come to you. People are out shopping for link ads RIGHT NOW in marketplaces like Text-Link-Ads. If you’re not in there, then someone else is going to get paid to put links on THEIR site today.
Go sign up with Text-Link-Ads right now. This is a real no-brainer.
There’s no work to do whatsoever, you just fill out a form, install their small code snippet on your blog, and your name shows up in their marketplace.
Yes, they keep 50% as their fee, but fact is that’s the cost of being in their catalog of links that people to go IN ORDER TO BUY LINKS. If you’re not there, they’ll buy links on another site.
One mistake many people make is to leave a very low price for links on their blogs. Of course, don’t set it too high… just value yourself appropriately as compared to other advertisers in your niche.
We consistently make over $500/month from Text-Link-Ads these days, with very little effort. We get an email to approve an ad, log in to Text-Link-Ads, and approve the ad. Whew… time for a break! THIS definitely qualifies as passive income - talk about Blog Monetization Zen.
Check out our review of Text-Link-Ads and how well it really can work for bloggers.
Tip #4: Make Easy Money with Contextual Pay Per Click Advertising
Google AdSense
Google AdSense is so successful because of their ability to show ads that are truly relevant to your site. Irrelevant ads annoy readers and also won’t make you any money.
For a blogger, Google AdSense is the easiest option to implement.
Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)
YPN is the major alternative to Google AdSense. In fact, many publishers have changed from AdSense to YPN because YPN tends to pay more on a per click basis. But their content targeting is nowhere near as effective as Google’s, so in the end you’ll likely bring in less money with them.
Test your AdSense and YPN placement
Test, test test… start with Google AdSense and try out different placement options around your site. Track all your changes thoroughly, and make only one change at a time. Literally, only make one change at a time to placement, link color, and text color. If you change the placement and the link color at the same time and your click throughs go through the roof, how do you know which change worked?
When you’ve figured out what placement is the most effective for your site, you can try replacing AdSense with YPN for a few weeks, or few months, depending on your patience levels, to see how your bottom line results differ from AdSense.
Must have Google AdSense tools
Just like with affiliate marketing, it’s easy to waste months and months of your time with basic trial and error (mostly error). Our approach is to study what the successful people are doing, and learn from them.
There are many books and guides on AdSense, and we have a couple of favorites. Our favorite is Michael Cheney’s step-by-step AdSense Videos, because of all the detail he goes into. But beware - Michael goes into extreme detail on how to place your ads, what impact you can expect to see from different positioning and color changes, and so on. If you’re dedicated, these videos will be well worth your time.
Download Michael Cheney’s AdSense Videos and see step by step how you can get the most out of AdSense.
Tips #5: Make Money with Related Search Results from Ask.com
Ask.com just launched a really great monetization tool that can be implemented alongside AdSense and the other monetization items already in place on your site.
Your visitors click on these related search links, and they are presented with Ask.com search results. You make money when they click on the sponsored results at the top.
What do Ask.com Sponsored Search listings look like?
Here’s what these ad units can look like. You’ll notice that a publisher has full control of the layout, and even the search box and Ask.com logo are optional:
How can you sign up for this monetization tool?
Currently this program is invitation-only. Ask.com is also limiting the program to publishers with over 50,000 visitors monthly.
If you have a quality site and receive 50,000 total combined monthly visitors between all your sites, send us a message and we can make a personal recommendation which should get you accepted.
Tips #6: Get Paid to Write Reviews for Related Products and Services with Sponsored Reviews
Your readers can feel your credibility in everything you write. Think of it this way - if you’re not telling the truth, the person you’re talking to can tell. It’s the same when you’re writing. People can smell BS a mile away. So keep it real and talk to your readers like you would to your friends.
There are several major sponsored review marketplaces today, but our best experience has been with ReviewMe.
Go sign up for Sponsored Reviews with ReviewMe right now, this is a real no-brainer. There’s no work to do whatsoever, you just fill out a form and your name shows up in their marketplace. When someone purchases a review for your blog, you get a notification to log on and review this offer. You can accept it, reject it, or ask for different terms. It’s literally that easy.
While this is not passive income, it can be a nice boost for your wallet.
Tips #7: Monetize Your Content Automatically with Dynamic In-Text Advertising
Services like IntelliTXT and Kontera can dynamically embed ads in the text content of your website or blog.
Unfortunately these sites are generally difficult to get up and running, and we consider these dynamic text ads to be intrusive in the body of your articles. More importantly, our results have been less than impressive. In fact, this was he least fruitful of all our monetization efforts, even below the Amazon Affiliate Program.
We do however know bloggers who make good money with this type of advertising - as much as a 20% increase in revenue. These sites are focused on technology and gadget topic. Basically product and technology oriented blogs tend to do well with this type of in-text advertising.
Tip #8: Make Money with eBay AuctionAds
Unlike Amazon, eBay shows some serious lovin’ for it’s affiliates. In fact, in June 2007, eBay nearly doubled it’s affiliate payout amounts. That’s some serious affiliate lovin’.
eBay pays you both a flat reward for each referral you send them (a customer who creates an eBay account and eventually buys something) and also a percentage of the sales generated from the referrals you send them. Now that’s pretty cool.
What’s the best way to add eBay listings to your site and make money?
Until recently, it’s been a challenge to add eBay listings to your site in a visually appealing way, so as to really get your visitors engaged. But AuctionAds makes it very easy to do this, with their easy to customize widgets. You can customize the ad unit on their site, copy the little code snippet, and add it to your site. Done - you’ve got eBay auction ads.
Can you make more money with eBay by using AuctionAds?
YES! The eBay affiliate program is tiered to pay you a lot more money as a high traffic affiliate. So if you have a lot of sales and referrals every month, you make much more PER REFERRAL than someone with just a few sales / referrals per month.
By joining AuctionAds, your commissions are based on the entire AuctionAds member base, not just your own sales. So each referral and sale you generate are compensated as a very high traffic affiliate. Again, this is working smarter, not harder.
Sign up for AuctionAds to add eBay auctions to your site - and make money as a high traffic eBay affiliate.
Tip #9: Make Money Online with a Product Review Blog and Chitika
Product Blogs are focused on discussions and reviews of products, such as electronics and other goods, as opposed to providing information and advice. The readers visiting these product blogs are generally in the market to purchase the products they’re reading about. So you’re inherently writing to an audience of perspective shoppers.
In contrast, information blogs are visited by people who usually have no particular goal of purchasing anything. For these blogs, the publisher has to be much more creative in selecting very compelling offers that tie directly in with the content presented, so that the reader will immediately see the benefit and consider making that purchase.
Chitika
Once you have your product blog set up, you’ll want to make it EASY for people to purchase the products you’re talking about.
A great way to do this is with Chitika. They provide all kinds of graphical widgets, dynamic product photos, interactive product comparison shopping widgets, and even custom shopping portals, for most any product you could be talking about on your site.
A comparison shopping widget is a great way to engage the reader of a product review. And get this - you make money when your reader just CLICKS on the product widget. Yes, this is a CPC program. So even if you don’t have a lot of site traffic, you should see good results from adding Chitika to your site.
Chitika is a natural extension for any product blog, and it’s also quick and painless to set up.
Click here to sign up for Chitika, to easily add interactive product comparison shopping to your site and product reviews.
Tip #10: Don’t Forget to Include The Amazon Affiliate Program
For some truly bizarre reason, the Amazon affiliate program is one of the most popular and successful affiliate programs in the history of Internet marketing.
Maybe it’s because it’s downright easy to set up Amazon affiliate links for your site, and start making a little money. More likely, it’s because we all BUY books and other products from Amazon regularly, so we’re comfortable with it. And we know that others buy from Amazon as well.
Here’s the catch though. Amazon pays you roughly 5% of the revenues you generate for them. That is lower than just about ANY website and blog monetization scheme out there.
While it is another monetization option, there are just too many other better options with much higher payouts.
Knowing this, should you still sign up for the Amazon affiliate program?
Yes, you should definitely still sign up for this program. You will eventually either refer to or actually review various books on your website. These books will likely not have direct affiliate options, so the only way to monetize these referrals will be through a quick link to the Amazon product page.
Also, that Amazon affiliate link is a great way to provide your reader more information on the book you’re talking about, and make it easy for your readers to purchase the book.
Amazon also has a really neat feature for affiliates, which creates a dynamic preview of the book when your readers hover their mouse cursor over the book link on your site. All it takes is a tiny JavaScript snippet you’ll get from Amazon.
For an example of the Amazon product preview pop-up, check out this post on AskDanAndJennifer.com answering a reader question about steamy date night DVDs - hover over the DVD titles.
So go ahead and sign up to the Amazon affiliate program as well, but don’t spend a lot of time putting up their banners and other sales tools. Instead, us this as a laser focused way to monetize reviews and references to popular books that you include in your articles.
And suddenly you have ONE MORE revenue source paying you every month…
Bonus Tip #11: Add CPM Banners and Make Money With Every Single Page Viewed on Your Site
CPM banners are banner ads that pay you a certain dollar amount for every thousand impressions shown on your site.
Nobody has to click on any link, buy a product, or anything else. You’re guaranteed that revenue for just showing those banners on your site. That’s it.
You will, however, have to reach a certain traffic level (normally around 100,000 page views per month) before most CPM agencies will approve your application. So once you’re established this is a great way to add additional revenue.
One of the more popular CPM ad companies, especially for bloggers, is Tribal Fusion. The application period takes about a week, and then the implementation is very simple.
Bonus Tip #12: Make Money While Helping People - Answer Questions and Give Advice
Once your sites starts to grow in popularity, you will gain a regular reader base and a growing following. Many of your readers will start asking you questions about how to do this, how to do that, how you you would solve this problem, and so on.
This is an opportunity for you: offer to help your readers in exchange for monetary compensation.
Yes, you could help them for free, but you’ll quickly see that all your time is spent solving other people’s problems, and you won’t have time to run your site and grow your business. All this while you’re probably still going to a job every day, working for someone else. Yuck.
Also you’ll likely not have time to help every person who asks you for help. Adding a paid options helps to prioritize which questions to answer first.
Take control of your time AND give your readers a chance to get a guaranteed response.
Some people have issue with asking people for money to help them. But understand this: you can always help as many people for free as you CHOOSE to.
Now think about your readers, from their perspective. Why not make it fair to them, and offer them a guaranteed, helpful, well though out, and timely response to their problem, for a certain fee. Your employer pays you for your time, and that’s OK. Then why not allow your readers to decide for themselves if they are willing to pay you for your time, to help them with THEIR problems?
Check out www.AskDaveTaylor.com and www.AskDanAndJennifer.com for some great examples of how this can work.
Your next steps…
- Bookmark this article to be sure you implement all the choices above.
- Are there any great monetization options we’ve left out? Leave a comment below and let us know what’s worked best for you.
- Then, sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss the great series of follow-up articles. We’re going to be delving into the juicy details of EACH monetization method above - hot insider tips, what works best, what will just waste your time, and what to really watch out for.
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