Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers: How To Get Started & Make Money

If you’re wondering how to make money with a blog, affiliate marketing is one of the simplest monetization strategies to start with. You recommend products or services that are useful to your audience, share them using a unique affiliate link, and earn a commission when someone makes a purchase through that link.

As a blogging coach, I often recommend affiliate marketing programs to new bloggers. You don’t need to create your own product or service before you can start monetizing. You do, however, need useful content, the right affiliate programs and a strategy for getting your content in front of the right readers.

Affiliate marketing can eventually become a relatively low-maintenance income stream. This is because an older blog post can continue attracting readers and generating affiliate clicks long after you’ve published it.

But it isn’t completely passive.

You still need to create helpful content, promote it, update older posts and pay attention to which affiliate links are actually working.

In this affiliate marketing guide, I’ll walk you through how it works for bloggers, what you need before you get started, how to find affiliate programs, how to add affiliate links to your content, what you need to know about disclosures and how to create affiliate content that can actually generate sales.

By the end, you’ll have a much clearer idea of how to start affiliate marketing on your blog. You’ll know whether it’s the right monetization strategy for you.

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

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Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers: An Ongoing Income

It was during a Saturday day trip with my family when I got the email saying I received an affiliate sale. Cha-ching! That’s $60 coming my way.

Mama can cover an impromptu lunch out!

The joy of affiliate marketing for bloggers is that once you set things in motion, you can start earning income with affiliate links. With minimal ongoing effort.

It’s not completely passive. You still need to create content, promote your blog, update older posts and keep an eye on your affiliate links. But compared with creating and selling your own products, affiliate marketing can become a relatively low-maintenance way to make money with your blog.

Making affiliate marketing part of your blog is fairly easy. These are a few easy ways you’ll add links:

• Within relevant blog posts. Recommend an affiliate product or service when it helps your reader solve a problem or finish a task.
• Product or service reviews. Create useful, detailed affiliate product reviews that help readers decide whether a product or service is right for them.
• Tools & Resources pages. Create a Tools & Resources page featuring products, services and resources you genuinely recommend.

Once you have it published, it’s there for people to click the affiliate link and potentially purchase it.

This makes it much easier to make money with your blog. You can create content once and continue earning from it as long as it attracts readers and the affiliate program remains active.

RELATED: The Reality Of Making Money With A Blog

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a way for bloggers and other publishers to earn a commission by recommending a company’s product or service. When someone clicks your unique affiliate link and completes a qualifying purchase or action, you earn a commission according to the affiliate program’s terms.

For bloggers, affiliate marketing is a blog monetization strategy.

For brands and retailers, it’s a sales and marketing strategy.

The brand provides affiliates with unique links or other tracking methods so it can identify when a customer has come through an affiliate’s recommendation. If that customer makes a qualifying purchase, the affiliate receives a commission.

In simple terms:

The brand wants to make a sale. The affiliate wants to earn a commission. The reader gets a product or service that meets their needs.

As an incentive for publishers to promote their products or services, brands offer a commission. This might be a percentage of the sale, a set amount for each sale or, in some cases, a recurring commission when a customer continues paying for a subscription.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work For Bloggers?

Here’s the general process:

1. Join an affiliate program for a product, service or brand.
2. Receive a unique affiliate link that tracks referrals from your blog.
3. Recommend the product or service in your blog content.
4. A reader clicks your affiliate link.
5. The reader makes a purchase or completes another required action.
6. The affiliate program pays you a commission.

This is the flow:

Why Affiliate Marketing Is A Good Monetization Strategy For Bloggers

There’s no standard affiliate commission. How much you earn depends on:

• The individual affiliate program
• Products or services you’re promoting
• How many readers take action on your recommendations

Some programs take a percentage of each sale (usually about 3% to over 40%). The commission structure can be a one-time sale or a recurring sale. Sometimes it’s a set price, for example, $15 per sale.

Some of the biggest publications in the world are using affiliate links on their online properties. For example, Good Housekeeping has affiliate links in its online articles. The site’s Gift Guides and product reviews are peppered with affiliate links.

If the big guys are doing it, there’s no reason a smaller blogger can’t use affiliate marketing, too.

The key benefit is that you don’t need millions of readers to be effective with affiliate marketing. You just need the right readers, useful content and relevant products to recommend.

Choose Affiliate Programs Wisely

Don’t choose an affiliate program based only on the commission percentage. A 40% commission on a $20 product isn’t necessarily more valuable than a 10% commission on a $500 product.

Look at the entire offer, including the product’s price, commission structure, cookie duration, recurring commissions and payment terms. Most importantly, look at whether the product is genuinely useful to your audience.

Sometimes smaller commissions can do better than a large commission. For example, I was an affiliate for a period for an inexpensive WordPress theme brand. I sold more of those themes, generating a regular income, than with more expensive themes.

Can You Start Affiliate Marketing With A New Blog?

Yes. You don’t need thousands of pageviews a month to get started with affiliate marketing on your blog.

However, I do recommend that you don’t fill up your new blog with affiliate links. Focus on developing a clear niche topic, blog content that’s useful, and adding your legal pages. Affiliate programs need to understand what your blog is about before they accept you.

The reality is that even a small amount of blog traffic can lead to an affiliate sale. It’s more important that your blog reaches the right readers, with content that they truly find valuable and trustworthy.

What Do You Need Before You Start Affiliate Marketing

Before you jump into affiliate marketing, there are a few key essentials you need:

• A well-branded, organized blog. I recommend having a self-hosted WordPress site. Top hosting providers that I recommend include NameHero or BigScoots. They make setting up affiliate marketing and other monetization strategies easier. Other platforms can work as well. However, they may have limitations for scaling up if you’re planning several monetization strategies aside from affiliate marketing.
• If using WordPress, invest in a quality WordPress theme. Choose one that’s fast and easily customizable. Try these premium feminine themes from Bluchic, 17th Avenue, or Restored316. Check out more great theme options in my list of the top 10 WordPress themes. Make your blog look professional from the start. A well-put-together website builds trust and a greater likelihood of clicking a link to make a purchase.
• Three key legal pages. Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Disclaimer – the last is the most important. To make things easier for yourself, get customizable legal page templates for websites, written by a lawyer.
• Get affiliate marketing plugins. If you’re using WordPress, Pretty Links (free version for beginners is fine) or Lasso (free & premium) are great. Lasso is best if you’re focusing on Amazon, Walmart, etc, and looking to create grids and other eye-catching affiliate product displays. They help you stay organized and mask your ugly affiliate pins.
• Content that attracts readers. Understanding how to develop content that readers love reading and that builds your credibility is a skill you need to learn. It’s going to help you drive traffic and, with copywriting tweaks, help you convert to affiliate sales.

Once you have these essentials, you are ready to proceed!

| RELATED: 5 Essential Things To Invest In Your Blog To Make It Successful And Profitable

How To Start Affiliate Marketing – The General Basics

Before we delve into the details, an overview of affiliate marketing steps will help you understand the general process.

Affiliate marketing for bloggers can work in several ways. Right now, I’m giving you the most common way.

• Be ready to pitch your website. It’s professional-looking and generates enough traffic for better chances of being approved by brands.
• Choose a product or service that you love. Find out more about their affiliate program.
• Apply to join the affiliate program. You may need to join the affiliate marketing platform that hosts the brand’s affiliate program first. For example, Impact, Awin, Flex, etc.
• Get the affiliate link. Once accepted, use the specific URL (tracking cookie) for that product. It’s usually a long link, full of text and numbers. When somebody clicks the link, they will be taken to the site, and it is tracked through a cookie for a specific period of time (usually about 30 days).
• Make your link pretty (if possible). Some affiliate programs (like Amazon) don’t let you do this, so be aware. Use Pretty Links (my preference for beginners!) or Lasso to mask the long, ugly link under your own domain. Using either plugin also helps you track your links.
• Add the link and promote the link. Add it to your relevant blog posts, social media posts, email newsletter, or Pinterest. You can also share it as a referral.
• Publish an in-depth product review post. Affiliate product reviews convert better when they are in-depth, focusing on the benefits, including the pros and cons.

When somebody purchases using your affiliate link, a portion of the sale will go to you, at no extra cost to the customer.

It usually takes anywhere between 30 and 60 days before you get paid.

Payments are usually made to PayPal or directly to your bank account, depending on the program’s payment process.

| HELPFUL RESOURCE: Glossary Of Affiliate Marketing Terms

Don’t Build Your Blog Around Affiliate Links

Creating blog content around affiliate links isn’t a successful content strategy in the long term. Your blog should come first, with affiliate marketing aligning with your content strategy.

A common mistake for new bloggers is to look for affiliate programs first and create content for it. This is backwards.

Here’s how to make affiliate marketing work well with your content strategy:

• Determine your readers’ problems
• Build your content strategy around those problems
• Create useful, informational content that helps solve those problems
• Identify products/services that help your readers solve the problems
• Add affiliate links where it makes sense
• Create in-depth commercial content such as a product review, buying guide or comparison

That’s a smart approach to affiliate marketing that takes into account your content strategy as well as SEO.

What Kind Of Affiliate Programs Can You Sign Up For?

So now that you know the general basics of affiliate marketing for bloggers, let’s get into the details.

However, the first question to ask is what kinds of products and services can you sign up for?

There are many types of products and services that have affiliate programs.

Depending on your blog niche and audience needs and interests, you can choose from:

• Digital products (ebooks, courses, templates)
• Physical products
• Services
• Bundled packages
• Online software (e.g. software as a service products)

By the way, I have an affiliate program for my courses and digital products as well – you can sign up for my Confident Blogger Academy Affiliate Program and start earning a 30% commission on each sale.

Focus On Products And Services You Love

When choosing products and services for affiliate marketing, always start with those that you know, have used and really love.

Why is this so important?

When it comes to affiliate marketing for bloggers, the best way to convert a casual reader into a customer is through content that sells them on a transformation.

You want them to click the link and purchase it – that’s your goal!

To do so, the best way to inspire and persuade them is to speak about the product or service from experience. In other words, show them the proof.

Here’s what you’ve got to do next:

• Create a list of favourite products/services. Write down all the products and services you’ve used recently that fall within the blog niche.
• Match the affiliate product/service with your existing blog content. What are potential products and services that you can add as an affiliate link to each post?
• Create a list of potential product review posts. Determine which ones you’ll want to add to your content calendar as standalone review posts.

This will be the start of your ongoing affiliate marketing initiatives.

Now, where do you sign up for these affiliate programs?

Finding Affiliate Programs On Brand Sites

What you need to know next about affiliate marketing for bloggers is how to find the best programs to join.

Here’s how to find affiliate programs when visiting the brand’s website:

• Check the brand’s page or Google the brand and “affiliate program”. Usually, the brand will have something about affiliates at the bottom of the footer with other key page links. It may
• Look for self-managed affiliate programs. Some brands may have their own affiliate program that they manage. For example, Thrivecart manages its own program on their own platform.
• Sign up to an affiliate marketing network if needed. If a brand is using an affiliate marketing network platform, you’ll be directed to it. You’ll either sign up to the platform or log in if you already have an account.

Finding Affiliate Programs On Affiliate Program Networks

If you’re just starting, you may want to sign up for a few affiliate marketing networks to see which brands they have as advertisers/merchants. The top affiliate marketing networks include:

• Impact
• Awin
• CJ Affiliate
• Flex Offers
• Amazon Associates

Impact is one of my favourites for affiliates because of their easy payout with PayPal.

Read more about selecting affiliate programs to sign up for that align with your blog’s focus and niche.

| RELATED: The Top Affiliate Networks And Programs For New Bloggers

How Do You Apply For Affiliate Programs?

Next on my list of affiliate marketing tips for bloggers is how to apply to programs easily and quickly.

Applying to and joining affiliate programs can be tedious. With my productivity hack, I’ll help you speed it up.

First, we’ll get you set to apply for affiliate programs with these steps:

• Copy the first paragraph of your About Me page to your clipboard. It should be about what your site is about and who it serves. If you don’t have this, you’ll need to fix your About Me page – do that with the help of this workbook:

• Open up a fresh page in Google Docs or Microsoft Word, and copy your brief About Me intro.

• Write all the ways you can promote affiliate content: for example, added to relevant blog posts, a favourite tools/products page, your social media, a newsletter, etc.

• Include information about your audience reach: how many followers you have with your social media accounts and your monthly pageviews.

• Save this content as you’ll be using it as a reference for applications for affiliate programs.

I’m just trying to save you some time in typing everything out! It’s easier to copy and paste when you have to fill out the questions when you’re applying to affiliate programs.

This is what an application for a brand program looks like. Note the section at the bottom asking for brief info as to how you’ll promote the affiliate links.

Once you’ve applied, that’s all you need to do!

The brand will look at your site, and see if it’s a good fit and if it has the required legal pages.

The Disclaimer is very important as it covers your affiliate disclosure. You’ll need this to prevent any fines from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

This is why I strongly recommend you purchase this legal template bundle – it’s a worthwhile investment for your peace of mind.

Now you wait. You’ll either get accepted or rejected. Don’t feel bad if you get a rejection. In the beginning, I had many.

Sometimes the brand doesn’t see your site as a good fit for their objectives. That’s fine. Move on! There are other brands that will happily work with you.

| RELATED: How To Pitch Brands For Sponsored Collaboration Opportunities

Next Steps After You’re Accepted For An Affiliate Program

Sometimes advertisers may decline your application.

However, if your site is a good fit niche-wise, looks professional, and has the necessary legal pages, you should be approved without issues.

So what do you do next?

Here’s what I do:

• I log in to the program, or affiliate network, and grab my affiliate link – this is usually a general text link.

• In WordPress, I open up PrettyLinks and create a new masked link. This helps me keep my links organized as well.

• If there are visual assets, such as a logo, I download it from the affiliate platform. I then add the logo and my masked affiliate link to my blog tools & resources page.

• I do a search through my blog posts to see if I have mentioned the product in the past. I add the affiliate link to these mentions. I also give some context and reasons why it’s so great.

• Next, I take relevant existing blog posts that are a good fit for the affiliate link and add the link to them. If it makes sense and I have access to ads from the advertiser, I’ll add them sparingly to these posts.

• Finally, I write product reviews for the affiliate links.

This is a general strategy for affiliate marketing for bloggers: start with your existing content and create new blog content with your affiliate links!

Adding Affiliate Links To Your Blog Content

One of the most important things to know about affiliate marketing for bloggers is how to properly add links.

There’s a good way and a bad way. I’ll show you the good way so that you don’t get penalized by Google.

Always use “nofollow” with affiliate links.

This tells search engine bots to ignore the link when your site is crawled and not to pass on any good “link juice” to the other page. It also keeps Google from viewing you as spammy.

How do you add affiliate links to your blog content?

Without Using Pretty Links

This requires keeping a Google Sheets list of all your affiliate links for reference.

• Add your affiliate link to the product name (best to use the name as anchor text).
• Click so that your link is “Open in new tab” and “Set to nofollow”.

Using Pretty Links – A Productivity Hack

This approach works excellently if you’re using the WordPress block editor (not the classic editor) to write your blog posts.

• Highlight the anchor text you want to add the link to
• Click the Pretty Link icon in the little bar
• Write the name of the brand or affiliate link name you used to create the Pretty Link
• Click so that it’s “Open in new page” and “Set to nofollow’

What about “Sponsored”? You can add this if you’re collaborating with a brand, where they are paying you to add a link, or you’re reviewing the product that they have provided to you. Anytime there’s an exchange of money from a brand to you to add a link (no follow included), you should note it as “sponsored”.

Adding Ad Banners & Affiliate Links To Images

When it comes to ads, use WordPress’ Custom HTML block and add the HTML code here. Make sure to add “rel=nofollow” to your affiliate link.

Add Your Affiliate Link Disclosure

There’s one more important step when adding affiliate links.

You need to disclose that you have affiliate links in your blog content.

This is important because readers should know when you have the potential to receive a commission from links you share. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires affiliate relationships to be clearly and conspicuously disclosed.

To do this properly, you first need the proper legal pages for your site. In this case, the Disclaimer.

Get a customizable Disclaimer template in the Legal Bundle (best deal) and set it up on your site.

Where you add the disclosure is important. You should add a brief disclosure before or near the first affiliate link in your blog content so readers see it before they click or make a purchase.

For example:

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of my links, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Here’s how you can create a reusable Affiliate Disclosure pattern in WordPress, making it easy to add this to your blog posts:

PRO TIP: Sometimes, if you’re doing a sponsored post with affiliate links, you’ll want to note that you are being paid to do the review. Make sure you make your post not only “nofollow” but also “Set to sponsored”.

1. Easiest Way To Add Your Disclosure – WordPress Blocks

This is a productivity hack – one of my best tips when it comes to affiliate marketing for bloggers.

Use WordPress blocks’ feature where you can save your own customized block (as a pattern).

I crafted my Disclosure (the one you see near the top of this post), and I saved it. All I have to do is type in the name I gave that block, and it appears automatically.

The only downside is that if you change it later, it will save as the changed version and change over every other instance of that saved block on your site. So write a standard Disclosure and leave it as is.

Alternative Customizable Method

Keep your saved disclosure statement handy.

If you need to edit it, copy and paste the text and use a regular paragraph block to recreate it. With this new block, you can now make changes to the copy.

2. Using A Disclosure Plugin

Some like to add their Disclosure just below the title of a blog post or a specific spot in their post. To do this, you need to use a plugin.

There’s Ad Inserter or WP Affiliate Disclosure.

| RELATED: How To Blog Legally: From Legal Pages To Copyright

Where Else Can You Share Affiliate Links?

The top reason why affiliate marketing for bloggers is an important monetization strategy is that you can add links in more places than just your blog.

Here’s an overview of where you can add them:

• On Instagram (in your profile link, or in your Instagram Story with the link sticker), just note in text that it’s an affiliate link.
• Pinterest pins
• If you have a Facebook group or your blog’s Facebook page
• In your newsletter
• Included in your freebie lead magnet
• A podcast
• YouTube video walkthrough
• Online courses and digital products (e-book, workbooks, etc)

How To Write Affiliate Product Reviews

One of the best ways to make money with affiliate marketing is with product or service reviews.

A good affiliate review will help your reader decide whether the product or service is right for them. Don’t just repeat the information they can already find on the company’s website. It’s important to add your own experience, insights and useful details.

When writing an affiliate product review, make sure to cover:

• The problem it solves. What problem does this product or service help your reader solve?
• Why you bought or tried it. Give the context for the purchase.
• Your experience. Explain what happened when you used the product or service. Your personal experience makes a review more useful and credible.
• Features and benefits. Explain the features that matter and, more importantly, how they benefit the user. Benefits trump features.
• Pros and cons. Be honest about what you liked and what you didn’t. No product is perfect.
• Who it’s for. Explain who would benefit most from the product. Who will not benefit from it?
• Your recommendation. Explain whether you would recommend it and why.

Not everybody is going to buy, and it’s not your job to sell to them. It’s to give your reader enough useful information to make an informed decision.

If you’re writing affiliate product reviews, read my blog post on how to create useful reviews that can attract search traffic and generate sales: How To Write Affiliate Product Reviews That Rank & Convert.

One Last Tip For Maximum Income

When you’re signing up for affiliate programs, look for a few key things:

• Recurring commissions – where you consistently get a commission once somebody purchases a product/service with a monthly or annual subscription.
• Affiliate programs with a favourable payout (e.g. 30% +) on items that are reasonably priced for your target audience.

Once you have this figured out, you’re set!

Affiliate Marketing FAQ

Affiliate Marketing For Bloggers: A Smart Income Strategy

Now you can see why, as a blog coach, I recommend affiliate marketing for bloggers as an income stream.

Once you get started, affiliate marketing requires minimal updates and occasional promotion on your part.

While the learning curve is there, it’s not that difficult. I hope this affiliate marketing guide for beginners has given you what you need to get started. While you learn about other monetization tactics, set your affiliate marketing in motion!

Your next step is to learn how to write affiliate product reviews that convert into sales. There’s an art to it!

Want to take things further and get more in-depth insights? Take my complete course that goes beyond the blog post and teaches you how to effectively promote affiliate links: Affiliate Marketing 101.

Before you go, I have one last thing for you. Get access to over 50 high-paying programs that make affiliate marketing for bloggers super profitable!

Want to learn another way to monetize your site? Learn about creating and selling digital products – even as a beginner blogger.

QUESTION: What is it about affiliate marketing for bloggers that confuses you the most? What would you like to know more about?

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