1. Step-by-Step Affiliate Monetization
for Bloggers
Debbie Bookstaber
deb@mamanista.com
Twitter: @buzzmommy

2. Have you given up on affiliate marketing?
• Many bloggers complain that affiliate marketing is a lot of effort for
little return.
• They’ve posted banners, spent time joining programs and never
seen results.
• We all get some dreadful and sometimes misleading recruitment
emails from affiliate managers who don’t understand how bloggers
work.
• If you’re savvy about affiliate marketing, you can earn thousands of
dollars a year. Many bloggers earn five or even six figures from
affiliate programs.
• In order to succeed, you need to know how to integrate affiliate
marketing links on your existing blog.

3. Estimate Your Potential Blog Earnings
• Estimated Monthly Earnings = (Estimated Monthly Impressions/1000) x
Average CPM
• For example: (10,000 impressions/1000) x $10 CPM= $100 monthly income
($1200 annual income)
• CPM varies widely depending on type of site!
• It’s ok to use multiple monetization strategies on your blog. For example,
I’ve used both CPM Ad Networks and Affiliate Programs.
• Use EPC to determine potential affiliate revenue. In many cases, affiliate
offers are a better option than CPM Ad Networks.

4. Common Blogger Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
• Why do so many bloggers say that affiliate marketing
doesn’t work for them?
– Random sidebar banner ads
– Shopping sections on your site that are not connected
to content
– Labeling every single link “affiliate”
– Posting random coupons
– Posting affiliate links to products that are cheaper
elsewhere
– Not being authentic and honest
4

5. Affiliate Marketing Works
• Smart Affiliate Marketing:
– Integrated text links
– Consistently using affiliate links
– Sharing information that actually helps your reader
– SEO-optimized posts
– Carefully selecting merchants based on price, product
and EPC
– Exclusive coupons
– Being a comprehensive source of coupons, deals, niche
information
– Utilizing appropriate tools such as Video, YouTube,
Pinterest, Polyvore or Olioboard
5

6. CPM Ad
Networks
Affiliate links are
integrated into every
relevant post!
CPA & Paid
Placement
Other options: CPC ads, sponsorships,
text links, brand ambassadorships

7. Affiliate Example from
CoolMomTech.com
•SEO optimized post
• Integrated affiliate links
within post
• Promoted through
social media channels
• Authentic selection of
products with genuine
review and useful reader
information

9. Affiliate Example from
WhoWhatWhere:
• Use of photos
• Affiliate links are
integrated and provided
as a reader service

11. Affiliate
Example from
StyleMePretty:
• Providing tools
and resources for
readers
• Inspiration boards
will be shared &
used by readers.
Affiliate links are
included.

12. Affiliate
Example from
Techlicious:
• Gather your
most successful
posts into
organized
buying guides.
• Optimize
guides for
search.
• Promote
guides through
press outreach
and social
media.

13. Affiliate Example from Wanderlust and Lipstick:
• Incorporating affiliate links into an existing community– naturally.

14. Affiliate
Example from
Delicious Baby:
• Utilize blogger
connections to
build traffic to
existing guides
or to leverage
recent news.

16. How to Select Affiliate Programs
• Pick a niche that fits your expertise or your existing blog
– If your existing blog isn’t a fit for affiliate marketing, consider a mini-blog
site just for your selected niche.
• How to Evaluate Potential Niches:
– Search Engine Traffic
• Google Traffic Estimator
https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox
• Google Trends www.google.com/trends
• Google Insights www.google.com/insights/search/
– What’s Hot on Twitter:
• Popular hashtags
• Trending topics
• Use sites such as SocialMention.com to evaluate trends
• If you’re fast, you can get a sale!
• Consider Your Existing Traffic and Blog Stats:
– Do you rank on any keywords?
– Check your stats to see what keywords rank for you and to see which
posts have the most traffic.
– Revisit your old posts and integrate affiliate links!

17. Working With Affiliate Networks
• Do Your Homework before Registering:
– Prepare a short description of your business model
– Make sure your website is live
– Build connections with the networks
• Prepare Your Marketing Summary
– Provide 1-2 Pages of Information
– Brief Bio
– Website Name
– Screenshot (if available)
– Merchant/s or Categories of Interest
– High-Level Promotional Methods (e.g. email, SEO, SEM,
social media, mobile, incentive, etc)
• How to Handle Rejection?
– Use that marketing summary and send a polite email to the
network and the account manager!

18. Legal Stuff
• FTC Regulations:
– Mention affiliate marketing in your site disclosure
– Do not make false claims about products
– If you only share your honest opinion about products, you should be
safe.
• Affiliate Nexus Regulations:
– What is a nexus?
– How would this impact you?
– Don’t rely only on Amazon
• Taxes:
– Affiliate companies only issue a 1099 if you have over $600 in
commissions, so you need to track your affiliate revenue as you still
have tax liability even if you earn less than $600.
• Getting Paid:
– One benefit of working with affiliate networks is guaranteed payment.
– Independently-managed programs have sometimes failed to pay
affiliates.

19. Affiliate Links and Your Search Rankings
• Many bloggers are concerned that having affiliate links
on their site will harm their search rankings.
• Broken links can impact search rankings, and this is one
of the more common problems bloggers face with
affiliate marketing.
• Run the Wordpress Broken Link Checker frequently on
your site to fix broken links.
• Managing your links in a tool like Thirsty Affiliates or
Pretty Links will give you an easy way to convert links if
an affiliate program changes platforms or goes out of
business.

20. Updating Your Existing Blog Posts
• Review your blog stats to prioritize your affiliate updates
– Manually update most popular posts with affiliate links
– Don’t forget to add affiliate links to your photos/images
– Use deep-links to individual products instead of brand links whenever
possible
• Gather your best blog posts by topic into guides/resources
– Create additional content or introduction for each guide/resource
• Track coupon codes/sales for your favorite products and post codes
when relevant to your readers– link to or repurpose existing reviews
or posts.
• Pinterest has stripped out many affiliate links, so post link to your
blog not directly to the product on Pinterest.
• Use automated services and plug-ins to convert old posts. For
example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/seo-automatic-links/

21. Simplify the Link Creation Process
• Manual Links:
– Pull banners and links from affiliate networks or affiliate
newsletters
• Utilize Automatic Tools:
– Skimlinks
– Viglinks
– Zemata
• Wordpress Plugins
– WordPress Link Cloaking Program: Turns targeted phrases into
affiliate links automatically
– Amazon Media Manager and WP-Amazon plugin
– PrettyLinks Tool: http://blairwilliams.com/pretty-link/
– ThirstyAffiliates Tool: http://thirstyaffiliates.com/