How can you earn commissions every month through your blog?
The following information is excerpted from an interview with Nancy Carter, former editor of The Homeschool Minute® newsletter. She shares her insightful wisdom on how to increase your blog readership, thereby increasing your potential to earn commissions through our affiliate programs.
How did you begin to gain and keep loyal readership?
It’s just like in real-life, to have a friend you have to BE a friend. I do A LOT of reading and commenting on other people’s blogs. After a while, I developed real, online friendships with some bloggers and would visit other blogs that they would mention. I discovered mommy bloggers, craft bloggers, homesteaders, and much more.
(You can sign up for the TOS blogging site at www.SchoolhouseFamilies.com)
You consistently post on your site. How many times do you add or change the affiliate links to your blog?
Honestly, I put one product in my sidebar and the dynamic banner (which changes to promote different products and sales) at the top of my blog and have just left them there. I don’t really like to mess with my template much. I do most of my promoting through individual blog entries about sales that TOS is having or new products. After realizing that I’m actually making some money doing this, I think I need to pay a little more attention to what I’m doing. Ha!
How do you get information on sales for TOS, and how do you decide how to present it on your blog?
I get my information from reading the emails that TOS sends out. Every affiliate needs to be on the TOS Affiliates email list so that you see every email special promotion, new product, or freebie that comes out. Even if someone just clicks through your affiliate link to claim a TOS freebie, TOS tracks their cookies so that if they later make a purchase (within a certain time frame), you will get credit for that purchase! I love it, and my readers let me know that they appreciate the heads-up about sales, freebies, and helpful products.
I also really appreciate and make sure that I read each TOS Affiliate eNewsletter. Those always give a great review of the best products to promote. I just have a lot of fun with it!
Any other ideas you can share with us?
Be sure to keep your friendly conversational tone on your blog and continue blogging about other things so that people don’t think your blog is becoming one big advertisement after another. They are reading because they are interested in what you have to say, not what you have to sell.
Don’t forget that you can also promote the TOS products via links on email, Twitter, Google+, Facebook, etc. .
And finally, take time to post your personal opinion on the products if you can. Your friends and readers are probably interested in the same kind of products you are, and they will enjoy hearing what YOU have to say about them. You can always use the text used in product descriptions, but—it’s just a suggestion—you can always add your opinions. And if you read an article that you really love or use one of the activities from an E-Book, feel free to post about it (and give your affiliate link to the appropriate product) whenever you want. Yes, people love sales, but TOS products are a great value even at full price, and sometimes people are looking for a product even when it isn’t on sale.
Thank you for your time and sharing these great ideas . . . I, for one, will definitely use them!
Are you interested in becoming an affiliate? Join TOS’ affiliate program here.