You already know that becoming an affiliate and promoting products or services is one way you can make money online (a percentage of every sale you refer to a merchant’s site) with your blog.
All you have to do is find something that would benefit the people who come to your blog, talk about it in a post, without forgetting to add your affiliate link as mentioned in this post.
Of course, your site must be able to attract the right kind of traffic. Without anyone visiting, no one will be reading your stuff and clicking your links. And that means no referrals, which translates to no sales – and money.
Why would you look for affiliate programs to join? As a way to make money online
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You can do this if you still don’t have a product of your own to sell. It is easy to look for something useful and recommend it while you still work on your own premium products.
There are many similar products out there you can decided not just one or two but more. For example, when recommending hosting companies, premium WordPress plugins, blogging ebooks or shopping carts, you are free to list a number of useful but similar products – and link to each using your unique affiliate links.
In a way you limit the number of products in a given category without denying your site visitors a chance to choose between the various recommendations.
Sometimes you may have a useful ebook, video, audio file or e-course that you create solely to give away for free and decide to add your affiliate links to it, not merely because you want the money but because you think the receiver of your freebie would find your recommendation useful and be thankful for it.
Check this post for someone who successfully did this – and may be go ahead and listen to her talk about how she did it in the podcast I have linked to. It might give you more fresh ideas to share your recommendations in a meaningful way and increase your affiliate earnings from commissions you get paid by the companies and individuals behind the different programs you decide to join.
It feels good getting paid for recommending something in good faith. You can’t afford to not smile (even deep within) when you sign in your email and find an email in your inbox (from one of the companies whose products you’re promoting) prompting you to initiate a payout to your PayPal account anytime.
Where to find affiliate programs to join
Amazon
Amazon is one of the biggest online shops in the world – selling all kinds of products and services. And the good thing is they have an Asssociates Program (what they call their affiliate program) that you can make money from with your websites, blogs or apps.
It’s easy to sign up for it. You can even join other Amazon associate programs in other countries like the UK, Canada, France, Germany etc. as well and use WordPress link localization plugins or OneLink to localize your links and increase earnings from people who come to your blog, click your Amazon links but choose not to shop from the main US Amazon.com online shop and instead shop from other Amazon websites like Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca etc.
Also like the ShareASale program mentioned below, you can receive your Amazon earnings straight to your Payoneer account – and withdraw locally from your bank account or from your Payoneer MasterCard debit card which you can get free – sent to you via mail. Sign up here to apply for your free Payoneer debit card today. Or learn more about the benefits of using Payoneer as a blogger, freelancer, entrepreneur or online business owner here first.
Commission Junction
Commission Junction is a site that allows merchants to use the site to create and manage their affiliate programs. Publishers can also sign up, check the various products and services (there are so many), narrow in on a few, create affiliate links and add them to their sites as banners or text links.
Other sites like Commission Junction include Impact Radius, Rakuten Linkshare, Share A Sale and JvZoo.
Does this mean that there are only 3 sites like this? The answer is no. Start with the three and then, may be, look for similar sites later.
e-Junkie
e-Junkie allows people to sell digital and physical products and so many people sell their ebooks and various products through the site. And yes they have affiliate programs for most of those products. Search their marketplace for products to buy and promote.
You can also check ClickBank, a site similar to e-Junkie, and sign up to become an affiliate. Note though that this program doesn’t allow publishers from certain countries to join their program.
As of this date, Kenya is such country.
Do check their site regularly to see if they’ve made any changes regarding this. If you must join ClickBank as an affiliate hailing from Kenya, you can also find someone (family) in the accepted countries who can sign up and let you use their account – and send you your earnings to your bank account back here in Kenya.
Better yet, you can incorporate an LLC (with a bank account) in one of the accepted countries and use your new company to sign up for ClickBank as an affiliate. More on this in a future post.
Jumia Kenya affiliate program
You can also sign up for the program offered by one of the biggest online shops in Kenya to promote and make money from the many products sold on the website.
A lot of bloggers in Kenya already use their program to monetize the traffic to their blogs – and some are making good money every months recommending various products to their readers and shoppers in Kenya.
NOTE: You can also join the affiliate program offered by your web hosting company of choice, your domain registrar or one of the sellers or companies selling some of the products and services you already own and use at home or at your workplace.
Just look around where you are right now for ideas of products you’d like to start promoting as an affiliate. Then go online, using any search engine of choice, to check if the company that created the product has an affiliate program.
Even if they don’t, check if one of the partners they work with has a referral program you can join and start making money from.
The fastest ways to know if a website you’ve visited has an affiliate program, is to check the main navigation bar or the footer for words like ‘Affiliates’, ‘Partner with Us’, ‘Referral Program’ or ‘Affiliate Program’.
All you have to do then is to sign up to grab your link and start referring people that come to your blog, in your email list or followers on social networks.
Some sites will require you to be their customer before allowing you into their programs but some don’t have conditions like this.
Click here to join Niabusiness.com affiliate program
Reading blogs on topics that interests you
What better way than to find product recommendations from blogs you love and read often? Say a blogger, P, writes about blogging, web hosting and such, and you also write about blogging and people come to you for help starting their own blogs, you can, through consuming P’s content, find links to his recommendations.
You can then go ahead, make a purchase, review the product and talk about it and recommend it on your own site – adding your affiliate link in the various posts where you mention it.
Some sites also have a ‘reviews’ section and lists of the best products in various categories, so make sure to check for such, too.
Visit some of the sites I have mentioned and don’t forget to keep an eye on the recommendations in the various blogs you visit.
Here at Niabusiness.com, we also have an affiliate program you can join. Want to sign up now and start earning commissions promoting products and services in Niabusiness.com shop? Click here.
If you have ever wanted to learn how to make money online, now you know how important affiliate programs can be in your quest to earn more online.
Check some of the websites and affiliate networks linked to above to find new affiliate programs to join and make money from. ShareASale for example hosts many merchants, products and services you can start promoting once they approve your account and site. Definitely check it out
If you have any questions or suggestions, drop them in the comments below.