How to Monetize Your Blog/Website With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of promoting other people’s products in exchange for a commission whenever your recommendation leads directly to a sale.

Basically, it’s a standard link, only with the affid=1234 part added at the end. This is what allows your recommendation to be tracked and then ultimately be tied to a specific sale when it happens.

Commissions are usually in the range of 5%-75% of the sticker price. If it’s physical products we’re talking about, it’s nearer the 5% mark. For digital stuff, even 100% commissions are possible.

The most important part here from the buyer’s perspective is that they still pay the standard sticker price, so none of your commission is funded by the buyer.

Now, there are two main puzzle pieces that you need to put in place if you want to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing:

• Which affiliate products you’re going to promote
• How you’re going to promote them

Every niche and market has its own common practices when it comes to the affiliate realm, but generally speaking, if a product has an affiliate program available, it’s going to be mentioned somewhere on the company’s website. Likely in the footer, or even the main menu.

Here are three golden rules of how to monetize a blog with affiliate marketing:

• Only promote products that you use yourself, believe in, and know are great
• Only promote products that you wouldn’t be ashamed to promote
• Only promote products that your audience will enjoy and/or benefit from

What can you reasonably expect from affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing can be a great source of income when learning how to start a blog and make money, but it all depends on two factors:

• The size of your traffic
• How responsive your audience is and/or how effective you are when promoting affiliate products

With time, your traffic will grow, so let’s not worry about this aspect for now. Basically, the sooner you get started with affiliate marketing the sooner you’ll see any kind of results coming your way.

Though affiliate marketing is the easiest and probably the most effective monetization technique that you can use, the devil is in the details of how exactly you run your affiliate promotions.

With time, your traffic will grow, so let’s not worry about this aspect for now. Basically, the sooner you get started with affiliate marketing the sooner you’ll see any kind of results coming your way.

Do you need to spend a LOT of money to start a blog?

Absolutely NOT. You can easily build a WordPress website with Bluehost.

WordPress is a popular hosting platform that is 100% free and open source. Open-source software is, by definition, publicly accessible. WordPress is easy for beginners, yet powerful for developers.

Bluehost is the hosting provider that is widely recommended by most bloggers, and you can start your blog quickly for this low price and get a FREE domain as well. Bluehost makes it easy and quick to get a website up and running, has an easy-to-use cPanel interface that's ideal for beginners, features a wide array of great features, is generally fast, and has reliable servers. It also has a money-back guarantee, so you are stress-free.

Refer to the video above for the special process to receive $50 off! Make sure to open the Bluehost page using this link in order for the coupon to be applied:

http://bit.ly/BlueHostDiscounts

It is the first step you take when you start a blog. A domain name is pretty much like your address on the web. Choose a domain name that relates to your niche, and this might take some brainstorming because not all domain names you want might be available.

You can register the domain name directly with Bluehost so that it’s not too complicated for you and you have both your domain name and hosting with one company.

You get a domain name FREE by clicking here if you sign up with Bluehost for a 36-month plan.

Don't forget to view STEP 1 to receive the discount!

After you go to the homepage of Bluehost you will see this screen, click on ‘Get Started’.

Then you will come to the web page below, where you have three options for hosting namely Basic, Plus, and Prime. I am with the Basic plan and that is more than enough for me. You can always update the plan later if you need it.

Another reason why I recommend the 36-month plan is, you save a lot of money when compared to paying month by month.

If the price looks too expensive here, don't worry, as long as you are following the process in Step 1, a coupon will be applied on the checkout page!

It is now time to register the domain name that you chose earlier. If you have your domain name with other hosting providers, you can always transfer it here.

Once you’ve chosen what domain to use, it’s now time to fill in your account and payment information.

After you have given your details, you come to this screen where you have to choose your package. I started off with a 36-month plan at $2.95 per month. If you don’t want to go for a long-term plan, then you can go with a 12-month plan. It saves a lot of money.

Although, if you are using the coupon/discount process for step 1, the cost will be only $2.65 per month! Make sure to view the video in step 1 as well as click the following link for the discount code to be applied: Bluehost Discount Link

Enter the domain name that you have created then just choose a password to use whenever you will log-in to your Bluehost account.

You are now ready to login to your account using your domain name and password.

Once logged in you can start creating your website by following the steps from the photos.

Bluehost will now give you a selection of some excellent free WordPress themes to choose from for your website. Under these, you will see a skip button. Feel free to skip this step if you would like. If you see one that you want you can choose that one and you can always change it a little later on.

Click the Advanced tab from the side navigation menu to the left to go to your Bluehost cPanel page.

One of the best parts of Bluehost is that it automatically installs your WordPress after you sign up for hosting so that you don’t need to do any techie stuff!

Comment below and let me know if you were able to successfully create your website! At this point, you are ready to monetize it with affiliate offers.

Or you can create your own offers in the form of coaching videos that you can produce and sell to your audience!

The first step is always creating a website. Comment below what other platforms you would like to learn!