Within the past few years, I have used my blog, for making some extra money with no or fewer efforts. And, this was possible by the Affiliate Marketing techniques that I used for my website. Through this post, I will be sharing some of the simple methods on how you can monetize your blog.
I have been using my blog for quite some time now for affiliate marketing. And, I do earn a small commission from the product I suggest.
You must be wondering How? So, I usually read books and recommend only those books that I personally like and then share with my readers. These reviews give enough information to the readers of my blog before they make a buying decision.
Reviews I write about the book are my personal experience and honest feedback. I share my thoughts to help others in selecting the next book for their reading journey.
Now once the readers decide to buy a certain product as per my recommendation, using the link I provide, which are usually the affiliate links, I earn a small percentage of the commission for each sale.
So, the user can get the products at no extra cost. And also, me making a small income through the commissions generated by promoting those products.
Win-Win! for Both.
All I do is writing about products and services I love and sharing my findings with others.
It makes it easy for your readers, as my research and findings help them make the right decision for the product they want to use. You can also use Affiliate marketing for Books as a side hustle or a full-time gig.
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing:
Before starting your affiliate marketing journey, you should be aware of some of the pros and cons of affiliate marketing.
Pros:
- It’s easier to sell other products.
- zero or minimal investment
- You don’t have to have your own product or services.
- It’s a passive source of online income.
- You have to convince the people providing the information that adds value to the readers.
- Flexibility
- Learning through Earning
Cons:
- Need a lot of patience and hard work
- Uncertainty
- Choosing the right product with a higher commission rate
Read: 15 Best Places To Download Free eBooks
A Complete Guide: Affiliate Marketing For Books and Book Blogs
In simple terms, online affiliate marketing for books and bloggers means:
- You write about a product or service on your blog.
- You link to it with a special tracking link.
- Share the link via Social media, Blog, YouTube videos, or any other form.
- You get a commission on the sale when your readers click the link and make a purchase.
Imagine you just read a wonderful book and you want to recommend it to others. How would you do that?
Write a blog post, social network post, or email newsletter reviewing the book. Next, adding an affiliate link from your Amazon Associates account. So, anyone interested in the book after reading the review can purchase through the link provided by you.
If your review convinces a reader to buy, you’ll get a piece of that sale!
Whoa….!! Sounds Easy..!! Let’s Get Started.
What do You need to do to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing?
Here is a simple guide for all the book bloggers to understand and start earning using Affiliate marketing.
1. Join an Affiliate Network
To begin with choosing the right Affiliate Network is crucial. I will tell you why?
Right affiliate network will have the following features:
- A quality marketplace will a plethora of products to choose from.
- Provides timely payouts
- Have good commission rates.
- A dashboard to see the status of your earnings.
- A strong tracking mechanism so that you don’t miss out on your converted sales.
- A reliable and trusted platform for the buyers as they make online payments.
There two ways to select an Affiliate network:
a) Affiliate marketplace:
It’s a marketplace where companies list their products as an affiliate. They provide a wide range of products to choose from. Therefore, you can select the products related to your niche that you want to promote.
This affiliate marketing provides a dashboard for their users. You can see all the data, clicks, conversion rate, sales, and also payment schedules.
Examples of Affiliate Marketplace: Amazon, ShareASale, Commission Junction, Clickbank, JVzoo, etc.
b) Native/In-house Affiliate program:
Many companies or business have their own affiliate program. You can join the affiliate program for such organizations directly. Before signing up, you can always check the complete details of such an affiliate program on their website.
It’s completely your decision on which affiliate network you want to sign-up for. However, I would suggest you join the Affiliate program provided by the marketplaces like: Amazon, ShareaSale, Commission Junction, etc. Depending on your niche, you can find really good affiliate products to promote.
Also, Amazon affiliate sales don’t usually bring in a lot of income for a book blogger. The commission may range somewhere between 1%-5%.
When you’re comfortable with promotion and understand which kinds of products your readers will purchase, look into better affiliate programs. Look for a higher payout for a product that can earn you a 50% commission would be great.
2. Choose Right Products
Now that you know the niche on which you are working, you can select the products accordingly. Always, remember you are writing for a set of people, and your products, must be beneficial for them.
For Example: If you are into education, then you need to find offers, courses, coupons, products, etc. related to the education sector only. The people who follow your blog will find your recommendations relevant and valuable.
To be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to pick and promote, the right product on your blog. Avoid making such mistakes, and the right products will help you in the long-term growth of your business.
Do quality research for the products. Check the reviews. If possible buy or use the trial before recommending it to others.
I promote only those products and services that I have personally used it. It allows me to experience the products and give honest reviews about them. I would suggest the same, as it helps your readers to get good products easily as per your recommendations.
3. Write Good Content
Now that you know your products, it’s time to draft and present your opinion to the world. You can do this with good content. You can write about the products or make a video for the same. Remember, you are not alone in the niche so build great content.
Helping and resolving the issues of the readers is imperative. Also, you need to provide value to the people who come to visit your blog. It could be in the form of entertainment or a piece of information.
Don’t just post 50 affiliate links with no good content with it. Great content will ensure a huge traffic flow and will increase your converted leads. Be consistent in providing valuable content, and this will eventually increase your income.
Nowadays, many writing tools can help you write a great post. I personally use Grammarly and absolutely love it.
4. Build Trust and Your Brand
You can build your brand using your blog. The product you recommend reflects your brand value. If you got your products and content right, you get to will find your best audience.
Avoid writing about the product you have no idea about it. If the users don’t like it, it may hamper your brand value. Your audience is the people who share and talk about your blog, so make sure it’s good.
Also, build trust with your audience by clearly disclosing that you receive a commission. You must put a disclaimer before sharing any recommendation about the products.
Read: 55 Best Book Quotes About Reading
5. Grow Your Email List.
Readers subscribed to your blog, only once they are interested in you and your offerings. This is a vast opportunity for you to expand. You can send direct emails which land in their inboxes.
Reach them with new updates about your blog. Share a freebie that your audience will love. You can promote e-book, audio, video, sheet, pdf, images, etc. that could be exclusive and personalized for them.
Connect and collaborate with other bloggers in a similar niche you work for. Writing a guest blogging will help you increase your subscriber list.
Also, you can send free mail using Mailchimp to reach your desired audience. It’s easy to use and allows to send free mail up to 2,000 subscribers.
What are the Affiliate Programs a Book Blogger can join?
Below I have listed some of the programs of Affiliate Marketing for Books you may like to join to grow your income. The list includes both the Affiliate marketplace and the Native/In-house Affiliate program.
- Amazon
- ShareASale
- Barnes & Noble
- Indigo Books
- AbeBooks
- Flipkart
- Springer
- FreshBooks
- Ebooks
- ThriftBooks
- Premier Collectibles
- Commission Junction
Conclusion:
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way of making profits from your blogging efforts. After you have done all the hard work for few months, now you can earn even while sleeping or sky diving. You create a passive income online which goes a long way.
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Affiliate Marketing For Books & Book Blogs
