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Six years ago my world changed in a moment.
Up to that moment, I was a young wife and working professional who could go anywhere and do anything on a whim.
After that moment, I was a young mother completely responsible for the life and health of another human being.
It was humbling and terrifying and exciting all at once.
As I held my newborn boy in my arms, the thought of “going back to work” was the farthest thing from my mind. But the reality of having two full-time incomes and no kids go to one income and a baby (with more to come) was impossible to ignore. We made it work, but knew we didn’t want to stay in that place.
You know which place I’m talking about, right?
The paycheck-to-paycheck place. The “You’ve got to be kidding me! The car needs what? And it costs how much??” place. The “I don’t think we’re going to be able to make it for Christmas” and “thank GOD for hand-me-downs” place where money is tight and stress is high.
Nope. We definitely did NOT want to stay there.
I was able to work on and off from home on a part-time basis (which helped), but I started to feel trapped. Tired. Bored. I thought: of all the things life can be, boring should NOT be one of them!
I craved flexibility and freedom, so I went out to get it.
I read and learned everything I could about blogging, wrote post after post during my baby’s naptimes, obsessed over SEO and my blog design, put ads in my sidebar… and wondered when the money was going to start rolling in.
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Not that I expected to get rich.
But I thought there’d be something coming in after several months at the grind. What was I doing wrong?
It wasn’t long before I realized that blogging – at least profitable blogging – doesn’t actually work that way.
The ads that I thought would be bringing home the bacon were actually a waste of space on such a new blog, and there was actually a MUCH BETTER way for me to be making money as a new blogger.
As Ruth Soukup teaches in Elite Blog Academy, if you have a new blog or low traffic, ads are most likely not going to be the best income stream for you.
Thankfully, I realized that there was a much quicker and easier way to make money with my blog.
The Quickest and Easiest Way For Mom Bloggers to Make Money
So, what is this diamond in the rough I found that enabled me to make money from my blog naturally and easily?
It’s called Affiliate Marketing, and it’s probably not what you’ve heard it is.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is when you earn a commission (money) for referring buyers to products and services. As a busy stay-at-home-mom of 4, this is now my #1 favorite way to make money blogging because it requires very little time to get rolling and, if done properly, still has huge potential for making a lot of money.
No products to create or services to provide that suck hours out of your day. No writing half-hearted sponsored posts just to make a one-off buck or randomly placing ads in your sidebar and crossing your fingers that someone clicks them.
Affiliate Marketing the Right Way (Because There is a Wrong Way)
Unfortunately, lots of bloggers do affiliate marketing all wrong, which causes them to make NO money and LOSE trust with their readers. Don’t let that be you!
Here are some “Dos and Don’ts” you should know if you want to be successful with making money from affiliate marketing on your blog:
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Do This
Best practices for using affiliate marketing on your blog- DO: Be an affiliate for products and services you already use and love. This makes recommending them easy and natural.
- DO: Sign up for affiliate programs that are a natural fit for your blog topic and that will serve your audience
- DO: Present the affiliate offers in helpful and authentic way, like you would to a friend (non-salesy!)
- DO: Include your affiliate links natively in your helpful blog posts, emails, and videos where appropriate
- DO: Comply with the law and properly disclose that you use affiliate links. Common practice is to include a notice at the top of your content, but you can see the full FTC guidelines and recommendations for disclosure here.
Not That!
Don't make these common affiliate marketing mistakes!- DON’T: Personally recommend products and services that you haven’t used just to make a buck (you’ll lose the trust of your readers)
- DON’T: Sign up for every affiliate program under the sun. It gets too confusing to track them all and remember which ones to include in posts. I recommend signing up for 5 – 10 core affiliates to stay focused and effective.
- DON’T: Get too pushy or salesy with promoting affiliate products. No one likes to be sold to (this is why people dread buying a new car or walking through the perfume & makeup section of a department store). Remember the “friend rule” from the “Do this” section.
- DON’T: Just put affiliate ads up in your sidebar or random places on your blog and expect to make good money.
- DON’T: Try to hide the fact that you’re an affiliate for the products and services you recommend. Not only does this violate the law, but it also violates the trust of your readers. Not worth it.
Steal These 5 Affiliate Marketing Hacks From Smart Mom Bloggers
As a blogger, there are countless ways you can use affiliate marketing to make money with your blog. Here are five real-life examples from bloggers who are using affiliate marketing successfully on their blogs:
1. Reviews
Write a blog post focused on reviewing a specific product or service.
Ashli from The Million Dollar Mama demonstrates this perfectly in her review of the Living Well Planner.
In her post, “How to Organize Your Whole Life With The Living Well Planner”, she explains what she was looking for in a planner and why the Living Well Planner was the perfect solution.
It includes several pictures and examples of how the planner would be useful to her readers, making it a great example of an effective review post that earns affiliate income.
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2. Tutorials
Write a how-to article that helps your readers solve a problem or reach a goal.
This article about going paperless from Abby over at Just a Girl and Her Blog is a great example of how to write a helpful tutorial that also earns money from affiliate marketing.
The post is packed to the brim with step-by-step advice and helpful resources. Affiliate earnings come from recommending products like the scanner (Amazon), Evernote and The Paperless Home ebook.
This type of post is perfect for earning affiliate commissions since it helps her readers solve a very specific problem and also has several opportunities for including affiliate links in a natural and authentic way.
3. Lists
Present a list of products or services that will help your readers in some way.
BuzzFeed made the “list post” popular, but you can make it profitable! Here’s a great example from the blog What Moms Love:
Instead of another puny list of ideas, What Moms Love compiled a whopping 87 ways for moms to entertain their kids on a rainy day. Filled with bright, colorful pictures and easy-to-follow instructions, this post goes over-the-top in delivering value to its ideal reader.
The affiliate links that are sprinkled throughout the post accomplish two things: 1) They make it super easy for readers to get what they need and, 2) They earn the blog easy profit from commissions.
4. This vs. That
Put two different products up against each other and declare a winner.
Showdowns have drawn crowds since the Wild West, and blogging is the perfect platform to pit one thing against another in an epic head-to-head match.
Try comparing two similar products or services that your readers are interested in and break them down into nitty-gritty detail. Chantal of Busy Blogging Mom does this in her post about two popular but competing Pinterest schedulers, Tailwind and BoardBooster:
In her post, Chantal discusses her experience with trying both services out, the pros and cons of each, and which one she ultimately decided to go with.
Since she’s including the features and benefits of each in an objective and factual way in order to let her readers decide, she’s able to use her referral links for both services – bonus!
5. Videos
Record a video to answer questions your readers have that would work naturally for making money with affiliate income.
Jordan Page of FunCheaporFree.com recorded this video to answer her #1 asked question from her fans on social media:
In the description of the video on YouTube, it has affiliate links to all the products used in the video. This is a fun, entertaining, and super helpful way to deliver value to her audience and make money.
There are a lot of different ways to make money blogging: ads, sponsored posts, selling products and offering services, to name just a few. But all of these methods have the drawback of either taking a lot of time and effort to setup and maintain or they only make you pennies when you’re starting out.
Affiliate marketing is the only blog monetization method that works great for new bloggers, takes very little time to set up, and also has great potential for making you a lot of money (which is why it’s perfect for busy moms!).
If you want to be successful with affiliate marketing on your blog, remember to stick to the “Dos & Don’ts” from the table above and use the real-life blog examples in this article as inspiration to create your own profit posts!
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I’m a mama of 4 sharing about working from home, blogging, healthy living, #momlife and how I manage it all and still have FUN!
This was great, Candis! I love the list of DOs and DON’Ts. They are definitely things I need to be reminded of more than once. The hardest part about affiliate marketing for me is doing it without coming across as pushy. These examples helped greatly! Thank you!
Hi Lisa! I totally know what you mean about being afraid of coming off as too pushy, and I think it’s because we feel like we *need* to sell. I like to pretend I’m talking to my best friend Michelle whenever I mention affiliate offers or products – would I recommend this to her? Or would she give me a sideways look? If yes to the first question, then I’m on the right track! If yes to the 2nd question, then I’m probably being too pushy or annoying 😉
I think you’re doing a fabulous job with it on your blog! I really like your post about your favorite workouts for busy moms (http://www.themerrymomma.com/2017/01/favorite-workouts-busy-moms/), and you included affiliate links perfectly!
Candis – That was the best reply to a blog post comment I have ever received! Yet another way you continue to inspire me. 🙂
I LOVE that visualization. Thank you for the help! I am definitely going to think about that from now on.
<3 <3 <3
Awesome advice as usual!
Thanks Kandice!
This was such an awesome blog with so many amazing tips! This will definitely come in handy for me. Thank you!
http://www.imagineyourart.org
So glad you found it helpful, Chanelle 🙂 – Let me know if you have any questions as you start tom implement affiliate marketing on your blog!
Hi Candis – such a great, informative post that will help so many! And thanks so much for including our Active Indoor Activities post as the example in your “List” section 🙂
Hi Aly! You know how much I love your blog 🙂 Your list posts (and headlines!) are amazing, and this one was a perfect example to include. Thanks for dropping by to comment!
Great post! Question for you… I am the host of the Mother’s Quest Podcast. In my show notes, I often have a book mentioned that I include a link to using my Amazon affiliate link. I haven’t disclosed it is an affiliate link. Do I need to?
Hi Julie! Yes, according to Amazon’s affiliate partner terms & the FTC guidelines, you should have a disclosure present at some point before the link appears. Amazon actually has very specific working they require of their associates:
“We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”
If you have an affiliate disclosure page on your website, you should include this wording there. Then, you can link to your disclosure from your show notes. You might try something like: “This podcast earns fees from Amazon and other affiliates. Please see our disclosure for more details and thank you for your support!”, and link the words “see our disclosure” to your full disclosure page on your site.
This is just a suggestion & I’m certainly no lawyer, but this is what I do for my blog posts.
Here’s the full Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreement: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/help/operating/agreement
Here’s a link to a very informative article about the FTC requirements: http://marketingland.com/ftc-disclosure-guidelines-affiliates-merchants-need-know-184719
Good luck! Just subscribed to your podcast – it looks fantastic!
Hi Candis,
I so appreciated the simplicity and bullet points of this post. I definitely learned something I’ve always wanted to know more about AND I found some awesome product ideas as a bonus (I’ve been searching for a great planner!) great post!
Rebecca
So great to hear! And yes, the Living Well Planner is awesome. It also comes with an organizational course/resource that you can login to online with tons of tips and printables to help with creating systems for your life. So so good! Thanks for the comment, Rebecca 🙂
Thanks for this great post! I’ve been looking for ways to monetize my blogs https://thetimeweboughtafixerupper.blogspot.com/ and http://www.thepoliticallycorrectparent.com/p/a-blog-is-born.html and these suggestions will certainly help! our graphics are also inspiring. I love the list format and easy to read images that you’ve shared here.
So happy to hear this helped you understand things a bit more Ashley! Good luck with your blogs 🙂
Love this list! Great advice!!
xo-
thecelebrationstylist.com
Thanks, Jess! Hope it gives you some great ideas to incorporate into your own blog.
Hi Candis,
Affiliate marketing is really a great way for bloggers to earn good money from it. One of the best examples I can give is “making sense of cents”. Michelle is really making good money and updates his monthly income report on his blog every month. Also, I want to provide you an information here about an affiliate program run by Transcription Certification Institute which gives you a revenue of 25% of the course cost, which is really huge compared to its competitors.
Hi Mahesh – yes, I love Michelle’s blog! I really appreciate how detailed her income reports are: a lot of bloggers just show a bulk profit amount under the umbrella heading “Affiliates”, but she breaks it down into nitty gritty detail which makes it so helpful. Thanks for letting me know about the transcription course affiliate program! I’m compiling a huge “black book” of affiliate programs to offer as a resource, and I’ll definitely add this in there!
I’m not a mom blogger, but this is REALLY helpful. I finally switched over to a self-hosted website for my blog and that is now opening up affiliate opportunities. Some I had looked into already for courses and coaching other people are offering that are right in line with what I write about, and I also signed up for Amazon Affiliates a few days ago. I have to figure out a game plan for it and this post is extremely helpful for that purpose! Thanks!
So great to hear, Bonnie! Good luck with implementing it into your marketing plan & let me know if you have any questions along the way!
If anyone want to earn easily and Lot of amounts I always suggest them Affiliates marketing. if you have a Mind to make a perfect strategy you can earn plus enjoy as well.
Nice article
Thanks Shahzaib – glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Candis,
Totally agree with you about using affiliate marketing as opposed to using ads. I personally find that whenever I am thinking about buying something, I love reading reviews.
I love those types of reviews that walk me through the back office or something or shows me exactly how to use the product. This usually helps me make the decision on whether or not it’s the right product for me.
I don’t like it when people are constantly pushing something and write a review that looks like they don’t even use the product.
I am always scoping out what other people are promoting and how they are doing it. It’s a great way to get some ideas on how I can improve my own methods.
These are some great tips for becoming a better affiliate marketer. I am going to start using some of these tips to see if I can increase my commissions.
Thanks for sharing, have a great day 🙂
Susan
Absolutely agree with your comments on reviews! If someone hasn’t taken the time to show me how they use it and how it benefits them, it’s really no use to me. If we keep that in mind when creating our own review posts, then I think we can really help our readers AND earn more in the process.
Thanks for the great tips! I consider myself new to the blogging world and try to learn from others who have been doing this for some time. I shared on my Facebook page to get the word out to my blogging friends. Pinning too.
Thanks Ryan! Good luck with your blog 🙂
This is such an informative post! I was a bit discouraged when I first started adding affiliate links on my blog but I know I have to keep trying. Reviews and tutorials are the way to go. Thanks for all the useful tips. I’m also looking forward to taking your traffic challenge!
So glad this post inspired you with some new ideas, Emily! If your post can help your reader go from point A to point B (already delivering value = instilling trust) and the affiliate product/service takes them to point C or even all the way to Z, then you’ve got a great chance of earning commissions! Hope you enjoy the traffic challenge 🙂
Hello,
For some reason I keep getting the error “There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.” when I try to get the free copy of 5 High-Paying affiliate programs for mom bloggers. Could you please help?
Thank you.
Sorry about the confusion! I recently changed the freebie to the $100 Affiliate Marketing Cheat Sheet (which also has high-paying affiliate program recommendations), but still had the old form on the page. The updated one is up and available now – thanks for letting me know!
Candis, Thank you for an informative and useful post! I’ve pinned it, and plan to revisit it as I get my new blog up and running. Your website is beautiful, easy to navigate, and very helpful. Thanks! (PS listing the URL of my site mostly to push myself to finish restarting it LOL.)
Awesome, Morgan! So glad this helped spark some ideas for making money with your new blog. In my opinion, affiliate marketing is the BEST way to monetize a new blog so I know you’ll do great! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment 🙂
Candis, another great article packed with the treasure of information. I especially loved the Do’s and Don’t part. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Joanna! So glad you found it helpful!
Hi Candis, these are great tips, personally, I got better results with how to .. content. Thank you smart mom.
Great ideas! Can’t wait to put them to use!
Thanks Brooke! Let me know how it goes and if you have any questions 🙂
How do you link a product and its picture to let’s say Amazon if you are just starting out and you are not an affiliate yet?