Besides creating WordPress Themes designs, I also earn money by being an affiliate for merchants. If you have no clue what I’m talking about and you’re thinking “Say What!?”. Affiliate marketing is explained in this short video below from ShareASale (affiliate).

What is Affiliate Marketing?

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Most blog owners make their real money through affiliate marketing. You display an ad or a text link to a product on your blog. When someone clicks on the link, you get paid a commission if someone buys the product or service.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to purchase through these links, I’ll receive a small commish at no cost to you… mama’s got to pay the bills so thanks for your support.

Affiliate Marketing Programs vs Networks

Affiliate Programs are offered by an individual company or creator. For instance, I have an affiliate program for my designs which I offer to those who purchase them. In other words, I (individual) offer an affiliate program for my products.

Affiliate Networks work with multiple companies who have affiliate programs. That gives publishers (like you and I) the ability to find and join many affiliate programs in one place.

Here are 2 of my favorite affiliate networks for bloggers of all niches:

ShareASale

ShareASale (affiliate) is my number one Affiliate Network site I use. You have probably seen the ads on my site for StudioPress, SeedProd, Envira Gallery, Ninja Forms, & more.

Impact

Impact (affiliate) is my second Affiliate Network I recommend. They offer merchants such as Tailwind, Canva, plus much, much more.

If you are thinking about joining and adding your own affiliate links/banners to your blog – the best advice I can give you, that no one shared with me is:

Choose Merchants That Are Related to What You Blog About!

You will have better success in earning income from these Merchants by casually including them in your post and sidebars. If you blog about recipes then choose a Merchant related to food like Chef Meal Kits. If you blog about children then choose a Merchant related to children like Put Me In The Story. You get the idea 🙂

Affiliate Marketing Disclosures

As per the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), you must disclose your affiliation to any company and/or product clearly and visibly whenever using your affiliate link.

Most blogs will have a full disclosure in their Privacy Policy or a Disclaimer page and on the blog post where they use affiliate links. You can view my disclosure at the top of this post underneath the Pinterest Image.

I use a Privacy Policy and Blogger Disclaimer template that I purchased from The Contract Shop (affiliate). These templates are attorney-approved by Christina Scalera!

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that any web page collecting information from consumers and/or that uses cookies, have a privacy policy available to visitors. 

Not only is it legally required, but having one builds a greater sense of trust with your readers and makes you look more professional. 

Important Things to Remember About Affiliate Marketing

It takes time especially if you just started your site. An easy way to start growing your audience is to start an email list. I highly recommend ConvertKit (affiliate), this is who I use. It’s never to late to start growing an email list of people who love what you are about. ConvertKit can help you start collecting emails. Click this link for a blog post I put together to give you ideas on how to grow your list.

What’s Next?

If you haven’t started your site yet, that’s the first thing you need to do to get going.

Click here to find out how to start a WordPress site.

Happy Blogging!

Did you find this affiliate marketing guide helpful?

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