There are two primary ways that you can make money with your blog without selling your own products and services: Advertising and affiliate marketing.

If you have a big blog with a lot of traffic, you can sell your own banner advertising and set your rates. However, the majority of blogs run AdSense or another kind of pay-per-click advertising, and they collect revenue based on the number of people click the ads displayed on their site. The payout is generally a few cents per click, so unless you have a large blog with a lot of traffic, you won’t make much.

Most blog owners make their real money through affiliate marketing.

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is similar to pay-per-click advertising: You display an ad or a text link to a product on your blog — only instead of getting a few cents when someone clicks on your ad, you get paid a commission if someone buys the product in the ad.

There are thousands of affiliate products available through well-known retailers such as Amazon, and commissions can range from a few dollars per sale to several hundred dollars per sale.

How You Can Use Affiliate Marketing to Make Money

There are two things you need to increase sales and revenue through affiliate marketing: A good product and a strong landing page or supporting content.

Start by choosing a good product. Browse through affiliate marketplaces such as ShareASale (affiliate) or Commission Junction and search for products in your niche. Maybe you can find a good e-book on your topic. Or maybe you can find a product that your customers will enjoy or that will solve a problem for them.

Check the reputation for the product and the supplier to be sure that others have good things to say about the product. You don’t want to compromise the credibility of your blog by endorsing a shoddy product or one that fails to deliver on its promises.

Once you have your product, find ways to promote it on your site by either writing supporting content or creating a strong landing page. Supporting content can include a review of the product or information that backs up the need for the product. For example, if you are promoting a baby carrier or sling, you could write articles on the benefits of baby wearing, how to wrap your baby, or how to nurse in a carrier. Then you could promote the product in ads or text links on each of these pages.

Landing Page

A landing page — or sales page — can be created if you want to highlight the product and make a traditional sales pitch instead. You could write strong sales copy and provide multiple opportunities for readers to click on the affiliate link. Then you could purchase pay-per-click advertising to funnel traffic to the sales page. Many niche sites are built around this strategy, and it can be quite effective if your landing page is strong.

Like any aspect of online marketing or running a business, there is much more to finding success with affiliate marketing and it requires a lot of research in addition to trial and error. However, these are the basics about what affiliate products are and how you can use them to make money through your blog.

Do you sell affiliate products on your blog? Share your tips for success in the comments!

Kay Winders is presently the resident writer for badcreditloans.org, where she researches the best way for people to pay off their debts without damaging their credit. In her spare time, she enjoys freelance writing, the beach and gardening.