Posted Monday, September 1, 2008 by momscashblog |
Here’s some good views and advice about using Affiliate ads on your blog from another blogger. Robert Cyr is one of the many good blogger friend’s I have made here on MomsCashBlog so he has written a post about his experience with Affiliate ads and Affiliate Marketing.
Making Money with Affiliate Marketing – Crash Course
I have been an avid follower of MomsCashBlog ever since JJ took over the reigns. My name is Robert Cyr and if you have read some of the comments here my name might be familiar to you. If you have researched blogging I am certain that you have read that blogging is about networking and establishing friendships. I am pleased to let you know that JJ and I have emailed back and forth on several occasions sharing and helping each other out.
Let me give you a little of my background; I started blogging back in March of 2008 with the sole intent of making money. Yeah, I know they say if your goal from the beginning is to make a ton of money chances are you will fail. I am proof positive that what “They Say” is not always true!
I have four blogs, two of which I keep secret as they are my “Bread and Butter” and are very niche specific. When I comment on JJ’s blog I always leave a link to one of my blogs about Wholesale Closeout Merchandise. In addition to my own blogs, I am a freelance contracted writer on several other blog like TopTenWholesale.com
I am going on my seventh month blogging and I am making money. I am making more money than I thought possible…and it grows each month. I have shared one of my last checks from Commission Junction with MomsCashBlog readers….Here it is again.
JJ asked if I would take some time to help her community understand affiliate marketing and I am pleased to share what little information I have learned since I started. Please note that there is tons of information on the Internet showing you how to make money blogging, but I will honestly tell you that there is no “One Guaranteed” way. My success has come from intense reading and trial and error.
I want to share with you a simple concept today that has brought serious dollars my way. In the affiliate world there is jargon to learn. Every industry has terminology which you need to understand. Today I will share a couple of terms:
Landing Page –- A Landing page is simply a page your visitors reach by some means of Internet search. This page is typically where the affiliate marketer would review and talk about a product and hopefully send the visitor on to the site selling a product or service. A Landing page is where you, as a publisher, must convince your visitor that the product or service you are reviewing is worth the purchase.
If you investigate landing page techniques on the Internet you will find that many affiliate marketers spend hundreds of dollars in PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising to get visitors to Landing pages.
Do not be afraid! Here is what I have learned and I have made thousands of dollars without spending one cent on PPC advertising… Are you ready for the big secret?
Every blog post you write is a landing page. Blog posts are indexed almost immediately in Google. I can write a blog post and within hours someone out there has found it by keyword search.
When you write a blog post and fill it with appropriate keywords you will get Organic Traffic.
Organic Traffic -– The best traffic to have to your website or blog because it is FREE. Organic traffic is any traffic that comes to your site without being paid for
Lets make a little formula for earning money through affiliate marketing:
Start a blog + Write blog Posts (Landing Pages with affiliate offers) = Commissions through Organic Traffic
Caution! Make sure that each post you write has value. This is why most successful bloggers will tell you that you must be passionate about the topics you blog about.
For example: If you love cooking, blog about cooking. Write blog articles about preparing meals, buying ingredients and maybe entertaining with food. You can integrate affiliate offers in each blog post such as… A blog post about pan frying steaks might chronicle the advantages of using Rachael Rays non-stick cookware. And then, of course insert your affiliate link to Rachael Rays cookware, where your blog readers can visit and hopefully buy the set of pans you are promoting. Viola! You have just earned a commission!
You cannot monetize a blog without first having a blog. If you have been reading JJ’s blog for sometime thinking about starting your own blog…what are you waiting for? If you want to become an affiliate marketer making money blogging about your passion (Whatever that might be) get started with JJ’s FREE blog tutorial. It will guide you through the process of staring your own blog and hopefully a second income!
Questions about affiliate marketing? Ask me through comments- Let me know if you learned anything through my rambling and maybe I can make a future guest post.
Posted Tuesday, August 26, 2008 by momscashblog |
When someone is thinking of a new venture, they usually want to know what to expect before they start the process. I know there are many bloggers-to-be who are wondering about the process of monetizing a blog with affiliate ads, so here’s some terms and information about using Affiliate Ads on your blog and what to expect when dealing with advertisers.
Affiliates Advertisers are advertising networks who agree to advertise on blogs and pay you a fee or commission for sales or referrals made on the blog. The advertiser becomes your “associate” or “affiliate” and you become their “affiliate”. So when you deal with an advertiser they will call you or your blog an affiliate because it is like two companies calling each other associates/affiliates. The advertisers under the Affiliate Networks are called merchants. (i.e. Pepperjam is an Affiliate Network that has several merchants under them and Sesame Street is one of them. So Sesame Street is a merchant under the Pepperjam Network.)
It does not cost you anything to put ads on your blog. (Remember, you are doing a service for them by allowing them to advertise on your blog!) Some ads pay better than others, so of course you want to find the best deals possible. You also want to choose ads that you feel your readers will be attracted to and that fit your overall topic. You can remove the ads anytime you want as there is no contract saying you have to keep affiliate ads on for a certain period of time. It’s your blog, so it is up to you but you should leave them on for a while and experiment to see which ones are working best for you.
Publisher – When you (as a blogger) sign up with an Affiliate Advertiser or Network, you are considered a publisher because you are publishing content, or posts, on your blog. You first need a blog up and running to sign up with an Affiliate Advertiser (they will ask for your blog’s url or e-mail address… you can’t sign up with advertisers before you have a blog). You will need some posts on your blog for them to look at your site and accept you as a publisher. Don’t worry that you have to be a best selling author to be accepted as a publisher. (lol) That’s not what they are looking for, they just need to know that your blog has a reason for being and is not a SPAM blog or a porn site as most Affiliate Ads will not associate with porn sites.
Pay Out’s – A pay out is the amount of money the advertiser holds in your account before they will pay you and the amounts differ from Network to Network. For instance, Pepperjam has a pay out of $25., where some are $50. or $100. This means that the Advertiser who has a payout of $50 will not give you a payment until you have built up $50 in your account. (most bloggers look for the lowest pay out possible so they can get the money that is owed to them quickly!)
* * * * *
Here are some of the usual ways that Affiliate Ads pay a blogger/publisher for advertising on his/her blog:
Pay Per Click – you are compensated for sending traffic to the merchant. You don’t get a lot of money for pay per click, but it can add up.
Pay Per Sale – you are compensated by the merchant if the a sale or purchase is generated from the affiliate ad on your site.
Pay Per Lead – the merchant agrees to pay for a qualified (or sometimes unqualifed) lead, which doesn’t always work well because it’s up to the merchant to decide if they’ll pay for the lead.
Commission fee – With some Affiliate Ad Networks, A Pay Per Lead or Pay Per Sale could also be called a “commission”. It is a set amount or percentage that you’ll get paid for making the sale. With commissions you will have to wait a certain amount of time for the deal to be completed. (This is because a customer can change their mind and stop a transaction within a month so the advertiser cannot give you the commission until the deal is safe. This time period is usually one month but may take 2 months for you to have it in your account.)
Referral – you are compensated a certain amount of money for each person that you refer to the advertiser. You get a referral fee every time a blogger (publisher) signs up with an Affiliate Advertiser from the ad on your blog. (and of course another blogger get a referral fee when you sign up with them!)
* * * * *
Applying for Affiliate Ads – To apply for an affiliate advertiser or Network, you COULD find out the name of the Affiliate you want and go directly to them… BUT why would you do that when you have a great opportunity to help out a fellow blogger by becoming a referral? After all, what goes around comes around and you want others to use your ads so we should be helping each other out with referrals. Be a good blogger friend and find the advertiser you want from one of your fellow bloggers and click on their ad so they can get a little money out of the deal. I bought my blog so at first a few of my ads were just transferred over to my name, but after that I made sure I went to other blogs to get my ads and give a referral fee to my fellow bloggers. It’s a win-win situation! It doesn’t take anything away from you and you will be giving another blogger some income by being a referral.
Getting Accepted – After you have applied, the Affiliate Advertiser will check out your blog to make sure it is appropriate for them to place their ads on and to make sure you have some content… so start getting some posts on your blog if you plan to have ads on it! It will take a day or two for the advertiser to accept you as an affiliate, but that depends on the Network you’re dealing with as some could take longer. If you are not accepted by an advertiser, find out why because it could be a mistake.
One advertiser refused me because they said I had “inappropriate content on my blog”.. when I called them about it, they checked again and said it was indeed a mistake…. When they looked up MomsCashBlog, they went to a “mom porn site” by mistake! (It seems there are some naughty Mom’s out there.. but I’m not one of them! lol) We had a good laugh and he told me “Sorry, your site is VERY appropriate and it has great content… you’re definitely accepted!” So, if you get rejected from an advertiser, find out why and fix it, or try again later when you have more posts, or just go onto another advertisers who WILL accept you.
Choosing ads and putting them on your site -- Once on the Affiliate Network site, there will be categories for you to go thru the list of advertisers and choose the ones you would like on your blog. It should show you how much commission you will receive with each of them, either in percentages or a set amount. You will see the various display ads (images) that are available. For each ad, there are usually a few sizes and types to select from, such as banner ads, block ads, or the small square 125×125 pixel ads.
The advertiser will provide the HTML code for each display ad, and they also provide the code for text link ads too. (You can use either a text link ad or a display ad, or both to promote the ad on your site) You don’t need to know anything about HTML to do this because you will be cutting and pasting the code into a widget or adblocks… depending on which theme you have and/or how you choose to use it.
Putting Ads in Your Sidebar – The absolute best tutorial I have found that explains how to put ads in your wordpress sidebar . If you haven’t been to Blogwell.com you will definitely want to save them in your favorites as they have some expertly written posts on blogs. But if you need more information on putting ads on your blog, let me know with a comment or e-mail me at jj@momscashblog.com.
Posted Thursday, August 21, 2008 by momscashblog |
I’m sorry I didn’t get this out sooner, but I’ve had some things going on and forgot all about this.
Pepperjam Network has added the month of August to their incentive program, so I wanted to try to get it in while I had a chance. This is a great time for any of you newbies who have been blogging and want to become an affiliate to get a great Affiliate Network on your blog. If you sign up with Pepperjam now, you’ll get a $10 incentive Sign Up Bonus… and they are increasing the referral payout to “new affiliates” from $5. to $7. for each new publisher recruited in August!! (A new affiliate is someone who is advertising Pepperjam for the first time on their blog)
They are also offering a $10. bonus to anyone who writes a post about it on their blog for the month of August. (just like I’m doing here!) So if you’re a newbie and you’re ready to monetize your blog get in on this incentive deal today. You will find the experience easy and there is always a new advertiser that is joining the Pepperjam family. There will never be a shortage of ads to pick from.
Having an Affiliate Program on your blog will help you start to make money or commissions from these Affiliate Networks. Apply NOW, because the response time is less than a day in most cases.Click here to sign up… once you’re accepted you will receive the $10. incentive bonus and you can write a post on your blog and get another $10.!!! So you’ll get $20. in your account before you even start selling.
When I first saw Pepperjam, I thought it was an odd (but cute) name for an affiliate network! Come to find out, the CEO of Pepperjam and his brother started out by selling a “pepperjam recipe” that was passed down from their grandmother. (Aww.. how sweet.. and tasty, too! lol) While looking for places to market their “jam”, they got into e-commerce and found it to be the best way to advertise the business, and eventually got into helping others advertise thru their network. So, they started out as an affiliate and have evolved into one of the largest and upcoming internet marketing agencies online. A true “home grown business”! (more…)
Posted Monday, August 18, 2008 by momscashblog |
As I said in my last post, if you’re just starting to get into the stock market “pretending to play the stock market online” is a great way to learn more about it. Some people think the stock market is just for wealthy people so they don’t even bother getting into “the game” or even trying it. If you have ever thought that way, then you should change your thinking to this: The stock market isn’t just for wealthy people… the stock market is HOW most wealthy people became wealthy in the first place! Even if you don’t have the money to start investing in stock you should go online and get familiar with the trading process (buying and selling). It’s a fun learning experience and by making a game of trading and being in the environment, you’ll definitely want to get into it for real.
Investing in stock and mutual funds is one of the quickest ways to get rich, but most people just think about it and say “some day I’ll invest” and they never end up really doing it. So, like I said, by making a fun game out of it, you learn and you’ll be one step closer to doing it for real. One thing to remember is not to get stressed while practicing… this is supposed to be fun! lol I know when I first started “playing” the stock market online, I started getting stressed when I had a good “find”… I worried that if I didn’t buy it right then and there I would miss out on the BIG ONE. But believe me when I say this… there will be ALWAYS be plenty of opportunities for you to find good deals whenever you play the stock market. (but if you do have the money now, then go for it!)
One commenter, Mark Berger, gave us a great site to use for this purpose. It’s called the WallStreetSurvivor.com. I signed up for it, but haven’t gone any further yet as I’m busy with other things right now, but I will definitely go and try it out when I get the chance. They let you play with $50,000 and it looks like you can win money by playing the game, if you sign up before August 29th! (more…)
Posted Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by momscashblog |
When I started here on MomsCashBlog I said I never made any money online…. (except 11 cents, if you want to count that! lol) and so I wanted to give blogging a try. Well, it turns out that I forgot about the money I made from online trading! I forgot all about this, until a while ago when I got a letter from my financial advisor telling me not to panic when I see my Mutual Funds and Stock Market Portfolio. That was months ago, and I did not panic… in fact I put a little more into my mutual funds and some stock because this is the perfect time to do so if you have any extra money to invest (and if you look for some good deals that you think will do well in the future!).
Some of my stock was generated online made me a lot of money. It did so well I turned it over to my financial advisor and let her take care of it. So it’s been “out of sight… out of mind” just as good stock should be, and growing every month and every year. Little by little I weeded out certain ones and bought some better stock with the help of my financial advisor… but I have to say, I did soooo much better with the stock I bought online by myself! So I am going to get back into online trading now that I’m always on the computer with this blog. (more…)
Posted Monday, August 11, 2008 by momscashblog |
This is just a test to get another post out onto the internet to see how well I’m being indexed and how my RSS subscriber feed is working after my blogs RSS or Atom Feed became disconnected or disabled from the transfer… (see Question About RSS and the comments.) Of course, there is still some work to be done to set things right from the “transfer or loss of content” to figure out exactly what ALL of my problems are, but I know we’ll get there with LLoyd Lopez’s help.
I slacked off this weekend because I needed to get away from blogging and the stress of not being indexed for so long…. Oh yeah, and from Feedburner telling me I could be toast! lol Since we had yet another party (Pig Roast) in my area, I decided to take off a couple of days and forget all about Feedburner, search engines, stats, toast and all those things that go with blogs. Alright it’s the second weekend I’ve done this, so I bet I sound like a wild and crazy party girl.. (lol) Hey, summer comes but once a year, and where I am currently in the NorthEast, they celebrate summer with great outdoor parties that are well deserved after those cold and snowy winters. It’s the perfect stress reliever with wonderful live music, great food and drink… wonderfully humerous people, and the warmth and smell of cozy fires burning when night falls. I must say, it has been a relief to get away from it all… (although I did go to my house a few times to feed the cat and go online and make a few comments. lol) Now that the fun is over, I have some serious work to do to get my blog back in good running order with Lloyd’s help. (He has sent me my homework assignment, so I better get working on it! lol) (more…)
Posted Thursday, August 7, 2008 by momscashblog |
I think I should explain some of the problems being solve on this blog…. like what happened with my RSS feed (see Questions About RSS). I know there are a lot of new bloggers and bloggers-to-be visiting MomsCashBlog and I don’t want other bloggers to think that they will have the same problems I have had. Where I’ve mentioned some difficulties with a “transfer”, I think I should explain my situation. I’ve gotten some feedback with people asking if I mean transferring a blog to another server. The answer is NO… My transfer was not having my blog moved from one server to another.. it was a “data transfer” and there is a big difference. The circumstances are rare, I would think, but it could happen so I will explain the situation of my transfer since some of this info could help someone in the future.
I bought MomsCashBlog in early May and in mid June I found out there was another server involved… which meant my blog had to be separated from the other server to be on it’s own. My host said we had to make a transfer in order to set things right. Krysti, the previous owner, and I made a conference call with the host and thought all was settled. Then about a half hour later, 2 months of post disappeared from the blog!! (we were not told that would happen!!) Krysti notified me and said to call the host and that the posts might be missing because of the transaction we had just made, so I called and they said “yes.. the data is being transferred”.
(more…)
