My absolute favorite way to make money is affiliate marketing. There is nothing better than waking up and seeing cash in your bank account. Or, when your phone vibrates in your hand and you receive a payment notification. It’s addicting. Seriously. For those of you who blog in a niche different from personal finance, you’re probably wondering if there are affiliate programs that will work with your website. In fact, I also have a blog about Colorado and the affiliates I’m about to share I use on that website as well. Here are 10 affiliate programs for almost every blog niche. If you’re wanting to get started on monetizing your blog and don’t know where to start-check out this list!
*In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please read my disclosure here.*
Related Post: Why I’m Breaking Up with BlueHost and HostGator
Every Blog Niche
Has the opportunity to monetize. I attended a travel blogging conference and could not figure out why so many bloggers were settling for in-kind earnings vs. cash. I then realized that they may have been struggling with figuring out the best affiliates for the websites.
The tricky part is figuring out the following:
- Universal pain points-Basically, you need to figure out what issues do almost all of your blog readers experience.
- Who is Reading Your Blog-Do you have a good idea of who is actually reading your blog? And, if who is reading your blog has changed-are you aware of it?
- What Resources Would Help Every Reader? Think about what everyone needs: food, shelter, fun, clothes, transportation, and shelter.
Now that you’ve thought about these issues as they relate to your blog’s readers. You’re ready to check out the list.
The 10 Affiliate Programs
Again, I use these affiliates on both of my websites. And, my websites are completely different. Because each blog addresses different reader’s needs make sure to write from that perspective. The readers who land on my personal finance site are focused on things a little differently from the readers who are checking out my Colorado blog. They may both have financial issues…but, they are thinking about them from different lenses.
#1 Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing
This course is a no-brainer. Michelle Schroeder-Gardner has made over a million dollars with her blog “Making Sense of Cents.” And, that income has come primarily from affiliate marketing-the “right” way. Clearly. She is also the real deal (I know her) has an incredible work ethic and has kept the course price pretty reasonable. I strongly recommend grabbing it soon before the price goes up. By the way, she made $179,000 in February 2018-she knows what she’s doing.
She created a course called “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing“ and even though I want her to add videos of her RV life-it’s a thorough, helpful course that does what it’s supposed to do: help bloggers make money via affiliate marketing. Here are some ideas on how to “position” this affiliate.
I’ll give you examples using my website niche areas:
- On a personal finance website that is now actively monetizing via affiliate marketing-you can be blunt and share that’s what you’re doing and the course that helped you learn the process.
- For my Colorado website I would ask the following “Are you a travel blogger looking to make affiliate income? Check out the following course….” Or, love writing about your favorite state/province and are looking to grow your affiliate income? Check out the following course!”
Makes sense?
#2 Amazon Affiliates
Recently I wrote a blog post about why EVERY blogger needs to rethink their Amazon Affiliate strategy. Basically, if they aren’t growing their Amazon Affiliate income-it’s time to get started.
Here is a link to the blog post.
People focus on the negatives with Amazon Affiliates:
- The low referral rates
- The 24 hour cookied links
I’m here to remind you to focus on:
- How often people are interacting with and signing up for Amazon/Amazon Prime.
- Almost 60% of Holiday 2017 spending was on Amazon. If this statistic doesn’t jolt you into making content that shares Amazon Affiliate links, I’m not sure what will.
When I realized that I was on Amazon every single day because I read via my Kindle, or order an item on Prime-I made sure to begin focusing on Amazon Affiliates. My goal is to leverage holiday spending with Amazon Affiliates. So, even though I have begun earning income already with this program, the bulk of my Amazon earnings will happen during the holiday season. Google Amazon Affiliate program to sign up.
#3 ConvertKit
To be honest, I do not email my list enough. But, I do love the ESP (email service provider) that I use. Convertkit is great for those of you who actively monetizing your sites. Other ESP might not allow you to send out emails that include affiliate links or have the focus of earning income.
That’s dumb.
Fortunately, Convertkit doesn’t have that issue. In fact, ConvertKit was created by a blogger who wanted to address some of the issues he noticed with other ESP. Sign up HERE. I use ConvertKit to build my email lists for both of my websites.
#4 Siteground
Currently I’m not with Siteground yet. I’m switching over in a couple of weeks. What is Siteground? It is a website hosting company. When you set up a self-hosted blog it needs a place to…live. Many bloggers share the following companies:
- Bluehost
- Host Gator
I can’t share those companies with my readers for a couple of reasons…even though I have one site hosted with each company. In the upcoming weeks I will be switching both of my websites over to Siteground. Why?
There are several reasons:
- Grayson Bell who handles all of my I.T. related blog issues strongly recommends them. I’ve known him for years and he is awesome. I 100% trust his judgement. ***He is the bonus affiliate-read to the end of the post***
- Customer Service-This is a huge, huge deal for me. If I’m paying hundreds of dollars a year for a service-I need you to answer when I call. Explanations need to be clear and understandable. And, most importantly, sometimes the bigger the company, the harder it is to care (deeply) about your customers because you have so many.
- Feedback from current customers-Who moved their websites over to Siteground. I actually asked about the Siteground experience in a blogging Facebook group that I’m a member of and was actually overwhelmed by how happy people were with the company.
- My website site speed is sloooowwww. And this move will help speed it up.
Siteground costs around $3.95 a month to host your site. If you’re already a blogger like me, and are consider a new host? Check Siteground out today! By the way, if you’re looking to actively monetize your website, then your blog should be self-hosted. Sign up today with Siteground and make your blog happy!
#5 Ibotta
Almost every single person that I know spends money in some variation of the following items:
- Groceries
- Amazon
- Liquor
- The Military Commissary
- Sam’s Club
You get the picture. Ibotta is a free savings app that works through the power of community. For every person that signs up with my affiliate link they receive $10 after they redeem their first savings. And, as they share their link with friends and family, they earn $5 for each account that begins actively saving. Ibotta is a no-brainer for several reasons:
- Saving money rocks
- Saving money on groceries is even better
- Using that money towards a goal (or groceries rocks)
Examples of how I use Ibotta on my websites:
- Colorado site “Sign up with Ibotta to begin saving on your next trip/move to Colorado…” This is nice for the reader because I’m helping them take positive action towards a goal that they’re focused on.
- Personal finance site “Begin saving with Ibotta today! Use your saved money to help pay off your credit card bill.”
#6 Rize
I love RIZE. What is it? It’s a savings platform similar to Digit. There are some differences:
- You can choose if you participate for free or pay a nominal fee to save with the Rize Platform.
- Savers decide what they will save each month. Many people may be used to saving on a different platform that uses a random algorithm that decides how much you will save. Rize doesn’t do that.
- Very focused on the goal that you’re working towards.
I like any resource that helps people save more. Again, you would share this affiliate in ways similar to how you would share Ibotta. You would just tweak it. Sign up today and start saving today for whatever is important to you.
#7 Google AdSense
Some words of truth. Earning the first $100 dollars via Google AdSense is typically a painfully slow process. Then, after the first $100 most people tend to earn their next payouts faster. Google AdSense is a great way for bloggers to get used to placing ads on their sites.
I have very few ads on this site, but, on my Colorado site you will find a lot more ads because it’s not as disruptive to the flow of the site.
Once a website grows past a certain number of page views, you will then switch to either: AdThrive or MediaVine. Both of those pay more, but you’ll need to have higher page views to participate in those programs.
#8 Ebates
Similar to using Ibotta, but, Ebates is a savings platform. You earn cash back on different items that you purchase. This is a great way to save if you hate thrift shopping and prefer shopping retail. By the way, you’ll earn $10 after you spend more than $25 the first time.
What I like about Ebates is the sheer number of retailers that participate in the platform. Don’t forget-you have to enter the Ebates portal and then find the link to your favorite retailer in order to earn savings on spending. Some of the retailers that participate in the portal:
- Target
- Amazon
- Blue Apron
- Expedia
And, the list goes on! Sign up today to start saving on your favorite things. Again, if you’re a: food, travel, finance, parent, or lifestyle blog-there is something to share with everyone on this site.
#9 Teachable
I absolutely LOVE Teachable. It’s a great platform to:
- Create in-depth resources
- Develop courses to teach and sell your expertise.
- You can have affiliates who share your courses and sell them for you!
And, I’ve taken several courses hosted on Teachable as a student and developed some ideas on the site as well. I love that you can add video, audio, polls, text, pictures, and more. It’s a very user friendly way to grow your business.
#10 GoogleFi-or Your Favorite Service That Saves People Money
Technically, GoogleFi is on of my favorite services. In fact, it’s my phone service. The best thing about Google Fi? It saves me a lot of money. I used to have a Verizon plan and was paying $105 a month (shocking-I know). Then, I switched to Cricket and I absolutely LOVE them. But, I switched to Google Fi for International phone capabilities. The most important thing is to remember to connect to the internet before using the phone. This is a very easy habit to get into. But, if you forget and start watching videos-your bill will go up. My bill was $27 in February. But, in March I have an affiliate credit that will apply to my account. My bill will be around $7. Nice.
If you sign up with my affiliate link you’ll receive a $20 credit after 30 days of service.
Bonus Affiliate
Every blogger that I’ve met almost always needs help with the following issue: tech. Blogs are an endless experience in dealing with:
- WordPress related issues
- Changing domain names
- Switching blog hosts
- Figuring out site speed
- Broken links
- Blog redirects
And, more. You need a partner to deal with the technical part of blogging and the person who I recommend is Grayson Bell from iMark Interactive. Grayson has helped me and practically the entire personal finance blogging community with their blog related issue. He’s awesome. Incredibly well like, responsible, professional, and knows his stuff. Click here to check out iMark Interactive’s services.
Time To Get Started!
I love these affiliates because they are actually helpful! And, these resources are well liked, have a ton of feedback and save your readers money…while helping you grow your affiliate income. Winning!
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Love this list! I’m already an affiliate for most of them, but there are a few I haven’t heard of until now. Time to start applying to those!
Yes!! I went to a travel blogging conference last year and couldn’t figure out why they were having such a hard time making money. I also have my Colorado website and wanted to keep things simple and try to figure out a list of affiliates that rocked and would work for any niche. Mission accomplished!
Thanks for this post. There are some affiliates that I did not think about. Thanks much.
Your welcome!! I hope this post helps.