Using an affiliate banner allows you to generate income from visitors to your site. If a visitor to your blog post clicks on an affiliated link or banner and purchases something from that company, you earn a predetermined percentage of the sale. Since adding banners and links to your WordPress blog posts is a simple process, it doesn’t make sense to not invest a few minutes of your day pasting a line or two of code into your post.
1. Your Blog - First of all, you need to have a steady idea of what your blog is about. Blogs and websites do far better on the Internet if they focus on a single niche. You don’t want to add posts regarding cooking recipes if you operate a blog on technology – unless that recipe is in regards to cooking electronics.
Most affiliate link providers will require your website to be established prior to activating your account. This means you can’t simply build a website covered in affiliate banner links. You need to have your own quality content. It would be in your best interest to at least provide 25 to 30 pages of content before signing up as an affiliate.
2. Affiliate Accounts - Becoming a member of an affiliate link provider is usually free. In fact, the most successful names for affiliate are free and include CJ.com and ShareASale.com. Commission Junction is stricter in its guidelines for becoming an affiliate and is one of those that suggest having your own content before signing up. ShareASale.com is a bit more lenient, but has fewer companies for you to choose from to become an affiliate of. There are far more affiliate providers on the Internet and some will even pay through PayPal.
3. The Links - Once you have signed up to become an affiliate publisher, you need to find the best links for your blog. This is going to be dependent on your content. If you host a blog dedicated to water sports, then showing banners for a company that sells baby food wouldn’t be an ideal match. You want a banner or link from a company that has like-minded content. For instance, a technology blog may do well to have a banner from BestBuy.com. As affiliate providers usually have a decent search method and break down of companies by category, it should be pretty easy to find those to match your content.
Once you find companies you want to affiliate yourself with, you need to essentially apply to them in order to be accepted. Many companies will have an auto-acceptance feature while others want to check out your website first. If a company turns you down it could be from lack of content, inappropriate or non-matching content, or because they simply don’t like your layout.
As soon as you’re accepted by the affiliate company, you have access to all of the links and banners they provide in order to start advertising them on your blog. Some companies will allow a certain amount of flexibility by helping you create links to specific aspects of their products or services. At any rate, the actual coding of these links cannot be modified by you. It is how sales are tracked and if you alter the coding, there is a good chance you won’t see a single cent from sales.
4. Where to Put Code - Once you’ve found the perfect banner or link for your content, copy the provided code from your affiliate provider. Now you need to paste it into your WordPress post.
- Open your WordPress Account.
- Click on Posts on the left and find the post you want to add the banner or link to.
- Once you open the post, you should be looking at the "Visual" view. On the right side of the editor is a little tab that says "Text." Click on this tab.
- Here is where you can add HTML. Find the location in your post that you want to display the link or banner. Paste the code in that location.
- Update the post to start showing your new addition.
It is literally that easy. The hardest part about adding an affiliate banner or link to your blog post is finding one that matches your content.
5. Strategies - Matching your content to the affiliate banner or link helps generate sales. While you still can add a generalized banner for the company, links and banners that are specified to the blog’s actual content can make the best impact. It may take a few weeks in order for you to find the best affiliated companies for your specific needs, but constant monitoring of your reports will provide information as to which methods are working the best for your account.
As long as you can provide a regular stream of content regarding your niche, your blog has the possibility to generate a great deal of money. Various methods such as affiliate marketing and AdSense are a great base to start from. Keep the posts frequent and relevant, and you could easily replace your full-time job income.
About the Author
Jason Miner plays a vital role for www.blogcarnival.com. He is an expert in writing topics of different categories. He is helping the carnival team to grow & working on making this an even better place for bloggers.
This is an original article from WP Cypher Copyright 2012