How To Obtain Residual Income For Your Website

Do you want to make money with your website? Do you have a blog or website that has a decent monthly readership and an engaged audience? If so, this post is for you.

Starting from the beginning, I’ll show you how to set up an easy-to-deploy affiliate program for your site or blog, and which affiliate networks can make that process as painless as possible. You’ll also see how to optimize your site for search engines and generate revenue through advertising – using no other resources than what WordPress offers. After reading this guide, you’ll have no excuse to not make money with your website.

What is an affiliate program?

An affiliate program is a business model in which a company rewards independent or individual affiliates for each client they refer to the company. The client is usually a customer who has agreed to purchase products or services from the affiliate marketer representing the company. The highlight of this model is that it doesn’t take large upfront investments to be able to participate (no buying ton of inventory), which makes it accessible for individuals and small businesses alike. This essentially means that you can generate income from your website with very little up-front investment: all it takes is time and effort (and some technical knowledge).

Here’s the affiliate marketing value chain:

Affiliates -> Advertisers -> Publishers -> Customers

The affiliate model is suitable for a wide variety of niches, services, products and businesses. It can be a great way to earn extra income from your website or blog. When you’re an affiliate marketer, you’ll be a representative of the business – and in many cases, you’ll be the face of that business. Being an affiliate allows you to add value to your audience by recommending products and services that may help them with their needs (be it information or products) without making them pay for it (as in product reviews). If you think about it, being an affiliate is the perfect way to give back to your audience by offering something without asking anything in return. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular business models out there, and it’s very easy to get started: all you need is money (or a credit card – almost anything works with some networks) on one side and traffic on the other. Affiliate marketing has grown exponentially in the recent years, as more and more companies decide that this model is a great way to reach their audience without having to do all the legwork themselves.

As you can see, the value of being an affiliate is greater than zero: it’s a great way to monetize your website and make money with it. And as you’ll see later on, not many people have a good grasp of how simple affiliate marketing can be.

If you do something you truly believe in (be it a hobby, service or product) – chances are that some members of your audience might be interested in those same things. Let them know about it by adding affiliate links on your site – it doesn’t cost you anything but time (and maybe some effort to get things started). In exchange for a commission, you ask your website visitors to do the rest: they’ll go to the merchant’s site, click on an affiliate link and will either buy something or not.

It’s as easy as that.

You can set up an affiliate program for your website and blog very easily. In fact, you don’t even need to be technical savvy – all it takes is just a few minutes of your time and some patience: you don’t need to be an expert at anything in order to get started. The only thing you need to know is how to set up your affiliate links.

There are some affiliate networks that can make things easier on you: I’ll show you the best two for WordPress below.

With WordPress, setting up an affiliate program on your website is as easy as adding a new plugin (like the one you’re reading now). Affiliate marketing for WordPress websites has become very popular and there are tons of free and premium plugins that can help you monetize your website, blog or digital store with ease.

As I mentioned, the popularity of affiliate marketing has increased exponentially in recent years. There are thousands of affiliate programs out there that reward affiliates with commissions, ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars (even thousands).

Affiliate networks are the middleman between affiliate marketers (you) and merchants. They make sure that you receive your money by generating a tracking link for your customers. Many affiliate networks also provide analytics and other tools for affiliates to make their lives easier.

As an affiliate marketer, you’ll have access to all the products and services that an affiliate network offers: you’ll be able to choose which products or services you want to promote on your site and who will pay you for it. Some networks have very big affiliate programs with hundreds of thousands of affiliates, while some might have a smaller program with just a few affiliates.

By choosing an affiliate network, you’ll be able to promote more products in a wider array of niches at the same time. Not to mention that affiliate networks will make your life easier by building and managing your website for you (for example by providing WordPress plugins or extensions).

Affiliate networks charge their merchants (businesses or individuals selling products) 5-15% from their earnings, while affiliates keep the rest. Some networks might also charge you commissions – it’s important to understand how they work before joining them.

By joining an affiliate network, you’ll also get access to all the tools and resources they provide, from coupons and other product tools to marketing software. These can help you promote your products or services without having to spend a lot of money on advertising – just by spending time on your site promoting what you’re already selling.

There are tons of affiliate networks out there: I’ll show you three of the best for WordPress below. I’ve also included a few links in the table above that might help you find additional information about each network.

With Clickbank, merchants pay affiliates 5% of their sales revenue. They usually offer different commissions for different denominations – from $0.

Conclusion

As you can see, affiliate marketing for WordPress is very easy to set up and manage. Not only that, but it can be a great way to make extra money from your website or blog – especially if you don’t have the time or resources to create and run ads yourself.

One of the best ways to monetize your website or blog is by adding an affiliate program to it. You can then make money by promoting products that you truly believe in, without having to spend any of your own time or money on advertising.

Affiliate marketing has grown progressively over the years because of its ease of use and accessibility – anyone with a website or blog can start an affiliate program without having huge technical skills.