21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 7! Get SMART with affiliate programs

21 Days to a More Profitable Blog Tutorial > Day 7!  Get SMART with affiliate programs

(Morning!  I am THRILLED to announce I actually slept for (get this!) more than 5 hours…in a row!  YES!  She CAN do this!  It IS a miracle!  Life IS joyous!

Got any coffee you could spare?)

Why hello again, so glad you could stop by!    How are you doing?  Over here in LingLand, I’m pleased to realize that I’ve finally recovered from my massive martial arts training during the weekend; I’m actually more flexible than a frozen iceberg!  Yay!  But wow, that workout was truly good stuff.

And regarding Avenahar, I posted a memorial about him for my kids over at the Rainbow Bridge.  Kids are handling it well; I’m very pleased. 

And with that update, lets’ jump to:

Today is Day 7 of my series, 21 Days To A More Profitable Blog! 

And for today, I’d like to talk about…

Makeup and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Do you know what  MMA is?  In a nutshell, it’s two people (generally guys) who face off against each other and use a combo of Jiu-jitsu, karate, boxing, muay thai, etc., to subdue the other.   And if you throw in a cage, it can become quite a bloody confrontation!

It’s NOT for the timid or the weak or the frightened or the girly-girl…it’s a great sport, mind you, but it requires courage, bravery and an incredible ability to take command control.

Now…with that mental picture in mind, let me ask you:

Do you think MMA readers would be thrilled to buy makeup?

Okay, okay, stop laughing.    Seriously though!  Let’s say an MMA reader came to an MMA blog that incorporated affiliate programs.  What would make them want to go CLICK! and then BUY! ?

• Martial arts gear?  Check.
• Martial arts t-shirts?  Check.
• Makeup?  Opposite of check!

In other words, makeup is so NOT an interest, it would not appeal to the targeted visitors.  Right?

‘course right!

Which brings me to the following (oh heck, where is he?  Ahem…hang on, let me call him

YooHoo!  Clue Herder!  We neeeeeeed you!

It’s time to buy the following clue:

Smart bloggers will always use affiliate programs that address the desires of their niche and audience!

 It makes sense, doesn’t it?

Sure, you might read how some of the other probloggers besides you use Adsense here and Chikita there and the ever popular "glue your reader’s fingers to the BUY NOW button" over there….

But the truth of the matter is, you need to address your own specific situation FIRST before deciding what affiliate programs to add.

And here’s how!

Before You Begin – What would sell best in your niche?

This is actually pretty simple to determine.  Just visit eBay and search for

• niche

ie,

• MMA
• knitting
• porsche
• parenting
• mom
• teaching
• make money
• etc

Look thru what’s returned.  On the left hand side, you’ll see a categories list – you can get a further breakdown of what products are available for what sectors and the like.  It’s very educational indeed!

Next, go to Amazon.com and do the same thing.  Find out what products are offered in your niche.  You can even select the option "Best Selling" to get a better handle on what are the most popular items in which customers are interested. 

Next, jump to:

Step 1 – Make certain you’ve signed up for Amazon and eBay and Clickbank

Ideally, you had done this yesterday….but if not, sign up for

Amazon

and

eBay

and

Clickbank

now.  While you’re at it, sign up for as well.   I myself don’t use it very much, but other probloggers swear by it.  

Next,

Step 2 – Familarize yourself with how to add affiliate programs to your blog.

Here’s the instructions for eBay, and here’s the instructions for Amazon, and here’s the instructions for Clickbank.  I want you to *really* read this information to see what a wealth of goodies awaits you!  I generally use the following for my blogs:

• eBay Editor Kit
• eBay Flexible Text Link
• Amazon Product Search
• Amazon Text Link

There’s lots others, however – carousels, RSS feeds, DIY stores and the like.  It’s up to you to explore them yourself and see how the links are generated…because you’re going to be adding those links to your own blog posts or wordpress templates.

NOTE!  If you don’t want to do the above manuallly, you can consider Build a Niche Store – it makes it extremely easy to incorporate eBay affiliates via many different methods on your site. 

You’re going to be busy for at least an hour with reading up on the eBay and Amazon and Clickbank tools, so I’ll close this lesson now and oh heck, I can’t do that!  I still need Step 3!  Okay, here goes….

And finally, for my last step in Day 7 of 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog, I’d like to suggest that you gleefully:

Step 3 – Get up to speed about affiliate programs.

There’s lots of great sites out there that will help you flatten your learning curve!  Consider:

• Affiliate Payday (free report)
• 5 Star Affiliate Resources
• Super Affiliate Handbook
• 5 Star Affiliate Program Newbie Forum
• New affiliates – getting started forum

Remember…you must ALWAYS keep in mind your visitor’s wants…more than their needs.  People buy to satisfy "wants" first and foremost; keep that in mind, and your affiliate commissions can’t help but increase.

Nice, eh?

And that brings me to:

In closing

In today’s lesson, you found where you can uncover instructions for adding eBay and Amazon and Clickbank products to your blog.  You then ideally spent an hour on those instructions because we’re going to be using them during the next three days.

And of course (you were waiting for this, right?)  an opportunity now arises! 

(remember, there’s no such things as problems in real life – just misunderstood opportunities)…..

HOMEWORK -  Now that you know how to get affiliate code…how will you embed it in your blog template?

Do NOT be scared to learn how to do this!  Heck, my pre-teen went bananas teaching herself how to modify her own Wordpress template – you can see that discussion over at Middleschooler Hacks Personal Wordpress Theme, Makes Money Online.   When YOU can tweak your own template….vistas open for you that you could never image.

You CAN do this…you simply have to give yourself permission to learn.

Your homework tonight is to read the 3 following articles:

• Middleschooler Hacks Personal Wordpress Theme, Makes Money Online
• How To Edit Your WordPress Theme
• Wordpress is NOT PHP – Beginners

Then:

View your own theme via your dashboard, click on Presentation | Theme Editor and view your sidebar.php.  Don’t do anything to it!  Just check it out and see if you can determine what bits of code handle what aspects of your own sidebar (ie,on my sidebar, I have code that displays Popular Confessions, Latest Articles, etc.  In most cases, such things would appear in your sidebar.php surrounded by <h2> or <h3> (headers listings)).   Don’t be nervous – this will become second nature soon soon soon.

Nice, eh?

Thus, until tomorrow!  (and don’t forget, if you think any of your friends would benefit from these tutorials, please do share them!  They’ll thank you for it…guaranteed).

Enjoy,

Barbara

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners profitable blogging tips: Make certain you sign up for your eBay and Amazon and Clickbank affiliate links.

Intermediate and/or Advanced profitable blogging tips:  Give yourself permission to learn how to hack you own Wordpress themes – you’d be surprised at what you’ll be able to achieve.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

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2. How to easily cloak your Clickbank and other affiliate links for free
3. No Hype, Just What Works – You can now make money with “21 Days to a More Profitable Blog”
4. Package and Sell Your Best Posts – Day 21 of 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog
5. 21 Days to a more profitable blog – Day 9! Add Amazon to your Wordpress blog sidebar