Do you have a website or newsletter?  If you do, you probably talk about books you like or services you love.  Did you know that you can often make money by making these recommendations?  Many companies have affiliate programs.  Affiliate programs give you an opportunity to make a percentage of sales you generate from those organizations.

Some internet marketers make millions off affiliate programs.  That’s not what I’m talking about here.  I believe that affiliate programs should only be utilized when you really love a product or service.  Not just to generate cash. I NEVER recommend a product unless I love it.  My reputation is at stake!   But I do think that if you are going to recommend something anyway, and you can make a few bucks, then it’s an honest way to bring in some extra money.  Here are a few simple steps to help you develop an affiliate plan.

1.  Look at what you are recommending.  Do you recommend a lot of books on your blogs, Facebook pages or website?  If so, you may want to check-out an online bookstore’s affiliate program.  Or maybe you like a company’s website design team.  Look at your website-are there links up?  Maybe some of those companies offer affiliate programs.  Review your blog, what do you find yourself recommending regularly?  Make a list of companies that you want to focus on.

2.  Once you have your list, go to your chosen companies’ websites and see if they offer an affiliate program.  You can often find the link at the bottom of the webpage where there are links such as About Us, etc.  If they company does offer an affiliate program, sign-up.  It should be free.  If it’s not, you might want to skip that organization.  Be sure to make a list of companies that you become affiliated with.

3.  Once you are accepted as an affiliate, explore the affiliate area of the website.  Most good affiliate programs have lots of marketing tools, including easy HTML codes you can copy and put on your website, blog, Facebook page, etc.  

4.  Market your affiliation.  When you recommend a book (or a product), be sure to use the affiliate link.  You may want to have a link in your sidebar of your website to some of your favorites stores.  Just remember, you aren’t an Internet marketer, so don’t overload your website (or blog) with ads.  You will lose clients (or readers).  Your ultimate focus is to market your massage.  Use your affiliations to supplement that income, not replace it.

5.  Develop a way to track your affiliations.  I use a spreadsheet.  I list all the affiliate programs I’m signed-up with and I track my income from them.  The companies you work with generally have some sort of tracking tools on their website that allow you to easily see what you are earning.  Make sure you are getting paid for your referrals.  If a company isn’t paying you when they make a sale from a referral, it tells you that they have questionable business practices and you may need to rethink recommending their services.

Action step: This week, after exploring the various affiliate programs, Iʼd like to you apply for one affiliate program and grab some code of the product you like to recommend and add it to you website or blog.

Here are some ideas to get you started: (1) amazon associates (2) Click Bank

These are just a few tips for adding a new revenue source into your marketing plan through affiliate programs. Did I miss anything? Please share in the comments. 

Note: At the end of 2009, FTC adopted endorsed guidelines for bloggers, you can read them here. You may want to add a blanket statement to your website/blog, like this one.