The most common forms of monetizing a blog are Adsense and Clickbank.  Adsense is an easy add to a blog sidebar but if you only have a blog on marketing or blogging, or you have a niche where advertisers do not pay high for a keyword or you don’t have a lot of traffic – then you’ll be lucky to get paid every six months from Adsense. Not one of the best forms of monetization for these scenarios, although for a good niche on a blog with high traffic – it’s good.

Clickbank products are a much better form of monetization as the payout of commission from the sale of a Clickbank product can be very lucrative.

Cautionary Note Regarding Disclosure and Reviews

First let me caution the uninitiated about two important facts regarding affiliate marketing.

If you value your reputation and your business – ONLY recommend Clickbank products that you know will give value to your readers. If you have not personally bought and used the product – do some basic research and read reviews ( real ones) from people who HAVE, before you recommend them.

Be aware that in November web law changed regarding reviews and affiliate products and a disclosure off some sort is now compulsory that says that if the customer does buy the product through your affiliate link, you gain a commission from that purchase.

That said, the main problem with Clickbank products  is the time it takes to research new products, protect your link and add the product information to a blog post, especially as php folder redirects don’t work well with a php blog platform like WordPress. ( I have a new plugin to try and solve this to try out)

A swift solution to quickly add related  Clickbank products is to use the WordPress Affiliate Plugin.

NB. This is not a free plugin and should you purchase the plugin through a link on this page I make a commission . Thanks!

To use the carpenter analogy – you work faster and more effectively when you are using the right tools for the job. Plugins make things easier to do. Anything that automates something is saving you time.

The WordPress Affiliate Plugin is very inexpensive, when you consider that one or two sales will pay for it. It gives you a professional looking display and you don’t have to mess around cloaking links for multiple products or tossing up between choosing products for post links or text linking in sidebar displays.

The WordPress Affiliate Plugin is a good blog monetization tool.

It is a tool you have to be careful with -but what isn’t? Ask any carpenter about how to use a sharp chisel or a drop saw and they’ll answer “carefully”! But when you don’t use the right tools it will take you that much longer to achieve good results.

The plugin creator, Nikola Janovic, is touted as an expert for “set it and forget it” tools for WordPress blogs.  He’s also created a program that automatically uploads content to your blog. Now he has one that automatically monetizes your blog with Clickbank ads.

Nikola Janovic offers a 30 day test drive of his WordPress Affiliate Clickbank plugin. You’ll get free technical support from Nikola but there is no ongoing cost, free lifetime upgrades and you can install it on as many WordPress blogs as you’d like.

See the WordPress affiliate plugin at work

You can see the plugin working by scrolling to the bottom of this post. You can also watch the video on his site to see how slick and professional-looking these ads are. They don’t look like Adsense ads or any other ads out there (that people are mostly blind to by now). They are simple, informative links that attract people to click on them.

It takes only a few seconds to upload and install this plugin and another minute to choose some settings. That’s it. Then each time you write a post the plugin will automatically insert relevant Clickbank ads with your affiliate ID automatically embedded in the link.

You can choose what to title these links. The default is Related Products, I have not changed this. You can choose how many links to display. You can also choose keywords related to tags on your blog.

I purchased the WordPress Affiliate Plugin at the end of last month and I have only just installed it on this blog, so I cannot say more at this stage but I will revisit this with a review when I see how the results pan out.

I am unsure at this stage if automated “related product” links are right for this blog yet but what’s right for me and what’s right for you are two different things.  The tool is good and if it works as described it will speed up the monetization process for bloggers in many different fields.

OK – lets see what happens when I save this post! …

Hmm… I like it. It’s unobtrusive and classy and I think, it may actually add value to this blog by pointing to products people may be unaware of.

By the way, as a bonus Nikola Janovic includes 20 WordPress video tutorials that will show you step by step how to set up a WordPress blog and fully monetize it. So for not yet established bloggers, you can’t help but benefit from watching these videos.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Tags: Affiliate marketing, Clickbank, monetization, Wordpress Plugin

“BlogProfitz is unlike any other affiliate tool available on the market. The guys at Half Again have leveraged their intimate knowledge and experience in the affiliate business to create a truly one of a kind money making machine.”

Tags: automation, blog content, monetization, RSS

The Masterplan is a 72 page report that teaches you how to plan, launch and profit from a successful membership site. It’s pure CONTENT, plus an invitation to join his six week membership site training course.

Many times we are told that recurring income is THE monitization strategy. Advertise and convert once – and get paid recurringly there after. There are lots of ins and outs though about creating a membership site and believe me I know! If you have been thinking about creating a membership site – take a look. Take a look anyway and get the free report from Yaro Starek. You should know by now that he is one of the few marketers that really overdelivers with his free reports.

This isn’t 6 pages of ads, its a bonafide ebook that will teach you heaps.

I honestly believe this new report will blow people away and you will be eager to join Yaro Stareks course after you see what he reveals to you in the report.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: masterplan, membership sites, monetization, Yaro Starek

We start out with high hopes and we add Adsense and Affiliate links to our blogs and we end up spending a small fortune on tools and making a profit that won’t buy us a new pair of shoes!

Does that about sum it up?

It certainly did for me for a long time. Well there are a number of reasons and the prime is that it isn’t as easy as they say!

First and foremost reason is traffic. Without visitors – nothing works. But this isn’t a traffic post. Monetizing your blog is about putting links on it that will pay – even if its eventually after 500 hits. Adsense is great for some things but lets face it, at 6c payment a click or even at the high rate of $1.50 a click – it takes time to add up to a pair of shoes! (Especially if you have expensive tastes)

Most people’s Hit Statistics show that few people read more than one page of a blog. Then they click away and they will usually click away on a link – Adsense is better than nothing but a Clickbank product is better still. There is a Clickbank product that draws Clickbank ads and looks similar to  Adsense.

Click Here To See It

Heres a quick run-through of the main features and benefits of putting this on your web site.

* It is easy to build effective ads it takes just a minute.
* Simple procedure targets the ads correctly to every page on your site.
* Links to the best-selling ebooks and products in the massive (10,000 product plus) ClickBank marketplace. You get to earn up to 75% of each product sold.
* Allows you to gain the maximum earnings possible from your sites visitors.
* Ads blend in to your site design to encourage responsiveness.
* You can set the keywords the application works with if any page on your site is less than clear.
* You can determine the minimum affiliate commission levels.
* Subscription includes access to click-though and impressions stats.
* 12-months subscription is currently held at the low price of $89.95 thats less than $8 per month for one of the most powerful website monetization tools around!

Also I’m republishing this article by Michael Hopkins for reinforcement and because I’m getting lazy (or smarter) about writing so many articles. It made me think, and it will make you think too…

Affiliate Programs: Don’t Let Amazon.com Use Up Your Valuable Bandwidth!
by Michael Hopkins

You already know that affiliate programs are a great way to make additional income for your web business.

By promoting products that are RELEVANT to your target audience and presenting those products in a meaningful way through the pages of your ebooks, websites and ezines, you can build up a nice steady income with little effort.

Don’t forget though, affiliate programs will only earn you money if you promote them the right way.

Otherwise they’re a complete waste of time and effort.

A perfect example of how NOT to make money through affiliate programs is by carrying banners from big web companies like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking these companies.

However, you may as well try making money from selling used matchsticks as from carrying banner ads from companies like these on your website.

Why?

Well, firstly, most people are so familiar with these companies already, that the chances of them clicking the banner are next to nothing. You can expect at the VERY LEAST to go through 1000 visitors before you get a single click!

Secondly, even if a visitor does click the banner, the chances that he/she will buy anything are even less again. And, because Amazon.com and co. only pay out commissions if the visitor buys immediately, then the likelihood or you actually earning
anything are just north of none.

Let’s face it, these banner ads enable Amazon.com and their like to use webmasters to strengthen their brand name at zero cost.

They’ll slow down your pages and will not benefit your business or your visitors in any way.

If you are an affiliate with Amazon, then the only way to effectively make money out of them is by hand-picking a few products that are of direct interest to your visitors.

If your website deals with fast cars, then promote fast car books. If your e-book is all about The Ramones, then promote albums from and books about The Ramones (Gabba Gabba Hey!).

Then, promote those products as if they were your own. Nothing short of a rave review or a full-blown sales pitch will do. And place a “Click Here To Order On Amazon.com” link at the end.

Your visitors know you and your readers trust you. If you tell them that this product is right for them, then they’ll buy it.

One final point.

Amazon’s affiliate program, despite its widespread fame, is neither the best nor the most lucrative one around.

It may be worth your while to look around for websites that promote the same products but that have more effective affiliate programs. Programs that pay out more and that use cookies to record your visitors’ click-thrus. That way, if your visitors buy the product at a later date, you still get the commission.

Here are a few affiliate program websites and directories you can explore to find products and services that match your website:

ClickBank Marketplace
Commission Junction
WhichAffiliate – Affiliate Program Directory
AffiliateMatch - Affiliate Program Directory
Gr1innovations.com – Affiliate Program Directory
Affiliate Seeking – Affiliate Program Directory

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Hopkins is a Successful Web Marketer and Owner of BizzyDays Ebook Publications. Visit Now to Download Original Ebooks for Free at: http://www.bizzydays.com

This Article First Appeared in Michael’s Newsletter, Ebook Times. To subscribe visit: http://www.ebooktimes.com

It makes logical sense to make those clicks count when people leave your site, and neither Adsense or Amazon are your best avenues for monetizing your blog when you don’t have high traffic. Think about it.

If nothing else, when was the last time you visited Clickbank? Its changed quite recently and they have a new widget to help you out. It’s not quite as configurable as the first program I mentioned which will fit nicely in the sidebar and imitate Adsense but its still an interesting option.

You pick some categories and keywords and get your code and paste it into a text widget in your sidebar. What you end up with is a neat box (which is unfortunately too large for many sidebars) with tabs and links to a range of Clickbank pages. Its free and if you have a spot for it, its worth a try. Definately worth more than Adsense or Amazon! So give one of these types of options a try and monetize your blog to the max.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Tags: monetization, monetize