Two weeks ago, I published a simple blog post which was a review of the “Digging into WordPress” book by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr. Using their affiliate program and a few tips, I managed to sell 20 copies of the book for an affiliate profit of over $200 in less than two weeks.
In this article, I’m going to show you what I’ve done to earn that sum using a simple blog post.
The joy of affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing has always been one of my favorite way to make money online. Since I started to blog, I have made thousands of dollars using affiliate programs. As I said in my “How to multiply income streams to make more money online” article, it is important to join as many affiliate programs as you can, if they are in relation with your blog content.After Chris Coyier emailed me a free copy of the Digging into WordPress book, I decided to review it here on Cats Who Blog.
Good product + great affiliate program = money
Being used to make money online, when I decided to review the Digging into WordPress book, I looked on their site to check if they have an affiliate program.
They had one, so I joined. The affiliate share is 50%, which means that for each book sold at $27 using my affiliate link, I earn a $13,50 commission.
Some of you will probably think that $13,50 is not a big sum, and in fact this is true. But if you sell ten copies, you’ll earn $135, which is definitely not bad. Like I said in my “How to multiply income streams to make more money online” article, you have to multiply sales and multiply income streams if you want to be successful online.
Of course, one of the biggest reasons of this affiliate success is the quality of the Digging into WordPress book. It’s a sure thing that if I promoted something common as such as Hostgator Hosting instead, the review wouldn’t have been that successful.
Techniques used
After reviewing the “Digging into WordPress” book on Cats Who Blog, I used a few techniques to promote the post and make sure that as many people as possible will read it, and hopefully, buy it.
I was the first to review the book : Being the first to review a specific product is a very good thing. Want an example? Type Digging into WordPress review on Google, and see what happens.
Every day, many people are coming to Cats Who Blog from Google and view the article.
I used Twitter a lot : Twitter is the blogger’s best friend. In one year, I created a base of approximately 3500 followers, and most of them are interested in WordPress. You guessed it, I made some sales just by telling my followers about the book.
Even better : Some will disagree but I often ask my followers to retweet my posts (And gladly return the favor when they ask, of course!) and this techniques works very well. Another thing I’ve done was to directly post my affiliate link of Twitter in a random tweet as such as I love the “Digging into WordPress” book! Who else enjoyed it? http://bit.ly/85HYTl
Cross-blog posting : Being the owner of many blogs, (See How to manage multiple blogs efficiently) I often let WpRecipes readers knows about what’s new on my other blogs, and vice-versa.
Conclusion
On December 1st, I was very happy to receive my Paypal payment of $202. I haven’t talked to Chris or Jeff about it yet, but I guess that I’m on the top 5 affiliates in November.
I am also very glad to prove you that a young blog can be successful : Cats Who Blog is only two months old, and it provided me over $200 in affiliate commission (that sum only includes the “Digging into WordPress” affiliate program) and already have over 1000 RSS subscribers at the time I’m writing this article.
I’m not saying this to congratulate myself, but to show you that if I can, YOU can.
Reviewing products that will interest your audience is a very efficient way to make money online.
Affiliate programs you should join
Since I’ve started to make money online using affiliate marketing, the three programs below are my favorites. You shouldn’t hesitate to join them!
WpWebHost : Well known by WordPress users, WpWebHost provides “WordPress friendly” hosting solutions.
The affiliate program is a definitive bargain : one sale will provide you between $33 and $50. I have made more than a thousand dollars with that affiliate program.
» Join WpWebHost affiliate program
aWeber :
Founded in 1998, Aweber is the leader of newsletters service. Thousands and thousands of people are using their services to send mass emails to their clients every day.
The commission is 30%. And even better, it is recurring, which mean that you’ll get paid every month that your affiliates are using the service!
» Join aWeber affiliate program
Cirtex Hosting :
Cirtex Hosting provides a hosting service that I’ve never tested, as well as an affiliate program which provide $35 per sale.
» Join Cirtex Hosting affiliate program
21 Comments
Hey Jean,
Congrats on the affiliate sales and to an awesome two months!
I think you’re right on the money with affiliate sales, it’s important to think of the needs of your visitors and tailor the products you sell to them. However the quality of the product you recommend reflects back on your brand. It’s a bit risky to recommend a service you’ve never tried before (i.e Cirtex) because if someone has a bad experience with them it will damage your reputation in their eyes too.
I think it’s always better to promote a quality product with low sales commission, than an average product with a large commission (and always test it out first). what do you think?
Nice job ! 200$ for a single post in two weeks is amazing !
@Sam Sharara : You’re right about Cirtex, it should be better if I had tested it before. Therefore, dishonest sellers will say that they have tested it even if they didn’t, just to get the affiliate comission.
@Maestro Geek : Thanks!
Definitely not bad for a blog created 2 months ago. Congrats, Jean!
@Johnny B : Thank you! This proves that even a young blog can make money
Amazing earnings Jean, thanks for revealing your secrets and techniques.
Jean, I’m going to pick on you a little bit: Cats Who Blog is young, but you’re bringing years of experience to the table! I really believe that matters a lot.
And congrats on your affiliate sales. I’m an affiliate of DiW as well, but I haven’t promoted it yet. It’s a bargain at twice the price really. I’m reading parts of it every day, and learning a lot.
@Dave Doolin : That’s true, but I really believe that even an inexperienced blogger can make money using affiliate marketing, if the product he promote is cool and provide a real value to his readers.
Wow, you are awesome friend. Nice you share how you do this success so i can learn.
Thanks for the information. I like how your not afraid of sharing information about how much money you earn with your sites. Its really great to read about other people success, it makes me want to keep learning. Thanks Alot
@Darren : You’re right, many bloggers are afraid to show their money making technics to their readers, while I’m not, because I run this blog to help people becomming successful bloggers.
This is maybe why in 2 month, I already have 1000+ RSS subscribers
Hostgator.com has another good affiliate program, they offer $50 per affiliate, however if you get over ten affiliates (and so on) in a month the price of each person goes up and up.
@Callum Chapman : Never heard of it before, I’ll check it out. Thanks for sharing!
I really like your site and the way you present your ideas. They are really handy for my homebased job as a web developer, when i get stuck in an idea or something i like WP to do on my theme but there are no plugins available for it i go to your site. Thanks for showing us how we can be also successful bloggers like you. Thanks for the info.
thanks a lot for great tips to affiliate programs
I think you meant to say: “Techniques” not “Technics”
Fantastic overview of affiliate marketing. I’m just now getting into it and learning how things work most efficiently. I’m going to go check out the programs you mention now!
Very cool about the $200 from a blog only 2 months old. I, too, agree with the comment above about your experience being a big factor in this blogs success. Regardless of this fact, thanks for sharing your encouraging success!
WOW cool! $200 for 1 post is really great! DIW is also a great book for WordPress.
I’ve no real problem with making a little extra money on the side from such affiliate marketing, but the returns actually look pretty lousy.
A full and thorough review of such a book is the end result of days of work. $200 is a pretty poor return for that.
Having said that, money is money – and when you’re starting out, every little bit helps. I just wonder if it’s a sensible long term approach. I know folk who’ve made good money from this approach, but in hourly rate terms it’s nothing amazing for someone with the skills you no doubt bring to this site.
Throw in the posts that *didn’t* make anything (and I’m as interested in failure as success) and your returns are likely to sound less impressive.
But… you’ve created a smart wee brand here – in a couple of years a similar post might gain 10x the traffic – who knows, maybe even 100x. You could then be talking a $2,000 or even a $20,000 return on a successful post. Just a few of those and you have the makings of both a good income. Keep at it!
Hey, that is very nice!
For me, the most cool thing in all this, is that you are teaching us, revealing the secret.
That, for me, is a very nice act done by you, pal.
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How I made over $200 with a simple blog post…
Two weeks ago, I published a simple blog post which was a review of the “Digging into WordPress” book by Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr. Using their affiliate program and a few tips, I managed to sell 20 copies of the book for an affiliate profit of over …