Someone asked me the other day what were the three things that gave me the confidence to leave my job in 2012. My initial response was being able to negotiate a severance package worth six years of existing living expenses. The severance was seriously the unexpected X Factor that I did not foresee happening when I was planning on one day leaving Corporate America. All I planned for was saving as much money as possible and building passive income streams.
But as I got to thinking a little more about my financial situation back in 2011/2012, I realized that it was really the POTENTIAL of generating a decent income stream online that got me really excited about pursuing online entrepreneurship full-time.
Back in the Fall of 2011, there were still a lot of direct advertising opportunities despite Google getting increasingly harsher in punishing those sites who sold one too many links. I didn’t want to live in fear of Financial Samurai getting punished, so I decided that I would no longer accept any direct advertisements, or do only a very few that would at least be relevant to some of the content on my site.
I decided to finally focus on affiliate advertising, which is way more congruent and a much safer way to earn income online. Before then, I was just too lazy to try, and I also didn’t really care about making money online as much since I had a job.
YOU HAVE TO JUST TRY
I gave affiliate marketing a try for one solid month. I spent hours testing out new products on various ad platforms that would fit with my existing content. It was a painful process because you have to apply to affiliate programs that might not necessarily let you in due to certain lead requirements. But once you get a couple good programs approved, then it’s relatively easy to identify your top 20 most visited posts, include your affiliate link and relevant copy, and wait.
After finally trying, affiliate income started trickling in. It was only several hundred dollars a month at first, but it was encouraging to see progress. I also felt much more excited and happier about my content because there weren’t any crappy sponsored posts or text link ads any more. There was no need to respond and negotiate with random e-mailers wanting to buy links. Getting burned was also never an issue anymore. I was now dealing with large advertisers on legitimate advertising platforms.
MAIN WAYS TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE
There’s a number of ways to make money online:
* CPM
* CPC
* CPA
* Sponsored content
* Freelance writing
* Services
I would rank CPA (affiliate) first, and Services or Freelancing last out of the six due to scaleability and relative passiveness of income. I limit my consulting clients to three a month because it takes a lot of time, and is much more stressful than writing a good post that has a relevant affiliate link. I want to give my clients the best personal finance or severance advice possible, so I prepare like mad. I also feel a little bad charging my hourly rate, but the rate helps attract only the most serious because there is actually too much demand at a lower rate. It feels bad having to constantly turn people away.
CPA is great because it can latch on to a post that receives recurring search traffic. For example, Examples Of Good Resumes That Gets Jobs, is one of my most trafficked posts with 40,000 page views a month even though it was written four years ago. That post is a passive income machine! Once the initial effort is produced to write a fantastic Whale Post, then there’s a decent chance you can generate recurring revenue. Build your portfolio of affiliate capable posts, and you can generate a tremendous amount of income without much effort.
FIND THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM FOR YOU
I’ve spent a lot of time finding good advertising networks to work with. Good advertising networks have the products you would like to use and highlight, and a representative who can help out when needed. Unfortunately, unless you are a huge site, your affiliate manager will likely never bother to contact you on a personal level to see if they can help. They just don’t have time for smaller folks.
I first became an affiliate of Personal Capital through FlexOffers in 2012. Things were going OK, but my affiliate manager dropped one too many balls when I asked for help (ignored my e-mails mostly). So after several months, I terminated the relationship because I got to know the affiliate manager of Personal Capital directly over e-mail. They asked me to directly join their own affiliate program via HasOffers, so I said “why not.”
Because I joined Personal Capital’s direct affiliate program, they’ve been able to share many more creatives (ad types) on my dashboard and give me insights into how I can better optimize my links. Furthermore, the CPA payout is higher as well. HasOffers is a much more intuitive system which gives me all the data I need to get the most out of my CPA links.
And given I was one of the first to sign up directly with Personal Capital’s affiliate program, I developed much closer relationships, which led me to meet the CEO, and ultimately land a part-time offer with them. In fact, Bill Harris (CEO) and the entire engineering and marketing team had a nice four hour boondoggle learning how to Dragon Boat race the other week.
When you are on a CJ, FlexOffers, Sharebuilder, etc… you are actually their sub-affiliate. All Personal Capital sees is FlexOffer’s entire clicks and conversions, not your’s specifically. That’s not optimal for you, the publisher, or the advertiser. Don’t get me wrong. CJ, FO, etc are great platforms, and provide the only way for many of us to become an affiliate to certain advertisers.
But if you can find an advertiser who offers their own direct affiliate program, then you might as well cut out the middle man, and go straight to the source for better communication and a higher payout. That was my conclusion, and it was the right choice after 2.5 years so far. Now if only some of my other favorite companies like Apple, Nike, and Head could have their own direct affiliate program, that would be so cool.
For those of you who write about retirement, wealth management, financial planning, financial advisors, 401k, IRA, cash flow management, budgeting, net worth tracking, and investments, I highly recommend signing up directly with Personal Capital’s affiliate program here. They are a digital wealth manager that has free online financial tools to help people track their net worth, save money in portfolio fees, and manage their cash flow. When you find a great product, it practically sells itself.
After you sign up, Michael the affiliate manager will touch base with you directly to make sure you have everything you need and confirm a market leading payout. I sit in the same room with him every Monday and Wednesday here in San Francisco and can throw in a good word if you let me know too. We’re both coming out to Fincon in New Orleans.
FOCUS ON THE LONG RUN
I’m under no illusion that everything online will come crashing down on me one day. This is the nature of the beast with Google monopolizing search. Make the most of your opportunities while they exist.
Of course we should actively be building our e-mail subscribers and our brands online to hedge against an impending disaster. But I truly believe that so long as you are writing original, meaty, helpful, and entertaining content, you’ll not only be safe from Google, but probably gain a great deal by their latest algorithmic changes.
If I didn’t take action during the winter of 2011 to seize the opportunity to sign up directly with Personal Capital’s affiliate program rather than be a sub-affiliate of theirs on FO, then I’m not sure I would have had the courage to leave my job when I did because the revenue has been so strong. It was the realization of the potential to make a handsome sum of money online through affiliate income that got me motivated to try.
You should develop a portfolio of relevant affiliate products just like you should be developing a portfolio of fantastic affiliate-compatible posts. It’s important to be diversified, just like with your investments. Always focus on writing the best content possible first. Once you gain the right targeted traffic, everything will work out fine if you then spend the time matching fantastic affiliate products with awesome posts.
Like many things, giving a good solid effort for a long enough period of time is more than half the battle. Are you ready to change the way you monetize your site? If not, let me introduce you to the Google Grim Reaper. Let’s hope he’s in a good mood.
STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.
Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work. Get started. You never know where the journey will take you!
Updated for 2018 and beyond. Personal Capital’s affiliate program continues to be one of the best in the personal finance space. I used to consult there from 2013-2015 and helped establish their program.
I’m probably will too small for Personal Capital, but I hope I can remember them down the line.
As I new-ish blogger, I don’t really know much about monetizing and everything I read seems contradictory (and is often unclear), but I latched on to your advice to develop a portfolio of related affiliate products. I don’t have that now, and it occurs to me that is a sign that I need to work harder on finding my “voice”.
Thanks for the information!
The one clear thing is creating your voice and writing interesting content that people want to share.
Work on the portfolio of content and surely there will be relevant products for you to highlight.
A few weeks ago I have been contacted by a company with an “ad proposal”. Since then we have exchanged several e-mails and now we may be close to an agreement. My blog is 8 months old and, up to now, I was not aware of the risk that this deal could bring with it. I have a long term vision for my blog and I’m kind of scared to screw up every thing. I’m going to study more deeper on this issue.
Anyway any tip and suggestion here about “ad proposals” would be very appreciated
Thank you
Robert
Most are simply spammy text link ads, the lowest form of advertisement today. You could get burned badly. Make sure the compensation is worth it.
Thanks for this post Sam. I’ve just started doing affiliate advertising (within the last month) so no big results yet. I’m curious, how many posts you’ve done that link/mention an affiliate? Do you try to work some affiliate into every post…once a week, once a month? What level of commitment do you have to this? I’m worried about turning people off if all it seems I’m doing is mentioning products/services. I guess I’m ultimately asking how do you find balance? Glad to know you will be at FinCon…I’m really looking forward to it.
Hi Brian,
Good questions. The easiest answer is to read the past several weeks of my posts and see what I do. One strategy I like is to publish the post without any affiliate links or just one where highly relevant, let it sit for a couple of weeks and then add a relevant affiliate link and copy at the bottom. This way, I don’t burn my existing audience, and the links are directed at search users. But, it will negatively impact new readers who scroll through my archives.
It’s definitely a balance, where I err on less. I maybe get one comment every four months not happy with the affiliate links, and FS gets a ton of comments.
Just keep trying!
Sam
Thanks for the post. I’m in the process of adding affiliate links into my site. I’m trying to make sure they align with my message, and only choosing those. So as it stands I’m pretty limited on what I can rep. And that’ fine. I’m not looking to make millions (though I wouldn’t turn it down if it came from non-skeezy sources) ;)
I’ve made about $800 in affiliate income from my bank over the past year, but that’s it. Now to branch out into different avenues.
Alicia,
$800 ain’t bad at all this year, especially if you’re just starting this year! The point is to try, and see what works. You’ll become more adept at writing relevant copy, finding new products you like, and so forth. Your content will also get better too over time with more practice.
Good luck!
I’m really struggling to avoid paid links at the moment. It seems that one or two of my sites have been included in some sort of database somewhere online and I’m getting emails from SEO companies every day offering to pay me to host their guest posts. Knowing it’s against Google policies I have remained strong so far but I know I could easily clear $500-1000 just this month if I wanted, so it’s getting ever more tempting!
That temptation has been huge for many bloggers after the first year, and most will take it. We can do what we want with our own sites. Not even Google can tell us what to do.
But what happens is that the more you go after the easy money, the less you go after the potentially huge money. Your traffic won’t really grow because the content won’t be that great, and there’s probably around a 10-50% chance you’ll get hit by Google and never grow your search traffic, depending on how much of this advertising you do. You could make a couple thousand a month from text links, but you’ll never be able to make $20,000+ a month, for example.
Any suggestions on how to find the products you wouldn’t mind endorsing, Sam? I’m finding this part difficult. Anything I think of I can’t find on the web.
Amazon sells everything and id go on CJ.com and peruse through all their categories for an hour. You’ll find something for sure!
It takes patience and perseverance. I remember it took me a long time before I wrote about my first affiliate product. I still find those posts hard to write, but just like anything, things get easier with practice. And using affiliate programs that you like make it easier too.
The more you use and love the product, the easier it is to write about them. It’s always hard in the beginning.
Great content rules all the time! I think being an affiliate is still the best way to earn money online. With the proper mindset and good thinking, this will become a great source of money.
I have recently signed up for the Amazon affiliate program. I am not really considering others at this point as my blog is new. But every now and then it isn’t too hard to link to a few items in Amazon that are relevant to your post, which is why I signed up in the first place. We all consumer products, some of them may be worth sharing and if so it isn’t hard to put in a simple Amazon link.
Maybe after my blog is older I will consider adding other affiliate programs.
Amazon is good practice. It’s hard to make a lot on Amazon unless your site is very consumer consumption focused, which most PF blogs are not. But, it’s worth a try!
Excellent content guidelines all the time! I think being an online online is still the best way to generate income online. With the proper attitude and good thinking, this will become an excellent resource of cash.
I am using Adwords and my own products to make money. It has worked out pretty well and Adwords has gotten much more consistent lately.
Can you please an example of your own product?
[…] of the best inspirations I had this month came from this post on Yakezie written by Financial Samurai. It was a motivational piece about why we should all be trying to […]
I make nearly all of my income from freelance writing. I have had the hardest time leveraging affiliate links. One month I made $200 but other than that, it’s been probably an average of $5 a month.
The question is: How much have you tried working on affiliate posts and finding the products? I bet if you dedicate a good 6 months, you will see good results.
Freelancing is great, but it does not provide a perpetuity. Once you build a nice portfolio of meaty posts with relevant affiliate links, you will start to see a big difference.
[…] working on CPC income for the first couple of years, I began focusing 80% of my efforts on developing affiliate income because once you’ve optimized your CPC ads, there’s nothing much more you need to do as […]
[…] Read: Find The Best Money Making Affiliate Program For Your Blog […]
Sam, I admit, although I’ve signed up for a few affiliate programs and written a few review articles, I haven’t included affiliate links in my highest viewed posts. And I haven’t really worked at marketing them much (sm etc). I had a perplexing email from one of my readers this week, they said they signed up for one of my offers, but I never saw a payout. I think I need to devote more time to keeping on top of the networks for which I’m signed up as well as putting effort into this area. Thanks for the kick in the b**t & encouragement. I’m linking to this article and scheduling a drill down after I get my next book launched next month. AFter all my traffic is doing well…. why not more from affiliates?
[…] hard work deserves reward. As a result of providing value for at least one year, you go out and find products that cohesively fit with your site’s message. You create and sell your own products. And you leverage your platform for other things in your […]