Affiliate programs as a productivity aid
Related entries in Blogging Basics, Blog software & tools, Making Money with Blogs, Professional BloggingI’ve just come to the realization that affiliate programs are not just about making money, they are actually about improving my workflow.
Let me explain. I have a few product-based sites and have been recently using affiliate programs - Amazon and LinkShare - to look for products, review them, and insert information.
Rather than me going to Amazon, I’ll use a blog plugin to search the affiliate links directly. The pictures are enough to get me interested in a product or not. I can search quickly. Then, with minimal clicks, my blog post is ready with image and link, and in one step I have the product information to modify and review.
What does this save me? Well, it saves me time searching blogs for information. Saves me going directly to Amazon in another tab of my browser. Gives me that “new” information that is so valuable to traffic generation. And saves me worrying about looking for pictures - they’re given right to me!
What are the intangible benefits of affiliate programs:
- copy & paste product links
- copy & paste images
- no legal disputes on pictures
- quick search features for new products or promotions
- save me from uploading images to my server or to Flickr
- images are a very blog-friendly size
So, if your blog is about anything product related, I suggest seeking out the affiliate programs easiest to use to help you with your own workflow.
And, as an image tip, you can often find images for blogs on any topic through these affiliate programs - they may not be what the affiliate program was intended for, but they serve a good purpose.
Technorati Tags: traffic, pictures, licensing, money, affiliate, amazon
October 18th, 2005 at 8:50 pm
Great post Arieanna. I’m a relative newcomer into the world of blogging, having blogged seriously for only a full year now. But I spent the previous 7 1/2 years working affiliate marketing programs, and publishing pure marketing sites, and I can tell you that the product blogs fit so perfectly well with affiliate programs.
There’s no reason why bloggers can’t build up a loyal following of readers, and monetize these readers with affiliate links. If you can sell lots of wares, and still enjoy a large popular following, you’re stylin’.
October 20th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
[…] Aside from using images from affiliate programs, I use a ton more images every day. I’m finding the flow a little annoying to get the picture uploaded and resized. […]
October 21st, 2005 at 4:00 am
Affiliate Programmes and Productivity
‘Gotta love posts like this. Arieanna of BloggingHelp shares her process and insight regarding the use of affiliate programmes in more productive blogging. She writes:
Ive just come to the realiza…
May 3rd, 2006 at 7:03 am
There are plenty of affiliate opportunities out there but I found out that only a few of them can really generate enough interest and income from your visitors. Here are some of the affiliate programs that have excellent success with webmasters and website publishers:
Autos affiliate program – this is another extremely popular affiliate program category.
Computers affiliate program – computer affiliates are numerous and present some of the most dynamic market values in online advertising.
Fitness affiliate program – “fitness” is one of the most popular terms on the Internet. Many webmasters are making money from home with their fitness related websites, and you could be doing the same. Together with weight loss, this is one of the most competitive and rewarding affiliate program categories.
Real Estate affiliate program – when it comes to competitive affiliate program categories , real estate is one of the top examples. A lot of money goes through the real estate industry, and a lot of that cash also journeys online. By joining a real estate affiliate program you can transfer some of that money in your own account.
Hope this helps – let me know if you found other categories where the CTR and income are above average.
Thanks,
Michael Rad
Web2earn.com – online moneymaking opportunities
December 15th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Can anyone recommend me affiliate programs where you can use text links?
I need to know of all the affiliate programs out there where you can use text links and that pay per click.
thanks in advance….