Did you know that you can start making money with your blog today? Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to start monetizing your blog, even if you’re blog is fairly new. This affiliate marketing guide for new bloggers covers everything you need to know to get started with the best affiliate network.
Don’t worry, it won’t cost you a dime to get started, and affiliate marketing works with virtually any niche! If you need ideas for products you can promote for your niche, download my free list of 50 Free Product Ideas For Affiliate Marketing.
By the way, this post contains affiliate links, and I may receive a commission if you use these links (That’s lesson #1 of affiliate marketing, always disclose to your readers that you’re using them).
What ls Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is defined as promoting a product or service for a merchant and receiving a commission for sales, leads, or clicks associated with that promotion.
Making Money With Affiliate Marketing As A Blogger
As a blogger, there are a number of ways you can make money with affiliate marketing using text links and banners.
Merchants make it easy for you to promote their products and services as an affiliate, and offer a wide selection of promotional text links and banners to use in your marketing efforts.
Text Links
Text links are a blurb of text that include a built-in link, directing your reader to the merchant’s promotion, when clicked. You can use text links in your blog posts and social media posts as a subtle way to make money with affiliate marketing.
Banners
Banners are images designed by the merchant, with a built-in link to the product or service being promoted in the image. You can add banners to your blog and social media posts or as a widget on your website, placed in your header, footer, or sidebar.
There’s usually no need to crop or resize images, since most merchants provide promotional banners in the most-used image sizes, even for Pinterest!
Why You Should Work With An Affiliate Network
When you approach a merchant directly to establish an affiliate relationship, many of them will base their decision on your domain authority or blog traffic stats. If you are just starting out, you probably will not qualify, since you may not have had time to establish your online presence and have the numbers they are looking for.
Affiliate Network Requirements
Affiliate networks do not base their approval on your blog traffic, which makes affiliate marketing a great tool for monetizing if you are just getting started with your blog.
Benefits Of Affiliate Networks
Of course you can reach out to merchants directly to learn about their affiliate programs. However, working with an affiliate network has its advantages.
- Affiliate networks do the hard work for you. Instead of having to approach the merchants yourself to become an affiliate, the networks have already arranged contract terms and payout structures with each merchant in the network.
- Instead of tracking payments from each merchant, you receive one payment each month from the affiliate network for all of your commissions earned, no matter how many merchants you are signed up with. Your accountant will love you 🙂
- You can find merchants easily by merchant name, category, or other desired criteria.
The Best Affiliate Network For Bloggers
FlexOffers is the best affiliate network to work with, especially for bloggers. They offer over 10,000 merchants for you to choose from, which means no matter what your niche is, they’ve got you covered!
They offer the latest products and promotions from the top global brands and niche advertisers, including Nike, Kohl’s, Microsoft, and Verizon, just to name a few.
FlexOffers has ranked in the Top 10 of Revenue & Performance Blue Book for the last 3 years! They also bring on an average of 50 new merchants daily, more than any other network. That’s pretty impressive, and now you have an opportunity to work with them.
Flex-Rev Share
Here it is, my #1 reason for loving FlexOffers, their Flex-Rev Share program. I had to include it in this affiliate marketing guide for beginner bloggers.
Not only can you earn money by promoting any of the 10,000+ merchants offered by FlexOffers, you can earn big money by referring other bloggers!
The Flex-Rev Share program allows you to earn up to 50% of all commissions earned by any publisher, or blogger, that signs up with FlexOffers through your referral link!
This could turn into big money, and it’s residual income that pretty much puts your profits on autopilot.
No other affiliate network can touch this program, and trust me, I’ve done my research.
Some of them offer nothing offer only a one-time commission of a few dollars. If you promote no other merchant as a FlexOffers publisher, be sure to promote this one!
Learn more about FlexRev Share and apply to become a publisher with FlexOffers.
Getting Started With FlexOffers
Getting started with affiliate marketing with FlexOffers is simple. As long as you have your own domain and self-hosted website, you shouldn’t have a problem getting approved.
However, if you’re using Blogger, WordPress.com, or a similar platform, you will need to switch to a self-hosted blog with a custom domain. This is a must for monetizing your blog successfully, whether it’s with affiliate marketing or any other strategy.
It’s easy to switch, and definitely worth the 10 minutes of your time.
Check out Start Your New Money-Making Blog Like A Pro to learn how you can get your own domain and self-hosted WordPress.org website started right now for less than $10.
Be sure to verify your website with FlexOffers, as part of the application process!
This is one of the biggest reasons that I have seen a publisher’s applications delayed or denied. It’s a simple process but for some reason is missed, or made more complicated than it actually is.
You’ll need to copy and paste a meta tag into your theme’s template. If you know nothing about code (like me in the beginning) install the free WordPress plugin called Head and Footer Scripts Inserter. It makes adding meta tags simple.
To improve your chances of approval, also make sure that your blog does not display a “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” page. Also, I suggest having at least 2 or 3 posts already up.
If I Can Do It, So Can You!
When I applied to FlexOffers as a publisher, my blog was less than one week old, and I had only two blog posts up. The only traffic I had was from myself. I had no idea what keywords and SEO meant. In fact, Google analytics had not even entered my vocabulary yet.
I made over $500 in my first month of blogging with the tips in this affiliate marketing guide for beginners. It is possible to monetize your blog, even as a new blogger.
With the right guidance and belief in yourself, your blog can be as successful as you want it to be. So follow your passion.
Now, I help bloggers like yourself learn how to monetize their blogs as well.
What Do You Think of This Affiliate Marketing Guide For New Bloggers?
Sounds pretty easy, right? Go ahead and apply the strategies in this affiliate marketing guide for beginner bloggers, then let me know how it goes for you.
I’m always available to answer your questions, so don’t let confusion stand in the way of you earning money with your blog. Leave your questions in the comment section below.
Now go make that money!
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Once again you rocked with this topic and awesome tips regarding affiliate marketing. I would love to apply this on my next project because the future of blogging is Affiliate marketing.
Thanks for sharing
Regards Faisal
Thanks Muhammed! Affiliate marketing is a great way to monetize as long as it’s done from a position of helping readers solve their pain points. Glad to help 🙂
This is great. I can see a lot of people (not just new bloggers) benefiting from reading this post. Thanks for sharing
Such a great, informative post for new bloggers! It’s so important to have info like this when you’re starting out ??. Thanks for sharing!
I love all the info in this post- I hadn’t heard of flexoffers so will definitely look into it. Affiliation just seemed so complicated but this post really broke it down for me and has inspired me to start working on it more! Thank you so much For sharing your knowledge and experience.
I’ve never done more than the odd dabble with affiliate links and normally only when asked, so never really trying to make an income off them. Veru interesting to read.
I am not the best when it comes to Affiliate links and such. I still learning how and what to do. I have bookmarked this page to re-read. Thank you for the great information!
I work in inbound marketing and have heard of affiliate marketing but don’t know much about it. It might be time to integrate this into my personal blog!
This is a very good guide for newbie bloggers or those who are thinking about diving into affiliate marketing. I think it’s important that we understand how it works and what we need to do.
Thanks Carol. There’s a lot more to being successful, but this is just a start.
This looks like it would be a valuable resource for any blogger! Thanks fot laying it all out there.
I never thought of this before. Love this great info and will def look into it more.
We’d love to have you Luna!
Thank you for writing about FlexOffers because I have never heard of them. Sounds like a great way to go for affiliate marketing.
I love that they give you the images. I need to check this out.
I have been blogging for almost 3 years, and have yet to master affiliate marketing! I am going to follow your tips!
This Is amazing information! Thanks so much for sharing. I do have a question before commuting though.. what about taxes for this income?! Do you have any tips on this or possibly a separate post?
Affiliate income is freelance income, and you are not considered an employee, therefore no taxes are taken out of your commissions.
However, you are required to report this income to the IRS on your tax return. Before FlexOffers initiates your first payment, you are required to submit a W-9 with social security number, or EIN (Employer Identification Number) if applicable.
At the end of the year, you will receive a Form 1099, for your earnings from FlexOffers, that you will use to file with your taxes.
I hope that answered your question! If you live outside of the U.S., FlexOffers offers information on the necessary forms for your specific country.
FlexOffers sounds great. I will be checking them out!
Does it matter what continent you are blogging from for the affiliate marketing?
http:/lifestyle360.co.ke/
FlexOffers has merchants and programs that allow for marketing all over the world. When you apply, you will be able to select merchants by “serviceable area”.
I hope that answered your question.
Thanks..this post is rich in information..I’ve been using Amazon for my website http://speclabz.com. Not yet for the associated blog..so good time to consider
I’m glad you found the post useful. Thanks for stopping by my blog 🙂
Excellent article. Thanks! Just bookmarked your article for future reference. Flex-Rev sounds very interesting.
Yes, FlexRev is amazing. Especially if you work with a lot of other bloggers, or online business owners.
Thank you for this. I need to start earning from my blog now. I dont know why I’ve been so reluctant to do this as a new blogger. But when I read this post, you gave me courage to sign up for affiliate marketing. This is my goal for today. So, I really, really thank you!
That’s awesome, Gracie! Just go for it. That’s how we learn..if you make a mistake, just try again. What’s the worst that can happen, right? I do understand though, it’s overwhelming sometimes when you’re new, because there’s so much to learn. I’m glad I was able to inspire you 🙂
So useful and great tips.
Thanks
No problem. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will join our Facebook group.
This is something I’ve been meaning to do since I started my blogging, but I’ve been procrastinating on my disclaimer page which prevents me from being able to do this! I’ve signed up for your 50 ideas through email, though, so I’m hoping that will give me the kick that I need to get everything sorted. As much as I love blogging and have done it for a hobby up until this point, it would be nice to earn enough money to cover the cost of my blog.
Do you need a template for your disclosure page? I can send you one, free. Just let me know 🙂
Very interesting and useful as well! I’m actually only 6,7 months into blogging and I’m looking to earn some money with it as well, that’s why this post is really interesting for me. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
https://tinkaragolob.wordpress.com/
Deeply explanation on affiliate marketing, thank you for sharing
Thanks for the feedback! I was hoping for the post to be in-depth, so I’m glad you feel that way. Glad you stopped by and I hope to hear more from you.
Very well written article, can you write about getting traffic I am a new blogger I write about content quality, viral marketing etc I am struggling with traffic I am sure I am not alone it will be a great help thank you ( i just signed up with flex offer with your affiliate ) happy blogging 🙂
That’s great Shantanu! I hope you will be hanging out in our community, because you are exactly the type of blogger that will benefit the most. In the meantime, please join our Facebook group, where you can participate in daily promo threads that help drive traffic to your blog. Click here to join.
Let me know if you have any questions about your affiliate application, or anything that has to do with blogging. Glad to hear from you!
You did well on explaining it very well, simple and clear! I want to take the next step into blogging and this helps me to understand more about affiliates! thank you so much!
That’s great, Gracie! I can’t wait to see you in our community, and watch your success progress with affiliate marketing. Keep me updated!
Afiliate marketing is one great way to earn extra money in your blog. FlexOffers sounds like a great company to start affiliate marketing with.
Hi Peachy! Yes, affiliate marketing is the easiest way to monetize your blog and start making residual income. Let me know if you decide to join, and how it goes.
For me they are quite new and interesting information. I shared your post on my twetter and I have to will return.
I’m glad to have helped! Thanks for sharing on Twitter, and I hope to see you in our Facebook group!
I am actually looking for adding adds into my blog, so this was very helpful and I appreciate a lot that you posted this, so thank you! 🙂
https://byveera.blogspot.fi/
No problem! It would be great if you would sign up with my referral link here. Let me know if you have any questions.
This is awesome. I thought I knew the networks. But you introduce me to new ones.
Great! They are the best, so if you are already using affiliate marketing, it’s worth switching. They have over 10,000 merchants, so chances are the merchants you already use, are part of their network.
Great post. I need to set up affiliate marketing as a new blogger and will be using this as a resource!
Awesome, Lisa! Please check out my website as well..I am launching a community and courses on April 1st, with a launch party. You will find awesome resources as a new blogger, most are free 🙂 Hope to see you there!
Lots of information here. I am not sure I need this yet because I just started building my readership, but I have bookmarked this page for when it’s time…I’ll do some research too. Thanks for sharing
No problem, Phaytea. You seem to be doing the right things, and your engagement is awesome! I can’t wait to be a part of your growth, and watch your progress. Talk to you soon!
thats great! I was looking for a guide like this for ages and couldn’t find anything that I actually understood 🙂 Thanks for putting this together!
You’re welcome Lena. I’m glad you found it useful, and easy to understand. Stay tuned for more information on this topic, including courses, and hope to see you at my launch party! Thanks for the feedback.
Interesting en helpful article. I have some affiliate links but % incoming .
Maybee I try this. Thanks for these suggestions
Thanks Dhini. They have tons of merchants, and support affiliates globally. You can get more info and sign up for free here.
Everyone in blogging niche is looking for such info. Thanks for your guidance
Thanks Rafe. I would love it if you would share this info with other bloggers! Glad you found it informative.
Hi,
Looking at how amazing flexoffers can work, I have to check this out and see, if it works.
Great! Please use one of my links in the post to sign up or get more info. Let me know how it goes! Thanks for commenting Arfa 🙂
Wow, this is great information. I am a new blogger so I am learning each day. I had no clue about affiliate marketing. However, I have a free WordPress account so I might not be able to take any advantage of this unless I switch to being self-hosted.
Thanks Shaheen. Welcome to the blogging community! I know you will enjoy the camaraderie you’ll find among bloggers. I’d love to have you as part my new blogger community and please grab your invitation to the launch party at http://nextlevelblogging.com/launch-party. I’ll have prizes to give away and you can learn more about Next Level Blogging. In the meantime, you are also welcome to join our Facebook group at https://facebook.com/nextlevelblog, which is a great place to promote your posts! Hope to see you and thanks for your feedback.
Ty for this I’m going to check our flex offers ! I love affiliate marketing it’s such an awesome income to have !
Sandra, great! I’m sure you will be impressed with what they have to offer. Let me know if you have any questions.
Very helpful guide for new bloggers! Affiliates are a wonderful addition to a blog!
Thank you for the fee feedback Yonca! I’m glad you found the information useful.
Great idea! Very interesting and exciting. This is totally amazing. But I never heard about affiliate marketing.
I hope you will give it a try, Angela. It’s a great way to earn money with your blog.
I find this post interesting and helpful! i am thinking about starting a blog and I’m really curious as how people are earning from it.r
That’s great Ruth! If you love writing, and are willing to treat it like a business and put forth the time and effort, it’s a great way to be self-employed, and earn a decent income. It’s all about believing in yourself…well, that’s the first step anyway! I won’t mislead you, it does take a lot of time just like any new business.
Affiliates are a great addition to any blog. Helpful to cover basic costs in running a blog.
Yes, and with some research and a little time, affiliate marketing can be quite lucrative. Thanks for the feedback!
Affiliate marketing is one of the ways that you can monetize your blog. These are awesome tips on how to start doing that.
Thanks Elizabeth! Hope you will be at the launch party!
I have been using Amazon and haven’t made a dime! Two cents, but not a dime, haha. Thanks for these suggestions, maybe I’ll give some a try.
I have used Amazon on my other blog, but their rules are very strict for earning. I promoted several of their bounties, and got paid for none of my referrals! When I questioned them, it was because they clicked through social media! I love Amazon for other reasons, their affiliate program isn’t one of them 🙂
Thanks for your feedback!
I’m still at the early stages of working with my blog and learning about all of the tools and tips. It is taking some time to learn this but I’m enjoying the process. When I get my hosting site and set it up I will definitely consider this as an option.
Hi David! You’d be great for my new community 🙂 Looks like you’re on the right path, commenting on other blogs. Smart move. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my posts!
In the meantime, check out this post to make your transition quick, cheap, and painless..http://nextlevelblogging.com/start-money-making-blog
This is super helpful to new bloggers! I really love Amazon affiliates and Share a Sale, they are both great to work with.
Hi Jessi! Thanks for the feedback. I haven’t had much luck with Amazon, although I didn’t put my all into their program.
Shareasale is a great program as well, but I found FlexOffers to be easier to use, more merchants in my niche, and the FlexRev Share can’t be beat!
Hope to see you at the launch party!
I was so afraid of this affiliate programs that I never trusted them. I’m sure gonna try some now
That’s great Josselyn! Be sure to get a custom domain & self-hosting first. It makes a huge difference when converting customers!
Check out my post on switching at http://nextlevelblogging.com/start-money-making-blog
I hope to hear more from you, and hope you’ll be at the launch.
I’ve never thought about it but now it sounds like something worth to try.
That’s great! You won’t be disappointed with FlexOffers. Let me know if you need any help 🙂
This is really interesting for me! I started a blog from not so much time and I always need more info!
Great! I hope you’ll be at the Launch Party! Grab an invite at http://NextLevelBlogging.com/launch-party
Great post! I’ve been using flexoffers for a little while now myself, but haven’t really utilized it to the best potential yet. I’m still joining new networks here and there as I go.
Thanks Brandi! Take a look at this post, I think you will find it helpful if you plan to monetize 🙂 http://nextlevelblogging.com/start-money-making-blog
Let me know how it goes!
Great article and helpful tips. I have searched a lot of websites for affiliated marketing programs but they are always limiting your choice of banner and text you can add. Thanks for sharing
No problem, Ashvin. Let me know how the sign-up process goes!
Be sure to grab an invite to my launch party! I’d love to have you as a member of our community, and you will love the benefits of membership! Grab your free invite at http://nextlevelblogging.com/launch-party. All bloggers are welcome, the more members we have, the more successful all members will be.
Thanks for your feedback!
Wow, FlexOffers sounds amazing! I currently use an affiliate service but it’s certainly not as generous! I’m going to have to sign up for this!
Yes, they are awesome! I’m shocked that the other big-name networks haven’t implemented a publisher-referral plan like FlexRev. I love smart businesses, that understand the benefits of generosity, and FlexOffers definitely does.
Please use my affiliate link to sign up 🙂 http://nextlevelblogging.com/fraff
I’m glad you found the information useful! Thanks for the feedback.
This has been on my list of things to do for a while now. I need to just get it done.
Yes, it only takes about 10 minutes to fill out the application and verify your website. Gina, reach out to me if you need some help! Here’s my affiliate link for you to sign up.
http://nextlevelblogging.com/fraff
Let me know how it goes!