In the past week, some of you have asked me about mainly two things:
- What my thoughts were on Affiliate links (can you make real money with them)
- What my thoughts were on Ko-fi (a link where your readers can buy you a ‘coffee’/donate $3.)
In this post I will tell you of 2 ways I know makes real money.
AFFILIATE LINKS
Tips on selecting affiliate links:
1. Go to the website that you shop at the most, most companies have affiliate programs on their website. Sign up.
Why use a store that you shop at? Because if you are the average person, you don’t buy overly expensive things daily.
Most affiliate links that people put up are overly expensive and people don’t click on the link because they can’t afford it. If they visit the website, they don’t buy anything which influences your sales.
2. If you are thinking about selling a specific item, choose items that cost less than what people pay for currently in other stores.
Example: I found a company that sells human hair for extremely cheap. First, I bought the hair to see if it was good quality. Once I saw it was, I contacted the company and told them I have a blog and would like to advertise their hair on my blog with an affiliate link. The affiliate link did well because it was appropriate for the audience, it was a great price and in return added value to the customer.
3. What are your demographics? Which country visits your blog the most? Check your stats. Once you know, you can choose affiliate links catering specifically to those people. Get affiliate links from stores in those countries.
4. What do you post about? Fashion? Parenthood? Writing?
It’s important to know this because the people who follow you are attracted to that topic. Choose an affiliate link that sells something related to that topic. If you blog about being vegan, but your affiliate links are for meat products, you won’t make any sales.
KO-FI
Some readers asked about Ko-Fi
Let me first explain what Ko-Fi is.
It’s a platform where creators can set up a free account and link back to their website for readers to buy them a ‘coffee’.
It’s not an actual coffee but rather a donation of $3 (the average price of a coffee ) or more (if they want to give more) In this way, your readers can support you.
How do they pay and how do you receive it?
They choose an option to pay via their bank card or PayPal and you put your bank details or PayPal into your account.
Ko-Fi will let you know when you’ve received the money and it will be available to you immediately. No threshold.
I set up my Ko-Fi account last week and have received some caffeine from some of you, THANK YOU. It’s an incredible feeling to receive a notification that someone clicked on the button, and decided to support my blog in that way.
If my posts have helped you consider buying me a ‘coffee’ click here.
Questions to the readers:
Do you use affiliate links? What’s the most difficult part for you when you think about affiliate links?
If you want to read more posts like these, I made a whole series of beginner blogger tips. Click here.
See you in the comments, happy living!
Chantal