Beating Panda with Affiliate Sales, not Adsense

When the Google Panda algorithm changes went into effect in the middle of October, I was already knee-deep in a site redesign for my pets niche site, one that would both improve the aesthetics and usability of the site and move the earnings focus from Adsense clicks to affiliate sales.

I took my inspiration, by the way, from my Wealthy Affiliate University training and the underlying theory that I could better monetize my traffic on the site with sales rather than ad clicks. 

The end result? When Panda slapped my site and took away about 50% of my traffic overnight, my earnings only went down by 20% (comparing this November, first full post-Panda month, to September, the last month before the changes).

Looking at it from another angle, with only 20% more traffic than November of last year, income from the site this November was up more than 35%.

The "traffic" designation in the graph refers to site visits; page views are at least twice that.  Thus September saw over 20,000 site visits and more than 40,000 page views.

Here is the precise breakdown of earnings and traffic by month, using the months before, during and after Panda as well as last November for a more accurate comparison. My site redesign happened Nov. 1, two weeks after the sweeping algorithm changes.

September 2011
20,670 site visits; total earnings: $516.35
Adsense $450.85

Amazon $5.55
Clickbank $59.95

October 2011
15,060 site visits; total earnings: $439.87
Panda strikes on the 15th, cutting traffic in half
Adsense $368.71

Amazon $31.24 (mostly due to a random large purchase)
Clickbank $39.92

November 2011
10,800 site visits; total earnings: $416.70
New site redesign launches on the 1st; traffic still low post-Panda
Adsense $175.76

Amazon $40.88 (virtually all from the two main books I promote)
Clickbank $200.06

compare this to
Nov. 2010
9,030 site visits; total earnings: $300.76
Adsense $258.80

Amazon $1.90
Clickbank  $40.06

The main differences on my site now are that the ads are less prominent than before (though I still have three units per page) and I have more focus on my two main affiliate products --an ebook from Clickbank and a hardcover book via Amazon -- with photos and in-text links.

If you haven't checked out Wealthy Affiliate, definitely do. It's the only online training community I've found enough value in to stay for the long haul and recommend to family, friends and my blog readers.

They're the reason I've been able to stay ahead of the curve through the recent internet upheaval. I gain inspiration and motivation from the other members and valuable tips and insights through the training material, blog posts and forum threads. 

Now, while I certainly am not happy that my traffic is still down so much, and have begun the process of increasing traffic and making the site more pleasing to Google, I'm relieved that my income did not drop off the cliff with the traffic.

What are your recent experiences with online writing and marketing?

Affiliate Marketing Programs: Target Your Niche Audiences to Increase Income

Since joining Wealthy Affiliate nearly a year ago, I've put much more of an emphasis on affiliate marketing across my niche sites and have seen my income rise.  Instead of just relying on ads or a few obscure Amazon affiliate links, I now search for and link to specific products people reading my sites need in order to solve their problems or improve their lives. it not only improves the reader's experience, but affiliate sales are typically much better for the bottom line than ad clicks.

Sometimes, the right solution is obvious: on a recipe/ menu planning site I own, I market both a Clickbank ebook on menu planning and hard copy cookbooks from Amazon. But sometimes the it's not that simple to find the right product. My pets niche site caters to a budget-conscious audience that buys most of their pet supplies form farm and garden stores. I do suggest an ebook that will meet some of my visitors' needs, but most are already past the stage in which that book is helpful.

With my website on a home & family topic, I've had better luck. I found an excellent match with a vendor through cj.com, and have earned thousands of dollars in commissions from that one niche.  My most recent payment from them was over $1,000. Without a perfect match, there's not much I could have sold that particular audience.

For your websites and blogs, make sure the products you link to are quality items or resources that are precisely targeted to your visitors. To find the right items, look across a variety of affiliate marketing programs. These are single-stop sites that support a great variety of individual companies, or vendors, whose products you can promote once approved for the network and for each site individually where required. Here are the ones I use and suggest that you explore:

• Commission Junction
• Google Affiliate Network
• Amazon Associates
• Share A Sale
• Clickbank

Sometimes, searching the available vendors through these programs doesn't reveal exactly what you're looking for to promote. Their search tools are often inadequate and even when they have the vendor you need you may not be able to find it through their site. One work-around that I use fairly often is to first find the vendor (often it's one I've used myself and thus can recommend from personal experiences)  and then explore their site, or contact customer service, to find out if they have an affiliate program and how it's run.

Sometimes, the company doesn't belong to one of the large networks, but manages its own private affiliate program. I actively promote about four vendors through their own designated affiliate programs. For example, Wealthy Affiliate University has its own on-site affiliate program in which members can build links and track their sales.

When looking for products to link to from your site, put yourself in your visitor's place. Ask yourself these three questions about your reader, for each article or page you publish:

1. Why is he reading your article? 
2. What information is he looking for? 
3. What does he need?
4. What products, either physical goods or electronic information products, will provide a solution?

Once you place yourself in your own audience, you'll be thinking like a successful marketer.

Are affiliate sales commissions part of your business model? Which affiliate marketing programs do you use?

Wealthy Affiliate: Day 1

Two years after first reading about Kyle and Carson's forum and online course for internet marketers, I finally subscribed for one year. The time was right: I trusted the most recent source who recommended them, I have the money to re-invest in my online business, and I'm ready -- more than ready -- to take my affiliate income to the next level.

That, and the price, which has been $39/ month for years now, even though the site has been continually updated and improved, is doubling on June 7. By subscribing now, I locked in the current rate for all future renewals. And that benefit was enough to motivate me to make the leap now ... not after I finished another website of my own, not after the kids are back in school after the summer, not after I meet another income goal, but now: today.

The few hundred dollars I make per month in affiliate commissions (my highest month was close to $1,000 in affiliate earnings) pale in comparison to the success stories from Kyle and Carson's forum. Top earners, who started out with less knowledge than I have at present, earn impressive six-figure incomes every year.

Sure, I could spend years and countless hours learning the ins and outs of top-tier affiliate marketing myself, but paying for a resource like this just makes sense. My time is precious; as much as I enjoy my work, I am always cognizant of how precious these days are with my young children. Any resource that helps me to be more productive in less time is worth its weight in gold.

Over the coming days, I'll share with you what I discover within the walls of the Wealthy Affiliate University. Hopefully I'll be able to explain enough about it so you'll know -- before June 7 -- whether it's a resource you want to use for your online marketing business.

Have you tried the WA program?

Maximize eHow Earnings with Affiliate Links

Do you earn income from affiliate products you recommend in your eHow articles? If not ... it's time to start. I encourage you, if you have a library of eHow articles, to take some time to add affiliate links or links to your other sites and blogs, under the Resources section of your articles. Don't waste time on social promotion, Digging and Stumbling articles that really aren't going to appeal to those social communities. Instead -- maximize your earnings potential by adding another residual income revenue stream to your content.

For this post, I'm going to assume you've joined the affiliate programs and can navigate them enough to generate the code for the products. Here's how to add affiliate links to your eHow articles for several of the affiliate programs I use.

Amazon.com

To build affiliate links to Amazon products, choose the "text only" option, to simplify the HTML code you'll see. While the program generates HTML code, you are just after the link -- you can NOT copy and paste the entire HTML code into your eHow article or Resources section.

Here's what it looks like when you're getting the affiliate code for Amazon products (click to enlarge):
Select the URL that begins http:// and is located between the quote marks. Do not inlcue the quotes, but make sure you have highlighted every character in between. Copy this web address to your clipboard by keying CTRL + C or by right-clicking your highlight link and then selecting "Copy" or "Copy to clipboard" in the menu that appears.

You now have the affiliate code for the product you wanted to recommend -- and if someone buys it form your link, you'll get credit -- and money. Scroll down to "Putting it All Together," below, to see how to add this link to your eHow articles.

CJ.com

Commission Junction is a great affiliate network, and I'm averaging around $100 a month from affiliate sales through CJ, even with a very low number of links online. I'll be adding more CJ links to my articles and sites in the coming months.

After choosing the product or site you wish to promote, choose "Get HTML" for the link you want. You'll see the following dialog box:

Select the affiliate link between the quotes. You'll use this in your eHow article ... scroll down to "Putting it All Together" to see how.

eJunkie

My ebook is hosted with eJunkie, and there are scores of information products on the site that offer affiliate programs. (If you're not an eHow ebook affiliate, you should be! You can earn $12.50 per sale by promoting my ebook in eHow-related articles, money-themed how-to's and even your blog. )And then you'll have the code:


Select only the link between the quotes, which in this case I have underlined in blue.

Putting it All Together: Adding the affiliate links to eHow articles

After generating your HTML code, selecting the appropriate link, and copying it to your clipboard, you're ready to add the link to your eHow article. Open the article for editing, and scroll down to the last few sections of the Write Article tool.

Screen shot of the eHow Write Article tool, to illustrate (click to enlarge):

Paste the affiliate link in the "link" section and then write or copy and paste a descriptive phrase about the product or site. Keep it short and simple. Hit publish. Now view your article, and click the link to make sure you added it correctly.

From the outside, your affiliate link simply looks like a helpful resource (which it is):



There you have it. Easy-peasy, right?

Don't expect huge overnight earnings ... the Resources section is so far down that most readers never see it. But some, intrigued by the information in your articles and wanting to know more, keep scrolling and see your resources. Some click, some don't. Some buy the products you recommend. Most don't.

But just like the adsense clicks, day in and day out, it adds up over time. A few minutes to build a link can translate into many dollars over time. My best-performing link has earned me hundreds of dollars over the past few months. This is passive income at its best -- enjoy it.

My First Commission Junction Payment

At the end of November, I received my first Commission Junction payment of $111.81. While I had earned few small commissions earlier in the year, CJ.com has a minimum payout of $50. Thus it was not until my sales really took off in October that I earned enough for payout.

(Click to enlarge:)


Commission Junction has an application process, and you need to have a website or blog to apply. I am not sure how strict they are when processing applications; I used one of my niche sites that had 30 content pages at the time and very little advertising (just some Amazon links).

Once you are approved and become a CJ publisher, you can create multiple channels using your content article profile link and links to your other blogs or sites. You just need a good site to help you get your foot in the door, so to speak.

While commission vary, most of my sales this past month were for 10% commission. I also had two $7.50 commissions for providing leads to a tutoring site, who pays based on people who sign up through an affiliate's link.

There are CJ advertisers who offer high commissions, in the 20% and higher range, but some of those are quite seasonal or for items harder to sell. The products with the best conversion rates typically have lower percentage commissions.

As a CJ publisher, you have to apply for each company whose products you want to sell. Some approve you automatically, and others have a more extensive review process.

I was quite please to receive my first Commission Junction payment, and look forward to the next one -- happily, I have reached the minimum for payout again.

If you are a CJ affiliate, what products do you sell? If you haven't tried CJ, what's holding you back?

Niche Affiliate Marketing

I've increased my online residual income with niche affiliate marketing. Affiliate sales can be a great way to diversify income streams online, and while they are not my largest money maker, they do add up.

Affiliate success takes time, but it is well worth the effort to add affiliate links to articles, resource sections and forum signatures. The most important thing is to target your affiliate links to your specific audience. It almost goes without saying, but since it is important for success, I always reiterate the necessity to have well-targeted products that will appeal to your audience in any particular article, forum or blog.

It's very important to promote good affiliate products, and to know what you're promoting. For example, I would never promote a web hosting service I haven't tried and could answer readers questions about if they arise. That's why I only promote Site Build It and HostGator -- I have websites with both and can truly stand behind my recommendations. Other web hosting companies have great affiliate progrmas, but I haven't tried them and don't know first hand if they are reccomendable.

Make your text links interesting, without being too much like an advertisement. FOr example, when creating a link to an Amazon health product I included the basic description but left out "Buy 6 get one FREE." It looked to ad-y to me.

While it is not always the most lucrative, Amazon's affiliate program is one of the easiest affiliate programs to join and generate decent conversions.

This is a screen shot of my November Amazon affiliate income, which you can actually see if you click on it:

With a down economy to contend with (experts say the worst since the Great Depression) and lower sales accross the board, I was happy with November. It's all residuals, though I did add a few new links to articles I wrote in November.

December is on track to beat November's Amazon affiliate income, as I have already sold 47 items during the first week. Some were inexpensive books, but one was a pricey water filter that netted me $10. I put the link to the water filter in one of my articles some time ago, and it took less than a minute to copy and paste the code. This is residual income at its best: being paid $10 for a minute's work done months ago.

Previously, December has always been my best month and I am expecting great things in the days to come.

Take away:

• Target the products you recommend to the audience who is likely to read your articles, online profile or other material.
  
• Only promote affiliate products you truly believe in. You'll lose your audience if you promote non-quality items just to make a buck.
  
• Create interesting text links for your affiliate products to pique readers' interest and increase their likelihood of clicking you link.
  

Do you include affiliate advertisements on your blogs, websites or articles? Are you pleased with the results?

Amazon Affiliate Earnings Higher this Month

My Amazon affiliate earnings are not generally very high--usually about $25-$35 in a given month. Since the recent economic turmoil, they've been on the low side. However, my Hub Pages article on Economic Collapse and my eHow article on Total Economic Collapse have generated dozens of Amazon book sales in the last few days, bringing my monthly Amazon affiliate earnings to over $53 so far. And what are the hottest sellers? Four copies of The Great Bust Ahead, three copies of Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook, and two each of Crash Proof, among several others that sold multiple copies. Someone also bought a fishing tackle set and rechargeable batteries, and another customer chose a $50 Swiss Army pocketknife.

The book topics reveal why I've seen such a jump in sales--the relevant, timely topics pertaining to the economic uncertainty facing the United States and the world.

This sudden jump in Amazon earnings shows that relevant affiliate links in timely content can increase your revenue as a writer and provide your readers with further resources on the topic they are researching--a true win-win situation. While I am sure the economic downturn and financial woes will have a negative impact on over all retail sales, certain niches will still see growth. Market those as you continue to offer your readers quality, relevant content.

Free Affiliate Masters eBook Giveaway

Are you interested in affiliate marketing as a way to increase your online income? Would you like to build a passive income stream by selling other people's products online?

Affiliate sales have boosted my residual income over the past few months as people click my Amazon, Implix and Site Build It links and make purchases. I posted some of these links almost a year ago, and many more recently, but am always pleasantly surprised when a sale is made.

I am currently reading the Affiliate Masters Course, which I received as a SiteBuildIt owner. Would you like to have a copy? This eBook is really an eCourse, as it is over 100 pages long (but an easy read with lots of space and pictures!) chock full of helpful information.

Sinply drop me a note at eireitaliaATgmail.com and I will email you your copy.

I'll also post when I am finished reading the book and let you know my thoughts and the highlights.

Quick Note -- Coupon Contest

The Bargain babe is holding a coupon contest over at her Bargain Bin blog ... just leave a comment on the post to enter. Let her know Maria sent you.

If you're looking for a reliable source for clipped coupons, check out the Coupon Clippers. They have a great selection and cheap prices. Also, if you have a blog, become a Coupon Clippers affiliate and earn commissions for referring people to the site.

Happy shopping ... and winning!