Sure-Fire Way To Monetize Your Web 2.0 WordPress Blog And Be Proud Of It
So you got your very own Web 2.0 blog, you riding the wave, you ARE feeling good about yourself … and rightfully so! You have every reason to be proud of your creation, whether you build it using [tag-tec]Wordpress[/tag-tec] or any other platform. You have meticulously taken care of all design issues creating look and feel that makes people “WOW”, you got all the plugins that create an ultimate interactive platform for your visitors, you have wrote articles that generates traffic comparable to a tidal wave …
And Now What? Don’t you feel you deserve to get paid for your efforts? I sure hope so or you better stop reading this How To right now! But How do you get it done and not compromise integrity of your creation? Well, strap-on to your seat and get ready for one very profitable ride!
Being a webmaster since 1997 I have had to analyze quite a few weblogs and I feel I’m in very good position to state a simple fact – contextual links get quite a bit higher CTR then any advertisement you will be able to place on your blog! I’m not trying to bash any add network and if done properly AdSense and Yahoo ads (or any other similar service) have their own place on your [tag-tec]blog[/tag-tec], as long as they blend naturally and don’t overwhelm your visitors or what is even worth — create a look most often seen on splogs. You have put so much effort into your [tag-tec]web-20[/tag-tec] blog – why spoil it now?
And guess what, if you have build your web 2.0 blog based on WordPress – you have an excellent opportunity to monetize on your superb content and provide links to related services your visitors will be grateful. Better yet, you get paid a lot higher commissions while doing it.
If you have followed guidelines I have outlined on my pages to build [tag-tec]web 2.0[/tag-tec] blog using WordPress you have already installed aLinks plugin. It is one plugin no WordPress based blog should be without as it allows you to simply specify keyword or keyphrase, link it once through control panel to a related product and start earning either 50-75% from [tag-tec]ClickBank[/tag-tec] product or 4-8% from Amazon, options to integrate eBay is also available along with a few others, which I will not discuss here. Once all installed, configured and keywords specified – your affiliate links will be auto-inserted into all content of your blog.
- If you haven’t installed it yet, proceed to aLinks home page and download main plugin. Install and configure it according to your preferences and instructions provided on author’s site.
- Proceed to aLinks modules download page and download “Amazon Basic” and “ClickBank” modules. Install them using admin interface for aLinks plugin inside your blog admin panel.
I will not cover installation and configuration of plugin and modules as it is done very well on author’s site. Instead I will finally move into way to monetize you web 2.0 blog.
ClickBank products related to your niche. With commissions as high as 75% on some products it is my number one choice for monetizing context links. Proceed to ClickBank marketplace and choose category and sub-category most closely related to your niche. Search using exact same keywords from your content you are planning to monetize on and choose most popular product that is most closely matches your content. I personally prefer to choose product with a gravity of at least 50.
Lets have a look at live example, assuming I need a well paying and converting product for a keyword “[tag-tec]AdSense[/tag-tec]”
- Choose create hoplink and input your CB nick into form popup. Choose submit and you will get a link that looks something like this: http://freesecret.bryxen4.hop.clickbank.net/. You will need to copy second part of the link “bryxen4”, as you will use it in your aLinks plugin.
- You will also need a phrase for product description to be used in plugin; it will be shown to visitor when they hover mouse over that link. I have underlined it in picture above.
- Now, I assume you have already configured your aLinks plugin in admin interface and already provided your ClickBank ID in “aLinks –> Settings”. Now in your blog admin interface proceed to “aLinks –> Keyphrases”, scroll down to the very bottom until you reach ClickBank option. Fill in information we got from ClickBank, see example below:
- Click Update Keyphrase and BINGO! Anytime you have a word AdSense in your article it will be replaced with your affiliate link to ClickBank product you have chosen. Easy money.
You can proceed to do same thing for Amazon module but you will need to provide product details there and I’m not going into those details. Also affiliate commissions are a lot lower there, so I only recommend using it if no ClickBank product can be found for your niche.
Couple thing to keep in mind:
- Don’t create a hyperlink for every word in your article – your blog will look spamy, the very thing we tried to avoid.
- If your keyword found more then once in article – only first one will be turned into affiliate link, so perhaps creating a couple different products for exact same keyword is a good idea if there are products to meet this demand. This works especially well if the keyword is one of your main for the blog as a whole.
- Don’t provide links to poor product. Do yourself a favor – don’t waste your advertising efforts on product that has low gravity, unless it’s a new product.
And last but not least – a bonus tip: if you have a product or service you are offering on separate site – use General Keyphrases option to link keyword directly to your own site! Not only will you increase your other site popularity but also get paid 100% from sales.
Enjoy and please do let me know what you think about this article.
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About The Blog Author
Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook
Thanks for sharing it. Just a concern/question..!
If we link click bank’s ebook, while your readers are returning/loyal — that means we are recommending them by linking the ebooks? And if that ebook has credibility issues (we can’t research about every ebook before linking it) then should not it effect your readers confidence over your blog, if that ebook turn out to be a crap?
Sure, we can’t control with adsense Ads, but it clearly explain those are Ads, linking within my content means my recommendation….
azs last blog post..Work at home or Work from home – A Myth or Reality
I love Adsense for monetizing sites….espicially when that is your plan from the start. I haven’t ever had any luck with click bank though, although I have never really pushed products outrigght, just tried adding them as post sponsors etc…but it didn’t work. You need to right sort of traffic affiliate marketing….moslty Search traffic I would think.
This is a cool plugin and fantastic way to monetize our blogs. Thanks Spoter for the heads up, will definitely look into it.
Gauravs last blog post..Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Instead of aLinks i use a wp plugin called Link A Dink, i believe it serves pretty much the same purpose.
I have had some sales with Clickbank in the past on some of my blogs, i need to revisit them again. Thx for the reminder and tips!
Missys last blog post..Joe The Plumber: Logo For The iPhone
Seems like the site to download alinks is down? I found an alternate site, but wanted to grab some modules that weren’t there.
Any other sites anyone knows to download this? Searching now, but having probs finding…
Mike,
email me directly – I can share what I have. I don’;t use his 2.* version – I prefer the older plugin that has CB functionality and one that is described on this page. Use contact me form on this blog and I’ll reply with what I have.
Hmm, are you using a 1.x version on a 2.x blog? Might have to try that and see if it performs better!
Blake – I do use 1.* version. I didn't like his latest release.
Hi Alex. Thanks for the great info.
Headzoo site is down but i got the plugin here http://wordpress.org/support/topic/164768.
I searched for the modules but to no avail especially the clickbank and amazon modules. Can you help me with what you’ve got? the modules? i will highly appreciate. Thanks.
Jerry,
Email me using contact form please
Worth noting that if you have a high traffic WP installation, alinks will crash the heck out of it. It’s just too server intensive to scale, at all. Very sad because this plugin is otherwise invaluable.
Nice plugin, Alex …
)
(not quite understand but maybe I’ll give it a try someday..
Hi Alex,
Thanks for your tutorial post. I’ve been around to download this plugin since the plugin-author’s site seems to down.
Can you give some links I can follow to download it?
Many thanks.
abbies last blog post..Antara SEO, Comment dan Body yang Seksi
Hi, Alex!
Clickbank has just introduced new hoplinks. Will alinks plugin work with them? If not, do you know of any similar plugin that would work?
Thanks for great info!
Mary
Marys last blog post..How to Find Your Perfect Automated Forex System
Hi Alex,
Went to aLink and downloaded it, but as I found out reading your blog the Clickbank module is no longer there. Is it still possible to get that from you?
Thanks in advance.
David
P.S. Like the information you provide. Glad I joined both programs…
David,
That plugin is way too dated. I don't recommend to use it anymore.
One thing that really caught my attention about your post was the title – how to advertise on one’s blog but also to be proud of one’s blog when doing so.
While it would be easy to slap up ads all over the place, this would just make things look like a classified site. Contextual linking can be a more subtle way of doing things. Although frankly I find the kontera style links (with the double green underlining floating windows) a real pain, as sometimes the floating windows obscure the text I am trying to read.
Tom recently posted..The Top 10 Article Directories – Part 3 – A Detailed Look
Tom, yeah, I agree kontera style ads are quite annoying