Affiliate Programs: Blogger Hoodwink or Viable Earning Option?
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There’s two times when, as a blogger, you’ll be offered a spot in someone’s affiliate program: If you are a reviewer of their products, or, if they’re just trying to get free advertising from you.
I’m betting a number of you are going to think that the second reason sounds pretty harsh, right? I’ll share my opinion on this and ask other experienced review bloggers to chime in with comments.
Yes, I do belong to a few affiliate programs but only for places that I review for (or once reviewed for). The only one that makes me any amount of money worth mentioning is from EdenFantasys, and that’s primarily because I review the most often for them (plus, personal feelings from anyone aside, you have to admit that they walk the line between overstocking worthless crap like Sextoy . com and not carrying many options like VibeReview . com, all while offering pretty decent prices. Options + prices + lack of total sleaze = most like to be bought from). By actively reviewing for a company I am an affiliate of, I’m putting my affiliate links “out there” in numerous posts. I might make the occasional (VERY occasional) sale with places I reviewed for years ago but kept my affiliate account (VibeReview, Babeland) but it’s rare.
I once belonged to an affiliate program that I was NOT a reviewer for and I only did it because I already genuinely liked the site – Kink.com. I had a rotating banner widget to show their various sites to appeal to various readers, I occasionally wrote about them (ok, twice) but never once did I make an affiliate sale.
So try to imagine the star-aligning moment that would have to occur for you to make any sales on an affiliate program that merely resides as a banner in your sidebar. A reader would have to notice it, and then click on it, and then purchase something from the click from your site. I touched on this topic briefly when I wrote up the Basics of Paid Advertising on the Sex Blogger Education section of e[lust], but given the deluge of affiliate program offers that I (and undoubtedly many other bloggers like me) have received in the last month I just had to write more about this.
Bottom Line:
Their numbers might sound dazzling. 10-20% of every sale? A percentage of those affiliates who sign up under me?? Free to join??? (wait, this smells a little like an MLM scheme, or is that just me?) But trust me on this: They’re going to get a lot more from this largely-one-sided relationship than you are just in free advertising alone. They want their name out there in Google land, that’s what it boils down to, and they don’t want to pay for it.
You’re worth more than a one-sided relationship that just uses your good heart and lies to you, aren’t you?
Added 7-11-11: A special caution regarding International companies:
I’m prompted to add this because of an email I received today from a retailer and a follow-up question from another blogger who received a email from the same retailer. I strongly caution against joining an affiliate program when they are based in another country than you, unless you know that most of your readers are from that other country. If you’re a US-based blogger, most of your traffic is also probably US visitors. If I look at my primary stat counter site, it tells me that 52% of my visitors are from the US, 24% are “unknown”, and only 5% are from the UK. My secondary stat site (which doesn’t log as many visitors as the first, 5000 vs 500, respectively) says that 60% of my visitors are from the US and 16% are from the UK. The second site tends to do a little better capturing IP-location data than the first.
So unless you are actively reviewing for a company that is not in your own country, odds are that you won’t ever make much by just being in their affiliate program. And even if you did review for them, you’d have to be really good at SEO tactics to get in UK dwellers to read your review and purchase from your affiliate links.
So yet again…..it’s free advertising for them.
I regularly (almost monthly) get affiliate checks from BDSM-Gear.com ($50 min), stockroom.com ($50 min), extremerestraints.com($100 min) and amazon.com ($30 min). They are just banners on my site. I don’t tend to promote the products in posts. I do however read books and use the amazon links for that but, and I realize this is your rant, some blogs do just fine with affiliate banners than others.
Now, sure the ones who come to you and beg you to be an affiliate in your email are unlikely to net you any income and that’s what your rant boils down to. There is still a decent market for affiliate ads if you find the ones that work for your site.
~ You’re right, your experiences are what I consider the exception AND are not the type I’m writing about. Fuck though, go you!!! Those are awesome numbers. But you are going to get those numbers because submissiveguide.com is a site. Probably a pretty popular site, especially to search engines. I’m referring to bloggers. Those of us whose writing might not be so…..specialized? Is that the word I’m looking for? Might not do nearly as well. You’ve chosen affiliate programs and sites that are both high quality sites AND directly appeal to your audience. In that regard you have a huge advantage over us blogger-types. I think my primary point here is making the distinction between a SITE and a BLOG. It’s a whole different ballgame, in many ways.
Babeland is the one affiliate program I consistently earn money from – I link to them the most because I’ve long liked the store. I’ve gotten some money from sextoy.com (not lately and they’ve discontinued their reviewer program) and ages ago from liberator.com. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a check from the rest of the affiliates in my sidebar.
I’m going to think about your points here and decide if keeping the non-earners on my blog is worth it. I only just added nofauxxx.com and queerporn.tv, but having gotten a free month from them to write a review, I’m not going to take them down just yet. I figure with the places I get stuff for review from we’re both getting something out of it.
So far, EF is the only affiliate I’ve earned any money from. I might consider trimming mine down sometime or changing them up so better fit my needs…we’ll see.
I earn the most from EF. This is probably because I actually order nearly all my stuff from EF with gift cards earned from posting videos and/or the reward points program. Babeland is a distant second, and I so far haven’t met the minimum payout level for my Good Vibes sales.
I make money from a variety of affiliate programs, but only because I link to them and make a point of doing so. I agree with you that inviting people to some random-ass affiliate program is sleazy. If I don’t review for them, it is almost always NOT WORTH IT.
I would argue that joining affiliate programs even for some of the sites I review for isn’t worth it. Some of them make it so difficult to create/use links that I don’t even if I do review for them. =/ I was really big on joining all sorts of affiliate programs at one time but rarely do so anymore.