My Affiliate Plans
Posted by: WordVixen in blog response, business, freelance, promotionA few days ago Courtney at Web Writing Info posted about low wages for articles and how they’re being profited on. Near the end of the article she says:
What I’d really like to see is writers take these ideas and
do it themselves. After all, the most important part of these sites is the
content.
(That is a very, very brief excerpt- go read the whole post if you haven’t already), I couldn’t hold it in. I burst out in the comments with my own plans for doing just that.
Actually, I withheld quite a bit since I’m really quite verbose when not self-editing.
Anyway, thanks to the encouragement of Hope, Courtney (link above), and Alex, as well as the extreme exhuberance of CJ, Tracy, and their parents for me building a craft website, I’ve decided to expand.
Nothing is up yet, but I’ve been setting up templates for AffLove complete with niche directories. Yeah, not the domain I wanted, but everything seemed to be taken.
Anyway- the reasons for doing this are many. As Courtney said- marketers are paying obscenely low wages for articles, throwing said articles up on a few websites, and either collecting affiliate money or flipping the sites. While I have every intention of becoming a successful novelist, I’m also working towards becoming a web content freelancer. But if the marketers are taking my words and making money off of it, why can’t I do the same thing for myself?
So here are the reasons I’m starting an affiliate site.
- I get the income. I’m not making a few bucks so someone else can rake in the bucks on the same words.
- I’m not a freelancer yet. Sure I’ve had a client, and I review for TitleTrakk. But I still need to build my skills. By doing the same work I’d do for someone else, I’ll be building those skills on my own dime and not having to worry about being rated on my early work.
- It’s a showcase for those newly earned skills. Potential clients may find me by my affiliate site, and I can use said site as a sample for potential clients.
- It’s PLR fodder. I’d like to get into writing PLR. As I research the articles/posts for my site, I can turn around and use the same research to build PLR packages.
- Similar to #1, it’s passive income. That’s something that I really want. Once each niche is fleshed out enough to be attractive to search engines, I can add to it as I choose instead of busting my butt to keep it going.
- I still have a day job. If it fails, it’s just a lesson learned. A loss of time and a little money. If I wait till I’m already a freelancer, I’d be taking a much bigger chance. I’ve got my cushion, so why not use it?
Of course, it’ll take time to get it all off the ground- especially since I’m writing it all myself rather than… ahem, outsourcing. Though I do plan to buy some PLR and rewrite that as well since that’s another good sample to have. Besides, I wanted to buy some to see how it should be formatted and delivered; why not use it?
So, those are the basics. Hopefully I’ll have a brain this weekend and will be able to format the craft site the way I want it and get some basics down for the affiliate site. Anyone have recommendations for affiliates other than ClickBand/Commission Junction/Adsense/Amazon/Ebay?
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One of the things I love about reading your blog is watching how you’re dealing with the business of becoming a writer. You’re not one of those “I will finish this novel and be RICH and buy a castle in Scotland!” writers. It’s quite refreshing, really. Good luck with your newest venture.
Good luck with all of this! I’d love to pursue freelance work more, but it seems that you have to deal with so much business crap that the writing kinda falls to the side. Hopefully that won’t happen to you.
Grace- *gasp* How did you know my secret plan?
Actually, I would looove a castle in Scotland- but even if I magically became that rich, hubby wouldn’t go with me.
Hehehe… actually, I think all of the writing blogs that I read have either a common sense or defeatist attitude towards their writing and potential income. It’s one of the reasons I read blogs instead of forums- idiots annoy me.
Wolf- Thanks! I’m hoping it works out well, but I feel bad because I hardly do anything with my family or in-laws anymore. But I figure, if it works, then I’ll have more time to spend with them later.
I actually like the business end. The only parts I don’t like are dealing with customers (too much time spent as a customer service rep) and the taxes (I just don’t understand them). I have too much common sense to be an artist, and I’m too flighty to be a real career girl- so I think freelance is all that’s left for me.
We also use Linkshare on TitleTrakk.com. And it seems some individual products have their own affiliate programs, such as Writer’s Digest magazine. Also, a writing friend of mine, Terry Whalin, has his own Affiliate program here for various e-books he’s written. And you get 50% of commissions, so that’s a pretty good deal … thought it’s a specialized market.
I’ll have to check out Linkshare. I knew there was more than Kontera out there, but I didn’t know what they were called to research them.
I didn’t know Writer’s Digest had an affiliate program! I’m so there.
Thing is, I don’t know if I’ll be starting a writing site or not. I’ve considered profiling various writing sites and blogs as well as books and podcasts. But I figured I’d probably do that here. I have been wanting to join Holly Lisle’s affiliate program though, since I want most of her e-books myself.
Yeah, and The Writer does, too. But theirs is through Linkshare, I think. Under Kalmbach publishing. Plus they have a bunch of craft magazines too.
CJ- This is sounding better and better. Craft magazines? Those are big sellers!
No, wait! It’s through Commission Junction. Got confused there for a minute. Going to check which craft magazines … Okya, I’m back. “Art Jewelry Magazine”, “Birder’s”, “Bead & Button”, “Model Railroader”, and more. Hey, these look like mags YOU’d love to read!
Oh yeah! I’ve been searching through Commission Junction every day looking for products to profile. There’s so much to go through!
The only thing I don’t like is how many companies want to manually approve you first, so you have to plan ahead.
Hm.. Model Railroader just sounds so me, doesn’t it? :-p
Okay, okay, smarty pants. I meant the OTHER ones!
both Kontera and Infolinks are great programs that can monetize your website, i earn much better on Infolinks ,:,