How One Blogger Makes $50K a Month Through Affiliate Marketing

Blogger Makes 50K Affiliate Income - picture of young woman at laptop

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Hey party people! Are you ready to make some money? Then we’ve got just the ticket!

As professional bloggers, we’re asked all the time how we make money. While our blog started out as a hobby, this year we’ll make over $250,000 online! It’s hard to believe that it’s happened for us, but it’s true. And one of our sources of income is through affiliate marketing.

So, what the heck is affiliate marketing?

Basically, affiliate marketing is promoting products that other people create. As an affiliate, we earn a small commission when people buy those products using our marketing links. It’s a win-win-win! The consumer gets a great product, the creator sells more stuff, and a we’re able to help our readers plus make a little cash for doing it. And once you learn how to do it, blogging can become one of the best work-at-home jobs around!

To explain how affiliate marketing can work for you, we’ve interviewed our good friend Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. Michelle has turned her blog into a money making machine, bringing in more than $50,000 a month through her affiliate marketing efforts. (Yes, that’s per month!) She’s also created a great affiliate marketing course which I recently completed. There’s a ton of good stuff in there for both new and experienced bloggers.

Of course, you can use our affiliate link to learn more about the “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing” course here!

Enjoy!

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

1. Your blog is making more than $50,000 per month with affiliate marketing. How long did it take you to get to this point?

I started promoting products on my blog and being an affiliate around 2 years ago, but I didn’t really focus a lot of time on it until around one year ago. Before, I was doing it all wrong and thought that slapping affiliate links was all that I had to do. Due to that, I probably only spent a few minutes each month on affiliate marketing. That was a huge mistake!

I decided to look into affiliate marketing more extensively a little over one year ago. I had always skipped over it, because I thought my blog was too small to make any real money from affiliate marketing. Plus, I just didn’t think it was possible to earn a living from affiliate marketing.

Then, I started applying different affiliate marketing strategies to my blog, and they were working. I saw my blogging income increase dramatically every single month.

Now, I have my affiliate marketing strategy fine tuned and it runs very smoothly. It’s a great source of relatively passive income. Even though my affiliate income is increasing, I’m actually spending minimal time on it!

2. Do you believe anyone with a website and passion for success can see the same type of results?

Yes, I do think it’s possible. I have one-on-one coached a few bloggers on their affiliate marketing strategy, and every single one of those bloggers are now very successful affiliate marketers. With all of them, I mainly just gave them a few actionable tips, and they were able to use those to significantly increase their affiliate income.

I now have a whole course dedicated to helping people increase their affiliate income, so I think this will help bloggers improve even further!

Here’s a testimonial from one of my coaching clients:

“Michelle is unbelievable. I had a decent amount of traffic, but struggled with using affiliates wisely. I used to get really overwhelmed with affiliates and would be disappointed when I didn’t see results from the enormous amount of effort I was putting into it. Michelle was able to quickly identify what needed to be changed and within one month, my income rose 40% and has since quadrupled only 4 months after working with her! My income was $6,469.50 before I talked to Michelle, immediately jumped to $9,362.64 the next month and is now $24,680.25 (four months later) and climbing! Michelle is my go-to person for step by step affiliate income strategy.” – Rosemarie Groner, Budget Guru, The Busy Budgeter

3. What are the three most important things people will learn in your affiliate course? Why are these lessons the most important?

I think the top three most important things people will learn include:

  1. How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing (yes, this includes the newest Pinterest affiliate rules!). I believe Pinterest is extremely important when it comes to affiliate marketing success. Due to this, I have included two very detailed lessons on Pinterest, one that is all about promoting your affiliate products and blog on Pinterest, and another that teaches you exactly how to increase your Pinterest traffic. Pinterest users LOVE to buy products, so affiliate marketing is the perfect fit for this social media platform.
  2. Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products. Affiliate marketing is not as easy as just slapping affiliate links on your website and calling it a day. There are many different ways to promote an affiliate product, and I recommend learning about all of them and applying as many as you can to your affiliate marketing strategy.
  3. How to build trust and not lose followers. In hopes of earning more money, too many new affiliate marketers just sign up for anything and everything when it comes to affiliate marketing. You should only promote products that you have experience with, that you personally trust and believe in, and/or that you have had a positive experience with.

Join the “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing” Course Now! Click Here to Get Started.

4. Why does affiliate marketing seem so confusing to people? Why do people struggle to implement their own affiliate strategies?

Many bloggers and online influencers skip over affiliate marketing. They either think it’s too hard, that it’s a waste of time, that they will turn followers away, or that their followers just won’t be interested.

Or, others just think that it’s as easy as slapping affiliate links on their website and that they are done. Then, when that doesn’t work, they just don’t think it’s possible for them.

I earn over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing, and I’m sharing all of my best tips in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. I did the hard part and personally tested all of my methods, so I know they work. Now, all you have to do is apply them to your website!

5. What advice do you have for someone who really wants to earn money online but doesn’t know where to start?

michelle gardner 2My top tip would be to do as much research as you can. The internet is full of helpful articles that will help you determine which route to take. If you’re interested in blogging, I do have a free How To Start A Blog course that will help you start and launch a blog successfully.

6. Are there any steps someone should take before they sign up for your program? How can people prepare?

Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a great learning tool, even if you are a brand new blogger. By taking this course, you will start off blogging the correct way. You can learn from my affiliate marketing mistakes and learn the best ways to start making an income by being an affiliate. Through taking this course you are sure to grow a profitable blog quicker than the average blogger, as you’ll learn exactly what you need to know about affiliate marketing. So, even if you only have one blog post, you are ready to get started with this course!

Due to the above, as long as you have a blog, social media accounts, an email list, or some other type of following, you are already ready to start this course. If you don’t have any of those, though, then you can start off with my free How To Start A Blog course that I mentioned above.

Related: How to Start a Blog in 6 Easy Steps

7. Do you have any parting thoughts for people who want to recreate the type of success you have had?

Yes, definitely!

If you want to be successful with affiliate marketing, you really need to put some time into it, especially in the beginning.

I recommend making sure that everything you are promoting is relevant to your audience, because if it’s not relevant, then it will be quite hard to successfully promote something to your audience. So many people just try to copy what other successful affiliate marketers do, and that won’t always work!

Instead, learn as much as you can about your audience, build trust with them, and only promote products that you truly believe in.

My course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, is for you if:

  • You want to have a profitable blog.
  • You want to improve your blogging income even further.
  • You want to earn income while you sleep.
  • You want to write a blog post and earn money from it for years down the line, with minimal work needed.
  • You tried affiliate marketing but haven’t had any luck.
  • You want to spend more time with your loved ones and have a better work-life balance.
  • You love blogging and want to be able to grow your blog, build trust with your audience, and help more people!

In this course there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, several worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful and exclusive Facebook group, and more. I go through everything that you need to know about affiliate marketing, and more!

Wrapping Up

If you want to make more money from your blog, affiliate marketing is key to your future success! But, great affiliate marketers aren’t just born. There are specific techniques that you need to follow in order for it to work for you. Michelle has done a great job of laying it all out for you, in an easy to follow, step-by-step format. Whether your new to blogging or have been doing it for years, it’s definitely worth checking out her “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing” course. Follow the link below for more details!

Don’t Forget: Get $28 OFF “Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing” through Sunday, Feb. 19th! Use the code 28FEBDISCOUNT at checkout. Join the course here!

 

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34 Comments

  1. Wow congrats to you both for such successful blogging ventures. I agree that it is important to do research and learning to blog the right way from the start will be a blessing to anyone who wants to monetize their blog from the get-go. I’m always inspired by Greg and Holly and Michelle with the efforts they put into something that started out as just a hobby. Well done.

  2. I can’t wait to take Michelle’s course! So inspired by her success. Ramping up my affiliate marketing is one of my big blogging goals after FinCon.

  3. So impressed by Michelle’s blog and the sharing of her strategies. She is incredibly helpful and I appreciate her transparency as well. I haven’t ventured into this area at all. I just don’t have the comfort level yet. I also see how well Greg and Holly have done too and how engaged they are (and Michelle too) with all of us! It’s terrific!

    1. Hey Vicki! Thanks for the kind words. We love Michelle too, and this course actually sounds like it could be a perfect fit for you. One of our regrets is that we didn’t start hitting affiliate marketing earlier. Michelle’s course is a great primer for newbies and packed with powerful tips for experienced bloggers as well.

  4. Thanks for the interactive look at Michelle’s course, Holly and Greg. I plan to take it sometime next month, and I am sure I will learn a lot as a result.

  5. Great Q and A about affiliate marketing. It definitely seems to be the main source of blogging income that everyone needs to tap into.

    Being in Australia and targeting an Australian audience, I wonder how achievable such success with affiliates would be – we have much fewer companies catching onto the idea so far. Looking more into affiliates is constantly on our “to do” list though, this was a great motivating article to spark us back to looking at it again.

    Jasmin

    1. If you want to make money directly from your blog, affiliate marketing is definitely something to consider. Even if you can only get Amazon.com links in Australia, I’d try it out.

      1. Thanks for the suggestion of Amazon links, Greg. Will definitely look into it, considering we get a decent amount of USA traffic too.

        Jasmin

    2. I have been thinking along similar lines – and the NZ market is even smaller than Australia. That said NZ traffic doesn’t make up the majority of my traffic.

      I probably need to think more deeply about what kind of products would be a good fit considering my blog is very personal, and the geography factor as well.

      1. Thankfully your name does attract any NZers that might see you around, I was even drawn in by the fact that you’re from NZ, seeing as Aus and NZ share a lot of similar customs.

        The fine-line between the deeply personal blogging and “selling out”, I’ll be watching along to see how you incorporate affiliates for sure.

        Jasmin

      2. Yeah, to be a success with affiliate marketing, you really need to figure out what fits with your audience. You’ll sell more, plus it helps build trust.

  6. It’s so motivating to see other bloggers becoming so successful. I have dabbled in affiliate marketing, but know that I’m not maximizing it’s potential. Would like to take Michelle’s course this fall (after school starts!) – is it only offered for a limited time?

    1. The course will always be offered 🙂 Price will be going up as I add video content and more lectures, though.

    2. You’ll definitely learn a lot. Obviously, there is no guarantee for results, but you’ll be ahead of the game after taking the course.

  7. Love this interview as I am currently taking the course and it is great! I have not completed it as life is currently in the way but it will certainly help many other bloggers so glad to see you are using it and sharing it.
    Affiliate marketing can be hard especially when you now start out but hopefully through her course we can all make a decent living off it!

    1. Thanks Stefan! Making money online is definitely not easy. If it were, everybody would do it. But, with the right methods and work ethic, you can have success.

  8. I can’t wait to see how this course will add to Michelle’s already impressive income. You both are rocking it in the affiliate marketing and blogging sphere. Thanks for sharing!

  9. I’m absolutely loving Michelle’s course. I’m trying to digest it in bite sized pieces so I don’t miss a thing because I want to put my reader’s interests first, so doing it right from the start is incredibly important.

    1. Heck yeah it is. If you can start out doing the right things, you’ll be in far better shape later on.

  10. Wow, that’s the power of affiliates alright. Like Jasmin said, more than half our audience is Australian so I hope that a number of affiliates become available to us (at the moment, Amazon does not have an Australian site). We’ve found a couple of good options for us so far, hopefully our readers enjoy the affiliate products as much as we do.

    Congrats on creating awesome revenue and opportunities for you both!

    Tristan

  11. Good @ My Way of Viewing says:

    Greg, thanks for posting such constructive article, I have just one small question for you, if I create a site on Financial topic then which subject of Finance will be most profitable one and will Facebook Advert program will generate more leads or it will be other platforms like Google Adsense, please help me. Thank you.

    1. That’s hard to say. Write about what you enjoy and know, build a following, and the money will eventually come. I’ve seen people have success with both Google Ads and Facebook Ads. I’ve also seen people have success without advertising at all. It all comes down to building an audience.

  12. Greg, this was a really informative post and so impressive to learn of Michelle’s success! I only starting blogging a few weeks ago and have not hit the affiliate marketing too hard yet.

    It’s on my loooong list of things to look into!

    Congrats on the success you and your family have had with this site, it’s really nice!

    1. Thanks so much Jon! I hear you with the long list. Trust me, it doesn’t get any shorter as you gain more experience! 🙂

  13. These results are awesome. Thanks for sharing her ideas on your site. Very valuable post.

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