Affiliate Ads For Website Revenue

Background

In the past, I was an account manager for an e-commerce company that provided affiliate links to travel organizations and other websites as a means for them to earn commission, as well as track important travel data. I had been on the business side on affiliate marketing (over 6 years) and now I'm an affiliate for multiple affiliate marketing companies and I'll share insight without exposing corporate confidential information. In the past, I had reviewed hundreds of websites and offered tips to help optimize other organizations' websites, which helped them earn them more revenue. Now, I've utilized these very tips for myself for my own websites and have learned some more tips along the way.

Affiliate Marketing & Social Media

Before I jump into a list of ads and affiliate programs that you can start partnering up with to earn money from your website, I want to touch upon affiliate marketing on social media. Certain affiliate partnerships won't allow you to link their affiliate link to a social media page of your website. It could even lead to termination if they discovered that you've been doing it. Therefore, it's imperative that you read the terms and conditions of every affiliate partnership you'd like join up with to avoid breaking the rules. 

On a positive note, you can currently post Amazon affiliate links to your associated social media pages that are tied with your domain for facebook, Pinterest and Instagram (in main bio section). You would need to add the domain or URL of your facebook page, Pinterest profile and Instagram profile under Account Settings of your Amazon Affiliate account. These rules can change at anytime so do check with any affiliate partnership before you plan on posting them. 

FTC Guidelines

As an affiliate marketer and website owner, you should always disclose your parternships if you're getting a free product, commission or sponsorship of any kind for any of the products you are promoting on your website or social media pages. Here are the current Federal Trade Commission Guidelines for disclosures for social media.

Note: my links to resources and deals may allow me to earn a commission from each sale.

LIst of Affiliate ADS & Ad Networks

There are many ad networks and affiliate marketing companies that you can partner up with to earn revenue from your website. There is a definite positive correlation between the amount of traffic your website gets and the revenue you can earn. 

Some affiliate programs are more strict than others. I've encountered one where you have to have an SSL cert for your website in order to run their ads. (See my blog post about whether a website or blog needs an SSL certificate or not.) Many affiliate programs will also ask for stats of your website in order to validate whether you would be a good and lucrative partner to them. It costs money on the business side to run affiliate companies which include labor, resources, and time. It makes sense that some of these agencies would need to analyze your website first. 

However, there is a list of ad-earning revenue you could start with before you get more traffic. Here's a list of companies that you could start working with or create an account for:
  1. Google Adsense - I add Google ads from Google adsense almost immediately after I have completed the content and building of my websites.
  2. Commission Junction - They will ask you for your website URL when you apply online and you'll have to manually apply to individual businesses after you have a log-in. You may get approved or declined, depending on the business you're interested in working with in their network.
  3. Amazon Affiliate - Amazon has been growing so much and I'm going to guess that almost everyone you know has Amazon Prime. Including relevant products from Amazon on your website is a great and easy way to earn revenue. You get a commission when someone clicks on your Amazon affiliate link from your website and buys a product.
  4. eBay Partners - There was a time when eBay was bigger than Amazon and I don't doubt that they can make a big comeback again. They have still maintained a strong merchant website so don't forget to include them in your list of ad earning options. Their affiliate tools may be outdated but they have unique products that can't be found anywhere else
  5. Shareasale.com - Similar to Commission Junction, you'd sign up for a log-in and then you would need to manually apply to work with merchants you're interested in working with. The approval process could be long (depending on the merchant) and you may get declined, depending on their criteria. However, there are also many companies who are eager to find affiliates who are interested in working with them right away to generate more sales. Therefore, it could be a quick sign-up process as well.