Affiliate programs: An affiliate program is a marketing arrangement where an individual or website (the “affiliate”) earns a commission by promoting another company’s products or services. The affiliate earns a percentage of each sale made through their unique affiliate link, effectively outsourcing sales efforts
Years ago, when I first started blogging regularly, I jumped at the idea of signing up for affiliate programs.
The general concept is this: You enroll or set up an an affiliate account with an online retailer, provide links to products on your blog (or whatever platform you use for sharing content), and when someone clicks through from your link and makes a purchase, you make a certain percentage of the price as a commission.
Ah yes, the illusive idea of actually earning a bit of money through blogging. Ha.
I enrolled in Amazon’s affiliate program, as well as Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and (the dearly departed) Book Depository. Amazon dropped me because I failed to meet their quota, which was something like three purchases via affiliate links in the first three months. (I had zero). In all, I made a whopping $0.80 through my various affiliate accounts!
Woo hoo! Eighty cents! I’m rich!
After keeping the other non-Amazon programs going for a bit, I dropped the idea entirely and stopped including purchase links in my posts. But lately, I’ve been toying with the idea again. If people are stopping by my blog to check out my reviews or other book-related posts, and want to go from there to a purchasing site to buy one of the books I mentioned, why not try to get a teeny bit of a benefit out of it?
So, a couple of weeks ago, I signed up once again for the Amazon affiliate program, reactivated my Bookshop.org account as well, and have started including purchase links at the end of my book review posts.
I’m on the fence about it all. I don’t actually think I get enough traffic to make the links worthwhile, especially since most of the people I engage with are also book bloggers — so why would they use my links when they probably (maybe) have links through their own blogs?
And let’s be clear, I by no means consider myself (or would ever want to be) an influencer! I’m just a reader, who loves books, and likes to chat with other people who love books too.
My point in all of this is to put some questions out there to my fellow book bloggers:
- Do you participate in any affiliate programs?
- If so, which ones? Are there any you find especially worthwhile?
- Have you actually earned anything through affiliate programs?
- If you’re not in an affiliate program, have you considered it?
I’m interested in hearing about other people’s experiences, as I debate whether to bother with it all. I’m guessing that without a lot more effort than I’m willing or interested in investing, my connection to affiliate programs will go nowhere. I’m curious to hear whether anyone else has actually seen their links pay off in any sort of way.
The topic of monetizing blogging comes up quite a bit in the blogosphere, and in general, it’s never been of interest to me. As I’ve said in so many different contexts, I blog because it’s fun and I enjoy it. It’s not a job, it’s not an obligation, and I don’t expect to make a dime from it. This is why I’m so on the fence about affiliate programs: Sure, it’d be nice to get a few dollars back from time to time (which would go right back into buying more books), but I’ve never expected a financial payoff from blogging, so why start now?
So… affiliate programs: Yea or Nay? Please chime in and share your thoughts!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
Yes! I use Amazon affiliate links! It’s not too much extra effort, and I enjoy earning a gift card to offset my book purchases! It’s not a lot of $ but it’s a nice treat! What you hope for is that the person will do some extra shopping for big ticket items while on Amazon!
Even though ads are annoying, I use the WordPress ad program which brings in enough for the year to nicely offset any blog expenses (paid version) and some extra book $.
I haven’t monitized in other ways.
That’s interesting — I hadn’t thought about the WordPress ad program (and I do find ads really annoying) — but it might make sense to look into it since I do pay for a few blog upgrades each year. Great to hear that you’re making a bit from your Amazon links! I’ll have to give some more thought to how (or whether) I can use them in a better way. Thanks!
As my blog is very new, I’m not enrolled in any affiliate programmes, but I have wondered about them for the future, so this is a really interesting perspective.
However, speaking from the other end of the equation, I don’t think I’ve ever clicked on an affiliate link in my life! When it comes to books (so often Amazon affiliate links), I’m highly unlikely to want to buy the book there and then – if something catches my interest on a blog post I’ll add it to my TBR, but I probably won’t be buying it for a while, at which point I have no idea whether I saw an affiliate link for it and where it is if I did!
I love the idea of affiliate links, but after being stung by notorious hyperlinks in the distant past, I never click on anything any more. I prefer to use a code at checkout or nothing these days. Internet pirates are getting too savvy and creating more and more ways to replicate legitimate creators and businesses that I don’t want to risk getting my money stolen or my personal details grifted. So as someone who reads a lot of blogs, I don’t use affiliate links. Plus, most of the affiliate links don’t work for an Australian shoppers anyway.
codes at checkout definitely feel like a better way to go, as then you can use them at your own leisure, and as you say, no dodgy hyperlinks!
That’s something really valuable to think about. I agree, it’s harder and harder to separate legitimate links from spam or malicious links. Discount codes seem like a much safer way to go.
Same here regarding clicking on affiliate links! I tend not to go straight from a blog to a purchase site, and even if I do, I’m trying to be much more thoughtful about spending and not give in to impulse buying.
I actually singed up for Amazon’s program years ago but it felt like a lot of work to do the links. Maybe it’s changed now. But I never sold anything and they dropped me. Since then the amount you make doesn’t seem worth it, plus I don’t like the idea of pushing sales to my visitors. I do link Amazon in my reviews but it’s just for convenience if you’re so inclined.
Right, it is very convenient when there are links to purchase sites or Goodreads, but I don’t tend to click through very often myself. I’m really on the fence, as you can see!
I knew going into blogging that I would never make any money at it. So I’ve never even tried to figure out the whole affiliate link thing. In fact, reading this post has taught me more about it than I never knew before. Still probably won’t ever try it. ;D
Haha, glad I could help! 🙂 I don’t think I’m likely to make any money… so my feelings are mixed, at best.
Hmm… I’ve only thought about using affiliate programs once and that was when I part of Book of the Month subscription box. I considered but didn’t go through with because I realized I don’t actually like the quality of Book of the Month box books. Anyway, I assumed that most folks are like me anyway and wouldn’t click the links, but I now realize I’m wrong. Maybe I’ll try them, if they work on the free WordPress account.
I think it’s fine to use affiliate links and earn money for your blog if you can.
Thanks for your feedback! I don’t have a problem with using affiliate links as a concept… still not at all sure that it’s something that will have any impact for me, but I intend to stick with it for at least a little while and see how it goes.
Oh this is very interesting! I have never tried to have affiliate links and likely will not. Blogging is a hobby and I don’t want to make it feel like a job. Plus most crew members talk about how little they made and I am lazy.
On eArc reviews, I used to post links to buy books on Amazon but changed my mind eventually because book bloggers know how and where they want to buy books. Nowadays for eArcs, I link to the publishers’ book sale page as a thank you for the review copy. I have no idea if anyone has ever clicked one or if the publishers even care.
I also link to adding the books to Goodreads on my reviews because of publishers caring about that. Most of the crew uses Storygraph now so I also put reviews there, on Edelweiss, on Amazon, and Goodreads. I use all those sites for different things so makes sense (for me) to post there.
As a side note, posting reviews to Amazon eventually led to my being invited to the Vine program so books led to other “free” (pay taxes and have to review) items.
and @Tammy, I feel her reviews look so professional and am in awe of her having books sent to her house by publishers.
x The Captain
I agree about Tammy! Her site looks amazing, and I can’t believe how many books she gets by mail each month!
Thanks for sharing your insights — all really great points. I haven’t been linking to Goodreads from my reviews, but I’m thinking I probably should start doing so (and Storygraph too). I’m slowly dipping my toes into the affiliate process as well as just making a more conscious effort to provide links that people might find useful — although I think you’re totally right that people reading book blogs don’t particularly need links, since they/we already know where to find things!
I’m a bookshop.org affiliate as well but I’ve not earned anything yet. I only really started using it this year. I used to be a Books-a-Million affiliate, but their links eventually stopped working. It was too much of a hassle to try to get them to work properly. I eventually let my account go dormant. I think I’m going to start making it a mission to support my blogger friends by using their links because I know how hard we all work on our content.
That’s a great idea! It makes sense — if we’re going to shop anyway, it would be great to do it through other bloggers’ links so they get some credit for it! Thank you for suggesting it 🙂
I’ve singed up for every affiliate program there is or was, and I’m nowhere near a millionaire! I had my best and most consistent earnings from our dearly departed Book Depository, which was great for buying more books from there. I’ve also cashed in a couple times (with gift cards) from Amazon (particularly when someone uses my link and then buys something really expensive in a whole other category, which has happened a couple of times). But as of right now, I’m a few bucks away from another Amazon gift card, have earned less than $1.50 from Apple Books, only £2.25 with Blackwell’s, and through Awin (Waterstones and WHSmith), I have $16.65 waiting, but can’t cash in until I hit $20! That one stopped getting any clicks when they dropped eBooks.com and then Foyles. But from the others I’ve earned nothing and they keep trying to drop me. Maybe I should let those go. It is a bit of a hassle, but who knows, maybe one day I’ll hit the jackpot!
Hitting the jackpot sounds nice! I’m dipping my toes back in — hesitantly, obviously — but I figured it was worth giving it one more try… at least, until Amazon drops me again!
I use Amazon affiliate links (and you can’t use your own so if I do buy something from Amazon I try to remember to go to another bloggers site for a link). A few purchase books but often it is for none book items. I have been making better money by running Google Ads on my site. It took a while but the last 4 or 5 years I’ve gotten a pay out and I’ve already seen an uptick in revenue this year.
I love the idea of using other bloggers’ links for purchases! What a great way to support others! That’s interesting about Google Ads — not something I’d ever even considered. Thank you!
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