So you got a blog and want to start earning enough money to support your Starbucks fix each week through the use of affiliate marketing and ads.

But if you’re like me, you don’t want to slap any ol’ product on your site and send your visitors to who knows where.

Yes, I’ve been working on ways to monetize this blog and I’d like to share with you some thoughts I have on this topic because to be quite honest, most of my options out there for affiliate marketing violates many rules I go by when creating a brilliant website.

Although I’ve only been blogging for about 9 months or so, I’ve had my share of time in designing websites and providing business advice to entrepreneurs. Anyone who knows anything about marketing knows you need to focus your product on something your target audience wants or will listen to, otherwise it will be ignored.

And by all means, don’t confuse them!

In other words, if you blog about being an entrepreneur and succeeding online (like my blog), you should focus your affiliate links to products or services that would benefit the kind of readers who read your blog.

The Problem I Have With Google’s AdSense

Google’s AdSense tries its best to generate links to websites that relate to the content you write. When people click on those links, you earn a small profit.

But the problem I have with AdSense is you don’t know who’s website you’re linking over to. How am I suppose to know the sites my blog is recommending will provide any value to my readers? Am I doing them justice by sending them there?

Or . . . am I wasting their time. I don’t know. Do you care?

It’s as if those links are there for one purpose and one purpose only, to earn me a Starbucks coffee.

My Take On Kontera (a.k.a. ContentLink)

ContentLink is another pay-per-click tool that works a little differently than AdSense.

Instead of placing a few links in one or two chosen spots by you on your blog or website (like you do with AdSense), ContentLink recognizes the value of placing targeted affiliate links in your content where your readers have no choice but to notice them.

But that is the exact reason why I prefer not to use ContentLink - it gets in my reader’s attention away from my message and disturbs them. Like I’ve always said, you have to design your website for humans first, otherwise it doesn’t matter how many affiliate links you have.

Can you guess why?

Questions I Asked Myself For Monetizing This Blog

• Why do I want to monetize this blog?
• Who are my readers? What are their backgrounds? What are their needs?
• Do I care what products or services my blog recommends?
• What’s my limit on affiliate links before my blog gets “too busy?”
• How should I display my affiliate links and where? How will they get noticed?

David Hobson wrote an articled called, Three Most Common Mistakes of an Affiliate Marketer in which he shows us how many affiliate marketers fail because of:

1. Incorrect Product Choice
2. Same Old Messages (i.e. selling the same product everyone else does)
3. Their Too Afraid (afraid to try something new and stick with the usual)

My Decision And Direction Of Choice

Sticking with what I know about how people view and read my website, I decided to stick with affiliate links that I feel will provide value to my readers and shy away from random generated links which send them to who knows where.

Furthermore, all my affiliate links (for now, anyway) will be displayed in the same place on my blog but randomly generated so you will see a number of products I recommend each time you visit my blog (for the moment, I only have my Amazon Widget, but other links will be coming soon).

Amazon.com’s Affiliate Program - my first affiliate decision

You may have seen over the past couple weeks my Amazon.com’s book recommendations hovering down at the bottom of my posts.

I really like this for a number of reasons:

• I feel good about sending my readers to this site.
• I know these books are great books and can provide value to my readers.
• These books go hand-in-hand with my blog’s focus.

I also love the fact that it’s big and highly noticeable but yet is not intruding upon or interrupting my reader’s focus. Also, because I have control over what’s displayed, I can determine the focus of my affiliate book links.

Although in your content is probably the best place to put your affiliate links for visibly, I chose to place mine at the bottom of my posts. It goes back to adding clutter to your website and confusing your visitors. I prefer a simple and clean approach for delivering my content and assuming someone reads my article, their eyes hopefully are naturally following a downward path and will run across my not-so-small, non-intrusive advertisement.

Same Products = Boring And Ignored

Currently, my Amazon Widget is my only affiliate link, but that will change soon. You see, displaying only one product limits your possible earnings and just because it sits there for a year doesn’t mean you’re going to change your reader’s mind and decide to buy the product. In fact, after they see it once or twice it’ll probably be ignored.

So change it up!

I cheat a little because I know html and css. The area my Amazon Affiliate link sits in is actually a randomly generated inline web page.

“Uh, what was that?”

I’m using the Random iframe content script provided by Dynamic Drive which places a number of web pages in an array (an ordered holding place) and then displays those web pages randomly in my inline frame (the small area where my Amazon Widget is displayed). Each time my blog is refreshed or a visitor returns for another visit, a new affiliate product that I’ve selected will be displayed.

Ok, a bit confusing. If you’re interested in this, comment below and I’ll try to explain it better.

So What Is The Best Kind Of Affiliate Marketing For Your Website?

To keep it simple, laser focused products and services that appeal to the kinds of people who read your blog are the best affiliate programs to sign up for and advertise. This is Marketing 101. Otherwise, it’s hit and miss and clutters up your website.

Ok so I admit, I’m relatively new to affiliate marketing on blogs (but not marketing in general). What advice do you have and what have you learned works well and doesn’t work well for you?