Building Amazon Links on your blog

By now, I'm hoping you already received your acceptance as an Amazon Affiliate. So in this post I will teach you how to build and place amazon affiliate links.

There are basically 3 types of amazon links you can have on your site: Specific item links, Widgets, and banners.

For specific item links, you put them in during your blog posts. Let's say your blog is all about cameras and accessories. So now you're writing a blog entry about SD cards. Find the item you're writing about, and you can now put it in either as a text link or a picture box.

Suppose you want to put in a link to a general search page for SD cards.

Scroll up to the top of the page where your Amazon Associates toolbar is found. Click on "Link to this page".

Making Money Part 2: Become an Amazon Affiliate

I know I've neglected this blog, and there have been... one complaint. :) Well, that is because I was busy... blogging! Running four blogs takes work. Since there doesn't seem to be an interest in this blog anyway - I don't know of one person who started blogging or fixed up their blog according to my painstaking step-by-step instructions - I let it slide. But tonight I'm going to take your blog a step further and discuss Amazon Affiliates. For that is the backbone behind Niche Marketing and Money Blogging.

Let me make it clear from the outset: Affiliate Marketing isn't for the faint of heart. I thought I have what it takes; I'm putting in endless hours in my blogs; yet I'm barely making any sales. But I know why: My blogs aren't quite what Affiliate blogs should look like. A real Amazon  Affiliate blog is about picking a topic, sticking to it, and writing about it.

For instance, you can decide to dedicate the blog entirely to printers. Or to laptop computers. Or tablet computers. Or childrens board games. Or household appliances. It doesn't have to be something you're remotely familiar with. You just have to be a good writer and researcher and have tenacity and determination.

I didn't go down that route. I chose to write about my life and link up to products that have helped me. It wasn't the wisest route money-wise; how many people do you really know who want to purchase that particular product I'm writing about? Plus, I haven't quite managed to reach out to the autism community in the way I really hoped to. That is because I'm not spending enough time reading other autism blogs and commenting on it, or cultivating a community of commentors. I actually did strike it big last week with one huge post which got people visiting in droves and commenting. But more on this topic later; I will discuss how to get your word out and get hits much later. Today we're going to talk about Amazon Affiliate.

Your first step is to actually become an Amazon Affiliate. Before you do that, choose a niche topic, a product that you think you want to promote. If you're not doing an actual niche blog, but want to write about random topics and just stick in some products here and there, like I do, just make sure your blog already has a few posts. The Amazon Associates division does check out your blog before deciding whether to accept you as an Amazon Associate, so your blog should at least look a tad presentable before you hand in your application.

Navigating Amazon's site to locate the link to sign up as an affiliate is suprisingly confusing. I surfed and searched until I found it. After that, applying was pretty much a breeze, and I had to wait a few days for an acceptance email.

Here is a link to Amazon's homepage. (If you end up making a purchase within 30 minutes of clicking that link, then yay, I'll make commission. woohoo.) Scroll down or do a Control+F for "Affiliate", and you will find a link "Become an Amazon Affiliate." Follow the steps; I won't post a bunch of screenshots of the process, as I'm already an Amazon Affiliate and don't even have access to the sign up screenshots anymore.

So sign up to become an affiliate. And in the few days it takes to get accepted, I'll give you a few tips to writing a successful affiliate blog.

So let's say you decided to focus on Small Household Appliances as your niche market. You know almost nothing about Small Appliances for real. But that's not a big deal; you'll do your research. Let's say you decide to focus on toasters. Go to amazon and do a search for toasters. Choose the one that seems to be a good seller. Read the reviews from the buyers. Rewrite their reviews in your own words. Make sure not to plagiarize, but to use your own words to rephrase what they said. Don't make the reviews to lengthy, but concise enough so people can make their decision to buy it or not. Then, you'll generate a link to that item. Once you're approved by Amazon as an affiliate, you'll be able to build links easily. I can show you how - in a few days, once I know you're approved.

Now that we have the Affiliate thing out of the way, in the next number of posts I'll concentrate on the various widgets/gadgets that blogger offers to spruce up your blog page. This includes a box where people can sign up to get your blog posts by email, a box to search your blog, an index of posts, and lots of HTML boxes to place ads on your blog. I'll show you how to put amazon ads on your page; and a whole bunch of other ads. I am a member of Linkshare, which has a whole bunch of different companies that are interested in advertising on your blog. Unfortunately I haven't made a single sale or commision from Linkshare, but I'm not giving up. And I'll show you how, in a future post.

Off Topic: Ebay

Another quick and easy way to make some spare cash is by selling your household junk on ebay.
Ebay has become extremely user friendly, making listing your ebay items so seamless and quick, you can list an entire closets's worth of useless junk in an hour.
Especially at the moment, listing fees are waived, even Buy It Now is free.
Ebay will show you how much similar items are selling for, will automatically put in the shipping options, and in general really push you through the process.
I listed five items in the past few days. One already has bids!
Here is my Ebay page, just for your viewing fun.
Things I'm selling on ebay at the moment

Making Money Part 1: Google Adsense

I've been a blogger ever since blogging became a 'thing'. From about 2002 - 2005 I was on blogspot, from 2005 - 2009 I was on Livejournal, and after 2009 I was on Facebook. Now I'm on all 3. After I left blogspot in 2005 because I wanted more control over who read my blog - and Livejournal offered many options for privacy - I didn't tinker around with blogspot for a while.

Between 2006 and 2011 I worked for What a Bargain, a brick-and-mortar local store trying to make some money on ebay. I learned a LOT about ebay during those years, and decided that one day I would love to be a Trading Assistant and put random people's things up on ebay. I shelved that idea once I became a busy mother of children, although it's still something I plan do once my children are older, IY"H.

When I was bored of just putting things up on ebay and answering inquiries, I decided to try my hand a little at marketing for What A Bargain. I opened a facebook page and placed facebook ads. It cost me a few pennies and I have no idea if it panned out. My second idea was to open a blog - Bargain Ebay - where I simply copied and pasted some of the ebay listings, figuring if someone did a google search for a certain item they might stumble across it on blogger. It turned out to be tedious and I dropped it. (One of the pluses of having a blog like that in conjunction with your ebay account is that if you put a 'linkback' at the end of the links of your items - i believe the link is "?refid=store, the storeowner makes a little commission off every sale. This was my first intro into the world of affiliate marketing.) But just when I started the blog - in 2007 - Google Ads had been launched and I knew very little about it but was curious what would happen if I would put up google ads. Back then, starting a Google Adsense account and putting the code into the blog was very clumsy and cumbersome and the earnings weren't that great either; I didn't think I would make much money from it. But I did it anyway - what did I stand to lose, really?

Step 4: Customize your template, part 2

So our basic blog is set up, and we're almost done designing the template. The last step left to designing the template is the Advanced settings on your template designer. Go to your dashboard, click on Template, then click on Customize. We're back in our Designer.

 Click "Advanced."

Here, we are going to custom design every little aspect of the template with colors, font choices, sizes, etc. The possibilities are very exciting.

Step 3: Personalize your template, part 1

(Sorry for the long time lapse in continuing this blog; things have been insane around here and I haven't had time.)

So we now have a blog name and a template. Next, we fiddle around with the template and customize it.

To refresh, this is how the blog looks now:

One extremely nifty feature of blogger is that you can fix the design of the blog anytime when you're visiting the actual blog site instead of going to the dashboard every time. You can either hover over the little fixit icon on the corners of the gadget you want to fix - see the little icon at the lower left corner of the 'blog archive' section - and if you want to tinker with the overall design, just scroll up to the top of the page where it says DESIGN. Click there. It will direct you straight to your dashboard, to the template editing area. There you can see what your blog currently looks like in the regular and mobile versions. Click on the orange CUSTOMIZE button. You're now in the Template Designer.

Step 2: Choosing a template

So you've chosen a theme, a name, and created your blog. Your blog is still a blank screen. Nothing's been set up yet. Time to get to work with the very very very basics. Very. There are so many things to do to set up a pretty, professional-looking or cutesy-looking blog. But today we'll only address the bare basics.

First, familiarize yourself with your dashboard. This is what you'll see when you go to blogger.com and are signed in.

Have you noticed? The BLANK PAGE got quite a few views yesterday. That was really you, the readers, clicking on the link I wrote in the previous entry. There's nothing on the site yet. This is what the blog looks like right now.

Step 1: Decide on a name.

Hopefully by now you've decided what blog you're interested in starting. You've thought about it a little and did some research. You know whether you want to do what they call a 'niche' - choosing a theme and reviewing products around that theme - or a diary style blog, or a page with a random collection of clips or jokes or book reviews or whatever.


(By the way, as an aside - I forgot to mention it in my previous entry - I know there are a variety of sites where you can host your blog: Typepad, Wordpress, Livejournal, etc. I chose Blogger because I know nothing about those other sites, and have just learned how to set up Blogger so this is what I will talk about.)

Now it's time to choose a name for your blog.

Think carefully. You don't want the the name to be too complicated, too similar to other blogs on the same topic, too long, or too confusing to spell.

It also depends whether you plan on buying a domain name to use intead of whatever whatever dot blogspot dot com.

Domain names cost on average, $10 a year. Domain names can be .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, .info. I prefer using .com because that's what people think of right away. But the vast majority of .com names are already taken, especially if it's just one or two words. If you're really set on a certain name, it might pay to get the .org or .net version, but personally I wouldn't do that, since you would get confused with the .com equivalent. I would rather go for a different or similar name to your original intent.

I will explain how to get a domain name later. But why do I bring it up now? Because if you're planning to buy a domain name anyway, the blogger name isn't that important. But if you're not planning to buy a domain name, your blogger name will be the web site people will go to, and you want the name to be catchy, easy to remember, and easy to spell.

Let's look at my four blogs and I will explain the decision behind each one with regards to domain names.

For the Autism Parenting blog I immediately bought a custom domain name. It was very hard to find a catchy blogger name as the blogger world is saturated with autism related blogs. I first tried autismparentingsupport.blogspot.com which was available. But as soon as I set it up I regretted it as I didn't want to use my regular email address and regular blog commenting name for the autism blog, which was going to be pretty personal and I didn't need people immediately automatically knowing who I was. So I deleted the blog, signed into a second email address, but oops! Too late - this blog address was no longer available. I was really disappointed.

My next choice was autismparentinghelp.blogspot.com. It was available and I snapped it up. But I did not like its length and didn't think people would find it easily. Since I wanted to build up the blog as a niche blog reviewing products to help families with children with autism, I wanted it to be big, easily searchable, and easily accessible. So I did go for a domain name within a day or two. Autismparenting.com was taken, so I went for autism-parenting. It was available, easily searchable, and much shorter to type, remember, and share. I'm happy with my decision. The $10 investment is well worth it. Definitely easier than emailing or telling people 'http://www.AutismParentingHelp.Blogspot.com'. It's a mouthful, and it's not all about 'help' with autism parenting. It's my personal story, and it's about autism parenting, not specifically about help.

But in this case, the actual blogger name didn't matter so much, since I bought a custom domain pretty much right away and the length and clumsiness of the blogger name went away immediately.

With my 2nd blog, www.kosherdelish.blogspot.com, I didn't jump into buying a domain right away. It's not such a long and difficult name to spell, it's catchy even with 'blogspot' after it, and it generated a lot of hits on its first day. I didn't need the $10 investment for the blog to become widely known. I'm not saying I won't buy some kind of domain in the future, but for now, I'm not seeking to spend another $10 when I know people are going to come check out the blog anyway.

With my 3rd blog which is this one, I didn't feel like spending the $10 either; blogs like these are a dime a dozen and I don't think I will be found more easily in search engines if it has a shorter, non-blogspot name. This blog is just a hobby, something I want to help people with, not a serious moneymaker.

For the Hurricane Sandy jokes blog I certainly was not going to pay for a custom domain; it was a one-off joke page.

So basically, you have to consider whether it's financially feasible or necessary to have a custom domain. Consider a custom domain if you're planning to have a large, busy blog; if the blogspot name is too long or difficult to remember and share, or if you just want a smoother, shorter blog address. You can always buy a custom domain later. The only reason this makes a difference at the beginning of the process is that if you can't find an available blog name that makes sense for you, don't worry; chances are a custom domain of your choice is still available. Get any clumsy long blogger name; you'll be able to replace it with a snazzier, shorter custom domain name. Make sure to check first if your custom domain name is available though. Put it in your search bar and see if it comes up as already taken, sold, parked, used or whatever.

Okay. So think about the blog name you'd like. Decide if you want to buy a custom domain name right off the bat. AND LET'S GET STARTED!

You'll need a blogger account to start a blog on blogger. (Try saying that ten times fast.) Blogger is owned by google (who also owns picasa and youtube and I think the entire Internet by now!) so you'll need a google account to start a blogger account. I made a secondary email address and secondary blog account for some of my blogs so they wouldn't be associated with my real email address and name, thus hopefully providing me with a tad anonymity.

I think there are very few people on the Internet at this point without a google or gmail account, especially if you're a serious surfer and wannabe blogger. But if you still don't have a google account, get one now. That is your first step.

Creating a blogger account is super simple. Open another browser window and go to www.blogger.com. You'll see this: (forgive me for the 3 split pictures, I have a verrrryyyy small screen Netbook, but I'm getting my Chromebook tomorrow and boy am I excited :) )

The Whys and Hows of Blogging

There are a couple of reasons to blog and a couple of types of blogs.
You can do a 'diary style' blog - write about your day, your interests, etc.
You can choose a topic, a theme - something you know well and can write many articles about, or even a topic you know little about but are good at researching.
The third type of blog is a random page of thoughts.
I have done all three of these and will show you links to them all.
Let me explain:

I used to have a typical livejournal blog. The only people permitted to read it were my trusted friends. I wouldn't have an open-ended type blog about my personal life, even to make money. If you're already doing a diary type blog anyway, it's so easy to monetize it. I can show you how to spruce it up with all kinds of gadgets, designs and different things, to look professional. I was stunned how user-friendly Blogger has become, enabling even the smallest tech wizard to set up a neat, professional-looking blog.

One of my children has special needs, and I realized that there is a need for a well-written blog about parenting special needs children. In addition, I learned about affiliate marketing thanks to my good friend Ellen at www.Help Ellen.com. That gave me a fantastic idea: to combine my writing talent and will to help people by reviewing products and items that have helped me manage my special needs child. Thus www.autism-parenting.com was born. Take a look at that site. It has a bunch of interesting elements on it and is aesthetically pleasing. It has 6000 views to date and provides me with a therapeutic way to talk about my special needs child and make a little money on the side.

However, since I haven't really started reviewing products there, for some reason it hasn't been a great moneymaker. Marketing a blog is the hardest part of being successful at a blog, and I havenn't had much time to market it.

Then I had another idea; to share my favorite family recipes with my friends and the general kosher foodie. I set up Kosherdelish.blogspot.com.To my shock, on its first day it generated 400+ views and I made as much money in Google Ads in one day as I made the entire last month on the autism parenting site. Apparently, food blogs are a big hit. So this is the second type of blog.

An example of the third type of blog is one that I set up during Hurricane Sandy. This was before the hurricane became really damaging; I set it up on the day of the storm when people were still jokingn around about it and sending each other inane text forwards. I hit a brainstorm: Why don't I collect all the jokes on one page and monetize it? It took me 10 minutes to set up Hurricane Sandyjokes.blogspot.com.. I forwarded the link to a well known frum comedian on twitter and I had 100s of hits in one day. So this is an idea of combining something into  blog page, monetizing it, and capitalizing on its popularity, even temporarily.

You can do such a type of blog on book reviews, magazine reviews, anyting that can generate an audience. Another brilliant example of such a blog I found at www.RebbeClips.com  This person apparently trawls youtube for video clips of Chassidic events and embeds them. It's so simple and generates hits from people who want a clearinghouse of clips instead of combing through youtube. This great idea can be utilized by anyone - you can create a blog of music videos,  children's videos - ANYTHING! The possibilities are endless, and blogger is so user friendly.

So your first 'homework' assignment is to decide what kind of blog you want. Do you want a journal type blog? Do you want to choose a theme, a topic, with relevant products you can review from different affiliates? Do you want your blog to be a collection area of different media you liked? If you're already a blogger, consider that any random page of stuff that you throw together can potentially be a moneymaker - albeit small - with the right ads and marketing.

Blogging is not a massive moneymaker, unless it's your sole occupation and you're really good at it. Sometimes a really good blog just doesn't seem to bring in the cash. Sometimes it's total random luck, as I saw today with the recipe blog, which didn't even have much content yet, but drew in a lot of readers who clicked through on the google ads. But it's fun, it has potential, and it's not hard.

So decide what kind of blog you want to create, and I'll walk you through it step by step: creating it, setting it up, monetizing it, making it look professional, marketing it, and maintaining it. I will explain the elements that made my other 2 blogs look so pretty, and I will also set up a dummy blog along the way so I can post pictures of every step. No matter how little technical and technological knowledge you have, it's doable.

Feel free to leave any questions or comments.

I make money by blogging and so can you!

I'm a born writer. I come from a family of writers. I've been writing since I'm a little girl. Then I grew up, got married, got a computer, went online, and discovered blogging. I've been blogging in some form  or other since 2000. I closed many a blog, but once a blogger, always a blogger. Writing is in my blood and I can't help it.

When Facebook came around, my blogging fervor went up in smoke. I still maintained a small Livejournal account, but Facebook became my mini blogging replacement. It didn't pay to write long-winded diary entries for free when I could use my writing time sending in articles to magazines and making money in that time.

Until the day that I discovered... that you can actually make money while blogging! I had heard about Google Adsense, but it was all too confusing to me. Plus, I wasn't about to blog about my personal life in public, despite being able to earn money.

Then I heard about affiliate maketing. Now my interest was really piqued. Again, it sounded so confusing. But I'm always up to a challenge and I began doing research.

What I discovered boggled my mind.

Blogging for money is so easy and so simple. It's user-friendly and anyone can learn how to do it. Once you know the basics, setting up a blog, affiliate accounts, adsense accounts etc. are really easy. I spent a lot of time exploring blog layouts, talking to my other blogger friends and getting advice and ideas. THE POSSIBILITES ARE INFINITE AND SO EXCITING.

Discovering that I can use my Divinely Endowed talents of writing and technical know-how together to make $$$ filled me with so much adrenaline, that I'm bursting to share my knowledge with you. I want to take you through the process step by step so that you, too, can make money blogging. If you're an experienced blogger please feel free to share your tips and ideas with me, and feel free to ask for a guest blogging spot.

If you love writing and have a little online know-how, and have always been chafing to earn a little side money using your talents, you can do it. I want to help you, step by step.

Keep checking back. I will update this blog regularly. It will take a while to set everything up, so don't expect instant results.

I'm so excited about this new project! I really hope I can share my newfound knowledge with others who want to try their hand in such a venture.