Niche Websites and Referral Income

Are you a blogger? Do you have a website or two or more? Do you use social media regularly? Do you have expertise in a niche area? Want to make some extra money by putting links on products used in that niche market? If you answer yes to any of the above questions, then this might be for you!
I always test things before I write about them, and this is an area of internet business that I have long been interested in. I have made a few bucks, nothing to write home about, but with more education and training, I am ready to step out and give it a real go.

Affiliate marketing links are everywhere. They are easy to find, easy to get and easy to use. Here are a few that I’ve had personal experience with. Your experience may be different. Your results may be different than mine. Here goes! Full disclosure: some of the links in this article are my own affiliate links.I sign up for a lot of stuff. I get more “junk” email that I’ve opted into than most people I know, however, you never know where it leads and perhaps a few extra bucks come your way.If I use a product or website and I tell someone about it, I will get rewarded in some way.   That is actually considered referral marketing. Trust is involved because the people I know may trust me and try something I suggest. Hint: my new fave is at the very end of this article!

I use TaxJar for collecting sales tax on eBay and Amazon and if someone sees my link, clicks on it and signs up, I get a reward. Very nice. However the big daddy of them all is the Amazon Affiliate Program, also known as, Amazon Associates. It is free to join.  By placing links to Amazon on their websites, if the referral results in a sale. Amazon has approximately "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate program worldwide. Amazon gives you tools, links, banners to its millions of products. When you add these links and banners to your web page and visitors click on them from your page, you can earn up to 10% on all purchases made during their shopping session.

I have tinkered around with adding links to various websites of mine and some links have produced unexpected sales. I sold an expensive sunblock from a link I put up on a friend’s website. How about that! I’ve now committed to trying to make sales in this fashion on purpose! Here’s one way. A niche website is all about a particular subject or item. There are keywords in the content or articles on the website that the search engines find. If lots of people are searching for those keywords, they may find your website. If they stay for longer than twenty seconds, they may click on a link and actually buy a product you have on that niche site. You don’t have to ship it, Amazon does. You don’t have to collect the money, Amazon does. And each quarter or so, there may be some residuals for you.

Another popular affiliate network is Share A Sale. I have signed up for it, but only begun to search for products or companies to link and refer. Commission Junction as it was formerly known is now CJ Affiliate by Conversant and is very good. I have an account there, but have been put on temporary hold due to lack of action in sales. I am hoping to ramp up there soon. ClickBank and JVZoo are two others that are used by many big time affiliate marketers.

How do you know what’s right for you and your needs? I say give one a try and see what happens. Time and consistency are two key ingredients to success in niche affiliate marketing. Not all niches will be successful, but one can be sure to learn a few things along the way. You need lots of traffic to your websites which can be done with a mailing list campaign, or YouTube videos going viral or other forms of social media. 

The main thing is to not spam your friends into anything. For the life of me, my friends have not clicked on my email to invite them to join one of my favorite ways to make a little cash on the side: eBates.com. If you shop online, once registered on the site (it’s free!) you find the store or business in there list of shops, click on the promotion like 4% back on your purchase at eddiebauer.com or another e-tailer. Do your regular shopping and after you finish you will get a message with the amount you will get back from eBates. Every quarter they send you a “BIG FAT CHECK”. I just got one today for $16.14. While that amount is not huge, I am heading closer and closer to $600 lifetime since I joined a couple of years ago. I love it. I tell all my friends, but I guess they just don’t like getting money back. Crazy!


I will be writing more about my adventures into the niche website world using Amazon Affiliate links. My brand new favorite helper in doing a good job finding and setting up a niche website is with the cloud based software: InstaNiche. I signed up, and in virtually minutes had the shell of a website that I’ve now been tweaking to get just the way I like. You will here more about that very soon, but I just had to share! There may be a few bucks in rewards in your future.