If you’ve been in the blogging sphere for any length of time, you’ve heard many bloggers tout affiliate marketing as one of their biggest income streams. There’s good reason – some bloggers are killing it! I want to be one of those bloggers too, and I’m sure many of my friends reading this would love that as well.
That’s why I wanted to introduce you to Michelle from Making Sense of Cents. This lady, listen up, is amazing. She has mastered this affiliate marketing thing and makes at least $50,000 a month! I know I’d love to be her when I grow up! Nevermind that I’m actually older than her ha! Her latest blog income reports have me pea green! So I’m working toward some goals myself and want the same for you!
Today she’s hanging out with me to tell more about her awesome self and her course, Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing. Because a genius needs to share some of her secrets, right?
Welcome, Michelle!
Hello! My name is Michelle and I run the personal finance blog Making Sense of Cents.
I’ve been a full-time blogger since October of 2013, and I absolutely love it. I love running Making Sense of Cents and I am very happy that this is now my full-time career, my business, and my life. On my blog Making Sense of Cents, I talk a lot about different ways to make extra money, the best ways to save money, achieving your dream life, RVing (me and my husband RV full-time), and more.
How did you get started with affiliate marketing, and at what point did it really sink in that it was going to be such an income potential for you?
I’ve been interested in affiliate marketing ever since I started my blog, but I never thought it was possible at that time.
Before, I thought that a blogger had to receive a lot of page views in order to reach success with affiliate marketing and affiliate income.
But, that all changed. One day, I decided to give myself a goal of earning affiliate income, and I worked hard towards achieving that affiliate income goal. I started by making a little bit each month, and then the affiliate income continued to increase month after month. I now know that you don’t need a ton of page views or a huge following in order to make a great income through affiliate marketing.
I love affiliate income because it can feel quite passive. You can create just one blog post or social media post and potentially earn money from it years down the line, as long as you maintain it and keep generating traffic to it. With affiliate marketing, I can enjoy life more and know that I am still able to earn a great living promoting products that I use and enjoy.
Think about it this way: If you already enjoy a product, why not get paid to promote it?
How long did it take you to learn the ropes so to speak and get to the point where you realized you could teach affiliate marketing to others?
I haven’t been active with affiliate marketing for very long. I don’t think it’s even been more than two years. I realized that I could teach affiliate marketing to others when I started earning more in affiliate income than those with millions of page views and without being too “salesy.” I had many people ask for help with affiliate marketing, so I decided to turn it into a course so that I could help more people and still keep the comfortable work-life balance that I’ve been seeking.
Is affiliate marketing just for the big bloggers or can smaller blogs without a hundred thousand pageviews still make a profit?
The average blogger is not good with affiliate marketing, and my course can help anyone who is struggling with earning affiliate income.
Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing is a great learning tool, even if you are a new blogger or even if you haven’t launched your blog yet. By taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, you will start your blog on the right foot. You can learn from my affiliate marketing mistakes and learn the best ways to start making an income by being an affiliate. Through taking this course you are sure to grow a profitable blog quicker than the average blogger, as you’ll learn exactly what you need to know about affiliate marketing. So, even if you only have one blog post, you are ready to get started with this course!
On the other hand, for intermediate or advanced bloggers, this course is for you as well. Affiliate marketing is an area that even the most seasoned bloggers can improve upon. Plus, most bloggers aren’t making anywhere near the amount of affiliate income that they should be and are leaving money on the table. If you want to grow your affiliate income, there are numerous tips and strategies that I share in Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing.
And no, you do not need a large amount of traffic or page views to be successful with affiliate marketing. I believe that pretty much anyone with an influencer platform can be successful with affiliate marketing, regardless of page views, as long as they learn about the correct affiliate marketing strategies and apply the work to it all. It’s all about approaching your audience and affiliate marketing in the correct way so that you can do it effectively and efficiently. These are topics that I teach my students in my Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course.
Do you have any advice or words of encouragement for bloggers who are putting in the work to promote an affiliate product but aren’t seeing the return they expect yet?
If a blogger isn’t seeing the return yet, then they most likely aren’t promoting affiliate offers the correct way. You need to make sure that you’re promoting the correct products to the right audience, and that you are promoting affiliate products correctly. Many bloggers think that you can just place affiliate links on your blog and that’s really all there is to it. However, there definitely needs to be a strategy!
With your successes in your blog and business, you have been able to travel with your family full-time. What got you into traveling and where do you hope to go next?
Oh yes, for sure! This is one of the best things about my blogging business. I am able to travel full-time with my family and it’s a great thing. We’ve always been travelers, and I have been my whole life as my dad was a pilot when he was alive. So, I’ve always been absolutely in love with traveling! Traveling full-time is even better because I can live and explore wherever I am 🙂
Thanks, Michelle!
I think it is super amazing that Michelle earns over $50,000 a month through affiliate marketing! I mean, that’s some people’s annual income!
She shares all of her best tips in her Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course – and I’m so glad to have taken this course!
In Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing, there are 6 modules, over 30 lessons, over 20 worksheets, bonuses, an extremely helpful exclusive Facebook group, and more, and she goes through everything when it comes to affiliate marketing, such as:
- What affiliate marketing is and how it works
- Why affiliate marketing is great
- The exact steps she’s taken to earn over $300,000 from a single blog post (you read that right!)
- How to pick the right affiliate products to promote
- How to increase conversions
- How to build trust and not lose followers
- Required disclosures that you need to know about
- The one major tool you need for affiliate marketing
- Different strategies to use to promote your affiliate products
- How to use Pinterest to succeed at affiliate marketing (yes, this includes the newest Pinterest affiliate rules!)
Check out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing and let me know what you think of it!
Is earning income as an affiliate one of your blog growth strategies?
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Mrs. Mommy Mack says
Thanks for this! I didn’t know there was THAT much money in affiliate marketing. I am heading over to check out the course. I just might sign up! Thanks again!
Nikki Crump says
Taking this course is going to be on my to do list for 2017. This post is an inspiration.
Julie says
Well you might be interested to know that she’s having a sale on the course price at the end of January 🙂
Erin @ Stay at Home Yogi says
Putting this on my list of courses I’d love to take in 2017!!! Thanks for sharing Julie 🙂
Julie says
There will be a sale at the end of the month. Not sure how many sales she does per year so just FYI 🙂
Ashley | Spit Up and Sit Ups says
Great interview! I took the course and it was soooo worth it!
Julie says
I agree, it is worth it. Thanks Ashley!
Michelle Schroeder-Gardner says
Thanks so much for having me!
Patti says
Affiliate money is real!