How to Monetize Your WebSite for Selling Online

Now that we have both Content posts and About/Contact pages on our new website, it’s time to set ourselves up to make some money.

Finding a Product to Sell Online

If you don’t have your own product, the next best thing is to sell a product developed by someone else. Obviously, Affiliate Marketing is wildly popular on the Internet, so we’re going to get in on it right here and now.

The first thing you want to do is find a product to sell. An easy way to do that is to sign up with 3 major Affiliate Houses:

• Clickbank – For Digital products to Download
• Commission Junction – For Physical products
• Share A Sale – For both Digital & Physical

If you already have the idea for your website and your research gives you the green light to get started, you’ll want to find products that fit well with the Theme or Niche of your site. A simple way to do that would be to enter a Search criteria and then choose a product from the results. There is a lot that goes into choosing the “right” niche for a website, as well as the right products, and we will spend time with that subject later. But for now the goal is to find some complimentary products that are a good fit with what we already have.

Since the subject of this website up to this point has been how to build a website with WordPress (and I’m using the Thesis WordPress Theme) a natural fit would be to become an Affiliate and begin selling Thesis.

Affiliate Marketing in Your Widgets

The Thesis Theme Affiliate program is handled through ShareASale. I already have an account set up for another product. Once you have been approved as an Affiliate, click on the links within the Affiliate House site to find the Banners they provide, and then copy the HTML code to post on your site. This is where the WordPress Widgets come in. Drag the Text Widget from the left and place into your side bar. I like to give mine a Title as well.

Text Widgets for Affiliate Links

The side bar isn’t the only place you can place an advertisement banner. And you don’t always need a widget. We have already seen that some the better Themes have all kinds of “cubby holes” for Hooks that can place HTML content almost anywhere on the page.

Hide Your Affiliate Link When you Sell Online

A few posts ago I we talked a little about the Plugin called, Pretty Link. Here I replaced the Affiliate “http” line which was provided by Pretty Link so no one could see my Affiliate code.

Just bring up Pretty Link from your Control Panel and paste in your Affiliate link (but not the entire HTML you were given – only the website itself). Pretty Link will encode all that gobbley gook into what appears to be an internal link.

Pretty Link

Match Your Product to Your Website Niche

Finding just the right Niche for your web endeavors is partly Art, partly Science, and a little bit if Voodoo. This series has been about building a website from nothing, as you watch my progress from brand new Domain to fully functioning, monetized site. For the most part, you want your products to match the overall Theme of your site. Your audience came to you for a specific reason, so Target that reason with your offerings. Having said that, there are some products that are pretty much Universal, but if you choose to offer something like that, keep the number of those items very low.

Monetize with an Amazon Store

Before we end this tutorial, let’s set up an Amazon Book Store. Since there are some really good books about the subjects that we discussed around here, it would be another natural thing to do. But Amazon sells everything but the kitchen sink nowadays. Ooops, let me correct that. I actually did purchase a kitchen sink from Amazon. It was a granite stone kitchen sink, and Amazon actually had it in stock themselves! It rarely hurts to add an Amazon link to items that are complimentary with what you are selling.

To get started you need to sign up with Amazon. You probably already have purchased from Amazon in the past, so you are half way there. Sign in and then sign up for an Associates Account. You may need to search for “Amazon Associates.”

You Need to Choose a Tracking ID

Amazon Store Tracking ID

Set up a link back to Your Website

Amazon Store Link Back

Pick Your Amazon Store Colors

' Amazon Store Colors

Add a Store Name and Header Logo

The Store Name is important in that the Link takes your customers back to the Amazon Store home page, NOT back to your website. You want to be sure you keep the two Names different so your customers won’t get confused and end up looping around the store while they are trying to get back to you. I solve that problem by adding the word, “Store” to the end.

Amazon Store Name & Logo

Here is what I mean, at the bottom of your Store:

Amazon Store Bottom Links

Amazon says your logo should be no wider then 200 pixels, but that is only half the size you actually need. I found that 500 pixels wide is about perfect. Just drag your graphic software above or below the Amazon store Preview if you have doubts about size.

Amazon-Best-Logo Size

You probably need to re-size your logo for Amazon, so if you’re going to do that anyway, you may want to embellish it a bit like I did for my other Amazon store, where I used the Amazon colors and distinguished this logo a bit. Borrowing a little subliminal “authority” never hurts.

BeerBudgetGourment Amazon Store

Give Your Customer Room to Continue Shopping

Be sure to check every box for the Widgets. Your customers many not buy any of your books, but who really cares if they stay at Amazon and start shopping for other things. You are still the Affiliate.

Amazon Store Widgets

And here we have the finished store. Feel free to click on it

Amazon Store Finished

I have several great books about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If we want the Search Engines to like us, we must be Optimized. So, that will be the next post.

Photo: Miguel Ugalde