I have received so much great feedback and many reader requests from the Help Me Help You survey this week. If you have not yet left your comments, please stop over and do that.

One of the biggest questions thus far is, “How do you make money blogging?” Some of the more specific questions will be answered in the coming weeks, but there are already a lot of great posts on The Work at Home Wife to get you started.

The Basics

How to Blog and Make Money

Affiliate Marketing Tips for Beginners

9 Tips for Holiday Affiliate Marketing

Who Pays Bloggers?

Affiliate Programs

Pay Per Post Companies

Get Paid for Referrals

IZEA Media

Amazon Associate Network

Amazon Affiliate Program Review

How to Set Up Additional Amazon Associate Tracking IDs

Selling eBooks on Amazon

 Recommended Products

GoDaddy - Domains

HostGator - Hosting

My Blogging Guide 

OIO Publisher – Selling Ad Space

Mom Blog SEO

VigLink had a few videos available this week about monetizing images. While the topic was not of much interest personally, I was a little intrigued with the phrase “interactive images” that was used a few times throughout these videos. Below are overviews of the two sites featured in VigLink’s interviews and what they may have to offer your blog(s).

Luminate

Luminate was formerly known as Pixazza and dubbed as “AdSense for Images.” This Google-backed venture was founded in 2008. This tagging system for images allows for easy sharing, reader interaction and possible monetization via Image Apps.
Luminate’s Image Apps includes the following options:

• Social – Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and Email sharing apps give readers the opportunity to select precisely what they want inside an image and share it with others.
• Information – An app called Annotation that allows publishers to tag & comment on any spot within an image.
• Commerce – The Products in the Picture app enables readers to hover the photo and interact with products tagged in the image.
• Advertising – An app that offers publishers a seamless way to place relevant advertisements within an image. This option is not available to new Publishers by default. Your site must undergo a review prior to being given this permission.
• Public Service – An app called Causes allows readers to quickly donate to worthy causes. This may be especially popular in times of crisis and need.
• Media – Apps like Amazon Music, YouTube Trailers and Netflix Videos allow readers to connect with available media featuring an artist or actor in the image.
• Navigation – An assortment of search-based apps like bing, Wikipedia, blekko and sports stats that provide additional information on people or things in the image.

What You Need to Know About Monetizing with Luminate:

It is your responsibility to ensure you have the proper rights for the images you are displaying on your site.

Luminate is a revenue sharing system. Revenue from impressions, sales and clicks is split between the company and the Publisher.

The minimum payment threshold is $10. Payments can be received by PayPal or check.

Stipple

Stipple allows you to add “dots” to your site’s images for “products, people and info” that will be visible when a reader hovers the photo. When your reader moves their mouse away from the image, the embedded information disappears.

Wait! They want my money? If you want to make money with Stipple, you need to use images from the Stipple Marketplace. This requires you to purchase the license (up to $25 per image). These Stipple’d images will tell you prior to purchasing whether they are operating on a Cost Per Click or Cost Per Engagement campaign and for what the approximate earnings for the image has been estimated. According to the site, “Revenue will be different for every site. Variables like: how many photos you label, what you label, how many users you have, and how often users shop from Stipple dots all affect your site’s revenue.” Payment is made via PayPal with a $50 minimum. On the up side, you can add your personal affiliate URLs to your “dots” and avoid the Stipple Marketplace keeping 100% of the revenue you generate from your personal photos.

Who Will Most Benefit From Interactive Images?

I think it is pretty safe to say that I won’t. All of my sites are primarily text-based. Those that will get the most out of these tools will likely be sites that are in a large part photos. A few of the industries mentioned on these sites include fashion, technology, home interior and design, sports, entertainment, etc.

Would you consider using interactive images?

This past month I have received a few emails and comments here asking how I make money blogging, where my money comes from etc. I don’t share a lot of details there. The number one reason being that I know what it is like to be on the other side of the blog. You look at the detailed monthly income report and think “how can I promote that massively successful product?” That really does neither of us any good. Some may try to push products that are irrelevant to their readers. Others may try to “copycat” my system. Neither of those are a good situation. I know it stinks to hear this – you have to pay your dues with blogging.

But on the other hand, it was a record month for me. Out of nowhere – it felt like nowhere anyway – my sites brought in the equivalent to a month’s worth of full-time income in March. There are a few lessons to share here that you can take back to your blogs.

Watch for the unexpected. When I say “SocialSpark” you likely think “sponsored posts.” Not so fast. SocialSpark does specialize in sponsored posts, but they also offer an ad network and a Deal division. One of these little deals made me $550 alone. Every once in a while, take a peek in your networks and read their emails. You may find a little treasure.

Sometimes you need to listen. So I have this budget blog…It started out as one thing. Then last summer the “Extreme Couponing” craze lit up, so I jumped on that train and rode it out until the end of the year. I made a good deal of money off that blog last year. But, people get bored. My coupon money started falling fast. The coupon affiliate networks started letting us know that this group was losing interest. Now what? I really didn’t know. I didn’t have a clear direction on what I wanted to do. I have been sitting back and listening to Google. I’m watching what it wants that blog to be about and I will go from there. Is this the best thing to do in every situation? Absolutely not! If you are passionate about a topic, fight Google until it sees it for what you want it to be. I just don’t have that passion about coupons anymore.

Amazon and eBooks. I make money from Amazon every month. Now I am making a little more. My eBook sales have gone up since I added the Kindle version. I haven’t been promoting my eBook, but it clipped along on its own last month without my intervention. The majority of those sales came from Amazon. If you have an eBook, I highly suggest adding a Kindle edition.

Making Up With VigLink. When VigLink came out with their Link Insertion feature, I decided to give it a whirl. It scared me a little when I saw it in action on one of my blogs. The result looked similar to contextual ads. There is nothing wrong with those. I just believe they dilute my conversion efforts. Rather than turning off this feature, I took VigLink off my sites entirely. Lately I have had some affiliate programs that are on, and then off, then on in another network…It is exhausting. I can’t keep up with some. I re-installed VigLink. They can chase them down.

Those are a few things that were working for me in March. What was, or wasn’t, working for you?

If you are a regular reader of The Work at Home Wife, you know I love being an affiliate with Amazon. They have an endless number of products to promote, and their program can be used for almost any niche you could conjure up. If you don’t set up multiple Amazon Associate tracking IDs and are promoting with multiple sites however, it can become difficult to know what sales came from where and what marketing tactics are working.

Adding Amazon Associates IDs for tracking purposes is rather painless. With a few quick clicks, you are able to analyze your marketing efforts with ease.

Setting Up Additional Amazon Associate Tracking IDs

Once logged in, you will see your username and Amazon-assigned Tracking ID. These are most likely the same. Beside your tracking ID, you will see Manage. This is where you will add more IDs for tracking purposes.

On the next screen simply click Add Tracking ID and start searching for availability. You may choose to add IDs that relate to the website or marketing campaign (Ex. HubPages, BudgetBlog)

Once you have chosen your new Tracking IDs, you can view their stats separately or as combined reports. Don’t worry. You are not creating any new accounts here. All of your earnings are still going into one place. This is strictly done for stats.

When you go to create links to Amazon products going forward, you will have a drop-down box listing your tracking IDs. Choose the applicable ID, and you are good to go.

If you are an active Amazon Associate with multiple sites, you likely have no problems seeing the value here. Many of our Amazon earnings come from products we didn’t promote. Sometimes they are not in any way to connected to what we promoted. Where did that lawn mower sale come from? I haven’t promoted any home & garden items. It is hard to connect the dots as to where the sale came from in those situations. This will make that connection a little easier.

Do you use additional Amazon Associates Tracking IDs? Has it proven helpful in your marketing?

If you have been around the work at home world for several years, you may remember ChaCha. At one point in time this was a fantastic way to earn some good money in your spare time answering SMS questions. Sadly, ChaCha’s pay began dropping at rapid pace. Most of us decided that our time was better spent actually watching the television commercials than spending those 90 seconds answering questions. ChaCha is apparently trying to re-spark interest in their site. There is now a ChaCha Affiliate Program.

As a ChaCha affiliate you can earn money by promoting ChaCha answers to your site’s visitors and Twitter followers. Galleries are available in business, lifestyle, entertainment, sports and more.

Application Process: Super simple. Fill out the form. Give them your site’s URL and page view information. Wait. The message stated it could take up to 72 hours, but I received approval within the hour.

Payment: PayPal or check with a $25 minimum

Method to Earn: Pay Per Click – As of right now, it appears all clicks earn 2.5 cents each. Referrals – 10% of referral earnings.

How to Use the ChaCha Affiliate Program: I would suggest hopping over to the ChaCha site and doing a search before you go tweeting things blindly. There are some really poor quality answers and some that I wouldn’t want to be endorsing for other reasons. There were some good ones however! One way to use these would be as a catapult for your content creation. For example, there is a gallery called I Can Get Paid to Do What? that has a few unique ideas for earning extra cash. I could use this as a jumping off point for a post of my own and link back to this page within my content.

Things I Would Like to See: A widget! Including an HTML option for the images would be nice also.

Things to Note: As I stated previously, I would not blindly promote these links. Verify their value first. Also, be cognizant of how much you are using that Share button. Don’t bombard your Twitter followers.

Another Thing to Note: Their recruitment page states that one affiliate made $2,000 in one day. I would not plan of these results unless you are using Kim Kardashian’s Twitter account.

Join the ChaCha Affiliate Program!

It is a rare occasion that I share what I think is going to be a super hot niche. I may drop hints here and there, but I usually head off to take advantage of them myself. This one is different. It really is not a genre I have much interest, but many of you probably do! “The Hunger Games” movie is opening in most theaters at midnight tonight. There is massive buzz around this movie already. There are likely some affiliate marketers out there that are going to make a pretty penny in the near future. Will you be one of them?

Products already on Amazon:

T-Shirts (196 Results)

Books (859 Results)

Soundtrack (25 Results)

Kindle (417 Results)

Posters & Prints (80 Results)

Jewelry, Toys & Miscellaneous Items (211 Results)

That is a wide selection of items to promote – just from Amazon! Get your domain. Get to writing. It is not too late to hop on this train.

I was talking to Anna from Real Ways to Make Money Online over the weekend about our affiliate marketing plans. We both got started in passive income around the same time. We went through The Keyword Academy together. We both have big sites like this one and little niche sites scattered around the web. As we shared our successes, failures and affiliate marketing tips, one small step in our publishing processes can make or break a promotion’s long-term success.

I have not yet made it into the Double-0 Club ($100 per day) with my residual income attempts, but that is the next milestone on my horizon. I know it is possible. I have been getting close to tipping that scale recently. There is no secret to success here. There is nothing that I am doing that you can’t do for yourself. I don’t have a team. I am not using some magic software. So, where is this money coming from?

Search Engines

When I talk about my affiliate marketing plan with budding bloggers, so often they tell that they have heard of SEO they just don’t understand it yet or don’t take the time to implement what they know. I cannot stress enough the impact that this minor decision can have on your long-term success.

I have one post in particular now that has been bringing in a nice chunk of change this past month. It is not a post I am actively promoting. It is not something that I even published recently. I published it almost a year ago. Almost one year later that post is still making money. This is what we are here for, correct?

Yes. Your day-to-day activities are also an imperative part of your affiliate marketing strategy. You want your regular readers to trust you enough to purchase what you promote. However, please understand that you can talk to both your everyday readers and the search engines at the same time. There seems to be a bit of confusion here sometimes. You do not have to choose.

If you are trying to make a go in affiliate marketing, take a few minutes before publishing those posts with affiliate links to ensure you are including some nice low-competition, buying keywords. Your posts do not have to have only a 24-hour lifespan. They can live and make money for years. They just can’t do that on their own.

What is the most important factor in your affiliate marketing strategy?