How to make money from your author website
Did you know it was possible to make money from your author website? Other than by selling books through it? If not, read on, and allow me to enlighten you on a very easy, simple thing you can implement to help your author website pay for itself!
Affiliate marketing has been a big thing in the online world for a while now, and is one of the main ways that ‘influencers’ (if you’re interested in them, by the way, I’ve written a whole novel about them and it’s out this month! 😉) make money from their blogs and social media channels.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is basically a commission-like rewards system, whereby when you recommend a product and someone then buys it, you receive a small payment as a thank you for the sale.
This is all done through special tracking links on people’s websites.
So when you click on a link to a pair of trousers on a blogger’s website and then go on to buy them, that blogger will receive a small amount of money from the clothing company in return for recommending the trousers to you.
It’s a brilliant system because it costs the person buying the product absolutely nothing extra – most people are not even aware it’s happening (although legally they should be – more about that later…) – but it means that people are rewarded when they recommend goods or products for sale.
And from the online shop’s point of view, it’s also a winner as it’s a much more cost-efficient method of marketing than using ads.
There are many different affiliate marketing programs out there, but today I’m going to talk to you about the one that’s going to be the most useful for your author website: Amazon Associates.
What’s Amazon Associates?
Amazon Associates is the name of Amazon’s own affiliate marketing program.
I have it on my own website, and so whenever anyone clicks through from my website to Amazon, and then goes on to make a purchase, I make a small fee.
It’s absolutely free to join, and all you need to do is sign up and then start using your own unique links whenever you link to any Amazon page from your website.
This tells Amazon that the visitor has come from your website. Amazon can then monitor what that visitor does and if they buy something, you get a percentage of what they spend!
These are called referral fees.
You can even receive money when people click from your website to buy your own book.
Yes, that’s right, you can get paid extra money when people buy your own book.
As mentioned, I have this running on my own author website (NB: not on this website) and although I don’t make a fortune as I don’t blog very often any more, the commission I make from Amazon Associates pretty much pays for my website hosting.
Sounds like a no-brainer to get this set up right?
Best of all, it’s super simple!
Rules and regulations
As with all things advertising online, there are some rules you must adhere to. Here are the basics, but you can find the full list on Amazon’s Associates page:
You must disclose on your site somewhere or in your communication that you may be eligible to earn from your recommendations – this is very important! It’s against ASA rules not to let people know that you may receive payment for links on your website. I have my disclosure in the footer.
You must not make false or deceptive claims in your recommendations.
Avoid referring to prices (with some exceptions) since prices frequently change.
Do not use Amazon affiliate links in offline promotions, eBooks, or email.
Do not use link shorteners on affiliate links.
How to become an Amazon affiliate
To set up an Amazon Associates account, you’ll need to have an active website or blog.
Then all you need to do is visit : https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/ and follow the instructions to set up your account.
Once that’s all sorted, be sure to use your unique tracking links every time you link to a book or product on Amazon from your website. Easy peasy.
Some last tips
Amazon Associates work really really well if you blog regularly, especially if you link to other books.
If you don’t blog or update your website often, don’t expect to make a huge amount of money from the program.
You only receive pennies for each sale, but it does add up, and the more visitors you have to your website, the more links will be clicked and the more money you’ll make. It’s why some of the really big successful bloggers can make thousands of pounds every month without having to do anything!
This is called passive income because you can make it while you sleep, and it’s a highly effective way of making money, especially if you have some older posts on your blog that still get lots of traffic.
I have one old post on my author website which consistently gets hundreds of hits every day (it has very good SEO for a particular topic that people like to search for) and it makes me a nice amount of money each month.
But do bear in mind, it takes time to grow the traffic to your website, and you need to make sure you’re updating it regularly and being mindful of the SEO on your posts (I have lots of blog posts on this if you’re interested in learning more!) in order to get the maximum return on your affiliate links.
I should also note that you can make money on any product that the visitor goes on to buy from Amazon.
It doesn’t have to be the thing you initially linked to.
So, if you link to your book and a visitor clicks on the link but doesn’t buy it, but instead buys something else on Amazon, then you’ll still receive a percentage of that sale.
Nice huh?
One last thing – as I said, you MUST disclose on your website (ideally on every page) that you use affiliate links, and remember that you’re not allowed to use affiliate links in your newsletters.
As always, if you have any questions about this, leave me a comment below or chat to me on Twitter!