Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers: How to Make $10,000/Month in Passive Income

Most bloggers spend years writing posts and getting almost nothing back. They pour time into content, dabble with ads, and wonder why the money never shows up. The answer is almost always the same: they are not using affiliate marketing, or they are doing it wrong.

In this post, you will see the exact step-by-step process for embedding affiliate links into a blog, from choosing the right affiliate network to generating a hop link to placing it inside your WordPress post so that readers can click and buy. Every step here comes directly from the tutorial Alston walks through in the video above, using real tools and a live WordPress site.

What You’ll Walk Out With

A clear understanding of how affiliate marketing actually works inside a blog post
How to log into Clickbank, browse the marketplace, and sort products by gravity
The exact steps to generate a Clickbank hop link and turn it into an affiliate link
Why you should shorten your URLs with Bitly and when you absolutely cannot
How to embed an affiliate link inside a WordPress blog post and set it to open in a new tab
How to place affiliate images in your sidebar using WordPress widgets
The right way to structure a blog post so the affiliate link feels helpful, not spammy
Not sure which online income method fits your current skills? finder.platformproof.com gives you a personalized answer in under two minutes.

Why Blogging and Affiliate Marketing Work Together

A blog is one of the few online assets that keeps earning long after you write it. A post you publish today can pull search traffic three years from now, and every one of those visitors is a potential affiliate commission. That is the core reason this combination is worth learning: you do the work once and the blog keeps running.

Affiliate marketing fits naturally into the blog format because readers arrive looking for answers. They are not just browsing. They typed a question into Google and found your post. If your post answers the question well, the affiliate link at the end of that answer does not feel like an ad. It feels like a logical next step, which is exactly how it converts.

The strategy Alston recommends in the video is to write every blog post around a specific question, walk the reader through the answer in the body of the post, and then use the affiliate link as the solution at the end. That is the whole system. Everything below is the mechanics of making it happen.

Start With WordPress as Your Blogging Platform

If you are a blogger, Alston is direct about the platform: use WordPress. WordPress gives you control over your site, your content, and your affiliate links in a way that hosted platforms do not. You are not renting space. You own it, and that ownership matters when you are building something you intend to earn from long-term.

The demo in the video is done from the WordPress dashboard. Alston logs in, goes to the Posts section, clicks Add New, and starts building a post from scratch. Everything from the title to the link placement happens inside this editor. If you are already on WordPress, you know where this is. If you are not, getting set up on WordPress with a domain and hosting is the first step before any of the affiliate work below applies to you.

Step 1: Write a Keyword-Rich Blog Post Title

The title of your blog post is not just a label. It is the thing that tells search engines what your post is about and it is what shows up in Google results when someone types a question. A weak title means no traffic, and no traffic means no affiliate clicks regardless of how good the post is.

In the video, Alston writes the title “How to Make Money Blogging” as a working example. It is a clear, direct, keyword-focused title built around a phrase people actually type. The principle is simple: think about the question your reader is asking and make that question the title. Avoid being clever or vague. Be searchable.

Once the title is in place, the rest of the post needs to deliver on it. Every section should be moving the reader toward the answer, and that answer should ultimately involve the product you are promoting as an affiliate.

Step 2: Choose the Right Affiliate Network for Your Niche

There are several large affiliate networks to choose from. Alston mentions three in the video. The first is Amazon Associates, which is the biggest network by volume. If you are in a physical product niche, Amazon is the obvious starting point. The second is Clickbank, which specializes in digital products and information courses. The third is JVZoo, another digital product marketplace that operates similarly to Clickbank.

The right network depends on your niche. If you write about cooking, Amazon affiliate links to kitchen tools make sense. If you write about making money online, digital courses on Clickbank fit better because the commissions are usually much higher than physical product commissions. Alston is in the affiliate marketing and passive income space, so he uses Clickbank for the purposes of this tutorial.

The key takeaway here is to match the network to the content you are already creating. Readers trust product recommendations that feel natural inside the post. Recommending a Clickbank course about passive income inside a post about how to make money blogging is a natural fit. Recommending the same course inside a recipe blog is not.

Step 3: Log Into Clickbank and Browse the Marketplace

The Clickbank website is at clickbank.com. If you do not have an account, the signup process is straightforward and Alston notes that just about everyone gets approved. Once you are logged in, the dashboard shows your earnings and stats. For a new account, the numbers will show zeros, which is normal.

From the dashboard, go to the Marketplace tab. This is where all the products available for promotion are listed. Clickbank organizes products by category. For the make money online and affiliate marketing niche, the category you want is eBusiness and eMarketing. Inside that category, click on Affiliate Marketing to filter down further.

Once you are inside the category, you will see a list of products with stats next to each one. One of the most important stats here is Gravity. Gravity is Clickbank’s way of measuring how many affiliates have made sales with a product in a recent period. A higher gravity number means affiliates are actively converting with that product. Alston recommends sorting by gravity when you are starting out because it removes the guesswork. If other affiliates are making sales, the product converts. That is a real signal worth following.

Step 4: Generate Your Hop Link

When you find a product in the Clickbank marketplace that fits your niche and has decent gravity, click the Promote button next to it. This opens a small window where you will generate your affiliate link, which Clickbank calls a hop link.

Click Generate Hop Link in that window. The link that appears is your personal affiliate link for that product. It includes your Clickbank account name embedded in the URL. When a reader clicks that link and buys the product, the purchase is tracked back to you and you earn the commission. Alston notes in the video that the green numbers shown next to the product represent potential earnings per sale, but makes clear there is no guarantee of commissions. The numbers are opportunities, not promises.

Copy your hop link. You now have two options for how to use it: paste it directly into your blog post as-is, or shorten it first with a URL shortener.

Step 5: Shorten Your URL With Bitly (With One Big Exception)

Clickbank hop links are long, and the string of letters and numbers at the end can look strange to readers. Some people see a long URL with unusual characters and hesitate to click it because it looks suspicious. Shortening the URL removes that friction.

Bitly is the URL shortener Alston uses. You go to bit.ly, paste your hop link, give it a clear title so you can find it later, and it produces a short, clean link. Copy the short link and paste it into your blog post instead of the raw hop link.

However, there is a critical rule here. Amazon Associates does not allow you to use Bitly or third-party URL shorteners. Amazon has its own built-in short link system that you can find next to the full affiliate link in their dashboard. If you use Bitly on Amazon links, you risk violating their terms and losing your affiliate account. Always read the terms of any affiliate network you join before shortening links.

Alston is direct about this: pay attention to the rules and guidelines of the affiliate network. Each one is different. Breaking the rules does not just cost you a commission. It can get your account banned entirely.

Step 6: Embed the Affiliate Link Inside Your WordPress Post

With your shortened affiliate link copied, go back to your WordPress blog post. Find the sentence in your content where the product recommendation fits naturally. In the video, Alston writes a sentence like “I was surprised to learn how these guys make money with affiliate marketing” and uses that sentence as the anchor text for the link.

Highlight the words you want to turn into a clickable link. In the WordPress editor, click the link button in the toolbar, paste your affiliate URL, and apply it. One setting worth enabling is the option to open the link in a new tab. Alston specifically mentions this in the video. When a reader clicks an affiliate link that opens in a new tab, they stay on your blog page at the same time. If they decide to come back and keep reading, your post is still right there. This reduces the chance of losing the reader entirely when they click through.

After embedding the link, preview the post to confirm the link appears correctly and clicks through to the right product page. Alston does this live in the video and shows the affiliate link working as expected.

Step 7: Place Affiliate Links Throughout the Post, Not Just at the End

In the video, Alston shows a real blog post on his site that has four affiliate links spread through the content. Not all of them are text links. One is an affiliate image placed near the top of the post. Another is a larger text link styled as an H4 heading so it stands out visually from the surrounding paragraph text. A third is a standard text link deeper in the post.

Spreading links across the post increases the chance that different types of readers click. Some readers scan, and a bold or large link in the middle of the post will catch their eye. Some readers read every word, and they will engage with the natural text link woven into a sentence. Multiple placements serve both types of reader without being aggressive.

The rule Alston repeats throughout is that the post must answer the reader’s question first. The affiliate links are supporting tools, not the main event. If every paragraph is a pitch, readers leave. If the post is genuinely helpful and the links appear at natural moments, conversion is a byproduct of being useful.

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Step 8: Add Affiliate Images to Your Sidebar With WordPress Widgets

Beyond the post body, WordPress lets you place affiliate content in your site’s sidebar through a feature called widgets. Alston shows this in the video by going to Appearance, then Widgets, and then looking at the Sidebar Main section. He has an image widget there with a product banner linked to an affiliate URL via Bitly.

The sidebar widget means that any reader on any page of your site will see the affiliate image, not just people reading a specific post. It is a passive placement that requires no extra work after initial setup. You upload the image, paste the link, and it stays there across your entire site.

Different WordPress themes offer different widget placement options. The theme Alston is using in the video shows several locations where widgets can be added. Your theme may have fewer or more. Check your Widgets section to see what is available on your specific setup.

The Project 24 Example: What a Real Affiliate Recommendation Looks Like

Throughout the video, Alston references Income School’s Project 24 as a real affiliate product he promotes and has personal experience with. Project 24 is a course that teaches people to build passive income through blogging over a 24-month timeline. The name comes from the goal: replace your full-time income within 24 months by following their method.

Alston is transparent in the video that he is enrolled in Project 24 himself, that it has helped him, and that he manages five different blogs where he applies the Income School principles. He also makes clear that clicking his affiliate link and purchasing the course earns him a commission. That level of disclosure is the right way to handle affiliate promotion.

The broader lesson from this example is to promote products you have actually used when possible. A recommendation backed by personal experience reads differently than a recommendation built around a paycheck. Readers can tell the difference, and so can search engines over time.

Honest Drawbacks of Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers

Affiliate marketing through blogging is a long game, not a fast one. New blog posts can take months to rank in search engines, and until they rank, they get very little traffic. No traffic means no affiliate clicks and no commissions. Most bloggers see very little return in the first three to six months regardless of how good the content is.

Affiliate commissions are not guaranteed. Alston says this explicitly in the video. The potential earnings figures on Clickbank represent what is possible, not what will happen. Your actual results depend on how much traffic your posts attract and how well your content matches what readers want to buy.

Affiliate network rules change. Amazon has cut commission rates multiple times over the past decade. A blog monetized entirely through Amazon affiliates can see income drop overnight when Amazon adjusts its payout structure. Diversifying across multiple networks and products reduces that risk but adds management complexity.

Finally, blogging requires consistent content production. A single post is not a business. Building a blog that earns reliably from affiliate links means publishing regularly over a long period. For people who enjoy writing and have patience for slow initial progress, this model works very well. For people who need fast results, it is a mismatch with reality.

A Simple Step Plan to Start Today

Pick one question your target reader is typing into Google and make that your post title.
Sign up for a Clickbank account at clickbank.com (the approval process is open to most applicants).
Go to the Clickbank Marketplace, select the category matching your niche, and sort by gravity to find products with proven conversions.
Click Promote on a product, generate your hop link, and save it.
Go to bit.ly, shorten the hop link, and give it a clear title so you can find it later.
Write a blog post in WordPress that answers the question in your title. Walk through the answer step by step, and mention the affiliate product as the solution or further resource at the natural end of the answer.
Highlight the anchor text, add the shortened affiliate link, and set it to open in a new tab.
Preview the post, confirm the link works, and publish.
Add an affiliate image widget to your sidebar in Appearance > Widgets for passive placement across the whole site.

Find Your X

Affiliate marketing through blogging is one of several paths to making money online with skills you already have. But it is not the only path, and it is not the right fit for every person. The method that works is the one that matches your actual strengths, your available time, and the audience you can realistically reach.

If you are not sure whether blogging and affiliate marketing is your route, take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com. It takes about two minutes and gives you a personalized starting point based on your situation rather than a generic recommendation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a large blog audience before affiliate marketing makes sense?

No, but you need some traffic. A small, targeted audience that arrives from search with a specific question converts better than a large general audience that is not looking for anything in particular. Focus on ranking for specific questions rather than building a general following first.

Is Clickbank legitimate for affiliates?

Yes. Clickbank is one of the largest and longest-running digital product affiliate networks. It has been operating since 1998. The quality of individual products on the platform varies widely, so you should research any product before promoting it. Sort by gravity as a starting filter, then read reviews of the product itself before linking to it.

Why does Clickbank call affiliate links “hop links”?

Clickbank uses the term hop link to refer to the tracked affiliate URL that routes a visitor from your content to the product’s sales page. The tracking is how Clickbank attributes a purchase to your account and credits your commission. The term is unique to Clickbank but functions the same as any other affiliate tracking link.

What is gravity on Clickbank and how high should it be?

Gravity is a Clickbank score that reflects how many different affiliates have made at least one sale with a product in a recent time period. A higher gravity means more affiliates are actively converting with that product. There is no universal “right” gravity number, but sorting by gravity when you are new gives you a reasonable starting signal. Products with very low gravity may convert for nobody. Products with very high gravity may be crowded with competition.

Can I use Bitly to shorten affiliate links from any network?

Not always. As Alston points out in the video, Amazon Associates explicitly does not allow third-party URL shorteners like Bitly. Amazon provides its own short link option inside the affiliate dashboard. Always read the terms of each affiliate network you join before shortening links. Violating those terms can result in account termination.

How many affiliate links should I put in one blog post?

Alston’s real post shown in the video has four affiliate links spread across the content, including a sidebar image, an in-text sentence link, a styled header link, and another in-text link deeper in the post. A few well-placed links spread through a post is a reasonable range. A post that leads every other paragraph with a pitch will feel like an ad and readers will leave.

Do I have to disclose that my blog links are affiliate links?

Yes. In the United States, the FTC requires bloggers to clearly disclose when a link is an affiliate link that earns a commission. Alston models this correctly in the video by stating on camera that the Income School Project 24 link is an affiliate link and that purchasing through it earns him a commission. This kind of disclosure is both a legal requirement and a reader trust practice worth following.

How long does it take before an affiliate blog post starts earning?

It depends on how quickly the post ranks in search results, and that depends on the competitiveness of your keyword, the authority of your site, and how well the post is written. New blogs with little existing authority can take three to six months before any single post gets meaningful search traffic. Established blogs with some domain authority can see results faster. There is no shortcut around the time it takes for search engines to trust and rank your content.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “Affiliate Marketing for Bloggers: How to Make $10,000/Month in Passive Income!” YouTube, youtube.com/watch?v=gExmEsV63GA
Clickbank Marketplace, clickbank.com
Bitly URL Shortener, bit.ly
Income School Project 24, incomeschool.com
Amazon Associates Program, affiliate-program.amazon.com