How To Do Affiliate Marketing Through Blogging: 4 Ways To Make Money From Your Blog

Most bloggers treat affiliate marketing as one thing: drop a link into a post and hope someone clicks it. That is the first method. But there are three more that most affiliate marketing guides never cover, and at least two of them will outperform a plain text link on nearly every blog.

This post breaks down four specific ways to monetize a blog with affiliate marketing. Each one works differently, suits a different kind of audience differently, and requires a different amount of setup time. By the end you will have a clear picture of which method to try first on your specific site, based on where you are right now.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The two fastest places to find affiliate programs beyond Amazon and Shopify
How to use Ahrefs to uncover niche programs paying up to 50% commission
What Commission Junction is, how it works, and how to get accepted
The simplest way to add affiliate links directly to any existing blog post
Why email marketing beats a text link for consistent, repeat affiliate income
How to create a blog banner ad for free on Canva, or hire one for $5 on Fiverr
How to add a clickable button inside any WordPress post in under two minutes
A personalized answer on which method fits your blog today at finder.platformproof.com

How to Find Affiliate Programs Before You Pick a Method

Before you choose which monetization method to use, you need an actual affiliate program to promote. Most people stop at Amazon Associates, Shopify, or one of the other household names. That is a mistake, because thousands of smaller programs exist, many of them paying commissions that Amazon’s 1% to 3% rates cannot touch.

One fast way to find programs is Ahrefs. Open the keyword explorer, type “affiliate program” as a phrase, and click Matching Terms. You will see programs organized by brand name: Apple, Bluehost, H&M, Lowe’s, Microsoft, Chewy.com, and hundreds more. If you filter results down to a keyword difficulty score of five or below, you start seeing mid-size brands like Wayfair, Hobby Lobby, Hulu, and Nordstrom that are actively recruiting new affiliates. These smaller programs are easier to rank for in search and often convert well because they carry familiar brand names that readers already trust.

The second route is an affiliate network. An affiliate network sits between you and the brand. The network handles payments, provides your tracking links and banner assets, and gives you one dashboard to manage instead of logging into thirty separate programs. Commission Junction, known as CJ.com, is one of the largest. You do have to submit an application and get accepted, but the process is straightforward for any blog with a few months of published content. Once you are in, you search by niche. Type “fashion” and hit enter. You will see a full list of fashion brands using CJ. Some pay 12% commission. Adore Me, a clothing and apparel brand, pays 50% commission. There is real opportunity here if you take twenty minutes to look past the household names.

The principle is the same regardless of which discovery method you use: you do not have to stay with the major players. Smaller, niche-specific programs often pay more and have less competition for the affiliate links pointing to them. Find a program that fits your audience, apply, get your link, then choose the method below that fits how your blog is set up.

Way 1: Add Affiliate Links Directly to Your Blog Posts

This is the most straightforward method and the one every beginner starts with. You take your affiliate link, wrap it around a word or phrase in your post, and publish. When a reader clicks that link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. No extra pages, no email sequences, no design work required.

The part most people get wrong is the call to action. A plain hyperlink with the words “click here” does not give the reader a reason to act. A specific call to action does. “Click here to start a website for under three dollars a month” converts better than “click here.” “Click here to see the fall fashion picks we tested” converts better than “check this out.” The more specific you are about what the reader gets on the other side of the click, the more clicks you will get.

Some examples that work well: “Click here to start a website” as an affiliate link to Bluehost. “Click here to get the latest fashion trends” as a link to an apparel affiliate program. “Click here to learn how to lose 10 pounds in 10 days” as a link to a health and fitness program. Each of those calls to action tells the reader exactly what they are getting, which reduces the hesitation between reading and clicking.

For WordPress users, the technical side is simple. Highlight the anchor text in your post, click the link icon in the toolbar, paste your affiliate URL, and check the box to open the link in a new tab. That last step matters. You want the reader to come back to your page after looking at the affiliate offer, not lose your content the moment they click away.

Direct text links work best in posts where you are reviewing a product or tool, or in how-to posts where a specific tool is a natural part of the process. A post about how to start a blog is a natural home for a Bluehost affiliate link. A post reviewing email marketing platforms is a natural home for a GetResponse affiliate link. The goal is for the link to feel like a useful recommendation, not an interruption.

Way 2: Build an Email List and Market to Subscribers

Email marketing is the method that most beginners overlook, and it is the one that pays the most consistently over time. The reason is straightforward: you can earn income from the same person more than once. A reader who clicks a link in a blog post visits that post once, maybe twice. A subscriber on your email list can receive offers from you every week for years. That is a fundamentally different relationship, and it produces a fundamentally different income pattern.

The setup looks like this. Pick an email platform. GetResponse and ClickFunnels are two solid options referenced directly in the video. Create a simple opt-in form that offers something valuable for free in exchange for a name and email address. In the affiliate marketing niche, a free training on getting started works well. In your niche, it might be a free recipe collection, a style guide, a workout calendar, or a checklist of tools you actually use. The free offer has to be something your specific audience genuinely wants, or the opt-in rate will be low regardless of how many people see the form.

You embed a short HTML form on your blog, usually in the sidebar, at the top of posts, or as a pop-up. The reader enters their name and email address. They land on your email list. From there you send a welcome sequence introducing yourself and your best content, and then you follow up with affiliate offers that are relevant to what they signed up for. Someone who opted in for a free affiliate marketing training is already interested in the topic. A ClickFunnels or GetResponse affiliate link in a follow-up email is a natural next step, not an awkward sales pitch.

Email marketing also opens revenue channels beyond affiliate income. Once someone is on your list, you can promote your own products, digital downloads, courses, or coaching. That flexibility is why building a list beats direct linking as a long-term strategy for most bloggers. The list belongs to you. It is not subject to Google algorithm shifts or changes in how social platforms distribute content. You own the relationship with the reader, and you keep it regardless of what changes around it.

GetResponse starts with a free tier that handles up to 500 contacts, so there is no upfront cost to get started. ClickFunnels is more expensive and designed more for sales funnels than pure email, but it combines the opt-in form and the follow-up sequence into one tool, which some people find easier to manage than juggling separate platforms. Both work. The best one is whichever you will actually set up this week rather than researching indefinitely.

Way 3: Create and Embed Banner Ads on Your Blog

Banner ads are visual ads placed inside your blog. They can live in the sidebar, inside the body of a post, at the top of the page, or at the bottom. A banner ad does not require the reader to be on a specific word or sentence to notice it. It sits on the page and works as a passive call to action every time someone scrolls past, regardless of how much of the post they actually read.

The tool that makes banner creation accessible to non-designers is Canva. Go to Canva.com and search for ad templates. You will find formats for every standard banner size: Facebook ad, feed ad, leaderboard ad, large rectangle ad, and more. You pick a template, swap in your text and brand colors, and download the finished image. If you want the banner to grab more attention, Canva lets you export animated GIF versions that loop continuously. Movement on a static page catches the reader’s eye in a way a motionless image does not.

If design is not your strength, Fiverr is the practical backup. Search “banner ad” on Fiverr.com and you will find more than six thousand freelancers offering banner design services. The starting price is five dollars. You give them the banner size, the affiliate brand you are promoting, your blog’s color scheme, and your call to action text. They deliver a finished image file. You upload it, link it to your affiliate URL, and set it to open in a new tab. Total cost: five dollars and about ten minutes of your time.

In WordPress, adding a banner to a post takes three steps. Click the plus sign to add a new block, choose Image, and upload your banner file. Then click the link icon on the image to add your affiliate URL. Make sure the “open in new tab” option is checked. Done. The image is now a clickable affiliate banner sitting inside your post. You can place it mid-post, at the end of the post, or use the same process in the sidebar through the WordPress widget area or a plugin built for banner rotation.

Banner ads perform best when the ad closely matches the topic of the post it appears in. A fashion brand banner inside a fashion post, or a hosting company banner inside a blogging tutorial, will outperform a random ad dropped into unrelated content. Think of banner placement the same way you would think about ad placement on any other platform: relevance to the reader determines performance.

Way 4: Add Buttons With Clear Calls to Action

The fourth method is the button block. A button is a styled, clickable element that stands apart from the body text of a post. Where a hyperlink blends into a sentence, a button sits on its own line with a colored background and visible border. For readers who skim instead of reading every word, a button gives them an obvious next step without requiring them to find the right sentence with the right link.

In WordPress, adding a button requires no technical knowledge. Click the plus sign to add a new block. Scroll down to Button and click it. Type your call to action text into the button. Then add your affiliate link in the URL field and confirm it opens in a new tab. Publish the post. That is the entire process.

For the button text, the same principle applies as with text links: be specific. “Click Here to Learn More” tells the reader nothing useful. “Start Your Free 30-Day Trial of GetResponse” tells them exactly what they are signing up for. “Get 50% Off at Adore Me Today” tells them there is a discount waiting. Specific buttons convert because the reader knows what they are getting before they click. Vague buttons do not convert because the reader has no reason to act.

If you want more styling options, there are WordPress plugins that add gradient fills, hover color changes, icon support, and countdown timers to buttons. For most beginners, the native WordPress block is sufficient. Get a working button in place and test whether it produces clicks before investing time in advanced styling. The goal in the first iteration is a live button with a clear call to action, not a perfectly polished one.

Buttons work especially well at the end of a review post or tutorial post, after you have built a case for a particular product or tool. You explain what it does, share your honest take, note the main limitations, and then close with a button that sends the reader to the affiliate offer. That sequence feels natural to the reader and gives them a clear action to take before they leave the page. It is also the easiest pattern to test, because changing the button text or link in WordPress takes about thirty seconds.

Not sure which of these four methods fits your blog right now?

Answer five quick questions and get a specific recommendation at finder.platformproof.com.

Which Method Should You Start With?

All four methods work on the same blog. Most established affiliate blogs use all of them at the same time. But if you are starting out, picking one to focus on first is more productive than trying to implement all four at once. Here is a simple framework.

Start with direct affiliate links if your blog is already publishing content and you want to earn from what you have already written. Go back to your top five posts, find the products or tools you mention, and replace plain mentions with affiliate links that include a specific call to action. This takes under an hour and has zero setup cost. It is the fastest way to start earning from existing traffic without changing anything else about your blog.

Start with email marketing if you are thinking about where your income will be six to twelve months from now. Building a list takes longer to produce income, but the income it produces is more consistent and grows over time. If affiliate marketing is a long-term income goal rather than a side experiment, treat list building as your top priority from the beginning, not something you add later.

Start with banner ads if your blog gets consistent traffic but readers are not engaging with your text links. Sometimes the problem is visibility, not offer quality. A relevant banner in a high-traffic spot can pick up clicks from readers who scan posts instead of reading them. Canva makes the design fast and free, and Fiverr makes it cheap if design is not your skill set.

Start with buttons if you are publishing review posts or step-by-step tutorials and you want a scannable close that does not require the reader to hunt for a link. Buttons are the simplest post-level upgrade. They require no new tools, no new accounts, and no design work. Add one to a post you already have live and see what happens to the click rate.

Honest Drawbacks to Know Before You Start

Affiliate marketing through blogging is not a fast path to income. Traffic is the limiting factor on all four methods. You can set up perfect affiliate links, a polished opt-in form, a professional banner, and a clear button, and if no one is reading your blog, none of it earns anything. The income from affiliate marketing scales with the audience you have, so building traffic is always the upstream work that makes everything else function.

Commission Junction requires an application, and not every blog gets accepted on the first try. If your blog is brand new or low-traffic, you may need to wait a few months before applying. Smaller in-house programs found through Ahrefs often accept anyone with a live website and relevant content, because their requirements are simpler than a major network’s.

Email marketing has an ongoing cost once your list grows past the free tier. GetResponse and ClickFunnels both charge monthly fees at scale. That cost is worth it when the list is producing regular income, but factor it into your planning. Some people start with a free tool like Mailchimp to keep early expenses low, then migrate to a more capable platform once the list reaches a size where the investment makes sense.

Banner ads face banner blindness. Regular visitors to a site stop consciously noticing static elements after a few visits. Animated banners, rotating banners, or banners placed mid-post instead of always in the sidebar tend to hold attention better than a static image that never changes. Refresh your banner creative every few months to keep it from becoming part of the background.

Find Your X

Four methods, one blog, and you do not have to guess which one fits your situation. If you want a personalized recommendation built around your niche, your current traffic level, and the time you have available, take five minutes at finder.platformproof.com. Answer a few short questions about where you are right now, and you get a specific starting point, not a generic answer that applies to every blogger equally.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a lot of traffic to make money with affiliate marketing on a blog?

Traffic volume matters, but the match between the post topic and the affiliate offer matters more. A blog with 500 highly targeted monthly readers who are actively looking for what you are recommending will outperform a blog with 10,000 untargeted readers who landed on the page for a different reason. Focus first on writing posts that match specific buyer intent. Traffic that converts is worth more than traffic that bounces.

What affiliate program should I start with as a beginner?

Start with whatever you use and can honestly recommend. Readers detect inauthentic endorsements quickly, and once trust is gone it is hard to rebuild. If you blog about starting a website, Bluehost is a real recommendation because it is a product you can actually test. If you blog about fashion, find brands in a price range you have shopped at and can speak to from experience. Authenticity converts better than chasing the highest commission rate on a product you have never tried.

What is Commission Junction and how do I get accepted?

Commission Junction, also called CJ.com, is an affiliate network that connects bloggers with brands. You apply with your blog URL, your niche, and your estimated monthly traffic. Having several months of published content and a professional-looking site improves your chances of approval. Once you are inside the network, individual brands may still require a separate application, but the CJ dashboard makes it easy to find and apply to programs across dozens of categories from a single account.

Is email marketing really better than just adding affiliate links to blog posts?

For long-term income, yes. A blog post earns a commission when someone reads it and clicks during that visit. An email list earns every time you send a relevant offer to engaged subscribers. A well-timed email to a list of 2,000 people can produce more affiliate sales in a day than a post with 500 monthly readers produces in a month. The tradeoff is that building the list requires consistent effort over months before the return becomes obvious. It is a longer runway but a more durable income source.

Can I use Canva for free to create banner ads?

Yes. Canva’s free plan includes hundreds of ad templates covering standard sizes like large rectangle, leaderboard, and feed ad. You can adjust colors, fonts, and images without a paid account, and download finished files as PNG or JPG. The free plan also supports animated GIF exports, which can help a banner stand out on a page that is otherwise all static text. The paid Canva plan adds brand kit features and additional templates, but it is not required to create functional, attractive banner ads.

How much does it cost to hire a banner designer on Fiverr?

Basic static banner design on Fiverr starts at five dollars. Prices increase based on the number of sizes you need, animation complexity, and turnaround time. For a single sidebar banner or in-post banner, the five to fifteen dollar range covers most requirements. Search “banner ad” on Fiverr, filter by your budget and delivery timeline, and look for sellers whose portfolio includes ads in a style similar to what you want. Reading recent reviews is the fastest way to identify sellers who deliver on time and take direction well.

Do I need coding skills to add affiliate links, banners, or buttons in WordPress?

No coding required for any of the four methods. Text links are added by highlighting text and clicking the link icon in the WordPress block editor. Images and banners are uploaded through the Image block. Buttons are added through the Button block. All three steps are point-and-click with no HTML involved. The one partial exception is embedding an email opt-in form from GetResponse or ClickFunnels, which uses a short HTML code block, but both platforms generate that code for you and you just paste it into a Custom HTML block in WordPress.

How many affiliate programs should I join at once?

Start with two to three programs that fit your niche directly. Spreading across dozens of programs before you have any traffic data creates confusion about which offers to prioritize, which links to include in which posts, and which programs are actually driving income. Get baseline data from a small set of programs first. Once you know what your audience clicks on and buys, expand to complementary programs that serve the same reader from a different angle.

Sources

Ahrefs Keyword Explorer – used for affiliate program discovery by brand name and keyword difficulty filtering
Commission Junction (CJ.com) – affiliate network referenced for fashion niche programs with commissions ranging from 12% to 50%
Canva.com – free online design tool for banner ad creation with ad-specific templates and animated GIF export
Fiverr.com – freelance marketplace with banner ad design services starting at $5
GetResponse – email marketing platform referenced for affiliate list building with a free tier up to 500 contacts
ClickFunnels – sales funnel and email platform referenced as an alternative opt-in and follow-up tool