In my premiere post, 'Earning a living as a blogger', I showed how easy it is to monetize your posts / articles by joining Affiliate Marketing programs. There are a few out there to choose from. These help you to connect with merchants that offer products or services. When you place one of their links or banner ads within your posts, they could generate extra income. These merchants will usually pay a percentage, usually around 4% but there are several that offer 10% and I even saw one that offered 20%.
I use ShareASale as my go to to connect with merchants, the first being ShareASale itself. They too offer great bonuses if one of my ShareASale banners or links produces a successful click-thru. The site is not only looking for affiliates (Publishers) but also merchants (Advertisers). If a merchant successfully signs up after clicking, I stand to earn $150. That's a nice little payday isn't it?
There's just one little catch. All of their codes are HTML (hypertext markup language). This is the code our browsers read and interpret as what we see onscreen. Web designers easily know how to use and embed this code but how do we embed them into our posts here on PublishOx? Fortunately, I have HTML coding experience and the answer is quite simple once you understand the neat little tricks I'm about to show you.
Below is the HTML code for the banner image above...
A web designer would not install the image along with the code as it isn't necessary. Looking at the code above, just past the highlighted area, you'll see <img src =...>. This little stretch of code informs the browser to download the image from Shareasale.com for viewing. Obviously, we can't use this code in our posts so how do we get this image? By simply taken an exact screen shot of the banner and saving it as a picture. Now, we have an image to install in our post.
Next, I'll show you how to turn this image into a clickable link. Looking again at the HTML image above, I've highlight a line of text. This text is between the quotation marks for <a target="_blank" href=".......">. The 'A HREF' instruction turns any text or image into a functioning link. The link that is placed between these quotation marks is my all important affiliate link. This is the line of code I used to turn my banner image into a clickable link.
Once you've placed your banner anywhere in your post, simply highlight the code as I've shown, right click and copy. Then, highlight the banner image in your post and click the 'link' logo 
in the toolbar and paste the banner link within (see image below) and click 'OK'. 'Text to display' is optional but recommended for a banner image while it IS necessary for a text link. Congratulations, you've just created your first working affiliate marketing banner in your post.
The same applies with text links since ShareASale merchants also offer various text links. As an example, below is a working text link...
Join shareasale.com, Earn Cash!
Sometimes it's better to use banners and sometimes it's better to use text links. Sometimes it's works to use both banners and text links. It's always up to you. Another cool aspect is that affiliated merchants usually allow for the reproduction of logos and pictures on their sites in order to use in your promotions.
There are so many merchants to choose from. It's wise to connect with just a handful and build working relationships with them. They take their work seriously and they expect the same in kind. Trust me, you'll want to work hard at it once you get the hang of it and start profiting.
Don't let the HTML code intimidate you. Now, you know how easy it is by simply copying and pasting and taking screenshots. Of course, if you run your own website, HTML makes it super easy to embed your links. It will also maximize your website's earning potential.
There are other ways to monetize your posts. An example is the image below, promoting my Ebay channel. Buy a ten ounce pure silver bar, mention PublishOx and I'll include a vintage silver quarter (25c coin) for FREE!
As writers, we all want to earn rewards for our hard work. I hope this article helps open doors for you so you too can 'get in on the action'. Each of your posts are highly valuable and may be seen by people around the world, any time of the day or night for as long as they remain published. Even a year from now, someone might come along and click an ad in one of your old pages that could turn into potential profit. Monetize your posts / articles and let them work for you for as long as you want. Take a break when you feel like it with no worries, knowing your posts are working for you.
The first affiliate program you should join though, is PublishOx's Ambassador program. Earn 5% of every tip generated by members that sign up through your Ambassador link. The banner below was embedded into this post in the same manner that I embedded the ShareASale banner. If I can do it, you can too. It really is that easy!
I'll be sharing more tips on improving affiliate marketing skills in the near future so be sure to follow. Thanks to PublishOx and fellow members for your incredible support. My blog has been on fire the last 30 days and I'm fast approaching 25K views. For an oldie like me, I think that's awesome and I have all of you to thank for it so once again, THANK YOU for your continued support.
Follow my brand new series, 'Making A Living As A Blogger'. Stay tuned for new posts!
Chapter 1: Making a living as a blogger.
Chapter 3: Insert coupons as freebies.
Chapter 4: Proof read for errors before publishing.
Thank you for supporting my sponsors.
Buy Silver! Visit my eBay channel.
Cooper's Cask Coffee Co. 10% Off First Order. Use Code 'FIRSTTIME'
Milk Road - Bitcoin newsletter
Bitify - Buy and Sell Bitcoin marketplace
Fire Maple Gear. 5% Off First Order Use Code 'FM5'.
ShareAsale - $$ Affiliate Marketing $$
I'm also on Substack with occasional new podcasts and now also on Twitter / X.
