Hello readers! An important update on my blog about my motivation for blogging and for the almost four-year anniversary of this blog and much longer in blogging itself…, starting with affiliate marketing! Whut? What is that? Well, hereby my motivation and explanation. A very personal written blog post.

The term ‘affiliate’

Last week I learned about the term ‘affiliate marketing’ and from Sunday until today (Wednesday night) I have been busy with setting it up for my blog and also explaining it immediately in a blog page – which can now be found in the menu named ‘Affiliate’. Because since I know about the term and I recognise it’s use, a lot of bloggers and website owners or other social media users, use it. But it is not often mentioned and seems now and then even a taboo to talk about it. I don’t like that, transparency is very important in blogging – no in life in general already in this digital era – so I just start-off with this blog post with a motivation and explanation of it all. And I keep you updated because this is gonna be a series blog post about my experience of being an affiliate now while blogging and if it works or not.

The boxed expectations of being a blogger

When I started with my blog I had no intention to make a little bit of money with it. I love to write and I love to talk so why not combine it so you don’t have to repeat your stories and things you find interesting over and over again? And when I told my story about blogging to others, most people thought I am making money with it and they have this dream vision of that I’ll be as rich as most popular YouTubers nowadays. No, please! I don’t like to hear that! Nor to hear and discover that they expect you to make money out of blogging.

Blogging does not make your rich nor must not be you big intent of writing. Write out of the love for it! I don’t know where the expectation of every blogger or vlogger making money with their stuff comes from. If I’m lucky to experience this once in my life, I’ll write another story about how did it happen. But for now I don’t assume it will happen.

I blog because I love to talk and I love to write! And when I talk I can talk for a few minutes to an hour and when I write I can write from a few hundred words to thousands of words. But in my blog posts I try to keep it limited to less than <1500 words per blog post. And I love being a (digital) creative. Design a website, design an application, code it and go from simple structures to more complex ones. Create some mini macramé bracelets, draw something and so on… I like a challenge and this feels like a challenge and improvement in efficiency.

Example

(Book)Stores provide more information about their books than I do in my review. I write about the feeling and the experience of reading it and the how’s so and so. Not about a fact like price or quantity or shipment or originated (except from language). Those are variables that can change. Not stated facts. But from now on you can see that extra information in your favourite store through the link. And if you want, purchase it. Easy right? So, enough talk about motivation?

Affiliate

Transparency is very important with blogging so the moment I started with an affiliate program, halfway February 2019, is the moment I started writing this Affiliate page. Most of it I repeat in this blog post because this blog post is the start of a new series of blogs: ‘The Affiliate Experience’ to give insights in what it is and how it works and if it truly works in my case. I review books, films and series and now and then I write about travelling, events or products and tools I stumbled upon. So in short… I write about the feeling of an experience and the tools that are useful for such experiences.

How affiliate marketing works

By writing about my experiences and those tools and products, I already promote them a bit. Why not make it easier for you as a reader to give a link: where you can borrow or subscribe or buy or find more information about the product too?

So how it works is as follows: now and then I provide a link within the text I write.
Such as this: Sophie’s Blog | Home Page.
If this is an affiliate link and is in such a paragraph not immediate clear, I will make it clear in the name.
Such as this: Amazon US | Home Page.
Otherwise I provide below the paragraph or below the whole blog post, a clear list with the links provided for every kind of affiliate program I am part of so you have a lot to choose between!

Example

This means that if you for example live in The Netherlands and are used to order stuff at Bol.com or Coolblue.nl, you can still do that! If I provide a link for those stores, you know – the same or otherwise mentioned – the product can be bought there too. So it is not shop restricted.

The commission

For every product that is bought through the link I provide – without Google interference or a time span of more than 14 days – I get a few % commission. This varies per shop and varies per product. It ranges from 1% – 10% (very rare). Most common is a commission rate between 2% – 6% per product. Every product category and every product has it’s own commission % specified for most affiliate programs. So it is complex for an affiliate. But for you as reader of my blog it is simple! It’s even a win win!

Another true (US) example

Do you want to try one month free Kindle Unlimited and enjoy the freedom where you can explore over one million titles of books and can explore thousands of titles of audio books? Unlimited reading, unlimited listening and suitable for every (common) device!
Try it out here: Kindle Unlimited
Also available for other countries; it is just another link. See the list below.

A little explanation which companies and why I am an affiliate for those and a list of countries / geography.

Amazon.com

Amazon is the nearly worldwide for most consumer products in the daily life you can think of. No cars though… but a lot of other stuff. Now and then I have to order for example some IT study books at amazon or specific camera lenses. Also Goodreads is part of Amazon and I keep track of my reading habits through Goodreads.

Because it is worldwide and originated in USA, it is easy for my US citizen readers, and all the other country citizens of the list below, to buy their stuff there. A list of the Amazon Affiliate program(s) I’m part of:

Full Amazon product list through my blogs can be found here (in creation).

My personal links per affiliated country:

United States of America | Kindle Unlimited | Amazon Prime
Canada
Australia
United Kingdom (in or outside EU does not matter that much when with Amazon)
Germany
France
Italy
Spain

Amazon is not situated in The Netherlands nor Belgium nor Luxembourg, so… there is an Amazon.nl website but it is distributed from somewhere outside The Netherlands (one of the above mentioned programs). So please order through

Bol.com

Full Bol.com product list through my blogs can be found here (in creation).

Bol.com is one of the Dutchies biggest consumer small product suppliers. At Bol.com you can e.g. buy little presents, clothes, beverages, animal supplies, toys and of course books! And they have an ebook / reading program with Kobo.

My personal link: Bol.com

Coolblue.nl

Full Coolblue.nl product list through my blogs can be found here (in creation).

Coolblue is the shop where everything is a little bit bigger. And they have real shops to visit and test the products too! No books but stuff like bicycle parts, kitchen, television and so on… Partly a competitor of Bol.com but not completely if you compare the above mentioned! So I wanted that to make sure.

My personal link: Coolblue.nl

Donner bookstore

Full Donner booklist through my blogs can be found here (in creation).

The Donner bookstore, located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands; is my all time favourite bookstore! I’m visiting this bookstore regularly, came there already since I was little or probably before I was born as well. And throughout my life, I bought most of my books there. For already 25+ years! So because I like this store so much and because it has a special place in my heart… every time when I write a bookreview, I will include a link to the book at this bookstore as well (if available). For my fellow Rotterdam area or travel distance citizens: you know then which books to find there too when I write about it :).

Thank you!

Thank you for taking time to read this long blog post. I hope you learned a bit more about what affiliate marketing is and maybe you recognise it on other sites from now on as well. And if you already knew, I hope you like my approach and like what I’m now trying.

If you have any advice or any questions regarding this blog posts and the shops related, feel free to ask by replying with a comment or Contact Me page.

Loves from Sophie