How I Made $100 with Just a Single Post [Detailed Guide]

This is my own story on Affiliate Sale which gave me a lot of confidence last month. This gave me a good reason to think blogging as a full-time career option. Yes, it was my first affiliate sale and after few days my second affiliate sale. These two Affiliate sales made me $100 in just a couple of days. I know this is not much but to give a start it was a decent income.

As a beginner, I was using only AdSense and my own services like web development and support. But as we know if we don't have a good amount of traffic, AdSense will not give you a decent amount and so I was searching for other means of income and here it came. Let me tell you my story behind this.

I think it was somewhere on November'14 when I was reading a blog post and found Hostgator Affiliate gives a very good commission on the sale and I registered for the Hostgator Affiliate program. But I didn't use my link anywhere for a month.


Also Read: How I got AdSense Approval in First Attempt

How I wrote the post

One day (15th Dec.) I was checking my email and found Hostgator is providing Holiday Dash sale at 75% discount. I thought about this and found a single hosting will be available just at $1.24 and decided to write a post. This offer was in couple of slots for few hours and a first slot was already started. So quickly I started writing on it.

It didn't take much of my time as earlier I used HostGator Hosting for one of my client and so I knew this hosting very well. It took around couple of hours to write a short review about HostGator and explaining the offer. This was the first time I was trying for an affiliate program and sale.

So within couple of hours, my post was live and I did well on page SEO so that the ranking can improve a bit.

I logged to Facebook and found there were more than 50 people promoting this offer already and then I decided not to waste time on ranking the article and was searching for the other way for sale.

How I promoted the offer

After looking at the social media I realized some big blogs are already ranking for this offer and within a short span of time, it was almost impossible me to rank mine. And so I thought of other means of promotion.

I targeted Social Media for the promotion first and so posted on facebook, facebook groups, Google+ and Google+ groups. Believe me friends; Google+ groups are a great source of traffic as well as leads too.

So finally I was having around hundreds of traffic on that post but no sale. I was worrying about the sale and finally I targeted few more options of promotion.

I reached out to the forums where I am active and posted the link in my signature and on few answers too where ever I found relevant. I repeated this for good number of times, few in signature and other in relevant answers and this gave me good amount of traffic.

Also Read:5 Social Networking Sites you Must Join

How I made first sale

The forum posting worked for me and I got my first sale. Yes as I talked before also, forum is a great place of promotion, this give good amount of traffic as well as leads.

Forums have always helped me. I remember the time when I was handling one lead generation project for one of my Delhi based client from Law niche. My SEO guy was on leave and leads were decreasing and it was around the month end and so to get payment we had to complete the target. So after some digging on the net I found forums and great news was within 3-4 days, we completed the target well in advance.

So I would suggest you all especially if you're a newbie to target forums for traffic and sales too. You can read my articles on the benefits of Forums-

How to Promote Website using Forums
Increase your Backlinks Using Dofollow Forums

Yes this was my first sale and I was more than happy that with few hours of work made me $50. I know this was not much but as a starter this was decent money, especially if you'll compare with AdSense.

Also Read: Tips to Increase AdSense Earning

How I Made Second Sale

Yes again this was from Hostgator itself and again Holiday Dash with 75% off :) On 22nd December I again found this great offer by Hostgator in my Inbox and this time I didn't worked more and just edited my older post and changed the date and time accordingly. Then by using the sticky post option took this post on the top of the home page and promoted using the same strategy.

I also mailed to the guy who made my first sale and told that the offer is again live and if you need, you can grab the offer again. No doubt this didn't make a sale as he needed only one but this gave me a loyal reader and he is now a regular visitor of TricksRoad. So maintaining a good relationship is also a crucial point in online business. I am not expert but whatever I have read during this short time, this is what pro bloggers says.

Within couple of hours I made the sale but unfortunately that was declined as that was not the valid sale. But later on, again I made the second valid sale and earned my second $50.

So in total, few hours of my work made $100 in just couple of days. This was my first and second affiliate sales.

How to Make Sale

With my experience below is what I learnt-

• Sale only those items which you have already used or likely to use and have good knowledge, so that you can solve the query, if asked by any user.
• Take buyers in confidence. Of course you have to do this through the post that you've written. So write a good review.
• Give a valid reason to buy through your link.
• Give some extra spice so that visitors will have a good reason to buy.
• Maintain good reputations with your previous buyers and readers.

What I offered

No doubt, I simply promoted the offers provided by the company but I gave some extra spice too. As you can see in the below image, I gave many other benefits to the buyers to buy from my affiliate link. This gave a positive impression to the buyers.

As a blogger, the above offers will not cost you much and you can easily fulfill these. Many bloggers have already written a good posts on all the above points and just you can give the links and can ask to reach out to you in case of any confusion.

But this means a lot for the newbie bloggers. So try to offer what you can.

What you should not Do

There are many ways to make to make affiliate sale but I would suggest you not to cheat your visitors and buyers. Promote only those products which you've already used. Also while writing the reviews, write your experience not what company says on their site.

If you'll write the same thing which company tell, then what's the need of reviews? I hope you'll agree to me here. Also after the sell don't break the communication to the buyers. This will help you to make further sales.

Also Read: Common Mistakes that Every Bloggers Should Avoid

Over to You

This was all about my journey of first affiliate sale. Hostgator is not the only company which provide the good commission, there are much more than this. Like BlueHost provides $65 per sale. Just join and promote the products you like and do with dedication.

Many bloggers have a dream to earn from Affiliate marketing. I too had the same but initially for couple of months didn't get into that. But I would advise you all to sell the products from the very first day itself.

Build a good blog with good content. This is the first step in affiliate marketing or for any money making blog. Getting visitors and converting them into loyal readers comes to second. And then selecting market place and promoting products comes the third. If you've worked well in all the three steps, you can be the next affiliate star.

I know you guys are also trying for affiliate sales and must have earned a lot from it. Do share your experience with me regarding your sales and strategies. I will love to hear that. Also if you have any question from the same, you're most welcome.

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Ashutosh Jha

Ashutosh Jha is a professional blogger, Blog and IT Consultant. He writes about Blogging, SEO, Making Money, Internet Marketing and Web Design.
If you liked the post, You can follow him on the below social media.

Website: TricksRoad

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