How I Earned $740 Thinking Outside The Box!

Last Update: Jul 14, 2017

byEddySalomon

48.8K followers

8 years ago

So here you are at WA. You’ve learned you need to find a niche, create a website, write useful content, get ranked in search engines, add affiliate links to your content and make money. That’s pretty much the process. Quite frankly it works very well if you’re consistent and patient enough to make it work for you.

But today I’m going to share with you a little tip that can help you make even more money. To illustrate how to achieve this, we're going to focus on a dog niche as our example. But keep in mind this little technique actually applies to any niche.

So let’s say you have a blog about Italian Greyhounds. I happen to have an Italian greyhound which is why I picked it. See "Neo" aka the one, our first "kid" down below.

Yes I know it looks crazy for a 6’4 200+ pound black man to have a little ass toy breed dog. Don’t judge me. lol But I digress.

Keeping in mind my dog niche, most people will probably try to find affiliate programs related to dogs such as:

• Dog Collars
• Dog Beds
• Dog Treats
• Dog Books
• Dog Training,
• Snoop Doggy Dog,
• Etc.

You get the picture. Everyone goes for the obvious "dog crap". Pun intended. And I would too. You should. But many times when I’m looking through affiliate networks I see a lot of other affiliate offers that don’t seem like they would be a great fit for my niche but pay very well. This tends to get my inspiration juices flowing to try to figure out how I can use them on my existing sites. Because Eddy with a y doesn’t have time to create a whole new niche website that will actually provide value where I can use these other high paying affiliate offers. So what’s a brother to do?

Get Out Your Umbrellas

It’s time to brainstorm. Taking the example of my Italian Greyhound blog, there may be an affiliate program for a carpet cleaning machine that pays $50 per sale. You might just ignore it initially. But if you put on your thinking cap like I do you can find a good way to incorporate this on your site. Anyone that has a dog or cat knows that our furry friends have accidents. Some of these mishaps can leave some really nasty spots or smells on your furniture or carpet. Well knowing this I could easily write an article about how to deal with pet stains. In this article, I could recommend some carpet stain removers and a carpet cleaning machine. All of which may have affiliate programs that pay me a lot more than the conventional dog affiliate programs such as a dog training book.

Or let’s say I noticed there is an affiliate program for a fancy HEPA air purifier that’s paying me 20-30% per sale. Let’s assume these air purifiers cost anywhere from $300 - $500. Again in the natural, you may not see the connection. But not me. I know many dogs shed hair and dander that may give you or other family members serious respiratory issues. Most people view pets like a family member and you don’t want to get rid of Fido. So guess who would be writing an article about the dangers of dog hair and how to fight against it without getting rid of the family pet? This guy!

Ah Ha Moment

Are you thinking wheels spinning? Hopefully, they should be. This type of thought process can be used for any niche. I just picked the obligatory dog niche. But I can do this for any niche. My blog is about work at home. But I found a niche product related to finance not necessarily employment that paid very well and was useful. So after some thinking, I was able to incorporate this product into an existing article which received thousands of visitors over the years and actually helped many people. It currently ranks very well and has for a long time. Unfortunately, I only thought to incorporate this affiliate product this year. But even with getting to the party late, I’ve quietly made $740 this year simply by updating that one article to include an affiliate link of a financial product that complimented my article.

Living In The Past

Imagine going back to all of your popular articles that are already receiving traffic and applying this out of box thinking technique. Doing so may provide you a couple of extra hundred or thousands of dollars. You won't know unless you give it a shot. Obviously, you should try to do this to new articles as well if it makes sense. But if you already have a site that is getting traffic this may be a no brainer for you as well.

A Word of Caution

I just want to be clear. You should continue to promote the obvious affiliate programs for your niche as well. My out of the box thinking technique should be used to supplement obvious affiliate programs to your niche. Or it can give you an alternate option in situations where you can’t find enough or any affiliate programs related to your niche.

As always you want to promote affiliate offers that will provide value to your users. I’m not a proponent of just chasing down big payout affiliate offers. If you don’t believe the offer is honest or provides value, you shouldn’t promote it just because you’ll make a lot of money. Because in the short-term you will. But if your visitor is burned, they’ll never trust you again or any other recommendation you make that can make you money long-term. So don’t be evil using this technique.

Well enough of my yapping. Let me know what you guys think of this article by leaving a comment below. Did you have a moment of clarity and are inspired to implement this? Let me know your thoughts either way down below. Feel free to share this article too.

Thanks for reading guys,

Eddy with a y

P.S. Shout out to my buddy Andy: https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/andelane whose question inspired me to write this article.