Guest Post By: Karen Noonan

We are all currently being overwhelmed by talk of the economic recession. Sure, it’s a bad situation out there and doing the whole “woe is me” thing with your friends, family, and neighbors is as common as taking out the trash these days. But, throwing an economic pity party isn’t doing you or your wallet any good. If you spent that time and energy focused on your earning potential you’d have much less to complain about.

What do I mean? Well, as an affiliate manager for the RevResponse program, I have clear vision into what is working for affiliates and what is keeping them from earning. And, with that vision I can see that with just a little effort many web publishers could be sitting pretty during this economic downturn. Keep reading to find out how…

Shameless self promotion… As I said, I’m the affiliate manage for the RevResponse program. The  ideas I will list for monetizing your site could work with a variety of affiliate programs and offers. However, some of these ideas are more likely to perform with the free business offers and resources we make available to our affiliates. Feel free to join RevResponse for access to our free business magazines and downloads which you can give to your audience while making money for you.
Making money with affiliate programs is all about creativity and visibility. The more creative you are for promoting your affiliates, the more visibility you give to your affiliate offers, the more money you will make.

Here are the top 3 ways that RevResponse publishers monetize our offers. Consider using any of these concepts to promote your affiliate offers or join the RevResponse program and promote ours.

1. Blogging
Step away from the ad space. Typical IAB spaces are being ignored. Most web surfers have trained themselves in a way that they no longer even see the banners on your page. Instead, monetize the good stuff. Your site visitors have come to you for your witty blog posts and news features. So, write one about your affiliate offers. As far as RevResponse goes, our partners blog about a specific offer that their audience is interested in.

For example, if you publish a blog that caters to a techie audience, write a blog post about a specific gadget available through your Amazon affiliate link or something similar. If you are a RevResponse partner, you can blog about your free subscription to Website Magazine letting your audience know that they can get a free copy by following your affiliate link.

By blogging a recommendation of a certain product or program, you are providing a service to your users while positioning yourself to generate some nice affiliate income. It’s important to be transparent to your audience and truthfully disclose that you are participating with a program that makes these offers available.

2. Newsletter Inclusions
If you send an email newsletter on a regular basis, this is a great place to bring in some additional cash. You are already providing a service to your users by condensing information into one simple email and you can make that service even more beneficial by including a featured section for your affiliate offers.

You want to monetize your newsletter without turning into spam. You need to integrate your affiliate offers into the layout of your newsletter so that they are an added bonus as opposed to an unwelcome eyesore. Consider adding a small section for “My Recommendations” or “Related Free Offers” or something similar. In this section you can include your affiliate links for the relevant offers.

3. Thank You Pages/Emails
Every corner of your online presence has money-making potential – especially your site registration landing page. If you operate a site that requires visitors to sign-up for your newsletter, for other offers, for alerts, etc., you can maximize that action.

When a visitor registers within your site, you most likely send them to a “thank you” page or send them a confirmation email where you give membership information for signing up. Capitalize on that captive audience by including a message with an offer promotion and affiliate link. For example: “Thank you for registering/signing up. As part of your membership with us, we’d like to offer you the following…”

There are dozens of ways you can think outside of the ad space box to monetize your web presence during this economically unsure time (or anytime, really). The three listed above perform well for the RevResponse partners I work with and, done correctly, you’ll surely see a revenue boost from these promotions.

To learn about the RevResponse program you can read Ian’s review of our service here.

About the author:
Karen Noonan is the affiliate manager for RevResponse.com a network that provides web  publishers with free business resources and pays these publishers to give the free content away. She blogs about the program on a regular basis at http://www.revresponse.com/blog.