Using Amazon To Make a Couple of Dollars: Affiliate Marketing for Blogging Pastors
[ Read all the posts in the Blogging 101 for Pastors series here. ]I've mentioned before that often the best blog posts are lists, but one of the easiest lists to do is a reading list post.
A reading list is obviously just the books on your desk currently. Or better yet, a top 5 of the books you're reading this month or week. My seminary prof Dr. Mark DeVine is, of course, a veracious reader ... so a booklist is always an easy post for him.
[By the way, here's his book on Bonhoeffer too.]
I think lists of books you're reading have three key benefits:
1. They are remarkably, incredibly, (interject another adverb here) EASY to do. They take all of 5 minutes. Survey what's on your desk, put in some links, and push that neat "Publish" button.
2. It shows your people what you're reading and thus, hopefully and prayerfully, good books that will strengthen your people's spiritual lives. My pastor recently mentioned reading The Grapes of Wrath
in a service, which piqued my interest in it again. And I've heard a lot of pastors talk about books their reading. I love it when they do because it exposes me to my spiritual leader's bookshelf!Do I even have to mention that later on, you can do a short review or talk about it in posts as good content for a pastor's blog?
3. Through Amazon's Associates Program, you can potentially make a couple of dollars from those who buy those books ... enough to, say, buy a free book every once in a while that you can read or give away to a member of your congregation.
Since about March, I've sold 40 books, and this blog really only got started in late July. Admittedly, if you do the math, that's not a lot. But hey, I've got a free book out of it.
So in this post for the Blogging 101 for Pastors series, I thought I'd talk briefly about using Amazon's Associates Program.
First, you need to go join Amazon's Associates Program.
By the way, in case you're wondering, getting the commission doesn't change the book sales price. So if people wonder, you can just tell them, "It doesn't change the price. It just rewards me for telling you about this great book."
Here are three ways you can list books and earn referral commissions:
- Text links in blog posts -- like this book I'm reading from Ed Young titled The Creative Leader: Unleashing the Power of Your Creative Potential
- Reading lists on your sidebar (see my left lower sidebar) -- This is the "Product Links" that displays the book's cover and price. I suggest using "no border" and the "New" price of the book, like I've done here with Mark Batterson's new release (subliminal message, buy the book, support other blogging pastors)