Affiliate Income Opportunities for Artists
Additional income can be earned through affiliate marketing...making money online!
Affiliate marketing is simply helping online shoppers find what they need while at the same time, helping companies reach a new market.
When you put a company's link on your website or blog and someone clicks on it and then purchases something, you get a percentage of the sale.
You do not have to store anything, write up any paperwork, or ship anything. You are making money by helping sell someone else's stuff.
In this page:
Just click to go directly to the article of interest to you.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Leads are usually .75 cents or $5 each. Seems very small, but it can add up - and keep in mind, for you to make money for a lead, the person usually just has to fill out an online form, not necessarily buy anything.
Percentage of sale affiliate amounts can also vary, anything from 1% to 15% is typical.
Keep the prices of the items sold by a company in mind as you evaluate which to join. If the product being sold is expensive, then that seemingly measly 2% commission can be a lot of money!
Your art blog or website probably already has what you need to start generating extra income. The purpose of this page is for me to share with you what has worked for me.
I'd also like to encourage you to give it a try. It's not as hard as you might think, and once you get started you will probably really enjoy it.
Here's some of my recent daily tallies:
Total for February 2008: $61.35
29 Feb 2008: $1.50
27 Feb 2008: $3.50
25 Feb 2008: $1.50
22 Feb 2008: $1.50
21 Feb 2008: $4.27
20 Feb 2008: $1.23
17 Feb 2008 $1.50
16 Feb 2008: $1.50
15 Feb 2008: .75 cents
14 Feb 2008: .75 cents
13 Feb 2008: .75 cents
12 Feb 2008: $10.28
10 Feb 2008: $17.98
7 Feb 2008: $1.09
5 Feb 2008: $10.75
3 Feb 2008: $1.00
1 Feb 2008: $1.50
As you can see, some days are really good and other days only bring in 75 cents! It's important to look at the overall picture. Although some days bring in nothing or next-to-nothing, the days that are good more than make up for that. Keep in mind that even $1 a day will come out to $365 over the course of a year...and you didn't pay anything to do this!

If you join the Art.com Affiliate Program, you will receive a portion of sales that are generated through your links. You can see how it works on my site here. Really looks nice and it's instant content too!
What can I sell?
Suggestions:
*The Dick Blick free art catalog offer (when someone orders a free catalog and they make a purchase within 90 days using the 'Source Code' on the catalog, you still get 10% of the sale before taxes and shipping.
They have great catalogs, so this is something really nice to offer.
*Art instruction DVDs/Videos
I think these links will do best if they are related to the kind of art that you do. If you do watercolor, for example, link to DVD instruction for watercolor specifically and the content will help enhance your site's content at the same time as it works as potential income earner for you.
*Art books
See Selling Art Books (on this page) for more information and advice about selling art books.
*Gift items. If you are an artist who works from photos like I do, then photo-related gifts like photo books from Shutterfly may do very well for you.
*Pet Products. For a lot of people, their pets are their babies, and if your art is in any way related to animals (pet portraits) then the right pet gift items can be a good match. I would suggest you linking to pet health products (like vitamins), except in your links pages.
How Much Money Can I Make?
Not that that's not possible, I just don't think it's likely that the average artist will make that kind of money in affiliate marketing.
However, as artists, each of us have a niche market that we can use to present products and companies and make money in the process!
When I first started putting affiliate links on my websites and blogs, I would get $6, then $12, then $25 another time. My payments would generally come to me on a Quarterly basis (with most affiliate programs, you generally set the base amount for your account to reach before they send out a check.)
Well I don't have to tell you, those amounts didn't knock my socks off. However, if you look at the big picture like I did, I noticed that the amounts were at least going up! I also reasoned that I hadn't spent a dime to join the affiliate programs, so it was nearly pure profit - my only cost was a bit of time.
As I've gained experience working with my affiliate marketing, it is getting easier to do - taking less time and increasing the profitability of doing it.
I've found that if I stick with only one or two affiliate programs, the income is better because it's like dropping pennies into one bucket instead of into several. By doing that, the account reaches the minimum payout level more quickly and I get paid!
Now my affiliate marketing is on the upswing. I get checks in amounts anywhere from $60 to $150 nearly every month.
Initially, I had a small goal - I wanted the affiliate marketing to at least pay for my website ($12) each month, but now my goal is to get at least $300 in affiliate money each month. (Update: by the end of 2008, I was making $250 per month in affiliate income)
WHICH SITES SHOULD I LINK?
Because many of my site visitors are artists, the company I have linked through Commission Junction that is doing the best for me is DickBlick.com. Another art supplier's links I have tried is MisterArt.com. I have purchased from them myself and Misterart is a good company with good customer service. However, the MisterArt links have not done as well for me. I think it is because they have a relatively high shipping fee in relation to the prices of the products, which are discounted. So I noticed that more people look but don't actually go through with the sale with MisterArt. I would like all the affiliate companies I link to do well, but shipping and ease of shopping features are definitely factors in whether a link will do well in the end.
Read on for some tips on getting started.
Affiliate Marketing Know-How
Getting help from the experts
Who's There?
TARGET THE ADS TO THE VISITORS
The best way to know this is to add a hit counter. You can get a free one to put on your site from Sitemeter. You can pay for a more detailed version of Sitemeter, but even the free basic version will give you some information you can use. You will be able to tell what countries your visitors are from, and by clicking on Referrers, you will be able to see what search words people are using to find your site.
By using a sitemeter, I was able to see that my blog was attracting artists, even though I initially thought my blog would be for potential clients! So knowing this, I not only changed the ads on my blog away from gift item ads to ads for art supplies and artist magazines. I have been more successful by doing this.
A second key is to make sure the ads you put in match the market you are targeting, even if it doesn't match your current site visitors exactly.
I recently visited a pencil portrait artist's website and the art was beautiful, and I mean beautiful! But on the sidebar were the most tacky and distasteful ads that flashed, advertising everything from dating sites to how to get out of a traffic ticket. It was a real turnoff. You don't want to put ads in that aren't in line with the sensibilities of your typical customer. I always remind myself that I made my site for customer's needs first. If the ad I want to put in doesn't serve my client, then it doesn't go in. Period.
Making Money Online
Affiliate Websites
- Commission Junction - A Global Leader in Affiliate Marketing, Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing
- Commission Junction, or cj.com for short, is a free place to find companies you can promote as an affiliate. Generate income for leads or sales.
Commission Junction hosts Dick Blick Art Supplies (you would get 10% of each sale), MisterArt.com, Joann Etc., CreateForLess.com and more that you will probably find a good fit on your art website. - LinkShare | Affiliate Marketing, Search Marketing, ROI Tracking. Global E-commerce Solutions.
- Affiliate Marketing network. A host of companies to promote. MisterArt.com affiliate links are available
- Amazon Associates Program
- Amazon calls their affiliate program "Associates" but it's really the same idea. Great way to promote art books, DVDs and even art supplies on your website. Free.
- pepperjamNETWORK - Next Generation Affiliate Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing Affiliate Program Management
Affiliate Future Affiliate Program

AffiliateFuture offers many different advertisers in one place. I'm new to AffiliateFuture, but it has been pretty easy to do so far. As of 4/10/09, they offered affiliate programs from PhotoWorks, ScanDigital, ScanCafe, UrbanPosters, Lollipop Animation (art gallery) and more.
PepperJAM Network
Selling Art Books
Amazon has a lot of customizable options for the links - and that makes it really nice and easy to add to your site. But keep in mind that Amazon isn't the only affiliate choice to sell books and DVDs on art. Dick Blick Art Supplies, available for linking through Commission Junction, offers 10% of all sales, including art instruction books and DVDs. So for example, if a site visitor clicked on your Amazon link and purchased How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs by Lee Hammond, you would get about .66 cents. A customer purchasing through a DickBlick link for the same book would mean $2.50 for each copy of the book sold. It pays to be aware of the percentages.
LinkShare
ShareASale Affiliate Program
Drop me a line...
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- dancerene dancerene Nov 23, 2009 @ 3:54 am
- Thank your for sharing the info.
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- Tiddledeewinks Tiddledeewinks Apr 7, 2009 @ 7:46 am
- Good info, but I've been trying affiliate marketing with no results yet.
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- AlyiceEdrich.com AlyiceEdrich.com Jan 9, 2009 @ 11:21 am
- I actually make money from Amazon and Google Adsense. I have even made money from affiliate programs in the past, but CyrpticFragments assumption is correct, you have to put in the time for these programs to pay off. You have to write content that matches the program you're trying to "sell" then you have to market those pages you created or the website--as a whole. It takes time. Time to build an audience. Time to create the product pages. Time to promote, advertise, and market. And you have to keep marketing every single day. And it can burn you out. Some people have the stamina it takes to live on the web and the computer and the Internet. Others, don't. I found I needed more of a balance so I cut down on my time promoting and watched the sales fall as well. It truly is a numbers game to make affiliate programs pay off.
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- ddixonart ddixonart Jan 5, 2009 @ 9:04 pm | in reply to CrypticFragments
- It doesn't take much time. Once you have the links set, they are fine unless they leave the affiliate program. Stick with a narrow offering at first, to not spend much time. I think it's best to choose an affiliate program that has MOST of the websites or products you think you're a good match for, and just run with one. That way, you are more likely to meet the minimum payout amount and get paid something. When you get paid even the $25 minimum that most accounts have, that is a good motivator. I have had the best luck with the DickBlick affiliate program that's available on Commission Junction. If you go with too many things to promote and too many affiliate programs, then yes, it will be overwhelming. So I stay pretty small with it but keep my foot in the door! I get about $200-$250 per month from affiliates and Squidoo combined. I get more from Commission Junction than I get from my 100 Squidoo pages.
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- CrypticFragments CrypticFragments Jan 5, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
- I belong to every single one of the affiliate sites you mention and none of them have EVER earned me a dime.
I just do not understand how people actually make money with these things. You'd have to be online 24-7 choking people with your links.
sorry if this comes across as harsh, I just do not buy into it anymore after so much wasted effort
congrats to those of you who can make it work for you
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My name is Darla Dixon. I am a mom of 4 - I work from home creating Pencil Portraits. My artwork has been published several times and has sold interna...
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