Many years ago I had an idea for a way to make affiliate commissions by giving away free content.
I don’t know if anyone does this as I’ve never seen anyone do it this way but that might be because I’ve never looked.
I’ve never tested this but I’ve often wondered if it would work.
In previous articles I have talked about the freemium business model where you give content away for free, and I’ve also talked about how people are writing short stories to sell on platforms like Amazon Kindle.
I’ve often wondered if it was possible to combine the two to make affiliate commissions.
It is common practice for websites to publish free-to-read articles which are littered with affiliate links, but I’ve never seen it be done in free-to-read short fiction stories.
Fiction is very descriptive.
Writers will describe what a person is wearing, what they are drinking and where they are. This means that readers are often introduced to new things.
Here’s the thing, when reading fiction or watching dramas on television, many people do an internet search on those things they know nothing about. They go to Google or Bing to learn more.
While talking about this idea with one of my staff, he told me that his late grandmother would have a map book and a dictionary by her chair for when she was reading a new novel.
Every time she read about a place she had never heard of, she would look it up in the map book. The dictionary, well you can guess what she did there.
I’ve mentioned before how Andi our techy guy loves watching crime dramas.
Apparently he is always on Google searching for one thing or another. He has learned a lot thanks to a combination of television dramas and Google.
People often like to know what the thing is that they are reading about or what people are talking about… and this is where the idea could make money.
I believe that publishing short fiction stories online and then linking ‘specific things’ to Amazon could possible generate affiliate commissions for the writer.
For example; the fiction story could say something along the lines of…
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‘He reached for his watch, a rare hand-crafted Swiss precision time piece. With only one hundred ever made, he only wore it on special occasions. This was one of those occasions.’
Part of that sentence could then be linked to an expensive Swiss watch.
I am not saying that many people will buy that watch itself, but sites like Amazon have a ‘cookie’ which tracks affiliate links and so if someone visits Amazon through that link and buys a product from them within a specific time – this includes leaving the site and then returning later – the author would earn a commission.
Anyone who clicks through to take a look at the watch may decide to look at something else while on Amazon and if they make a purchase, the author would make a commission.
Another example could be that the main character made his money trading the Forex market and any sentences where that is mentioned could link out to a Forex product where the author is paid a commission whenever a sale is made.
The main characters of a story could be out socialising and enjoying a specific champagne cocktail… what could that link out to?
A bottle of Champagne?
A cocktail maker perhaps?
Or maybe even a holiday cottage on a vineyard in the Champagne region?
As I say, some affiliate networks like Amazon are incredibly sophisticated and track a person who has clicked through an affiliate link and if they leave the webpage but go back on Amazon later that day to buy bedding instead of a bottle of Champagne, the author still earns a commission.
Again, I don’t know if anyone is doing this or how successful it would be… but I’m sure that it would earn someone some money if there are enough people reading the stories.
People love to be entertained; they also love to get things for free so to offer entertaining adventures and stories for free could possibly result in a lot of readers.
With those stories linking out to a multitude of affiliate offers coupled with people’s curiosity and how some companies like Amazon work, the author could be generating quite a bit of money in commissions.
It is an idea which I think someone could explore more. There’s a huge opportunity to link out to so many different products with this idea.
It may not work too well with science fiction stories which are set too far into the future or the past because you will be describing places and technology that are fictional or no longer exist.
The other option is to have adverts on the pages so that every page read generates advertising revenue.
That could be done as well as linking out to the affiliate products but you do need to be aware that people can be put off if there are too many adverts and links obstructing their reading.
There are a lot of people writing and publishing stories trying to sell them and make money, so this could be a good work around. Instead of trying to make the money through selling stories, make the money from within the stories by giving them away for free.
The affiliate commissions are a compensation for giving the stories away for free. A kind of monetary ‘thank you’ if you like.
I’m more than certain that someone could make this work and it would be the perfect business model for those who want to write and publish short stories without the hassle of competing with all of the other authors on Amazon Kindle.
To get started all you need is a tablet or a laptop and a website.
As I write this, a WordPress website can cost as little as £75 for two years with Siteground hosting. That is ridiculously cheap for a place online where you can publish content that can earn you money.
You can write directly within the website dashboard if you wish but I suggest that you use either Google docs or MS Word and copy and paste the finished stories over into the website. It’s far easier to work that way.
Other than joining affiliate networks like Amazon, that is it for the website work.
Driving traffic to the website is going to be the hardest part but I imagine that once you gain a following of regular readers, they will start sharing your stories for you.
Open up a Twitter account and share links regularly to new stories.
I’m not saying that this is a big money spinner – although in the right hands it might be – or that it is without work, but it is an idea which I think is unique and has a lot of potential.
It’s something that can be started today and it is far easier to build a website than you may realise.
To discover how you can build a website fast without knowing anything about building websites, click the link below:
How To Build A Profitable Website Fast WITHOUT Knowing Anything About Building Websites!
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PS… Points to consider:
- With this model you can write and publish right away.
- As long as you do not break any specific T&Cs of the affiliate networks, you can write about anything you want.
- Anything you publish can also be turned into a book and published on other platforms if you wish.
- You can build an email list by asking people to sign up to be notified when new stories are posted.
- You could charge people a monthly fee to access your stories free from any advertising and affiliate links.
Here’s that link again: