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Using Fiction for Affiliate Marketing

PremiumMember
shawnaslater
Posts: 12
Joined: 19 Jul 06
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Using Fiction for Affiliate Marketing

Hello friends!

I have a fiction-based site and I thought I might be able to also earn some money via affiliate marketing. But it seems everyone is using non-fiction content and I can't find much help to promote my site since simply using keywords doesn't seem to fit well with my fiction content.

Can anyone help me with this?

I would put in my site's URL but I'm not sure whether that would be okay or not.

Thanks!

Shawna (I'm using my Uncle's account here)
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http://mattiemaeletters.com - Tales from Gilded Age Chicago
 
Site Admin
maryt
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Joined: 16 Apr 12
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Hi Shawna,

When you say fiction site I am guessing you have short stories, poems, and the likes correct?

If you have this kind of site, you may want to look at Amazon. You can promote kindle ebooks. You can also go directly to affiliate vendors by typing and searching in Google 'ebook affiliates' or 'fiction books affiliate program'. You will have tons of results for this.

I hope that helps.
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Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
Joined: 09 Jul 06
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This is actually a really good question, Shawna.

Most of the discussion you'll see (here and elsewhere) is for people creating information sites to promote information products (ie, non-fiction stuff, designed to help solve people's problems).

But if your site is more just creative writing or something, it's a little bit different.

It would really help if you could show us your site (yes, you can post your URL here). Just because I'm not 100% sure what you mean by "fiction based", and whether it's what I think it is.
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PremiumMember
shawnaslater
Posts: 12
Joined: 19 Jul 06
Trust:
Thank you all for your help.

Here is my fiction site: http://mattiemaeletters.com

I will have lots more of these letters coming but also I will have some books from the same era that we will publish through CreateSpace. The trouble is they really don't make that much money from them so we are looking to sell stuff that makes us more money.

I inherited this from my uncle as a way to start a business and get these great letters out there to readers who love this type of stuff. I really don't have a background in doing any marketing so my uncle suggested I simply ask the experts. (He is one of those educators that wants me to learn on my own; with some guidance from him of course.)

I hope you will read some of the posts and pages and let me know what you think. It is a very new site and we are just getting started.

Thanks again for all your help.

Shawna
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http://mattiemaeletters.com - Tales from Gilded Age Chicago
 
Site Admin
aletta
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That is extremely cool, Shawna.

This seems like the kind of thing that will do really well in social media, and that will be really interesting to sites that dabble with history, genealogy, errrr.... old cool stuff? You might even get educational institutions interested and linking to you, which is fantastic for credibility.

In short, I don't think you'll have difficulty getting people to share it. What would make it even better is if you added value to the raw materials. Perhaps you could add footnotes explaining who the characters are she's referencing, or unusual turns of phrase, or explaining the social/political situation at the time, or whatever.

The raw material is great by itself, but I think a bit of extra interpretation would really elevate it. Especially if you could draw parallels with issues that are current today, or find some other way to relate it to people's everyday lives. I think this would broaden the audience. Don't go overboard and create meaning where there isn't any, but find a way to make it accessible to people even if they're not fascinated by history.

When it comes to making money from it... that's trickier. Part of me wants to say "NOOOOOOO, DON'T DO IT! JUST MAKE SOMETHING COOL!" but a girl's gotta eat, right?

If it were me: I would start out just making something cool. Share it with like-minded audiences, maybe create a Facebook page to build a community. Then once it picks up momentum I'd look into monetization, like promoting related books from Amazon, creating my own ebooks, etc. You could get set up on Patreon and get people to sponsor you a couple of bucks a month to keep adding material.

You might find some affiliate programs as well. I haven't investigated, but some of these genealogy sites might have affiliate programs, and might appeal to the kinds of people who like this stuff.

I don't know if it's ever going to make you an internet bazillionaire, Shawna, but it might be able to make a nice bit of extra cash, and it would be a nice creative outlet for you (seems like you like to write), and it would be contributing something really nice to the internet and the world.

Maybe that's enough? :)
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PremiumMember
shawnaslater
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Thank you sooo much Aletta!

I do have a Facebook page already and Uncle Larry set it up to receive my posts automatically and you can connect with it from the Website.

It would be great if I could get some feedback from the posts so if you haven't could you connect and let me know if I mess up or make any mistakes?

I do like to have cool stuff on the site and Uncle Larry has given me some ideas and has agreed to help when I need it but cool stuff doesn't help me to buy anything like gas and rent, etc. Funny how reality puts a dent into Art.

I like the "fleshing out" of the site as you suggested but that takes a lot of time and I sometimes think being too much of an 'educational site' may make it a bit 'uncool' but I do want to put up more period images up and there is also music and even video/movies files from that era available believe it or not. That should make it even cooler to visit.

I have thought about making and selling T-Shirts like "Mattie Mae Strong" or something like that once I get a real community going. As I said, I plan on also publishing related books; even a series of adventures for Mattie Mae could come from it like some other ladies have created for their female characters. Remember that this was the time of women trying to get the right to vote in America and so many technological advances like movies and electric cars and stuff. I can see where a steam-punk tie-in could be made. I'm just free thinking here.

But I would love to create a community where people could share what they read and maybe contribute to the characters, talking about the time period and stuff. I even heard that PBS was going to create a new series called 'The Gilded Age' but would set it out East. That is why I choose Chicago. That might get my site more interest.

I guess Uncle Larry was right, I was right to ask you people for advice. I'm getting excited about this and can't wait to publish my next letter.

I hope you all will join in and read them.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!

Shawna
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http://mattiemaeletters.com - Tales from Gilded Age Chicago
 
Site Admin
aletta
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Just after I posted that I was thinking about how you called it "fiction" -- So this is actually fiction? Like, you don't have a big trunk of letters?

If so, I was totally suckered in. But I also feel like that changes the uhhh, "value proposition" of the site quite a lot.

Actual fiction, or found material?

I had a quick look at the article about the "message parlour" -- I might have more of look later, when I'm not meant to be doing a whole bunch of stuff :)
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PremiumMember
shawnaslater
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I guess I called it 'fiction' when it might have better been described simply as 'stories.' Providing stories for others to read and enjoy I think would be more fun then writing reports or guides or whatever you guys have been telling everyone to do. I just have these stories and manuscripts and stuff that I think would be much more interesting and fun for readers.

And just tell your boss that you are doing 'research' on a brand new concept that could really help people. Maybe then it would be okay to read the stuff on my site.

One more thing, be ready to read my next post as I want to post it today.

Thanks! Shawna
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