Monetizing your art site or blog

If you have an art-related website or blog and have wanted to give affiliate marketing a try, there is a new affiliate network on the block called PepperJam Network. I have tried several affiliate networks, and PepperJam Network seems to be easier than most to use. The network is new, so they don't have as many companies to link to as others, but it seems to be run by marketing geniuses, so I don't think it will be very long before there will be a great variety of links and companies available. It is free to try, and if you would like to, here is the link to join:

Join the Affiliate Revolution. PepperjamNetwork.com

Currently, I think two companies within the network that would be great for artists to link to would be: The Fulcrum Gallery and Overstock Art. The Fulcrum Gallery has a huge variety of fine art prints, and site visitors have the ability to try out different mats and frames on the prints. OverstockArt has a good variety of art prints, but the selection is a different fare than what the Fulcrum gallery has, so you can easily offer both. OverstockArt offers hand painted art reproductions of classic works.

Fulcrum Gallery offers affiliates 15% of the sales, with a 45-day cookie. No, not chocolate chip. What that means is that if someone clicks through the link you place on your site, and they look at Fulcrum Gallery's offerings, but then they click out and don't buy that day, if they come back to the site within 45 days of that initial visit and they do buy something the second time, or even the third time (yipee!) you would still get 15 percent. You could buy a lot of real cookies with that kinda dough. Sorry, feeling punny today! If you are a super-marketer, you get rewarded. If you generate sales of $500 or more, your commission will increase to 16 percent. If you generate sales of $2,000 or more, your commission increases to 17 percent, and if you are the master of traffic and promotion and get sales to $5,000 or more, you will earn 18 percent!

OverstockArt offers affiliates in the Pepperjam Network a 10% commission on all sales, with 15 return day cookie. So a visitor would have to come back within 15 days for you to still get the commission. Bring sales of $500 or more and your commission will increase to 15%. Help generate sales of $1,000 or more and your percentage increases to twenty.

So you see, each company that signs up to advertise within the PepperJam Network has different offerings. Pepperjam Network will pay you every 2 weeks, just like they pay employees. With other affiliate networks I'm in, my earned amounts must reach a certain amount of money before I get paid. It will be fun to get paid more often.

Certainly, as you look over the ads in the network and choose which companies you think are a good fit with your site or blog, you take into account how much they will pay you. If you look at my site, you can see that Fulcrum Gallery is listed on the main page of my site. Overstock Art is a better fit for my links pages. But both are great sites to link. It's worth the bother to put in affiliate links - most reproductions of oil paintings on OverstockArt seem to be in the $200 range. So if someone shops through my link, I stand to profit $20 each time.

Think of your site or blog like a retail store. In a retail store, the cash register area is the spot for impulse and high profit items. In a grocery store, the most expensive items are at eye-level. The lower priced items or lower profit items are kept on the lower shelves. Your web pages are similar...put the products and sites that you are most interested in and that are a good fit with whatever is on that page of your site.

For more information on affiliate marketing for artists, please see this page I created on Squidoo.