The Self-Care Mom

Whether you are starting to monetize your blog or looking to make extra cash from your website, I highly recommend Moms Affiliate. The website has a user-friendly interface that allows you to send requests to join certain programs from familiar brands and probably already use.

Are you a fan of Diapers.com? How about zulily?

These are just two of the brands I am currently working with to promote their products and website. There are also up-and-coming brands from other companies who are willing to pay bloggers like you more than $100 to help spread the word about their website. The best part about all this is you can do this while your little one is taking a nap. I know, because that is when I do most of my planning/scheduling posts.

What Moms Affiliate Offers
Aside from connecting you to well-known and up-and-coming brands, Moms Affiliate offers creatives for you to share on your and across social media. Bloggers add banners on their website, as well as coupons and links to products. Each link is unique to each blogger. These unique links helps Moms Affiliate track clicks and earnings from your website. Please note that you will need to connect Google Analytics to your blog. If you are using a Domain hosted on WordPress.com, click here for steps on how you can integrate your Google Analytics account to your blog.

Highlights from the Moms Affiliate network:

* Company representatives will contact you through the Messages tab — which also goes straight to your inbox — to keep you up to date with any changes in the promo.

* The Dashboard tab highlights your approved and pending balances, as well as paid and pending earnings. As you scroll down the page, you notice top performing programs, latest giveaways and latest articles. This is a great place to check on a daily or weekly basis just to keep up with your programs.

*  The Giveaway tab shows available giveaways from programs. You may create your own. Moms Affiliate gives you three options to share giveaways:
– Place a widget on your site;
– Place it in a tab on your Facebook Page; and/or
– Share it on Blogger.

* Under the Sponsored Posts tab, bloggers can choose companies they would like to write a post for in exchange for cash. Right now the lowest cash payout is $25 and the highest is $140. There are prerequisites for each sponsored post based on monthly views for your website.

When I signed up there was a tab called Sponsored Tweets which paid bloggers to share tweets and Facebook page posts from companies, but it has been removed. I am not sure if Moms Affiliate is no longer offering sponsored tweets or if they have combined the Sponsored Tweets tab with Sponsored Posts.

** Update 11/21/2014: The Sponsored Tweets tab is back, and better than ever!**

* The Affiliate Programs tab is where bloggers can select the companies they would like to work with. You get approved almost automatically, and can begin planning your promotion strategy. Each affiliate program has a commissions section as well as a referral lifetime. This tab allows you keep track of new creatives and select the banners and/or coupons you would like to share on your blog or across social media. There is also a blurb about the company to help you decide on whether it is a good fit for your website. You can also contact the company representative if you have any questions about the affiliate program.

* The Offers and Ads tab is an easy way to view creatives from the affiliate program you have chosen, and more.

* Under the Products tab you can search for a specific brand or toy you would like to promote. I used this tab to search for the jogger I received from a friend at my baby shower and wrote about it here. I was excited to share it with my readers because it is easy to use and makes everyday life. The good thing about these affiliate programs is that when you use the product link, it will direct your readers to a site where they can learn more about the product. There is also an easy check-out process if they decide to buy the item.

* The Toolbox tab is one of the sections I visit on a daily basis. You can:
– Create banner widgets for your blog;
– Turn regular links into affiliate ones;
– Review the check list for affiliate programs success;
– Cash out your earnings;
– View metrics for your website;
– Access the HTML for the Moms Affiliate badge; and
– Add coupons to your Facebook page.

For me, this is the heart of Moms Affiliate — everything you need to bring your blog to life is here. The remaining tabs are self-explanatory: Settings; Invite Friends; Feedback; Help; and Logout.

Selecting And Managing Affiliate Programs
When I first started using Moms Affiliate, I selected affiliate programs from brands I knew, regardless of the referral time. Most were three days and I thought I was going to be able to handle them. I was wrong.

Selecting: If you are going to participate in an affiliate program, make sure it is something you can generate leads for. Remember, you do not make a commission unless you trigger someone to take action. Also, give yourself time to create posts, both social and blog posts. Aim for affiliate programs with referral lifetimes of a month+. This will help you space out your content. 

Managing: To help track your steps, I suggest creating a Spreadsheet on Google Drive (or on Excel, the choice is yours).
Look through the check list under the Toolbox tab and plan ahead on how you will be spreading the word about the program you have selected. 

Here is a view of my promo tab on Google Drive:

Note: The programs that I removed have expired. Those were the shorter ones.
Also, if you are on Blogger, the integration process will be a lot smoother than on WordPress, but if you need assistance setting up your account, I would love to help. Comment below with any feedback or questions you may have.