Using Fiction for Affiliate Marketing

15 Jul 15 10:20 pm

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.

16 Jul 15 12:18 am

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? :)

16 Jul 15 12:57 am

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 :)