I had the opportunity to hear Donna McCarthy speak about affiliate marketing at PodCampPhilly earlier this year. She agreed to answer a few questions about how a writer can make money through affiliate marketing.

If a writer already had a blog or a website, what should be her first step if she wants to try affiliate marketing?

The first step is to decide how you want to use merchant affiliate links on your site. Do you want to include specific banners along the top/bottom or right/left navigation bars? Or do you want to include product links within your blog posts?

The next step is to join the affiliate networks. I would recommend joining Commission Junction, LinkShare and Amazon. You’ll then be able to research and see what merchants currently have affiliate programs. Between these three you will be able to cover most of the larger merchants.

There are plenty of websites that promise that we can make thousands of dollars doing affiliate marketing — can you give us a more realistic idea of what a good affiliate might expect to make in a month?

Wow, this is really a hard question to answer. A lot really depends on your site traffic. A couple of things I can tell you. Affiliate marketing is not a quick get rich, set it and forget it revenue stream. It takes some time and patience. Initially you will need to test various merchants to see which ones perform the best on your site. You will also continually need to review your affiliate performance metrics to see what merchants you should leave up and which ones you should swap out.

Another key factor in determining how large or successful you program can be is how much you’re willing to invest in marketing your merchant offers. If you are willing to invest in a PPC campaign for your merchants, to drive traffic to your site, this would increase your revenue potential.

What kind of content or writing style is best for marketing affiliates?

Honestly, I’ve seen all types of writing styles work for affiliates. The key is making sure what you are writing about matches the affiliate merchants you’re promoting.

On the reverse side, if a writer has an informational product, like an e-book, to sell, would affiliate marketing be a good way to increase sales? Could you describe how a writer might approach such a project?

On the merchant side it gets a little more complicated because there are costs and time involved in setting up and maintaining the merchant affiliate program. I would recommend if they’re just getting started, and want to run the merchant program themselves, they use a smaller network like Share a Sale. At Share a Sale, their fees and start up costs are much less than one of the larger networks. Their network is also very merchant friendly and willing to help new merchants get started.

If their merchant program is larger or they do not have the time to set up the program themselves, they should consult an OPM (Outsourced Program Manager) such as myself to help them learn the ropes to launch and run their program.

Donna provides more information on affiliate marketing at her website, DMC Affiliate Consulting.

What Your Rate Needs To Be

I’m going to be painfully honest here. If you want to make a comfortable living off your writing — afford health insurance, put away money for retirement and cover your daily expenses — you need to be making about $50. There’s a lot of fudge factors in that number, admittedly. If you live in a country with a lower cost of living, you can afford to earn far less. If you have a spouse who can provide you with health insurance, you can afford to earn far less. If you have eight solid hours of work a day and you don’t have to go looking for gigs regularly, you can afford to earn far less.

But $50 is the comfort zone. That’s actually not that far off from what the Editorial Freelancers Association suggests for freelance rates:

What About Me?

In general, I try to make sure that I hit that $50 value for each hour that I work. It doesn’t always happen, but I keep it in mind as a goal. It’s also one of the reasons that I work hard on creating passive income streams — if I have money coming in from other sources, I can afford to pass by the poorer paying gigs and focus on chasing the big dollar projects. Those projects that payout $50+ aren’t low-hanging fruit, after all. There’s likely to be prep work necessary to land them (such as estimates and proposals) that you can’t always afford to take time for if you are still working on the lower end of the pay spectrum.

Fiona Veitch Smith presents Report writing - finding work posted at The Crafty Writer.

AmyM presents Chowing Down…Writing About Food posted at 3 Questions…and Answers.

AmyM presents Gifts for Writers…Pens posted at 3 Questions…and Answers.

AmyM presents Gifts for Writers, The Sequel…Journals posted at 3 Questions…and Answers.

I managed to keep from laughing. I’ve encountered the idea that writing is an easy job — type a few words and get a paycheck immediately — but this is the first time I’ve heard of anyone thinking of freelance writing as a seasonal job. Am I alone?

My advice for anyone looking to earn some extra Christmas money from writing is easy: Start in June. Between pitching a project, actually completing it, invoicing it and eventually getting paid, most writing projects (articles, copywriting and more) are more of long-term ventures.

That isn’t to say that a person absolutely can’t get some immediate money from well-crafted words. Plenty of Craigslist posts are looking for immediate turn around, after all. It’s just my experience that the more lucrative projects don’t require immediate delivery.

Essentially, the book is an overview of how to create a platform — to make yourself visible as a writer not only to sell books but to get a book deal in the first place. While the book is geared towards relative beginners, it has a lot of value even for writers who have already been published. Christina goes far beyond the standard advice about platforms (which often amounts to “You need a platform,” with no explanation of just what that means. The book is divided into 36 chapters: each one is a bite-sized chunk perfect for reading and doing. Each chapter has concrete tasks that really are universal for writers today and, where necessary, Christina has broken them down into steps that even a novice writer can handle smoothly.

Christina’s advice is incredibly valuable: I’ve been in the writing game for a while now and I kept finding ideas in the book that I can use for my own career. She’s not talking about novel concepts either. There’s barely a mention of social networking. Blogging gets its own chapter, but most of the chapters focus on steps a writer could take with no technical expertise.

If you’re not familiar with Christina Katz, I’d definitely recommend checking out her blog, The Writer Mama Riffs, as well as her Writer Mama website. (Her first book was Writer Mama.) I consider Christina a phenomenal resource for freelance writers — her blog is in the ‘must read’ file on my RSS reader.

I don’t just recommend this book for those folks looking for a book deal. If you’re looking to do anything beyond the occasional freelance article, a platform is key. Whether your goal is to be a syndicated columnist, a full-time blogger or another type of writing big wig, your platform is what will convince readers to pay for your work. Heck, a platform can even help you land freelance assignments faster — editors like writers who can clearly demonstrate why they’re the best choice for a particular project. Get Known Before The Book Deal is $11.55 on Amazon — and I’m sure a friend or relative needs a suggestion for the holidays.

Jeff, I’ll be emailing you shortly with details.

Kelli Workman presents Selling How To Articles to Launch Your Career posted at afreelancerforhire.com.

Monevator presents Why blogging for money will not make you rich posted at Monevator.com.

Margaret Garcia presents 50 Ways to Make Your Startup Eco-Friendly posted at Green Web Hosting Blog.

Amanda Evans presents Where To Promote Your Writing & Get Paid posted at Ghostwriting - The Hidden Writer.

Athlyn Green presents Why You Should Use Article Widgets posted at Write and Earn a Living.

Athlyn Green presents Writing Web Articles posted at Write and Earn a Living.

Athlyn Green presents Online Writing and Paid Content posted at Write it!.

If a client who has always been on time in paying invoices is suddenly unable to pay, I generally think that it’s time to start looking for another regular client. The fact of the matter is that companies with money problems often consider freelancers a good place to cut costs. It’s a fact of doing business, and having that advance warning is actually a good thing.

While it didn’t make me happy, I wasn’t actually surprised when my client discontinued the project I had been working on. I also wasn’t up a certain creek — I’d tentatively lined up a couple of smaller projects.

Of course, invoices can be indicators of other factors. I’ve found that clients that I have problems getting to acknowledge (and pay) invoices are guaranteed to be problems in other problems. It’s just another reason to keep a close eye on your invoices.

I had the opportunity to review  Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream last week. It’s the true story of Adam Shepard, a young man who wants to find if he really can go from homeless to doing alright within a year. It’s not your typical inspirational book — it’s got a bit of swearing, among other factors. I really do recommend it, though: Scratch Beginnings is well worth the read.

More relevant to this blog, Adam Shepard self-published this book initially. It sold 10,000 copies and landed him on the Today show. One of HarperCollins’ imprints picked it up and brought a new edition of Scratch Beginnings out last month.

I’m giving away the uncorrected proof that I reviewed. To enter, leave a comment before the end of the day Sunday. I’ll randomly select a winner on Monday (Nov. 24). I’m happy to pay shipping within the U.S. — however, if you win and live outside the U.S., I’ll ask you to cover the difference.

And, well, if you haven’t voted for me in the College Blogging Scholarship yet, voting is winding up. Please take a moment and vote for me.