Affiliate Sales: 19 Successful Bloggers Recall their First Affiliate Sale

When I first learned I made an affiliate sale, I was so excited because it was from a fellow traveler who connected with me on Instagram. She was from New Zealand and told me how inspired she was by my blog to start her own as she was embarking upon a year long round the world trip. I still have that very first sale email hanging up in my apartment in New York City. It is a great reminder for how I've been able to use my story and my blog as a way to help people achieve their goals.

First affiliate sale: Bluehost Web Hosting - $65

Current affiliate earnings: Around $500 per month 

Brendan is a student in the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

14 years ago, I was blogging a little and doing direct sales. I decided to host a "business moms expo" in my community to showcase my business as well as make a little money inviting other people to participate. It was a smashing success and I hosted another. To save time (I was inundated with emails and phone calls!), I created a 3 page website to answer questions from participants and attendees. I knew people made money from affiliate marketing, so I threw a couple of links on that site on a "resources" page - things I knew would appeal to people in direct sales or who were looking for a business opportunity to start from home. Lo and behold, after the expo was over, I logged in and discovered that I had made some money from those links! I had almost forgotten about them. It was a life-changing moment. I went on to create a few websites and made money from affiliate products. At one point, I was supporting my family as a single mom. 

Carrie is a student in the course Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing

My first affiliate sales were for items that were complementary to my blog/business. I sold hardwood flooring and I was promoting items like hardwood floor cleaner, felt pads, doggis socks...things my customers always asked me about.

I felt overwhelmed when I received my first affiliate sale. I had been working so hard and the moment that I saw my first commission, I knew my hard work had paid off. I was so surprised!

I was completely shocked when I earned my first affiliate income. After blogging for a few months, I still had no idea what I was doing in regards to my affiliate accounts.

My first commission was from Amazon. Someone bought something that was completely unrelated to my link, and it was less than $1 in commission!

When I got my first affiliate commission, I was super excited because it was also the first income of any kind from my blog. I was also relieved, because I had been somewhat nervous about emailing my list to tell them about SiteGround's Black Friday special, even though it was a great deal! I was worried that I was going to get a bunch of unsubscribes, which was the last thing l wanted since I was also working hard on growing my email list.

In the end, I thought about whether the offer was something my list would genuinely be interested in hearing about and decided that it would be. I also remember being surprised that not only did one of my subscribers sign up for hosting using my affiliate link, she even replied to my email to say thank you and to let me know that she had signed up for three years!

As a relatively new blogger, I didn't expect to earn any affiliate income for a long time. So, imagine my surprise when I opened my ShareaSale account to find A SALE a few months after inserting my first affiliate links! I blog mostly about travel, but, as an amateur photographer, I've also included a few posts on improving photography skills. With so much travel content on the site, I expected the first sale to be for a travel-related service or product. I was thrilled to learn that it was a photography-related link that converted. It was incredibly empowering to see that I had gained enough trust to convert a sale, especially considering it was for a product that isn't the primary focus of the blog. Getting that first $9 sale spurred me to learn more about affiliate marketing, blogging, and content marketing. As my traffic picks up, I expect my earnings to increase in the coming months.

It was so gratifying to earn that first affiliate commission. I felt like all my hard work was finally starting to pay off! I told my husband and mom, and then I emailed my blogging BFF because I knew she would "get it" in a way that my family couldn't.

My first commission was $8.70 from ConvertKit. One of my blog readers did a free month trial of CK, and then bought a plan. Even more exciting, as long as she keeps using ConvertKit, I keep getting a commission!

I've only been earning through affiliate marketing for 2 months while I focused on building my blogging foundation and creating my first e-course. But this month has been even better than last. After adding an affiliate link to my most popular post, I've made about $30 this month. It's small by many people's standards, but I'm still happy to get the ball rolling on affiliate income.

We are twins Jo and Leisa who hail from sunny Jamaica. We are frugal lifestyle bloggers at www.joleisa.com and we now live in England.

Our first affiliate income came to us as an absolute shock! It was New Year's Eve and we both sat down to review our first year of blogging and to make focused projections for the new year. At the end of our session, we decided to complete reading through the last bits of a blogging course we had been doing. I was bemoaning the fact that we had maybe signed up as affiliates too early (before completing the course), hence why we hadn't done well. Then Leisa asked, "How do you know we haven't made any money? Have you checked?" So I checked and found that we had made one affiliate sale of the course and earned $199! We were beyond shocked and excited and texted our friends in our small mastermind group to tell them. Since then, we have been focused on monetizing and can't wait to see what the future holds.

I earned my first affiliate comission literally a day after applying some techniques I had learned from the course. The feeling was like nothing else. We as bloggers work SO hard, everyday to share our voice and eventually make a living from it. You know the feeling when you realize your long time dream is finally coming true? Ya, that's how it felt. Amazing!

My affiliate commission came from Amazon. I love their program. By the end of the day I had made 5 sales, earning about $6.00. I know that's not much, but making those sales inspired a certain confidence in myself that I didn't know I had.

The first time I earned affiliate commissions was through Amazon Affiliates. It was only a few dollars but still it was money earned! That's an amazing feeling. I thought all I have to do now is multiply my visitors and I will multiply my affiliate income. That's very powerful. The great thing about Amazon Affiliates is that, as a new blogger, you can get right in the game. Another positive is that you earn not just on the specific affiliate link, but anything else the customer buys during that visit.

We made our first affiliate sale about 6 months ago. When I logged in and saw our commission, it was one of the most gratifying moments I've had since becoming an entrepreneur. Knowing that something I did created that dollar is an amazing feeling- almost like an endorphin rush. Once we figured out what worked and what lead to that commission, we started doing more of it. We doubled down on our strengths and our income grew exponentially.

The commission was from a market research company that pays affiliate for email signups. The commission was only $2.80 (that was all we earned that day), but as we produced more and more leads for them, our commission increased to $3.50 per email signup. Seeing as how we now generate over 1,000 leads a month for them, it really adds up!

After trying and failing at so many things to make money online, making that first amount of money felt invigorating. It wasn't much - not even enough to cover the hosting for the site - but it was enough for me to know this was something that could work.

When I received my first affiliate sale, I was overjoyed! All my hours of hard work writing various blog posts, sharing my material and growing my following finally had paid off and I couldn't believe it. I felt as though I could conquer the world and I was incredibly happy that someone out there cared enough about my blog to utilize my affiliate link.

I had no idea that I could make money from recommending the products I already use regularly at home. It was a rewarding feeling to make money while I was sleeping and not have to put in too much work. Every blogger out there should be implementing affiliate marketing into their plan. Any niche is welcome in affiliate marketing, so it's a must! 

I think the key to being successful at affiliate marketing is being 100% genuine and true to your readers. I would never recommend an item to my readers that I don't 100% believe in!

I was mostly just surprised when I made my first affiliate commission. It wasn’t much, but it made me realize that what I say actually does influence people’s decision-making in some small way. I hadn’t really thought of my blog in that way before, so it was kind of empowering!