My First Affiliate Commission—$32.40 in 3 Months!

‘You’ve earned a commission’ is the most fulfilling email I have received this year. How did I get there? Let’s start from the beginning.

I created this blog about 4 months ago with the sole purpose of sharing helpful information and hopefully earning a buck while I did so.

From what I gathered online, the average period it takes an affiliate marketer to make their first sale ranged from around 6 months to about a year. (could be longer for others). From this information, I knew it would take me forever to make the first affiliate commission since I was a beginner.

Armed with the best information I had gathered from many YouTube videos I had watched, I picked a niche and started writing. To give credit where it is due, two people who really helped were Adam Enfroy and some cool Dutch dude named Ferdy Korpeshoek.

My early posts weren’t great, but knowing I could experiment anonymously gave me the freedom to learn without fear of judgment.

The first signs of progress

For the first month, I only had about 3 blog posts published. I wasn’t following strict SEO guidelines simply because I didn’t know how. Instead, I relied on ChatGPT to suggest keywords that had low competition and high search volume based on my niche.

I got 88 impressions and 38 clicks. One thing I know is that 95% of those clicks were mine. LOL!

Here is proof.

how to get people to click on your affiliate link

Month 2

Things started getting a little bit interesting. From a quick search online, I discovered that SEMrush offered 10 free keyword searches daily. From my experience today, you will do little to nothing with 10 keyword searches.

Since I had a few other email accounts, I decided to open different accounts using them. That gave me 40 keyword research per day.

I published about 4 blogs during month 2, making a total of 8. First forward to the end of month 2. The statistics had changed; I had 918 impressions and 190 clicks. A huge leap compared to the first month. This was a huge motivation.

Here is proof.

my first affiliate commission

Month 3

I felt my blog wasn’t aesthetically appealing and decided to do an overhaul. I stuck with my initial theme but adapted a new template.

I improved my SEO efforts by using SEMrush in harmony with my Google Search Console data and also gave a facelift to my old blog posts.

The results were impressive, at least for a new blogger. I got 3.14K impressions and 330 clicks. A huge difference from month 2.

Here is proof:

my first affiliate commission

3 months and a few days in

I didn’t celebrate Christmas as I would and took some time from the holiday days to write a few lines of my blog posts.

By the end of the year 2024, I had about 16 blog posts published.

A few days into 2025, I received an email. You have earned a commission. My first reaction was, So this whole affiliate marketing thing works. I was over the moon with joy.

Here is proof of the email:

how to get people to click on your affiliate link
my first affiliate commission

How I was able to get my first affiliate click

I am the kind of person who loves to get inspiration from already working strategies, and I’m easily convinced if you show me proof of results.

From my daily stroll of the internet, I came across an affiliate marketer in the same niche as mine who was making $10,000 per month from affiliate marketing, and upon a careful perusal of his blog posts, I noticed he displayed his affiliate links in a very professional and very click-inducing way.

Out of curiosity, I copied what he did to see if it would impact my affiliate link clicks.

Surprisingly, my CTR increased noticeably.

Lasso WP was the tool that made it incredibly easy to display my affiliate links to attract more clicks. Not only was I able to display affiliate links in clean, eye-catching boxes, but I could also track their performance in real-time. I believe it was a game-changer for me.

How I got traffic to my blog

I run this blog solo; I don’t outsource any services as yet. Marketing my blog has been the last thing I have done since I started blogging.

The few efforts I made were opening a Pinterest account, where up to today I have less than 5 outbound clicks. Also, I tried answering a few questions on Quora without linking my blog; so far, I have about 1300 views.

Most of my traffic is solely SEO. I spend most of the time researching low-competition long-tail keywords with a keyword difficulty of less than 5.

Something that helped me a lot was picking those keywords that show zero search volume and a keyword difficulty labeled (n/a).

Below is a screenshot image of my Google Search Console as of the time of writing this article.

my first affiliate commission

Lesson learned as a new affiliate marketer

SEO takes time, but it’s worth it.

Chances for you being seen when you begin are very minimal unless you’re in a niche that is not saturated.

Finding low-competition keywords with a keyword difficulty of less than 5 is where you should focus. In the process, you will build authority and start moving from page 10 to perhaps page 6.

It will take some time and effort, but it will surely pay off in the long run.

Currently, my DA reads 7, but I try to improve that every day.

Strive for quality, not quantity

You’d rather publish 1 SEO-rich article per month rather than post 10 articles that don’t provide any value or solve a problem.

Focus on solving a problem. Write as if you’re the reader. Strive to provide helpful info. Only promote what you can use/buy too.

Use AI writing tools, but only to write drafts and brainstorm.

Have pure intentions from the start.

Start a blog with the pure intention that it will earn through affiliate marketing. Invest in affiliate marketing tools like Lasso from the very beginning.

The good thing about affiliate marketing is that even with a little traffic of 1000 per month, assuming you convert 1% of that traffic to leads for a product with a 30% commission, you will make $300.

Unlike ad networks, where you need a significant number of views to make a good income.

Conclusion

I haven’t made anything significant; I even don’t think I should have written this. The only reason I decided to share is because, before I even started this blog, I could scan the internet trying to look for beginner stories like mine just to get inspiration.

If you’re just starting, I am sure this can shed a little bit of light on what’s ahead.

One thing is for sure: affiliate marketing is not easy, especially if you have zero presence online. Some might see results within weeks, and some might never see results.

To keep beginners like me motivated, I created a Facebook group where I post affiliate marketing stories just to share some motivation with those who might need it. Feel free to join.

FAQs

1. Have you tried joining ad networks?

Yes, I have tried to join AdSense several times but get rejected on the basis of ‘low-value content.’. Early on in my first month of blogging, I tried joining Ezoic and got rejected due to ‘content’ since I had less than 5 blogs. I will try applying again in the first week of February to see if anything changes.

2. Do you do guest blogging?

As I mentioned earlier, I solely manage this website, and it’s hard to run every aspect of website growth when you’re alone. I plan to start guest blogging and outreach after my 6th month.

3. Is blogging dead in 2025?

Blogging is alive like never before. You just need to have a clear goal and strategy from the word go. Focus on quality, and within no time you’ll start reaping from your efforts.

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Eric
Eric

Hi, my name is Eric. I am a property valuer by profession with over 10 years under my belt.
I have always been swayed by technology, and that triggered me to start trizok.
I discuss AI tools with a focus on AI writing tools, how you can leverage those tools, and make some money using them. Also, from my interaction with AI tools, I have mastered the art of communicating with them for better results, and as a result, I have incorporated an AI prompts section for people to find relevant prompt examples.
Feel free to contact me through info@trizok.com, and I will happily get in touch.

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4 Comments

  1. I first found you on Reddit where you shared your success story. I didn’t believe it so I came here to check your blog. Man… this is incredible!

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