As many of you know, it’s possible to make money on Squidoo through Squidoo in a few different ways.

  1. Every Month your lens earns money from Adsense and SquidOffers. This money is distributed on a three-tiered system to all of the lensmasters.
  2. When you put a ‘money maker’ module on your lenses and someone buys something from it, you earn a commission. This is the basic concept of being an affiliate for a product you support. You promote the product, if it sells, you get a part of the proceeds.

However, what do you do when the modules aren’t enough?

Often times when I make a lens, I like to change the look and appearance as much as possible. Additionally, I create a lot of finance related lenses as a result of my blog The Grumpstump. There are virtually zero financial products to be found on eBay, Amazon, or the Superstore outside of books. While promoting books are good, when I discuss Stock Trading or Budgeting I like to recommend a product that I use.

This is where Affiliate Programs come in.

There are several affiliate programs out there – some are very good and some are very bad.

I personally use Commission Junction (Squidoo affiliate sales from modules all run through Commission Junction as well) and have had excellent results the past few months.

Many people use Clickbank. Clickbank’s products are mostly software tools and e-books. I have not used them but some Lensmasters swear by it.

Linkshare is a third network and is similar to Commission Junction (CJ) in type of products offered. It is a smaller network than CJ� but has a different mix of advertisers. I haven’t actively promoted Linkshare to date either.

If you take a look and don’t like any of them, you can always head over to the Digital Point Forums and see all the other ones out there.

What do you Do with these?

For now, just take a look around and sign up for an affiliate program that suits you. Personal Affiliates are an overall part of The Captain’s Strategy along with the affiliates offered through Squidoo. In the future when CJ or Commission Junction is referenced in regards to lens design, now you know that this means ‘affiliate program’.

-The Captain