Do you have a tech blog, and are you looking for a suitable affiliate program? Do you know Apple has an affiliate program for iTunes, the App Store, iBooks and the Mac App Store? If not, read on to learn about iTunes Affiliate program, and start earning handsome income from your blog.
Earlier I have talked about Viglink, which is one smart way to monetize all your existing commercial links. If you don’t know about it, you should read this review & also check out an exclusive case-study here.
If you are using Viglink to create affiliate links to Apple app store, I recommend you to directly signup for Apple Affiliate program and stop paying extra cut to Viglink or any other 3rd party affiliate network you are using. Let’s look at features of Apple affiliate program, and below I will share one trick which you can use right away to affiliate all your app store link.
Itunes Affiliate Program Details & Features:
iTunes Affiliate program is open for all, and you can sign up for free from here. Once you have applied for their affiliate program, it would take about five days to get approval. To ensure you get approval, add your working blog link. If you don’t have a blog/website, your application will be rejected.Once your application is approved, you can Login to Apple affiliate dashboard. Here is how the dashboard looks like:
If you are inside your affiliate dashboard for the first time, make sure to click on Settings > Payment method, and add your payment details. In most of the countries, they make payment via direct bank transfer.
In tracked currency select All countries & in paid currency select your base country currency. Don’t forget to check the box which says “Auto Selfbill / Payment Required.”
Note: In above screenshot I forgot to add threshold limit, which you should add. Once your affiliate commission reaches that limit, they will send you payment automatically.
Creating Affiliate links for Apple products:
Click on Tools at the top of your dashboard, and you will find various options to create affiliate links. Here is a screenshot for the same:
You can use any of the method listed above to monetize your tech blog. Here are my recommendations for you:
Auto link maker:
It is recommended for those blogs which are old and have few or tons
of links to the app store or other Apple product on the official site.
You need to add few lines of Javascript code to your blog, and it will
automatically convert them into affiliate links. This saves a lot of
time for editing all the links manually. If you use this, you don’t have
to create affiliate links for future posts manually. You can use Google Tag manager or edit your theme to add the JS snippet on your blog.
RSS Feed Generator:
This could increase your revenue as you can create an RSS link to the
list of products top music, apps, books and more. Simply place it as a
Widget in your blog sidebar (Works great on a niche site) and let the
money flow into you.
Link Maker:
This is useful when you need to generate an affiliate link for an individual product. You can use this to create affiliate links in bulk. If you have a popular page, you can create individual app affiliate link, and promote it on your social media property.
Widget Builder:
I’m not a personal fan of this but could be useful for you. With
Widget Builder, you can create a widget for a single app, and embed it
within your blog post. Your readers can read the description, and click
on get to install it.Developers & App makers can take advantage of search API to show apps with their unique affiliate link.
Quickest way to create an affiliate link:
At the top of your Affiliate Dashboard, you can find your unique affiliate ID. In the above screenshot (Affiliate dashboard top right), note my id is 10lMjr. Similarly, find your ID. Now, whenever you want to link to any app or product from App Store, iBooks, and the Mac App Store, suffix it with ?at=XXXX (XXX here is your unique affiliate ID).
Example:
- Normal link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desk-write-more/id915839505
- Affiliate link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/desk-write-more/id915839505?at=10lMjr
Important facts about Apple Affiliate program:
- Cookie period is 24 hours. That means, if a user clicks on your affiliate link & make the purchase within 24 hours, you will get a commission.
- You get commission of 7% of iTunes products (Apps & other content).
- Payments will be available to cash out after 90 days of the sale.
- Links to the Apple Online Store products do not earn commissions on the iTunes affiliate program.
- Links to iTunes Gifts on the desktop or within iOS, however, are eligible for affiliate commission.
- Resource: Advanced affiliate linking
iTunes Shortcode WordPress Plugin:
If you are using WordPress platform, you should use iTunes Shortcode plugin. This plugin lets you add app details in an interactive way, which will get you more clicks & sales. It also supports QR code, which will increase the downloads. This plugin cost only $14 & is recommended for any tech blog, which review or talks about iOS Apps.
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