In a previous tutorial, we learned that one of the most common ways to earn income from a website is with affiliate links.
An affiliate link is simply a link on your site that contains a specific tracking code that points to a third party product or service. Each time a reader clicks on your link and goes on to sign up for a certain product or service, you receive a commission.
The best way to maximize income from affiliate links is to place them on every article on your site. This can be tedious to do if you have a lot of articles, though.
Fortunately, you can use a free WordPress plugin called Starbox to hack this process.
Starbox is a plugin that lets you create a bio for yourself that can be placed at the bottom of every post in WordPress. By simply placing affiliate links in this bio, readers will then be able to click on those links on every article on your site.
Here’s what that bio area looks like on Four Pillar Freedom:
This bio includes affiliate links for the following financial products:
- Personal Capital
- M1 Finance
- Trim
- Acorns
Each of those links has a tracking code in it that is unique to my website. So, I receive a commission each time someone clicks on one of those links and proceeds to sign up for the corresponding product.
Use the following steps to install Starbox and create a bio filled with affiliate links on your own site:
Step 1: Install Starbox.
From your WordPress dashboard, click Plugins on the left hand side and then click Add New.
In the search box, type starbox. Then click Install Now on the following plugin:
Next, click Activate:
Step 2: Modify your bio.
Once Starbox is installed, you can modify your bio by going to Settings on the left hand side of your WordPress dashboard and clicking StarBox. This will take you to the StarBox homepage. At the bottom of the homepage, click Go to User Settings:
This will take you to a new page. At the bottom of this new page, click add custom author bio:
This will open a new Author BIO box where you can type in exactly what you want the bio to say, including your affiliate links:
Here’s the exact text that I use in my author bio:
<p>Zach is the author behind Four Pillar Freedom, a blog that teaches you how to build wealth and gain freedom in life.
Zach’s favorite free financial tool he’s been using since 2015 to manage his net worth is <b><a href=”myPersonalCapitalAffiliateLink“>Personal Capital</a></b>. Each month he uses their free Investment Checkup tool and Retirement Planner to track his investments and ensure that he’s on the fast track to financial freedom.
His favorite investment platform is <b><a href=”myM1FinanceAffiliateLink“>M1 Finance</a></b>, a site that allows him to build a custom portfolio of stocks for free, has no trading or maintenance fees, and even allows him to set up automated target-allocated investments.
His favorite way to save money each month on his recurring bills is by using <b><a href=”myTrimAffiliateLink“>Trim</a></b>, a free financial app that negotiates lower cable, internet, and phone bills with any provider on your behalf.
His favorite micro-investing app is <b><a href=”myAcornsAffiliateLink“>Acorns</a></b>, a free financial app that takes just 5 minutes to set up and allows you to invest your spare change in a diversified portfolio.
His favorite place to find new personal finance articles to read is <b><a href=”https://collectingwisdom.com/”>Collecting Wisdom</a></b>, a site that collects the best personal finance articles floating around the web on a daily basis.</p>
You could use a similar format as this, but simply replace my affiliate link codes with your own affiliate link codes.
Once you’re done filling in your bio, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Update Profile. This bio will now show up at the bottom of all of your articles on your site.
Full Disclosure: Nothing on this site should ever be considered to be advice, research or an invitation to buy or sell any securities, please see my Terms & Conditions page for a full disclaimer.
