If you want to make money blogging, you may have come across bloggers using Awin to earn affiliate income from their blog or social media accounts. But you might not actually know what Awin is, so let's get into it.

What is Awin?

Awin is one of the world's largest affiliate networks. When I first joined it was called Affiliate Window, but it's since rebranded, and more recently merged with ShareASale to form an even bigger combined network.

Today Awin connects over 1 million publishers (bloggers and other websites) with more than 30,000 advertisers globally. It's a way for bloggers to earn money online through affiliate marketing, applying to individual brands' affiliate programmes all from one platform.

There are more ways to make money through Awin than just adding affiliate links to blog posts too. It's also an opportunity to connect with brands as an affiliate and work more closely with many of them through reviews, giveaways, and competitions. There's also a marketplace where you can list your other blogging and social media services.

Is Awin legit?

Yes. Awin is a genuinely well-established company, part of the Axel Springer Group, operating in over 180 countries with local teams across Europe, the US, and Asia-Pacific. I've been using Awin as a blogger myself since 2017.

This isn't a scheme, it's a genuine, long-running affiliate network used by huge numbers of bloggers and brands.

What is affiliate marketing for bloggers?

For bloggers, affiliate marketing is when an online business pays a commission for any sales, or sometimes traffic, that's generated as a result of a customer clicking on an affiliate link on the blogger's blog or social media channels.

By joining a brand's affiliate scheme, such as those available on Awin, the blogger receives a special tracking URL for the brand's website that can be shared with their audience whenever that brand is mentioned. If a reader clicks the link and makes a purchase that isn't returned, the blogger receives a commission as a thank you for the sale.

It's a win-win. The brand gets advertising and reaches the blogger's audience to increase sales, and the blogger gets a commission for the referral. The blogger is called a publisher, and the brand is called an advertiser.

If you want a wider picture of how this fits alongside other income streams, check out my 10 ways to make money blogging.

The benefits of affiliate marketing for bloggers

• Promote the brands you love and get money for every referred sale
• Make more passive income from blog posts, as affiliate links can stay in them for years generating ongoing commission
• An extra income stream on top of however else you already make money from your blog
• Make money from brands you're already talking about, if there's an affiliate scheme available for them
• Monetise your email subscribers by including affiliate links in your newsletters

How does Awin work?

You'll need to sign up as a publisher to join Awin and begin applying for advertisers' affiliate schemes. Once accepted, you apply for each brand's affiliate programme individually.

Some brands accept you automatically, some reject you, and others take a while, sometimes months. Make sure your website is a good fit for the brands you're applying to. Some brands will even find you and directly invite you to join their programme.

Once accepted onto a brand's programme, you can add tracking links for that brand to your blog to start earning on every sale. Awin gives you a few ways to build links:

• Link Builder: paste the URL for the brand's page you want to convert, select the brand, and it generates your unique affiliate link
• Convert-a-Link: add a piece of code to your site, turn on Convert-a-Link in your dashboard, and it automatically converts any normal links you have to advertisers on your site into affiliate links, even applying to a brand's programme on your behalf if you're not signed up yet
• MyAwin: a Chrome browser extension for quickly grabbing tracking links when you're browsing an Awin brand's site, and for discovering which brands on a site are on Awin so you can apply to their programmes on the spot

How much does Awin cost?

There's a £5 joining fee when you sign up. It's slightly inconvenient, but you get it back once you start earning, added to your account and paid back in your first commission payment once you reach the payment threshold.

The Awin payment threshold is only £20, so once you hit £20 in approved payments, you'll be paid.

How does Awin pay?

Awin pays directly to your bank account on one of their bi-monthly payment dates, around the start and middle of each month. Payments usually take a couple of days to clear once sent.

Payments show in the Awin dashboard as "tracked but not approved" at first, and have to clear and become approved before they're payable. I love that the threshold is only £20, and that it's combined across all the advertisers on the platform, so you don't need to earn £20 from one brand, you could make £5 here, £10 there, and get paid once the combined total hits £20. It's much easier to hit a threshold this way than relying on one advertiser alone.

Remember, affiliate income counts as business income too, so it's worth reading my tax tips for bloggers if you're new to declaring this kind of earning.

Strategies to make more money with Awin

Simply dropping random affiliate links into your content without much direction won't get you very far. A few things that make a real difference:

• Insert affiliate banners into blog posts: banners like ads on the site tend to stand out more than plain text links, you can find banners and other promotional material in the Creatives section on Awin
• Share Awin offers on social media: brands often run special offers, sharing these on social as well as your blog widens your reach
• Be selective about which schemes you're signed up to: it's easy to sign up to too many brands early on, focusing on ones you genuinely know, love, or that suit your content and offer real value to readers tends to work better than spreading yourself thin
• Create content about the brands you're signed up to: for brands you really rate, writing a proper review sharing your experience gives readers a genuine reason to trust and use your links

Staying on top of which brands you're signed up to and what you've written about takes a bit of organisation too, these tips on staying organised as a professional blogger might help.

5 great reasons to use Awin as a blogger

Here are five reasons I'd recommend Awin for bloggers.

1. Access to thousands of brands in one place

With over 30,000 advertisers on the network, there's a very good chance you'll find brands you already know and love, alongside plenty of others that suit your blog, lifestyle, and audience. It's also much easier to access all these affiliate programmes in one place rather than signing up to dozens of individual schemes.

2. Low and combined payment threshold

The £20 combined payment threshold makes it far easier to hit than chasing a bigger minimum from one advertiser alone, and it's part of why I get paid more regularly through Awin than through independent affiliate programmes.

3. The Awin Marketplace to advertise your other services

You can also list your other services, like collaborative blog posts and reviews, with a description and price for each. I've had brands reach out to me directly after finding my listings there, leading to paid collaborations. It's just one of many places worth listing yourself, check out my list of websites to find paid blogging opportunities for more.

4. Exclusive opportunities with brands

Once accepted onto a brand's programme, you can sign up to their affiliate newsletter for exclusive offers and promo codes to share with readers. There are sometimes competitions too, I once had three months of free access to a service and won £200 in a competition, both just for being an affiliate.

5. Control over banner ads on your site

Awin's Creatives section gives you access to banners, images, and other promotional material from advertisers, so you have more control over what you display and where, rather than leaving it entirely to an ad network to decide.

Awin review: final word

There are lots of genuine reasons Awin is worth using as an affiliate platform for bloggers, plenty of brands worth promoting, a low £20 payment threshold, and a marketplace where you can list your other blogging services too, I've secured several paid blog posts through it myself.

If you're thinking about monetising your blog or social media through affiliate marketing, Awin is a solid place to start. For more on making money from your blog generally, check out my 6 secrets to make more money from your blog.