There are a lot of ways to make money online if you have a book blog. Between ads and sponsored posts, you can start to make a good amount of money. Another good way to make money with your book blog is to have a free books section.
Offering free books to visitors gets them in the door. Or, at least on the website. And if they’re interested in the free content, there’s a high possibility they’ll buy the books you have for sale. Even through affiliate links and banners.
Why Offer a Free Books Section?
First and foremost, this is a great way to connect your audience with books you love. Whether it is via reviews, comments, or simple chatter and word of mouth, giving your audience links to the books you love connects them with exactly what you are talking about.
This is also a great way to make money on your blog. Once you have connected your Clickbank account (more on that below), you will start to receive a portion of each sale that is made when a website user uses a link you have posted.
Offering free WordPress books on your blog is not difficult if you have the right tool. Today, I am going to show you exactly how to do this using a smooth and intuitive plugin.
Let’s take a look at the plugin in question and see what all it has to offer.
Free Books Section
Free Books Section is a plugin that does exactly what the name suggests. It adds different feeds to books into your website using a series or shortcodes. This works as a simple, yet effective, way for you to monetize any blog related to books, writing, or publishing.
Whether you are an author, book blogger, or publisher, the Free Books Section plugin is an ideal tool to add to your website. The plugin is pretty straightforward. Once it is installed and activated, the plugin will provide a newsfeed list of free books for visitors using Amazon’s Kindle Unlimted program.
When you attach your Clickbank affiliate link, then you become eligible to earn commission every time a visitor purchases the Book Promotion offer from your site. Once your book blog becomes popular enough, this can be a great way to make money.
The plugin is very easy to use and set up and comes with a ton of great features. Some of the main ones include:
- Free Books for Visitors
- Content Updated Dynamically
- Select a Preferred Genre
- All Genres Are Supported
- PermaFree and Kindle Unlimited Books
- Geo-Target Visitors
- Earn Commission
- Increase Likes and Shares of Content
- Clean, Responsive Design
The Free Books Section plugin also supports both the US and International Amazon book feeds, so users have access to all of it.
You will be hard-pressed to find a plugin that is easier to set up and use than this one. Let’s get it up and running together so you can start earning some commissions on your book links.
Set Up a Free Books Section
Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin
In order for you to display a free books section on your website, you first need to install and activate the plugin. You can do this by hopping over to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin dashboard.
Once you are on that page, you will notice that there is an available search field. Simply use that field to search for the plugin by name. Once it pops up, install and activate it right from there.
Step 2: Go to the Settings Page
Now that the plugin is installed, you want to access the main settings page. This is where you can set your configurations. To do this, click on Settings > Free Books Section, located in the left side menu area of the dashboard.
You will notice that this is now available as an option to click on because you successfully activated the plugin.
Step 3: Add Clickbank Nickname and Book Genre
At this point, you will be on the main configuration page for the Free Books Section plugin. You can see that the setup is pretty quick and simple.
To configure the plugin, you will need to add your Clickbank Nickname into the relevant field.
You also want to select the genre you want to be displayed on your book’s page. Click on the “Save Changes” button when you are finished to apply the options you chose. If you notice, you can choose to display all genres, which will allow you to show even more free book selections.
Note: If you don’t have a Clickbank account, then go here and get one. It is free and will make you some money. You can also use the plugin without a Clickbank account, you just won’t be eligible to earn a commission. The way it displays and looks will be the exact same either way.
Step 4: Create a New Page
Now that your configurations are in place, you need to create a new page to add the relevant shortcode. To do this, click on Pages > Add New, located on the left side menu area of the dashboard.
Add a page title (whatever you want) and publish it.
Step 5: Add the Shortcode
On the page you just published, you need to add the shortcode [free_books_section]. This brings in all the relevant content that you set up and displays it on the page.
Step 6: View Live Page
The free books section page should be up and running perfectly now. Go ahead and jump over to the live version of the site and see what it looks like.
Note: Your list and section will be based on the dynamic updates that are being pulled from the genre you chose. This list provides a vast number of free eBooks in WordPress.
That’s it! You have successfully added a free books section to your website.
What If I Am an Author and Blogger?
This is a non-issue when using the plugin. You can submit your own books for promotion. Furthermore, if you configure your affiliate link first, you can also earn commission on any sale you make from the site link.
This means that if done correctly, you can make money on multiple sale points of your books. So, that’s more money for you, as well as reducing overall listing costs you may incur when selling on certain platforms.
Final Thoughts
Adding a free books section to your website can be a very good way to connect with your site users. It is also a great opportunity for you to make some extra money from your blog. This is even more important if you have a book blog.
There are several really great ways to make money on blogs. Now that you have a solid plugin and the steps needed to make this work, you can easily add a fully functioning list of free books for your audience to scan through.
I hope this article was able to show you how easy it is to add a free books section to your website.
Have you ever used Clickbank before for any other product affiliate links? What are some other ways you like to make money off your blog?