Become an affiliate partner of Coolblue and Bol
Monetizing a website can be done in many different ways, the most common method is advertising on an ad network like Google AdSense. It is also possible to work with affiliate links. Where a purchase made through your unique link is rewarded with a percentage. The two parties that are big in this area in the Netherlands for Dutch websites are Coolblue and Bol.com. Here is an introduction to these two programs and how you can connect them to your website.
Affiliate links are a way to make money with website hosting. Often this requires more trust in your writing and recommendations than simply clicking on an ad. As a result, it's often a bit more difficult to make a website successful with affiliate links if there isn't already a solid base of readers. Or such a base of visitors as is necessary for success. In this article, we'll explain how the Bol.com and Coolblue affiliate programs work, and how you can become a member.
If you sign up with either of them, make sure you have enough content and visitors already
There is no set target for the number of visitors per month for either party. However, it is true that your website may be rejected for both programs. The reasons for this are often not clear. And sometimes it can be frustrating. So it is often advisable to ensure a certain number of monthly visitors. Generally, we only recommend joining if you have more than 1500 visitors per month to your website. This will ensure that you have a solid baseline. And you can actually track how many people click through to the web stores.
You can do this by writing more, advertising more, and some other tips we've written about in our previous blog posts. See for example:
What everyone is interested in is commission rates
The commission percentage is the actual amount credited to your bank account, and often a credit initially. This is obviously of interest to anyone looking to monetize their website. What is the actual possible monthly income. Commission percentages are not always the same for every product. For example, at Bol.com it makes a difference if you sell a book or a TV. For example, the highest possible commission at bol.com is 8% for baby items and shoes. For white goods and computer hardware there are commission rates of 3%. It depends on your website and the products you recommend how much commission there is.
Coolblue recently changed their commission values and now has a main rule of 2% commission rate. This is less than Bol.com. However, there is fine print here that determines how much the commission is. This is what they call the touchpoints needed to make a sale. This is to ensure that instead of a black and white commission model, more sales can be made with a chance to earn a commission.
Join the program
To become a member of either program, you need to send an email with your motivation to become an affiliate. Here you need to tell something about your website and what it stands for. And what categories you are trying to get a chance for. They will also look at your monthly visitors and your presence in the search engines. Based on this information, they will decide if your website is interesting to subscribe to. Logically, websites on illegal or sensitive topics are not interesting. Ditto for websites that only target cashback or loyalty. In addition, your website should be completely original, with its own content that is easy to read.
After signing up, all you have to do is wait for approval. This often takes a few days or weeks. And then you can place banners, ads and direct links to interesting products or product groups on your website. So that your website visitors are led to bol or coolblue, make a purchase and then get charged the commission.
And that's all it takes to become a member of either one. Coolblue and Bol.com are currently the most interesting sites for a Dutch website. As they are well known names and many have been customers of one of them before. Amazon has also recently become available in the Netherlands, but is still far behind Coolblue and Bol.com. This may of course change in the future.
