The greatest turning point for Google is arguably when they discovered that laying ads next to search results led to high clickthroughs, and thereby lots of money. This works because a person who is searching is ready and primed for clicking through to something so long as it’s relevant to what they are looking for. Well, what works for Google, can work for you too!

Today I’d like to introduce you to a nifty little way to generate referral income from sites that show content similar in nature to the marketplaces. It’s on the same principle as showing ads next to Google Search results. Except instead you show Envato Marketplace search results next to your content.

So take for example the site Vecteezy, home to lots and lots of free vectors. Every time someone does a search on the site to find some vectors, Vecteezy shows their own search results, as well as results from GraphicRiver! The clickthrough rate is very high as the intent of the user is to find vectors. You can check out an example by searching something like orange and then scrolling down the page.

Sponsored Search Results on Vecteezy!

WordPress Plugin OR PHP Script

Thanks to one of our resident front-end ninjas Derek Herman we have released a WordPress plugin and a PHP Script to let you drop in search results, coupled with your referral code, so you can quickly start monetizing new parts of your site.

You can either get the Envato Marketplace Search WordPress Plugin from WordPress.org, or if you’re not using a WordPress site, you can grab the straight PHP script from GitHub at Envato Marketplace Search PHP Script.

Both options will give you some simple unstyled results which you can customize to match the site you are operating.

After that, all you have to do is figure out how to spend the referral cash you’ll be earning!