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Episode 96: How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing
180 Plays4 years ago
Want to make some extra money sharing the tools, resources, and products you already love? If so, maybe affiliate marketing is for you. In today's episode, we're chatting about what affiliate marketing is, how to get started, and five tips for getting the most out of your affiliate marketing efforts.
Before we get started, a quick correction. I mentioned towards the end of the episode a few templates in our shop that we've recently released that might be a good fit or helpful for affiliate marketers. Those are Clifton Beach, which is a template design for bloggers and it has a built-in affiliate shop. Then there's our Tools and Resources add-on page, which is just a single page to add to your website to promote your favorite tools and resources. Both of those are available for Showit and WordPress. I also mentioned, however, our newest template, Barcelona, and while it's our biggest template yet, it doesn't have an affiliate shop in it. Of course, you can always email us to get it customized with one.
For the show notes, go to https://daveyandkrista.com/btb-episode-96/
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Transcript
Choosing the Right Affiliate Programs
00:00:05
Speaker
But I try to look for affiliate programs that complement what we do so it's easy to share about them, right? It's a product that we use and we trust and it just makes sense to share about in the context of what we do. And then if it offers some sort of recurring revenue, we definitely favor those over things that don't.
Introduction to the Show
00:00:28
Speaker
Welcome to the Brands at Book Show, where we help creative service-based businesses build their brands and find more clients. I'm your host, Davy Jones. Want to make some extra money sharing the tools, resources, and products you already love?
Affiliate Marketing Basics and Tips
00:00:45
Speaker
If so, maybe affiliate marketing is for you. In today's episode, we are chatting about what affiliate marketing is, how to get started, and five tips for getting the most out of your affiliate marketing efforts.
00:00:57
Speaker
Before we get started, a quick correction. I mentioned towards the end of the episode a few templates in our shop that we've recently released that might be a good fit or helpful for affiliate marketers. Those are Clifton Beach, which is a template designed for bloggers and it has a built-in affiliate shop.
00:01:13
Speaker
Then there's our tools and resources add-on page, which is just a single page that you can add to your website to promote your favorite tools and resources. Both of those are available for ShowIt and WordPress. I also mentioned, however, our newest template, Barcelona. And while it's our biggest template yet, it doesn't have an affiliate shop in it. Of course, you can always email us to get it customized with one.
00:01:35
Speaker
Anyways, be sure to check out the show notes at DavyandChrista.com for the resources we mentioned during the episode, and I want to hear from you. Let me know what kind of content you'd like to see on the Brands that Book Podcast as we move forward. To leave your feedback, head on over to the DavyandChrista Facebook page and send us a message. You can also DM us on Instagram, at DavyandChrista. Now, onto the episode.
Personal Updates and Content Production
00:02:01
Speaker
All right, we are back with another episode of the brand set book podcast. Vanessa is joining me again. Vanessa, I feel like, I mean, I guess this will be the second episode in a row that you've been on, but there has been a little bit of a break in us recording together. We were just talking about that, both had trips we were on, and then just all sorts of other stuff going on in the world. Yeah, in real life, I had forgotten that we recorded that previous episode, so it was fun to listen to it again.
00:02:27
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. We've been doing a much better job of getting a little bit ahead in terms of the content that we're producing and releasing specifically when it comes to the podcast. So that's a good thing, but I've been excited to release that episode because we get to dive into a couple of different tools and resources that we use specifically when it comes to selling online. So I always love that topic. And today we're talking about another topic that's very interesting to me.
00:02:53
Speaker
Something that we're not specifically super intentional about, but we get a lot of questions about. We started releasing some templates that cater to people who want to get serious about it. And that is affiliate
Understanding Affiliate Marketing Mechanics
00:03:06
Speaker
marketing. So that's our topic today is how to get started with affiliate marketing. I'm thinking that this is really going to be one of two episodes on affiliate marketing.
00:03:15
Speaker
And maybe we'll have more than that in the future. But this first one, how to get started with affiliate marketing if you want to be the affiliate. So basically, if you want to promote other people's products and make a commission, here's how you get started with that. And then down the road, we'll have to record another episode and maybe talk about how to start an affiliate program or a referral program for your own business.
00:03:39
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great idea. And it actually will probably tie in some of those tools that we've talked about that allow you to set up those programs. So can you kind of give like a beginner overview of what affiliate marketing is? Yeah, absolutely. So first affiliate marketing in terms of how much energy that you want to invest in it. Affiliate marketing can be something that you do on the side and just make a couple of dollars here and there, or it can be something people create entire business models around affiliate marketing.
00:04:09
Speaker
where they generate tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands or more dollars each year in promoting other people's businesses or other people's products and services. So lots of earning potential there, but a great way just to make some extra money sharing the tools and resources that you love.
Building Trust and Tracking Challenges
00:04:26
Speaker
Typically how it works is businesses that have an affiliate program, you typically have to apply. And if you're accepted into the program, you're given either a link or a code to share. And when people click on your link and they end up purchasing that product or service, or they use the code that you're given when they purchase, then you receive a commission for referring that sale. So in general, that's typically how it works.
00:04:53
Speaker
So what's really interesting to me is I work with a couple clients who are almost primarily affiliate marketing in that they get a ton of traffic to their website. They're advertising products on Amazon or through a tool called reward style, which is typically fashion, home decor and beauty. But what's really interesting about it is it's still about trust and building your own brand because you still need people who believe in you and what you're recommending to convince them to click on over and purchase the product.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things that I think is going to be pretty apparent as we chat today, the things that make a good affiliate marketer are the same things that make a good marketer, right? So the same ways that you would promote your own products and services, a lot of those strategies will work for promoting other people's products and services. And when done well, they're just more effective. So I think that makes a lot of sense.
00:05:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So how does it actually work? Like what are people clicking on and what's the technology behind affiliate marketing?
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So typically, there is one of two ways in which affiliate purchases are tracked, and it's typically through a link or through a code. There's pros and cons to both, I guess, the link and the code. The nice thing about the link is that you can embed a link in, let's say, a blog post, people click on it, they go and purchase, they don't have to remember a code. The other thing about a link that's nice is what happens is that visitor, when they click the link, is typically cookies, right? So basically,
00:06:24
Speaker
If that person clicks your link, goes to visit the product page, checks it out but isn't ready to buy, if they come back to that product and purchase down the road, typically you'll still get credit for that purchase. Now, there's a few things that go on in the background that could kind of spoil that for you.
00:06:43
Speaker
So for instance, people are typically cookies for a certain amount of time. So let's say it's 30 days. That means if that person purchases within 30 days, you'll get credit for that purchase. But if they come back on the 31st day and purchase and that cookie is expired, then you might not get credit for that purchase. So a few different factors might prevent the link from working. The other thing that's sort of frustrating, but it's a good thing I think overall for the web. But as we all know, browsers are doing more and more to
00:07:13
Speaker
basically limit how you're tracked across the web, right? So sometimes that could mess up how an affiliate link works if someone were to clear their browsing history. So if you would go to Google Chrome, for instance, and, and click to clear all of your browsing history, that could, you know, prevent an affiliate link from working. So there are a few things that kind of mess up with that technology, I would say that's sort of the downside of using a link.
Links vs. Codes: Pros and Cons
00:07:37
Speaker
The other thing, I guess we'll get there in a second. And talking about a code, codes are nice because they're just cleaner. The only thing about a code is that people have to make sure they remember to use the code at checkout. So if somebody doesn't use it, if they forget, then you won't get credit for that purchase. So pros and cons to each.
00:07:58
Speaker
Yeah, and there's also too that kind of extra step concept where if you require someone to dig through and find the code, they might just drop out altogether and not make the sale. So making it as easy as possible for someone to click through would probably be my preference unless you're tying a discount to the code where they can't get the special deal without entering it.
00:08:19
Speaker
Yeah. And that's one of the great things about codes. Now, technically links can do this as well. I think it's, yeah, I mean, technically links can pass on a code as well, some sort of discount. So if you click the link, that link could automatically apply a discount. I feel like you see that maybe a little bit more often with codes. So somebody is given a code to use to share with their audience. And as a result of using that code, you get a commission and then your audience might get five, 10, you know, 15 plus percent off of their purchase. So
00:08:47
Speaker
Pros and cons with both. I think like you, I prefer a link because it can just be easily embedded. It can generally pass on the information such as a discount code if you need it to, and it doesn't require people to remember anything.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think what's really tricky, and you're going to bring this up in the blog post, is that if you have a bunch of people promoting an idea at once during a launch, you have the whole who's going to get credit for the link. And so I want to hear you talk a little bit about that and that concept.
00:09:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So it's just helpful to know how an affiliate program is set up before you actually sign up for the affiliate program. I think it's most important to understand this if you're helping somebody launch a product. So if somebody is going to launch a product and their cart is going to open and then close in a relatively short amount of time,
00:09:40
Speaker
It's really helpful to know things like, is it a first click model or a last click model? And so basically what that means is on a first click model, the affiliate link that's clicked on first is awarded the commission if somebody purchases.
00:09:55
Speaker
Whereas on a last click basis, it's the last person whose affiliate link was clicked on. So if me and you are both promoting a product and we're on a first click model, if somebody clicks my link, visits the page, decides I'm not ready to buy, sees you promoting it, clicks your link, and then purchases, I get credit for the purchase because my affiliate link was the first one that was clicked on. And the opposite is true on a last click model.
00:10:24
Speaker
What do you think is more common? I feel like I see last click models more commonly in those tag cart closed situations. Yeah, I would say I mean, it's one of the things that's like constantly debated which model is better, which model, you know, should people be giving credit for? And I don't think there's an easy answer. I think that first click models are nice because it rewards people who get out there and are among the first to promote a product.
00:10:47
Speaker
Last click, though, you know, giving credit to the people who actually get the customer over, you know, their buying objections and actually to get out their credit card to pay for the product. So I think it's one of those things where we're not going to settle this debate within the confines of this podcast. And I'd have to check. I mean, we have an affiliate program for Davey and Krista for people who have purchased from us before they can sign up to be affiliates.
00:11:10
Speaker
And I'd have to try to remember which model we chose to go with, but I did a fair amount of research when setting up our affiliate program and I just couldn't come to a conclusion. So I reached out to a couple of friends who had good affiliate programs going on and they gave me some guidance there.
00:11:26
Speaker
You know, it's interesting when you think about like a sales funnel or a sales launch, typically the first day is really strong and then the last like day and the last couple hours are really strong for sales. So it seems like people would benefit on both of those ends. But if you are doing like a live cart affiliate launch, don't forget to send those last hour, last 48 hours, those emails at the very end because you're probably more likely going to make sales at the beginning or at the very end.
00:11:51
Speaker
Yeah. And if you're helping somebody with a launch, if you're promoting somebody else's launch, it's helpful to know whether it's a first click or last click model. I mean, you get a little bit more strategic when you're going to promote. Certainly if it's a first click model, you want to make sure that as soon as you're okay to promote the product that you're out there promoting the product. Especially if you feel like you're going to have a lot of crossover with other affiliates who are promoting the product. So that's why it's good to know some of these things at the outset.
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah,
Recurring Commissions and Models
00:12:18
Speaker
yeah. Of course, there's all kinds of like affiliate marketing where it's ongoing. And that's where I've kind of settled where like, for example, I use Tailwind, which is a Pinterest marketing tool. And I talk about it in blog posts and on YouTube videos. And it's kind of like a constant stream. There's never really, and I have no idea if it's first click or last click, but it's a constant stream of just revenue because people are always accessing that information, you know, through search engines.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the best kind. If you're looking for an affiliate program, that's the best kind of setup that you can find. I think is a product that complements what you do because tailwind, right? Is the Pinterest tool. And I know even when we got set up with, I think you set us up with tailwind, right? And I'm sure I'm pretty sure you did.
00:13:04
Speaker
No, I think you guys had a tailwind account because Krista had purchased a Pinterest course at some point. Yeah. Okay. But I'm sure that Tailwind was introduced to her and that confines in the context of that Pinterest course. And my guess is that we use somebody who's affiliate link to purchase Tailwind, right? But for you, you're getting people set up on Tailwind because it's the best tool for Pinterest. So it only makes sense for you to use the Tailwind affiliate link.
00:13:27
Speaker
Same thing with us for Elementor, right? I mean, we designed for show it in Elementor. So anybody we're getting set up for Elementor, of course, we're going to send along our Elementor affiliate link too, right? And I think that's the best kind of affiliate program that you can be a part of as a business, something that complements what you're doing. Exactly. So like you said, like every time someone purchases my course, or someone buys your template, you're almost automatically
00:13:52
Speaker
building in a little bit of affiliate income from that because they're likely going to be using your link unless of course they've started it in the past before they purchase your template. So I do kind of like I do think about that because sometimes it can be good to think about that in terms of your business costs or just like your maybe if you're doing ad revenue you can think okay if I make this sale I'm also going to get a little kickback from these tools and I can think of that as money I can put towards
00:14:17
Speaker
improving my product or improving my business. So yeah, for sure. And you can get pretty granular with it in terms of how you understand people converting, you know, so you could probably look and see, okay, this many people will convert into this course. And then of the people who convert in the course, how many people use my affiliate link for tailwind and almost treat it as part of your funnel, even
00:14:37
Speaker
But anyways, we're getting off track here. There are a few other things I think that are important to understand about an affiliate program as you're getting signed up, such as the commission structure and the payout terms. So typically when you sign up, the commission is going to be structured in one of two ways. It's either going to be a flat fee that you're paid out or it's going to be a percentage of the purchase price. So for instance, do you know what tailwinds is off the top of your head?
00:15:03
Speaker
You know, they kind of do it differently. So if someone purchase a yearly plan, gosh, I don't even know what the percentage is. But what I love is if someone does like an ongoing plan, like a subscription, you get it every single month for as long as they are members. But I don't know the percentage. As far as I'm concerned, that is the gold standard of affiliate programs, right? Because ConvertKit is the same way. So if somebody signs up using our ConvertKit affiliate link, we get a commission based on every month that they stay with ConvertKit.
00:15:29
Speaker
And if they pay annually, it's the same thing. Every year that they re-up, we get a commission based on the plan that they're on. And that's, I think, the greatest kind of affiliate program to be a part of. Other affiliate programs, and again, it depends on the product too. If it's a one-time purchase, then of course you're typically just going to get a percentage of that purchase or a flat fee for each person that you refer.
00:15:50
Speaker
Some affiliate programs will offer different tiers of affiliates. So if you're one of their top affiliates, you might earn a greater percentage or a greater flat fee. But I try to look for affiliate programs that complement what we do. So it's easy to share about them, right? It's a product that we use and we trust, and it just makes sense to share about in the context of what we do. And then if it offers some sort of recurring revenue, we definitely favor those over things that don't.
00:16:18
Speaker
Yeah, and I just want to point out, I'm definitely not a billionaire from promoting Tailwind, but every time I see those little amounts show up, like the monthly recurring ones, I think, hey, we can go to Chick-fil-A, or hey, just little additions. Another thing that Tailwind does, which I don't know if you have experience with this, is they also have a 50 cents, everyone go join Tailwind now, with my link.
00:16:39
Speaker
Everyone has, they have like a little 50 cent sign up. So someone like even just, it's not just a sign up. If they inquire, if it's just a lead and they're, they click over to the Tailwind site, they'll give you 50 cents. So it's almost like, again, not like a millionaire from this, but if you click on over, you get like a 50 cent lead. So I think that's really, they're very generous.
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's awesome. And it makes sense for them. You know, there are affiliate programs like that where you get paid for every person you send to, let's say a free webinar, right? And that person, there's no guarantee that they're going to convert on the back end, that webinar, but you get paid for sending traffic. And the reason is because people know that if they don't pay you, they're going to be paying something like Facebook, right? To send people to their webinar. So it makes sense that they would do that, but it is very generous. And I don't think very typical of a SAS provider to do something like that.
00:17:29
Speaker
But maybe you successfully guessed it. Now you know it's a good idea. You should recommend it to them. Yeah, that's
Legal Disclosures and Trust
00:17:34
Speaker
right. There are other things that you should know about too, just in terms of commission and payout with the payout structure. Typically, you're not paid out every time you get a sale. And I don't know how Tailwinds works. I can't remember exactly how ConvertKits works. I think you get paid out at the end of every month.
00:17:51
Speaker
For Elementor, I think you have to have something like $200 in commissions and the refund period has to have passed. So 30 days have to have passed and you have to have reached at least $200 in commissions. So just be aware of that kind of stuff. If you're counting on affiliate income for whatever reason, just understand when you're going to be paid out because if you just have maybe two or three purchases attributed to you, you might not get paid out until you've reached whatever that company's threshold is.
00:18:19
Speaker
Okay, so this isn't in the notes, but I just thought about it. Couple things you guys might be thinking about. First of all, Tailwind is set up under Share a Sale, which is a really large affiliate program. And if you're familiar with like influencer marketing, you can find lots of different links through there.
00:18:33
Speaker
But I think it is a $50 threshold and they do it month to month and they do have this waiting period. Basically, like you said, they're kind of waiting for people who might return and unsubscribe. But the other thing is the way that they pay out. So sometimes I've seen I feel like a lot of creative entrepreneurs will use PayPal to kind of pay out their affiliates. But these larger affiliate companies, you have to set up like a W9.
00:18:57
Speaker
and it can go directly to your bank account. And those are typically my favorite because you're going to have to report the income to the IRS, it is income earned, but also they're not taking out fees, whereas PayPal typically takes out fees. Sure, sure. Something else that's good to know about payouts as well as chargebacks, we've actually never had to deal with this on an affiliate level before. But let's say somebody uses your link, purchases the product that you're promoting, and then down the line, that customer disputes the charge with the business.
00:19:27
Speaker
If they win that dispute and the business has to pay back money to that customer, then typically, if you got affiliate commission on that sale, the business is typically within their right to come to you and take their commission back. I don't know how often this happens. It's never happened to us for any of the products that we recommend. Has it ever happened with you? No, actually, I know of somebody who purchased through my link. They asked me specifically for my link, which is what I love.
00:19:55
Speaker
because I love that people like to subvert people that way. But she did end up asking for a return for whatever reason. And I don't think they ever took the money back. So it's probably just administratively a nightmare to deal with. And they just kind of let it go. I'm sure people build that into their affiliate terms and conditions, just as more of a warning against people who might try to game the system. But I don't hear about that happen often or really ever. But it's something at least to be aware of when you sign up for an affiliate program.
00:20:24
Speaker
So something to, you know, it's worth reading over people's terms and conditions and just in terms of not being shady, making sure that when you're sharing about a product that you do it in a way that the business would be comfortable with, right? Like we don't want any of our affiliates misrepresenting the Davey and Krista brand or our products just so that people purchase from us.
00:20:46
Speaker
because then when they purchase from us and realize they didn't get what this person was promising them, you know, that doesn't reflect well on us. So it's important that you pay attention to a brand's style guide and just oftentimes brands will give you a kit that you can use to help promote their products, but definitely worth paying attention to that.
00:21:07
Speaker
Those are my favorite. Another thing that is important to remember in affiliate marketing, I'm going to toss out the disclosure that Davey and I did not go to law school, but there are proper ways that you have to disclose if you're using a link. And honestly, honestly, it's just the best policy. You could go to my blog right now, and typically I have an affiliate link for Tailwind and most blogs. And I just do. I just have a little disclosure at the beginning of the blog post. If you're in an email, you just might mention in a natural way, hey,
00:21:34
Speaker
This is an affiliate link, but I know Davey and Krista well and I support what they do and you can check out their templates here. Just do it in a natural way. Don't be sneaky. People will appreciate that. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it's really interesting. I think I read a blog post once and I can't remember who wrote the blog post. I'm sure it was years ago now, but basically they always included a second non affiliate link so that the person would write and it would be like, okay, this is the affiliate link. This is the non affiliate link. And he said that
00:22:02
Speaker
Most people click the affiliate link knowing that there was the option of a non affiliate link and his whole thing was like people appreciate just being told up front I know that we have mentioned of our affiliate links in our terms and conditions or in our privacy policy one of the two I can't remember off the top my head like Vanessa said we're not lawyers so you should definitely check with the laws in your state and country and
00:22:22
Speaker
But definitely be transparent. A good way to get kicked out of affiliate program is to do shady stuff. And if you keep on recommending, if you're an affiliate, that becomes a problem in that everybody you recommend to this product, maybe they're doing chargebacks, maybe they're asking for refunds, then chances are that whatever business that you're affiliate for, they're gonna look into that and maybe ask you to stop being an affiliate for them.
00:22:46
Speaker
or, you know, they probably won't ask. They'll probably just kick you out of their affiliate program. So yeah, don't be shady is I think the headline there.
00:22:55
Speaker
It's always good advice for pretty much everything. That's right. That's right. Don't be shady. Anyways, where to get started with affiliate programs. We kind of already covered this basically the kinds of affiliate programs that we look for one things that compliment what we do. There's nothing more obvious I think than writing a blog post that's just random that has nothing to do really with what you're doing just for the purposes of promoting an affiliate link, right?
00:23:18
Speaker
There are a lot of programs that we use and love as designers that our audience wouldn't be interested in because they're not designers, right? They're interested in website design because their business needs a website, but they're not necessarily interested in the tools that we use to design the website, right? So we don't go out of our way to share affiliate links to those programs, even though we might be part of their affiliate program.
00:23:41
Speaker
So, the things that make the most sense, I think, as we already discussed with Vanessa, something like Tailwind for us, something like Elementor, ConvertKit, Flowdesk, those kinds of things make sense for us to promote because we're going to be talking about them anyways. Yeah. I mean, there is too the whole concept of having, I forget what it's called, an Amazon store page. I don't know exactly what it's called, but you can have a page on Amazon. Amazon is really tricky with affiliates too and their cookies, so keep that in mind.
00:24:11
Speaker
There are places where you could have like a whole store of your favorite books. So I know Davey talks a lot about different business books that he's reading or even like tools that he might use, like what's an example, his favorite podcasting mic. So there are natural ways that you can present things that maybe are not exactly what you do, but things you've benefited from. So that's another thing worth exploring because we all make purchases on Amazon. And just as a side note, one of my favorite things about Amazon is if Davey had a link to his favorite podcasting mic,
00:24:40
Speaker
and you clicked on it, but later on you decided to order dog food. You actually still get affiliate money because you bought dog food, even if you didn't buy the microphone. So something to think about when you're thinking about affiliate marketing. One of the great things about Amazon, and that's true of most affiliate links. This is another reason why I like links in particular is because
00:25:00
Speaker
Typically, not always, but typically how a link works is if you click on, let's say somebody shares about our products over at Davey and Krista. So let's say Vanessa shares about it and she has an affiliate link and somebody from your community clicks on that link, goes to the product you're sharing about, decides not to buy that product, but another product from us. That affiliate link will still give you a commission for that sale.
00:25:25
Speaker
So I think another bonus of using links versus coupon codes, whereas a coupon code might work for a specific product only. So something to keep in mind, another consideration is just whether the affiliate commission is worth
Balancing Effort and Audience Interests
00:25:37
Speaker
it. I think especially if you're going to be creating an affiliate program for your business is something to think through. I think the best affiliate commissions are typically somewhere in the ballpark of
00:25:46
Speaker
25% to 50%, I would say. Again, it depends on the product and the price of the product, of course. So if you're an affiliate for a SaaS product like ConvertKit, let's say, it makes sense for them to give you maybe a lower percentage because you're going to get a recurring commission every time that person decides to renew for a month.
00:26:05
Speaker
Whereas, for a product that you just buy once, you might get a higher percentage, alright, because you're not going to get that recurring revenue. But there's definitely, we've been asked, for instance, to be part of affiliate programs where you make maybe a couple dollars, you know, anywhere between one and ten dollars for each sale that you make. And just because of the type of business we are, it just doesn't make sense for us to put a lot of effort into promoting it when, you know, we're gonna make one dollar, let's say, every time somebody makes a purchase.
00:26:35
Speaker
Yeah, and that kind of goes back to when you're emailing, you're using email marketing or speaking on social media.
00:26:41
Speaker
you only have so much time and energy from your audience to promote products. And so it's really not worth it to constantly be, I guess the word that you hear a lot is shill, like shilling out all these products. Whereas when you speak about a product, you really love and know people are more likely to act. And so you might lose your audience if you're constantly trying to sell them for things that you might only get a dollar to $5 kickback from.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, again, it depends on what kind of business you are, right? For both of us, it doesn't make sense for me to be sending emails about like my favorite pair of running shorts, right? Like it just doesn't make sense. Whereas, you know, one of the templates that we just released for Dave and Krista is a template specifically for, you know, bloggers, lifestyle bloggers, you know, the influencer type, where
00:27:29
Speaker
You know, that might make total sense. So much so that that template in particular has space for an affiliate shop, right? Where you can have a shop on your website that's basically featuring products as if they're your own, but when you click on them, it brings you to whatever business you're actually promoting.
00:27:47
Speaker
And that makes more sense for somebody who is, you know, like their whole business model is set up as, you know, a blogger or influencer, right? For a lot of us though, it just makes sense to naturally recommend tools that we know and love and use in our everyday business. Yeah. And even in that, still being on brand, but for those types of businesses to really be successful, a lot of times they're
00:28:11
Speaker
strategy is based on volume. They're getting a lot of clicks. Their audience is really, really big because sometimes if you're buying a pair of running shorts on, I don't know, from Nike.com, they might be 30 bucks and you might only make a few dollars. But if you're selling thousands of those or hundreds, that's where you're really going to drive the income home.
00:28:27
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And something else to keep in mind and this is why we don't do a lot of launch or this is why we don't help with a lot of like affiliate launches is because when you're helping somebody launch a product and again that model where they're opening the cart and then closing a cart, let's say a week later.
00:28:44
Speaker
For that to be worth it for you, typically you're going to have to email your audience maybe 10 times in that week promoting somebody else's product. That might make a lot of sense depending on what the product is that you're promoting.
00:29:00
Speaker
A lot of times though, it's a great way to wear out your audience for a product or service that they may or may not be interested in promoting against somebody else's product. So that's one of the reasons why we're pretty weary to get into promoting other people's stuff. Don't get me wrong, you know, when friends reach out, when people reach out and say, hey, I'm launching something, would you guys help share about it? We're usually more than willing to do that, but to send up to 10 emails about it, that's usually where we draw the line.
00:29:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's really interesting you brought that up because I have personally never had that much success with doing these long launch emails.
00:29:38
Speaker
And I love the people and I believe in their product, but I don't think so far I've made too many sales from doing those. And it's interesting to hear you say that. I'm always happy to share like Instagram story or talk about something and support someone, but I myself haven't done well. But I do know there are people who make tens of thousands of dollars on those types of situations. So it can be done, but I think it takes a large list, a large trusting list to be successful there.
00:30:02
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think list size is definitely a factor there. I also think just intentionality is to like priming your audience for this product that's going to be coming, you know, so actually, instead of just randomly deciding that you're going to be promoting a product this week, you've started to produce some content that would, you know, get your audience in that frame of mind for whatever product or service it is that you're about to promote. Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
And for us, like, I mean, we have a lot of our own stuff going on, and we've just found it difficult to juggle that. But anyways, I'm sure a lot of that is on us too. But there's a few things that we should talk about a few ways that we should or a few tips that we have for maximizing your affiliate marketing efforts. And we'll go through these pretty quick. Like I said, I think many of the marketing strategies that work for promoting your own products also work for promoting affiliate products.
00:30:52
Speaker
Of course, you don't want to pass anything off as your own when it's not your own, but the strategies themselves typically work. So, number one, taking advantage of the business's affiliate marketing tools. Some of the better affiliate marketing programs are going to have built in a suite of resources that will help you promote their product. This typically includes images and swipe copy, and swipe copy is just pre-written copy that you can sort of plug and play as you promote that product.
00:31:22
Speaker
But, some of my favorite affiliate programs will also do things like host webinars and trainings that are completely free that are just value ads. And if you get people to those webinars and then they convert on the webinar, you get a commission. And it's typically easier to get people to a webinar or a training where they're going to get a ton of value up front than it is to convince somebody to pull out their wallet right away.
00:31:46
Speaker
Yeah, those are some of my favorite because you can say genuinely when you're emailing your list, hey, my friend is hosting this training, check it out. It's totally free. And I think there's a lot of valuable things you can walk away with just from the training alone. Absolutely. And I just find that genuine and it's true. Typically, if it's a good webinar, they're going to learn a lot in that webinar.
00:32:06
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Again, one of the businesses that does that, I've talked about them a couple of times is ConvertKit. They have a pretty solid affiliate program built out. And in part, I mean, one of the reasons that I mention them so often is I'm pretty sure that's one of the ways that ConvertKit grew their business so quickly was through just investing in their affiliate program early on. But that's probably a topic for another episode for reasons why you should create an affiliate program potentially for your business.
00:32:36
Speaker
The second thing, identifying your most visited pages and posts that already exist on your website. So of course, and this is going to be the next tip is creating content consistently that promotes the products that you're affiliated with, but you probably have pages on your website right now that already get a lot of traffic. So if it makes sense and you can embed a link somewhere in there,
00:32:58
Speaker
then do that because then you'll already start leveraging traffic that you're getting instead of having to build new content, optimize that content for search engines and so on.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah. And of course this requires knowing your numbers and knowing at least a beginner way around Google Analytics. So you can take a look at it. So you can go to Google Analytics and look at your landing pages and just pick the top five.
Content Strategy for Affiliate Success
00:33:22
Speaker
I've had more success too, instead of just like putting a link through text of actually creating a graphic that you embed into the post that just says, Hey, check out, like I have a tailwind one, just cause we're talking about it. A tailwind graphic, it's blue if it's their branding. And when you click on it, it takes it over to the link.
00:33:38
Speaker
There's some really creative ways that you can incorporate that and honestly do it sooner rather than later because a lot of these posts are just going to continue to gain traction and three years from now you're going to wish that you'd written a post about it because it lives on Google and everybody's searching these things and clicking on them.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, sure. And one of the things you don't want to do is just randomly start promoting products on pages where it might not make sense. On the other hand, depending on the page, it is depending on the post, you know, this probably makes more sense for blog posts. But having a sidebar, let's say that static and maybe has it that's typically just advertising a couple of the products you're affiliated with, I think makes total sense. You know, so
00:34:20
Speaker
that to show up on each of your blog posts might result in some extra affiliate income. And then also people are just, I think they're used to seeing advertisements as they scroll down a page. So, you know, building in sort of your own advertising throughout your blog posts, I think makes sense, especially if you're doing it in a way that you just explained Vanessa, where it's just a graphic sort of looks like an ad, but people who are interested in it can, can click on it.
00:34:44
Speaker
Again, I would make sure that, I mean, I wouldn't do that on your homepage in most instances, I think, you know? So you want to make sure that it fits and it's appropriate for the page. Yeah, for sure. So number three, we don't have to spend a lot of time here because we just mentioned it, creating content that consistently promotes your affiliate products. One of the things that I typically see is again, that one-off blog post and you know the person wrote it about that tool because they have an affiliate link and
00:35:12
Speaker
That's why they're sharing it and it really has nothing to do with what they typically offer their audience. And I think people can spot that kind of thing a mile away. So that's why it's important in being intentional about the kind of product that you're promoting. But remember the thing about blog posts is that as you write new blog posts, older blog posts get buried.
00:35:32
Speaker
So creating content consistently around a given topic can increase your chances that maybe one of these blog posts starts ranking well for a higher volume search. So people are coming across it in more of an evergreen fashion instead of it just being something you wrote once that gets buried in your blog, really never to be seen again by anybody.
00:35:53
Speaker
One of my favorite examples of this is, I hope I can bring this up, is Flowdesk. So Flowdesk is an email marketing tool. It's relatively new. Is it at least a year old? I don't even know exactly. It's not that old. But when you think about people who are new to Flowdesk or maybe they heard about it in a Facebook group and they Google it,
00:36:11
Speaker
If you were one of those first people, I wish I had been, who wrote a blog post about flow tests, now your link is like the top link. And if your blog in general stays healthy, you now have like the number one link that people are clicking on for not only to put an affiliate link, but then also to introduce your brand. So again, if you fall in love with the tool really soon and you think it's going to continue to work for you, there's no harm in creating. Of course, it needs to be complimentary.
00:36:36
Speaker
creating a post or even a YouTube video that's embedded in the post that talks about the tool. Yeah, absolutely. And it's something that even if it doesn't rank well, or doesn't rank well at first, it becomes something that you can share down the line, especially if it's answering any question that you typically get. And that's, you know, I mean, most of the stuff that we write most of the content we create is based on questions that we're getting from people.
00:36:57
Speaker
So even if for whatever reason it's not as optimized as we want it to be, it's not showing up in search engines as high as we'd like it to, we know that at the very least when somebody else asks us that question and somebody else will, because this is how we're creating blog posts, we can just send them a link. We don't have to type out a really long drawn out response. The answer is already written in that blog post. We can send it to them. And again, your link's in that for them to hopefully click because you've given a strong recommendation of a product.
00:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, I have a comment, but it actually works really well with tip number four. So I'll let you introduce that first. Yeah, share your affiliate related content frequently. So one thing you could do and I know that you guys have a tool and resources template page is in your welcome funnel. So when people are doing your email list, and you might send like a series of five emails, one of those emails could be about your favorite tools that you use to run your business that you think
00:37:51
Speaker
will fit the type of business that you are. And so that allows you to constantly be churning your affiliate links in front of people. And honestly, when I was a baby beginner business, I was looking for that information. I wanted to know what was tried and true and what had been effective for other people, because you just honestly don't know. So be resourceful, but then also you're consistently putting that in front of people in their inbox.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And so you mentioned our tools and resources page. This is something that people we created because it was highly requested, just a page that you can add to your website, where you can list your favorite tools and resources, whether you are using affiliate links
Effective Affiliate Templates
00:38:28
Speaker
or not. And of course, if you have affiliate links, though, that's a great page to include them.
00:38:32
Speaker
I love the idea of building that into your welcome sequence or even building blog posts in that have maybe affiliate links in them because it discusses a topic that people are generally interested about when they come and learn more about your business and a great way to kind of
00:38:47
Speaker
you know, I guess make the search engine optimization aspect or concern not so much of a concern, right? Because even if it's not optimized for search engines, even if it's not showing up high in a search result, or if it's something that people just aren't searching for, but they should be, right? Using your email list to get that post in front of people would, I think, be an effective way to do that.
00:39:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So again, the things that work when it comes to marketing your own products typically work when it comes to affiliate products as well. I mean, a lot of the things that we just talked about are things that we're telling you all the time on this podcast anyways, you know, one, we're talking a little bit about this building here to we're talking about understanding analytics, understanding what's working right now. And then, you know, I think just as importantly,
00:39:30
Speaker
creating content or both big on creating content. There's been countless guests that have come on this podcast talking about how they grew their business through creating content. And then of course, if you've listened to us before, you've heard us say, share your content more than once and more than twice and more than three times. Continue to share your content as long as it's relevant.
00:39:51
Speaker
The only other thing that we mentioned here as far as tips maximizing affiliate marketing efforts is just understanding launch schedules. And this is applicable specifically to an affiliate program that you're a part of or an affiliate launch rather. So again, if you're helping somebody promote a product that's only available for a relatively short amount of time, only available during a launch period,
00:40:12
Speaker
then it's important to understand, one, the promotion schedule, and two, what model affiliate program you're using, whether it's first click or last click, and then you can plan accordingly from there. So I don't really have much else to talk about. We do have templates now available to help people get started with affiliate marketing. For people who already have, maybe affiliate marketing is already a sort of central aspect of your business, we have two templates in particular, Clifton Beach and Barcelona.
00:40:40
Speaker
Both have different aspects to the template that will help you promote affiliate products. San Clemente, that could easily be added to as well. So those are the three templates I would check out. If you are a blogger, influencer type, those are the three templates that I would recommend. But if you just want a page where you can list the tools and resources you love and then hopefully make a couple extra dollars each month from sharing those, then our tools and resources add-on page is a great page to check out as well.
00:41:10
Speaker
Is there anything else that we're missing, Vanessa? No. Other than I just think it's important to drive home that whatever you're sharing, your audience needs to trust you first.
00:41:23
Speaker
Be picky and be careful and then love on people well. And I think that they will at times seek you out for affiliate links. I get that all the time where people come to me specifically because they want to make a purchase just to support my family. Nothing warms my heart more than knowing that. So just be genuine and don't be shady like we mentioned earlier.
00:41:42
Speaker
Absolutely. And affiliate marketing, I feel like has earned sort of a shady reputation because there's a lot of people out there doing shady things when it comes to affiliate marketing. So build that trust with your audience, continue to build that trust with your audience by recommending awesome tools and resources. And I can tell you that people who have recommended, I mean, even good books, I've read a couple of good books lately that have come from the recommendation of a few friends and I trust them even more.
00:42:07
Speaker
now. I'm just grateful to them for recommending those books. The same is true when it comes to business. When you recommend something to somebody that's not your own product or service and somebody benefits from that, they will remember that. Important to build trust.
00:42:24
Speaker
Yep. Cool. Well, thanks Vanessa for joining me today to parse out a little bit of affiliate marketing. We'll have to do another episode on creating an affiliate marketing program as well and a couple of tools and resources that are available to do that. So be on the lookout for that episode, hopefully before the end of the summer. Yeah. Thanks for having me.
00:42:47
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands That Book Show. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing and leaving a review in iTunes. For show notes and other resources, head on over to dvandchrista.com.