This is the way most things in business work.
1. You create or discover something you can make money with.
2. You have to figure out a way to promote/market it before you can actually make the money.
For example:
- Creating products for your Etsy shop. You make awesome digital or physical products, and then have to create the listing, the photos, and master SEO. Next, you sit and wait for someone to buy your stuff.
- Finding product to sell on Amazon. Whether you develop private label products, or discover arbitrage treasures on the clearance rack, you send them into Amazon, create the listings, try to get them ranked and wait.
- Developing online courses. Same thing, right? Make the course, write the sales page, cross your fingers for buyers.
- Using affiliate marketing. Yep. You’ve got it.
Marketing/sharing/promoting the thing is often the most difficult part. Not only do you have to get it in front of the people; you have to get it in front of the right people.
Affiliate Links & Products Are Easier to Promote
Thankfully, with affiliate marketing the process can be simpler and quicker. Plus, many of the ways don’t even require a website.
1. Add to Courses
If you already create and sell digital courses, adding affiliate links to the material can be quite simple. Do this with new courses, or promote affiliate links in existing courses.
Do you promote affiliate products that would be complementary to, but not competitive with, your material? You can add those to:
- An “additional resources” section with a brief description of the affiliate product.
- Mention them in the material as tools you use to accomplish what you are teaching in the course.
- Create a course-related bonus that mentions the affiliate product and provides your link. ***NOTE: Be absolutely certain that you provide helpful, quality information that your customer can use, regardless of whether they purchase the affiliate product or not.
2. Teaching Sites
Even if you do not sell courses from your own website, you can take advantage of the same process on other sites.
Have you uploaded any training to the various teaching platforms? These three are popular:
It works in exactly the same way. Include affiliate links in the course material, as a tool you use or as an additional resource.
3. In Your Etsy Shop or Products (Would Also Work for Most Other Marketplaces)
Selling physical or digital products in your Etsy shop can be a great way to earn income. But did you know you can promote affiliate links in several places?
- Message to Buyers for Digital Items Section – When you fill out the message to people who purchase digital products from you, include a PS with a link to a highly relevant affiliate product along with your link. There is also a standard Message to Buyers section you can use for physical products.
- Download/Thank You File – If you include a page with your digital download products that offers instructions, download links, thank you message, or other communication you can also include affiliate links to related products.
4. Create Freebies
You know all those opt-in freebies you have created over the years to promote your own products? You can create something very similar to promote affiliate links.
Checklists, guides, videos and all sorts of other content upgrades work just as well for affiliate products as they do your own products. Here’s step-by-step help, if you need it.
5. Medium.com
If you publish on Medium or any other similar site, you can absolutely add affiliate links to your content or the footer of your articles.
Promoting affiliate links in this way makes a solid connection with readers because they have already proven to be interested in a particular topic.
6. Social Media
Social posts seem to be an approach that most people use with affiliate marketing. It can work well if you have a following.
Test a variety of different post links and graphics to find the ones that perform best and bring you the most commissions. These five types of posts perform very well, regardless of which social media platform you choose.
- Conversation – Get to know your followers.
- Community – Provide shareable content that can go viral.
- Credibility – Offer proof that you/the affiliate product does what you say it does.
- Connection – Build a heart-to-heart connection that lasts.
- Conversion – Sell and earn!
This set of templates offers 100 ways to accomplish all five phases on Facebook, LinkedIn and Insta Stories. But you can magically resized them for any social platform (including Instagram, Pinterest, Tiktok, Twitter, Threads, etc.) with Canva Pro. You can also manually resize them with a free Canva account.
7. Website (Recommended Page)
Your followers will regularly be interested and the products and tools you used to be successful. Create a page on your website devoted to the products. This is a perfect outlet for sharing affiliate links with highly interested people.
8. Blog Posts
Blogging and affiliate marketing have a natural affinity. It only makes sense that, when you are sharing your thoughts with your community, you would also pass along related affiliate products.
But promoting affiliate links on your blog does work better with certain types of posts than others. Consider these:
- Reviews
- Comparisons
- Case Studies
- Interviews
- How-tos
These shortcuts can help you create such posts.
9. Emails
Whether explaining in detail through the body copy of your emails, or as a quick reminder in a P.S., using emails is one of my favorite ways to market affiliate products.
Just as with blog post, there are dozens of different types of emails, and some lend themselves better to affiliate promotion than others.
For example:
- Teaching emails – Show people how to do a task or accomplish something then include an upsell to the affiliate product.
- Story emails – Relate to your readers with a story about you, about the creator of the affiliate product, or about a total stranger. And link that story to the affiliate product.
- Direct sales – Be straight up. Announce a sale or product launch. Explain the features and benefits, discount amount, expiration date, etc.
- Show proof – Give testimonials, show screenshots of positive social posts, offer statistics, or use other ways to show proof that this affiliate product will help your readers.
- Case studies – Go into step-by-step detail about you, or someone else who used the affiliate product to go from point A to point B with success.
- Q&A emails – Have you received questions about a particular affiliate product? Or have you seen others asking questions about similar products online? Answer them in an email and provide your affiliate link.
10. Videos
Videos give you a unique opportunity to introduce your viewers to affiliate products you use and trust. Because you have the added advantage of screen sharing, talking directly to, and visibly in front of your audience you can make a much different impact than you would, with other promotional methods.
You might consider these:
- Demo Video – Walk your viewers through a tour of the affiliate product and show an overview of how it works.
- How To – Create videos that outline specifically how to use particular features to accomplish something.
- Interviews – Speak on camera with the creator of the product or someone else who is extremely familiar with it.
Be sure to include references to your affiliate links in the video description section.
11. Podcast
If your target audience is always on the go or prefers auditory information, you can highlight affiliate links in your podcast by:
- Interviewing the product developer
- Doing a Q&A where you answer questions about the affiliate product
You might offer a free download with more detail about the product that offers screenshots of the product, your affiliate link, and perhaps a coupon.
12. Webinar
I just as if you were doing a webinar to promote one of your own products, you can easily create webinars that would promote an affiliate product. Work with the affiliate manager or product creator to come up with a special offer that will be available to webinar participants.
Or, you can let something else take the primary spot and use the affiliate product as a sponsor for the webinar. Offer a short advertisement before, in the middle of, or after the webinar.
Either way, when you send follow-up emails, be sure to include your affiliate link.
Tip for Sharing Affiliate Links
Always use branded link shortener. Affiliate managers are infamous for changing the affiliate platforms they use. This means your affiliate links may also change over time. By using a link shortener you may find it easier in the long run.
If the link ever changes, you can simply log into the link shortener plugin and change the link in one place. All the other links that you have shared in any other places will be updated automatically.
Branded links look nicer. Instead of some clunky Bit.ly, Amazon or Google link, or an extremely long and spammy-looking raw link, people will trust a branded link more. These will also be easier for you and your followers to remember.
For example, here’s the raw link for the Create Email Lead Magnets in Under 1 Hour blog post:
https://thrivethemes.com/affiliates/ref.php?id=7109&url=9258
Here’s the Bit.ly link:
bit.ly/3OCGoSf
I made the one below with Pretty Links turning it into a branded, shorter link.
marketingwords.com/leadmagnets
Which looks safer and more professional to you?
Keep your eyes open as you travel the Internet. If there’s a place where you are communicating in any way with others, chances are pretty good that you can work affiliate links in somewhere.
