Podcast Transcript:
If you’re interested in affiliate marketing or ever considered adding more income streams to your livelihood and to your business, you’re going to want to stick around for this one. Hey, there, I’m Jillian Kendrick and welcome to the Momentum Marketing Podcast. I’m a mama, a wife, an entrepreneur and a three time best selling co author. In each episode you’ll get real world practical advice and strategies and maybe a parenting tip or two along the way. If you’re ready to create a business that supports your family and your lifestyle, then you’re in the right place.
Hey, there, it’s Jillian Kendrick, host of the Momentum Marketing Podcast. Thanks for joining me today. You might hear a little bit of a scratchy throat. I think I woke up with something, but we’re going to make it through. It’s all good.
Today, we are talking all things, affiliate marketing and that kind of goes along with having multiple income streams. So we’re talking about both today.
But before I dive in, make sure that you are subscribed to this podcast, wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, whatever you like. Make sure that you add that plus button or subscribe button so that the latest episode automatically downloads and you get access to it right away.
I’m also putting the final touches on my lead generation webinar. I’m so excited to be sharing how I add over 600 new email subscribers every single month to my list.
I’m gonna uncover the three secrets to creating a profitable email list with ease. Without working 24 hours a day, without doing crazy ad strategies, or cold calling people. I’m going to show you paid and free strategies that actually work because they work for me. I’m sure you know exactly what I do in my business. Even if you have been building a list for a while, you’re going to learn something new. And even if you’re starting from zero, these strategies can be cost effective and totally work for you. Make sure that you head on over to jilliankendrick.com/webinar. I will have that up and running very, very soon.
All right. So today we are talking affiliate marketing and I have six key things that I want to touch on when it comes to deciding whether affiliate marketing as an additional income stream to either your livelihood or your business is a good idea. How do you make that decision? What do you decide to do, etcetera? So that’s what we’re talking about today.
But first, before we dive into all the topics and all the nitty gritty, ask yourself this question. How do you know that affiliate marketing is right for you?
That’s what everybody wants to know. Right? How do you know it’s a good investment because it’s either going to be time, or it’s going to be emailing your list, or it’s going to be connecting with your audience, something like that. How do you know? So that’s going to be right for you and work for you?
Well, first I want you to think about, is this going to be your full time gig or is this an additional income stream?
I know plenty of people that just do affiliate marketing, right? Like they don’t even have their own content or their own products, maybe they do.
But their primary gig, like their full time thing is affiliate marketing. It’s selling other people’s products. It’s using the tips and tricks and tools and strategies that they know to help promote other people’s stuff. And affiliate marketing can totally be a really good income stream depending on the structure and how things go down. And if it’s recurring and is it just a one time launch that they’re doing live or is it something that’s evergreen? We’ll talk about that. But you need to decide for yourself, First and foremost, is it a full time gig or is this just an additional income stream? On top of everything else?
For me, I have my primary business actually has two sides of our business consulting and implementation with my agency. And then coaching, consulting, marketing courses, products on the other side. And I have multiple income streams on top of having two different sides of the business. I also have other additional income streams and one of them is being an affiliate for other products, other Softwares, other coaches, other people. And what made sense for me was that those fit into my business and compliment my business really, really well.
So that would be the second thing is ask yourself, does this offering, does this affiliate, does this program or product, whatever it is complement what you’re already doing? So if you’re just doing affiliate marketing, maybe you can niche down, maybe you have specific things. If it’s like digital courses, maybe you’re going like the Amazon, Etsy route. But figure out for yourself what makes sense? Because in order to be a good affiliate, you have to have an audience, in order to grow an audience, you have to have some kind of like a specific topic, something that you’re about, something that you’ve taken a stand on. I know a lot of affiliates who do fashion, right? They are fashion influencers on Instagram and they have affiliate accounts with various companies, different brand deals that all contribute to growing additional revenue streams for their income. So ask yourself, does this thing compliment whatever you’re already offering? Can it be in addition to that if you’re an Instagram content creator or Instagram influencer and your focus is you know, neutral. Well, you may or may not necessarily do a brand deal or become an affiliate for a product that is clothing. Maybe if it was workout clothes and the whole, you know, eat right and exercise thing could go together that could totally work.
But if you own an Etsy shop and let’s say you’re creating like Disney products and somebody wants you to be their affiliate and sell like their Spongebob products, which I think is Universal Studios. Well, that would be a little bit contradictory kind of still in, in the same realm of like animation and cartoons and kids stuff, but it could be considered a little bit contradictory. I know some Disney people are super into Disney and don’t like Universal and vice versa and some people don’t care but you have to know your audience and know what they’re going to be receptive to and what they’re about. It could also be a really good way if you take on an affiliate product that is a little bit different than what you’re offering or what your typical content topic is. It could, it’s a really good way to polarize and separate your audience or kind of segment your audience. These are the people that like Disney and hate Universal. These are the people that like Universal and hate Disney or these are the people that like both and don’t really care. So, is it your full time gig? Isn’t an additional income stream? And is it complementary to what you’re already offering or the typical subject of the content that you create?
The next thing I want you to think about is do you have the time? There are a lot of affiliate programs out there. There are a lot of ways that you can add additional income streams that you can make more money, which is amazing and fascinating and incredible. I love diving into this stuff, but the reality is you’re not going to make any money if you don’t have some kind of time to dedicate to it, or if you don’t have someone on your team who can then dedicate that time on your behalf.
And just for me personally, as a mom, as a busy business owner, I would want to know up front when I get involved with a new affiliate or a new product or something. What’s the barrier to entry for me? What do I have to do? What’s something I can delegate to my team? How much time could this potentially take me before I’m actually seeing a return on investment and earning commissions from this affiliate? So do you have time to do it? And if the answer is no, then it might not be the right time for you to get involved with affiliate marketing. And that’s totally okay if the answer is maybe you could possibly hire out or find a team member to do that for, for you. If the answer is yes, then go for it. Have some fun. Enjoy, make sure that you ask those questions ahead of time and figure out when you’re going to return on that investment.
We talked about this a little bit already. But you want to think about whether or not it’s complementary to what you’re already offering. But you also want to think about whether it contradicts what you’re already offering, right? And is there a segment of your list or audience that is interested in that thing or is there a way that you can bridge the gap for an affiliate product that might not be so obvious to the typical content that you create? So I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you are an Instagram content creator that specializes in content for plus size fashion, right? That would be great. I would totally follow you. And lets say a toothpaste brand approaches you to either do like a brand deal or for you to become an affiliate of their toothpaste and fashion obviously are two very different things. But if there’s a way that you can bridge the gap by saying something like you know, put on your marketer hat and say something like “Okay, you can have the best looking shoes, you can have a gorgeous new dress, you can have a beautiful three piece suit and tie type thing. But if your teeth are yellow or missing, it doesn’t matter how good your clothes look, you’re never fully dressed without a winning smile and that’s why I endorse blah, blah, blah toothpaste,” right? Like you can totally do something like that. Just put on your marketer hat and figure out how you bridge that gap between the content that you produce normally, what your audience likes, what they’re there for, what they’re following you for and what this affiliate product is. And when you think about bridging the gap, this should be something that should take you all of 10 seconds, maybe admitted at the most to figure out what that bridge is. Now, the details of it, right? Like how you say it, what the pitch is, what the hook is, all of those sort of things that can take you more time to really jazz it all up and put it all together. But it should almost instantly be that you can create that bridge and figure out what complements those two things and how to bring them together. The toothpaste slash plus size fashionista example that I just gave, I made that up off the top of my head. I didn’t even take a minute to write that down. I just made that up. So it shouldn’t be too arduous or difficult for you to come up with something to figure out what that gap is. Because if it takes you too long, if it’s not obvious right off the bat, it’s not going to be obvious to your audience and if they have to work harder to figure out, oh, why is this plus size fashion guru suddenly selling tires? Well, that’s kind of weird.
Figure out if you can bridge the gap quickly and easily because if you can’t and it might not be a good idea for your brand.
Next, I want you to think about commission structure. So for course creation, which is something I get into a whole lot and have my own courses and programs.
But for course creation, sometimes when you’re an affiliate of a course, it’s the commission structure is going to depend on whether or not that person or that coach or that influencer. Whoever it is is doing a live launch and your commissions are only tied to your life launch results. Or if you can get commissions and earn something on like an evergreen funnel. And in terms of the commission structure, there’s multiple factors, right? There’s a percentage or a dollar amount that you can earn. There’s a time frame in which you can earn it, like I said, is it tied to a live launch? And you’re only going to get commissions from what you earn on that live launch or are you going to get commissions for a lifetime? So if they are subscribed to a software and you earn commission every single month after month after month, for them being part of that software and still being subscribed to it, what is the commission structure look like and how does it benefit you a few things to look for?
Especially when it comes to software. A lot of software companies that offer affiliate marketing or have affiliates have gotten really clever about this where they will only pay commissions for the first like three months or they’ll pay really good commissions but only for the first month or two. I love continuing to earn money and to not have to work so hard for it. So if I’m going to sign up as an affiliate of a different program or software, it better be a software that I love that I really do believe in and care about and it better be something longer term for me. So think about payment, think about timeline time frame also.
Don’t forget you’re going to have to pay taxes, right? This is additional income that you’re bringing into your business and any income over $500 that you make off of one business or one individual or one entity, you’re gonna have to pay taxes on those and claim them on your taxes. So don’t forget to let your accountant know that you are becoming an affiliate and that this new income stream is from this thing.
The next thing I want you to think about and it’s so important, in my book, is the ethics of affiliate marketing. I cannot tell you how many businesses are out there that do affiliate marketing or that have affiliate links and they have never touched that piece of software or they have never used that product. So, in my opinion, when it comes to being ethical about your affiliation with something you really should consider: what your relationship, and what your experience to that product, that service, that software, that thing. What does that actually look like for you? And are you willing to put your name and your reputation behind earning commission and earning money from the sale of that thing? All of the products that I am an affiliate of, I say up front that I am an affiliate of those products or that I’m partnered with those products or with those companies. And I usually put a disclaimer of whether or not I actually use them and for the products that I don’t use those products or programs or whatever they are, tend to be down sells for me. When I’m an affiliate and I’m selling some other product or program or soft typically software for me.
But when I’m selling that and I’m leading a client into signing up for that, it’s going to be a software that I use that I love that I believe in. And if for whatever reason, they don’t want that thing, then I have other affiliations or I can say, okay, well, if you don’t want that, then you can use this thing. But just so, you know, you can use this other thing. That’s totally fine. I’m not well versed in it or I have a team member that knows it, but I don’t, or you can use it but it doesn’t have X Y Z features. I try to give them a heads up as much as I possibly can to let them know that this just isn’t our thing or there’s a reason that I’m leading with this other software.
It’s because this is what I teach or this is what I know or this is what I do or this is the thing that we actually use in our own business, which is why I love it, which is why I trust it so much.
And the last I want you to think about when it comes to deciding whether or not you want to be an affiliate marketer or add an affiliate product as an additional income stream to your livelihood or your business is whether or not this product service offering course content program, whatever it is, is going to be sold as a one off thing, a one off entity. Or if you’re going to incorporate it into your current offering inside of your own business. So you can sell products, whether you sell on like an Etsy affiliate or an Amazon affiliate or something else, no matter what the income structure looks like, you can incorporate their product or service or offering into your own offerings, your own courses, your own programs, your own affiliate network, whatever that looks like for you, but then consider one offs again when I talk about one offs, is this like an Amazon affiliate where when somebody clicks the link and they buy that one product, you get that one commission, right?
You might get a couple of dollars here in a couple of dollars there that’s going to not add up to a whole lot of gains. Unless you’re doing it at volume, then you’re going to get more money. So consider that, you know, how much is it really going to take for you to be able to do this? The way that I’ve seen Amazon affiliate specifically done really, really well, not only using like link tree inside of your Instagram, but I’ve seen Youtube videos from influencers where they list like products that I love and they demonstrate and show the products and to talk about them in their video, but then they have multiple affiliate links, not just one in the description of the video where they can talk in detail or somebody who likes that video or likes the content can then go and buy not just one product that can buy multiple products or if you have a link tree like in your Instagram or something or even if you had a page on your website that said, you know, products that I love or something like that, you can list multiple of those out. You can link to your like Amazon Cart or Amazon store or I forget what they put the verb ages exactly for Amazon. But you can put all of those products that you’re affiliated with inside of there. So then people can click on multiple of them. And if you happen to be affiliated with a product, then maybe they already had in their shopping cart or they were already interested in buying. But this was an additional nudge to get them to do it because you’re endorsing it, then that could push them over and get them into the purchasing mood. And one isn’t just good for Amazon and Etsy stores.
Think about one offs in terms of being an affiliate of a digital course or being an affiliate of a software or an online program or a membership or something like that. If you’re selling your own stuff, which again, I highly encourage, I think it’s amazing. I certainly love doing it if you’re selling your own stuff and if someone wants you to sell their course, right? As opposed to you selling yours, consider the timing. What is your content calendar? What is your launch calendar for that year look like? And is it going to fit within the timeline for your launch calendar? You know, if you just launched something a week or two ago, now might not be the time if you’ve already exhausted your audience a little bit now, might not be the time for you to turn around and say, hey, by the way, my friend Jill also has this course and you know, we’re going to do a whole launch for that. It may or may not be the time. So I would just take a really strong look at what your content calendar and your launch calendar is going to look like for that month or for the year and make sure that the timing is right. So that you’re not over pitching your audience, I’d rather over pitch and exhaust my audience on something that was my product than something that was somebody else’s product. You know what I mean?
Let me give you a really good example. If you’re going to be an affiliate for Amazon and you’re going to sell various products, again, related to your business, then it’s totally fine to sell one off products like that. Let’s say you were an Instagram content creator who really loved F1 and you know that the people who follow F1 racing also might be interested in other things related to racing, right? And then you signed up for an Amazon affiliate account in any products related to racing, you could share those or promote those or show them in your content. That would totally make sense. But as far as income incorporating it into something that you already offer, here’s a great example. I’m in the process right now of creating a brand new course and program for my users and I’m considering incorporating another colleague, friend of mine who builds websites and he actually helped build our agency website. He has a totally free website review that I can be an affiliate of.
And so somebody can sign up for a free review through me as their affiliate. And if they buy a website through, through this colleague of mine, then I would get paid commission. And I think it could potentially be a great offering that could incorporate inside of my new program because of the content of the program that I’m creating. And it’s complimentary in a lot of ways because even though my team builds websites and knows how to do that, it’s not necessarily a service that we offer forward facing. It’s not something that I want to do a whole lot of so to have a colleague who I can also be affiliated with, who wants more of those clients, who wants to do that thing and they can help solve a problem for my potential students. For me, that’s a win, win, win.
So your action items and takeaways for this episode?
Is it your full time gig or an additional income stream?
Do you have time to do it?
Does it complement your other offerings or your core focus or subject matter of what you produce or your business service or product or does it contradict what you currently do?
And can you bridge that gap?
What is the commission structure?
Are you able to be ethical and honest when it comes to your affiliation with this product programmer service?
And are you going to incorporate it into your current offerings or sell it as a one off thing?
That’s everything I have for you today.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Momentum Marketing Podcast.
If listening to this has brought you value, improved your life, or given you insight to help you build your own momentum in your business.
Then please share it with a friend and I’ll see you in the next episode.
The Momentum Marketing Podcast
By Jillian Kendrick
Episode: #6
Topic: Is Affiliate Marketing right for you?
Contact: hello@jilliankendrick.com
Follow IG: instagram.com/automatedmama
