Affiliate links are HUGELY popular in the online business world.
Think about it, for us entrepreneurs, it’s the closest we’ll probably ever get to feeling like a boujee IG influencer. 💃🏽
In all seriousness, affiliate marketing is a fabulous way to make passive income as an online business owner.
You get to promote products you genuinely LOVE to your community, so that they can fall in love with them too!
The premise is great, but it’s really important to go about affiliate marketing properly to be sure that you’re making a stellar impression on your own community — and staying legally protected.
And while, YES, technically affiliate marketing is a completely passive income source, you DO have some work to do upfront before you can be sitting poolside drinking a piña colada while your affiliate links are raking in the cash. 💛
SO, without further ado, here are our four best tips to help you add affiliate sales to your bottom line.👇🏽
1. Choose the Perfect Product
When you are choosing a product, you want to select something that will complement your existing products or services.
To do this, you might want to imagine your online business like a physical storefront.
When your customers come into your store to buy your goods and services, what else might they need while they’re there?
Kinda like when you go to Target for shampoo but end up leaving with shampoo PLUS a couple of bags of chips, a new shirt, and maybe a cute nail polish color. 😳
You’ve got to think about what should be sitting there in the checkout process waiting for your clients to see and think, “I’ve actually been needing one of these!”
Here’s another way to think of it: When you go to get your car washed, for example, they also have car accessories, phone chargers, dusters, backseat organizers, steering wheel covers, and more for purchase.
Now, the car wash business doesn’t solely rely on these sales, but it sure does bring in some great additional revenue.
Plus, these enhance the customer experience.
Clients feel taken care of and are able to get everything that they need for their car in one place.
Definitely spend some time thinking about how you can do the exact same for your clients.
Think of a product that will actually benefit them and augment that value of doing business with you.
And always, and we mean ALWAYS, pick a product that you trust and are familiar with. Don’t just agree to any old affiliate program just for the coins.
Because if your client takes your word and invests in a product that is a total flop, guess who looks bad?
You. 😩
Because they trust you!
If the product you have in mind is something you would ACTUALLY recommend to someone, you may be on to something. ✅
2. Choose the Right Program
Real talk: Selecting the right affiliate program is as important as selecting the right affiliate product.
It can be SO exciting when a brand you love reaches out to you and makes an offer for you to join their program. 💃🏽✨
But don’t get so excited that you forget to find out these important things:
- Affiliate commission percentage
- How payouts are made
- How often payouts happen
Go ahead and ask the brand directly, but another great strategy to get a vibe for any potential affiliate opportunities is to reach out to people who are current or past partners of the company and get their take on it.
And finally, it’s always a good idea to check in to see what kind of additional support is being offered to you as an affiliate.
For example, lots of affiliate programs will offer ready-to-use content such as social media captions, newsletters, graphics, and more.
This kind of support can really make it easier to promote the products and get more and more clicks on your affiliate links.
So definitely take all the help you can get!
3. Create Promo Materials
The ultimate goal with affiliate links is to get as many clicks on your specific link as possible.
There are a ton of ways to do this, but here are our best strategies.👇🏽
Link in Bio
Make sure that your affiliate link is easily available in your IG bio. That way, whenever you post about your affiliate program, you can send followers directly to your link without having to use a promo code, etc.
Not all of us have that fancy swipe-up setting on IG, so “link in bio 🔗👩🏽💻” will have to do.
Email Footer
This is a very underrated affiliate link promotion strategy.
But always, always, always include your link in your email footer or signature. This just ups the number of clicks your link will receive, and the folks you are emailing are more likely to already trust you and the products you recommend.
Blog Post
Writing a blog post that thoroughly outlines all of the amazing benefits you’ve experienced using your affiliate product is a great way to promote your link.
Just sprinkle it throughout the post to increase engagement and watch those clicks go up and up and up.
Schedule a Newsletter
This tip is all about consistency. Schedule a monthly newsletter reminding your email list about the affiliate product and always include your link a few times.
This is a great way to remind people, “Hey remember that product that piqued your interest last month? Well, here it is again!” 💃🏽✨
Go Live
Going live on Instagram or Facebook to talk about an affiliate product is a game-changer. People LOVE hearing your candid and unfiltered reviews and raving about a product.
This is a great opportunity to be open with your followers about the fact that you are making a commission of the sales of this product, but that it’s something that you genuinely LOVE.
Website Section
It’s always a good idea to have a section on your website specifically for your affiliate information.
Give a short blurb/review on the product and throw the links up there. That way, when a client or potential client visits your site, they can benefit from these personal recommendations and you can benefit from their clicks. ✅
4. Always Include Disclaimers
This is the most important tip when it comes to legally protecting yourself.
Which, in case you hadn’t already caught on, is our specialty. ✨
Always include disclaimers when participating in affiliate marketing.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the agency responsible for protecting consumers in the United States. They have mandated that affiliate marketing be transparent in nature in order to protect consumers and they take this stuff seriously, friends.
If you decide to promote products or services via affiliate links OR if you received any other benefit or compensation from the business behind the affiliate link, you must include a disclaimer.
And you must include it in each and every single promotional post, email, blog, you name it.
Luckily, a disclaimer does not have to be complicated.
It could be as simple as, “Please note that this post contains affiliate links.”
Boom — disclaimer done. ✅
Just make sure that your disclaimer is somewhere clear in your post.
Don’t bury it in a bunch of text in size five font somewhere that’s impossible for a reasonable person to read. Be upfront about it and put it at the top of your post to avoid any legal dilemmas.
No need to be shady. 🙅🏽♀️
Final Thoughts
Now that you’ve got all these affiliate marketing strategies up your sleeve, you can start thinking about that poolside cocktail we were talking about earlier. 😉
With all of these pieces in place, your affiliate link can actually be generating you some real cash while being completely legally above board.
This is so exciting! You’ve officially got the tools to earn passive income that requires little to no customer service on your part and zero product costs overhead.
Your clients are going to LOVE the enhanced experience of getting your hand-picked recommendations or products that you know and trust. 💛
Just remember to always be truthful in your promotion and never exaggerate, mislead, or lie to your audience about possible experiences or results of purchasing the product.
But if you’ve done a good job of finding a product your audience desires and will benefit from, you won’t need to do any of that in order to honestly promote and share your experience.
And hey, before you go, check out the Coaches & Co. affiliate program, where you can partner with us to help your clients build a solid legal foundation. Fill out the quick form, then see how you can start making passive cash from your clients’ clicks to help grow your biz.
As always, we’ve got your back.
Check out our ready-to-use, lawyer-approved, plug-and-play legal contract templates! So you can upgrade your client contract while staying Profitable & Protected™✨
Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you. Grab our FREE Legally Launch Handbookto get the legal lowdown on everything in entrepreneurship, without the confusing mambo jumbo. We’re serving it up straight & to the point. (Heads up: It’ll forever transform the way you view your client relationships!) Grab your copy now.
*The information presented in this blog post is for educational & informational purposes only. This should not be a substitute for customized legal advice from a licensed professional in a private setting. If you need legal advice, please consult with an attorney. This is not a law firm.
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