How to start an affiliate marketing strategy for your online business

I’m sure by now if you’re a blogger or aspiring writer that you’ve heard that you need to add an affiliate partner to your monetization strategy or if you’re an online business owner that you can create some serious passive income by adding affiliate links into your marketing plan– well, they aren’t lying! But how do you actually start an affiliate marketing strategy for your online business??

Let’s talk about it.

Heads up: This post contains affiliate links from products and services I adore using in my very own business and think will be crazy valuable to you. If you purchase anything from my links, it doesn’t add any cost to you, but I do get a commission for anything you buy which helps me put food on the table for my 3 littles and keep the lights on in this biz.🤗

I’ll never forget the first month I made an extra $400 from just telling TWO people how much I loved my client management tool, Honeybook. It seemed unreal honestly that I could genuinely tell people about how this one tool single-handedly up-leveled my business and just because of my recommendatio,n I was able to pay off an unexpected bill that month. My mind was blown 🤯….and my affiliate monetization strategy commenced!

Legit businesses like Honeybook ARE DYING to partner with you friend. I mean, it’s crazy how simple it works: They hand you a special link to promote something you love and if someone buys from your special link, you get to rake in a commission for it (Like $200 a pop if you’re an affiliate for Honeybook!). It’s word-of-mouth marketing for them and a new revenue stream for you without having to create a single product or service. Cha-ching.

So let’s get you started with an affiliate marketing strategy already.

Do these 4 things to start your own affiliate marketing strategy today.

1. Make a list of all of the systems and products you use and love.

Have a pile of products you can’t imagine running your business without? A favorite service that has been a total game changer for how you do life?? Jot it down! Make a list of both a) products and b) services of all your faves.

Here are some of my fave affiliate partnerships and links to their affiliate application pages to jumpstart the creative juices for ya:

1. Honeybook – My favorite client management tool I use to send digital brochures, proposals, and contracts and also use to automate my onboarding an offboarding systems. The $200 referral fee ain’t too shabby either! Psst… You can use this link to start your free trial or snag 50% off if you sign up 😉
2. Creative Market – My go-to for all things fonts, design assets, and templates galore. I also sign up for their weekly newsletter where they send me 6 FREE goodies every single week.
3. Convertkit – My recommended email marketing system to quickly grow your email list and build out forms and sales funnels with ease.
4. Amazon – ‘Cause seriously who doesn’t love Amazon Prime everything, am I right?? When I found out about my go-to resource for getting all things books and business supplies in a jiffy…and that I could create my own little “store” for a new affiliate marketing revenue stream, I couldn’t resist!
5. The Contract Shop – My go-to for all legal templates to make sure my booty (and business baby) stay protected. Coming from corporate marketing and monetizing some of the largest Christian websites, I knew the importance of making sure I had a good “terms and policies” contract in place–and Christina Scalera’s real talk is so dang refreshing, you’ll just love her in general!

2. Do a Google search for those products and services from step 1 and see if they offer affiliate partnership programs– then apply!

Take your product or servie that you put on your list and add “affiliate program” to the end to see what pops up in a basic Google search. Don’t be discouraged if nothing appears on the first Google page. Go to the main website of your favorite product or service and search for “affiliate” within their search bar, check for partner opportunities in the footer of their site, and worst case, contact customer support to tell them how much you love their goods and are wondering if they have an affiliate partnership you can apply for.

Tip: Most affiliate partner applications wanna know about how you plan to promote their product or service and/or why you love them so make sure you plan to give them specifics about how you want to market on their behalf and why you love them so much so you’ll be a shoe in!

3. Start creating content about your affiliate partner and include your unique referral links.

Once you start getting approvals from your favorite affiliate marketing partners, they’ll send you a unique link. Now you need to create relevant content (like in your blog posts, social media captions, email newsletter content, Instagram stories,  etc.) that shares how these products or services can add value to your reader.

Some good affiliate marketing blog post titles could be something along the lines of:

1. How I use Honeybook to book 90% of all consultation calls.
2. The one template I snagged from Creative Market that saved me over 20 hours of work on my webinar.
3. The 3 must-have Amazon products I use to run a successful podcast.
4. 10  things that Convertkit does that Mailchimp does not.

 

They should include how you specifically use the affiliate product or service, what benefit there is to using them,  and where they can buy them.

4. PLAN to promote the heck out of your new affiliate partnerships!

Be intentional about your new strategy. When you set goals for your business for the month, intentionally map out how many of each affiliate product or service you need to sell to hit your affiliate commission goal.

Keep note of what works (or doesn’t) so you can rinse and repeat in the future!

Boom, you’re a passive income pro.

Lastly, and very importantly….don’t promote any of your links without mentioning (visibly) that you’re a proud affiliate!

The Federal Trade Commission requires it and practically every solid affiliate partner requires it as part of their terms.

As an example, you can reference the one I mention at the beginning of this post (the friendly one that starts with “Heads up….”). However, some partners like Amazon, require specific verbiage on your page like:  

“She Is Bold a participant of the Amazon Services LLC Services Program, an affiliate advertising program that is designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.”

So be sure to check through your affiliate partner’s terms for any specific requirements.

That’s it! Happy affiliate marketing friends!

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