Affiliate Marketing Training
You can consume this blog by reading the written content.
There is also a video that is based on this blog which I posted on my YouTube channel, so if you prefer to read/watch, I cover all the content in this blog in that free video.
If you have any feedback or questions on the topic of affiliate marketing, please leave a comment on this YouTube video and I'll be sure to answer you there.
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What you will learn
In recent months I've seen a rise in people asking me about affiliate marketing and I thought it'll be a good topic to discuss. I will share with you:
- What is affiliate marketing, really
- 4 requirements that make a great affiliate program
- How to sign up to be an affiliate
- Affiliate marketing strategy for anyone
- Pretty links strategy
- Pitfalls to avoid
- How to get paid
- Compliance and disclosure
- How to promote your affiliate links
- The main affiliate programs I am part of
If that's of interest to you, stay tuned and keep reading.
Video: Free course on affiliate marketing for beginners
What is affiliate marketing, really
I am going to give you my take on this.
Affiliate marketing is simply the "referral business of the internet".
Here's a simple example:
I watched John Wick 4 when it came out at the cinemas.
I really enjoyed it, it's a great movie if you enjoy that type of movie.
Also, I went to a fancy cinema in Dubai and paid $100 for it.
You get a drink, starter meal, proper meal, a couch to yourself which reclines, and you basically feel like you're in business class while watching the movie.
It was a fun experience.
Good value for money if you ask me.
It's called Roxy Cinema in Dubai Hills Mall in case you are in Dubai at some point.
See what I just did here?
I told you about a fun experience, a movie I enjoyed, and next time you're thinking of watching a movie you might consider "Maybe I'll watch John Wick 4 because Eran said it was good."
That's all affiliate marketing is.
You have a good experience with a product or service and you tell a friend about it.
That's the simplicity of it.
Except for, when you tell people about it, you also make money when they take action.
The key takeaway here is "You have a good experience with a product or service..."
More on that in a moment...
Lets discuss the 4 requirements that make a great affiliate program.
4 requirements that make a great affiliate program
There are 4 requirements that make for a great affiliate program. They are:
(1) Free to join
Some affiliate programs cost to join, that is a sure red flag to avoid in the business opportunity world - stay away from those.
Some affiliate programs require you to be a customer of that product, that's a fair request but I don't recommend you become a customer just to be an affiliate.
These are commonplace in network marketing usually, and it is a red flag you should be aware of.
(2) Lifetime tracking / cookie policy
Affiliate tracking is usually done with a unique affiliate link.
Sometimes the product/service you are recommending has a free plan.
But if the person decides to join the paid plan, you still get credit even if they join months later.
Some affiliate programs have a "cookie policy" of just 45 days for example.
This means if you send a referral and they create a free account and end up paying 50 days later, you don't get credit.
Affiliate programs that give you credit for the life of the customer, no matter when you sent them are the best ones.
For example, if you send someone to Amazon, you will only get credit on any purchases they make within 48 hours.
(3) Multiple products
Great affiliate programs usually have more than 1 product to sell.
That means that when you send a potential customer, they may end up a few things which all give you credit.
(4) Recurring commission for the life of the customer
The most important requirement for me personally, as an affiliate, is receiving recurring commissions for my efforts.
This means I primarily focus on affiliate programs that are subscription based such as software.
And these software tools typically give anywhere between 10 to 50% commission on a recurring basis for as long as someone remains a customer.
That is how I live off passive income from affiliate marketing.
Software is the best for that type of a recurring commission.
Also network marketing falls under this category in many cases (although at the time of writing, I am not involved in any network marketing).
How to sign up to be an affiliate
With most websites, there is a footer where you find their privacy policy, terms and conditions policy, etc.
You will also find there a phrase like "partner program" or "affiliate program" or "affiliates".
Whenever you are on a website of a product or service you like and use, you would be wise to scroll to the bottom and find that button.
Click it and see what the affiliate program is.
They usually give information about the products you can affiliate, how much commission you earn, how they payout works, and things along these lines.
And there will be a button to either apply to be an affiliate or simply create an affiliate account - depending on how easy they make it for people to join.
Some companies are "application-only" and you have to really sell yourself on why they should let you promote.
Some companies let you join for free.
Furthermore, there are marketplaces that host a lot of affiliate programs in one place.
The most well known one in the business opportunity space is called "ClickBank".
I have never had much success with ClickBank and I have found a lot of the products on it to be shady or at least not worthy of efforts.
I am not a customer of these products, I don't know how good they are, and these are simply not something I want my brand associated with.
I know we all want to make money.
But in my mind, if you want to build an affiliate marketing business, you have to do it with integrity and ethically.
Trying to make money for the sake of money isn't a sustainable way to operate.
Which is why I never recommend people go to ClickBank.
A better marketplace I use is called "PartnerStack", which primarily hosts Software companies affiliate programs.
There are lots of great tools there - and because I am in the software/technology world, that's where I go to find mine.
Although there's a better way to find great affiliate programs you should promote - which we will discuss next...
Affiliate marketing strategy for anyone
My affiliate marketing strategy for you is in 3 core concepts:
Firstly, get involved.
I do believe anyone should be involved in affiliate marketing in one capacity or another.
I don't really recommend you actually do affiliate marketing on its own as a business.
It should be something that is an add-on to what you are already doing.
If you are a coach, freelancer, membership site owner, you should do THAT business.
And add affiliate marketing into the mix as part of it.
That's the first recommendation I have for you in terms of strategy.
It doesn't you can't just do affiliate marketing standalone, I am just sharing my personal opinion.
Secondly, build a list.
Without a list, you don't have an affiliate marketing business at all.
You can't just plaster your affiliate links and expect to make any sort of money with affiliate marketing.
It's just not realistic.
You need to build an email list, a relationship with an audience, and then recommend the products and services that solves problems for them.
Affiliate marketing is all about building trust with an audience so that when you give a recommendation they have a reason to listen.
You are trustworthy.
This brings me to the last point, but before I do.
You might be wondering how to build an email list?
The answer is explained in detail in my free checklist which you can download here.
Thirdly, your experience with products and services.
I talked about trust with your audience.
The best way to ruin that is to promote things for the sake of making money.
That's why ClickBank products are just a terrible way to go.
Or JV Zoo, or WarriorPlus (these are all marketplaces that affiliates typically go to find things to promote).
Don't get me wrong - there are people who make a killing promoting from these marketplaces, but they are usually software creators themselves or promote each other's stuff, and people who are trying to make money online get suckered in to buy these things.
I know - I was one of them (the sucker buying, that is...)
And yes, I did used to promote stuff from JV Zoo as well, and I made a few bucks here and there but honestly - it just doesn't align with my values and I'll bet it won't align with yours.
What you should do is make a list of ALL the products and services you use, and start paying attention to those.
The good ones.
The ones you love.
Then go to their website, and scroll to the footer section and find their affiliate program.
Sign up for it and figure out where to share that link.
This will give you some ideas for your email marketing.
You can do a dedicated email for a specific product, tell the story about the problem you experienced, and the journey you went through and how that product/service helped you solve that problem.
Then you invite people to check it out and share your link.
That's a natural and ethical way to promote something you truly believe in.
Recap on the 3 core concepts:
(1) Have your own product/service that is your primary focus, and make affiliate marketing a natural add-on that builds concurrently on the side.
(2) Grow an audience, try to avoid sending people straight to an affiliate link - build a list.
(3) Make a list of products/services you use and love and find their affiliate programs and apply to these.
Pretty links strategy
As the name suggests, pretty links are simply links that don't long overly long and ugly.
For example, my direct affiliate link for systeme.io $197/year plan, the platform I am using for this email is this:
https://systeme.io/b9b15150/?sa=sa0023822840983710ae5af8cca0d3f4ac0d9e9b01
My pretty link for this affiliate link is eran.link/sio40
If I am doing a webinar or a Facebook live or a YouTube live, and I tell people "go sign up for systeme", I can't give them the long affiliate link.
I won't get credit.
But if I say out loud my pretty link, people may go there and sign up.
A pretty link like what I have, which is eran.link domain is set up through a software called Switchy which I absolutely love.
It's another version of bit.ly that you might have heard of.
The other benefit of using a pretty link software like Switchy, is that once I shorten affiliate links, I don't have to go searching for them when I want to share them.
They are all in a searchable library on Switchy and I can grab them in seconds which is a huge time-saver.
The alternative to that is to host your affiliate links on a Google Sheet, which is fine - but tedious.
I have a video review I recorded on my channel about Switchy in case you want to learn more.
If Switchy is still available as a one-time deal on AppSumo, I would jump on it right now.
Go to eran.link/appsumo and do a search for "switchy".
See what I did here?
It's a product I use and love, and I told you about it so you can go get it.
I don't even know how much I make on it.
Maybe $2 or something.
Doesn't matter.
The point is I am recommending a product I truly believe in, and I benefited from.
By the way, AppSumo hosted their affiliate program on a platform called Impact which is also an affiliate marketplace.
Canva uses the same marketplace to host their affiliate program.
There is another aspect to the pretty links strategy which would be beneficial for you.
If you already have a website, you can create a "pretty link" from your existing website.
For example, my main website is eranbucai.com.
If I want someone to sign up to Kajabi, I tell them, "Go to eranbucai.com/kajabi"
If I want someone to sign up for Systeme, I tell them, "Go to eranbucai.com/sio"
If I want someone to sign up for Podia, I tell them, "Go to eranbucai.com/podia"
Creating a pretty link using your own domain requires a custom code.
It is a tedious process and you can easily get lost.
To solve that problem, I actually got a software developed just for that purpose alone.
It is a completely free tool that you can use to create pretty links for zero dollars.
Go to LinkRedirect.io to register for that software for free and you'll be able to use it (along with tutorials).
There is a final benefit to a pretty link strategy, which is something I'm about to share with you...
Pitfalls of Affiliate Marketing
There are a few pitfalls.
Firstly, doing affiliate marketing for someone else's product is exactly that...
someone else's product.
That someone else can decide they are not continuing an affiliate program.
They can decide to reduce the commissions.
They can decide to remove you from being an affiliate.
They can cancel the affiliate program altogether.
Don't believe me?
Amazon changed the commission structure for certain niches a couple of years ago, specifically in the high ticket space of physical products like furniture.
Established blogs making 10K a month reviewing furniture lost 70% of their revenue overnight because Amazon decides to change the commission structure.
Uscreen, a platform I was an affiliate of and getting paid every single month for the last 2+ years recently decided to discontinue their affiliate program.
I got an email couple of month ago saying May (next month) will be the last time they will pay out any affiliate commissions.
Even though I have sent them referrals and getting paid monthly, they just decided no more.
Just like that, $100+ dollars in monthly revenue - gone.
ConvertKit, a well-established email marketing platform had a 30% affiliate program with people who were total evangelists recommending it.
I heard of a person who had a ConvertKit membership with 100s of members and ConvertKit just decided to end the commissions and changed it to either 12 months recurring and no more - or something like that.
That person was making $1000s of dollars a month, and overnight, that income stream was gone.
ActiveCampaign, another very established email marketing platform recently changed their pricing dramatically - doubled or more... what do you think is happening as a result?
A lot of people are jumping ship because of the pricing change.
If you referred a lot of people to a company like that, and suddenly the pricing changes and they jump ship - your affiliate commissions are gone with it because they are moving elsewhere.
Now that I've given you some financial pitfalls and risks, here is the good news:
If you have a relationship with you referrals, you can learn about these changes and stay on top of their mind to come back to you for advice on where to go next.
That's why building an email list, and a relationship with an audience, is key.
Because these pitfalls to avoid... well - it's going to be near impossible to avoid sometimes - it's just not in your control since it is someone else's business.
But your email list?
Your relationship with your audience?
That is YOUR business.
That's why it's critical to have that established.
Now, there is another pitfall that is relevant to the pretty links strategy I told you about.
Sometimes, affiliate programs decide to change their affiliate tracking and go elsewhere.
If you have blogs, YouTube videos, emails, that you shared that affiliate link (the direct affiliate link, not the pretty link), all of a sudden ALL these links no longer track back to you because the affiliate tracking software is changed.
This is more common than you realize.
Podia, a course platform that was one of my biggest affiliate income sources when I first started with affiliate marketing, changed from "rewardful" and moved to "impact".
I had to go through each blog and YouTube video I posted about Podia and fix those old links.
Being a smarter affiliate marketer...
I didn't just replace the old affiliate links with a new affiliate link.
Instead, I replaced the old links with my pretty link which is eranbucai.com/podia.
And integrate the new affiliate link with eranbucai.com/podia using my software LinkRedirect.io (which literally takes 15 seconds to do).
And next time, if Podia decides to shift to a new platform, I just go and fix ONE link and all the links that are plastered in various places online (blogs, YouTube videos, etc), will automatically update.
Just recently, a very established software company called "Pabble" which offered affiliate tracking decided to completely discontinue the affiliate tracking software part of their business. i.e. they still exist, they are still in business, but the affiliate tracking aspect - they decided they no longer want to have as part of their software.
This meant that dozens if not 100s of software companies needed to find a "new home" for their affiliate tracking.
This means that all the affiliates have to sign up for the affiliate program again elsewhere, and then replace their links.
That's why you want to use Pretty links.
It might sound a bit techy and overwhelming, but trust me, you'll regret not getting this done from the very beginning.
Plus it will make your marketing efforts way easier and more efficient.
Those are the main pitfalls I wanted to share.
Understanding how and when you get paid
There are a few common rules you want to be aware of.
There is usually a refund/wait period.
Even if you make an affiliate sale, you don't get paid right away.
Usually, it takes at least 30 days before you actually get paid.
There is a refund period that needs to pass, for example.
Sometimes there is a threshold that you have to meet before you get paid.
Otherwise, I usually get paid through PayPal.
That's the most common way to get paid with affiliate commissions.
Sometimes you can get paid through Bank Transfer or WISE transfer, which I personally use and love (that's how I pay my virtual assistant team, for example, and also some of my affiliates).
Compliance and disclosure
If you are doing affiliate marketing, you should disclose your relationship with these companies and the fact you are getting compensated.
It is a legal requirement to do so.
You can read more about it on the FTC website.
There is nothing wrong about getting compensated for promoting something.
You simply need to be transparent about it.
It goes back to being genuine about your recommendation.
If you are promoting things for the sake of money, of course, you're gonna not feel good about it.
If you are genuine and honest in what you recommend, you'll feel great about it.
And getting paid is simply a bonus for your efforts.
How to promote your affiliate links
There are many ways to promote but I'll give you some common ones:
Record a YouTube video (review, tutorial, training, comparison video)
Example: Any video on my Zenler, Searchie, Kajabi, or Systeme playlist on my YouTube channel falls under this category.
Write a blog post about your experience with a specific product and your experience.
Example: https://eranbucai.com/blog/tribe-course-membership-review-by-stu-mclaren-membership-expert/
Write a blog post comparison the product you recommend and any alternatives.
Example: https://eranbucai.com/blog/podia-vs-kajabi/
Including affiliate links in your emails after sharing a story on how a certain product or service helped you.
Including affiliate links inside a course area, which acts as a cross sell.
Example: In my "Text Automations in a Day" course, I include an affiliate link to TextBlaze, an amazing Chrome Extension you need in your life...
Do a Facebook live about a specific product.
Example: I did a Facebook live interview with the CEO of ClipScribe, a video editing software I use and love and shared the affiliate link with my audience along with a coupon code ERAN10.
Share about the product on Instagram in stories with a link.
Do an Instagram post about a product you love.
For example: here is a post I did share my experience with the books Dot Com Secrets and Expert Secrets. https://www.instagram.com/p/B5p8ctNBQqn/
And lots more...
But my favourite way...
Share these in a personal email after a 1-on-1 Zoom conversation with someone.
Example: One of my most lucrative lead generation funnels is my "software consultation" page, EranFunnels.com/software
People get to this page, book a software consultation, and I advise them on what's the best one for them to use based on their budget and requirements.
The main affiliate programs I am part of
This email would not be complete without me sharing specifics on some affiliate programs I am part of it.
Systeme.io, my #1 recommendation for people starting out online with a $197/year pricing plan which is crazy affordable and incredible value.
New Zenler, my #2 recommendation for course creators (before I discovered Systeme, I used to recommend Zenler a lot and build a ton of websites on it)
Kajabi, my #3 recommendation for course creators (this is the higher end in terms of price, and most people starting out simply can't afford it, but those that can - awesome - it's a great tool as well).
Between these 3 affiliate programs, I earn as much as I did from passive income with affiliate marketing, as I did working 40 hours in a 9 to 5 job.
I also get paid monthly from GetResponse, TubeBuddy, Shopify (although not for long... because they are changed the rules), Mighty Networks, Kartra, MailerLite, Searchie, Circle, and Blue.
But these are smaller drips, not a 4-figure revenue stream per affiliate program per month like the top 3.
Recap - was this helpful?
I know this blog is not short...
love to know if you found this helpful.
Feel free to comment any questions you have on this YouTube video.
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And if you want to learn more about affiliate marketing, learn more by clicking the link below.
Hey, I'm Eran
I'm the CEO & Founder of Dot Com Truths and every blog you see was written by me personally.
No ghost writers, no AI tools, just me and my personal experience.
If you enjoy these, please be so kind to share these with someone you know who might benefit.
You are always welcome to join the affiliate program and help spread the word.
Visit: eran.link/jv
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