How to Make Thousands Using Affiliate Marketing
How to Make Thousands Using Affiliate Marketing
A few days ago I posted on Instagram about how I made 100% totally passive income through affiliate marketing with a home decor blog I started 2 years ago, but have since completely abandoned. I got so many questions about how to do this. And for good reason, too. Who doesn’t want to make money while they literally sleep?
After a little up front work to put affiliate marketing in place, you can just sit back and let the income roll in. I hadn’t even considered blogging about this, but it really is a great topic, so, thanks to everyone who asked and gave me this blog post idea. This post is for you!
How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?
The best definition for affiliate marketing I could find is from Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income:
Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.
Essentially, you apply to an affiliate marketing program. Once you are accepted, you will be able to add affiliate links to certain products on your social media channels (blogs, Instagram, Pinterest), and when someone clicks that link and makes a purchase, you earn a percentage of the sale. You don’t have to have a blog to make money through affiliate marketing—social media channels will work, too!
Where can I find Affiliate Marketing Programs?
There are tons of options out there, and below I’ll give you a list. I personally have only ever worked with rewardStyle, and give you some tips for succeeding with that platform, below. But know that if you get denied for one affiliate marketing program, you can always apply to others. And, after a while, you can re-apply later to the programs who originally turned you down to see if you get accepted at a later time. It’s good to re-apply to programs if your followers/page views have increased since you originally applied, or you’ve added more content to your social media channels.
Here is a list of some of the most popular Affiliate Marketing Programs:
How Much Money Can You Actually Make With Affiliate Marketing?
Last year, I made $2,795.96 in affiliate marketing income. That’s a pretty nice chunk of change for someone who did basically no work to really utilize this channel for income.
With some time, attention, and effort, you could really make more! Just google the web for tons of examples of people who literally make tens of thousands MONTHLY through affiliate income.
To give you some background on my income, I used affiliate marketing not on this blog—which is still pretty brand new—but on a home decor blog I started back in 2017. That blog has never been wildly successful or popular by any means.
For reference, the IG account associated with that blog has 17K followers and the blog gets, on average, 4K monthly page views. But that following, although low, still translated into almost $3,000 in income for the year!
Above is a pic I posted on Instagram from one of my more lucrative paydays. This is more than a full 40-hour work week earning minimum wage. For doing practically nothing, y’all.
How to Earn Affiliate Income with rewardStyle
Earning affiliate income through rewardStyle is easy! Although a word of caution: It can take a while to rack up sales. When I first started, it took several months before I got my first payday. But now that it is all in place, I still make money while doing literally nothing.
Although rewardStyle is a really technical program—and all of the nitty gritty technical details are beyond the scope of this blog post—the company has tons of tutorials to help walk you through the process. And, they assign each influencer (that’s you if you apply and get accepted!) an account manager, whom you can email at any time for direct help from a real, live, person.
rewardStyle is the program I’ve used since 2017. Last year alone, I earned $2,795 from this program doing practically nothing! Here’s how you can, too:
STEP ONE. Apply and get accepted to the program.
In the past, this program was by invitation-only. But, I think now it’s open to the public and anyone can apply. Current members can also refer you to the program. Though I don’t know for sure, it seems it really increases the likelihood that you are accepted if you are referred by a current member.
If you want a referral from me to apply, send an email to info@livingthatdebtfreelife.com with the subject “rewardStyle Referral Request,” and I will send you the invitation! To refer you, I will need your full name, email address, and blog URL, if you have one. This can be an IG or Pinterest account too!
Helpful hints for being accepted:
rewardStyle looks at the following 4 factors when considering applications to the program:
Engaged and Growing Audience
Consistency
Quality and Original Content
Clean Editorial Design
STEP TWO. Create your account and add products to your list.
This is the technical part I was talking about earlier. Bear with me.
Once you are accepted into the program, you can log in to their dashboard on a desktop and create your account. In your account, you can create lists and add products to them.
Examples of lists I created for my home decor blog included things like Kitchen, Living Room, Nordstrom Sale Picks, Christmas Gift List Ideas, etc. You can see some of my lists here:
In each list, I would add products that I used in those spaces. My Living Room list had my couch, rug, lamps, chairs, side tables, etc.
STEP THREE. Create affiliate links for Instagram.
In the rewardStyle app or desktop dashboard, for each product, there is a button that says “GET LINK.” You will use that link to post in any of your social media channels. For a single item, you can simply copy and paste that link into your social media channels. Or, you can add a lot of different items to a single link.
For example, as a home decor blogger, I would often post pictures of my home on IG, and say things like “Shop this entire space with the link in my profile!”
Here’s how I did it: Let’s assume I took a picture of my living room and was planning to post it. I would log in to my rewardStyle app and select “Enable a New Image.”
I would then be taken to my camera roll to select the photograph I wanted to post. After selecting the picture, I would then be taken to my dashboard, where I could “tag products” that were in the photograph. I’d simply select the Living Room list, and click any of the products I wanted to “tag” in my picture.
For an IG post, rewardStyle lets you add up to 16 products to a single link. Once I had tagged all the products, I clicked “Next” and I’d be taken to a screen where I could copy and paste the link to add to my IG captions or stories.
When a follower would click the link, it would show all the products I had tagged in the picture: the couch, the coffee table, the rug, the throw pillows, the entertainment center, making it easy for them to simply click and buy.
All they have to do is click the picture of the specific item they want to buy, and they will be taken to that retailer’s website. When they buy anything from that website—not even the exact product I recommended—I earn a commission on that sale!
As a home decor blogger, inevitably, I would get tons of questions like “Where did you get that rug?” “Where can I buy that nightstand?” My answer always included an affiliate link to the product, so all they had to do was click and buy, and I would earn.
Here’s an example of a picture from one of my favorite home decor bloggers, Life on Virginia Street. She recently posted this picture on Instagram:
To shop the picture, you can click the link in her IG profile and click the image of that picture above. When you do, you’re taken to the picture below. Want to buy the couch? Just click on it, and it takes you directly to the retailer’s website!
The rewardStyle App
rewardStyle has also launched an app (Like to Know It) that keeps track of all your products for your readers.
Once your followers/readers have downloaded and installed the app, all they have to do is add you as an influencer in their app, and they can see all the content you recommend. They can also just screen shot your social media pictures and look at their screen shots in the app, which will give them a list and links of all the products to buy.
If you screen shot the above picture and open your rewardStyle app, you’ll see this:
STEP FOUR. Create a “Shop the Post” feature for individual blog posts.
rewardStyle also lets you put shoppable links in blog posts, by using a widget on their website called Shop The Post.
For this feature, you log on to your rewardStyle dashboard on a desktop and click Apps, then click Shop The Post.
You’ll be taken to your list of products. Simply click which ones you talked about in your blog post, and then click “Copy Code.”
Paste the code into your blog post. It will generate a sliding tool of pictures that readers can click on to purchase, earning you a commission on everything they buy.
STEP FIVE. Create a “Shop” Page for your Blog and Link it to Instagram.
One of the things my home decor blog has is a “Shop” page. That Shop Page contains a collage of all my rewardStyle-enabled photographs from Instagram. When you visit the Shop Page of my home decor blog, all you have to do is click one of the IG pics and you will be taken to a page that shows all the products. Click the product you want to buy and you are instantly transferred to that exact product on that retailer’s site.
Taking it one step further, using Link Tree, I linked the Shop Page of my blog to my Instagram account. When someone clicks the linktree link in my Instagram profile, a “Shop My Instagram!” button appears. Once clicked, it takes you directly to the Shop Page of my blog where you can shop your heart out.
@cottonstem does this, too, and in the interest of remaining anonymous, I’ll show you pictures from her account, so this will hopefully make sense. If you head to her IG page, you’ll see this:
Click that link that circled in blue, above, and it will take you here, to a list of other links you can choose from. Followers will choose the “Shop My Instagram” option, circled below:
After you click the “Shop My Instagram” button, above, you are directed to her blog’s Shop Page, and it looks like this:
Let’s say you click on that first picture, then you’ll see this:
Want to buy that tote? Click on it and you’ll be directed right to that item on the retailer’s website:
STEP SIX. Post frequently and regularly on a consistent schedule, with products you know, use, and love. Post on your blog, on IG, and on Pinterest.
STEP SEVEN. Refer your friends.
When you refer your friends to rewardStyle, and they get accepted into the program, you earn 15% of what rewardStyle makes off their account for one year. Referrals alone can translate into big money, which is, again, completely passive.
STEP EIGHT. Sit back and collect the money!
When your sales reach at least $100, rewardStyle will send you payment through PayPal, in accordance with their pay days. They only make payments once you reach $100 and they only use PayPal to process their payments to you. They pay out biweekly (every other week), on Fridays.
Why I Haven’t Used Affiliate Marketing on this Blog
First off, let me just say there is absolutely no harm in using affiliate marketing. But, I gotta admit it does make me a little uncomfortable sometimes, particularly given my new found love of frugal living. Thus, encouraging people to spend by enticing them to buy products I’m showcasing on my blog doesn’t really seem to fit with my whole world view toward spending and consumption.
I don’t want to encourage anyone to buy something he or she doesn’t truly need, or heaven forbid something they may actually go into debt to buy. And, I don’t want my blog or IG account to just be one gigantic sales pitch, constantly nagging my followers to buy, buy, buy. In fact, that buy, buy, buy, constant-consumerism mentality is one of the things that I hate about our culture and the primary reason so many of my followers are in a financial death pit to begin with.
One thing I can assure you of is this: If I ever do use affiliate marketing on this blog, it will be because it is a product that I firmly believe in, a product that is worth the spend, and something that is life changing. Which brings me to my next point—how to increase your affiliate sales.
Four Seriously Good Tips for Increasing Your Affiliate Sales
TIP ONE. Share links for things you actually use and love.
It can be so easy to get caught up in the glory of making “free money” so easily, I get it. But, you actually make affiliate sales from one thing: your “know, like, and trust” factor.
When your audience knows you, likes you, and trusts your opinions, they are more willing to buy the products you recommend. If you want more affiliate sales, work on increasing that “know, like, and trust” factor.
When you just start schleping any old thing just to make a quick buck, your trust factor plummets and so will your sales.
So, when using affiliate marketing links, think about the products you know and love and use all the time. The products you’d recommend to a friend—even if you didn’t stand a chance to earn a penny on it. The products that have truly made a difference in your life. Those are the products you should showcase with affiliate links.
TIP TWO. Resist the urge to market constantly to your audience.
If every single one of your posts or stories or IG pics contains the message “Swipe up to buy!” or “Follow the link in my profile to purchase this awesome item!” your audience will grow tired of being constantly sold to. What’s worse, it’ll cause you to not only lose sales, but also the audience you worked so hard to build in the first place.
It all goes back to step one - talk about the products that really mean something to you and discuss them at relevant times when they can really help your audience. Aim to help your audience solve their problems—that should be your primary goal—not making a buck. The “I’m just here to make a buck” mentality is transparent and it comes across to your readers and followers.
TIP THREE. Know your audience and share items that relate to their needs in a meaningful way.
If I shared affiliate links for really expensive items on this blog, say a $1,000 treadmill, that would be a disaster. First, it wouldn’t make any sense (or sales!). Second, the readers of this blog are interested in learning about ways to save money. They aren’t interested in opportunities to squander it away by shelling out hundreds for pricey merchandise.
In contrast, if I shared one of my favorite investing books that helped me earn thousands in the stock market, or my favorite budgeting planner, that might be well-received. That’s the kind of content the readers of this blog are interested in, and it’s relevant to the content I share on this blog.
Similarly, if I were a health and fitness blog, and then I shared a link to the $1,000 treadmill I used to help me lose 50 pounds, that would be relevant to my audience, and should translate well into sales.
TIP FOUR. Share sales and discounts on products relevant to your niche.
Who doesn’t love a sale or discount? Letting your readers know about sales on relevant content is a great way to increase your affiliate sales. When that $1,000 treadmill goes on sale, it would be a great opportunity for the health and fitness blogger to post about it and alert her followers. It’s relevant to her content, it’s meaningful to her own journey, her audience can trust her recommendation because she personally used it and had success with it—and now, it’s on sale!
I hope this has helped answer some of your questions about affiliate marketing! If you still have questions, I’ll do my best to answer them if you just leave them in the comments below!
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