Latest / Influencer Confidential / Affiliate Income 101: What Every Influencer Needs to Know! #265
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Influencer Confidential by Sidewalker Daily. My name is
- 0:04Speaker 1: Nina Zeta and I will be your host. I love
- 0:07Speaker 1: working with brands and influencers on all things business strategy.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Are you ready to learn what it takes to work
- 0:13Speaker 1: in this influencer industry and see behind the currentin Well,
- 0:16Speaker 1: let's jump in. As a creator, chances are you are
- 0:24Speaker 1: posting content online, recommending brands, talking about your favorite things
- 0:28Speaker 1: that you're using or things that you want to use
- 0:31Speaker 1: without even realizing that you are leaving money on the table.
- 0:34Speaker 1: I am so excited about today because we're going to
- 0:36Speaker 1: talk about affiliate marketing for influencers and creators specifically, So
- 0:41Speaker 1: if you are an influencer or a creator, this is
- 0:43Speaker 1: for you. I'm going to talk about how from day
- 0:46Speaker 1: one of your influencer creator journey, you can start monetizing
- 0:50Speaker 1: with affiliates. Now, I want to be really clear when
- 0:53Speaker 1: it comes to affiliates. I've always kind of told people
- 0:57Speaker 1: what's the best ROI like, what are affiliate programs that
- 1:01Speaker 1: you guys can join that is worth it because two
- 1:04Speaker 1: percent of like a low product is not going to
- 1:08Speaker 1: make you the type of months that you're looking to
- 1:09Speaker 1: make right. The type of affiliates that are worthwhile are
- 1:12Speaker 1: the ones that have high commissions or that are paying
- 1:15Speaker 1: you a really good chunk, and those used to be
- 1:17Speaker 1: a lot harder to find. We're going to talk about
- 1:20Speaker 1: ways to increase your affiliate income, but we're also going
- 1:22Speaker 1: to talk about like how to get started and really
- 1:25Speaker 1: kind of make this your go to guide to setting
- 1:27Speaker 1: up affiliates as part of your monetization stream. What's so
- 1:31Speaker 1: important as a creator is that you are thinking this
- 1:33Speaker 1: way and that you're thinking about all the different ways
- 1:36Speaker 1: that you should be monetizing. Now. You guys know I
- 1:38Speaker 1: love brand deals and brand partnerships, and that's something I
- 1:41Speaker 1: talk a lot about on this channel. But I am
- 1:44Speaker 1: here to help you build your business, and your business
- 1:47Speaker 1: is oftentimes going to be more than just one revenue stream,
- 1:51Speaker 1: and I think that's why I want to dive deep
- 1:52Speaker 1: into affiliates and what that means for you. So if
- 1:55Speaker 1: you're just getting started, I think most people now, unless
- 1:58Speaker 1: you live under a rock, you know that the way
- 2:00Speaker 1: affiliate income works is a creator post something online, someone
- 2:04Speaker 1: buys it, and you get a commission. It's really that simple, truly.
- 2:08Speaker 1: You apply for different programs out there you're able to
- 2:11Speaker 1: get your own unique link, and then you post that link,
- 2:14Speaker 1: someone buys something and you get a cut. Seems easy
- 2:17Speaker 1: and it is. It's literally like getting paid any time
- 2:19Speaker 1: you make a recommendation. I will never forget. There was
- 2:22Speaker 1: this creator in our community who posted this like air vacuum,
- 2:25Speaker 1: you know the ones that like suck out the air
- 2:27Speaker 1: when you're packing your luggage so that your clothes get really,
- 2:29Speaker 1: really tice and tight. She was like, Nina, this video
- 2:32Speaker 1: literally went viral, like she did not expect it to.
- 2:35Speaker 1: She was like, and I'm so happy I had my
- 2:37Speaker 1: affiliate link ready to go because people were just going
- 2:40Speaker 1: in her link and BUYO and buying the tool she
- 2:42Speaker 1: was recommended. But that required strategy and intention and as creators,
- 2:47Speaker 1: you guys have to be intentional and think a couple
- 2:50Speaker 1: steps ahead. So that's why implementing affiliates from day one,
- 2:55Speaker 1: not expecting to go viral, but when you do, or
- 2:58Speaker 1: if a video takes off, you are all right, set
- 3:00Speaker 1: and prepared. What I really love about affiliates for creators
- 3:03Speaker 1: is that it's a low lift, so you don't have
- 3:05Speaker 1: to recreate links every time, Like if you know there
- 3:09Speaker 1: are certain products in your arsenal that you're constantly talking
- 3:12Speaker 1: about or constantly using. Once you make that link, once,
- 3:16Speaker 1: it lives forever, so you're able to create new content
- 3:20Speaker 1: or fresh content, but not always having to create different links.
- 3:22Speaker 1: You could be an affiliate to so many different types
- 3:25Speaker 1: of things. Obviously there's product which we all know and love,
- 3:27Speaker 1: like think about yourself as you know promoting. I don't
- 3:30Speaker 1: know this phone case that you like, or your kid's
- 3:32Speaker 1: lego sets or things that you're constantly using. You could
- 3:36Speaker 1: be an affiliate to digital products. You can be an
- 3:38Speaker 1: affiliate to software programs, I mean literally anything you use.
- 3:42Speaker 1: Like if you go on my description in my YouTube channel,
- 3:44Speaker 1: you're going to see the affiliate links that we always
- 3:47Speaker 1: have because they live in our descriptions forever and ever
- 3:50Speaker 1: and ever. And that's why I strongly recommend that this
- 3:53Speaker 1: is part of the muscle that you build from day
- 3:55Speaker 1: one of your influencer career. Don't wait until you hit
- 3:59Speaker 1: ten k followers, don't wait until you hit a certain threshold.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Because again, one, we live in a viral economy. You
- 4:05Speaker 1: do not know when your content is going to pop off.
- 4:08Speaker 1: You just don't. And number two, by having those links
- 4:11Speaker 1: done now, like your future, you will thank you. I
- 4:14Speaker 1: can't tell you the amount of times, like in our channel,
- 4:16Speaker 1: we've had to go back into old videos and replace
- 4:19Speaker 1: and put new links. And if this is something that
- 4:21Speaker 1: you were doing from the beginning, you were setting yourself
- 4:24Speaker 1: up to success. Now I mentioned something at the beginning
- 4:26Speaker 1: of that is kind of the reason why I've never
- 4:28Speaker 1: been really really vocal about affiliates. And it's been because
- 4:33Speaker 1: so many times, especially on platforms like Amazon, you are
- 4:36Speaker 1: getting really low commissions, like we're talking two to ten percent.
- 4:40Speaker 1: I mean, you could be getting like less than a
- 4:42Speaker 1: dollar for promoting a product, and while every dollar counts,
- 4:47Speaker 1: that just never sat well with me. Right, Like, I
- 4:49Speaker 1: have this community of creators they come to me for
- 4:52Speaker 1: business advice, like how can I look at them in
- 4:54Speaker 1: the eye and be like you should be an affiliate,
- 4:56Speaker 1: but then knowing you're getting like these really low commissions.
- 4:59Speaker 1: And that's why when Levanta, the sponsor of Today, reached
- 5:02Speaker 1: out to me, my eyes just shot open because basically
- 5:06Speaker 1: they came to me and they're like, we're going to
- 5:07Speaker 1: help the creators in your community get higher commissions. We're
- 5:12Speaker 1: talking twenty thirty maybe even up to one hundred percent.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Instead of the two to ten percent they're seeing. And
- 5:19Speaker 1: I was like, okay, I'm interested, tell me more. So.
- 5:21Speaker 1: At its core, Levanta is an affiliate platform that allows
- 5:24Speaker 1: you to connect directly to brands. So think of all
- 5:28Speaker 1: of these Amazon sellers that we all see on Amazon,
- 5:31Speaker 1: and my pitching students know this, like I'm like, you
- 5:33Speaker 1: guys should pitch Amazon brands. Well, Levanta is allowing you
- 5:36Speaker 1: to connect with these Amazon sellers and sellers from other
- 5:40Speaker 1: marketplaces directly. And by getting directly connected to the seller,
- 5:44Speaker 1: you can negotiate directly with the seller, you can request
- 5:47Speaker 1: free samples. You're going to be getting higher commissions than
- 5:51Speaker 1: what you would be doing if you went on Amazon directly.
- 5:53Speaker 1: So I'm a visual type of gal. Let's go ahead
- 5:56Speaker 1: and like log into Levanta. I'm actually going to search.
- 6:00Speaker 1: Let me look up. I know my kids have been
- 6:03Speaker 1: playing with these like magnetic tiles for a really long time,
- 6:06Speaker 1: So I'm going to go ahead and go into the
- 6:09Speaker 1: product search and search up magnetic tiles. Boom, there's all
- 6:12Speaker 1: of these magnetic tiles. But like right here, that's up
- 6:16Speaker 1: to twenty percent commission on these magnetic tiles, which you
- 6:20Speaker 1: know and you're seeing here fifteen percent, ten percent. There's
- 6:23Speaker 1: higher commissions than we're used to seeing, again, on products
- 6:27Speaker 1: we are already recommending. What I love about their product
- 6:31Speaker 1: discovery too, is like, let's just say you were to
- 6:33Speaker 1: put something like back to school. Because you're going to
- 6:35Speaker 1: be generating a list, or you are working around special
- 6:40Speaker 1: sales holidays like Prime Day or Cyber Monday, and you're,
- 6:43Speaker 1: you know, creating certain lists to promote. You're basically able
- 6:47Speaker 1: to go in and search certain categories like I put
- 6:51Speaker 1: back to school. You can start looking back to school
- 6:53Speaker 1: products and see like, I don't know, twenty percent off
- 6:56Speaker 1: of this case or backpacks again, twenty percent commissions. These
- 7:00Speaker 1: are high commissions when we're thinking of traditional affiliate stuff.
- 7:03Speaker 1: So I think that's really really exciting. In addition, I've
- 7:07Speaker 1: been invited by a lot of brands to learn about them,
- 7:10Speaker 1: and this here is you're going to see, like the
- 7:11Speaker 1: brand invites, You're literally getting invited by brands like every
- 7:16Speaker 1: single day to promote their products for twenty to forty
- 7:21Speaker 1: percent commissions per sale. And again, these may be products
- 7:24Speaker 1: that you are already promoting. So you would literally just
- 7:26Speaker 1: go into Levanta, you would look up the product that
- 7:29Speaker 1: you were I don't know interested in and be able
- 7:31Speaker 1: to get the link directly from there. Now, what's cool
- 7:34Speaker 1: is that you're having products in here that you can search,
- 7:37Speaker 1: but also learning about products. I mean, I don't know,
- 7:40Speaker 1: I use free to baby on my kids all the time.
- 7:43Speaker 1: To be able to get at least a ten percent
- 7:45Speaker 1: commission every time I promote them is way higher than
- 7:48Speaker 1: what I've seen on other platforms, So that is really exciting,
- 7:51Speaker 1: and I think it allows creators to make more bang
- 7:54Speaker 1: for their buck. Also, if there was a product that
- 7:56Speaker 1: you wanted to sample before you promoted it, because that's
- 7:59Speaker 1: probably the ethical thing to do, is to try things out.
- 8:02Speaker 1: Levanta also has a whole product sampling section where you
- 8:05Speaker 1: can request and again engage with that brand directly for
- 8:09Speaker 1: that sample so that you can test it before you
- 8:12Speaker 1: put your name behind it, which is, you know, again
- 8:14Speaker 1: super cool. So if you're interested in signing up for Levanta,
- 8:16Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and leave our link below so
- 8:19Speaker 1: you guys can sign up directly and then get into
- 8:22Speaker 1: the comments and tell me what you think about this
- 8:24Speaker 1: brand new tool. I wouldn't put my name behind it
- 8:26Speaker 1: if I did not believe in it, so I'm really
- 8:28Speaker 1: excited for you guys to learn a little bit more
- 8:29Speaker 1: about this awesome new tool. The last little thing I'll
- 8:32Speaker 1: say before you move on, because I do know I
- 8:33Speaker 1: have a lot of Amazon influencers in our community. If
- 8:36Speaker 1: you're already part of the Creator Connections program on Amazon,
- 8:39Speaker 1: you can access those same brand campaigns through Levanta. So
- 8:42Speaker 1: Levanta also allows you to monitize and that way they
- 8:46Speaker 1: call it their loyalty bonuses, so you're also able to
- 8:49Speaker 1: access those campaigns. There now one strategy that's really important
- 8:52Speaker 1: you guys for your affiliate way of thinking. We're going
- 8:56Speaker 1: to talk about what are the best ways to promote
- 8:57Speaker 1: your links, But even before we talk about proving links,
- 9:00Speaker 1: I want you guys to think about sale holidays and
- 9:03Speaker 1: sale seasons. There are times of year we're spending is
- 9:06Speaker 1: just higher. When we think of the holiday rush, we
- 9:09Speaker 1: think of things like Cyber Monday, or even Prime Day
- 9:13Speaker 1: or even I don't know, like Labor Day sales, Memorial
- 9:15Speaker 1: Day sales. People are like used to or conditioned to
- 9:18Speaker 1: shopping around those times. And I think that's a really
- 9:21Speaker 1: opportune time to think about your affiliate strategy and not
- 9:26Speaker 1: miss out. And again we're talking zero followers. This is
- 9:29Speaker 1: when you're starting at zero, but implementing this and thinking
- 9:32Speaker 1: this way, being like, wait, there is going to be
- 9:34Speaker 1: big sale seasons. I should get ready for this. Now,
- 9:37Speaker 1: how do we get trafficked to these links? How do
- 9:40Speaker 1: we start to promote these different affiliate links into our content?
- 9:44Speaker 1: If you are on Instagram, having you know, your storefront
- 9:48Speaker 1: being in your link in bio or having certain links
- 9:51Speaker 1: in your link in bio is going to obviously draw attention.
- 9:55Speaker 1: Part of what you'll have to also do. I've seen
- 9:58Speaker 1: a lot of creators do this on Instagram and make
- 10:00Speaker 1: a killing. Is tied into some sort of many chat automation.
- 10:04Speaker 1: So for example, you set up an automation and you're
- 10:06Speaker 1: like comment links to get a link of like my
- 10:09Speaker 1: favorite spring wardrobe or my favorite back to school items,
- 10:13Speaker 1: and it's like link link link link, clink link link
- 10:15Speaker 1: that automation sends it. That is a brilliant way to
- 10:18Speaker 1: get people clicking on your links. I've seen creators make
- 10:21Speaker 1: a killing tying it into certain automations. Obviously, on YouTube,
- 10:26Speaker 1: our videos last a little longer than on other platforms,
- 10:29Speaker 1: So making sure that your links are in your description
- 10:31Speaker 1: because people do read the descriptions they do go in
- 10:34Speaker 1: and check them out, So it's good to have all
- 10:35Speaker 1: your links ready as well. One thing that I think
- 10:37Speaker 1: is important when you are promoting your links, whether it's
- 10:40Speaker 1: like YouTube or TikTok or Instagram, is to be intentional,
- 10:45Speaker 1: but also remember, like, for example, on Instagram Stories, I
- 10:48Speaker 1: had this one creator. She was like, yeah, I got
- 10:49Speaker 1: a ton of views. I'm like, why aren't you like
- 10:51Speaker 1: doing like weekly rounds ups of your favorite links or
- 10:54Speaker 1: including them in your stories highlights under product recommendations, like
- 10:58Speaker 1: your favorite things that you always recommend, And she was like,
- 11:00Speaker 1: oh yeah, So even just making a highlight on Instagram
- 11:03Speaker 1: where these links live is brilliant and also helps people
- 11:08Speaker 1: who go and check them out for the first time
- 11:10Speaker 1: to know that these links live there forever. If you
- 11:12Speaker 1: have a newsletter, you could always even include as like
- 11:15Speaker 1: a little boiler plate at the bottom even on your
- 11:18Speaker 1: sub stock, like my favorites of the week or my
- 11:20Speaker 1: weekly recommendations. You know, having these links just set there
- 11:24Speaker 1: almost like as a can template for like either something
- 11:28Speaker 1: specific or your store front. It's just like you have
- 11:31Speaker 1: to put love into your links in order for people
- 11:33Speaker 1: to click them. But that's why It's so important to
- 11:35Speaker 1: set up this foundation from the beginning because then once
- 11:38Speaker 1: you do, you are ready to roll. If you are
- 11:40Speaker 1: going to be incorporating affiliate links into your content strategy. Also, guys,
- 11:45Speaker 1: think of content that lends to this type of work.
- 11:48Speaker 1: So what do I mean, like gift guides or series
- 11:51Speaker 1: or things that your audience can expect from you. Because
- 11:54Speaker 1: for example, if you're like my favorite things to travel
- 11:56Speaker 1: with for kids, and it's like this lovely resource, but
- 11:59Speaker 1: it also has your affiliate links, that's thinking smart, same
- 12:03Speaker 1: thing my favorite travel products to travel with my family
- 12:05Speaker 1: or whatever it is, these sort of guides that you're
- 12:08Speaker 1: putting together, these sort of freebies, or maybe again it's
- 12:10Speaker 1: a content series. It's also accustoming your audience to purchase
- 12:15Speaker 1: from you. Affiliates aren't important because it also leads to
- 12:19Speaker 1: potential brand partnerships, right think about it. If you are
- 12:22Speaker 1: developing good rapport good sales, and you have a good
- 12:25Speaker 1: case study from your affiliate business, you can then work
- 12:28Speaker 1: with these brands directly in other ways. Like I mentioned earlier,
- 12:32Speaker 1: Levanta allows you to connect with these Amazon sellers directly,
- 12:36Speaker 1: which I don't think has been done before. Truly, it
- 12:39Speaker 1: is like impossible to connect with Amazon sellers and like
- 12:41Speaker 1: Levanta's literally making it easy for us to message them
- 12:44Speaker 1: within the platform and connect. So you never know where
- 12:47Speaker 1: those relationships are going to go. And starting off as
- 12:50Speaker 1: an affiliate to a brand you know and love and
- 12:53Speaker 1: having that data to also bring to the table can
- 12:56Speaker 1: lead to a lot of exciting partnerships in the future
- 12:59Speaker 1: and things. So regardless of your brand deal strategy, starting
- 13:04Speaker 1: off with affiliates, especially high commission affiliates, ones that are
- 13:08Speaker 1: worth your while, not the little commissions but the bigger ones.
- 13:12Speaker 1: Then that gets exciting and that you know, makes it
- 13:14Speaker 1: a win win for all creators. I hope you enjoyed
- 13:17Speaker 1: today's episode. If you did, make sure to rate, review,
- 13:21Speaker 1: and subscribe to our show and visit Sidewalkerdaily dot com
- 13:25Speaker 1: for more resources on all things influencer, marketing and social media.
- 13:29Speaker 1: Until next time,