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The Ins and Outs of Affiliate Marketing with Griffin Stewart · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady of is number one small business expert, and it is my
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  pleasure to welcome you to tonight's small biz chat.
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  Now we do small biz chat because we offer peer to peer advice to help you take your small
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  business to the next level.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  So that's what we're about.
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  So I'm really excited.
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  Our goal is to give you an opportunity to hear sage advice from experts that are gonna help
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  you take your business and your life to the next level.
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  Welcome back to small business chat.
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  I am here I am so excited to have you guys with us tonight.
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  We my next guest is gonna talk to you about how to make money in your sleep.
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  That's right.
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  We're gonna be talking affiliate marketing, online marketing success strategies.
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  I'm so excited to have my guest here with us, Mr.
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  Griffin Stewart, He's an affiliate marketer.
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  He founded a 5daydeal.com with his wife Valerie in 2014.
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  They specialize in joint venture partnerships on a massive scale, and they always donate 10%
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  of their profits to charity.
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  And to date, they have donated more than 1.8 $1,000,000 in the last 5 years to charity.
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  So that's what I call putting their money where their mouth is.
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  If Griffin, thank you so much for joining me tonight on small business chat live.
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  Thanks so much for having me, Melinda.
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  I appreciate it.
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  Alright.
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  So so let's let's take a step back because I'm gonna let you talk about 5 day deal in a
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  minute, but tell me, let's talk about what exactly is affiliate marketing and who pertains
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  in it?
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  Like, how does it work?
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  Great question.
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  So affiliate marketing is basically people that are sharing product, and they're sharing it
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  through a special trackable link, and then they get a commission when that product sells.
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  The way it works is is typically there's a dashboard where they can get their special
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  links that they share.
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  And then when you go there, your browser kinda keeps track of that.
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  And if you purchase the product, then they get paid based on that.
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  Got it.
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  Alright.
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  So how do people typically promote their affiliate link?
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  Like, they, okay.
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  So I sign up for your program.
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  I get my link.
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  What are some of the best ways to share affiliate links if that's the kind of business
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  that I wanna build?
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  A number one way is through an email list.
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  So, you know, if you have a website or a small business and you don't have an email list, I'd
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  highly recommend getting one of those.
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  That's the most effective people also share on social media, Facebook, instagram, YouTube,
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  that kind of thing, but those are more kind of people go there when they want to to get
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  information or to see things.
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  Whereas an email list is more of a active, you know, you can send that to them wherever they
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  are sort of thing.
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  And our our sales are only 5 days.
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  So that's the most effective marketing for for our business.
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  Mhmm.
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  Mhmm.
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  Alright.
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  So how how did the payments work?
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  Like, do you actually make money as affiliate market?
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  Cause I know lots of people that that sign up for affiliates, and they make goosig.
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  So I I kinda wanna understand, you know, like, if I sign up for an affiliate, do I get paid,
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  like, every time there's a sale, do I pay once a month quarterly?
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  Like, how how does all that work?
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  Yeah.
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  Great question.
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  So most affiliate programs that we join, they pay out monthly.
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  Some of them pay quarterly And then as far as making money, it really depends on your
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  platform and the products that you're promoting.
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  One of the things I always tell our affiliates and our partners is, you know, don't promote
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  this product unless you found value in it and you think that the people that are, you know,
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  on your list and following you will get value from that.
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  I've tried a few different things where when I was first getting into this where, I'm not
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  known as a small business expert or anything like that.
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  And I tried to share share some affiliate links with my friends, and I did value the products,
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  but I'm not an authority on that in that sense.
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  And so nobody purchased and, you know, I was checking the the dashboard and refreshing and
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  no money was coming in.
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  Yeah, we have partners that'll make 6 figures in 5 days, but it just really depends on your
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  audience and making sure that it's a good offer for them.
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  Alright.
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  So let's talk about the 5 day deal.com.
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  That is your business that you run for the last 5 or so years.
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  Tell tell me about how how your program works and the kinds of different things that that you
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  promote on your platform.
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  Sure.
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  So 5data.com, we sell educational bundles for videographers, photographers, small business
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  owners.
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  We have 3 sales a year in those genres and they're for 5 days each only.
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  And what we do is put together around 1 to $2000 worth of digital products and we sell
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  them for 5 days at an incredible discount, usually less than a $100 to get all those tools
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  and resources.
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  And then we donate 10% of that to charity.
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  So it's a really fun sale.
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  We're blessed to be able to partner with many of the best educators in their niches in the
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  world.
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  And it's it's a lot of fun for for us as a company with our partners and then our
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  customers also love it.
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  Very cool.
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  So how often have you you said you do 3 sales a year.
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  So do you do one small business focused sale a year?
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  Yeah.
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  So we typically do anywhere from 2 to 3 a year.
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  This year, March 5th through 10th, we're gonna have a small business focused sale.
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  We're really excited about that.
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  We've got some great partners on board and great affiliates, and it's gonna be it's gonna
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  be a lot of fun stuff.
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  Really cool.
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  So how did you start your company?
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  Like, how how do you just wake up one day and say, oh, I know what it is.
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  5 day deal.
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  I mean, like, how did you Where did the idea come from?
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  How did it kind of morph into what it is now?
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  Yeah.
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  Great question.
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  So my wife and I, we used to travel, and I was there were I'd seen a few travel sales, but I
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  didn't know how the, you know, how the accounting worked and how the business side of
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  it worked, but I knew for me as a customer, like, this is the best thing ever.
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  You know, you get so much value.
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  And even if you only like 1 or 2 of the products, then it's typically worth the
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  purchase price.
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  So I, freelance and was in charge of an ebook store for 1 of the largest photographers in the
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  world named Trey Ratcliffe.
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  And I met a lot of the authors and a lot of great photographers.
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  And one of them wanted to put together a bundle sale, and they came to me to ask me how much I
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  would charge to do the graphics and the website and, the check out for it.
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  And so I said, Hey, I don't, you know, this is gonna cost a lot of money.
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  I don't want you to owe me more than you're gonna make or not make a profit on it.
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  So why don't we partner together and I'll do the website and you can do the business stuff
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  that I'm terrible at paperwork and all that.
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  And So we did that and we had a goal of, you know, maybe donating 30 to $40,000 a year to
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  charity.
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  And our first sale back in January 2014, we were able to donate more than 45,000 to
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  charity.
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  And that year, we had 1 more photography bundle and donated more than 250,000 from those 2
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  sales.
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  So it was just amazing to see and really exciting.
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  Okay.
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  So that's so that that's really interesting.
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  So it's always been your model from the very beginning to donate money to charity.
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  Yeah.
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  Sure has.
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  We wanted a business that not only made ourselves money, but if it did well, that it
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  would it would make money that we can give back.
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  We're a Christians as well.
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  And so part of our personal finances is tithing, and we wanted that in our business as
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  well.
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  Good stuff.
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  I'm I'm also a Christian that tied.
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  So I know exactly what you're talking about.
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  So good stuff.
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  So tell me, how do you recruit affiliates that you wanna partner with?
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  Like, how do you kind of figure out what products and things that you want?
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  Yeah, great question.
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  So we're always kind of year round a lot of the affiliates that we partner with I'm friends
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  with.
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  So I get targeted a lot for ads for, you know, video, photo, and small business.
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  And so I'm always we're always looking for people with great products that also have a
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  great social reach.
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  Typically, the the newsletter number is what we're looking for the most because of our our
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  short sales windows.
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  And so we'll reach out to them and kinda let them know, like, about our partnership.
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  And we try to make it a win win, we try to be as generous as we can with our partners as far
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  as commission goes.
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  And so we've had partners on board since 2014 that partner with us year after year because
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  it's such a a great win win experience.
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  And what's your target newsletter that you really kinda like people to have on their list
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  in terms of their email
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  We're looking for 10,000 or more, and it's been interesting.
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  We've seen people that have a list of 20,000 that will outsell somebody with a 100,000 just
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  depending on
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  So all mitigation.
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  Yeah.
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  Yep.
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  Yep.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So I guess you kind of explained how you recruit people But is is that your whole model
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  is joint ventures?
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  Right?
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  You guys don't have any products that that you sell.
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  Do you?
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  Correct.
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  Yeah.
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  Currently, our whole model is we get all the different partners and products together and
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  and sell those.
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  That's our That's our whole business.
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  And and that way, we're able to focus a 100%.
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  This is our me and my wife full time job, and we have another full time contractor, and we
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  focus our whole year on making sure these sales are a success for partners.
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  Got it.
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  Got it.
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  Alright.
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  So talk to me about some of the do's and don'ts of affiliate marketing because it seems like I
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  see a whole lot of people doing affiliate marketing.
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  I don't know if a whole lot of people are making real money doing it, though.
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  So Talk to me about, like, your top 2 or 3 do's and don'ts of this.
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  Sure.
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  I think the most important thing about affiliate marketing is just to, you know, make
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  sure that you as a person that you you found value in the product, you love the product, and
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  do that before anything else.
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  So I mean, there's a lot of products out there.
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  There's some that pay 50% commission or maybe even more than that.
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  But if you're promoting something that isn't you don't see a real value in or you don't
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  think will provide a real value to others.
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  To me, I think people can see right through that.
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  And so, you know, just make sure you're promoting quality products.
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  And like Michelle said, it's very important that you're true to yourself and what you're
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  doing.
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  So you might be able to make money for a little while promoting something that's not really
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  your great product, but eventually that's gonna catch up with you and you're probably not gonna
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  feel good about that and your your your business would dry up.
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  So
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  What about some of the don'ts?
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  Right?
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  So you said don't promote a product you don't believe in.
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  Okay.
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  What else?
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  Yeah.
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  If you don't believe in the product, don't promote it.
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  The other thing too I think is important is just getting to know the the owner of the
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  product or using the product yourself so that you can give genuine feedback to the owner.
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  If there's something that could be improved on, and also share with anybody that's considering
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  the product like, hey, here's the pros of the product, but there are some cons.
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  No products perfect.
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  Here's what I didn't like.
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  And that helps let people know that not only that you've tested out the product, but that
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  you're not just saying, hey.
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  This is the best product in the world.
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  You know?
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  Okay.
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  And lastly, what is the most common way to approach people selling through affiliates?
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  Like, I know, for me, because I'm the smallest lady, I probably get pitch twice a week.
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  Somebody would you like to be our affiliate?
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  And I've never heard of them.
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  I don't know anything about their company, but what is the best way to approach somebody to
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  sell your stuff through affiliates?
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  Like, if if you have a product that you wanna offer to me, what's what's the best way?
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  If you have a product to offer, so there's 2 different kind of ways people go with affiliate
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  systems.
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  One is you basically accept in everybody with a face and a blog and then you can kind of see
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  what happens.
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  What we do at 5 day deal is we are really selective and who we partner with, and most of
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  our partners are the same way.
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  They're very selective on what they'll affiliate affiliate promote.
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  So it's really, like, from our experience, it's just finding a great fit where it's like, hey,
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  you know, you've got a a platform in this.
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  You've got a great product maybe.
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  Maybe you don't have a great product, but you've got a great following that's interested
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  in, say, landscape photography or small business.
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  And so we'll reach out and let them know about our business.
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  And if it's a great fit, then we partner together that way.
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  Alright.
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  Good don't.
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  Alright.
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  Well, thank you so much, Griffin.
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  You have really been invaluable insight.
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  Alright, Griffin.
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  What is your favorite podcast?
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  So I don't listen to podcasts too much.
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  I'm more into audio books, but I like Tim Ferris's podcast.
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  He usually has really interesting people and kind of really interesting perspectives on
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  there.
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  Yeah.
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  Tim Perez is an interesting cat.
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  He he looked up with a very good book title.
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  You did.
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  He's been riding that wave ever since.
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  I'm not mad at him.
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  Alright, Griffin.
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  What is your favorite business app?
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  Probably Slack.
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  It keeps keeps things out of my email as much as possible.
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  Alright.
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  Slack is a good one.
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  A lot of that's one's really popular.
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  A lot of people say that one.
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  What is your favorite old school marketing tip?
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  You know, making sure that you're I think your motivation in business should be about helping
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  people not about money first of all.
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  And if it is about money, then, you know, your business is probably gonna fail or you're gonna
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  burn out at some point because If you don't love what you do and you don't help people with
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  it, then it's not worth it.
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  Alright, Griffin.
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  What's your favorite business book?
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  I read I just read this one recently.
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  It's called disrupt to you by Jay Samet.
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  It's really cool.
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  He he's got a perspective of basically, like, you know, you can change your whole career or
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  come up with a new idea just by kind of looking at the market and figuring things out.
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  So this guy is really interesting and He's been both an entrepreneur and an entrepreneur, which
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  he says is when you're in a massive corporation and you're trying to innovate inside that as
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  well.
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  Mhmm.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  And my favorite business book is the e myth revisited by Michael Gerber because now It's
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  just it's it to me, that book, when I read it back in the day, it changed my life and it
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  changed my business.
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  So I always have to give Michael Gerber a shout out for that.
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  Alright.
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  Listen, guys.
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  Thank you so very much for being my guest tonight on small fish chat live.
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  If you want more information about tonight's guest, head on over to my blog succeed as your
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  own boss.com.
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  And if you want more information just about me, I'm the small biz lady.
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  You can find me everywhere on the internet as a small biz lady.
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  So want to leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business, either you win or you learned.
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  God bless everybody.
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  See you next time.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.