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Making Money as a Writer: Affiliates & Referrals · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, we've been working our way through a series on making money as a writer.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And on today's episode, we're talking about one of my favorite ways to create income, which is talking about things that you already use and love, otherwise known as affiliates and referrals.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as a writer, you probably use a lot of different products and services.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And many of these have an affiliate program that pays you a percentage of what they receive from the customer whenever that customer purchases through your individual affiliate link.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I love affiliate income because it's kind of like getting paid to recommend things that you're already using.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I'm an affiliate for Convert Kit, the email marketing service.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And when people use my link to sign up for the service, I get a portion of whatever they pay ConvertKit.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the basic idea is that Convert Kit is rewarding me for recommending their product because they may not have had that customer without my recommendation.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Another example is the course Book Marketing Mastery, which is created and taught by Honore Quarter.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The course is great and I know it's something that'll benefit you.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, it doesn't cost you any more to sign up through my affiliate link because Honore gives me a portion of what you pay her for the course.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So that's another example of affiliate marketing.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, if you'd like to sign up for the book marketing mastery course, you can go to dailywriterlife.com/slash bookmarketing mastery and use the code daily writer, that's all one word, to get 10% off.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one thing that I want to mention, in fact, two or three more things before I wrap up this episode, one thing I want to mention is that an affiliate is different than a sponsor.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And the difference is in how you get paid.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: With an affiliate partnership, you get a percentage of what that customer pays the affiliate.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: With a sponsorship, the company or the person who is behind the product or service that you're promoting, they pay you directly to advertise it.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: For example, whenever you hear me mention sponsors here on the podcast, that means they have paid me to promote their product or service.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: And normally you can't be both.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if somebody's paying me to promote their product or service, I cannot also be an affiliate.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, it's kind of unusual that you get to double dip.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some once in a while you do.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find somebody who will let you be an affiliate, but also pay you to promote it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: That does happen sometimes, but that doesn't seem to be the normal way that things work, which I totally understand.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you're if you're selling a product or service, you don't want to have to pay somebody in two different ways to promote it, essentially.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I totally get that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's talk about referral income for just a second.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's essentially the same thing as affiliate marketing, except referrals happen whenever you make a personal recommendation to somebody.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: For example, I have friends who are editors, designers, coaches, or other service providers.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And when I send someone their way and that client or customer hires them or they pay for something they're doing, that person pays me a small percentage of what they make as a thank you.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: For example, if I send my friend Jim to my friend uh Elaine, who is a graphic designer, and Elaine uh gets hired by that person, Elaine will then give me a small percentage of what Jim pays her because she wouldn't have had Jim as a client if I had not sent him to her.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So that does happen sometimes, not always with everybody, but it does happen sometimes if you have that kind of a relationship with somebody.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do the same thing whenever people send me a ghostwriting client.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, if you send me a client and they hire me as a ghostwriter, I pay you 10% of whatever I make from that client.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm happy to do this because it keeps the money flowing and it generates a lot of goodwill.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some writers kind of they they get nervous about this kind of arrangement because they think, well, doesn't that mean I'm making 10% less on whatever I get paid for this?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is, well, yes, except that you would have not have you would not have had that client or customer in the first place without somebody referring them to you if if you're kind of working on a referral basis, if that makes sense.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, it's better to have 90% than 0%.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, the better that you get, you should be raising your rates anyway and increasing your value.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I would recommend if you have kind of a if you have a referral system in place, just go ahead right now.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you have any kind of of service-based business, just right now, raise your rates 10%.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not going to make that much difference to the person who's paying you.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's going to cover that referral fee anyway.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: So just go ahead and raise your rates at least 10%, whatever they are right now.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, unless you're like super exorbitantly high, highly priced, or you're in like the very ultra top tier of people doing services or something, then probably you could just go ahead and raise your rates 10%, and it's not going to make any difference to the person who's paying you.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: That way it covers your cost of paying a referral fee.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And also let, you know, let people know who hire you that you do pay a referral fee.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because that person who hires you probably, if they like your your service, they're probably going to refer other people to you as well.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that way that person gets paid.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, I just think it's kind of cool.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I if I hire somebody for something and that person has a referral program, I love the fact that, or no, I'm sorry, I got me stuck for a second.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: If I refer a friend to somebody, um, and then I hire that person, I I love the fact that they have a referral program in place.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's awesome.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I it thrills me to death that if a friend of mine sent me to somebody else uh for a product or service, it thrills me to death that that person would get rewarded for that, if that all makes sense.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: So hopefully I'm not confusing anybody in the process.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me say one more thing about all this.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the main key with affiliates and referrals.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: You have to do this in an ethical and responsible way.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: I never promote products or people that I don't personally use or recommend, whether it's an affiliate, a podcast sponsor, or a service provider.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're already using and recommending certain products and service providers, then see if they have an affiliate or referral program and start promoting those products or those people in an ethical way.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's really cool to see your bank account grow as you do this and also have a lot of fun in the process.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's today's question: What products or services are you already using that could have an affiliate program?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And who is somebody providing a service that you can send customers or clients to and possibly receive a referral payment?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Just some things for you to think about.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been helpful to you, and I hope that you take action on it because, again, this is one of the simplest and most fun ways to make money.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: As always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.