Create Your Affiliate Program

I recently had the opportunity to head to Nashville, Tennessee to attend the Ultimate Product Party, a 2-day conference for product sellers. Even as a service based business owner who works with product sellers, I had SO MANY TAKEAWAYS from this event.

In this blog post, I’m going to be sharing some of my favorite moments from the conference.  While I won’t highlight all of the speakers and roundtable leaders, I do want to emphasize this: EVERY SINGLE PERSON was amazing. All of the speakers were awesome, I learned a ton from every single roundtable I went to, and all of the keynotes were just top notch.  So, while I won’t mention them all below, know that they were still 100% amazing.

Okay, now onto some of my favorite moments from the Ultimate Product Party.

Ciara Bennett’s Opening Keynote

Ciara Bennett with Vintage Oats was the opening keynote and omgosh, her personal story was AMAZING. It’s always so amazing to hear stories of women who triumphed when the odds were stacked against them, and Ciara is one of those women. I found her story really inspiring and encouraging as someone in a growth stage in my own business.  

Follow Ciara over on Instagram here. 

Amanda Dare’s Breakout Workshop on Business Funding

Amanda Dare with Women Owned Wallet did an amazing session all about money and how to fund your business.  One of the things she said that really stood out to me, and I think can apply to so many different business scenarios is this:  

Don’t do what helps you today; do what helps you in 3 months, 6 months, a year…

In other words, be future focused and don’t think so much in the “right now”. I know I can get so shortsighted sometimes, and so this was a great reminder to really focus on the long term plans I have for my business. 

Check out Woman Owned Wallet here.

Q&A Panel on the High High’s and Low Low’s

Sometimes in business, especially I think as a solo entrepreneur, it can feel like I’m the only one dealing with the business struggles I go through.  So, when this Q&A session happened, it was honestly so refreshing to hear that – surprise surprise – other business owners deal with struggles too. I especially appreciated Monica Little’s stance on how problems can be opportunities. It doesn’t always feel like that in the moment, but I do like how she suggested looking at them as opportunities to solve things.

I received an email this week from Allison Carter {co-host of Ultimate Product Party} that said “what are you too scared to say??”

When it comes to my business, there’s not really a lot I am scared to say because affiliate programs aren’t really that controversial lol ….

…But I am sometimes scared about being too repetitive with the things I do say. 

But here’s the thing I am always saying because I wholeheartedly believe this:

If you have an online course, sell products (digital or physical), or have group programs…

You need an affiliate program.

And if you don’t have one, you’re losing out on lots of potential sales a.k.a you’re not making as much money as you could be.

Chances are you’re following me because you’re interested in starting an affiliate program so you can double your course or product sales…

… and maybe you just haven’t taken action yet…

… or maybe you’ve kind of piece-mealed things together but haven’t really done anything with your program yet….

If any of these describe you, I want to share the following 9 reasons an affiliate program is a must-have for course creators and product sellers like you!

I’ve got an activity for you today that is going to help you increase your sales this month if you carve out the time to do it.

Let’s start by raising your hand if you sell a digital product, such as templates or an ebook, or even an online course… ?‍♀️

If you’ve got your hand raised, did you know that you are in a great position for working with affiliates?

It’s true!

Because when you work with affiliates, that gives you the opportunity to get your products and courses in front of new potential customers…

… which means more sales and more money in the bank for you and your affiliates who share your offers with their people! ?

Wondering who your affiliates should be?

? Past customers.
? Current clients.
? Colleagues with complimentary products to yours (because that means their audience is most likely full of your ideal customers!)

 That’s a short but simple list of good places to start looking for affiliates.

Today, I want you to do this simple but impactful money-makin’ activity:

Who are 5 – 10 people you can think of that might be willing to share your freebie or offers with their community?

Make a list.

Then reach out to the people on your list and *ask* if they would like to be an affiliate for you.

You might be surprised how willing people are to share your work with their community! ❤️

As I always say, setting up your affiliate program doesn’t have to be hard…

Start with reaching out to potential affiliate partners!

If you don’t know what to say when pitching these potential affiliate partners, grab this Invitation to Send Potential Affiliate Partners email template here.  You can take this google doc template and customize it for sending out to your potential affiliate partners.

If you’re reading this post and wishing you could make more sales, do the activity above asap.

I know that even if just one affiliate partner says YES to working with you, you have the opportunity to increase your sales dramatically.

But they can’t say yes to being your affiliate if you don’t ask them.

So, make your list and send those pitches today!

Let me know over on Instagram if you give this activity a try – I’d love to hear how many YESes you get! 

Today I’m getting ready to send out 15 emails to potential affiliates I have researched for one of my affiliate management clients. {One of my favorite tasks I do for her!} 

As I’ve been crafting each of the emails to send, I realized that I had some important things to share with you about what makes for a great pitch {the email you send asking someone to affiliate for you!}.

So, without further ado, here we go!

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Reaching Out to Potential Affiliates

Mistake 1: Making your pitch only about you! 

Instead of making your pitch ONLY about YOU, instead make it about the person your pitching’s audience and how your collaboration can benefit them, and why partnering together is the best way to make that happen!

Mistake #2: Sending a generic pitch! 

Whatever you do, please, do not send a generic pitch.  Instead, do your research on the person/company you are pitching. Send a pitch that shows you know about their company, and their audience, and that you are genuinely interested in serving their audience by partnering together.

Also, check their website BEFORE you pitch… they might already have a page on their site about how to best reach out re: collaborations and potential affiliate partnerships.  If they do, follow the instructions on that page.  

Mistake #3: Sending all the details before it’s needed 

Friends, do NOT send a novel with all the collaboration details and sign up information in the first email. People are busy {aren’t we all!} and so they don’t have time to read all of the details about the collaboration you have in mind.

Instead, I recommend sharing a high-level overview of the collaboration you have in mind, and then asking them to hit reply if they’d like to hear more!  Then, once they say YES to partnering with you, you can send them through your affiliate onboarding process!

If you are considering working with affiliates and will be doing any outreach soon, make sure you keep these things in mind so that you can get more YESes and less NOs {or worse, no reply at all!}

Let me know if these tips are helpful!

Need some help with writing your pitch to affiliates? I’ve got a template for you HERE that you can customize for each affiliate reach out email you create.  If you grab it, let me know what you think!

One of the tools I use the most here at Create Your Affiliate Program is Google Drive which I love and use on a daily basis. But if we’re being honest, the excitement of having a free tool like Google Drive is erased by the total lack of guidance on how to actually use it. {Google does provide a training on using it but it’s… pretty lackluster at best lol.}

So you find yourself with random docs floating around like that feather in the Forest Gump movie, and you waste so much time looking for things in your Drive, I want to share with you three few reasons you might want to get your Google Drive organized, PLUS a resource for making that happen!

Three Reasons You Need to Organize Your Google Drive ASAP

1. It increases your productivity!

When your Google Drive is organized, you can quickly locate the files you need, saving you time and increasing productivity in your daily work. You won’t have to spend time searching through cluttered folders to find what you’re looking for, and instead, can focus on your work and get things done efficiently.

2. It leads to better collaboration!

If you work with others on projects like I do, organizing your Google Drive makes it easier to share files and collaborate without worrying that your collaborators have access to everything in your Drive. Plus, when everyone knows where to find files, you can work together more effectively, without wasting time looking for missing files, or worse, creating duplicates.  

3. It makes more things secure!  

Organizing your Google Drive can also help keep things more secure for you and your clients.  When you have a clear folder structure, you can easily identify sensitive files and ensure they’re stored in secure locations that only you have access to. You can also use Google Drive’s sharing settings to control who has access to your folders and files, which helps protect your files from unauthorized access or deletion.

Now that I’ve told you why you should organize your google Drive, I want to share with you a resource for making it happen.

Introducing Organize Your Google Drive.

Organize Your Google Drive is a self-guided, online course created by Becky Moffit, aka The Organized CEO.

A self-professed organizational nerd of the highest order, Becky says that literally every client she has ever worked with – from the newbies to the 7 figure folks – has asked her first and foremost how to get their Google Drive tamed. 

In 4 quick lessons, she shows you how to get and stay on top of your storage so you never have to wonder where the heck everything went the last time you closed your laptop. Dedicate an afternoon to following the Take Action boxes, and boom, you’re one organized CEO. YAY!

(Also you get two bonus lessons on Google Docs and Google Sheets! Finally learn what all that stuff on top of your browser window does! Woohoo!)

Don’t miss out on this (super affordable) course! 

Click here to access Organize Your Google Drive.

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This blog post contains affiliate links, but as always, know that I only recommend products and programs that I use and love myself!

One of my the things I love doing here at Create Your Affiliate Program is to share the behind-the-scenes of growing my own business with you, and all the cool tools and resources I find along the way.

Today I’m sharing two of the resources I found this past week that I’m implementing in my own business that I think you’ll for sure want to check out.  Keep reading!

Effortless Content Ideas

Lucy Reyes over at Cheers to Life Blogging has put together a really awesome bite-sized course that’s going to help you uncover 10+ social media content ideas from a SINGLE blog post in just 5 minutes (or less).

It’s called Effortless Content Ideas, and you can check it out through my affiliate link here.

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• Why blog posts are a goldmine of content ideas
• How to know which blog posts are ideal for sparking new ideas
• Real-life example walkthroughs in B2C and B2B niches
• The exact tools Lucy uses to make the process 10x easier

There’s also a BONUS: Content Ideas: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet – Discover 40+ ways to turn your SINGLE blog post into engaging content across multiple platforms.

I bought this a few days ago and am soooo excited to dig in and use it to generate social content from some of the recent blog posts I’ve been posting.

Hello Bar

Did you know that 98% of site visitors leave your website without converting?  Whoa – that’s a lot of leads that could be left on the table.  One of the things that I am doing to help increase conversions is to put an announcement bar on the top of my site, to draw my website visitors’ attention to the latest happenings in my business {such as my Products + Partnerships Workshop}.  I’m using a FREE tool called Hello Bar to do this. 

Take a look at what mine looks like:

I can remove the H logo if I upgrade to a paid option, but honestly the free option is perfect for what I am needing right now.  You can check it out here.

I hope you’ll find these resources helpful!  If there are any cool tools you’ve discovered recently, share them with me below!

Please note: This blog post contains affiliate links, but please note I only recommend tools and resources I personally love and use.

There are a million ways to market your business, and a big part of that is using social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.

But what if you could market your business using LESS social media?

The good news is, you can.  

While I am on both IG and FB and promote my business there, I want to give you a sneak peek of the three things I am doing to market my own business in 2023 that DO NOT involve Instagram or Facebook that also drive traffic to my business.

Curious what they are? Keep reading!

? Use Pinterest to Drive Traffic to Your Website

I love Pinterest for personal use: finding new recipes, looking up travel itineraries for my upcoming trips, and for home decorating ideas. But after 2 months of focusing on using it to grow my business and send more traffic to my website, I am also loving it because it’s the 4th biggest traffic driver to my website according to my analytics!  

If you’re looking to get your Pinterest foundations in place, check out this super low-cost Pinning Foundations course from Karrie Marie.

? Partner with Affiliates to Make More Sales

Okay, so this one probably isn’t a surprise.  But, when you partner with affiliates to promote your products and courses, you aren’t having to show up on Instagram – the affiliate is the one doing the promo to drive traffic to your free opt ins and offers. During my launches, and even in between launches, affiliates drove upwards of 22% of my sales last year, and so I am excited to expand upon that this year.

In March, I’ll be hosting a workshop called Products & Partnerships to show you how to do a 5-day Flash Sale working with affiliate partners if this is something that interests you.  You can check out the details and register early now; I’ll also be sharing more details with you next week and answering all of your Qs!

?Do a Freebie Swap

A freebie swap is when you have someone, who ideally has an audience you’d like to get in front of, email their list about your free opt in, and in exchange, you also email your list about their free opt in.  This is a great and low cost way to grow your email list and get people into your sales funnel. I’ve done this before with Dani Paige and a few other colleagues – it was a mutually beneficial freebie swap and I definitely plan to do more of these in 2023.  

To make it easy for you to find someone to do a freebie swap with, here’s a little swipe copy you can use:

“Hi everyone! I’m looking for someone who wants to do a “Freebie Swap” with our audiences during *[DATES HERE]*. The way this works is we each agree to email our lists with an email promoting the other person’s free offer/lead magnet. The purpose of this is that we each add new ideal audience members to our email list which can lead to more sales:). ?

My freebie is *[INSERT FREEBIE NAME HERE]*, and I’m looking to “swap freebies” with someone who has a similar audience as mine: *[INSERT A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF YOUR AUDIENCE]*, and who’s email list is *[DESIRED AUDIENCE SIZE HERE]* or bigger. (My audience size is a little over *X* people).

Let me know if you are interested by commenting below or emailing me at *youremail@youremail(.)com*.

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I hope you enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes sneak peek of how I’m marketing my own business this year, and that it has inspired you to to find some new ways to market your business using less social media in 2023.

This past week, I was in Las Vegas attending Affiliate Summit West 2023. It was a really great conference for learning all the latest and greatest about affiliate marketing, and I’ll be sharing more about it in the coming weeks on Instagram, here on my blog, and in my weekly newsletter.

Today I want to share with you an idea I learned about at ASW ‘23 that I thought was so genius and will be simple to implement.  I know my fellow online course creators and product sellers will want to implement this right away too if you haven’t already, so keep reading to find out what this simple idea is!

First though, I want to give credit to Eddie Maalouf, who was one of the speakers on Day 1, for this idea, because it’s a strategy he used when working with one of his clients {and I will probably butcher the summary of this idea in this blog post lol but it’s so good I just have to share it with you!}

In his session, Eddie shared a story of how he was working with a company that thought their buyers were buying their shakes {I think it was shakes?!} because they wanted to experience less bloating.  But when they began surveying their buyers immediately after purchasing, they actually found out they were buying the shakes for an entirely different reason {weight loss}.  What they thought was the reason {bloating} was actually NOT the number one reason {it was third, in fact}.

By understanding why their customers were actually buying their product, and not just assuming they knew, they were able to update how they marketed their shakes, which increased sales. They ended up selling way more products because they were talking about the benefits of the product that people actually wanted which made it easier for people to know the product was for them!

??So, how do you find out why your buyers bought so you can use that data to improve how you market?

You ask them via a short poll on the thank you page they are directed to immediately after purchase and in their post-purchase email.

This was such a simple strategy, and I honestly can’t believe I haven’t implemented this before or that nothing I have bought recently has implemented this simple marketing survey tactic, either. ?

So, this week I will be updating the thank you pages for my affiliate program templates and my Make More Together program so that I can start gathering that valuable information. I will also incorporate this into the post-purchase emails people receive when they sign up for my offers.

To make it easy for people to answer, my question will be in the form of a multiple choice question so that people can simply choose the option that works best for them!

I’ve already implemented this on my Ask the Expert: 30 Days of Affiliate Program Strategy + Support via Voxer thank you page… Here’s what it looks like:

I hope you find this simple but impactful marketing survey strategy helpful, my friends. Let me know in the comments if you plan to implement this idea!

If this is a strategy you have been doing for a while already, I’d love to hear from you how you use the data you collect, so chime in below, too.