As this episode goes live, we are about to be square in the middle of Q4 for 2020. Now is the time to be focused on using Pinterest to increase sales. If you missed last week’s episode, go back and listen as it was all about increasing sales of products on Pinterest.
But today, I am chatting with my friend Jessica Turner about her amazing success as an affiliate marketer. She’s sharing all kinds of affiliate marketing tips for beginners. The opportunity for you to make money through affiliate marketing is very high, especially in Q4.
Jessica Turner: A Case Study of How to Crush Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Sales Benefit All Parties
We aren’t just talking about you becoming another affiliate for a company in this episode. We are also discussing how to reach out to a brand that doesn’t currently have an affiliate program, as well as the benefits of setting up your own affiliate program for your products.
Jessica shares how she came to the realization that affiliate marketing could be a very lucrative income stream for her business. She also shares how she became the very first affiliate for a company and increased that company’s sales exponentially.
It’s important to remember that bloggers are not the only ones who benefit from affiliate marketing.
The company that creates and owns the products also benefits from having affiliates. A strong affiliate program allows you to get your products in front of customers who otherwise may have never seen them.
One of the most crucial factors with any type of affiliate marketing (whether on Pinterest or any other platform) is nailing the images you share of the products. Our Pinterest image guide will help you level up your images to get ready to sell even more than you thought possible in Q4 this year.
How Jessica’s Affiliate Marketing Journey Began
Jessica began blogging way back in 2006 at The Mom Creative, which is now a lifestyle blog for busy moms. At that time, Jessica wasn’t even a mom yet and the blog had a different name. She eventually rebranded to The Mom Creative and has never looked back.
Jessica didn’t start blogging with the idea of it being a business; she was just having a blast sharing things she loved with other moms. In the beginning, she had no clue that blogging could be a business or even what an affiliate link was.
At the end of 2010, Jessica shared a deal for a free photo canvas with her audience. For every canvas that her audience ordered, Jessica received $15. Her audience was very interested in scrapbooking and photo-keeping. She ended up making $1500 from that deal. For Jessica, it might as well have been a million dollars!
Up to that point, she had been making around $12-15 per month. The affiliate commission she made on that deal was eye-opening for her. So she began to think about how she could repeat it.
Expanding Affiliate Opportunities
For many years, Jessica wrote for a company called Dayspring, the Christian division of Hallmark. She received product credit from Dayspring’s product line for a portion of her writing earnings.
Jessica asked Dayspring to allow her to do special offers for some of the products they were selling and that she was getting as part of her pay. She was able to offer such amazing deals to her readers that they couldn’t find anywhere else that her revenue began to skyrocket.
This was the start of an organic affiliate marketing relationship — she was sharing products with her audience that she loved and used in her own home, and providing them with a great deal on those items.
And that led to her asking herself a question:
How could I do this same thing with other products and work with more brands promoting products I already love and use in my home?
How to Sell Without Being Spammy
I was curious if Jessica ever felt weird about selling to her audience and if she was ever afraid that they would eventually catch on to what she was doing and stop supporting her. Jessica felt then and still feels very strongly, that any affiliate she works with provides a benefit to her reader.
She only promotes products that she uses herself and loves. And when she shares that product with her readers, it is the same as if she called up a friend to tell them about an amazing product she purchased.
She promotes items that better her life and have the potential to better the lives of her readers.
And her readers continue to respond. In the first nine months of 2020, her affiliate income has tripled from 2019 (and that is without writing many blog posts during that time).
Her website is now more of a landing page. And yet, she continues to serve her audience and offer products that are a great fit for them and their lifestyle.
Reaching Out to Brands
By now, almost everybody has seen the special offer that Grove Collaborative offers to new customers. Tons of bloggers and podcasters work with Grove to make this offer available to their audiences.
But back several years ago, Grove had no affiliate program.
That is until Jessica reached out to them and asked them to allow her to be an affiliate for their products. The owner has credited Jessica with the growth of the company through the growth of their affiliate partner program.
If you know of a company that would be a perfect fit for your audience but they don’t have an affiliate program, Jessica recommends going to that company directly and asking to work out some type of compensated deal. This can be a big win, not only for you and your audience but also for that company.
Related: Reporting Key Pinterest Statistics to Brands
Jessica’s Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
Jessica says that her two biggest mistakes in affiliate marketing were not starting sooner and not going all-in from the beginning.
But the biggest business mistake she made, which had a huge impact on her affiliate sales, was not investing in her email list early on. Even when she was hearing how important email marketing is, she sat on that information and didn’t act on it.
Your email list consists of your most devoted and loyal readers and it is an absolute gold mine for affiliate sales. Jessica deeply regrets not taking advantage of that sooner.
It wasn’t that she didn’t think she should; she knew she should. But with a 40-hour workweek in a traditional 9 to 5 job and a nearly full-time job running her blog, she simply didn’t have the capacity to build out email funnels at the time.
This post contains affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase through these links, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.
Affiliate Marketing Marketing Tips for Beginners
If you have been wanting to get started in affiliate marketing but you don’t know how or where to begin, Jessica has some words of advice for you:
1. Don’t wait -Begin NOW.
2. Take her course, Affiliate Marketing for Influencers.
You can definitely start without taking a course. But, the great thing about a course is that you are likely to experience success much faster because you have an expert walking you through every single step.
If you want to invest in your affiliate marketing strategy this year, it’s time to get some training.
Are you ready to stop dabbling in Amazon and getting paid pennies for their product sales? Let Jessica show you how to do it. She has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years through affiliate marketing.
Jessica also advises starting small. Choose a few companies that you can really lean into and learn how to promote well.
Affiliate Marketing for Influencers
Jessica’s course is the first course of its kind, geared toward the influencer experience. This is not a general affiliate marketing course.
It’s full of case studies and helpful tips on how to apply affiliate marketing to your platform, whether that’s a blog or strictly social media. It’s a seven-day course, meant to be easily completed in 30-50 minutes per day.
Jessica gives you all her affiliate marketing tips and tricks that have proven extremely lucrative in her own business.
2020 has seen online sales grow like never before. If you’ve ever thought about getting started in affiliate sales, there is no better time than now. Check out Jessica’s course today!
For Further Listening/Reading:
I’ve tried email lists, and I just don’t have the hang of it. I started my own personal review blog where I just review courses and things I try in my life, and it does well. But I just can’t see how an email list will benefit that type of site. Anyone have any ideas why someone would want to sign up for an email list for a review site based on my life?
If nothing else, you could set up a regular email that’s an RSS feed of your new blog posts. Just brainstorming, but perhaps you could include deal/sale alerts for the products you’ve reviewed as well.
Wow, this article was packed full of great tips for people who are new to affiliate marketing. So many people give up too quickly but remembering this is a long term game, not overnight success – perseverance pays off.
You got it Kimmie!
Some genuinely prize posts on this website,
saved to my bookmarks.
Great tips in regard to affiliate marketing! I’ve seen email as a common tool for this purpose and it can yield strong returns if implemented properly. Strong content is invaluable here.