Congratulations for jumping into this with both feet!
You’ll find my best advice on helping you earn more affiliate commissions below. You can pick one idea and run with it, or do as many of them as feels good.
Of course with all of these methods, you’ll want to ensure you’re in keeping with any local rules and guidelines, and disclose your affiliate relationship.
- Write a review on your blog:
There’s nothing quite like a written review or case study of how and why you recommend a product. You can talk about your experience with a course; share your story, your doubts and your results.
The additional benefit of publishing a blog post about a course is that you’ll start to rank for the course. For example, you might have a post called “Creating Amazing Team Leaders Course Review – Is It Worth Taking?” and people who search for “Team Leader Training review” will find your post
You might find that you can also share this post on social media, email it to your list, or share it with anyone who might be considering signing up. Write your review once, and gain the benefits over and over again!
- Send an email to your list:
This is the most effective way of promoting, even if your list isn’t huge. When you write an email to your list (or industry friends) endorsing a course or training program, it carries a lot of weight. People are more used to clicking on links in an email, and they’ll trust your recommendation.
You can write several emails if you want to increase conversions and make sure that everyone on your list is seeing your promotion. You can also include a link to one of our courses in a “P.S.” when you send your regular newsletter, if you don’t want to do a fully dedicated email.
- Post on social media:
Load up your Meet Edgar, your Hootsuite, or your BufferApp and have a constant stream of social shares going out. If someone clicks your link but doesn’t buy, they’ll still be tracked for 90 days and you might earn a commission down the line when they do sign up.
- Record a video review and post it on YouTube:
A written review is awesome, but if you’re reviewing a course like Creating Amazing Team Leaders you can give people a visual of the course and show them all the Resources, Templates and Bonus Micro Training Videos and how you use them. Again, there are benefits to having videos with good key words, because people who are looking for a solution might find your video tutorial or review and buy from your link.
- Post on forums:
If you belong to any forums or social media groups, you can share why you love this course with them. Generally speaking, it’s much better to post about the course after someone asks for a solution… that way you’re not just blasting every forum or Facebook group you’re in with your link.
You’re being more intentional and sharing a link to your review or a direct affiliate link only when you think someone will benefit from it.
- Host a webinar:
If you want to drum up some sales, you can organize a webinar or Google Hangout to show people the course and why you recommend it. There’s something special about interacting with someone live, and you can directly answer people’s questions about the course, too.
- Do a special promotional campaign and offer a bonus:
If you want to give people an extra or timed incentive to sign up through your affiliate link, you can offer a special bonus.
You bonus might be an additional online training program, time with you (like a consulting session or a done-for-you service), or anything else you can think of. The only exception is giving “cash back” or offering to give people part of your affiliate commission, because this reduces the value of the program.
Instead, focus on ways to add value to the program. Think about what might compliment the offer, and let people know when they can expect to receive their bonuses. The ideal time is after the 30 day money back refund period, to ensure you don’t give your bonuses and then have someone refund later.
- Share your experience, story, and results:
When you’re talking to your friends or clients, just be open about your experience and results with the course you’re promoting. There’s nothing quite like a heartfelt endorsement or plain old word of mouth marketing to have people consider signing up!
- Put a badge on your blog or website:
This is one of those “set it and forget it” ways of promoting. One thing to note is that this might not be very effective if your blog or website doesn’t get a ton of traffic, or if the topic doesn’t line up with what you’re promoting.
One way to make this work the best is to design your own badge, so that it follows your site’s design and doesn’t look like advertisement. Then link the badge to a full review that you wrote on your blog, so that you’re not sending someone directly to a sales page. Instead, people are going to get a sense of why you’re sharing this resource with them.
- Answer people’s questions:
If you notice that people have questions about the course, write a post, reply on social media, or otherwise be the authority on the training course… outside of the course. If you’ve been implementing what you’ve learned and the different resources and templates for awhile or you’ve gotten great ideas and training from the course, you can share your expertise and help other people. Then mention that there’s more where that came from, and let people know how they can join up.
- Create a resource page on your site:
If you don’t have one yet, you might consider creating a resource page on your website where you link to all of the tools and programs you use and recommend to run your business.
Creating a page like this is simple, but it’s one of the most visited pages on our site, and I’m sure it will be a good addition to yours, too. Just write a few sentences about why you recommend each of the tools and programs, and how you use them yourself, and you’ll start seeing sales come in!
- Add an email to your autoresponder series:
If you’ve got an email list or business that aligns with what we offer, you might consider including a link to one of our courses in your autoresponder sequence.
In the past, we’ve written in-depth autoresponder sequences that taught about certain topics, and when we knew of a resource that would be beneficial we’d link to an affiliate program. Then, as we focused on building our email list, we’d see sales coming in for the affiliate programs we were recommending. Slowly at first, but eventually it all adds up!
Plus, there’s no better incentive to build your list than knowing that each new person might become a customer!
- Run ads:
If you’re savvy with Facebook ads or other online advertising platforms, then by all means, feel free to send traffic via ads. There are a few ways to do this, by either sending people to our Free Course and then letting us follow up with prospects and getting them on board…
Or sending people to your review page or a webinar you’re hosting, so you can nurture the relationship before you ask for the sale. Generally speaking it’s not very effective to send ads directly to our sales pages, though it’s worth a shot if you’re comfortable experimenting.
The most important thing? Getting started!
Now that you’ve got the ideas spinning, it’s imperative that you select one and get going with it right away. You won’t earn any affiliate commissions if you put off promoting, so pick one of these suggestions and make it happen.
I can’t wait to see you bring in the moolah, and to take amazing care of anyone you send our way!
Marc