How to Make Money Podcasting
With Affiliate Marketing
I’m not sure why people are so nervous, uncomfortable or unsure about affiliate marketing. It’s literally the same thing as being asked where you got the cute maxi dress that you’re wearing and you tell people that you got it at Target. We all do variations of affiliate marketing in our daily lives.
We share why we like our favorite car, the best restaurant in town for brunch and what airline to fly and why. When we share these helpful tips and information we’re unpaid affiliates. So I have to ask, why is it so hard for people to wrap their heads around getting paid to do the same thing?
Affiliate Disclosure
“In order for me to support this newsletter, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Please note: As an Amazon Associate I may earn income from qualifying purchases that you may make if you interact with an Amazon Affiliate link associated with Creators Getting Paid”
Listen to the Substact Podcast Series
Affiliate Shout Out-Gold City Ventures Digital Downloads
If you’re looking for a way to quietly build passive income by serving multiple audiences without having to show up on social media-designing digital downloads may be for you. I’ve noticed that a large part of my audience is looking to get their time back from done for you projects. Designing and selling digital downloads is one way to do that.
Digitial downloads are great for the following reason:
Products can help multiple audiences who have a similar interest
You don’t have to focus on social media
You can use Etsy and SEO to grow and scale your sales
You don’t have to tell anyone what you’re doing. You can just quietly do the work and learn the process.
Get started designing your digital downloads today.
How to Know When To Monetize
I often hear creatives asking the following question “When should I begin monetizing my project?” I have a couple of different answers to that question.
When you begin wanting to monetize.
Before you launch your project.
When you launch your project.
The real answer is the following:
“Begin monetizing when you feel ready to commit, pursue and focus on making money with your creative work. When that happens is up to you."
Affiliate Marketing Skills are Transferable
Part of the reason why I encourage creators to learn how to affiliate market are all of the transferable skills learned during the process.
Persuasive marketing tips-You can use these skills to sell products, goods and services that you design for your audience.
How to share benefits of a product-When people are buying something often they’re more interested in the benefit of buying something. I’ll share an example. If someone buys a monetization course benefits could be the following:
Speed up the learning process to make money online
Begin earning income each month
Clarity around the systems and language used to convert to a sale
Recognizing when someone has an issue-And knowing what tool can help them solve a problem (that’s your affiliate)
Developing these skills will help you sell the following other items or persuade people to one of the following
Say “Yes” to Coaching
Buy books that you’ve written and are now selling
Getting people on your email list
Write persuasive content
Record (audio or video) persuasive content
I’m sharing all of this to say that learning how to affiliate market will help you broaden other skill sets even if you decide not to actively affiliate market in your content.
How Podcasters Can Make Money Affiliate Marketing
The Mindset Tips
Before we get to the logistics of making money via affiliate marketing, it’s important to address some mindset.
Tip #1
Stop Asking Permission-If you’re wanting to make money with your creative work you 100% allowed to do so. If you do NOT want to make money with your creative that’s 100% fine too…but, this newsletter is called “Creatives Getting Paid” for a reason.
Tip #2
Do NOT share your monetization goals with the wrong folks-A huge part of why people don’t pursue their monetization goals is that they share their goals with the wrong people. If you inadverdantly share your goals with someone who can’t imagine what you’re trying to do or doesn’t aspire to making money with their creative work-you may accidentally railroad your goals because they will share their doubts, or issues with monetization with you.
Tip #3
Monetization is a marathon, not a sprint-Often we hear about the online content creator “Unicorns’ you know, those folks who started on a social media platform when it was hot and shot to fame seemingly overnight. Most people will miss that initial opportunity. Focus on slow but steady growth understanding that your efforts will begin to scale as time goes on.
Tip #4
Always work on building your list-Stop depending primarily on third party platforms to make your sales and build your audience. Start moving people onto a list that you curate, grow and sell on. Begin thinking of your list differently and stop thinking badly about it if it’s currently smaller than you would like. Imagine that you’re talking to these people.
I have some examples:
25 people=a small classroom.
100 people=a small auditorium
500=a mid-sized auditorium
1000-2,500=a mid-sized college department auditorium
2500 or more=a large auditorium is needed
I build and grow my list as a part of every action that I take while building my brand. I currently use Flodesk and Substack as a way to grow my list.
Tip #5
Focus Your Efforts-This one is tough. We’re often told to be everywhere. It’s energetically impossible to do and we don’t need to be everywhere. There are different audiences in different platforms. Pick the content and creation spaces where you will stay engaged and show up.
What If I Have a Creative Podcast
I think about all of the items that people could sell related to a creative podcast. I’ve shared some scenarios below:
Tools used to make cosplay costumes-You could search on Amazon OR search the name of the tool to see if it has an affiliate program.
Become an affiliate of an event that is associated with the content that you design. You may have to reach out to the organizer and negotiate a payout per referral.
Have you purchased a journal, hat, course, etc. Related to the content that you share? Research and see if you can become an affiliate for those tools.
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The Logistics of Podcast Affiliate Marketing
Listen to the Audio(and review the notes)
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