All About Affiliate Links and How To Use Them In Your E-Design Business
There’s been a lot of buzz about affiliate links in the past few years and folks are asking a lot of questions about using them, so I thought I’d share a little bit about this today! They can be a really amazing additional revenue stream for your e-design business, but getting started can feel overwhelming and be just a little bit of a mystery. I talk about the specifics of integrating affiliate marketing into your business in my How To Launch An E-Design Business course, but I want to cover some basics today as an introduction!
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a strategy used by companies to drive traffic to their websites, and ultimately, increase sales. They pay out a commission to their “Affiliates” either on a pay per click or per sale basis. (Hint: per sale is usually better - especially for smaller businesses and if you don’t have a huge amount of traffic coming to your site or have a huge social media following!)
Affiliate links are the specific links to products that have your unique tag attached to them. The tag allows the company to track the clicks and/or sales that you drive to their site. Each company has their own way of generating those links, and they often partner with third-party affiliate networks to manage the tech side, payouts, and analytics.
There are a bunch of affiliate networks out there and they’re all different! It’s worth doing some of your own research to figure out what will work best for your business and apply to those.
What companies have affiliate programs?
In a word, LOTS. Pretty much every major home retailer you can think of has some sort of affiliate program - think West Elm, Wayfair, Etsy, Pottery Barn, Home Depot, Amazon…the list could go on and on! The problem is that not every program is easy to sign up for or access (ugh!). Some are very particular about who they accept and it can take multiple tries to become a part of them. That being said, every program has its own requirements, and you never know how easy or difficult it’ll be until you try!
If you want to know if a company has an affiliate program, there are three simple ways I've used find out:
Search “[Company Name] affiliate program” in Google to see what pops up
Go to the retailer’s website directly, scroll down to the footer and see if they have “Affiliates” or “Affiliate Program” listed
Create an account as a publisher with an affiliate network (or several!) and search their databases for individual programs
Once you find the company's program, you can apply. Sometimes companies will be a part of several affiliate networks with varying levels of commission.
How much commission can you earn by being an affiliate?
In my research and personal experience, commissions can range from about 2%-20% of the sale with the average being about 7%-8%. It varies a lot from program to program, and higher commissions typically come from more selective programs. And here's a fun fact: some companies will even increase your commission if you show a consistent track record of driving sales for them. How cool is that?
Where do you use affiliate links?
There are several common places an e-design business might use affiliate links: with clients, in blog posts, and on social media. It can be a great additional revenue stream in addition to your e-design fees! It takes time to start generating those sales (especially if you are just starting out as a new business), but if you keep at it, you’ll start earning commissions and that part of your business will grow.
What are some affiliate programs I should look into?
Here are a few to get you started:
And yes, some of those are affiliate links! It's important to disclose them when you use them (in fact, it's required!).*
To bring this to a close…
I think it’s pretty easy to see the benefits of becoming an affiliate - you can earn additional revenue with minimal effort and there are multiple ways to use them in your e-design business. They’re especially great if you’ve got a blog to drive traffic to or have a significant social media following (or plan to have one in the future!). If you simply want to use them with your clients, that’s great too! Just know that the goal of many programs is to reach as many people as possible, which may mean that they want affiliates who have a strong social or web presence. If you’re only using them with clients, they may not see you as a particularly valuable affiliate and deny your application. That's definitely not the case across the board, but it's important to be aware of as you look into these different programs.
Diversifying your revenue streams is always a great idea in business (never put all of your eggs in one basket!) and for all the reasons I’ve mentioned today, affiliate marketing can be a wonderful and natural extension for an e-design company. If it sounds like a good fit for you, give it a try!
*An important legal note:
If you use affiliate links anywhere, you MUST include a disclosure about them. This is required by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), so don’t mess around with this one! All you need to do is let folks know that the links you’re sharing are affiliate links and that you can earn a commission from their purchases at no cost to them. It’s simple, but important - transparency is key here!
