Can you monetize your podcast with affiliate marketing?

Hey Misbah Haque here, I wanted to share something that I’m experimenting with right now in the podcasting and monetization world. It’s something that I really wish back in 2016 when I started my podcast that I wish I was implementing, I just really didn’t see how it would work out for me. I mean, I had an audible partnership where I was promoting audiobooks, and my audience really loved getting a reading list for me. So I did remember getting like a $10 check from Amazon. But that was really the extent of my success with affiliate marketing. 

So in 2022, my views on this are totally different. Because there’s just so much more massive opportunity for smaller creators, even to make a ton of money with this stream. Let’s talk about what affiliate marketing is really quick in at least how I view it, it’s basically so that you, you don’t have to fulfill on a product or service that is already built. So think about something like a protein supplement, you don’t have to go take care of the manufacturing or understand even really how that works, right? If you really believe in a supplement, that could be something that your audience really enjoys, for example, and you might have some sort of a signup code where you make a certain amount of money when somebody signs up. And that is, in a nutshell, a form of affiliate marketing. 

Now, this can be a total dead end for most people if you don’t approach it, right. And so I’m going to share what’s worked with me, I mean, I haven’t full transparency, I have not made like a crazy amount of money with this, I mean, maybe a couple $100 or something. So I don’t see it being a viable source of 100% of your revenue unless you have figured out the reach. And people are really interested in your show you’re doing a lot of volume in terms of downloads, then hey, it’s probably going to be a good option, it is something I recommend, no matter how small your following is that you set up from the beginning. Because if you have an idea of what products or services your audience or future listeners will actually enjoy, then you want to set up the structure for them to be able to actually get connected with those products or services. Now, I signed up for Amazon Associates. 

And that’s where you can basically link up Amazon products like microphones, headphones or anything, you really want books, and you make a certain percentage off of that product. And in each category, it’s different. For example, I just looked up that like, if you sell an automotive part, you get 4.5%. And if let’s say the part is $1,000, you’ve just made like, I don’t know, I think it was like $135 or something like that. Regardless, it was a decent amount of money, but you’d have to sell a lot of those parts for it to return back into even, let’s say, $1,000, right. But for not really having to do any of the work or making this part or delivering it or any of these things. I mean, 135 bucks is a pretty sweet deal. If you enjoy really just talking about stuff that’s in that world, right. So affiliate marketing doesn’t work, if you’re just signing up for random products and promoting them to your audience, because they’ll feel it, they’ll feel that you don’t like this thing, you don’t use it, it’s not necessary. 

So Amazon associates can be great, it’s something I absolutely recommend setting up. Because once you do, you basically can copy an ID or code that you then put into genie.us. And that link tracking service. And basically, whenever you link an Amazon product, it will connect it to your Amazon ad or whatever. And so they’re very strict with how they want you to track where clicks are coming from and where you’re displaying these things. And so when you connect it to genie.us, it automatically pulls in sources, all of that information. So you don’t really get in trouble with Amazon Associates. But the real money in my opinion is going to be in finding the top three to five products or services that your audience will use. 

So for example, let’s use me and help people start or grow a podcast, I know that you’re going to need some sort of hosting service. So Buzzsprout is something that I love and I have signed up for I’ve migrated all of my clients over from Lipson to Buzzsprout. So I really believe in it. And they have a sweet deal where when you sign up, you get $20 or something like that a gift card. And then I also get 20 or 25 bucks. And I put it up in my descriptions in each of my videos once I had gotten this promotion link, and I didn’t really think anybody was going to be clicking on it before I’m getting $25 payments sent to my PayPal. And I’m like where is this coming from? And it was from Buzzsprout so I didn’t have to do any extra work. I talked about something that was really excited about and even though I don’t get 1000s or millions of views or anything like that the right people who found my blog article or found a video where I was talking about hosting sign up for it. No Are to the riverside.fm. 

Riverside.fm is a service that I know every person that I work with, for the most part, they’re going to be doing a podcast remotely, they may be doing some in-person episodes, but they’re going to be connecting with guests or CO hosts through the internet, which makes riverside.fm a perfect solution. It’s something I believe in, it’s something a lot of my clients use, it’s a little bit better than zoom, especially if you or your guest experience frequent internet issues, it’ll really preserve the highest quality font now, the commonality between Buzzsprout and riverside.fm. So far, is that they both have affiliate programs that are available, I believe, for Riverside, I had to submit something and it took a little bit of more time to review. But Buzzsprout has something that’s available where hey, if you do promote this to somebody else, and they sign up, everybody gets a link, and there’s no real barrier to getting that and promoting it and starting to make money from it. 

If you think about it, the company you’re working with wins, right that sprout, they get a lot of signups and the right people. And you get to be the person who saved somebody, a lot of time and energy and money, possibly with an amazing solution for whatever problem they’re dealing with. Now, the third product or service, that’s an example here is ConvertKit, ConvertKit, something that I love, it’s essential for me and my business, I’ve quit it and gone with Active Campaign and AWeber, MailChimp, all that stuff. And then I’ve also come back to it. So it’s something I really have a good experience with, knowing how to navigate a lot of my clients, I recommend this too, as well, that was a harder process to get approved, it took several months before I got an affiliate link. But the commonality with all three of these is that they give you more money than signing up for 4% 10% off of a microphone or headphones or whatever you might be selling. I mean, it’s good to have that as well. But you want to pick three to five products, you almost can guarantee your listener is going to need at some point just because they’re in that world. 

For example, if you take buzzsprout, $25 I mean, you have to sell a lot of microphones probably or a lot or whatever to get to $25 in commissions. So you want to figure out what are the top three, five products or services where they already have an affiliate program that you can easily sign up for. And if not, do not let that discourage you reach out to the people that own that product or service and seeing if you can set up some form of agreement, a lot of people would be really, really happy to do this. Honestly, affiliate marketing for the person who is getting the signup or whatever, almost like having a salesperson out there promoting stuff for you without really having to pay them until that sale comes in. 

Now, the way that you would guarantee that people are actually signing up for this stuff is to make sure that in your descriptions for your podcast episodes and your YouTube videos, and even in your welcome sequences in your newsletter, or maybe even in your blog posts on your website, you have these links actually built in so that people can easily wherever they find it, tap on to Convert Kit or Buzzsprout in my case, and actually sign up. Remember to watch my link tracking video with genie.us so that you’re not using the same even whatever ConvertKit gives me that link. I customize that for each platform for YouTube for Padma Hall. And even if it’s on different YouTube channels or different podcast feeds, I will use different links so I know where those clicks are coming from. So affiliate marketing is not your end-all-be-all solve for podcast monetization, but it is a big part of it if you set it up correctly. 

And that usually means finding independent people outside of Amazon that are going to give you cash, not just like, hey, I’ll give you a free year’s worth of hosting on Buzzsprout or something, try to find places that will actually give you cash pod Mahal for example, something that I use with a couple of people is they have their own kind of codes. And if they bring anybody in that actually signs up for let’s say our done for you production, they get 100 bucks cash, you can see that’s actually motivating if you don’t need podcast help people who do or they might or let’s use any other example in that, let’s say that you’re a fitness coach, but you don’t really do nutrition, you can partner up with some type of a, let’s say a meal delivery service or some type of a nutrition solution that you actually believe in. You don’t want to actually promote stuff that is just against your ethics and your morals. And it’s like if you don’t believe in meal delivery service, then don’t do that. But you want it to be a session that is aligned with you, your audience because ultimately they are the ones who are going to support this and sign up for this. So it really needs to be a no-brainer for them.

I honestly don’t really rely on affiliate marketing to make any money I use it as a bonus. It feels like a surprise to me when it comes in. But I will share more data with you as I figure this stuff out over time. If you decide to give this a go. Make sure to drop a comment or reach out [email protected]. I would love to hear from you and make sure to check out the description for free tools and resources like podcasts planners promotion planners and monetization maps and all that good stuff but thank you so much for hanging out if you enjoyed this video watch some of these or save them for later and I’ll see you next time.