Digitally She Does It Podcast

EPISODE 102: [SCALING UP SERIES] Scaling with affiliate marketing

• Karen Davies • Season 1 • Episode 102

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Ready to take your business to the next level without working harder?

In this episode, I’m continuing the Scaling Up Series with an in-depth look at affiliate marketing. Discover how to create a stream of passive income and grow your business—without being tied to your desk.

In this episode, I’ll show you how to get started with affiliate marketing by promoting products and services you genuinely love. From choosing the right partnerships to creating engaging content and leveraging automation to scale your efforts, I’ll guide you every step of the way.

Subscribe now and let’s make next year your most profitable, productive, and balanced year yet!

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Karen Davies [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to the digitally she does it show. This is episode 102 and in today's episode I'm going to be continuing with the scaling up series and I'm talking about scaling your business with affiliate marketing. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Welcome to the Digitally she does it show. I'm your host Karen, and I'm here to lift the lid on what it actually takes to create a successful business.

If you are an ambitious creative ready to build a business on your own terms and without compromise, then this podcast is perfect for you. With my award winning approach to marketing and expert knowledge in creating online courses, this show will leave you feeling inspired, energized, and ready to bring those big dreams to life. Join me each week for a dose of motivation and marketing know how along with actionable step by step strategies to help you accelerate your businesses grow.

Karen Davies [00:01:02]:
So let's dive in and don't forget to subscribe to all my upcoming episodes which drop every Wednesday. Hello, and welcome. Thank you for joining me today. I am your host, Karen. And as always, I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. So today, we're talking about affiliate marketing and how you can use this to scale your business. But before I do, I would like to talk about the Digital Creators Hub. This is your one stop shop for getting started online.

Karen Davies [00:01:40]:
And as we are coming to the end of 2024, what better time than now to start thinking about how you're going to start scaling your business in 2025. If you are a service based provider and you're predominantly making money through selling your time, then now is the time to start planning what you can do next year to give you that time back. And it all starts with packaging up your knowledge, your skills, your expertise, and selling it so that you can make more money, you can scale, and you can get your time back so you can ultimately spend it with the people that you want to spend it with and not chained to your desk 247. And as a way of getting you started, I have created the Digital Creators Hub which is full of resources that will help you to start on your digital journey. It's completely free. You can go get yourself in the hub, go and get access, and gain access to these, free resources. All you need to do is head on over to my website, www.karen-davies.com/hub, and you will be able to join today. So what are you waiting for? Head over, go and get yourself access, and start planning your digital journey today.

Karen Davies [00:03:08]:
And let's make next year the year that actually does count. Okay. So back to today's episode. And if you are an avid listener to the show, then you'll know that over 5 episodes, I am celebrating the milestone that is a 100 episodes with the scaling up series. Now this series is dedicated to giving you ideas on how you can actually scale your business and get more time back and make money. And over the past 3 episodes, I've spoken about scaling up with digital products. I've talked about scaling up with online courses. And last week, I spoke about scaling up with memberships.

Karen Davies [00:03:56]:
This week I am talking about scaling up with affiliate marketing. So if you have been curious about how affiliate marketing works or maybe you want to learn how to integrate this into your business, then this episode is definitely for you. Because affiliate marketing offers an incredible opportunity to generate passive income whilst promoting products and services that you genuinely believe in. So it's all about you using something, have an experience of something, really liking something, and then promoting it on behalf of that company. And in return, you will receive, you'll either receive credit or you'll receive income or some kickback to support you. So when I talk about scaling your business, what I'm really talking about is finding ways that you can grow your income without overloading yourself, without giving yourself more to do all of the time. Because we're all so time poor really, we have so many things that we're juggling. Life in general is busy.

Karen Davies [00:05:14]:
Family, kids, home, work, business, whatever it may be, you're more than likely wearing a lot of different hats and feeling probably that you're being pulled in every which way. And so when we're creating our businesses or we're building our businesses, what we want to do is we want to create a model that supports us so we can manage everything and we're not feeling as though we have to constantly give all of the time. And the thing about being in a service based business so you may be a creative or a coach or somebody that provides a service. The thing about this is that more than likely, you're giving your time all of the time. That's what people are paying you for. I was speaking to somebody, earlier last week. They have a service based business. And one of the things that they said to me is that they just feel like they're on this never ending cycle of having to find clients.

Karen Davies [00:06:16]:
That's that's their job. You know? They work with a client. They provide a service to that client. And once that service has been done and delivered and the client is happy, then they're back in that cycle again. And so what we need to be doing as entrepreneurs is finding ways to break that cycle because it's exhausting. And if you're constantly relying on having to find clients over and over and over again, then there's a vulnerability there. Because if, for example, you for whatever reason, you are unable to be available in your business and you don't have a pipeline of leads to fall back on, then what's gonna happen? Your business is essentially going to dry up because you are not making the money that you need to be in order to keep the lights on, and that's what we really want to avoid. So affiliate marketing is an ideal way to bring in extra revenue to support you.

Karen Davies [00:07:17]:
So even if you still want to be a service based provider, you still want to provide those services, then you'll have other income coming into your business that's going to support you. So on those months where maybe life's got in the way and your priorities have shifted and you need to be there for your family or your kids or maybe you you know, December's a crazy time. Right? We there's so many things going on at the school. So I know for me, I have to take time out to go and you know, last week I had my daughter's play. This week we have some things going on. Next week, my youngest daughter has her Christmas production. So there's lots going on, and I want to take time out my business. So it's about finding those ways to bring income in to support when you can't be there because we can't be there all of the time.

Karen Davies [00:08:12]:
It's impossible. Life happens, and we have to respond to life. And you know what? Even though our businesses are important, they are not the be all and end all. What's important is that we're there for the people that, you know, we love, and we need to be able to kinda take time out to be able to support them as and when they need it. So it's about, as I said, finding ways to bring other income into your business to give you that freedom. And with affiliate marketing, you don't have to worry about creating, storing, or even delivering a product. Instead, you are simply earning a commission for each sale or for every time you generate a lead through an affiliate link. That's how it works.

Karen Davies [00:08:59]:
So this is not only time efficient, but it's scalable as well, and that's what we wanna be looking for. Affiliate marketing lets you earn passive income while sharing valuable solutions with your audience. So for you and for your audience, it's a win win. Now the key to successful affiliate marketing is about making it work for you. So it's really key essential that you focus on being authentic and choosing products or services that you're going to recommend that are in an alignment of you. People will trust your recommendation because they trust you. So you only should be promoting products or services that you have used yourself and that you genuinely believe in. One thing I get asked a lot, and I mean a lot, is about online course platforms.

Karen Davies [00:10:00]:
Whenever somebody says to me that they're interested in creating an online course, I can guarantee the conversation will lead directly to the tech because it's the thing that the majority of aspiring course creators are going to be thinking about. They most likely don't know anything about what it is that they need to invest in, and they don't know what that investment is going to look like cost wise. So it's something that I get asked about a lot. And one question that also comes up is, what platform do you recommend? Now this is a really important question because the platform that I would recommend for that person has to be in alignment of them and not me. And for a while, I recommended Punjabi because I was on Punjabi. I loved Punjabi. And so whenever somebody said to me about which platform, I would say Punjabi. The problem is, Punjabi is expensive.

Karen Davies [00:11:07]:
I was paying a £160 a month, So I think that's about $200. And it was because I upgraded. I had lots of products. I needed it at that level because the the more basic level wasn't enough for what I needed. And I fell into the trap of recommending this because I was using it, thinking that that was a good enough reason to recommend. And in all in all honesty, probably, for a lot of products, it is. I recommend it. It does the job.

Karen Davies [00:11:44]:
I really enjoy using it. Yes. I'm gonna talk about it. The problem with kenjabi is that if I'm recommending something, then I'm recommending something that is highly expensive. So the basic package was, like, $120. Now most people starting out when they're creating their course for the very first time, that can't afford a $120 because they're not making sales, because they haven't started that journey. So it felt wrong for me to encourage people to sign up for a platform that just costed so much money. And so in the end, I decided that it wasn't something I was gonna do anymore.

Karen Davies [00:12:23]:
I wasn't going to recommend it because it didn't feel aligned with who I am. I believe that there are many other platforms out there that are just as good but are a lot cheaper. And I moved on to another platform called MemberVault. And MemberVault doesn't have an affiliate scheme. But I I recommend MemberVault because it's cost effective. It's easy to use. It's a robust platform. And my my clients can get started today.

Karen Davies [00:12:55]:
They don't need to sit and spend a lot of time figuring the platform out. They can literally pick it up and run with it straight away. And that's a and that's a big pull. I don't make any money from that, but I still recommend the platform. And I recommend it because for many people starting out, it is the right platform for them to subscribe to. It's $20 a month, and they get 5 products, and they get 30 days free trial. I am not benefiting financially by making that recommendation. I could do I could still be on Punjabi, and it's a 40% commission.

Karen Davies [00:13:31]:
And I I there was a time that I was making a lot of money from it. But when I really sat back and I thought about what I'm recommending and asking people to do, I was benefiting, but they were spending a ton of money by me benefiting. It just didn't make sense and it made me feel really uncomfortable. It made me feel icky and I don't want to feel icky. I want to feel aligned and I want to operate with integrity. And so now what I make sure I do that any tool that I recommend, I have to 100% believe in it, and it can't be at a high cost to the person that I'm recommending it to. Because most small businesses don't have a huge budget, and the last thing that they wanna be doing is investing in tools that is expensive. So what I would recommend is that whatever tool, product, service, whatever you recommend, make sure that it aligns with you, that you're not gonna feel awkward by talking about it, and that it benefits you both.

Karen Davies [00:14:32]:
You get a kickback, but they get a great tool that actually does the job so that it is a win win for for you both. So start by asking yourself three things. What products or services complement your existing business that your audience needs. So what are you using in your business that you just absolutely love, that you believe that your audience that you serve is going to need? So start there. Think about what it is that you're currently using. The next question is, does this product genuinely solve a problem that your audience faces? So does it do the job? Is it effective enough that it's worth you recommending it? And then the third question, how can you create content that authentically shares the benefit of the product that you are promoting? Because when your audience sees that you're recommending a solution that adds real value, that provides a solution, then they're going to most likely trust your recommendation. And, essentially, that's the foundation of successful affiliate marketing. So authenticity and alignment are the cornerstones of you being successful with affiliate marketing.

Karen Davies [00:16:13]:
That's what it boils down to. Now the way that you go on to promote whatever product, service, offer, whatever it is that you are promoting, you are going to need to create content that is going to resonate with your audience. So it might be that you create a how to guide, you could create product reviews, you can do comparison posts if you have a blog, or you can simply create some tutorials, maybe some tutorials on, YouTube, on Instagram, on your blog. It really doesn't matter. The goal is to simply position the product that you're recommending as a natural solution that your audience can't resist. And the best affiliate content is going to be educational. It's going to be engaging. And most importantly, it's going to be built on trust.

Karen Davies [00:17:15]:
Now one of the great things about affiliate marketing is that it's scalable. You can work with multiple affiliate programs to create lots of diverse income streams. So you don't need to just choose one. You can choose multiple. So as I said earlier, think about what you're using in your business currently that you can become an affiliate for because most products and tools will have an affiliate partnership. You just most likely need to go on to their website and it's most likely going to be in the footer and you'll be able to see if you can sign up to become an affiliate. So, for example, if you are a creative and you use Canva, you can sign up for their affiliate marketing partnership. And I'm not entirely sure what the kickback is.

Karen Davies [00:18:08]:
I did I did sign up for it a while back, but I tend to forget about Canva, to be honest with you, because I just assume everybody uses it. But I do remember it having quite a generous kickback every time somebody subscribes to it. If you use email marketing, for example, maybe you are somebody that spends time growing your email marketing list, then have a look at the tool that you're using because there's most likely going to be an affiliate partnership there as well. So I know MailerLite, there is something there. Mailchimp, I suspect there's a a partnership you that could be had. ConvertKit, I would almost guarantee. Have a look. See.

Karen Davies [00:18:57]:
Because if you are using these tools, all you're going to be doing is recommending what you're already using and that may be enough to give you a kickback. 1 of the, the partnerships I had was when I was using a a CRM platform called Dubsado. Dubsado is a really good platform for small business owners and it's absolutely fantastic for coaches, creatives, people that you don't want the the bells and whistles. You just want a platform that allows you to create proposals and contracts and, you know, run a basic CRM and to do simple things like workflows and stuff. But it's a really great effective platform. And so with them, I think the kickback was about 40%. So the person subscribing, the who has been recommended and they'd go and, you know, sign up, I think they would get 50% off their 1st month. And then for me, as an affiliate, I think I would get 40% kickback.

Karen Davies [00:20:11]:
So if you think about this, if you are getting somebody to sign up and they are sign subscribing to say, I don't know, $40 a month and you're getting a 40% kickback, if you scale that, that could be a lot of money. So it might not make a difference with just 1, but if, say, you get 10, you could be making about 200 quid a month. So this could be quite a lucrative avenue if you just simply want to bring in passive income in your business because often it just starts with a genuine conversation. I mean, I talk about creating content and marketing the products. I've never done that. I've never created a tutorial or a guide on a product that I've used. I will do going forward because I use some amazing tools that really support me with the things that I'm doing. But I've never needed to because a lot of my affiliate income has been derived through having a conversation.

Karen Davies [00:21:16]:
By somebody saying to me that they are struggling with a certain thing, I'm using a tool that resolves that certain thing and then it just resolves it just then leads into a conversation. That's very natural about the tool that I'm then using. And if that person then sort of signs up, I just send them an affiliate link because I want them to get whatever bonus they're gonna have by signing up by the link. Of course, I benefit because I get a kickback, and I do say this to them. I'm always upfront about it, but people don't care about that. If they're gonna save 50% on a month or they're gonna get a month free or they're gonna get an extended trial period because they're subscribing through a link that they're being given, they're all over it. So it is very much a win win situation. So once you've set up your affiliate partnerships and you've created content because maybe that's the approach that you choose to take, then what you can do is automate that process.

Karen Davies [00:22:22]:
So think about email marketing and using automated sequences to share affiliate products with your audience. So it could be that maybe in your newsletter you'll mention a product that you're using with a link to the product so that they can sign up. You can create content that has an evergreen strategy. So things like blogs and YouTube videos that are continuously driving traffic to your affiliate links. So if, for example, I was creating a YouTube video on Dubsado, which is a CRM that in the past I've been an affiliate for, then I would create maybe a series of videos that walk people through how to or what Dubsado is and then how to use it. And then at the bottom of the video, I would then have a link. They can click on that link, and then they can go and sign up. So you can do that through Evergreen Content.

Karen Davies [00:23:21]:
And then, of course, you've got social media as well. So you can schedule posts that highlight your affiliate recommendations, and you can create social media content that is related to those partnerships. Automation is going to be what allows you to earn passive income because you can then focus on other areas of your business. So once you've decided what partnerships you're going to set up, then it's about looking at ways in which you can streamline and automate that process. Because when it comes to, as I said, passive income, automation is your best friend, especially when you're looking at scaling your affiliate marketing. Now there's no doubt about it. Affiliate marketing is a powerful way to generate passive income into your business simply by recommending products, tools, services that you believe in which is going to bring in that extra income but also help to support your audience by giving them valuable solutions. Now by focusing on being authentic, creating engaging content that aligns with you, and then leveraging automation, you can build a sustainable affiliate income stream that's going to support your business.

Karen Davies [00:24:47]:
It's going to give you scalability and give you that time freedom back. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you found this episode of value and, of course, please do feel free to share it with others who you may think will also benefit from today's episode.

If today's discussion has sparked some inspiration and you're eager to dive deeper into creating your online presence, then be sure to visit my website www.karen-davies.com because you'll find a whole load of resources that you can download to help you kick start your online journey. And if you're ready to take the next step and create your very first online course, then join my membership, sell your brilliance online, which is designed to guide you through the simple process of creating your very first online course. Head over to my website www.karen-davies.com/membership. 

I will be back next week with another episode but until then have a great week. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the digitally she does it show.

Karen Davies [00:26:01]:
Don't forget to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned in today's episode. New episodes drop every week on a Wednesday. So, why not rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Thank you for tuning in today, and I will see you next time.