•      Guide to Affiliate Marketing!
  I love affiliate marketing, and it’s my hope that by the end of this course you’ll feel the same way about this (mostly) passive income stream! Pretty much all businesses can incorporate affiliate marketing into their existing activities, and that belief is at the core of my lazy affiliate marketing approach. This is not a course where you’re going to have to set up a ton of new things, and it’s not going to be this whole massive ‘project’ to implement. I’m all about the quick and easy wins to sprinkle a little affiliate marketing magic into what you’re already doing.

Table of Contents:
 1. Why is affiliate marketing awesome?
 2. Factors to consider when choosing
 affiliate programs
 3. Affiliate marketing good “legal” practices
 4. Getting organized for dabblers
 5.  Your own sales page

         Why is affiliate marketing awesome?
 It’s pretty passive.
 Some strategies are more active than others when it comes to affiliate marketing, but usually it’s the single most passive way I’ve found to make money. (And if you’re like ‘ugh! Making money shouldn’t be that easy!’. Hold tight for the next lesson!).
Much of it you can set up/do it one time, and then continue reaping the benefits for months and years to come. The same
can’t be said for your own courses and digital products. Those require at least some ongoing customer support/service.
You don’t need a huge audience, or even a list at all in many cases.
● In 2015 I made over $5,000 from one affiliate launch with no list - all done through networking in Facebook groups and
spending time chatting to people ( often complete strangers) on Facebook Messenger.
● Not only can you do really well with 1:1 communication for
affiliate marketing, you can also do really well through creating content & that being found on Google, Pinterest, etc.
● If people are already considering making a purchase, they
don’t need to know you in advance in order to use affiliate link
if it’s their interaction with you that tips them over to buy
● It’s easier than creating your own product (especially if it’s outside your expertise)
● Creating your own product usually takes weeks/months. Plus we’re not experts on everything (as much as we like to think we are!.) Affiliate marketing allows you to support your audience with other things they need/use, and be compensated.
● If you’re not recommending products and services you love anyway, you might at least get a little something back!
● I can almost guarantee that you’ve recommended/ shared/ mentioned products and services that you love that have
affiliate programs - you just didn’t realize.
● Positions you as an expert
● If you’re regularly, genuinely recommending really helpful products and services to people that make their lives easier
and/or solve their problems, then they’re going to be very grateful to you for that, and value your opinion in the future.
● It can get you noticed by ‘big name’ people and their audiences.
● This won’t apply to everyone who has a little dabble in affiliate marketing, but if you do put a bit more effort into a specific launch, and you find yourself on the affiliate leaderboard... that gets you noticed - both by the creator of what you’re selling
and other people on the leaderboard.
● Other benefits of getting ‘noticed’
● Collaborations
● Invites: Guest expert spots, podcast interviews, guest posts, bundles and summits.
● Your name emailed to 1000s of people
● Linked to a social media
● New friends!
● It’s scalable
● Because affiliate marketing is pretty passive (bar some upfront
work), it also means that once  You’ve got your system sorted/working, making more money doesn’t mean spending more time.
● It’s pretty much the same amount of work on your part if you make 5 sales of something vs. 100  Sales!
● Occasional fun bonuses, prizes + other rewards!
● Again this mostly applies to bigger launches, but sometimes affiliate programs offer additional prizes and bonuses based on number of sales and/or place on the leaderboard.
● Examples of extra things I’ve won/received as an affiliate”
A Forbes article!
Cash bonuses
Free place on the course I was promoting
Bonus mastermind/training sessions
Promo to someone’s audience
Physical gifts in the mail
Many businesses would rather spend their money on affiliates over other forms of paid advertising as they only have to pay when there’s been a sale. When you do it authentically, and in a way that’s providing value to people, there’s absolutely nothing sneaky or iffy about it. There’s a number of types of affiliate programs out there, and some are going to be a better fit for you than others.
Factors to consider when choosing affiliate programs

Courses / Digital Products
Many courses will have affiliate programs. These are usually one-off payments. Anywhere between about 30% - 50% commission is common for fairly passive courses that can take unlimited numbers.
Some membership sites will offer recurring monthly commissions.
Software
These are usually, but not always, recurring commissions. The ‘best’ software affiliate programs offer money for referrals Convert Kit, Siteground, ClickFunnels
However, if you’re a customer of the software yourself, then it’s still worth promoting ones that offer you free months or a discount on your subscription costs (e.g. Dashlane or Screencast o- Matic).
More Informal Referral Programs
Whilst not strictly affiliate programs, some service providers and group programs have referral programs. These are usually more informal than affiliate programs and you typically don’t have an affiliate link you use. However, you can still make good money from this, especially if they offer a high referral fee.
Other Courses, digital products and services are the main affiliate programs you’ll want to focus on, but be aware that there are many others out there including for things like subscription boxes, food delivery services, craft items, clothing, and more! If you love a product or service that’s not business related, do check out if they have affiliate programs as you can totally go ahead and recommend that stuff on your personal Facebook profile and to friends!
Affiliate programs are not always called affiliate programs. Often they may be called ‘partner program’ or ‘referral program/scheme’.
If you can’t obviously find the affiliate program on their website - just head to Google and search ‘Product + affiliate\ or Product + partner’ or 'Product + referral’.

Affiliate marketing good “legal” practices
The legalities of affiliate marketing vary slightly from country to country, but here’s a rundown of what seems to be fairly standard and is good practice in my experiences. This is not legal advice!
On your website:
- Where it makes sense, disclose before the affiliate link, be mindful that not everyone knows what an affiliate link is.
- I’m currently using WordPress plugin called ‘FMTC Affiliate Disclosure’ which has allowed me to automatically add a message to the top of every blog post:
“There may be affiliate links in this post which means I may receive a commission if you purchase something through a link. However, please be assured that I only recommend products I have personally used and love!”
In emails to your list
- You can either put the disclaimer at the top: We’ve got some affiliate links going on this email.
- Or in a P.S. at the bottom: P.S There’s some affiliate links in this email. If you buy something as a result of clicking on one of these links, I’ll probably get a little thank you money. You won’t ever pay more for purchasing through me, and secondly I am not in the business of recommending gaff stuff.
- If I’m linking to a blog post that contains affiliate links then I don’t worry about that because the disclaimer is on the blog post.
On social media
- I’m not sure how ‘correct’ this is, but I’ve had people tell me regularly that they like how I disclose affiliate links on social media.
I’ll just put ‘(affiliate link)’ immediately after e.g. You can sign up to
Covert Kit here: www.elizabethgoddard.co.uk/convertkit (affiliate link)
- Sometimes I’ll even just put ‘(affiliate link)’. This is only for situations with other online business owners where everyone almost definitely knows what that means.
In personal emails
- The same as for social media, if I recommend something to a client, I’ll usually hyperlink the name with the ‘(affiliate link)’
immediately after. Super subtle but it’s fully disclosing it.
- Just be upfront and honest that it’s an affiliate link. 99% of the time people will be more than happy that you’ll get a little bonus from recommending something.
Potentially Controversial Opinion!
I think you should disclose affiliate links for freebies, not just for paid offers. Why? Because:
1. Transparency about how you’re running a business is never a bad thing.
2. It builds trust.
3. It ‘seeds’ interest in the offer that will be for sale ahead of
time, especially if you’re going to have an affiliate bonus package.
Getting Organized for Dabblers
● Write a list of every service, tool or course/digital product that you’ve used/experienced, that under the right circumstances you would actively recommend to someone.
● For any you’re not already an affiliate for, go through that list and do a quick google search to see if they have an affiliate
program(make sure you also check for ‘referral’ or ‘partner’ also).
● If you can, sign up or apply to join. If you can’t find the affiliate program, email to ask if they have one.
● Login to all affiliate programs you’re currently a part of and double check that you payout details are up-to-date. If you
haven’t put in your PayPal address, they can’t pay you! Sometimes you’re also required to give an address or e-sign something before they can make payouts.
● If you don’t already have one, create a spreadsheet. This might take some time, but the effort now will help you get much more organized moving forward. You might want to include:
> URL to login to the affiliate area
> Your affiliate link
> Any commission/payout details
● If you’re not already using tool to make neat, memorable URL;s e.g. Pretty Links plugin for WordPress, bit.ly links, Rebrandly, etc, then go ahead and choose one.
● If you do already have a tool, nip in and make sure it’s all tidy/up-to-date and you don’t have a bunch of dead links.
● Go through and create/make sure you’ve got neat, memorable urls for all your affiliate links.
● Add those neat, memorable urls to your spreadsheet.
● If you don’t already have one, create a label/folder in your inbox for keeping your affiliate programs organized.
● Have a think if there are any super obvious places you can pop
your affiliate links where you’re not currently doing so (e.g. blog post).
● Identify the top 2 or 3 affiliate programs that are really great fit for your business and pick a couple of new strategies you’re
going to try from the challenges to boost those commissions.
● This is not particularly lazy, but it’s a good strategy for those who can't be bothered.
Creating your own sales page for an affiliate offer has several big benefits:
● You can explain why you love what you’re promoting and talk about your experiences with/of it.
● You can explain why you recommend it and to who.
● You can list details of your affiliate bonus.
● You’re bringing traffic to your side, not just to their site.
● You can create a wait list form when a specific launch period is over and collect their email addresses, rather than hoping that if you send them to the real sales page and they buy 6 months later, they’ll still be ‘attached’ to you (they almost definitely won’t be!)
Live Chat
If you do this, I strongly encourage you to have a live chat on your website so that people can ask you any additional questions right there and then. I have a blog post about the tool I use.
Social Proof
Screenshot excitement from people who’ve signed up through your affiliate link. You can then use these in emails, bonus pages, review posts etc.
Feedback Forms
For some of the bigger programs I’m an affiliate for, where I’ve offered a big bonus package, I’ve started sending out feedback forms. I can use the answers both for future times I promote that program, and similar offers. It’s also useful feedback for what they did/didn’t like about my bonuses.
If you want to boost your affiliate sales, you need to identify an
affiliate program which has (some) savings by them opting for the annual plan, and then you can email people on the monthly plan to let them know about the annual plan and your special bonus if they
decide to upgrade by X date. This could work very well for both memberships and tech tools.
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I really hope you enjoyed THE $100 PER DAY LAZY AFFILIATE BLUEPRINT

•  And that you’re well on your way to
  regularly getting surprise PayPal notifications! I’d be extremely grateful if you could take a couple of minutes to fill the following feedback survey so I can ensure this course is as helpful as possible for you and future students.
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  Recommended Resources:
  Kimi Kinsey, free course How to Build a Free Resource Library
  Marie Foley’s B-School launch
  Uncage your Business launch
  Solopreneur Success Bundle launch
  Impacting Millions launch
  ConvertKit