How to Earn 'Passive Income' Through Affiliate Marketing
Add an extra revenue stream to your business through Affiliate income and referral programs!
We’ve all heard the statistic that says the average millionaire has not one, but seven different income streams to help them earn their money. This gets thrown around a lot, but it’s true! Having multiple income streams allows you to spread risk (by not relying 100% on one income stream), and grow your wealth.
But this doesn’t mean you have to have multiply your efforts by 7. You can add income streams to your life that are ‘passive’, so you’re not always trading time for money. Affiliate marketing is the perfect example of a truly ‘passive’ type of income.
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What is ‘passive income’?
Passive income is where you can keep earning money from something after you’ve done the initial work, or where you can earn more money without spending extra time doing something.
Eg. Earning rental income from a property you own would be an example of passive income, because while it takes some time and effort to get set up in the first place, you can then earn money from it within supposedly little effort from then on.
I say ‘supposedly’ because the idea of passive income is often misunderstood.
The phrase itself sounds a lot like you don’t have to work hard for it, and it’s often paired with phrases like ‘make money while you sleep’ or ‘set it and forget it’. But the truth is that most examples of ‘passive income’ aren’t truly passive.
From setting up my own online course business, I can attest that it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. Yes I can technically make money ‘while I sleep’ if someone buys a course, but it takes large amounts of effort up front to get set up AND ongoing work to keep the courses up to date, provide customer service, deal with admin & tech issues, and actually promote & market the things!
Meanwhile, affiliate marketing is genuinely about as close to true passive income as you can get!
Because - unlike a course or digital product business - you’re not involved the delivery, admin, customer service, or most of the marketing of the product/service! All you have to do is create the content (as you’ll see below)…
What is ‘affiliate marketing’?
As well as affiliate marketing being one of the truest forms of passive income, it is also possibly one of the easiest forms of passive income to get set up with!
When you become an ‘affiliate’ or a ‘referrer’ for a brand, you’re essentially signing up to be able to earn a commission when you refer people to their products or services.
Kind of like a salesperson who works on commission, only you usually don’t have any kind of contract or obligation to do anything. You simply get rewarded with a profit share when you refer people through your ‘affiliate link’, which tracks which sales to credit to you.
For a more in-depth explanation, check out Neil Patel’s guide to Affiliate Marketing here.
It benefits the brand because you’re sharing about their products/services and hopefully getting them sales from people who may not have heard of them otherwise, and it benefits you because you can earn money while doing it!
People may use the terms ‘affiliate program’ and ‘referral program’ interchangeably, but typically a ‘referral program’ will offer a commission or credit to the sharer AND a discount or credit to the person the sharer refers. Meanwhile an ‘affiliate program’ may just offer a commission or credit.
Who does affiliate marketing work for?
If you have any kind of platform with an audience (it doesn’t matter how small!), whether that’s a blog, podcast, YouTube channel, social media account or email newsletter, you can start earning money through affiliate income straight away.
It’s also great if you’re a business owner who regularly refers certain tools, products or services to their customers, as you’re able to earn money for things you would be suggesting to people anyway.
What companies offer affiliate marketing programs?
Quick + easy option: Amazon Associates
One of the easiest ways to get started with affiliate marketing is through Amazon Associates. There are no ‘barriers to entry’ or minimum requirements to sign up to become an affiliate, which can be the case with other networks (see below).
With Amazon Associates, you can link people to any product on Amazon and earn a commission on sales made from that link. The commission is usually fairly small (around 1 - 5%) but can add up quickly especially on more expensive products!
Other affiliate networks
Just like Amazon sells lots of different products from lots of different brands, there are also other ‘aggregate’ networks that allow brands to join and run affiliate programs through their system. Shareasale and Like To Know It are examples of this, and they have loads of different brands that you can affiliate for once you’re signed up.
However, these networks often have minimum requirements and criteria for you to sign up - for example, a minimum number of followers, or minimum monthly website visitors etc.
SOFTWARE & tools
Software companies often have affiliate programs that you can sign up for once you’re a customer too! For example, I earn hundreds of pounds a month from being an affiliate for Flodesk, because I promote it as my go-to Email Marketing software.
This is great if you have a B2B (business-to-business) audience who want to use similar software & tools to you and need your recommendations.
Brands, PRODUCTS & companies you love!
Lots of companies run affiliate schemes and it’s just a case of finding them. What I typically do is type in the name of the company into Google and add ‘affiliate program’ after the name and then search to see if they have something I can sign up for. Sometimes they will have minimum requirements for you to be accepted to their program, and sometimes they won’t.
You’ll often be able to find affiliate or referral schemes for your favourite digital products too. I’ve recently launched a referral program for all of my courses, which means that any students (from any of my marketing courses) can earn 20% on any sales they make through their referral link!
This is a great way for my students to be able to earn back the cost of their course, and more.
How much money can you make with affiliate marketing?
The earning potential for affiliate marketing has no limit!
If you put in a bit of hard work to promote your links and share with your audience or customers, you can earn a decent income from it. There are even people who do this for a living! And many full-time bloggers and content creators use affiliate marketing as one of their main sources of income.
Different companies will offer different %s of commissions. As I say, Amazon and big fashion sites usually will offer between 1 - 5%, but I’ve seen some companies offer anywhere up to 50% or more!
^ I’ve earned over $10,000 in the last couple of years from being an affiliate for Flodesk (my fave email marketing tool). And that is just ONE of the companies I affiliate for!
How to become effective at affiliate marketing:
Create a ‘resources’ or ‘Shop’ page on your website
When you become an affiliate for a brand, you can treat their products just as you would your own products if you wish, by creating a dedicated shop space on your website, using your affiliate links to link people to purchase the product/service.
Or you could use a similar strategy by creating a ‘Tools’ or ‘Resources’ page, like this one I have on my website. I’ve added links to companies I’m an affiliate for, as a suggestion for my audience if it’s relevant to them.
Write blog posts Or create YouTube videos
Writing blog posts or filming YouTube videos that include affiliate links is a great way to promote a brand in an informative and helpful way for your audience! For example I have several posts and pages on my blog, and videos on my YouTube channel dedicated to Flodesk, which contain affiliate links, so that if someone signs up to Flodesk after reading or watching, I earn a commission from that. In your blog post or video you could:
Write a review of the product or service
Show behind-the-scenes of the product or service
Create a tutorial for the product or service
Feature the product or service for people if they want to get more resources/info on a topic you’re writing/filming about
Send to your email list
You could add an affiliate promotion to your weekly newsletter, or add it as a link in your Welcome sequence. It’s up to you!
Just be cautious because some affiliate programs, including Amazon’s, don’t allow promotion via email - it’s against their rules & guidelines. So always read those for each program you sign up to!
Share on social media
Talk about the affiliate product / service on your social platforms! You could talk about why you love it and link back using your affiliate link, or even create pins on Pinterest that link directly to the product using your affiliate link, for example.
Add to your ‘link in bio’
Don’t forget about your prime real estate on Instagram; could you add an affiliate link to your Instagram bio link page to help make it really easy for your followers to find the product?
Add to your client ‘info packs’ or project management system
If I really love a product I’m always happy to recommend it to my clients to give them extra resources when we’re doing our work together or once the project is over. For example when I’m setting up peoples’ websites, clients often want help setting up Email Marketing software to connect to the site, so I can recommend Flodesk to them and earn a commission if they sign up. I include links and details about this in my client info packs and in our shared project management system too.
Important legalities of affiliate marketing!
Always declare when you’re using an affiliate / referral link!
If you use an affiliate link anywhere online (whether that’s social media or your own website) you MUST clearly declare that it is an affiliate / referral link and that you get an incentive or commission when someone buys through your link.
This is to encourage fair marketing and to ensure your audience / customers are always aware when you are incentivised to promote something, and is a legal requirement under ASA rules.
You must mark each link to make it clearly identifiable as an ‘affiliate link’, and having some kind of clear disclaimer and explanation is important too, but I’d encourage you do your own research on what’s needed to be legally compliant.
