How I Make 6 Figures in Affiliate Marketing

One way I have been able to grow my following is by doing strategic collaborations. This is also called Affiliate Marketing or Influencer Marketing. That’s right, I am going to teach you how you can become an influencer. If you look at my business page you will see I am sharing my love for other products and brands. Why would I do that? Because it is a way for me to expand and grow my network. The brands I collaborate with have a similar ideal customer as I do. They may find me from doing a boutique try on haul, a hair tutorial video or from a product or service I love. They follow my page, they trust me because I made a recommendation and they love what they got. They often end up trying other things I recommend including my network marketing products. Influencer Marketing is not only a great way to grow your network but also a great way to bring in additional streams of income. I made 6 figures last year just from my affiliate commissions alone. And the BEST Part is, I believe anyone can become an Influencer. The definition of Influencer is: A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. Hello!! I’m guessing you already do that with your business right?! 

Make a list! First of all start by asking yourself, who can I partner with that will be a WIN/WIN? Meaning it would be a win for you because you are getting free product, commission, a flat rate fee, exposure to a new network full of your ideal customers. And it also has to be a win for the company you are going to collaborate with. They get access to your network who already trusts your opinion, get brand recognition and they are able to sell more products. The BEST Collaborations are always a WIN/WIN! Write down the brands and businesses that come to mind.   

What products and/or services do you already use and LOVE? I guarantee you are consistently using products that could turn into a collaboration. Pro Tip: I ONLY share and rep products I use and LOVE! I never want to lose the trust of my online audience. 

When considering a partnership it’s important to: 

•  Partner with a business or brand that has a similar if not identical Ideal Customer as you. You are doing these collaborations to GROW your business page.
•  Look for businesses or brands that have a similar or LARGER following than you. 
•  Partner with businesses or brands who you LOVE and Trust! 

Remember, you are going to be exposing your hot market and your entire network to this brand. Trust is huge for me! I have turned down many collaborations because I either didn’t love the products or didn’t trust to share my network with the person. I ONLY share what I LOVE. My online audience knows this about me. That establishes trust. They know, I am not going to sell anything and everything because I am trying to make a quick buck. They know, if I share it, if I talk about it, if I use it, if I recommend it, it is because I absolutely 100% LOVE it. 

So how does this work? What does it look like? Why does it work? Here are a couple of examples: 

I have an ongoing collaboration with my favorite online boutique. The boutique sends me clothes to do a Facebook LIVE try on haul on my business page. When I go LIVE the boutique shares my LIVE to their facebook business page and they giveaway a gift card for shares. I make 10% commission from anyone who uses my special Affiliate code, plus I get to keep a few of the pieces and buy other pieces at a discount. This is a WIN/WIN for me and the boutique. I get free clothes, I paid commission on people from my network who order. And the boutique shares my LIVE video on their page, giving me exposure to NEW people. Same thing on Instagram, I get into my stories trying on the clothing and jewelry and tag the boutique, they share it to their stories and I now have access to their network. It’s a win for the boutique because I am giving them access to my hot network, my online audience who trusts me, it’s a win for the boutique because I’m selling their clothing and jewelry for them. It’s also a WIN for my online audience, they get the opportunity to win a gift card and when they use my Affiliate code they save 10% on their entire order. It’s really a win/win/win.

You might be thinking ok that’s great for you but brands aren’t reaching out to me asking if I can be an affiliate for them. I’m going to teach you something I learned from my sister in law. She is an Interior Designer and at the time of this recording has almost 60K Followers on her IG Account. She gets EVERYTHING for FREE! She got all new FREE Kitchen appliances, a new kitchen backsplash, Christmas trees with decorations, home decor for every season, bedding for the entire family, furniture and sooo much more! She taught me don’t wait for brands to come to you. 

PITCH YOURSELF! Go after what you want! You reach out to the brands you want to work with. What’s the worst that will happen? They say “NO”? Big deal! It is an automatic no if you don’t put yourself out there and ask. Remember you get in life what you have the courage to ASK for?! Get your ASK in gear! Hopefully, now your eyes are open! Look around and start SEEING ALL of the amazing collaborations that are around you!  

Here is exactly how I pitch myself to brands. Step 1: Decide what brands you want to work with. Research that brand. 

•  What social media channels are they active on? 
•  Do they have an existing affiliate program. Many times if you just go to their website you will find they do have an affiliate program you can apply for. If not do not fret you can still pitch yourself. Soooo many brands, companies and business owners are LOOKING for influencers to work with! Influencer Marketing is projected to be a multi billion dollar industry in the making. 86% of women turn to social media for advice and opinions on what to buy; 6 out of 10 people say they trust advice from their favorite creators than from celebrity recommendations. 40% of people say they have bought a product after seeing it used by an influencer. 56% of people are more likely to buy a product after seeing it in a positive light on social media.  
•  Who is their ideal customer? This is incredibly important. I recently talked to somebody about doing a collaboration. He has an IG account that has almost 1 million followers. He said the last girl he worked with got over 100K followers from the collaboration. But after looking at his account, I said without even looking at his analytics, I’m guessing your online audience is Men between 20-40 and he said yes. It didn’t make sense for me to do a collaboration. I don’t just want to grow a following, but I want to grow a highly engaged following. So it wasn’t a good fit. 
•  Identify the products you are most interested in sharing. 
•  Find the person you need to contact. This might take some detective work.  You don’t want your email to go to an automated email system or even to someone who is paid just to go through the emails, you want to get the contact information for the person in charge of collaborations, a decision maker.
• Sometimes you can contact people directly by sending them a DM on instagram or Facebook.  If not find the contact person’s Email address. 

Know your online audience. Who is your follower? You don’t have to guess here, look at your analytics. I can tell from looking at my analytics, my followers are women from the ages of 25-55 who live in the USA. This is an optional step, but design a media kit. This is something you send as an attachment with your email, that shows your stats at a glance. You can create your own, or even pay for premade ones you can plug your own stats in. 

Time to email your contact person. Be bold! Be brave! Remember if you never ask, it is an automatic no. 

Start with an attention grabbing Subject Line. Do NOT let your subject line be an after thought! This is the very first thing they will see. The subject line can be the determining factor if they even open your email or not. 

Get straight to the point! No fluff here! Introduce yourself. Who are you and who do you serve? 

Tell your contact, what’s in it for them. Explain how you can help THEM achieve their goals. This email is not about what you want from the collaboration. Sell them on why they would want to collaborate with you. 

You can include your stats, talk about your online audience, share other brands you have had successful collaborations with. 

Include direct links to your social media accounts. Make it easy for them to find you on social media. 

And finally ASK! Get your ASK in gear and ASK them if they are open to doing a collaboration? ASK them if they have an existing affiliate program. ASK if they are interested in partnering with you. 

Be genuine! Companies get pitched every day. They can tell if you are sending a copy and paste message. They can tell if you have no idea what their brand is about. Do your research. 

Let’s talk about compensation. What are you getting? Free product? A flat rate fee? A % commision of the sales? Going back to my sister in law. She said it just depends on what it is. She reached out to this company because she wanted this adorable wooden kitchen set for her toddler. They said they would send it to her for free in exchange for a post. She said she didn’t even care that she wasn’t getting paid for the post because she just wanted the kitchen set. I know she likes to work out a flat rate free for posts. She charges brands a couple hundred dollars for each post. I prefer a commision % because I know I can sell anything. You have to decide what is best for you and what is best for the company. 

Work out the details of the collaboration. Do they want you to go LIVE? Do they want you to post on your wall? Do they want you do a certain amount of posts? Do they want you to do a certain amount of stories? Are they going to share your live video? Are they going to repost your post on IG and tag you. Make sure they tag you. Work out ALL the details. Many of these one time collaborations can turn into a long term relationship. I’ve been working with some of the companies I affiliate for 2 years now. I have a great relationship with them. I’m not demanding and I’m easy to work with. Plus, I bring in a lot of volume for the company.   

Again do NOT wait for the brand to come to you. Pitch yourself!! I have included a few PDF Email Templates where you are watching this video to help get you started. I can’t wait for you to land your first deal! 

You can be an Influencer! Yes you!! Did you know to be considered a Micro Influencer you need to have between 1,000 - 100,000 followers. 1,000 followers and you are considered a micro influencer. You can do this! If you are just starting out, maybe you have less than 1000 followers, if you want to start attracting brands, start SHARING and promoting them BEFORE you ever land a deal or make a dime. I’m going to give you another example. I follow this woman on social media. She has millions of followers. She created a journal that I absolutely LOVE. I tried dming on IG asking if they had an affiliate program. No response. So I started sharing my LOVE for my journal in my stories and TAGGED the brand. I did Unboxing in my stories. I started posting on my feed and if my journal was in the picture I would TAG the brand. I wasn’t making a dime for sharing my love for this journal but do you know what happend?! The brand reposted and tagged 2 of my posts. They shared ALL of my stories and tagged me. Then I about died, the woman I follow emailed ME and asked if I wanted to be an affiliate for her new upcoming course that included using the journal. I would make 50% commission, get her course for free and get to work with her!! I freaked the freak out. This is what I’m talking about!! Start sharing BEFORE you make a dime! It really does work! 

And the best part is as you start working with brands, you will attract even MORE brands!! They will see what you are doing for other brands and start to email you!! Make sure you have an email set up and visible on your page for collaborations. As you get into Influener marketing, Opportunities will open up for you. Listen, my friend…..YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER! YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES! YOU CAN PITCH YOURSELF AND WORK WITH BRANDS. AND IT’S THE BEST JOB EVER! Doing collaborations will help you grow your network. If done right you will attract more of your ideal customers. It can also help you get free products and make an additional stream of income. You got this!! Now go pitch yourself!!