EP 14: Stabilize Your Income While With Affiliate Marketing

00:00:07 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:00:07 [Alison]
I’m Allison, military spouse and family photographer.
00:00:10 [Melissa]
And I’m Melissa, also a military spouse, lifestyle newborn photographer, and SEO expert for photographers.
00:00:16 [Melissa]
Between the two of us, we have a combined twenty seven years in photography and have lived through nine businesses.

00:00:21 [Alison]
We’ve coached each other through all these challenges privately on Marco Polo, and now we’re bringing our polos public.
00:00:27 [Alison]
On this podcast, we’ll give you actionable steps to help you keep it moving.
00:00:33 [Alison]
Alright.
00:00:33 [Alison]
Welcome back, y’all.
00:00:34 [Alison]
This week, we are in our second in a series of stabilizing your income while you move.

00:00:40 [Alison]
Last time we talked about whether or not it would be profitable for you to go back to your old location after you move.
00:00:45 [Alison]
This week, we are talking all Not permanently, Bec.
00:00:48 [Alison]
Not permanently.
00:00:48 [Alison]
Temporarily, like project by project.
00:00:50 [Alison]
Right?

00:00:50 [Alison]
This time we’re talking about affiliate.
00:00:52 [Alison]
What is it?
00:00:53 [Alison]
Who offers it?
00:00:54 [Alison]
Why should we care?
00:00:54 [Alison]
And how?

00:00:56 [Alison]
How would we do it?
00:00:57 [Alison]
Melissa is a total pro on this.
00:00:58 [Alison]
Affiliate marketing is basically being paid to be an influencer.
00:01:02 [Alison]
Sharing, telling your audience about something you like or use in order to get them to and use it as well, and then getting a kickback for promoting it.
00:01:12 [Alison]
So it’s just advertising for other people.

00:01:14 [Alison]
The b the biggest way I’ve seen this play out is if you’ve ever done a course with Amy Porterfield, her and Jenna Kutcher are like totally sharing audiences.
00:01:22 [Alison]
If you get their email, you see their ads.
00:01:25 [Alison]
Most recently, Amy Porterfield was sending me emails about Jenna Kutcher’s Pinterest thing, Pinterest Lab.
00:01:31 [Alison]
Clicked a couple links.
00:01:32 [Alison]
They’re both on the landing page.

00:01:34 [Alison]
That’s video of Jenna.
00:01:35 [Alison]
It’s video of Amy Porterfield.
00:01:37 [Alison]
That’s affiliate marketing at a major level.

00:01:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:01:40 [Melissa]
That’s a very in-depth relationship.
00:01:42 [Melissa]
You guys don’t have to be that that far partnered up with somebody else to do affiliate marketing.
00:01:46 [Melissa]
No.
00:01:46 [Melissa]
But, yeah, like Allison said, affiliate marketing, it’s in your inbox every day.

00:01:50 [Melissa]
You see it in your social media.
00:01:51 [Melissa]
You may not necessarily realize it.
00:01:52 [Melissa]
Obviously, the big one is, like, influencers.
00:01:54 [Melissa]
Like, I follow some Instagram that is constantly sharing Amazon stuff for cleaning your house.
00:01:59 [Melissa]
And now I wanna buy a $40 vacuum to vacuum the inside of my drawers with, like, the size of my hand.

00:02:04 [Melissa]
That’s how affiliate marketing works is they show you something cool.
00:02:08 [Melissa]
And there’s definitely ways that you guys can use it too.
00:02:10 [Melissa]
And it doesn’t you don’t have to create videos.
00:02:12 [Melissa]
You don’t have to go over the top.
00:02:13 [Melissa]
You can.

00:02:14 [Melissa]
And there’s definitely various levels and stuff.
00:02:16 [Melissa]
But affiliate marketing, it can be a really easy thing for you to do and just get started with a little bit of cash rolling in.

00:02:23 [Alison]
Yeah, absolutely.
00:02:24 [Alison]
Okay.
00:02:24 [Alison]
So who would where would you start and who even so for your own self, you’d really need to think about what are you already using and liking, and then who is offering an affiliate program already.
00:02:36 [Alison]
So this could be things like your Centimeters CRM.
00:02:39 [Alison]
This could be an email provider, your web hosting, any courses or coaches you’ve learned from or worked with.

00:02:45 [Alison]
Think about workflow presets, editing stuff, editors, whether they’re AI or real life people, both usually offer some sort of referral perk.
00:02:53 [Alison]
Templates, design templates, if that’s your marketing material, your web design, something physical that you actually print and send to your clients.
00:03:02 [Alison]
And then what about any sort of group coaching or gear?
00:03:06 [Alison]
Camera gear?
00:03:07 [Alison]
Canon, but Canon educator, like gluten.

00:03:09 [Alison]
And then software.
00:03:11 [Alison]
Think about Lightroom.
00:03:12 [Alison]
What else do we use?

00:03:13 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:03:14 [Melissa]
Honestly, the first thing I ever did with affiliate marketing was I’ve been with Profoto for sixteen years now.
00:03:20 [Melissa]
And when I first got started with them, they had a little thing of, hey.
00:03:23 [Melissa]
Contact us for a coupon code to give to others.
00:03:25 [Melissa]
And it was, like, $25 off.

00:03:27 [Melissa]
And so my code at that time was, like, MArlena25, and I had that out there for years.
00:03:33 [Melissa]
And, basically, I just, at that point, I love ProPhoto.
00:03:35 [Melissa]
I still love them.
00:03:36 [Melissa]
Still with them.
00:03:37 [Melissa]
I just wrote a blog post of, hey.

00:03:38 [Melissa]
I love ProPhoto, and here’s a coupon, guys.
00:03:40 [Melissa]
And I learned to put that coupon code in my meta description when it came to SEO and stuff, and I used SEO to optimize that post.
00:03:49 [Melissa]
So then when somebody searched, like, ProPhoto discount, that post came right up, and I had the coupon code right there in the meta description because I was trying to make sure people used my code.
00:03:59 [Melissa]
I didn’t just, like, care that they were gonna click and read the post.
00:04:01 [Melissa]
I just wanted to use the code because I think it was, like, $25 off, and I think I got $15 of on that kind of thing.

00:04:07 [Melissa]
So I was like, I wrote one post, and I would get paid $15 anytime I use my link.
00:04:12 [Melissa]
And, no, it’s not a ton of money.
00:04:14 [Melissa]
I’ve had that code for fifteen years now.
00:04:17 [Melissa]
Like, I’m not I probably made at least a $100 off of it Yeah.

00:04:20 [Alison]
Over the years.
00:04:20 [Alison]
That’s an interesting stat we need to figure out.
00:04:23 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:04:23 [Melissa]
But that’s an easy one to use.
00:04:25 [Melissa]
And then after that, I just started looking at who am I using already.
00:04:29 [Melissa]
And if you scroll to the bottom of a lot of their web pages, you’ll see if it has an affiliate program.
00:04:34 [Melissa]
Mhmm.
00:04:35 [Melissa]
Or you can even Google whatever the name of it is and affiliate to see if an affiliate page comes up because sometimes they’re hidden, but there’s tons of stuff.

00:04:42 [Melissa]
The other one that I went for is This Can’t Be That Hard podcast, Anami Tonkin, her Simple Sales System.
00:04:48 [Melissa]
And I love it.
00:04:49 [Melissa]
And I wrote a review on the Simple Sales System.
00:04:52 [Melissa]
And at the time that I did this, Anami had a coupon code that she gave us that we could use.
00:04:57 [Melissa]
And then she and then because I was an affiliate, she also paid me.

00:05:01 [Melissa]
Her program has changed a little bit on that, so I don’t have a coupon code anymore for it.
00:05:05 [Melissa]
But I do still have an affiliate link, and we’ll actually talk about it a little bit later on, spicing up your affiliate offer because she’s giving me a way to spice that up so that even though I don’t have a coupon code, I could still entice you guys.
00:05:15 [Melissa]
Go use my link.
00:05:17 [Melissa]
But I’ll be honest.
00:05:18 [Melissa]
That coupon code and stuff with Onomy, I know I made definitely over I think I made over $2,000 over two years of using that code.

00:05:26 [Alison]
I mean Off a blog post?

00:05:27 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:05:28 [Melissa]
Off of a single blog post.
00:05:29 [Melissa]
I wrote that blog post once, and then I think I went back and updated it, like, one or two more times.
00:05:34 [Melissa]
And that was just, like, 2020, I think, I wrote that post.
00:05:37 [Melissa]
But I used SEO to make sure that post when you search simple sales, you’d get out of these websites and then Melissa’s website’s right under there.

00:05:45 [Melissa]
And she was like, hey, check out my rule.
00:05:47 [Melissa]
Because people love reviews.
00:05:48 [Melissa]
They wanna know if you proof.
00:05:49 [Melissa]
Something.
00:05:50 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:05:50 [Melissa]
If you give you something, is

00:05:51 [Alison]
it gonna work for me?
00:05:52 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:05:52 [Alison]
And it doesn’t matter.
00:05:54 [Alison]
Y’all can go write a blog post, but if you’re not gonna optimize it so that it’s found and used, you’re wasting your time.
00:06:00 [Alison]
So SEO is important no matter how you choose to tackle this.

00:06:04 [Alison]
So you’ve got people gotta be able to find it.
00:06:06 [Alison]
Hey.
00:06:07 [Alison]
Yes.
00:06:07 [Alison]
I’m talking to you.
00:06:09 [Alison]
How are you feeling about this move?

00:06:11 [Alison]
It’s a lot to process, but I’ve got something for you.
00:06:13 [Alison]
I want you to grab my pre move checklist to make things a little easier.
00:06:17 [Alison]
Are you sure where you’re going yet?
00:06:19 [Alison]
It’s not too early to start.
00:06:20 [Alison]
But you could be losing time on that SEO juice if you dilly dally.

00:06:24 [Alison]
So head over to alisonbell.co.
00:06:26 [Alison]
That’s alisonwith1l,bell,.co to get your pre move checklist.
00:06:31 [Alison]
You got this.

00:06:32 [Melissa]
The other thing I have is I just have a page on my website.
00:06:35 [Melissa]
It’s like melissa arlene photography forward slash for photographers.
00:06:40 [Melissa]
And if you go out there, you’ll find links to QuickBooks, Tave, my CRM, PicTime, my gallery software.
00:06:48 [Melissa]
Anybody and everybody that some kind of coupon code, an affiliate code, I have it on there.
00:06:53 [Melissa]
So, like, audit your gear.

00:06:55 [Melissa]
What is Yeah.
00:06:55 [Melissa]
Allison just listed all of that kind of stuff.
00:06:57 [Melissa]
What is write down everything that you use.
00:07:00 [Melissa]
When it comes to gear stuff too, you can look for E and H and Adorama to see, do they offer affiliate programs?
00:07:06 [Melissa]
The big one obviously is Amazon.

00:07:08 [Melissa]
So you can also set up Amazon and then do a review on that new lens that you got and you love, and it’s working so well and why you love it.
00:07:16 [Melissa]
And then write a review on it, your website, and then do your affiliate link to, like, Amazon, purchase it on their own kind of thing.
00:07:22 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:07:23 [Alison]
I just okay.
00:07:23 [Alison]
So I Melissa said write it down.
00:07:25 [Alison]
I already had written my list out.
00:07:27 [Alison]
I just counted them.
00:07:28 [Alison]
I just forgot how many, but it’s like 15.

00:07:30 [Alison]
15 different places that and I’m pretty confident at least 14 of them have some sort of incentive referral perk or what have you.

00:07:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:07:40 [Melissa]
Absolutely.
00:07:41 [Melissa]
And Amazon’s a huge one.
00:07:42 [Melissa]
I actually when we just got started, I told Allison, I actually got a proof for an Amazon influencer account thing this morning.
00:07:48 [Melissa]
Oh.

00:07:49 [Melissa]
I’m not that fancy, but I was like, oh, wait.
00:07:51 [Melissa]
It sound like but the whole reason is I have a couple of blog posts on my website that I’m getting a ton of traffic for.
00:07:56 [Melissa]
They’re not gonna bring me local photography clients, newborn clients, and stuff like that, but they are bringing in a lot of traffic.
00:08:03 [Melissa]
So my thought was like, okay.
00:08:04 [Melissa]
How can I maybe monetize this?

00:08:06 [Melissa]
And I’m not at a point where I’m gonna put ads on my website.
00:08:10 [Melissa]
So I was like, this post is about DIY ing your hospital newborn photos.
00:08:14 [Melissa]
I wrote it during COVID when we couldn’t go into hospitals and stuff.
00:08:17 [Melissa]
And so I was like, what kind of things do they need?
00:08:19 [Melissa]
They’re gonna need swaddles and onesies and those cute little signs, letterboards, or hello world.

00:08:25 [Melissa]
You can go out to Amazon, create a little storefront with all of that stuff on it, and then pop those links into that blog post.

00:08:31 [Alison]
You should

00:08:31 [Melissa]
put that perception.

00:08:32 [Alison]
You should put that nifty thrifty or the thrifty 50 link on there as well.

00:08:36 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:36 [Melissa]
You’re gonna Here.
00:08:37 [Melissa]
That’s what you really post I talk about using your just using your phone.
00:08:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:40 [Melissa]
Because the idea is Okay.

00:08:42 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:42 [Melissa]
The idea isn’t to replace a photographer.
00:08:44 [Melissa]
My point when I wrote it was that, like, photographers weren’t allowed in.
00:08:47 [Melissa]
So it was

00:08:48 [Alison]
like, okay.

00:08:49 [Melissa]
You can still use your iPhone and get some pretty decent photos, but I am explicit.
00:08:53 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:08:54 [Melissa]
And I did.
00:08:54 [Melissa]
I think I had link to presets on there too.
00:08:57 [Melissa]
So those are some options even now where I’m going, okay.

00:08:59 [Melissa]
Maybe I have a blog post on a nursery.
00:09:01 [Melissa]
I could go out to Amazon, put all of the stuff from that nursery that is similar that if it’s a nursery on my website, and then have a hey.
00:09:08 [Melissa]
If you’re looking for these items, go check them out here on Amazon.
00:09:11 [Melissa]
And hopefully, people will add to cart.
00:09:13 [Melissa]
I don’t make a ton.

00:09:14 [Melissa]
Here’s the thing.
00:09:15 [Melissa]
Affiliate marketing is not going to make you a millionaire by any means unless you become, like, a major influencer.
00:09:21 [Melissa]
But I have no problems doing a little bit of work to get a long term pay out.
00:09:26 [Melissa]
Even if it covers your Starbucks for the entire year because you make $10 a week, that’s worth it.
00:09:31 [Melissa]
It’s worth it.

00:09:31 [Alison]
And that that brings us to, like, when does this matter?
00:09:34 [Alison]
And it’s all the time.
00:09:35 [Alison]
Like, sometimes some people will have a major push or what have you or an event where especially with courses and whatnot where they’re doing launches and that Yeah.
00:09:43 [Alison]
That might be very time specific or seasonal.
00:09:45 [Alison]
But by and large, it is all the time.

00:09:48 [Alison]
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00:10:49 [Alison]
Clients because you’re about to move.
00:10:51 [Alison]
When you’re actually moving, when you’re on a plane, when you are waiting for your SEO to kick in and build more clientele.
00:10:58 [Alison]
That’s the time to be putting some effort into some of those back end stuff.
00:11:01 [Alison]
And then, of course, the longer you have it, the longer the more money I’ll make.

00:11:05 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:11:06 [Melissa]
So where we’ve we’re covering, like, alright.
00:11:08 [Melissa]
So now you’re figuring out what are the things I can do affiliate marketing for?
00:11:11 [Melissa]
Where?
00:11:11 [Melissa]
Obviously, your web post, we’ve covered that.

00:11:13 [Melissa]
So I pointed out I’ve got a page on my site.
00:11:15 [Melissa]
I’ve got blog posts for stuff.
00:11:16 [Melissa]
Social media is another one.
00:11:18 [Melissa]
YouTube can be a big one because there’s not a lot if you’re doing a review on, let’s say, Pic Time or something like that or your website provider, there may not be a lot of reviews.
00:11:28 [Melissa]
It’s, hey.

00:11:28 [Melissa]
This review is for photographers about why I love Pic Time, and here’s my code for you to get I think it gets a, like, a free month or something.
00:11:35 [Melissa]
I can’t remember.
00:11:36 [Melissa]
Something like that.
00:11:38 [Melissa]
But YouTube gets placed pretty well in the rankings of they’ll show a couple different YouTube videos anytime you’re searching that kind of stuff.
00:11:43 [Melissa]
You can make a short YouTube video that talks about it.

00:11:45 [Melissa]
You could take that YouTube video and embed it into your blog post kind of thing.
00:11:50 [Melissa]
Another easy one is email newsletter stuff.
00:11:52 [Melissa]
Like, I I utilize that a lot at this point.
00:11:55 [Melissa]
My Facebook group, I’ll share stuff in there.
00:11:57 [Melissa]
You wanna be careful about you’re not overwhelming.

00:11:59 [Melissa]
Like, I do try to be careful that there’s a lot of things that I’m affiliate for.
00:12:04 [Melissa]
I really try to only push the ones that have a time specific one on my email list and the ones that, like, are gonna have a higher payout type thing.
00:12:11 [Melissa]
I I’m not gonna be sending out on my email list something that pays me $5 per person kinda thing.
00:12:16 [Melissa]
Because my audience is gonna get tired of being like, all Melissa does is sell to me.
00:12:19 [Melissa]
But if it’s something that I use and it’s on sale and I’m an affiliate, heck, yes.

00:12:23 [Melissa]
I’m gonna send that out to my email list.
00:12:25 [Melissa]
I’m gonna send that out to my Facebook group.
00:12:27 [Melissa]
You guys can do affiliate stuff even.
00:12:29 [Melissa]
We’ve talked a lot of, like, camera stuff and things geared towards photographers, but you can do stuff geared towards moms too.
00:12:34 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:12:35 [Melissa]
That’s You could go into Amazon and create a whole store on what essential items mom needs in her hospital bag or for the nursery.

00:12:43 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:12:43 [Alison]
And it goes back to and I’m just thinking of this now that it does problem solving and the content marketing for blogging.
00:12:49 [Alison]
Like, what are people looking for?
00:12:52 [Alison]
What is your ideal client already need or looking for?
00:12:54 [Alison]
Or what problems are they having?

00:12:56 [Alison]
And how can you help them?
00:12:58 [Alison]
That’s whether that’s with, hey, I need a new I need a robe that matches a new onesie or my photographer says I need this kind of onesie for our session.
00:13:07 [Alison]
Or, or I need one

00:13:08 [Melissa]
of those sleep courses to get my baby to sleep through the night.
00:13:11 [Melissa]
I bet if you went and looked at some of those, I bet some of them have affiliate marketing stuff going on with them.

00:13:15 [Alison]
Family stuff like you, you could be doing, you could maybe get kicked back to some of your favorite local boutiques for

00:13:20 [Melissa]
babies, kids, like HelloFresh and stuff like that.
00:13:23 [Melissa]
They always have those like codes and stuff that you can do.

00:13:25 [Alison]
Emails.
00:13:26 [Alison]
Oh my God.
00:13:26 [Alison]
I’m thinking of it.
00:13:27 [Alison]
There’s email.
00:13:28 [Alison]
If you’re not using emails, reach out to me.

00:13:31 [Melissa]
I love it.

00:13:32 [Alison]
I hate meal planning.
00:13:33 [Alison]
So, yeah, it’s the gamut.
00:13:34 [Alison]
Like, the it there’s just so much more than just photography stuff.
00:13:37 [Alison]
For me, like, my clients are traveling here.
00:13:39 [Alison]
I could totally be teaming up with a travel agent and all the fun destinations to get referral perks for I send people all over the place here.

00:13:47 [Alison]
I am Yeah.
00:13:48 [Alison]
A quasi travel agent.
00:13:49 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:13:50 [Alison]
But I’m not too.

00:13:51 [Melissa]
And that’s the thing.
00:13:51 [Melissa]
So you talk about this and all the places that you would talk about everything else with your client.
00:13:55 [Melissa]
That’s where you’re gonna share this stuff.
00:13:57 [Melissa]
When it comes to why, earn more money.
00:13:59 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:14:00 [Melissa]
Fast income.

00:14:00 [Alison]
Money.
00:14:01 [Alison]
For

00:14:01 [Melissa]
jumping profits.
00:14:03 [Melissa]
And Allison said, helping to stabilize your income when you move.
00:14:05 [Melissa]
I mean, it may not be a lot, but it’s a little bit of cash coming in here and there.
00:14:10 [Melissa]
And it depends.
00:14:10 [Melissa]
You could hook up with a really great affiliate program and be like a hardcore rock star for it, and maybe you’re making bank off of it.

00:14:18 [Melissa]
Hey, fellow photographers.
00:14:19 [Melissa]
Melissa Arlena here.
00:14:20 [Melissa]
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00:14:22 [Melissa]
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00:14:23 [Melissa]
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00:14:24 [Melissa]
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00:14:26 [Melissa]
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00:14:36 [Melissa]
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00:14:53 [Melissa]
Let’s get your calendar booked.

00:14:55 [Alison]
You really could.
00:14:56 [Alison]
Yeah.
00:14:57 [Alison]
And it’s in this is and this is a series because not one thing is gonna make you rich.
00:15:01 [Alison]
Right?
00:15:01 [Alison]
And when we’re down, when our business when we’re not working directly with clients, we’re waiting for things to build back up and feel like we’re spinning our wheels.

00:15:09 [Alison]
There this is the time to be doing other little things, projects, and what have you that will add up to a big payoff.
00:15:16 [Alison]
Yeah.

00:15:16 [Melissa]
And then spice so I’d mentioned before that you can for some places you can spice up your affiliate offer.
00:15:22 [Melissa]
So I know with Amy Porterfield does this when she does her big, push for her digital course, whatever, she has people who are affiliates for her, and then they offer their own bonus.
00:15:33 [Melissa]
So if you sign up through her link link, then you get a bonus from them on something or other.
00:15:38 [Melissa]
Most of the big names do this.
00:15:40 [Melissa]
I know recently, like I mentioned with this can’t be that hard, they’ve done away with the discount code, but they’ve also said, hey, Melissa, do you wanna throw something in as a bonus?

00:15:48 [Melissa]
And I was like, that’s genius.
00:15:49 [Melissa]
And I do, but I just don’t know what yet.
00:15:52 [Melissa]
So you can think about those kind of things.
00:15:53 [Melissa]
And it depends on your audience.
00:15:55 [Melissa]
It depends if you don’t offer education stuff that may not work for you, but you never know.

00:15:58 [Melissa]
It could be something that works out.
00:15:59 [Melissa]
Yep.

00:16:00 [Alison]
It’s so fun how technology can give us so many options and make things really custom and personalized.
00:16:05 [Alison]
There are some things that you need to look out for though when it comes to affiliate marketing.
00:16:09 [Alison]
It can it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
00:16:11 [Alison]
So there’s things, what, payout schedules?
00:16:14 [Alison]
Melissa, you have a fun story about this one.

00:16:15 [Melissa]
Oh, yeah.
00:16:16 [Melissa]
Payout schedules.
00:16:17 [Melissa]
Typically, you’re talking, like, thirty days, but I was actually just checking my payout schedule for one of the one of the plugins I’m an affiliate for because I’m like, man, I keep getting these emails from them that, oh, you got another affiliate awarded, another affiliate award.
00:16:29 [Melissa]
I was like, great.
00:16:29 [Melissa]
And I was like, what?

00:16:31 [Melissa]
I’m getting paid for this.
00:16:32 [Melissa]
And it turns out they don’t pay out till you hit $200.
00:16:35 [Melissa]
So it wasn’t until today that I hit $200, and now I have to waste from today.
00:16:38 [Melissa]
And then I’ll get a check next month for 200 and something bucks, which is great.
00:16:42 [Melissa]
I’m not complaining about that.

00:16:44 [Melissa]
But you wanna pay attention to that.
00:16:45 [Melissa]
Most of them have a thirty day thing.
00:16:47 [Melissa]
And with that, if somebody requests a refund and they decide they don’t want whatever that product is, you lose that affiliate income.
00:16:54 [Melissa]
So do not count it until it’s literally sitting in your bank account kind of thing.
00:16:58 [Melissa]
So you wanna pay attention to the referral policy or the refund policy.

00:17:01 [Melissa]
And then, honestly, do they pay cold hard cash, which is what we really love, or do they pay credit?
00:17:07 [Melissa]
And I’m not hold on.
00:17:09 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:17:09 [Melissa]
I’m not knocking credit for something that I use at all.
00:17:13 [Melissa]
But I love Pic Time y’all.

00:17:16 [Melissa]
I love them so much that I signed up for their low price, first person signed in.
00:17:21 [Melissa]
So I have a certain price that I pay every year for my gallery.
00:17:23 [Melissa]
Like a founder?

00:17:24 [Alison]
The founder thing?

00:17:25 [Melissa]
It’s like a founders type thing.
00:17:26 [Melissa]
I pay every year for it, but it’s it was one of those, you’ll always pay this super low price.
00:17:31 [Melissa]
So that’s great.
00:17:32 [Melissa]
Except I have two years worth of free months at this point of pick time that I can’t use.
00:17:37 [Melissa]
I don’t know what to do.

00:17:38 [Melissa]
I keep meaning in April when my renewal comes, message them and ask them.
00:17:42 [Melissa]
Because my concern is if I say, okay.
00:17:44 [Melissa]
Hey.
00:17:44 [Melissa]
I wanna go ahead and use my free referral stuff.
00:17:46 [Melissa]
Then when I come back, are they gonna be like, okay.

00:17:48 [Melissa]
Now you get the full price.
00:17:49 [Melissa]
And then I’m like, I don’t I’d have to do the math.
00:17:51 [Melissa]
Maybe it would still be worth it, but you wanna look for that too.
00:17:53 [Melissa]
If they’re only paying in credit, then it may not necessarily be worth you putting a whole lot of effort into it, especially if it’s a program that you maybe aren’t gonna use later on kind of things.
00:18:02 [Melissa]
So just keep an eye on, do they pay cash or credit?

00:18:05 [Alison]
Absolutely.
00:18:05 [Alison]
And then the final thing we’ve got is disclaimers.

00:18:08 [Melissa]
What are the rules with disclaim dis disclosing information at outlets?
00:18:13 [Melissa]
Amazon’s really picky about it.
00:18:15 [Melissa]
You have to have an earnings disclosure statement thing.
00:18:18 [Melissa]
You’ll see it in people’s emails.
00:18:20 [Melissa]
They’ll say, hey.

00:18:21 [Melissa]
I think it it’s a whole FCC thing, I believe.
00:18:23 [Melissa]
And so you have to have a thing in there that says, some of these links I may get paid for.
00:18:27 [Melissa]
And while on the one hand, it’s like, oh, you’re getting paid if I click this?
00:18:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:18:31 [Melissa]
Yeah.

00:18:31 [Melissa]
But you wouldn’t know about this product if I hadn’t told you about it.
00:18:34 [Melissa]
Or maybe you wouldn’t know that it was on sale.
00:18:35 [Melissa]
And if you really have that much heartburn over me getting paid from you clicking this link, then go clear your cookies and go type it in directly yourself.

00:18:44 [Alison]
And I

00:18:44 [Melissa]
always Yep.
00:18:44 [Melissa]
Always felt uncomfortable with, oh, people are gonna people are gonna think I’m pushing this because I’m getting paid.
00:18:49 [Melissa]
And what I try to really do is if I’m not using that, then I’m not gonna push it.
00:18:53 [Melissa]
It’s only stuff that I’ve used, which is why I can write a blog post that talks about it.
00:18:57 [Melissa]
I can write a review about it.

00:18:59 [Melissa]
I somebody were to ask me a question, I can answer that question.
00:19:01 [Melissa]
So just keep that in mind.
00:19:03 [Melissa]
You wanna be honest that you actually use it and not everything that comes across your desk needs to go out.
00:19:08 [Melissa]
You don’t have to hawk every single offer that is.

00:19:11 [Alison]
And I, from a consumer perspective and from an audience perspective, like, I want to use your link.
00:19:17 [Alison]
I want to use other people’s link.
00:19:18 [Alison]
I want Amazon to have to pay out to other people.
00:19:21 [Alison]
I want big companies to have to lose a, albeit small chunk because I want you to get paid for what you’re doing.

00:19:27 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:19:27 [Melissa]
And I realize obviously with photographers, most of our audience is our moms or families and stuff like that.
00:19:33 [Melissa]
So really look outside of even photography and see what are some other things that you can do.
00:19:38 [Melissa]
We covered a bunch earlier.
00:19:40 [Melissa]
But just start looking at everything you come across, every brand you come across in your life in a day and just figure out, hey.

00:19:46 [Melissa]
Is this something that I would chance?
00:19:47 [Melissa]
And to me, that idea is if I would send an email, hey.
00:19:51 [Melissa]
I love this thing.
00:19:52 [Melissa]
You should go love it too kind of thing.
00:19:53 [Melissa]
Oh, every year, I do the Knicks play frame.

00:19:56 [Melissa]
Every year, I send that out like an email to my whole email list, everybody included because I absolutely love those frames.
00:20:02 [Melissa]
I have bought seven of them at this point.
00:20:05 [Melissa]
Everyone in our family are all the grandparents, the great grandparents, my sister, my husband’s sister.
00:20:11 [Melissa]
I think my brother is the only one who doesn’t have one at this point, and I didn’t think he really cared.
00:20:14 [Melissa]
But he actually likes his nieces and nephews, so he might want one.

00:20:17 [Melissa]
But we all have these digital frames because I think they’re awesome.
00:20:21 [Melissa]
So I send that out every year because I love that product, and I use it all the time.

00:20:25 [Alison]
That’s it.
00:20:26 [Alison]
That is the summation of affiliate marketing right there.
00:20:28 [Alison]
Mic drop.
00:20:29 [Alison]
Show over.
00:20:31 [Alison]
Alright, guys.

00:20:32 [Alison]
So this that’s our conversation on stabilizing income with affiliate marketing.
00:20:36 [Alison]
If you have any questions for us, please don’t hesitate to reach out on Instagram.

00:20:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:40 [Melissa]
Yeah.
00:20:40 [Melissa]
I think that’s I think we covered it for this.
00:20:42 [Melissa]
We’ll be back for some of more affiliate type not affiliate marketing stuff, but more stabilizing your income.
00:20:47 [Melissa]
We’ve got a few more ideas to go over with you guys.

00:20:49 [Melissa]
So just stay tuned for those and just keep that in your moving plan on what are some other things you can do besides all the other stuff we’re talking about.

00:20:56 [Alison]
That’s awesome.
00:20:57 [Alison]
That’s right.
00:20:57 [Alison]
So till next time.
00:20:59 [Alison]
Bye bye.

00:21:02 [Melissa]
Thank you so much for listening.
00:21:03 [Melissa]
If you’re enjoying the show, would you do two things for us?
00:21:06 [Melissa]
First, leave a review.
00:21:07 [Melissa]
Just stars would be awesome.
00:21:09 [Melissa]
And two, forward this episode to a biz bestie, mil spouse, or anyone facing moving their business.

00:21:14 [Melissa]
We’d love it if you shared this episode with even just one person.
00:21:17 [Melissa]
If you have questions, you can reach out to Allison on Instagram at alison belle photog, or you can find me, Melissa, in my Facebook group, Picture Perfect Rankings.
00:21:27 [Melissa]
Check the show notes for links, and we’re so excited to have you guys here.