Have you considered adding additional revenue streams to your service-based business? Your time is so valuable, so why not incorporate a revenue stream that doesn’t require your time? A great option is affiliate marketing. In today’s episode, I’m sharing how you can use affiliate marketing in your business, even if you don’t have a large following! Listen in as I highlight how I’m using it in my business, plus some of the tools I use as well!
Called to Both is brought to you by Joy Michelle, mom of two and multi-passionate entrepreneur who’s on a mission to help others find balance between the worlds of motherhood and business. Called to Both is the podcast for women who have big business ambitions and also want to be intentional and present moms. At Called to Both, we truly don’t believe you have to choose between these two worlds tugging at your heart You can be Called to Both.
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Diversifying Your Streams of Income
Many creative businesses would classify themselves as service based business—essentially trading time for money. While I love the service-based side of my business, I also wanted to expand into other revenue streams to add to my bottom line!
I don’t think that the service based business model should be avoided in favor of a more passive business model, but I believe that adding these additional streams of revenue can be a game changer in your business. Passive income is less demanding of your time. Your time is so valuable.
So are you considering ways to make money without adding more to your plate that will take up more of your time? One of the smartest things you can do is diversify your revenue. This is key to making sure you have freedom in your business, you run your business, and your business doesn’t run you.
One of the most valuable ways that I’ve found to diversify my revenue streams is through affiliate marketing, which will be the focus today.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is essentially an advertising model in which you can get paid for talking about and promoting another company’s product with a trackable link. When I share this code with my audience, they click it and buy the product, I make a commission.
I love this because it is simple. With affiliate marketing, you don’t have to have inventory, sales systems, or even customer service.
Using Affiliate Marketing as a Small Business Owner
We see influencers doing this all the time—but what about the small business owner? I got curious about it.
In 2018, I added affiliate marketing into content I was already creating in a way that felt natural. About six months in, I was in active labor with my daughter, looked at my phone, and realized I’d made $600 in affiliate income.
Those little sprinkles of affiliate links in guides and blog posts were building up my affiliate marketing strategy without feeling salesy.
But I don’t have a big following…
Many business owners will think that you have to have a big following like many of the influencers you see online—you don’t. Your influence is bigger than you think. Your engagement is so much more valuable.
Consumers prefer following and trusting micro-influencers to get their recommendations, because they’re more connected with their followers.
But I’m not a lifestyle influencer…
Guess what? Neither am I. While I love a good skincare routine, my affiliate marketing strategy is focused on serving my audience—creative entrepreneurs. This means I’m sharing tools, programs, and essentials that I use in my business.
A great example of this is Kajabi. Kajabi is how I host my courses, my freebies, little landing pages that I deliver my freebies through, and even my email newsletter, it’s an all in one software for someone like me that does not love tech. I know that there are other business owners in my audience who have thought about starting an online course, or growing an email list or both of these things; they just don’t want to have to deal with the tech of having to have three different platforms that need to talk to each other to make that possible.
You can use my affiliate link here to try Kajabi!
Another great way to incorporate affiliate marketing into your business is in a client guide. You can link recommendations for your clients within it so they’ll buy from it. Additionally, you could do this in blog posts or behind the scenes guides!
Affiliate Programs
There are a few different affiliate programs you can use in your business, but the three I recommend to get started with are Amazon Associates, Amazon Influencer, and Like to Know It.
Amazon Associates allows you to generate unique affiliate links from Amazon to share with your audience. You can include these in your blog posts, in Instagram stories, etc. Basically anytime you’re talking about a particular product and want to directly link to it, Amazon Associates allows you to do so.
Amazon Influencer allows you to create a storefront of all of your favorite products. It’s essentially a library of all of the products you recommend.
The Quick Start Guide to Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Are you ready to add affiliate marketing into your service based business? Make sure you grab my quick start guide below!
Review the Important Sections:
Service Based Businesses (1:03)
How can I diversify my revenue? (2:30)
Affiliate Marketing (3:05)
Micro Influencers (7:30)
What to Affiliate (9:30)
Affiliate Platforms (12:18)
Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
Quick Start Guide to Affiliate Marketing
Connect with Joy:
Instagram: instagram.com/joyymichelle
Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UC-Ou6jRKxcjMrVMxWxLO_fQ
Facebook: facebook.com/joymichellephotography
If you decide to use any of the links above and buy through them, I’ll receive a small commission back. All of those affiliate income commissions really add up over time and help generate revenue to help support this channel
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