Affiliate Marketing – A True Referral Service
This doesn’t have to be the constant link-building and pushing that may turn you off about other affiliate marketers. Allow me to introduce you to the Amazon affiliate program. When you become an Amazon affiliate, you have the ability to do a few fun things for your audience. You can create a small widget for your site recommending books and/or products that YOU love or recommend. An audience “wishlist” of all the resources you find helpful in your industry. Amazon pre-made banners allow you to include ads on your website promoting pretty much any category of product, from Sports Equipment to Video Games to Health and Beauty and Groceries. Finally, if you’re hesitant about putting anything on your website, create a mini a-store – a separate webpage that you can send people to with all your recommendations on Amazon. Your website remains pristine, but your audience still gets the benefits of your knowledge and research. You create a page and design it with all the products you love, then create a link or button that says “click here for all of our recommendations.” Voila! You’re an amazing resource and monetizing your show has never been easier, or faster.
Another idea you can use with affiliate marketing is to create audio and banner ads for your show and website. You won’t say they’re a sponsor, but you can say how much you like and recommend the product, and then send people to your affiliate link to purchase. Audible is a great place to start for this as well, because you can assume that people who listen to podcasts will also be interested in audiobooks.
Affilliate marketing is super effective because as a podcast host, you’re expertise and recommendation give you a lot of influence over your listeners. So what you say is good, will often be purchased. Lots of power! So only recommend what you really believe in.
Skills Needed:
You need the ability to grab code and put it in a widget in your site. You need the ability to link content in your show notes. You need the ability to navigate the Amazon affiliate website. OR, you’ll need the ability to outsource this task.
Resources:
Amazon Affiliate Program
Adam Corolla – resource page
Audible
Amazon Store Example
