Potential Partnerships and Affiliate Marketing

Finance gurus always say, “you need multiple streams of income.”  When I was younger, I thought this meant I needed multiple jobs (and I kept a couple side job).  My business grew from my side hustle.  I currently have four streams of passive income.  One of those streams is through affiliate links and partnerships.  I am not going to claim to have any level of expertise in affiliate marketing or partnering.  I can only share from experience in hopes that it will help.

“Affiliate marketing is a marketing scheme in which a company compensates partners for business created from the affiliate’s marketing tactics.” Affiliate Marketing Definition (investopedia.com)

Basic breakdown, you get a link and share it.  Someone clicks on your link, you make money.  Someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you make more money.

You may have seen these on my product page or in post:

I joined this affiliate program specifically because of the course material that was offered through the site aligns with what I offer.  This affiliate program allows me to receive between 60-80% on sales generated from my link. 

Not all affiliate links work this way. Some, like Rakuten, allows individuals to select a multitude of companies to work with and a link and advertising/marketing material is made available.  Depending on how many people click your link, make a purchase, or use your referral code, you will  receive a percentage from that sale.

It depends on how much effort you put into posting the marketing material.  I don’t advertise often, but every now and then I will send out a link in a newsletter or make a social media post.  I add links from companies to my blog posts too.

Adding Your Own Affiliate Links

For a short period of time, when I was focused on selling my products, I had affiliate links.  Anyone that signed up for my affiliate program would receive a staggering 10% of the sale price.  It wasn’t really worth it for those that joined the program as my products were priced low and I didn’t market them unless I was speaking at a homeschool conference.  Thus, why it was short lived.

 

Maybe affiliate links and the idea of having to make posts, send out newsletters, post on social media, or blogging doesn’t fit your schedule.  Another way to earn income is through partnerships.

 

partnership

[ˈpärtnərˌSHip]

NOUN

1. the state of being a partner or partners.

“we should go on working together in partnership”

• an association of two or more people as partners.

“an increase in partnerships with housing associations”

synonyms:

cooperation · association · collaboration · coalition · alliance · union · compact · league · confederation · co-partnership · affiliation · relationship · fellowship · connection · consociation

I write and talk quite a bit about partnering and collaborating.  I have been approached to collab with brands, individuals, and companies that I have turned down because it wasn’t a good fit.  I work in the education sector, so my partnerships are going to be with educators or those that work in education in come capacity.  These partnerships are more personal.  Oftentimes, these partnerships are made with people that I actually speak to, interact with, and plan with to ensure the partnership is mutually beneficial.

Example:

Bansho

This company offers 1:1 tutoring.  My Academy doesn’t currently offer this to families.  After researching their company, I felt like it would be a good fit to partner with them.  One of their coordinators reached out to me on LinkedIn and we were able to connect.  This partnership is mutually beneficial because I am able to receive a referral payment AND I can send families to them.  On their end, it is beneficial as it is another approach to marketing.  I share their business, they get new clients.  If I don’t refer families, I don’t earn anything, but they also don’t lose anything.

 

Cross Promoting

Another option is to partner without costs is collaborating. 

Example:

A few years back, my :daughter took an online math program.  I connected with the founder, and we decided to cross promote one another’s classes.  I shared links and posts for his math course, I provided a product link on my page, and directed families to his website when they asked about math programs.  He did the same in promoting my classes.

I also collaborated with a grammar teacher about a year into offering my writing classes because I didn’t have the time to develop a course.  We both included one another’s class links in our course descriptions.

Neither one of these collaborations cost us anything other than the same amount of time it took to make the post or share links.  However, it did open up our audience of for potential enrollments.

 

Not Quite a Partnership

While I have partnered with TEFL and iTalki, both international platforms with a different target audience, it’s less personal.  The reasons I accepted these partnerships is because I get enough request about certifications and ESL courses to keep these links available.

Example:

TEFL

This is a different type of partnership and is more in line with affiliate marketing.  I received marketing material and for every sale, I get a percentage.  This won’t garner the most income because I will only use these links when I post about online job positions.

 

If I wanted to make more money from any of these links, I could spend my days making blog posts or scouting social media posts where I could post the links.  The likelihood of doing that is slim.  I post and share as needed and do a little two step when I get a few extra coins in my bank account.

 

Alternative Ways to Connect

If you’re interested in checking out affiliate marketing with a specific organization, visit their website. Take a scroll to the bottom, this is typically where the affiliate link registration is located.

If you’re interested in partnering with an individual, check out their website and see if they have a “Partner with Me” (or something similar) section.

 

Best of luck!

Partner With Me!