Whenever I need new skin care, I always buy from my friend Rachel. She's not into skincare or anything like an influencer, but if you use her special link and buy a product she recommends, you get a moisturizer and she gets a small commission. Masu. It's a win-win.
This type of advertising model, known as affiliate marketing, has long been a staple of the influencer industry and has been limited to creators with large followings and relationships with brands. But the proliferation of platforms like TikTok Shop has brought the power of affiliate marketing to the masses, from established digital creators to stay-at-home moms with little presence on social media. Well, in the words of influencer coach Lysette Calveiro, “If you're talking about something, you can earn affiliate income from it.”
Creator Shelby Tomalin, 30, spent a year writing about mid-market fashion on her blog Shelby Say What and growing her Instagram following before deciding to dabble in affiliate marketing in 2021. 20,000 people gathered. She earned $4,000 in her first month.
“Brand deals were beyond the limits of what I could really sustain as a business at the pace and commitment I had at the time,” said Tomalin, who is based in Seattle, Washington. “I knew I needed another revenue pipeline.” In addition to commissions, her affiliate marketing programs like Amazon and her LTK provide her with valuable data and create more lucrative deals. Helps negotiate brand deals. “I stood in front of brands with real statistics and analysis and said, 'Here's my girlfriend's ROI. I sold 800 of these tops. Would you like to work with me?'” she says. Currently, Tomalin has over 735,000 followers on her Instagram. Affiliate marketing accounts for her two-thirds of her total income and allowed her husband to quit his job.
Katera B. similarly discovered affiliate marketing when she was looking for another source of income. She had just graduated from college, she was eight months pregnant with her son, and she knew right away that she couldn't work from nine to five. . In addition to her Amazon affiliate program, she also joined affiliate programs through Benable and set up a storefront selling everything from fashion products to products she recommends for natural hair. She then started sharing these products on her algorithmic platforms such as TikTok. This is useful for beginners, she says, because it doesn't rely as much on follower counts when broadcasting.
“I promote products on various pages, but I don’t have a lot of followers,” continues Katera, who is based in Mississippi. “But those videos almost went viral because I had just mastered the art of creating engaging visual content.”
In 2024, there will be too many affiliate marketing programs to choose from, but they all promise participants pretty much the same thing. It's a unique, trackable link to the product and a portion of the sales made using those links. Selling is as much about posting a link to the gadget on his Instagram story as it is about creating his TikTok video dedicated to showcasing his latest viral water bottle and driving people to his personalized online storefront. it's simple.
As for how far you can go, actually Each affiliate marketing platform is different. One of the first mainstream programs, Amazon Associates was launched in 1996 and offers bloggers and content creators the opportunity to earn up to 10% commissions from qualifying purchases and programs. In 2017, the company launched a more exclusive Amazon influencer program that evaluates all applicants' followers and engagement metrics. If approved, participants can earn up to a 20% commission on sales. business insider I will report. Over the years, Amazon's affiliate program has introduced many other features, including Storefront (a shoppable page of influencer-recommended products) and Amazon Live (a platform that allows influencers to share their recommendations through video livestreams). It has been.
Personal recommendations are especially valuable for stores like Amazon. Amazon's expansion into all platforms has resulted in a seemingly endless inventory of near-identical products, all of which include the Elite Gourmet ECT-3100 Long Slot 4-Slice Toaster with Reheat, 6 Toast Settings, Defrost, and Cancel Functions , built-in warming rack, wide slots for bagels and waffles, stainless steel & black. (Much of Amazon's bloat can be attributed to the increase in third-party sellers. This is a brand that Amazon lists with its own products, but does not have in stock.)
Relying on influencers and other websites to curate your shopping experience is increasingly becoming the only way to get through checkout with your sanity intact.
Relying on influencers and other websites to curate your shopping experience is increasingly becoming the only way to get through checkout with your sanity intact.
Influencers are making these recommendations on a platform that until recently did not benefit from sales. But last year, TikTok revamped its model and launched TikTok Shops, where brands can sell products directly on their For You page. Creators can also participate through the affiliate program if they have more than 5,000 followers and are over 18 years old. Once you join, you can search the affiliate marketplace and add items to your showcase. BI They report that they tend to receive commissions of 10% to 20%.
“As a TikTok affiliate, I earn over $7 per sale,” Katera says. “Where can I get pennies on Amazon? So I'm going to move more to the TikTok Shop.”
But TikTok Shop isn't always so generous, as the novelty wears off and the company needs to get serious about making money. The writing is already on the wall: In early January, TikTok announced that it would quadruple its sales fees on most items from 2% to 8% over the next few months.
Like other forms of passive income, affiliate marketing is often touted as a get-rich-quick scheme. (I don't mean to hate the MLM industry, but [affiliate marketing] In fact, it's likely to be a more useful side hustle for anyone than their main income. Results are highly personal and often influenced by algorithms. “In the advertising industry, we used to say it takes seven impressions before someone sees an ad and goes, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m going to buy that now,’” Calveiro says. Unless it's going viral on a daily basis, it's easy to waste time on content that will never generate the sales it deserves.
“it is [my] says Ishita Khanna, a 30-year-old YouTuber based in India who is part of Amazon's affiliate program and uses other platforms such as Wishlink. “I know the harder I work, the more I earn, but it gets a little messy.” Instead, she says her marketing as an affiliate means that her brand sponsorships and her Google Ads earn a smaller number. We believe this is a solution that will solve the problem for months.
While affiliate marketing may be more trouble than it's worth for creators, it can work well as a low-effort side hustle for regular people with in-demand expertise. My friend Rachel has years of experience in the beauty industry and was already answering questions in the group chat about everything from dermaplaning to moisturizers to treating hormonal acne. From now on, instead of dropping her Amazon link to her recommendations, she will direct us to her ShopMy storefront.
Christina Strauss, a 38-year-old St. Louis-based marketing worker, similarly found herself a go-to person in her community for skin care recommendations. She created another of her Instagram accounts, 'Virgo Skin', to share her tried and tested products with her friends. After her friend sent her a referral link, she realized that ShopMy could help her organize her recommendations, even if they didn't result in any real income for her. .
“It's definitely just a fun perk,” she says. “If anything, it helps you streamline purchasing products you wouldn't have bought before, so you can try them out and let people know what you think.”
Ultimately, Khanna says, this natural friendship is what influencers should emulate. If you don't, you'll end up getting lost in the noise and another person trying to sell you something on the internet.
Still, every creator Bustle spoke to said they want to expand their affiliate marketing. Khanna says affiliate marketing currently accounts for 10-15% of his income. She wants this number to be closer to 20% by the end of 2024.
“E-commerce is king, so I don't think it's going anywhere,” says Tomalin, who is creating her own course on affiliate marketing. “If anything, we're going to see a proliferation of retailers offering things like shoppable links, and more to come. TikTok Shop is just the beginning.”
