The Official

Be a Freelance Blogger

Affiliate Program Guide

How to Use Your Affiliate Links + Images to Drive Sales and Start Earning Affiliate Commissions

Introduction Welcome, awesome affiliate! We’re so glad to have you on board with the Be a Freelance Blogger affiliate program. Though, it’s basically a no­brainer ­­ you now have the chance to earn a 50% commission anytime you refer someone to one of BAFB’s training programs. Score. But how do you get started pulling in some of that sweet cash? Well, we’re glad you asked. This guide will help you understand the some of the best ways/places to use your affiliate links and images to drive referrals. Where applicable, we’ll also give you tips and advice about best practices in affiliate marketing so you come across as a genuine person who wants to benefit your audience, and not as a skeezy salesperson just trying to peddle your wares. Before we get started, please familiarize yourself with your personalized affiliate source code. This is the string of characters FastSpring emailed you after approving your affiliate status (it’ll likely look like the Company ID FastSpring assigned you). You’ll be using this source code every single time you want to link to one of BAFB’s training courses. In general, most of the technical info you’ll need to know about how to format your affiliate links will be here: http://beafreelanceblogger.com/affiliate­info/. If you ever have questions about the affiliate program or anything related to it, don’t hesitate to email BAFB’s Affiliate Coordinator Bree Brouwer at bree@beafreelanceblogger.com. She’ll do her best to get back to you within 7 days. Now here’s what we’re going to cover on... Page 2: Where to Send People Clicking Your Affiliate Link Page 4: How to Use Affiliate Links Ethically Page 6: Where to Place Affiliate Links

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Where to Send People Clicking Your Affiliate Link While most of this is covered on the affiliate info page on Be a Freelance Blogger, here we’ve summarized your options for where you can send people who are clicking on your affiliate links.

1. Any Be a Freelance Blogger page or post ­ you choose! You can send people to any BAFB page or blog post you want by giving them the full page URL followed by “?source=XXXXX” (where XXXXX represents your affiliate code). Your link will look like this example, which links to the BAFB home page: http://beafreelanceblogger.com/?source=XXXXX

Remember: always replace the XXXXX with your unique affiliate code! We recommend sending people to the home page (which is linked above) so they can join the email list, browse the blog, and purchase training courses if they want to. You’ll get a commission if they make a training purchase from BAFB after clicking your affiliate link. This is a very low­pressure way of using your affiliate link. You can also send people to get their very own copy of The Ultimate List of Better­Paid Blogging Gigs. While this is a free item and you won’t get commission directly from it, the guide is full of value your readers will undoubtedly appreciate ­ and if they buy a BAFB course after downloading the free guide, you can earn a commission on that purchase. :) Here’s what your Ultimate List link will look like: http://beafreelanceblogger.com/betterpaidbloglist/?source=XXXXX Remember: always replace the XXXXX with your unique affiliate code!

2. Get Started for Freelance Blogging Success Get Started for Freelance Blogging Success is a 28­day training delivered entirely via email, that walks students through everything from setting up their freelance business to finding their first clients. There’s a self­guided option, or a supported option suitable for less confident students. Send people to this course when you know they’re new freelance bloggers or looking to break

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into freelance blogging. Here’s the link you can use to direct your audience to the Get Started for Freelance Blogging Success program: http://beafreelanceblogger.com/getstarted?source=XXXXX Remember: always replace the XXXXX with your unique affiliate code! 3. The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass is an 8­week training course with weekly video lessons that guide freelance bloggers through the process of finding more and better clients, as well as renegotiating their rates with their existing clients. Send people to this course when they want to level up their freelance blogging business and land more clients. You can use this link to direct people to the Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass: http://beafreelanceblogger.com/client­hunting­masterclass?source=XXXXX

Remember: always replace the XXXXX with your unique affiliate code!

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How to Use Affiliate Links Ethically Before you go linking away to BAFB materials willy­nilly, we need to establish a few guidelines. First of all, you always need to clarify you’re linking to an affiliate and that you could earn money if a reader chooses to buy the product. In fact, it’s illegal not to do so in many countries. If you want to take this a step further, you could even consider adding a note to your site’s policies/terms of service that you use affiliate links so that you’re not responsible if someone misses your affiliate notice, buys a product, and gets mad that you got a percentage of the sale. Most of the time, this should be unnecessary, but hey, you never know — some people just freak out for no good reason. For more information, you should google your country’s laws regarding affiliate links in your online communications and dealings. If you’re in the U.S. or UK, you can check out these articles which give a brief summary of what these two regions of the world consider acceptable affiliate marketing practices:

­ https://www.ftc.gov/tips­advice/business­center/guidance/ftcs­endorsement­guides­what­people­are­asking#affiliate (United States)

­ https://www.cap.org.uk/News­reports/Media­Centre/2014/Affiliate­marketing­top­tips.aspx#.VuBTRvkrLVY (United Kingdom)

In addition to making it clear you use affiliate links, you also want to avoid using them to purchase the products for your own purposes. This should be a given, because it’s pretty unethical to try to make a commission off the sale of your own purchase (basically, you’re trying to give yourself a discount), and also because it’ll confuse the heck out of Sophie if she looks at our affiliate stats and sees you buying the courses you signed up to promote! You can, of course, click on your links to make sure they work, but don’t follow through and actually buy one of Sophie’s training courses through your own affiliate link. If you haven’t seen the courses already, and you’d like to take a look inside before you promote them, that’s perfectly fine — just email bree@beafreelanceblogger.com to request a sneak peek. Finally, you also want to steer clear of offering money­back offers or discounts if someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link. For example, let’s say you want to offer buyers $10 if they make an affiliate purchase through your link. Don’t do it! You’ll still end up with a nice affiliate commission, even with the $10 loss thanks to your bribe, but that’s exactly what it is: a bribe. It’s an unethical way to convince people to buy from you, and creates an

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unfair advantage over other bloggers, writers, and entrepreneurs who are also a part of the BAFB affiliate program. What can you do — legally and ethically — with your affiliate links, you ask? Well, you can feel free to offer non­monetary gifts, bonuses, or “good cause” donations from you with a purchase. For example, you can say “buy through this link and I’ll give you a free copy of my ebook, too” or “buy through this link and I’ll donate $10 to the Good Example Foundation’s Fund for Underprivileged Examples.” Basically, you’re allowed to be a philanthropist. :) If you’re unsure if the way you want to use your BAFB affiliate link is acceptable, please email Bree at bree@beafreelanceblogger.com and she’ll work with Sophie to get you an answer ASAP.

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Where to Place Affiliate Links Now let’s go over some of the best places you can display your links. Affiliate marketing is usually done through raw URLs (like this: http://www.beafreelanceblogger.com), text links (like this: Be a Freelance Blogger), or clickable images. If you’d rather use images with your affiliate links, Sophie’s provided you different images on the affiliate info page to use when you’re promoting the Get Started for Freelance Success and The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass courses. Whether you use links or images, there are 9 key areas on your website and online profiles you can promote BAFB courses: 1. Your emails Putting an affiliate link in your emails to your subscribers is one of the most effective ways of driving sales. You’re even more likely to make sales if you mention an affiliate product/resource in several emails, like in an autoresponder sequence. Part of the reason this method is so effective is because you not only help your readers directly by linking to BAFB courses, but you also build credibility with them simply because you’re associating yourself with Sophie and BAFB, which has become a well­known blog in the freelance writing world. Additionally, consider sending your affiliate link to an individual you’re acquainted with who might benefit from one of BAFB’s products. Because personal emails are completely individual and less markety­markety than mass messaging, this can be a very effective way of gaining a sale. Here’s an example of Sophie using an affiliate link in one of her emails:

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Tip: Be careful with using images in your emails. Hubspot found that while email users say they like images, they ultimately prefer simpler emails. Of course, you know your subscribers best, and if they’d be okay with an image linking to one of BAFB’s courses, feel free to include one! 2. Your resources page Many freelancers, bloggers, and writers have resource pages where they list out their favorite products and services with recommendations to check them out. BAFB training programs are a perfect fit for this page (if you have one), especially if you’ve taken one of the courses yourself and can personally vouch for it. You build trust with your audience when you do this, because instead of just sending them to a random tool that ends up disappointing them, you profit monetarily while also knowing your audience was given the help they needed. Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income blog has a very thorough resources page with lots of affiliate images and links:

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Tip: On your resources page, you can use either the full­width banner or the larger image Sophie made for the Get Started for Freelance Success and The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass courses. Placing a quick description of the course below the full­width banner or centered to the side of the larger image can make your resources page look organized and easy to navigate. 3. Your sidebar This is one of the most common places to put an affiliate link. Sidebars tend to show up on most of the pages of your site, which increases your chance of a reader clicking through to BAFB. If you choose to put a link in your sidebar, be aware some people may think it’s an ad instead of an affiliate link, so remember to disclose your affiliate relationship clearly. Here’s an example from food blogger Briana Thomas who has 3 affiliates in her sidebar:

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Tip: The squarer BAFB images are likely to work best in your sidebar. 4. Your blog posts Putting affiliate links within your blog posts is another great way to earn some commission. You can either make the affiliate reference blatantly (e.g. “In terms of how I got more clients, I have to give tons of kudos to The Freelance Blogger’s Client Hunting Masterclass course.”), or you can keep the affiliate link more understated (e.g. “Some client­hunting courses are easily worth your investment, while others are not.”). Keep in mind it’s best to not write a blog post solely for the purpose of promoting one of your affiliates’ products, which can look like you just want to make money. Instead, you want to make

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sure you organically link within a blog post to an affiliate whose product relates to your post’s topic and that you believe will honestly help your readers if they were to buy. On the other hand, you can also choose to review one of the affiliate products you promote. If you write an in­depth post about the product or service which clearly shows your readers why it’s useful and could benefit their lives, that’s another acceptable way of putting your affiliate links in front of people. As an example of an affiliate review done right, check out John Corcoran’s thorough review of membership site Fizzle.co (John even made a video walk­through of Fizzle for his readers!):

Tip: When you’re embedding links to affiliates in blog posts, we here at BAFB recommend you keep the link looking like all the others on your site to avoid confusion or even a sense of distrust among your readers. Links that are too big or too bright compared to your regular site’s links can look spammy. 5. Your podcasts This affiliate marketing technique is different from the rest, because it requires you to make a completely new link that’s easier for listeners to recall. What we mean is you can’t simply list out your entire BAFB affiliate URL in a podcast episode and expect listeners to write it down or remember it. Imagine how silly it would sound if you said, “To purchase the Get Started for

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Freelance Blogging Success course, go to http://www.beafreelanceblogger.com/getstarted?source=XXXXX.” Instead, you need to provide a shortened URL. The easiest way to do this is to sign up for a Bit.ly account and create a shortened URL which redirects to your affiliate link. Share this with your listeners within the podcast and in the show notes on the podcast’s dedicated page, and you’re all set. Alternatively, you can follow Pat Flynn’s route and purchase an easy­to­remember domain name (like www.startfreelanceblogging.com) and forward that to your affiliate URL. You can also consider using the plugin Pretty Link Lite to shorten your URLs. This plugin is free to install if you already own your own WordPress.org­based site (the plugin won’t work for WordPress.com sites). Pretty Link Lite makes it easy to create a custom URL like “yourblogname.com/gofreelance” or “yourblogname.com/getclients” and point it to your BAFB affiliate link. As always, make sure you clearly state in your podcast and on the podcast episode’s show notes you’re providing an affiliate link and will earn commission if your listener buys. Again, Pat Flynn is a master at this:

Note that in the podcast world, affiliate links are different from sponsorships. When you listen to almost any of your favorite online business podcasts, you’ll find they often mention brands like Freshbooks or Buffer are sponsoring that episode. Sponsors pay podcasters an agreed­upon amount per listener to promote their products in your show, whereas affiliates will only pay you a commission if your listener clicks through to buy their product. Tip: You can still use one of the BAFB course images in your show notes and link it to either your direct affiliate URL or use the shortened one you created.

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6. Your webinars Including affiliate links in any webinars you host or conduct is another way to create an income stream for yourself, even though it will only be a temporary influx of cash. However, many bloggers find they can make more money from one well­executed webinar than they can after months of putting affiliate links in blog posts, podcasts, sidebars, etc. Like podcasts, you can choose to create a shortened URL that redirects to your affiliate link so it’s easier for your attendees to remember. Alternatively, you can simply use your regular BAFB affiliate link and make sure you keep it up on the screen for a long period of time so people can copy it, or include the link in the webinar’s chat system. As always, you need to disclose you’re linking to an affiliate when you choose to include one of them in your webinars. And much like we discussed in regards to blog posts, don’t set up a webinar just so you can link to a bunch of your affiliates. That reeks of scammy intentions (because… well, they just are), and you’re more likely to get complaints than commission. However, you can set up a webinar explaining how one affiliate in particular can help your attendees. For example, if you use LeadPages conversion software and your readers have been asking you how they can improve their email sign­ups, you could host a webinar about how LeadPages’ features can help them reach those goals. On one final note, many bloggers will offer an extra bonus to their attendees if they purchase the pitched affiliate product through their link. As noted on the BAFB affiliate info page, this is one way we encourage you to use your affiliate link. Offering bonuses or donations to charitable causes if your readers purchase through your link is both an ethical and effective way to drive purchases.

Tip: You can use one of the BAFB course images if you want to liven up the slide on your webinar where you put the affiliate link. 7. Your own products Do you have your own digital products or courses for free or for sale? Great! Consider putting in an affiliate link to any BAFB courses you think would be appropriate for your audience.

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For an ebook or similar digital product, the best way to do this would likely be a simple text­based link. This way you can naturally weave in the affiliate information into your content. You can, of course, include one of the BAFB affiliate images in these kinds of products, as well, but we suggest both a) making sure you clarify for your audience if you make the image clickable and b) including a text­based link anyway so there’s no confusion about where to get the BAFB product. For courses, you can easily include either a text­based or image­based link to a BAFB course on the screen. Don’t forget to add a text­based link in the resources section for whatever module you include the affiliate information. As an example, here’s a free guide offered by BAFB’s own Affiliate Coordinator Bree Brouwer which features affiliate links scattered and clearly noted throughout the guide:

Tip: Be careful with how many affiliate links you add to your own products. If it’s a guide or resource, it’s likely you’ll include more than just one link overall. However, you shouldn’t feel the need to overwhelm audiences with tons of BAFB affiliate links; as always, only include what you feel people will benefit from and what you think will add to the value of your own product. 8. Your P.S. Kind of a surprising location to add an affiliate link, huh? However, it can be surprisingly effective depending on how attentive your audience is to your emails. By linking to an affiliate in your postscript (P.S.), you’re likely to snag people’s attention just as they’re finishing up with whatever content they were looking at. And if the affiliate link you add in your P.S. directly relates to your content and provides more value to readers, you’re that much more likely to convince them to click through and purchase a BAFB course. You can provide an affiliate­linked P.S. in your emails, newsletters, or even your blog posts.

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In Ramit Sethi’s own affiliate guide for his Zero to Launch program, he provides an example of how well social media guru Laura Roeder uses her email P.S. to drive her audience to Sethi’s program (he claims Laura sends him tons of traffic on a regular basis because of this tactic):

Tip: Make sure you switch out what affiliates you link to in your P.S. on a semi­regular basis (and yes, this means affiliates other than BAFB). If you constantly push only one affiliate on your audience, they’re likely to tune out and not pay attention anymore. You may need to test to see how often you should switch out affiliate links in order to get the maximum impact and results from your audience. 9. Your social media Marketing your affiliate links on social media is a fantastic, immediate way to get the information directly in front of your audiences. It’s obviously a more short­term solution for earning commissions, but if you use it correctly, you can send lots of targeted traffic to your affiliate link in short bursts. The way this typically looks is that you dedicate an entire social post solely to talking about and linking to your affiliate. You might lead with a quick introduction or headline about the value of

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the affiliate, and then provide the link (on Twitter, you might need to use a shortened URL to stay within the character limit and also avoid looking scammy). It’s important to note that using affiliate links in social media can sometimes be considered controversial. If you’re not very clear that you’re using an affiliate link, internet users won’t hesitate to call you a spammer. Also, some social media sites are very picky about what they allow you to link to. Reddit, for example, is notorious for blocking users who link to their own or affiliates’ products; all it takes is enough complaints and downvotes (e.g. dislikes) from the community for the site to ban you. That being said, using affiliate links in social media shouldn’t be avoided if you believe it’s a tactic which your audience will receive well. All you need to do is invest proper research into the social platforms you want to try out and the suggested best practices for handling affiliate links on those sites. Here’s an example of a tweet Chris Brogan sent out in 2011 without indicating it hosted an affiliate link for StudioPress themes (this triggered a very interesting discussion about whether or not every single Tweet with an affiliate link needs to be disclosed on Twitter, a question which still doesn’t seem to be answered yet):

Tip: Like using affiliate links in your P.S., make sure you switch out the frequency and types of affiliates you’re linking to on social media.

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You’re All Set! Congrats on getting through the guide! You’re now officially ready to start rockin’ your BAFB affiliate links across your various online platforms to start driving sales and earning yourself some sweet, sweet commissions. While we’ve done our best to cover as much as possible in this affiliate guide, we realize you might still have questions about the BAFB affiliate program. If this is the case, you can contact Bree at bree@beafreelanceblogger.com. She’ll do her best to get back to you within 7 days. Thanks, and keep being an awesome affiliate! Sophie + the BAFB team

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