When you are an entrepreneur, there is one important thing to put in place as quickly as possible, and that is the diversification and automation of your income. In this article we are going to talk about the subject of affiliation to increase your income.

When you are a coach, using online training to increase the value of your programs and free up your time is already a first step towards this financial autonomy and can be supplemented by other actions, such as the implementation of 'an affiliate strategy.

When we talk about affiliation, we often think of promoting other people's products, however, you can also consider affiliation from another angle as we will see in this article.

But before that, I will introduce myself. I am Myriam, aka madamb, I have been a geek entrepreneur since 2016 and am passionate about web marketing. I was invited to the MyKlub blog to present to you affiliation as I have been practicing it for several years, namely a ethical and authentic affiliation which allowed me to obtain additional income and diversify my activity.

Besides, it's time to get to the heart of the matter by discovering the 2 major affiliate strategies that you can implement in your business in order toincrease your income inasmuch as online coach or trainer.

Affiliation to increase your coaching income by recommending other people's products

Whether personally or professionally, many of us recommend products that we are satisfied with to those around us and, very often, we do so free of charge.

Affiliation consists of carrying out the same work of recommending products, with the difference that you are paid to do it, in the form of commissions. Indeed, when we makeprofessional affiliation, it is no longer a question of recommending products only to those around you but to a large number of people in order to get a satisfactory remuneration. 

Now that the framework is set, know that there are 2 ways to do affiliation to increase your income.

Niche Affiliation 

In niche affiliation, the main goal is more financial. Indeed, we will choose a niche for its profitable aspect and no longer necessarily by affinity with the theme.

For example, you can choose to position yourself in the breeding niche of a very rare breed of dog. And this even if it is not your passion but only for the financial potential of this niche.

Entrepreneurs who opt for this strategy make it a full-fledged activity in their business. And will often position themselves in several hyper-profitable niches.

However, as an online coach or trainer, niche affiliation is not necessarily a suitable concept unlike product affiliation.

Product affiliation

Product affiliation, for its part, consists of offering your audience products related to their needs and expectations.

In product affiliation, the objective is to match our values with those of our target.

Product affiliation can serve as a starting point for launching a business. Or, complement an existing business to offer products that our target needs but that we do not want or cannot offer them.

For example, if you are a sports coach, you can offer sporting goods, food supplements or even gym subscriptions as an affiliation.

If you are reading this article, it is most likely because you already have an existing activity 😀. So know that product affiliation can really help you develop and diversify your income. And you can even implement a real strategy, as if the products you offer were yours

And yes, with affiliation, the big advantage is that you no longer need to create a product. However, the crucial stage of sales remains very much present and even constitutes the reason for affiliation.

Affiliation or carpet seller?

When you do affiliation, there is no question of playing carpet salesman because, not only, are you putting your reputation as an online coach or trainer at stake. But also because, by practicing this type of sale, the prospects just risk fleeing which could, in addition, be detrimental to your main activity. So let’s look at the main principles to follow to successfully set up an affiliation. A way that allows you to generate additional income smoothly:

Offer quality products

As I said above, I advocate ethical and authentic affiliation. And in this context, I strongly advise you to only recommend products that you have personally tested and used for yourself.

For my part, I have never purchased a product with the aim of promoting it through affiliation. On the contrary, it is when I am satisfied with a product that I will look to see if there is an affiliate program for it.

Authentic communication

When it comes to how you are going to promote affiliate products, it's all about being as authentic as possible.

So, just like selling your own products, you will be able to use the different channels where your target is located and on which you are comfortable in order to promote products such as:

• your blog, if you have one, to present a product or compare it to other products of the same type. This will allow you to have long-term visibility.

• social networks to benefit from the interactive side and immediate visibility
• the podcast or YouTube for the friendly side and long-term visibility
• the newsletter: for the private and privileged circle. This channel is surely the best because your subscribers trust you and will have little hesitation in purchasing a product that you have recommended to them
• your own products: you will be able to easily integrate affiliate links to products related to your training or coaching programs within them.

My way of doing things for my business:

For my part, I was able to earn affiliate income via 2 main channels: my blog and my newsletter. With my blog I talked about the tools I used. And in my newsletter I promote online programs where the investment is more substantial and requires a real relationship of trust.

It was with one of my blog posts that I sent many clients to an administrative management platform that I was previously using.

And, it is through my newsletter that many subscribers with whom I had established a relationship of trust chose to register for training programs that I offered as an affiliate.

Of course, the programs I was promoting correlated with my core business. Activity which consisted of offering entrepreneurs training to create their website independently.

Thus, the products that I offered allowed my subscribers to develop their project or acquire new skills.

Finally, in my training program, I also offered affiliate links to complementary products such as:

• plugins to add additional features
• training allowing you to discover strategies to accelerate the development of the visibility of a website
• tools complementary to the website: auto-responder, marketing platform.

Now that we have seen how to use affiliation by promoting other people's products, let's see concretely how affiliation can help you develop sales of your coaching programs or online training.

Which tools should I choose to make product affiliation easy? 

If you want to do product affiliation, there are 2 options. Either get the affiliate link directly from the seller of the product if they offer it. Either go to marketplaces where you can find a plethora of products.

Among the affiliate platforms available, several are particularly suited to online coaches and trainers looking to diversify their sources of income. 

• Awin: offers a wide range of international products to promote. Which can be beneficial for those targeting a global audience. 
• For professionals in the coaching and online training sector: 1TPE. It stands out by offering a selection of exclusively French-speaking digital products, including training, ebooks and other relevant resources. 
• Affilae: provides a complete platform to effectively manage affiliate programs. All with advanced features such as performance tracking and payment management. 
• ShareASale: offers a diverse range of products and services to promote. It enables partnerships in various sectors. Which can be beneficial for online coaches and trainers looking to diversify their affiliate portfolio.
• Amazon partner allows you to offer fairly common products like books, sports items, etc.

Affiliation to increase sales of your online coaching programs

You will have understood, just as you can promote the products of others, you can also offer your own affiliate program so that interested people tell their communities about your programs.

Why set up an affiliate system for your online coaching programs?

As said above, affiliation involves promoting products. In other words, it’s pure and hard selling. 

Moreover, it may be, for different reasons, that you need a little help to increase your sales because:

• you don't like sales 😵‍💫
• you want to get more visibility and expand your community 🤩
• you don't want to go through paid advertising 🤑

Whatever your motivation, affiliation can allow you to increase your sales without requiring a lot of effort.

Affiliate marketing can even be a very profitable way to acquire new prospects and customers. Especially if your affiliates do quality work, hence the importance of...

Choose your affiliates wisely to develop your income effectively

The question of choosing affiliates is an essential question to address before offering your affiliate program.

For this, you have 2 options:

• mass strategy, which means allowing anyone who wishes to talk about your products.

This strategy, although it may seem interesting in terms of numbers, is not the most judicious. Indeed, do you really think that a person who has no knowledge of what you are proposing is in the best position to talk about it?

Also, opting for a mass strategy devalues your product since it no longer appears as a preferred offer.

Since my training was recommended in an affiliate training course, many students who had completed this training asked me to join my affiliate program. For a while, I accepted their requests without being convinced that they would make sales since they did not know the content of my training, which was indeed the case.

Furthermore, this mass strategy can only be applied to products that you can sell unlimitedly. Like e-learning training programs and not high-ticket support where you give your time.

• the qualitative strategy: here, you will carefully select your affiliates. That is to say the people who will have the privilege of promoting your offers. For the success of this strategy, I strongly recommend that you entrust this mission to your clients or to people with whom you have already collaborated and with whom you share common values.

As you can imagine, my best affiliates have been my clients and partners.

Define the conditions of your affiliate program

If there is one thorny issue when doing affiliation, it is that of the commission rate.

Indeed, for the market to be fair, you must find a balance between the amount of remuneration which will motivate your affiliates to recommend your offers and that which will allow you to make a profit.

Thus, affiliation rates differ depending on the type of product:

• on a pure e-learning traininge, that is to say without intervention on your part, the commission rates generally vary between 30 and 50%.
• on the personalized accompaniments where you will intervene in coaching sessions, individual or group, the commission rate will depend on your intervention time, the more this is important, the lower the commissions will be high. The minimum practiced being 10%, we then speak of business contribution rather than affiliation.

Pamper your affiliates

We're not going to lie to each other, you and I as entrepreneurs, our schedule is often busy so if we have to promote a product from another entrepreneur, it has to be motivating. You will have understood, if you want your affiliates to bring results, you will have to make their lives as easy as possible. To do this, here are some possible actions to take:

• propose visuals that they can directly use in their communication
• offer text models that can be used as a basis for affiliates to present your offer 
• offer a detailed guide in which you will explain the conditions of the affiliate program and how to obtain your affiliate link
• propose a reward system based on the number of sales made. For example, you can choose to increase the commission rate after reaching defined milestones.

Having experienced it in the affiliate program linked to my website creation training, affiliates, in particular those for whom this is the main activity, need advantageous conditions to promote an affiliate product. Otherwise, they will prefer to promote an offer that will be more beneficial for them.

Conclusion

In conclusion, affiliation offers online coaches and trainers a strategic opportunity to diversify their income. All while strengthening their presence on the market. By choosing relevant products and recommending them in an ethical and authentic way, you can not only increase your revenue, but also enrich your customers' experience.

After deciding to create online training, we want to see our sales increase from month to month. And establish your own affiliate program, you can expand their reach and generate additional sales. And this without resorting to paid advertising efforts. By intelligently integrating affiliation into your overall strategy, you can strengthen your positioning as a coach and online trainer in your area of expertise. You will be able to ensure long-term financial stability.

You now know how to use affiliation to increase your income and sales. Are you thinking of integrating affiliation into your activity? Share your opinion in comments.

To get geeky advice suitable for non-geeks, you can find me on my blog myriam-madamb.com