So you want to make money on YouTube? Some
people think that getting monetized on YouTube is the end all be all for making money
on YouTube. But what if I told you there was an even better way of making money and it didn't
require any monetization. You in? Let's go! Affiliate programs are an easy way for YouTuber
to make money. So in today's video, I'm going to be breaking down the best affiliate programs
for YouTube. I have a video that's all about getting monetized on YouTube. And because of
that video, I get all sorts of questions in my DMS. And in my comments saying, "how can I make
money?" And while monetization is important, when you're first starting out, it shouldn't
be the end all be all there actually way better ways to make money. And I talk
about all of those in this video right here, where I talk about the different ways
to make money on your YouTube channel.
But in this video specifically, I'm going
to talk about one of the easiest, best ways, the number one thing you should be doing as soon
as you start your channel. And that is affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate
marketing is where you promote someone else's products. And as a result of someone clicking
on your link and purchasing that product, you get a commission. It's a very easy way for
companies to promote their products and get the word out because instead of them spending
all this money on advertising and trying to find new buyers and find new people and get
in front of all of these different people, instead, they can have their affiliates do that
for them. And hopefully the affiliates have very loyal communities, which means that anytime the
affiliate mentions a product or talks about a product or recommends a product, their community
is going to trust them and purchase through them.
So for you as a YouTuber this is one of the
easiest ways to monetize your channel without monetization, because you most likely have an
audience or you are growing an audience. And depending on what your channel is about,
there's probably products that you use in making your channel or that you talk about
on your channel. So as a result, it makes sense for you to be compensated by talking and
promoting those products.
And that's why affiliate marketing is so great because no matter
what your channel, you can be a finance channel, you can be a beauty channel, you can be a gaming
channel, you can be a photography channel. There most likely are products that you use. And you
talk about either in making your videos or that you mentioned on your channel. So the way that
affiliate marketing works is that you sign up for someone's affiliate program, and then you get
a unique link, which you are supposed to use when you're talking about that product. Depending
on how complicated the affiliate program is, this can just be one general link that goes to
the website and they can purchase from there. Or you can do product specific links where
you can send someone directly to that exact product that you're talking about. These links
have tracking cookies, which tie back to you. So if someone does end up purchasing, then
the affiliate knows that it came from you, you are the refer and you get a commission.
Every
program is different in how long this tracking cookie lasts. Some programs it's only for 24 hours
and other programs are for as long as a year; meaning that if someone clicked your link
and they looked around and they didn't buy, but they came back six months later and
then purchase that product, if the tracking cookie was enabled for a year, you still get
credit for the sale and you get a commission. Every affiliate program is set up differently.
So
just make sure to read the terms and conditions. Here on my channel I teach people how to
use YouTube and video marketing to grow their business. So I use a variety of
affiliate programs. I of course use the Amazon associates program. I use TubeBuddy.
I have links to Adobe because I use and recommend those products and the list goes
on and on, but they are very specific to me. So now let's jump into the best affiliate
programs for YouTubers. Now I understand that YouTube is an incredibly broad term. You could
be a lifestyle YouTuber or a gaming YouTuber, and those are totally different.
So I try to
pick affiliate programs that could apply to nearly anyone in any niche. However, not all
of these may apply to you and your channel, but the majority of them do. So let's check it out.
Now, the very first affiliate program is Amazon associates. Now there is a reason that this is
the number one affiliate program that I recommend. And that is because Amazon has everything,
everything! I've used, Amazon affiliates for nearly 10 years at this point. And it's a
very good, simple program. Their dashboard, maybe isn't the best, but whatever it works
and they have a system that works. But one thing I will note is that they have different
affiliate programs for different countries. So if I'm in the US I have to sign up the US
affiliate program. Then if I have viewers in Canada and I want to use amazon.ca links, I
need to sign up for their affiliate program or amazon.ca.
So then the same thing for the UK and
Germany and France and the Philippines and India, it's kind of a bummer. You have to sign up
for each of the individual affiliate programs, but I have a solution for you, which will solve
all of this. So the way that I fixed this problem with having all of these different Amazon accounts
for all these different countries is I use a company called Geniuslink.
And the great thing
about Geniuslink is that it takes all of your individual, Amazon associates accounts, one for
us, UK, Australia, yada, yada, you get the picture and it puts them in one account. It creates one
master link. And then when someone clicks that link, depending on what country they're in, it
will direct them to your affiliate link for that country.
And so this is great because I don't
have to create all of these different affiliate links for all of these different countries.
Instead, I just have one link to rule them all. One link to rule them all. If you're interested in checking out
Amazon Associates and signing up, I have a link down below. If you recommend a
lot of products on Amazon, Geniuslink is a game saver (changer). You absolutely need to sign up
for this service because there are so many missed sales that you're probably missing out on because
you're not forwarding to the right country. So I have a link down below. They do have a free
trial that you can check out. Now, the next type of affiliate programs that you can sign up for are
for these marketplaces. So Amazon definitely is a marketplace, but it is just in its own tier.
That's why I kept it separately, but there are other marketplaces out there that have a variety
of products.
For example, eBay and Etsy. eBay, and Etsy each have their own affiliate programs.
And if you are recommending a lot of products that are on these companies, then you'll definitely
want to sign up for their affiliate programs. For example, if you have a channel all about
Pokemon cards and you are always referring to E-bay, so people can buy their cards, you would
definitely want to capitalize on that. And instead of just using a generic eBay link, you want to
use your affiliate. eBay link that way. If they end up purchasing something on the site, let's
say they spend a thousand dollars on a super rare holographic card.
And as a commission, you
would get paid a percentage of that. So if Etsy and eBay are big for your niche and for your
channel, definitely sign up for their programs, links down below. Now, next up is the Shopify
affiliate program. And you're probably like, "Shopify, really?" The reason
I recommend Shopify is because everybody who has an e-commerce
store uses Shopify, not everybody, but basically everybody, their platform is so
easy.
It's so simple. It's very affordable. So all sorts of people are creating their
shops on Shopify. So all you have to do is sign up as a Shopify affiliate. Then
any traffic that you direct to a Shopify site. You will get a commission for that. This is
a great way for you to support products that are more small businesses, because a lot of small
businesses use Shopify shops versus Amazon, which is just this big multinational conglomerate
at this point. So if you love shopping small, and you recommend a lot of those products, that
Shopify affiliates is the way to go.
So the last type of affiliate program that I recommend
are the affiliate networks. And these are really great because what they do instead
of you having to sign up for all of these individual affiliate networks, I have to sign
up for target. I have to sign up for Amazon. I have to sign up for Etsy. I have to sign up
for eBay. The list can go on and on. That is a lot to manage, and you may not have the time
for that. So you can sign up for a network which basically houses all of the affiliate programs
under one roof. There are quite a few of these, but the most common are RewardStyle, ShopStyle
and ShareASale because of the breadth of stores and products that are included in these
networks. I highly recommend signing up for them because it's just going to make your life so
much easier that you just have one affiliate portal you have to go to, and you only get paid
out one time versus signing up individually to potentially hundreds of different affiliates.
The great thing is you could be referring sales from a variety of different companies, and those
all still count as your one payment threshold.
So I know the next question you're asking, trust
me, it's all about the money. How do you get paid? Every affiliate program is different in when they
pay out, but typically most programs will pay out on a monthly basis. And depending on the program,
there may be a threshold that you need to hit before they pay you out. Some programs you have
to hit $100 in commissions before they will pay you out. I'll include links to all of these down
below, but I want to talk a little bit more about rewardStyle specifically, because if you are a
fashion blogger or more of a lifestyle blogger, this is definitely one that you want to sign
up for, but it's invitation only, meaning that you have to have an existing member refer you.
And
however, are you going to find an existing member? I am a member of RewardStyle, and I
do think it is a fantastic network. I just loved their system. I love their app. It's
pretty simple. It's pretty painless. So if you actually want a referral, I actually can't just
give you a link to sign up. I have to manually submit that, but I'll include a form in the
description where you can submit your information. And once every few weeks I will go through those
and I will kick off the referral process. Now, one note about these affiliate networks. They do
include Amazon in these affiliate networks, which is great. However, Amazon recently changed the
way that they do their reporting for affiliates through these networks. So you no longer can see
which products are the ones that people click. If they're using your links from RewardStyle,
ShopStyle, and ShareASale.
So all that you'll see in the dashboard is that someone bought something
from Amazon and you got this payout and this isn't to me, because I want to know specifically
which products I'm recommending are doing well. So for me, even though I am a part
of these networks, I still have a separate Amazon associates account. And
whenever I have an Amazon product, I use that account instead of this main account,
because I want to know specifically which products I'm recommending are actually selling.
If
you don't really care to have that visibility and having an extra affiliate program is too much of a
hassle then great. Don't worry about it. Just sign up for the one account to rule them all. Using
affiliate programs for your YouTube channel is an easy way to make money. You just include
the links in your description, and that way, anytime anyone's watching your videos, they
can just click the link and purchase. And then a commission is coming your way. So I hope
you have a better understanding about the best affiliate program…bleh bleh bleh.
Programs, not programmers. So I hope you now have a better understanding about the
best affiliate programs for YouTubers. And of course, links to all of the different
programs are down below. And of course, some of them may be affiliate links, and
I may get a commission for referring you. So thank you very much! But if you want to expand
your money-making opportunities on YouTube, beyond monetization and beyond affiliates, check
out this video right here, because I talk about even more ways that you can make money with
YouTube.
However, however, eBay and Etsy eats eat $25. Is it $25? But the great thing is since
you know, not taking this call right now for Ohio. I use TubeBuddy, which is a
TubeBuddy, which is a TubeBuddy tool?.
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