Many content creators like you and me are eager to earn a side income by selling products through our online marketing channels.
We hear the promise of free hosting and free software tools to help promote our content, but it doesn't take long before we realize that if we want to make a substantial impact and reach more people with our message, eventually we need to invest in premium software and paid marketing tools.
So the question becomes, how can we cover the costs of these products and services if we aren't making any money?
The easy answer to that question has always been; affiliate marketing. Ultimately it's a pretty straight forward solution that helps everyone reach their goals. The product owner gets others to sell their product, the affiliate (that's you and me) earns an honest commission, and the buyer ends up with a product they need. As long as everyone plays by the rules, in the end everybody's happy!
I recall when I first got started as a new affiliate marketer, I signed up for many ad networks and programs in my niche. From Clickbank to Shareasale and Amazon associates, and a handful of others that either closed their doors or their product offerings didn't hit home with my audience [who remembers SEO Pressor or Noble Samurai?].
In order to be successful, I needed to learn how to make money with affiliate marketing by creating video tutorials on YouTube and embedding them in blog posts on my website. Even though I have a full-time job, I viewed affiliate earnings as another lucrative income stream.
I learned a lot since I began my “online money-making” journey back in 2010, and I’m here to tell you that all affiliate programs are not created equal, especially when it comes to your payouts!
TubeBuddy's affiliate program is one of the best around and in this post, I'll show you how it checks all the boxes on my checklist and why it's become one of my favorites!
TubeBuddy Affiliate Program for YouTubers
Now that you know I bit about my experience with affiliate programs, I'd like to share a bit about my experience with the TubeBuddy Affiliate Program and what you can expect. Watch this video for a deep dive: TubeBuddy Affiliate Program but continue reading here for now if that's your thing.
I've been a TubeBuddy super affiliate for years now (since 2015) but here's an exercise I did recently just to see how TubeBuddy performs compared to my other ways I use to monetize my online presence. I opened all of my top money-makers and jotted down each month's income and affiliate commissions one by one. I eventually ended up creating an Excel spreadsheet with a pie-chart to give myself a visual representation of the affiliate tracking results.
- YouTube (Adsense + Super Chat and Super Stickers) is 54%
- TubeBuddy is 20% (btw – this is my affiliate link 🤓)
- Patreon is 13%
- Ecamm Live is 9%
- Amazon is 4%
Take a look at a snapshot from the dashboard we get. I love how easy it is for us to keep track of our earnings and recurring commission. Some merchant dashboards (like Commission Junction for example) are so confusing, this one is very straight-forward, don't you agree?
I wish more affiliate programs would take a page out of TubeBuddy's book and provide easy access to how much money we earn and what we can expect in the month ahead!
Help Affiliates Promote Your Product
As an active content creator, I know you feel my pain when I yell into the abyss and say “I'm super busy!”
These days it seems that everyone has a to-do list that is a mile long. As an affiliate, I need you to make my job of promoting your product super easy and very efficient. TubeBuddy checks this box in many ways, starting with their gorgeous banners and other promotional assets. Head over to the Affiliate Center to find promotional images for every major platform in every size and shape an affiliate marketer can imagine 🙋🏽♀️
On the program you will get your affiliate payouts each month deposited directly to your Paypal account and it's important to note that your commission rate will increase based on how many paid referrals you generate for TubeBuddy.
The only thing that needs improvement in this area is the addition of “swipe copy” so we can easily send a dedicated email blast to our mailing list, or to run a contest or give-away on social media.
The Honest Truth and a Pleasant Surprise
Honestly friends, I surprised to see TubeBuddy in the number 2 spot, but what really takes my breath away is to see Patreon and Ecamm Live leaving Amazon so far behind in the ranking. I spend a lot of time promoting my Amazon store, including going live on recently launched Amazon Live platform.
Doing this little exercise proved to be a pleasant surprise in addition to the inspiration for this long over due blog post!
In all fairness, software tools like TubeBuddy (often referred to as SaaS = software as a service) do have a built-in advantage over physical product stores like Amazon. Subscription services can benefit from the recurring revenue business model to generate a source of perpetual income. With that said, there are plenty of other affiliate programs that don't offer recurring revenue to their affiliate partners. You make a one-time commission when the customer you referred signs up and that's it!
Fortunately for us, TubeBuddy does offer recurring revenue to all affiliates!
Time for a TubeBuddy Gif
I want you to get excited, that's why I made the Gif 😂
The team at TubeBuddy is making some next-level type connections with their community and providing a platform for them to have more exposure and visibility.
Dusty Porter hosts the TubeBuddy Express Podcast, which is another example of how TubeBuddy supports their community of users with helpful discussions and tips to help us succeed on YouTube.
There is another reason I'm excited to be part of TubeBuddy's affiliate program. They recently granted me a custom landing page for people to visit when they click my link. This is the header they'll find at the top of the page.
I was floored when they told me I could be featured this way and I don't think any of the other programs I'm a part of has featured my testimonial so prominently. Typically my review appears alongside a group of other niche influceners clumped together one after another. Custom landing pages are usually reserved for YouTubers with huge followings like Derral Eves, Nick Nimmin or Sunny Lenarduzzi. I'm not gonna lie — this made me feel really special. I feel like I'm being appreciated for my contribution to the community.
If you have your own website and you want to get started with monetization, you can start blogging about products you use and want to share with your audience. Sign up for their affiliate marketing program and if they have great tools for their affiliates like TubeBuddy has, then go ahead and give it a try. It can be an additional stream of passive income for you too. For example, if you are a blogger you can add a widget to your sidebar or footer area. You might also be using email marketing and you can always recommend affiliate products to your email list.
Click Here to Join the TubeBuddy Affiliate Program
Leave a comment or share your feedback about TubeBuddy, head over to this post on my YouTube Community tab!
If you are interested in signing up for TubeBuddy, you will get a 20% discount with the code ILEANESBUDDY when you checkout!
LEARN MORE
- TubeBuddy Can Rescue Your Dying YouTube Channel
- TubeBuddy Blog
- TubeBuddy 101 Live Q&A with Andrew Kan and Rob Balasabas