Do you sell your own products from your Christian blog? Or maybe you sell products from a marketplace such as Etsy? Wondering how to get more people to buy your stuff?
Offer an affiliate program so other bloggers can lighten your (marketing) workload!
No matter how you sell, offering your own affiliate program can significantly increase the reach of your products (and increase your sales)!
Why Create an Affiliate Program
Why should you create an affiliate program? Simple. To get more visibility to your amazing products!
If you are selling from your blog, your reach is limited to just the people coming to your site. And for most product creators, that traffic is extremely limited.
If you sell via a marketplace such as Etsy, you will get organic traffic from the Etsy search feature. But Etsy is literally flooded with similar products. And while Etsy does offer an affiliate program, most Christian bloggers won’t get approved because they don’t approve “religious” sites to be affiliates. (Yes, I know this is silly since they obviously let them sell stuff!)
When you create an affiliate program for your products, other bloggers can and will promote your products to their audiences. Imagine how many more eyes will get to see your awesome creations?
And let’s be honest, Christian bloggers struggle to find affiliate programs outside of the standard (Amazon, etc). They would much rather prefer to recommend your prayer journal or bible study than the ones on Amazon!
So, by offering an affiliate program, you are not only increasing the potential for your own income to grow, but you are helping other Christian bloggers grow their income as well.
How To Create an Affiliate Program
Getting started with your own affiliate program is actually quite simple!
Choose an Affiliate Platform
There are many different programs that you can use to set up your program. You’ll want to research each one to ensure it is the best fit for your needs.
Some common ones include:
- Sendowl
- Gumroad
- Payhip
- Ultimate Affiliates Pro
Some offer a free plan where they simply take a small fee from each sale made. Others require a monthly subscription (and still take a small fee from each sale).
Related: Sendowl, Gumroad, or Payhip – Which One Should I Choose
Create Your Product Listings
Adding products to your new shop is pretty simple. Just follow the instructions in your particular program.
The most important thing to remember is to upload really great mockups of your product! For example, if you offer a prayer journal bundle, don’t just add a picture of the cover page. You should have mockups that show the individual pages that are included.
Most people make their decision to buy a product based on how they SEE it. So make sure your images truly reflect what they will get!
Set Your Affiliate Commission Rate
Once you get everything set up, there will be a place for you to enter the commission rate for your affiliates. But, what percentage of each sale should you give them?
That is really up to you. I’m a big fan of being super generous because they are doing all of the extra work. Sure, the more you give them the less you will earn from each sale. But you wouldn’t earn anything if they weren’t out there promoting your products, right?
I’d say anywhere from 25% or higher is a great start. If you have products that are a bit expensive, maybe increase it to 40% or more.
My affiliates earn 25% for promoting my coloring books and prayer journals. These range in price from $2 – $12. But my course affiliates earn 40% and the courses run as high as $200-$350.
Ultimately, you decide how much to reward them for their hard work!
Promote Your Affiliate Program
Once everything is set up and ready to go, you need to find people to join your program! Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Ask other bloggers in your niche to join
- Get listed on the Kingdom Bloggers Master Affiliate List!
- Add a section to your Shop page (on your blog) to let others know you offer an affiliate program and how to join. Depending on which program you are using, you might be given a direct signup link. If not, you’ll need to let them know to contact you via email (provide the email address) or via DM (I have mine contact me via FB message) to minimize spam emails.
Nurture Your AFfiliates to Success
The best way for you to be successful is to empower and prepare your affiliates to be successful!
I’ve joined a lot of affiliate programs (from other bloggers) over the years and most of them simply do not help their affiliates once they are signed up. There are a few that do and, as a result, they tend to make more sales.
To help your affiliates be more successful:
- Create images for them to use on social, in their blog posts, and to share on Pinterest. Make sure these images have great mockups of the product!
- Create swipe copy – This is text that can be shared in email or on social media to describe the product.
- Offer then a GENEROUS discount code so they can buy your products.
- Let them know they can reach out to you if they need additional promotional materials.
If you choose an affiliate platform that doesn’t offer an affiliate hub, create one on your site. You can see the one I created for mine. This gives them instructions for getting the links for each product, as well as provides images for them to use. (You can make this page NO INDEX so it doesn’t impact SEO.
Create an email segment just for your affiliates and encourage them to sign up. This way, you can let them know about sales they can promote, as well as new products that you’ve created.
At the end of the day, you want your products to get in front of as many eyes as possible. Let your affiliates lighted the marketing load for you!
