This post goes into great detail on the most profitable short-term affiliate promotion I’ve done since I started my first blog in November 2014.
(And in this post about affiliate marketing, there are appropriately placed affiliate links — which means I may earn commission should you make a purchase based on something I recommend. Interested in learning how to begin earning affiliate commission yourself? Keep reading — that’s exactly what you’ll learn in this post!)
As a contributing affiliate for Ultimate Bundles, I generated more than $14k in commission in six days by promoting The Ultimate Work-at-Home Bundle, which was a $47 product.
I contributed one of my eBooks to the Bundle which meant I qualified for a 70% commission rate on all sales from my link. Non-contributing affiliates get a 40% commission.
The boost in commission as a contributor is definitely a strong reason to create your own products and make sure they shine so you can contribute them to the bundle!
Affiliate marketing is NOT my strong suit!
If you’ve already read my crazy-detailed income report about earning $1.7 million in my first two years as a blogger, then you know I actually generate most of my blog revenue from my own products: online courses.
However, I do some affiliate marketing by promoting colleagues’ courses that are relevant to my audience, along with products I use and recommend.
Revenue from affiliate marketing usually adds up to about 10% of the total revenue in any given month. For example, in the month of April 2017, total revenue was $244,798. Affiliate revenue was $27,668 — 11.3% of the total.
Even though revenue generated from my own products alone would be plenty, it is smart to diversify into multiple income streams.
My husband and I spend WAY below what we earn, and because of affiliate revenue streams I feel confident that even if all of my products were to disappear one day, all the bills would still be paid by those additional income streams… and we wouldn’t have to change our lifestyle at all.
If you are brand new to affiliate marketing, I highly recommend learning from Michelle Schroeder-Gardner through her Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. I originally enrolled in her course specifically for the ability to connect with her students and find affiliates for my courses, but I have learned a ton from the course content and the Facebook group as well!
“Wait… you earned $14,063 from ONE product in less than a week!? Prove it!”
Yeah, yeah… I know you’re skeptical. I would be too, especially if I were new at blogging.
So before I get into all the details of HOW I generated this amount of commission, I thought I’d prove that I actually did it 🙂
Here’s a screenshot from within my affiliate tracking area. Ultimate Bundles uses Infusionsoft. It shows the date range of June 6-13 and the net commission minus refunds as $14,063.65:
Here’s the screenshot from Ultimate Bundles’ final leaderboard email.
There was a sales contest among affiliates, and the amount of bundles I sold — not the commission amount! — landed me in first place in that contest… which got me a brand new MacBook!
However, since I already have a MacBook Pro that works just fine, I gave the new MacBook to my mom: