An Armada of Affiliates

One of the most important items on my to-do list was to revamp Business Bloomer affiliate program (I mean, I never did anything with it really, so anything would have been awesome).

Like every Friday since the beginning of September 2021, I spent the day working on my business. And same as last Friday, I got work done first and then wrote this recap post.

Today, I focused on Business Bloomer Affiliate Program. I’ve had this active for years but never did anything with it, so it was right about time to redesign it and rethink the whole strategy.

Here’s a quick recap so that you (maybe) can do the same with yours or get some inspiration.

All products, or go home

I used to pay affiliates only for online course referrals (not that I paid out much, given there was no push whatsoever).

But it’s important to reassure affiliates they can promote the heck out of your business.

So, I opened referrals to all products: courses, yes, but also memberships, sponsorships, and future products.

The only thing that is not included is 1-to-1 client work, but that’s not even visible/advertised on the website so that’s not a problem.

In this way I push on all product sales (scalable sales).

Affiliate Sign Up Page Redesign

Honestly, my affiliate page design was awful and useless (damn, I forgot to take a screenshot. Besides, it was noindexed, so I can’t even find it in the Wayback Machine).

Whatever.

There was basically an intro (2 paragraphs and a sign up form).

Now it’s way different. Here’s the new affiliate program page:

Not that after completely redesigning it it’s perfect, but at least it explains benefits and how it works.

Why “An Armada of Affiliates”?

You may be wondering why I titled this post like that.

Well, I decided that affiliates must first join Bloomer Armada as (paid) members.

The cheapest membership is $9 so that’s a nice way to tell affiliates they need to invest (a little) if they wish to join Business Bloomer affiliate program.

This is not very common (I never had to “pay” to become an affiliate for YITH, WooCommerce, IconicWP, etc.), but in my opinion it adds a lot of value to Business Bloomer Affiliate Program because only “motivated” affiliates will be promoting its products and not just anybody.

$9 is not a lot, and given a single affiliate commission payout can reach $199.40 for the most expensive product for a single sale, I believe that’s a great investment.

Agree?

Benefits, then benefits

My previous version was not really saying much (basically, nothing to be honest).

This time I took a look at the most popular Affiliate Programs out there and noticed a few trends:

1. It’s all about the benefits: no one cares about how cool the affiliate dashboard is, they want to know how much they can make, when and how. Basically what’s in it for them
2. The headline is key: I went with “Refer Customers. Earn Cash.“, seems strong enough to me. Together with a subheadline “Love Business Bloomer products? Become an official Business Bloomer affiliate and earn 20% commission on each sale you refer via your unique link.” I’ve tried to communicate immediately the benefit of getting paid fast
3. 3 easy steps: it’s nice to show graphically (1… 2… 3) how easy it is to sign up. In my case there is an additional requirement (paying for a Bloomer Armada membership indeed) so it’s a little unusual. But hopefully the way I’ve displayed it makes clarity
4. FAQ: in order to avoid the same questions over and over again, it’s nice to end the page with a list of FAQ. I’ve done my best to explain the most important things there, including “Why should I sign up for Business Bloomer Affiliate Program?“
5. How much you can earn: I’ve seen this on a few affiliate program landing pages. It’s a nice way to tell potential affiliates how much they can make with a single product sale. I chose 3 bestsellers and displayed the commission beside their price (“Price: $397 – You earn: $79.40 per referral“)

Go live

My page was set to “noindex” up until today, as my Affiliate Program was hidden and dedicated to Bloomer Armada PARTNERS only.

From today, any Bloomer Armada member can join. So, I set it back to “index”, added the “AFFILIATE PROGRAM” to Business Bloomer footer (gosh I realized there was no menu whatsoever), and email all current Bloomer Armada members via Metorik (will do this later, now I gotta go).

Let’s see how this goes 🙂