Happy Financial Literacy Month! April is dedicated to raising awareness about financial education and empowerment. All month long catch us covering essential topics like creator taxes, affiliate monetization strategies, and setting solid financial goals to help you scale your creator business and make strong financial decisions.
What’s Inside:
01 TLDR
02 Share and Earn
03 Commission Rates + Cookie Windows
04 Track Performance
05 MagicLinks Creator Resources
06 Landing Your Dream Sponsorship
NeoReach found that approximately 23% of creators earn a substantial income of $50k or more. However, up to 48% of creators earn less than $15k a year. The potential for creator success is vast, but it’s not a guarantee. Affiliate links are your ticket to earning passive income by promoting products you love.
The TLDR
Brands provide you with unique links through platforms like MagicLinks, and every time your audience makes a purchase through those links, you earn a commission. As long as your link is shared, you can continue to earn commission—it’s like having a side hustle that works for you 24/7! But most importantly, linking gives you control over what to promote and how to promote it. You’ll maintain your agency to speak freely about a product with 100% authenticity.
An optimal link strategy is the key to consistent revenue that can fuel your business. Ahead, we compile a set of habits, strategies, and must-know terms to help you scale your creative business and maximize your earnings through affiliate linking.
The More You Share the More You Earn
It’s key to diversify your income streams for financial freedom and peace of mind, especially during slower sponsored content months. Affiliate links offer a seamless way to earn passive income, but it’s essential to integrate them strategically into your content. Whether you’re doing product reviews, tutorials, or creating gift guides, there are numerous opportunities to cross promote your links authentically.
YouTube
Utilize the video description box to include affiliate links to the products mentioned in your videos. Lean on MagicLinks Triple Threat Strategy: 1) Include links to individual items, 2) Include links to category pages or the retailer landing page, and 3) Include links to overall favorite items. Provide clear and concise descriptions of each product, along with your affiliate links, to make it easy for viewers to shop the items.
Cross promote a snippet from a YouTube video to your Instagram feed. In the caption, highlight the key products featured in the video and direct followers to your link in bio to shop the products. Share additional Instagram Stories with in-depth reviews and links to the products. Utilize features like polls and questions to encourage interaction and gather feedback from your audience. Save your stories to Highlights on your profile, making them accessible beyond the 24-hour lifespan of regular stories. This allows your audience to revisit and engage with your affiliate content at any time.
TikTok
Since TikTok doesn’t allow clickable links in video captions, include your affiliate links in your bio instead. Direct your viewers to click on the link in your bio to shop the products mentioned in your videos.
Commission Rates + Cookie Windows
Commission rates are up to a brand’s discretion and can vary depending on the product type or ongoing promotion. At MagicLinks, we partner with several top brands that offer a commission rate as high as 50%. Create links to products at retailers with the highest commission rates available for optimal earnings. For example, your product might have a higher commission at a multi brand retailer, like Sephora, rather than the direct brand. Always keep up to date with changing commission rates.
Track Performance
As a creator, tracking performance metrics is crucial for understanding the effectiveness of your content and optimizing your strategy for success. Performance tracking provides valuable insights into what your audience actually wants to consume, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to enhance your content and maximize your earnings. By monitoring key metrics, you can identify trends, measure the impact of your efforts, and refine your approach to better meet the needs and preferences of your audience.
Useful terms for creators include “conversion rate” and “average order value” (AOV for short). Conversion rate means a user followed through with a desired action like “shop my link”. Conversion rate is calculated by taking the total number of purchases made with your link and dividing it by the total number of users who clicked your link. Here’s an example below:
60 purchases via your link ÷ 400 total clicks × 100% = 15% conversion rate
AOV is a metric used to measure the average amount of money spent in a single transaction. This allows for you and the brand to find trends in customer behavior. Are they shopping for multiple items with your link or are they purchasing just the item(s) you recommended? Does your audience convert on high ticket items or are they budget friendly shoppers? Try to promote as many relevant products as possible or create a link that leads to the category page rather than the specific product. With this approach, users are more likely to browse around and find additional items they’re interested in buying. The higher the AOV, the higher your commissions! Here’s an example below:
$3000 in total revenue ÷ 60 orders=$50 AOV
$3000 in total revenue × 25% commission rate=$750 in earned commission
MagicLinks Creator Resources
If you didn’t know, MagicLinks has it’s very own Creator Dashboard that allows creators to track their performance. Here you can find information on your clicks, conversions, and overall earnings. This resource saves creators from needing to keep track of sales or do their own calculations. The dashboard is FULL of extra bells and whistles including top product suggestions that are personalized to each creator, a chrome extension for easy link creation, exclusive resources and industry knowledge, and so much more. And did we mention it’s easy to use? 😌
Remember to always include your links in your description box and bio, and consistently direct your audience to these areas to shop your links. Education is key to optimize visibility and increase earnings potential. Consider MagicLinks’ shoppable feed tool, ObsessedWith.It, to create a seamless shopping experience for your followers. This feature can also be found in the MagicLinks app!
Landing Your Dream Sponsorship
You have to put yourself out there but in order to do that, you need to be prepared. The more you link and the more sales you drive, the higher your chances are of being casted in a sponsored campaign. Brands want to see that there is quantifiable data behind your audience engagement. When pitching your services to brands, it’s important to have a data backed content strategy. Linking creates a strong brand affinity and puts you on their radar for future opportunities.
BIG BRAND ⇓ 
