David Andrew Wiebe

Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Musicians

by David Andrew Wiebe | Feb 1, 2023 | Entrepreneurship

How many opportunities are you leaving on the table?

Look, I recognize that money isn’t everything. But it sure doesn’t hurt, especially in times like these.

And while you might be plenty busy already with gigging, recording, and other activity, what if there was a way to supplement your income without adding a ton of work to your plate?

Sound too good to be true? Not so fast.

Today, we’re going to look at affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting other people’s products for commissions.

If you were promoting a $100 product, for example, and you were promised a 25% commission, you should be earning roughly $25 on every sale.

I say “roughly” because fees can add up, whether it’s processor, PayPal, or bank fees. But considering the potential upside, that’s not bad. There’s always some cost to doing business.

Here, we’ll get into:

The upsides and downsides of affiliate marketing
How to choose what products to promote
How to get started
The ever-changing landscape of affiliate marketing
How to promote products and earn commissions
Best practices
Whether affiliate marketing works

Upsides to Affiliate Marketing

The primary advantage to affiliate marketing is that you can earn an income on products you didn’t have to create.

Having published 44 songs, seven books, three courses, and a great deal more, I’m quite familiar with the man hours involved in developing a variety of products.

But if you want to earn an income from your own creations, you can’t just built it and hope they will come, can you? There’s a great deal of legwork involved in marketing, and if you’re not a marketing savant, you’ve got a mountain to climb to get to where you want to go.

Plus, you’ve got to think about video sales letters, sales copy, email service provider, sales funnel builders, and more.

Contrast that with affiliate marketing. You can promote a product you didn’t have to put any man hours into creating and start earning commissions as soon as your affiliate account is approved.

You can also use your existing media (website, email, social media, etc.) to promote products.

If you need a little inspiration, check out this quote via Bo Bennet:

Affiliate marketing has made businesses millions and ordinary people millionaires.

Upsides summary:

You get to earn commissions on product you didn’t have to invest 10s or 100s of hours of your own time to develop.
You get to earn commissions promoting things you already use and love!
You can use your existing media to promote products on autopilot.
Affiliate programs generally supply you with plenty of marketing materials, including graphical banners and email sequences.
It’s easy to incorporate affiliate marketing into your existing ecosystem, especially if you’re already creating content.

Downsides to Affiliate Marketing

There are many upsides to affiliate marketing. But every rose has its thorn, right?

(I know, I know.)

Here’s the thing…

As an affiliate, you’re not in control of the products you promote. The creator may discontinue the product or affiliate program. Their product may get pulled from virtual store shelves. They might raise or lower the price, affecting your commissions in the process. Anything can happen.

If all your eggs are in one basket, you could lose all your earnings at a moment’s notice (which is why it’s good to diversify).

If anything happens to the affiliate program you’re a part of, you may not get paid for units already sold. You may even get chargebacks (it sucks losing money you worked hard to earn).

Additionally, if you don’t abide by the terms of the provider, you could lose your account.

Finally, although you can earn commissions on the products you sell, you’re never going to earn 100% on something you didn’t create. Sorry.

You are a musician, though, and chances are you’re already in the process of setting up a couple of viable income streams, which is wise. This can help you avoid single source dependency.

Downsides summary:

Affiliate programs are sometimes discontinued or shut down.
The terms and conditions of the affiliate program can change.
The commission structure of the affiliate program can change.
If the program gets shut down suddenly and without notice, you may not get paid for units already sold.
If you don’t abide by the terms of the affiliate program, you could have your account shut down.
Generally, there aren’t any opportunities to earn 100% commissions on units sold (but they do exist!).

How to Choose What Products to Promote

Basically, you can promote whatever you want. But just like The Beatles had haters, trying to appeal to everyone is a losing battle.

Just like The Beatles had haters, trying to appeal to everyone is a losing battle. Click To Tweet

I would recommend promoting products you understand, personally use and would happily recommend to others. That’s the best way.

Your seal of approval is worth more than you might think.

If you recommend good products and people love them, you’ll build a strong reputation. If you recommend everything under the sun and your followers end up returning a bunch of products, they’re probably not going to come looking for recommendations again.

As for what products to choose, consider the things you already use every day. Musical gear is a good example.

Whether it’s guitar strings, drumsticks, accordions or otherwise, there’s a good chance you can promote it and make money.

But keep in mind that focusing on low-ticket items is generally a losing battle, because you’re only earning a percentage on them. This doesn’t mean you can’t promote low-ticket items passively. What it means is you should dedicate more time to promoting high-ticket offers, because that’s where the income is.

Dedicate more time to promoting high-ticket offers, because that's where the income is. Click To Tweet

How to Get Started

One of the best ways for beginners to get started is by joining Amazon Associates.

You know Amazon, right? They’re only the top eCommerce behemoth in existence. You probably shop with them already and may even have a Prime account.

Amazon is home to a ton of products, not just books. They have thousands of commodities in these categories and many others – arts & crafts, automotive, electronics, home & kitchen, toys & games…

So, finding products to promote is easy.

For instance, one of my favorite guitar amp heads is the Peavey 6505 MH mini head. So, once my Amazon Associates account is set up, I can simply search for that product, grab the link that Amazon gives me, and then share that link with my audience.

(And, by the way, I’ve already done this very thing.)

You can hear me using this amp in this demo:

And, just in case, here’s my affiliate link for the mini head (if you purchase anything through this link, I may earn a small commission at no additional charge to you).

Now you know how affiliate marketing works. It is that simple!

The Ever-Changing Landscape of Affiliate Marketing

I know I said earlier that Amazon Associates is a good place to get started for beginners. Well, while it is a good place to learn the ropes, it probably isn’t the best place to earn an income on your referrals.

A few years ago, Amazon announced that they were going to be reducing commissions on certain products.

This is the bread and butter of an affiliate marketer, however, so get used to it. We’ve all got to roll with the punches.

The good news is that there are tons of companies with affiliate programs, so opportunities aren’t in short supply.

This is a beginner’s guide, however, so I won’t be getting into other affiliate programs here.

How to Promote Products & Earn Commissions

Now that we’ve got a solid working foundation, we’re ready to start promoting.

Here are five simple ways to start earning juicy affiliate commissions:

Share Your Link on Your Blog

It’s best if you mention products in the natural flow of content instead of forcing them in.

But when you’re writing about your latest stop on tour and mention your favorite multi-effects pedal, that’s the time to link it up.

Here’s an example of where I’ve injected a link in the natural flow of the content.

I don’t recommend sharing your link out of context. For instance, don’t start talking about what you had for lunch and then sneak in your affiliate link promoting something entirely unrelated. It’s bad form.

Share Your Link on Social Media

If it makes sense, you can share your affiliate links on social media.

Again, as with sharing on your blog, you don’t want to spam your followers or post deceptive links, as this isn’t going to help you earn a dime.

But if something naturally comes up in the flow of the post, share away.

Share Your Link in the Description of Your YouTube Videos

Know it or not, many YouTubers are affiliate marketers already. These days, they depend on sponsorships more than affiliate commissions, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t actively generating multiple sources of revenue.

Hmm… something fishy going on here. Just kidding! That’s an affiliate link.

Think of it this way:

You’ll be doing your viewers a solid by including links to products mentioned in your video. If anyone’s interested, they can simply click the link to find out more about said products.

Create a Resources Page

Many marketers and entrepreneurs, such as Chris Ducker and Pat Flynn have resource pages on their website.

You could just as easily call these “money pages” because they only feature links to products and services the business owners have the potential to earn an income on.

I like the sound of “money pages” myself.

You can do the same. While you might call your resources page something else, there’s nothing stopping you from making one.

Here’s an example of what a resource page might look like:

Make Product Reviews

Product reviews are a great way to make product recommendations. Of course, they do take time and effort to create.

But one of the main ways, affiliates earn money is by making reviews for their favorite products. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a blog post, podcast audio, video, or other type of content. All forms of content are fair game.

Affiliate Marketing Best Practices

Search engines (like Google), email service providers (like MailChimp) and even some users don’t always look kindly on affiliate marketing (you can’t please everyone).

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you aren’t overdoing your affiliate promotions:

Abide by the terms and conditions. If you start earning some serious money and get your account banned because you ignored their terms, your life is going to suck. So, do things by the book. This usually means avoiding black hat tactics, whether it’s recommending products you don’t know anything about, keyword stuffing, low quality content, baiting and switching, and so on.
Let your users know when you might earn money on a purchase. Say something like, “if you purchase through this link, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you” (you saw me do this earlier). But if you know you’re going to be adding links everywhere, you should have a notice in the sidebar, footer or somewhere visible. I’m not an attorney, so if in doubt, please consult a qualified professional. They can help you do everything by the books.
Use a link cloaker. I like to think of this as a link shortener rather than a cloaker. If you’re using WordPress, check out a plugin called Pretty Links. If not, there are plenty of great catch-all solutions like Bitly. You can turn your affiliate links into something short and easy to remember/type in and track the number of clicks that are coming through. That’s the main way I like to use these.
Never spam. Just don’t do it.

Does it Work?

Hell yeah!

I don’t intend to show off all my earnings or affiliate relationships (not that they’re a big secret), but you can see I do okay (and I do mean okay, not amazing) with Amazon Associates:

I’ve easily earned thousands on my various affiliate marketing efforts mind you.

Final Thoughts on Affiliate Marketing for Musicians

What I’ve shared here is just the tip of the iceberg.

There’s so much more you’ll want to learn if you want to be a great affiliate marketer, such as content distribution and syndication, SEO, advanced marketing tactics, and more.

So, if you enjoyed this guide and would like to learn more about affiliate marketing…

Please leave a comment below and let me know!

Falling Apart

by David Andrew Wiebe | Dec 1, 2022 | Inspiration

Things do fall apart from time to time.

Sometimes we even go through extended periods where it seems like everything is falling apart.

Are we cursed? Is it something we did? Does God or the Universe hate us? Are we just unlucky?

These questions are inevitable. Because we have a sense of where we think life is going and where we want it to go. We’ve seen real life fairytales and we want that for ourselves.

And even though we’ve asked, we’ve prayed, we’ve visualized, we’ve meditated, we’ve worked, we’ve felt our way into better feeling spaces, it all appears an exercise in futility. Instead of our wishes being fulfilled, we’re met with more adversity. It never seems to work like the books say it should.

We don’t need a better book or a better God. We need a better context for things falling apart.

Fictional character Ted Mosby (of How I Met Your Mother) said:

Sometimes things have to fall apart to make way for better things…

In Mark 2:22, Jesus said:

And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins – and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.

When things fall apart, it may seem as though you’re going backwards. At times, the unfolding may even strike you as devastating.

But you can’t get to where you want to go without facing some challenges (though challenges are fundamentally a creation).

If it must fall apart, let it. If you’ve done everything in your power to save whatever was worth saving, surrender. There is nothing left to do. Obsessing over the details won’t add a second to your life.

There is always something waiting on the other side of whatever falls apart. It may not be exactly what you wanted, or what you expected, but it’s waiting for you. You can’t put new wine into old wineskins. It’s time to expand. You’re to have a new container, not the old, worn one.

Celebrate when something falls apart. You’re in for a promotion.

And when life is in upheaval, be prepared to let go and embrace the process.

There Are No Free Lunches

by David Andrew Wiebe | Nov 30, 2022 | Entrepreneurship

We all must start somewhere. So, starting with free and affordable marketing is not wrong. Testing out the waters before diving headlong into unknown depths is nothing if not wisdom. It gives you a chance to see what all the hubbub is about.

But social media is not a place to park and set up home. There are far too many tradeoffs, and most people are woefully unaware of them.

Here’s but a partial list:

Competing for attention on social media is mostly a losing battle
Trying to get your audience to immigrate off social media to an outside destination (that has the potential to benefit you) is an uphill climb
You could get canceled, banned, or deleted in an instant for less than satisfactory reasons
Your favorite platform(s) could be gone tomorrow thanks to acquisitions, insolvency, changing trends, and so on
You don’t have control over scammers (there are scammers on every social platform exploiting your audience, leaving a bad taste in their mouths)
You don’t take seriously what you don’t pay for
You never expand beyond your comfort zone, and therefore never expand period

The question is, when will you graduate from free and affordable? When will you really invest in your marketing?

Your answer can’t be “tomorrow,” because tomorrow is not tomorrow. It’s just another today when you get there. If your answer is “tomorrow,” then, you’re firmly rooted in the land of conceptual. You don’t have a grasp on reality.

Social media followings aren’t useless. They do serve a purpose. They are notoriously difficult to monetize, but indirect opportunities that come from having a sizable following – be it speaking engagements, record contracts, sponsorship deals, or otherwise – can be lucrative.

But you’ve got to be crystal clear on the objective. Otherwise, it’s not worth the trouble. You won’t take it far enough. You will give up. You won’t post 30 times per day. You won’t take out advertising. You won’t split test creative. You won’t gather intelligence. You won’t buy courses and invest in your unfolding. If anything, you’re balking at the cost – mental, physical, emotional, financial – already.

There are no free lunches. There’s always a tradeoff for the free lunch you think you’re gaining.

The journey truly begins when there’s skin in the game. And if there is no willingness to problem solve the obtaining of resources, there is no willingness to stick with it long enough turn pro either. Those who want to make it happen always find a way, hell, or high water.

The Rule of 5 Marketing for Artists

by David Andrew Wiebe | Jan 31, 2022 | Creativity

Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for Your Soul fame is well-known for having created The Rule of 5.

The concept is simple – do five things per day that help you reach your goal.

Let’s say you were interested in losing weight and getting in shape. So, your five items for the day could look something like this:

Get eight hours of sleep
Go for a 30-minute walk
Make healthy meals for the day
Lift weights for 15 minutes
Drink apple cider vinegar

It works much the same way with marketing – identify five items you can do today to promote your visual art, music, poetry, or otherwise.

Here we’ll look at how you can apply The Rule of 5 to your promotional work as a creative.

How Does The Rule of 5 Marketing Work?

So, you’ve got a new painting, a piece of music, maybe a book, and you’re interested in promoting it. What next?

It’s amazing how, when an artist shifts from creative activity to marketing activity – even if they have previous experience promoting their works – they stall out and lose sight of the goal.

I’m speaking from personal experience, because this is essentially what happened to me as I went to work on promoting my best-selling book, The Music Entrepreneur Code in 2020.

I’m happy to report that the book became a small success for me despite my initial indecisiveness, but that’s only because of the connections I had built up to that point, and the momentum I’d created with my marketing efforts.

We should be so lucky, but most of the time, we won’t be. Marketing requires intentionality.

Marketing requires intentionality. Click To Tweet

So, we need a framework. Not necessarily a framework as rigid as a checklist (although that can also be helpful), but a starting point for our marketing efforts.

The Rule of 5 Marketing is a great framework to apply. It’s defined without being too rigid, intentional without being too constrained.

I have my five daily tasks stored inside Evernote:

The act of coming up with five ideas daily focuses the mind on forward momentum. And executing these ideas leads to real results (also see next section).

The act of coming up with five ideas daily focuses the mind on forward momentum. Click To Tweet

Why The Rule of 5 Marketing?

Scope creep is a real thing (it applies to marketing as much as it does to our projects), and it doesn’t just show up in the work we do for others. It can easily creep into our own creative ventures as well.

And scope creep is the biggest enemy of consistency. It will see us executing 11 things one day, one the next day, three the day after. Before we know it, we’ve burned out and lost all momentum.

The Rule of 5 Marketing keeps us in check. It sets in stone what you’re going to be doing today, tomorrow, and the day after.

And the game is about as hard or as easy as you make it, so you may as well make it winnable.

Plus, it works.

While working my Rule of 5 Marketing plan, I recently shared a post on Facebook that got more engagement than anything I’ve recently shared.

32 likes, eight comments, one share.

Now, there are plenty of people that get way more engagement on their posts. I’m not much of a Facebook guy, so for me, the above is the equivalent of going viral.

There’s obviously something to be said for the content (picture of me holding up a scribble) that contributed to the success of this piece (it paves the way for future content pieces too). But if all I got were a few likes on Facebook, it wouldn’t be worthwhile.

These efforts, however, are sending a steady flow of traffic to my new beginner guitar program, Chord King Course. My promotional efforts are producing results!

Create a plan, execute against it, have faith, and you will see results from your efforts.

Create a plan, execute against it, have faith, and you will see results from your efforts. Click To Tweet

I’m Still Having Trouble Coming up with Marketing Ideas – What Should I do?

The beauty of The Rule of 5 Marketing is that you make the commitment first and then follow through with relevant actions. So, that means once you’ve made the commitment, ideas are sure to follow.

That said, I know it’s easy to get stuck. So, here are some free and low-cost ideas you can implement NOW (they will require some elbow grease):

Write a blog post and share it on your WordPress blog, Blogger, Tumblr, Medium, Steemit, CloutPub, or anywhere lese you can think of
Guest post for sites in your niche
Record an audio and share it on Anchor
Make guest appearances on podcasts
Make a video and upload it to YouTube, Vimeo, Odysee, DTube, Rumble, BitChute, Brighteon, or elsewhere
Request to appear in other people’s videos to talk about your products
Share your works on social media
Write a press release and share it for free on PRLog
Run a contest or giveaway
Send a sample of your product to influencers or experts in your niche (e.g., send your book if you’re an author, CD if you’re a musician, a quick doodle if you’re a visual artist, etc.)
Pull a publicity stunt, engage in guerrilla marketing, go on Tweet storms, go live on Instagram, set up a community of independent artists interested in promoting each other’s works, and more

Wait, 5 Things Per Day? Can I Take Weekends off?

That’s up to you.

I’ll be honest in sharing that with my recent promotion of the Chord King Course beginner guitar program, I have been taking weekends off.

That said, there’s no rule saying you can’t promote seven days per week…

And there’s also no rule saying you can’t choose more than five items per day.

I blog daily, so that tends to form the foundation of the various types of content I need to fulfill on to distribute across various social networks – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, Medium, Tealfeed, BitClout, Wisdom, and elsewhere.

Although I don’t hesitate in sharing everywhere I possibly can, the biggest movers for me, historically, have been Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, in that order.

And if I were to 80/20 that, Facebook is responsible for more traffic than anything you can name – Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Medium, Pinterest, or otherwise.

Additional Resources

You can also read about The Rule of 5 in Jack Canfield’s The Success Principles.

If you’re stumped for inspiration and real-life examples of marketing in action, my book, The New Music Industry details more options than most people are even aware of, and much of the content is applicable to entrepreneurship, freelancing, and just about any artistic endeavor you can name.

Final Thoughts

If you’d like to work with me to come up with your own The Rule of 5 Marketing plan, get in touch. I don’t come cheap, but I can help you quickly identify activity that’s going to lead to results in your marketing.

What are you taking away from this? How will you be implementing The Rule of 5 Marketing in your artistic career?

The Rule of 5

by David Andrew Wiebe | Jan 26, 2022 | Entrepreneurship

As you’re probably aware, I’ve started sharing out my brand-new guitar course.

In thinking about promoting it, what immediately came to mind was Jack Canfield’s Rule of 5.

It’s not a complicated principle. The idea is to do five things daily that help you reach your goal.

And this is exactly what I’ve been doing the last couple of days.

This, combined with my new guerrilla marketing displays seem to be paying off.

Before long, you will be seeing me hold up yellow legal sheets everywhere. 😜

(I really wanted to make a video today – that’s a no go due to time constraints. Tomorrow is another big day.)

« Older Entries