You guys. I freaking love the holidays. Hands down October through December are my favorite months. I love everything about 🕸 Halloween, 🦃 Thanksgiving, and 🎄Christmas…even holiday shopping. I love making seasonal printable and digital products for my Etsy shops, It’s Simply Because and Simply Celebrate 365. This year in the blogosphere it has felt different. I feel the urgency in some of the bloggers and content producers I follow to make money because I am drowning in affiliate marketing email overload.

Affiliate Marketing Email

Let’s talk about affiliate marketing emails, shall we? I know making money from affiliate sales is a huge business. I. Get. It. I promise 🫶 I do. So let’s address the purple polka-dotted elephant in the room so you don’t bounce before you finish reading this post. No, I’m not going to tell you to stop affiliate marketing, so take a deep breath and a long pull from that wine 🍷 glass and sit back down, mmkay?!

I want to know how much of your audience are you losing because you are drowning them in affiliate marketing emails under the guise of not wanting them to “miss out” on a sale? Let me answer for your audience, you a losing a shit ton of people by overselling products you have likely never even bought or tried yourself. Stop 🛑 that shit.

And before you send me love 🤬 letters about how wrong I am, 🙄 and how your subscribers just loveeee your emails, blah, blah, blah. Don’t bother. You are lying to me and if you believe that shit, you are lying to yourself.

Be realistic, if I am tired of being sold to (and I purposely look for affiliate offers so my friends make money) then you can be damn sure your customers are sick 🤢 of your salesy shit. You can do better and it’s not that difficult.

Improve Your Relationship with Subscribers

Your email list is one of your most prized possessions as an entrepreneur. Why would your work so hard to build it up just to tear it down with spammer jammer emails? 🤷‍♀️ (Buehler? Buehler?)

An example of affiliate marketing email overload from my life is this:

There is one content creator I am subscribed to who went from one or two semi-useful* emails a day to 4-5 spammy emails shoving her affiliate products down my throat. The only reason I haven’t unsubscribed is that I have one of her products. Plus, I keep hoping it will get better.

What’s 🤓 definition of insanity? 🤪

Here are my quick and dirty ideas to immediately STOP 🛑 annoying the shit out of your subscribers with 🎄holiday🎄 affiliate marketing emails:

• vet the affiliate products you recommend
• don’t spam your list
• give your reader a reason to click on the link 🔗

Yup. Only 3 simple tips. Now, let’s break them down a bit.

Vet Recommended Affiliate Products

Before you ever get the slightest inkling to click send 📨 on that affiliate marketing email blast, there are some things you need to think about, so cool your damn jets. First, you need to understand the dynamics of affiliate marketing and understand your role in it. You also need to think about how you will be impacted if your subscriber purchases a product through your affiliate link 🔗 and it sucks. Because that shit is real life. Especially if you are an affiliate link 🔗 spammer and don’t vet products before sending them to your most precious asset, your email list.

Let me tell you this before you ever email that affiliate offer to your list you should pretty much be an expert on the product. This means you should be able to answer just about any question your audience throws at you. You accomplish this by using the product. Be an expert first. Sell second. It will pay off in the long run because you will become a trusted source for affiliate products.

An example of showing your audience that you have actually used and vetted a product is to do a blog post with images or video demonstrating your use of the product. Check out my post here on Yadsia’s online courses and templates.

How to Vet an Affiliate Product

This is simple. If you want to make money 💰 from an affiliate product, you should own the product and have used it yourself. Yup. That’s it. How can you in good conscience “sell” someone else’s product to your subscribers who trust you enough to be on YOUR list if you haven’t even tried the product yourself? Simple. You can’t. 🙅‍♀️

Well, you can, but it’s risky AF if you do. How do you answer questions about the product if you’ve never used it?

How do you tell YOUR list how great this product is if you haven’t a clue? You can’t 🚫 or shouldn’t because you would be lying.

Vetting the affiliate product is the only ethical way to promote the product to your list. Sorry. Facts.

Side Note: An added bonus of vetting affiliate products and not just slinging every product you can sign up for at your list is, you will end up with a highly cultivated list of affiliate products you are proud to promote on your blog, socials, etc.

Do Not Spam Your List

This is relatively self-explanatory. You must find a rhythm for your email list and stick to it. It’s okay to go off schedule once in a while. In the case where a vetted affiliate is running a sale and it is a product or course that is perfect for your audience, send that additional affiliate email. Please do not 🚫 be the four spammy emails a day affiliate marketer. You will alienate your list.

Give Your Readers a Reason to Click on That Link 🔗

So you’ve done the work of vetting the affiliate product and becoming an “expert” on it. You’ve fine-tuned your email schedule 🗓️ so you aren’t inundating your readers with spammy emails. Great job. 🙌 Now, is the time to sell the affiliate product and get them to click that link! 🔗

So how do you entice them to click that link 🔗 rather than the delete button on the email? Here are some ✏️ tips:

• write a detailed email highlighting the product features
• include a clear, easy-to-find call to action in the email (bright clickable buttons are great)
• offer a bonus if they buy through your link (offer a decent bonus that is comparable to the affiliate purchase)
• provide your readers with a video “preview” of the affiliate product (don’t overshare tho in cases like courses and go against affiliate rules -if there are any- for the product you are sharing)

A Case Study in How to do Affiliate Marketing Email Wrong

Earlier I mentioned a content creator I follow who went from sending 2 semi-useful emails a day to 4-5 straight spammy, affiliate link-riddled emails a day. Including Sundays. 🤯 I stayed on this creator’s list because I bought a course from her a while back that I did find somewhat useful and in the beginning, her emails did have tidbits of value.

Fast forward to the holiday season and her amped-up email overload. I opened an email she sent out about a course I have wanted to take for about a year that was deeply discounted, but still expensive. l had a theory that this creator was just becoming an affiliate for any and all programs she could sign up for especially since many affiliate programs don’t care if you have actually used their product or course. My theory was based on the sheer number of affiliate products and courses she pushes to her audience.

I decided to “test” my theory. I had some genuine questions about the course she emailed about that I had been interested in for about a year. Questions she would be able to answer IF she actually took the course herself. So I hit reply on the email and outlined my questions about the course to her. The response I got was this: “Hi Fawn! These are great questions. Let me message xxxx and find out. Give me a few as it may take a few days for xxxx to get back to me.”

Needless to say, I wasn’t shocked. This just outlines a classic case of how we can do things better.

That’s a Wrap!

So remember, before you click send on that affiliate marketing email, think about the affiliate product you are emailing your list about. Have you personally used the affiliate product? Is the affiliate product on sale or can you incorporate it into your scheduled email blast? Are you giving your subscribers a reason to click on your affiliate link?

All of these things separately won’t change much but together they are powerful and will strengthen your relationship with your list.

*semi-useful: email includes tips, free resources, etc, and affiliate offers