So, two things happened today that prompted this post.
The first one was an email from a student who had friends and colleagues interested in the course she was taking via Search Engine College. She wanted to know if we had an affiliate program so she could refer people in exchange for a commission if they sign up.
The second thing was a conversation I had with another mum at my son’s school who suggested that because I work on the Internet, I should “look into affiliate programs” as she had heard they are a great way to market a web site.
Both of these things made me realize that I’m obviously not very good at marketing. Because Search Engine College already HAS an affiliate program. We’ve had one for over 5 years in fact. But if one of our own students didn’t know and someone I chat to every day didn’t know, then I’m obviously not promoting it well enough. That’s a big marketing FAIL right there.
So, for those of you who didn’t already know, guess what? Search Engine College has an affiliate program.
It’s actually a pretty generous one – 15% commission on any new registrations, a USD 2 sign up bonus and a USD 50 performance bonus when your commissions reach $1,000. We pay out at USD 200, so if a student referred by you registers and pays for our Search Engine Marketer Pathway (currently priced at USD 1,495.00), your commission would be USD 224.25 and you would automatically reach the minimum payment threshold with just one sale.
Provided you are already a student, you can even use your affiliate link to purchase future courses. By doing this you will receive a 15% commission from your own orders, indirectly providing you with 15% off the purchase price of any course.
Convinced yet? Convinced but worried it will be a time suck to get going? Don’t be. Once you login, you can grab text links, banner code and other marketing tools for fast integration into your site, email signature or blog. We’ll send you step-by-step instructions if you need them, but truly, it should only take you about 5 mins to slap up a link.
Whether it makes you rich like Mr Happy in the photo here, or whether it just pays enough to cover your daily coffee is up to you. But give it a go and let me know what you think.