AP 0387: How Do Your Affiliate Sales Change Your Business Priorities?

AskPat 387 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey everybody, what's up? This is Pat Flynn and welcome to Episode 387 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have a question today from Michael, but before we get to that I do want to thank today's sponsor, which is FreshBooks.com.

Making it incredibly easy for us to not have headaches, because we don't have to worry about organizing our finances like mad. We can use FreshBooks.com to organize our expenses, our invoices, our income, so that we can focus less on trying to organize all that stuff. That's what it does, that's what it does for us. We can focus more on our businesses. Don't do it like me, and use Excel to organize because come tax season, it becomes a huge mess.

Go ahead and get FreshBooks. Go to GetFreshBooks.com, enter, “Ask Pat,” in the, “How did you hear about us?” section. You can try out this amazing software for 30 days for free. Again, that's GetFreshBooks.com, and enter, “Ask Pat.” All right, here's today's question from Michael.

Michael: Hi Pat, this is Michael. I have a question for you. Before I ask it, I just want to say thanks a lot for everything. Your blog and your podcast have been extremely helpful. My question is concerning your Bluehost affiliate sales. It's a two-part question. One, if you didn't have Bluehost affiliate sales as part of your income, what do you think your business would look like in terms of focus, energy, and revenue?

The second part is, since you do have Bluehost affiliates sales, how do you … What are your actions, or your thoughts, your mentality around keeping that stream of revenue healthy, and long lasting for you? Love to know. Again, thanks a lot for everything. Look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Pat Flynn: Hey Michael, thank you so much for the question. It's interesting cause I always get these Bluehost-related questions. I love these types of questions. Bluehost, for those of you who don't know, is a hosting company. This is a hosting company that I recommend, amongst several other different things that I recommend that I've used before, products that I recommend for my audience, to help them achieve what they want to achieve. Bluehost by far has been the most successful, if you want to talk about the revenue streams that are coming into my businesses. Bluehost as an affiliate is bringing me anywhere between $30,000 and $60,000 a month on average through Bluehost affiliate sales, which is great.

I will say up front that I do have a higher commission than is advertised that Bluehost gives to normal people. I do have a lot of volume and pull for them, which is why they've increased my commission rates. That does not happen for everybody, so that obviously has helped over time. I've also understood how things work with my audience, and what they're looking to get, and who my primary avatars are, and what could best serve them. I think that's by far more than anything why Bluehost works out best, because people who find my website, see these step-by-step tutorials, these examples, this proof that I have with other websites that I have created from scratch. People come in, and they want to start a website of their own. Naturally they see what I recommend, and they go through that. It's cool because without any additional costs to them, it allows me to have a commission through Bluehost. I get paid, people get their website setup, hopefully create a successful business off of that, and Blue Host gets a new customer, everybody wins.

That's the cool thing about affiliate marketing if you do it in the right way. Now, a couple things to address to your questions. What would my business look like if I didn't have Bluehost affiliate sales? Well, obviously my income would be much less, almost cut in half. That wouldn't phase me at all. This just happens to be an amazing byproduct, a service that I recommend, and it does very well for me. Honestly my business wouldn't look any different if I didn't have Bluehost affiliate sales. My income would be different, but my business would not. I'm in the business of helping people build successful businesses, and helping them understand the ins and outs of the online space.

I'm in the business of experimenting, and running thought experiments, and experiments with different websites, and businesses, to be able to provide an example, and lead by example for people. If I didn't have Bluehost affiliate sales, that income would be gone, but I would still be providing content in the way I do. It wouldn't change at all. Bluehost is not my primary, I'm not even really thinking about Bluehost. It just, that is a byproduct of all I do to provide value, and the steps, and the examples, and the case studies that I do. I don't do things beyond the basic things that one would do to drive people toward those sales, which is essentially just include Blue Host on the resource page, on the getting started page, because those are some of the first steps.

I think the big key lesson here for all of you who are listening is, what is your quote, “Bluehost?” Now, Bluehost makes sense for me, and it's very, very profitable for me because that's the first step people take when they build an online business. They have to get a hosting and domain somewhere, so they go to Bluehost. What is your version of Bluehost for those who are you teaching? What are their first steps, and what service product class, course, can they use that would help them get started? What are your audiences first steps? What is your avatar's first step?

That first step, the first thing they need to get in order to get whatever it is that they're going to your site for, if it is your own product, then that's great. That's actually probably ideal. For me I can't, well I guess I could start my own hosting company if I wanted to, but I don't want to do that, at least at this point in time, because of the lifestyle that comes along with that. I don't want that. I'm very happy with where I'm at now. Again like I said, if I didn't have Bluehost affiliate sales, if I didn't have that income coming in, I mean I would still essentially be making tens of thousands of dollars a month. Not as much as I am now, but I wouldn't change anything.

I would continue to do the things the way I do, and drive people towards some of those first steps if that was different than Bluehost. That happens to be the first step, so I recommend that you think about it really quick and see what your first steps are for your business, and the people who are coming to you for help. What are their first steps? Make sure you get that in front of them.

For example, I have links to these first steps on my Getting Started page, which is an obvious place that you should have on your website, and put those types of things. I have it on my Resources page, and I mention both the Getting Started page and the Resources pages, which are two of the most profitable lead generation parts on the site for Bluehost sales. That's the Getting Started page, and the Resources page. I mention those in various places on the podcast, and on the blog. I also have links to Bluehost on my YouTube video. I have a YouTube video that walks people through the step-by-step process on how to start your first website. In that process I share that Bluehost is the one that I recommend, and I also share my affiliate links as well.

Those three places right there do the job, or do a great job of really just wherever people enter my site, they eventually find one of those things. The Getting Started page, the Resources page, or the YouTube video. They find their way there one way or another. Hopefully you make sure that you not only understand what those first steps should be, what's that first thing that person who is visiting your website should get their hands on to really launch them into whatever it is you're teaching them to do. But also making sure it's easy for them to find that. That it does get in front of their face, or they do come across it during the path of when people go and find themselves through and out your site.

Also making sure that like with the video that I have, that with whatever that first thing is, you show them what they're going to get. What is that thing like? People like to see what they're going to get before they get it, especially if it requires some sort of payment. Show them, be completely honest, show them. Be transparent, open that box. You know those popular YouTube videos where people are just unboxing different things? They're very popular because people want to see what they're going to get before they get it. They want to experience what it's like before they experience it themselves.

Use those strategies when you're moving forward with whatever it is that you want to do have become your quote, “Bluehost.” Also, in terms of keeping that revenue stream healthy. Again, I'm just continuing to do what I do, which is provide value, and this just seems like the more I do that, the more people get into the process of starting an online business, and making sure because of those things are in front of those people whenever they're ready to do that, it's just naturally going to happen. I'm not struggling at all with trying to figure out ways to make sure that stays the way it is. Really I've done nothing but just continue to pump value out there. Because of that, the site has grown, and because of that, the Bluehost revenue has grown as well over time.

Hopefully Michael, that gives you some insight, and maybe a little bit of tips on some direction you can take as well with your business too. I wish you all the best, thank you so much for the question. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com, you can ask right there on that page.

I also want to thank FreshBooks.com for being awesome, and also helping me organize my finances, and doing it for a number of years now. They are also serving three million other small businesses too. One of the reasons I like them is because it makes it really easy for me to check on the health of my business, and what's working, and what's not. Trends, and things like that. Also on the go, to do it with their award winning mobile app too. You can check out FreshBooks for 30 days for free by going to GetFreshBooks.com, and entering, “Ask Pat,” in the, “How did you hear about us?” section. Again, that's “Ask Pat,” in the, “How did you hear about us?” section at GetFreshBooks.com.

Thanks so much, I appreciate you. I wish you all the best. Here's a quote to finish off today by Robert Byrne. He said, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” Cheers, take care, and I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Thanks guys.