Episode 3
In this episode, Michelle and Jeff spend time with Derrick Hernandez to talk about becoming part of the affiliate marketing program at StellarWP, some of the benefits of the affiliate program, and best practices for creating revenue as an affiliate.
Mentioned in this episode:
- Join the StellarWP Affiliate Program
- GiveWP
- KadenceWP
- Iconic
- Orderable
- The Events Calendar
- LearnDash
- iThemes
- SolidWP
- Restrict Content Pro
- Impact.com
Episode Transcript
Intro 00:00:02 Welcome to WP Constellations, a podcast exploration of the WordPress universe. Brought to you by StellarWP.
Michelle 00:00:12 Welcome to the next edition of WP Constellations, your podcast from StellarWP about all things WordPress. And today I am here with my esteemed co-host, Jeff Chandler, who is the marketing generalist for StellarWP. Hey, Jeff, how you doing?
Jeff 00:00:27 Hello. Hello. Welcome back, Michelle.
Michelle 00:00:29 Thank you. Good to see you again. And today our guest is Derrick Hernandez. Derrick is the Senior affiliate program manager at StellarWP Derrick, welcome. Thanks for joining us today.
Derrick 00:00:39 Thanks for having me. It’s an honor to join you both, so appreciate you having me on.
Michelle 00:00:43 Oh, the Honor is ours. We really appreciate that. Your knowledge base. So you are, um, very, you know, very specific and expert knowledge about affiliate marketing and what it takes not only to understand like, hey, what is affiliate marketing, but to give us some insight into how we do it at StellarWP and how people can make the most of it. So could you give us kind of just like a little bit of a rundown about what is affiliate marketing as specifically has as it pertains to Stellar WP and all of our brands?
Derrick 00:01:12 Yeah, most definitely. So, really at the end of the day, to sum it up, I like to say one quick hitter is affiliate marketing is really just a process in which an affiliate or a partner or a brand ambassador, uh, earns a commission for marketing and other, uh, brands, uh, companies, uh, products. So that’s really just to sum it up, um, as it relates to StellarWP, uh, if, if, for those of you that don’t know StellarWP houses eight of the, the world’s most popular WordPress plugins. So when you join our affiliate program, you’re gonna have a multitude of options, uh, of brands. Uh, you’re gonna be able to promote those brands, and we will pay you a commission for that. Um, so yeah,
Michelle 00:01:56 World’s most popular WordPress plugins. Why have I never thought to put those words together in just that way and the smooth, silky way that rolled off your tongue? I am definitely stealing that going forward. What do you think, Jeff ?
Jeff 00:02:08 I, I think it’s definitely stealable
Michelle 00:02:11 . Absolutely.
Derrick 00:02:12 I was practicing that in the mirror all last night, so I’m glad it rolled off the tongue. I gotta, I gotta impress you both and apologize.
Michelle 00:02:19 Oh, practice makes perfect.
Jeff 00:02:21 Color me impressed.
Michelle 00:02:23 I was impressed before that. Now you’ve just like raised it a whole notch, so, fantastic. Well, can you tell us a little bit about what that looks like? How does one become an affiliate with any of the stellar brands? And is it an all or nothing? Like, do you become an affiliate of one of the brands, all of the brands? How does that work?
Derrick 00:02:38 Yes, great question, Michelle. So, uh, how does one become an affiliate? Uh, simply by going to StellarWP.com/affiliates, we have a landing page there that our lovely team put together. Uh, and simply you’ll be able to click on, sign me up after you, you know, read the rundown on, uh, what it means to become affiliate. We have some key points on that landing page. Uh, you’ll click sign me up, and then you’ll enter some basic information. Um, it’s gonna take you to that an application page where you’ll need to input some basic information. Um, and ultimately this is a key point. It’s gonna help you create a, uh, Impact account. So when you do apply, not only are you applying to becoming a StellarWP affiliate, you’re also going to apply to be, uh, an Impacts affiliate network where you have options to promote not only StellarWP, but there may be some additional brands in there, um, that you may want to promote, right.
Derrick 00:03:32 And help monetize your affiliate efforts. Um, impact. And, you know, real quick impact is probably, in my opinion, the number one affiliate, uh, platform. So you’re gonna have a lot of options in there. Um, there’s a lot of WordPress relative products within, uh, the Impact network. So that may be an additive there. Um, but if you do have an Impact, uh, uh, account, uh, you’re gonna be able to click on the already have an account, um, login option at the top of this page that I’m referring to the application page mm-hmm. Um, and so you’ll be able to log in and apply, uh, from within your Impact account as well. So, um, so that, and yeah, go for it.
Michelle 00:04:10 That, so that brings me to another point. So you can be an affiliate of one of the Stellar brands or all of the Stellar brands and also brands that are not part of the Liquid Web family. Is that correct?
Derrick 00:04:20 Exactly. That you, you hit the nail on the head there. And, and to, um, go further into your second question, Michelle, about, you know, if you do apply to the program, is it just for one of our brands that GiveWP, Kadence, you have access to promote all of our brands? So it’s essentially an all encompassing ordeal.
Michelle 00:04:38 Okay. So you can pick and choose where you’re, so if, if, for example, you are an a, a design agency, let’s say, and you work exclusively with nonprofits, perhaps Kadence and Give are your go-tos, and you really wanna promote those and maybe Iconic, which is specifically WooCommerce is not something that would appeal to you, which makes sense then exactly. So go for the gold and figure out what makes the most sense for your company or for your brand and, um, and market that way. For sure. I love that.
Jeff 00:05:08 Definitely. So, so using Impact, are you able to, I haven’t used Impact, but with it’s user interface, are you, are you able to just add certain products and you get certain codes that you would use for those products? Because back in the day, it used to be you have to sign up to every individual affiliate program and then they would have to approve you, and then they would give you a link. And it used to be a very cumbersome process having to manage all these different products. And it sounds like Impact kind of eliminates all that hassle.
Michelle 00:05:36 It’s a great dashboard.
Derrick 00:05:38 Yes. To a cer, uh, a certain extent Jeff, uh, you know, Impact, it takes a little bit of getting used to. Um, and I know we’ll dive deeper into, you know, what is the benefit of joining our program mm-hmm. Um, and part of that is you get a dedicated affiliate manager, right? And having a dedicated affiliate manager will kind of help, you know, give you some resources to get you onboarded into Impact and get you used to the dashboard as Michelle alluded to there. Um, but let’s just say you’re in impact, right? And you’re accepted by StellarWP. You still will have to get accepted by other programs, but just by being in Impact’s network, you, you’re already a step ahead of most of, you know, people that are trying to monetize their affiliates, uh, their affiliate efforts in this space. Um, and like I said, Impact is home to some of the most impressive, most robust affiliate programs out there. Um, so you’re gonna have, um, multitude of opportunities to, um, promote other products.
Michelle 00:06:35 I am an affiliate of, of, uh, products outside of Liquid Web, but I am also an affiliate of SellerWP and Nexus, our hosting company that’s part of Liquid Web. And I will say that of all of the different platforms I have affiliate links through Impact is absolutely, um, the best dashboard, easiest to understand. Mm-hmm. But also when you become an affiliate with us, and I’m hoping not gonna put words in your mouth and you’re gonna be like, gosh, you stole my answer, Michelle, but you also get all kinds of things that help you do the marketing. So can you talk about that a little bit?
Derrick 00:07:06 Yes. So having a dedicated affiliate manager is gotta be really key there. Um, it is, I would say the way StellarWP is structured, it’s not the most standard, uh, considering there’s eight different brands, right? And it’s one affiliate program, one account in Impact. So when you do join our program, you will have, um, you know, options to create all your different affiliate links and grab those yourself. Um, however, we do have different landing pages within our brands and on our, uh, our webpages. So, um, leaning on us to get you different landing pages, different creative resources such as banners, um, images, that’s where we come in and really help kind of optimize your experience and get you set up. Um, you know, I not only manage the program, but I manage two phenomenal, um, uh, colleagues that, um, specialize in affiliate management. Uh, and really I lean on them to ensure our affiliates are getting the most outta their experience. And so when you do join our affiliate program, you are going to get an email, um, a unique email, um, where a human is actually going to reach out to you and introduce you to the pro, uh, the program and ask you if there’s anything you need. My recommendation, and I know we’ll dive in this, uh, deeper, is make sure you respond and really lean on them to get the most outta your experience.
Michelle 00:08:30 I, I will say that I have been in the WordPress business for 11 years now, almost 12 years. And I was very until recently, very new to like, okay, I, I’ve heard of affiliate marketing, but okay, what is it? Right? And how do I do it? And all those things. And so I signed up through our program using my non-Liquid Web email so that things are managed through my, my side businesses, whatever. But, um, and yes, it’s like real people email you and if you reach back and say, I don’t understand, can you help me? Real people set up appointments with you, and real people will walk you through it because you all and your team wanna make sure that our affiliates are successful. Not just because it brings us money, but because it brings other people money. And that whole symbiotic relationship of affiliate marketing, uh, makes everybody happy, right? So, uh, yeah, you guys are a great team. Absolutely. Great team.
Derrick 00:09:26 Exactly. For sure. You, you nailed it, right? Symbiotic. And, you know, at the end of the day, you know, affiliate marketing, it’s subjective, right? There could be so many different meanings. At the end of the day, it’s a partnership. And when you perform or send a referral, we’re gonna, uh, pay you for your efforts. So, yeah. Um, it’s pretty black and white and at the end of the day, we want to help you help us, right? Yeah. And it’s just a, you know, a lovely rotation, really, at the end of the day, it’s a partnership,
Michelle 00:09:55 But I will say affiliate marketing is not, if you build it, they will come, right? So, like I’ve had on my WPCoffeeTalk, I’ve had, I have a link page, right? An affiliate link page. I don’t think I’ve ever made a sale through there because I’ve never promoted it. I’ve never blogged about my experiences. Um, I didn’t have time, I hadn’t come up with a strategy. And recently I met with a member of the team to talk about, like, so how does one actually build their affiliate link page? Or how, how does one go about actually making sales through it instead of just having a link hoping someday that somebody will just wander across it. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Derrick 00:10:35 I would love to, Michelle. Yes. I know online, you know, affiliate marketing gets promoted, as you know, if you do this, you’re gonna make millions, millions, and millions of dollars a month. Like everything that’s worth it, it takes a while to build, right? It takes a while to build that audience, build traffic to your site. At the end of the day, I always recommend, and so does my team, you know, writing your own organic content involved, you know, writing organic content and really leaning into a specific niche, right? And I know we’re talking in generalities here, not necessarily, um, in direct correlation with StellarWP, but, you know, if I take my StellarWP hat off and more so, you know, just overall marketing affiliate marketing, you know, at the end of the day, I always recommend people if they’re just getting started, really lean into a specific niche, right?
Derrick 00:11:23 Like, are you a builder, if you’re building websites, great, but who are you building them for? Right? And really dive in and kind of drill down a specific niche. Another thing I recommend is write content as if you’re writing to your closest friends and family mm-hmm. Because from there, you’re gonna build a unique audience. You’re gonna come off as organic and true, and the rest of it will take care of itself. And as you continue to scale uh, build more of a stronger community, and I, I’m gonna be using that word a ton here, uh, you know, know you’re gonna still want to lean in and act as if yourself, because at the end of the day, people are smart. Consumers are getting smarter by the end of the day, uh, at the end of the day rather. And, uh, you know, they’re gonna know if you’re BSing or not.
Derrick 00:12:05 So really, really leaning into a specific niche and writing as if you’re, you know, talking to your closest friends or family, it’s gonna really kind of help you get off to the right foot. And you gotta trust it, right? You gotta keep going and going, just because you know, you’re not getting any traffic in a couple months doesn’t mean you should stop. Mm-hmm, you gotta keep going. So, and then one quick tidbit that’s, um, you know, again, more, uh, general is promote the, uh, products that make the most sense to your community once you do build that community. Because like I said, consumers are getting smart. If you’re just promoting a product just because of a appealing, um, commission structure that you’re being offered from a different brand, uh, that is not in good faith, right? So you want to really act in good faith, really lean into what your community’s needs are and promote from there.
Jeff 00:12:53 That makes sense. I’m so glad you mentioned that hearing, hearing somebody that’s behind the scenes that’s managing their affiliate program, say those words is very important. And I’m, I’m glad, I hope people out there are listening that it’s not, it’s not just based on just be part of an affiliate program and just keep shipping that stuff out to your readers, your listeners, or viewers, because they have the highest commission payout. It, it doesn’t work that way,
Derrick 00:13:18 Right? And one thing I’ll also, you know, say to the people that are just getting started in affiliate marketing, right? You are going to be, once you get to a point where your site is, uh, you know, getting a good amount of traffic, you build a community and you’re everything you want, uh, for an affiliate program, you are going to get offered, uh, a, you know, high commission structures, right? The one thing I always tell affiliates, it’s conversion rate over everything. Just because you’re making $300 per referral on a product doesn’t mean you should pick that over, let’s say 150, right? Just throwing out, uh, vague numbers there mm-hmm. , because let’s just say, you know, that $150 product that you’re promoting is tried and true, and it’s converting well, that $300 product may not convert as well, and you end up making more in the long run by promoting that $150 product. So always keep that in mind. A good product, you know, your affiliate, your affiliate marketing efforts are nothing without good products, right? So you wanna do your best to ensure that your, your product has great support. Um, and it’s just a great product overall. Like some of, like most of our brands, essentially all of ’em. Yeah. So
Jeff 00:14:27 That makes sense. Yeah. Essentially that’s, that’s the perfect relationship for somebody who, who is, uh, into affiliate marketing is, is they actually, maybe they’ve used it, they, or they currently use it, or they just strongly believe in it, or they just, whenever, whenever you’re a strong fan and believer and love the product that you’re actually promoting to be part of an affiliate, it’s like that’s the best possible outcome. Exactly. Blindly, blindly, uh, being affiliated with products and, and talking about them and sharing ’em with your audience. It’s just like, it is just ungenuine and mm-hmm. , it’s just, just kind of a bad situation overall. But in, in the past when I’ve participated in affiliate links, I, and, and being able to say, look, I’ve used these things. This is why I like them. This is why I think they’ll be useful and beneficial to you. It’s, it’s worked out. Uh, it, it it’s a great relationship there between myself, the affiliate and the, and the product, and being able to push that out to my audience. Because, because trust, trust is key. And when you lose trust with your audience, it’s almost impossible to get it back.
Derrick 00:15:36 Yep. And that’s worst case scenario scenario right there, Jeff. Worst case scenario, we like to call these people brand ambassadors, right? And mm-hmm. , those are the ones you wanna work with the most.
Michelle 00:15:44 Absolutely. When I think about, um, affiliate marketing, I think about, you know, definitely writing those blog posts, getting some good SEO juice there, getting traffic to your site. I mean, we all want traffic to our sites anyway. So that’s, uh, definitely something that’s gonna help you. Um, if you write it right, it, you can’t write a sales pitch, you have to write from the heart about why you like the products that you like. Using social media is a great way to, great way to also promote products. And if you’re an agency and you’re building sites for other people, recommending those to your clients and your customers, um, through your affiliate link is actually gonna help you as well. What are some of the things that we discourage, are there practices that we discourage in, uh, affiliate marketing that we say this is not the right way to go about it?
Derrick 00:16:24 Yes. Uh, big time. There’s promoting coupon codes that you aren’t allowed to promote, right? And that kind of influences, uh, late, late, uh, in the funnel activity. Not to get too deep in the marketing leaves, but mm-hmm, at the end of the day, we really lean on affiliates that are bringing in, you know, introducing, uh, traffic to us versus coming in late in the funnel and stealing a credit, uh, stealing affiliate referral from somebody else, right? And we found that most of, you know, and this is for a lot of affiliate programs, is, you know, coupon affiliates, right? There are some AK honey, uh, we, we call them loyalty partners. Um, there are some that you should look into working with and testing. Uh, but with that being said, right there, there are, you know, websites out there that promote coupons that we had no idea that they’re promoting, right?
Derrick 00:17:18 And they promote those and they’ll rank, you know, high on, let’s just say like, you know, um, you know, one of our brands, uh, key terms and then coupon on the Google cert mm-hmm. And so a lot of consumers nowadays are typing in, you know, let’s, for example, uh, you know, the events calendar coupon code, just to give you an example. And after they’ve were on an affiliate’s website that, you know Yeah. Put effort into writing content. And then they go, okay, great, I want to sign up, but you know what, let me look for a coupon. And so they’ll look for a coupon there, and then they’ll come in late in the funnel and take that referral.
Jeff 00:17:54 Oh, you’re totally not describing me
Derrick 00:17:57 . So, I mean, hey, consumers, I mean, this is a whole different topic, right? Sure. Consumers at the end of the day, I mean, I even do it, right, looking up coupons, and you can make the argument, right? We’re not in these people’s heads when they’re making these decisions, but, you know, hey, there, there, there are some things to be said about, you know, having coupons and, you know, testing certain affiliates, but, you know, at the end of the day, I would discourage that, um, you know mm-hmm, um, and how to kind of veer off from that. You want to reach out to the affiliate program or your affiliate manager and say, Hey, you know, would love to, you know, work with you and get a custom discount code. Do you offer those? So I would recommend that to any affiliate, uh, uh, with any brand, uh, that they do that, because at the end of the day, those do help. And if, especially if the coupon code’s unique to yourself, right? Unique to your brand. Yeah, for sure. Um, but yes, and then stealing content, uh, at the end of the day, that, that’s, that’s why we recommend write your content.
Michelle 00:18:54 Plagiarism is always bad.
Derrick 00:18:56 . Exactly, exactly. So plagiarism for sure. And just, yeah, you know, really it’s, you can I, things like that can please go for it. I add,
Michelle 00:19:06 So like, there are so many Facebook groups, right? For every product and everything, and I see people come into some of our different brand Facebook groups and spam the group with their affiliate links out to other products, right? Mm-hmm. spamming, um, trying to usurp one group to promote another product. Those are just bad practices all around. And I think, I don’t know what our, what our, um, stance is, and if we have had to remove people from our affiliate program for bad acting, but I would imagine that there are affiliate programs that, like you are, you are acting in bad faith enough that we’re, we’re gonna pull the plug on you, and we don’t wanna do that. Right? We want to yeah. Encourage you to do things the right way. Um, grow your affiliate links, grow your business, that kind of thing. Um, again, exactly, it comes down to that trust and that acting in good faith mm-hmm. . And do we sometimes make mistakes here, of course, but of course, it’s always, um, you know, going forward in good faith. So, um, I wanna wrap it up by asking the question, kind of going back to the beginning of, yes, go to the website StellarWP.com/affiliates. Once somebody applies to be an affiliate, is there a vetting process? Is it a yes or no? Are we waiting to see what’s going on? Are we, like, what’s, what does the timeline look like and why might somebody get a, uh, a decline instead of an approval?
Derrick 00:20:20 Yes. Uh, great. Uh, great question, Michelle. So, uh, we are accepting or declining, uh, applications manually, right? And so, uh, there are a, there is a section called promotional information within with on, or excuse me, on the actual application itself. There will give, you know, our team more insight on how you plan on promoting the brands, right? And what those include. And I’m gonna pull ’em up. So the promotional information, there’s a section where you can click or you, and it’ll give you the options to say, Hey, are you a content review site? Are you a deal coupon, site loyalty, rewards? Are you a creator? Are you a network? Um, and so what we’ll do is, um, we’ll kind of look to see, you know, and we’ll also check your site, are you, you know, just to make sure you’re backing it up and you’re actual human, right?
Derrick 00:21:11 Mm-hmm. . Um, so we’ll manually look to see and do some, you know, cross-checking ourselves. We per, we tend not to work with coupon sites or affiliate networks mm-hmm. . So if you are selecting that, um, um, that option, you know, more often than not, we’re gonna auto decline that. Now, there are some instances, right? You mentioned Michelle. We’re not perfect. No one is, there are some instances where people accidentally select, you know, a network or coupon site, and they they get declined, and then they reach out, out to us saying, what the heck? And so, we’ll obviously own it. We’ll be like, so sorry, we’re, um, you know, I had another look at your site. We’ve accepted you in the program. We’re really good at getting back to you right away. Mm-hmm. . So if there are some issue or some, uh, scenarios where that does happen, uh, you’re, you should, you should expect to hear from us right away and get approved. Um, so
Michelle 00:22:02 We think of our affiliates as elite, but you don’t have to jump through hoops. It, it isn’t so elite that we’re gatekeeping people out of it. We really want you to join as affiliates. We really wanna help you make money. We wanna sell our product, and we want people to realize how good the plugins that we have, what did you call them? The best plugins in the world, is that how you said it?
Derrick 00:22:21 The world’s best WordPress plugins, the world’s
Michelle 00:22:25 You have to write that down for me later so that I absolutely have that. Um, I thank you so much for all that. Is there anything else you wanna share with us before we wrap up?
Derrick 00:22:35 Uh, I guess just real quick, just to give a plug to my team, uh, Nathan and Theresa, they are our dedicated affiliate managers. And, you know, their goal is to really help optimize our affiliates experience, uh, within our, uh, affiliate program. Uh, and so when you do apply to our program, more often than not, you will get approved. Um, you know, after we do our own little vetting process, our own manual vetting process. And, you know, as far as the benefits go, you’re gonna have options, right? When you do, when you do join our affiliate program. And what I mean by options is, uh, you know, options to promote different things, right? We have plugins that specialize and we’re press security, uh, you know, themes, WooCommerce, you know, monetizing your on your own online course mm-hmm. , um, you know, event management, donation plugins, et cetera, et cetera.
Derrick 00:23:23 So when you have a, a, a multitude of brands to promote, that opens the doors to different, um, you know, multitudes of content ideas, right? Um, on top of that, I’ve already mentioned a dedicated affiliate manager. So really, really lean on us to help you, um, be upfront as possible. We can’t help you if we don’t know what you need help with, right? So, um, and then on top of that, I would like to say we also offer different payout structures, right? So we do have affiliates that are content affiliates and they prefer more of a flat, uh, C P A, meaning their C p A is what it is, no matter how many sales they get. Mm-hmm. , uh, in a given month. Um, we also have a tiered structure, right? And we like to offer this to, you know, uh, you know, freelancers, agencies, or organizations in general that don’t have the capabilities to write, you know, a content. And so, you know, some months they may do really well ’cause they may have an influx of clients and they’ll get paid accordingly for that on the tiered structure. But, um, um, that’s it for the plug. Uh, you know, Michelle and Jeff, thank you both so much. Yeah. If you guys have any additional questions, I’m glad to stay on and answer.
Michelle 00:24:29 I just wanna mention our brands, um, so that I have listed them all out. So our brands under the StellarWP umbrella are iThemes, Kadence, I themes, which is going to be SolidWP very soon. Yep. Uh, Kadence, which is a great theme, uh, block, um, block editor builder, page builder, Restrict Content Pro, GiveWP, IconicWP, Orderable, LearnDash, The Events Calendar and WP Business Reviews. So if you’re interested in any of those, let us know. We’re happy to, uh, to give you more information about that. Derrick, if somebody’s interested in getting in touch with the affiliate team, how do they get in touch with you?
Derrick 00:25:04 Yes, please Go to StellarWP.com/affiliates. Uh, there you’ll find our email and it is, gimme a second. We have a couple here. I just want to give them the best one. It’s [email protected]. So if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. If you wanna reach me on a personal level, go ahead and find me. My name is Derek Hernandez on LinkedIn. Be happy to answer any questions for you there as well. Um, or we’re looking forward to talking with you. Yeah.
Michelle 00:25:34 Reach out through any of our Stellar, um, avenues and we’ll be happy to put you in touch as well. Of course. So Jeff, any final words before we wrap this up?
Jeff 00:25:42 Oh, thank you very much Derrick, for coming on the show and giving us insight into our affiliate program and how things work.
Derrick 00:25:50 Hey, you’re welcome. Thank you both for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah,
Michelle 00:25:52 Appreciate you as well. Thanks so much. We’ll see everybody on the next episode of WP Constellations. Thanks for being here.
Outro 00:26:06 WP Constellations is a production of StellarWP home of The Events Calendar, LearnDash, GiveWP, Kadence, Iconic, SolidWP, Orderable and Restrict Content Pro. Learn more about the StellarVerse at StellarWP.com.
Learn more about the StellarWP Affiliate Marketing Program here.