Who doesn’t like to save money? Look people are reading your blog, following you on social media and listening to what you have to say, because you’re the expert, right?
Share how you do things
- Share what programs you use – I use Capture One for all my RAW image processing.
- Share what services you use – I use PhotoShelter to host all my online image galleries and website.
- Share what backend you use – SalesForce is my CRM backbone.
- Share what equipment you use – My gear practically lives in ThinkTank bags.
[Full disclosure all these links are affiliate links, that give you discounts or gifts and may have some financial benefit for me to, BUT I used all these products for many years and I love to tell you about them.]
The list goes on and on, but you can do even better, than just saying – hey this is what I use to do my job: contact the companies and ask for discounts when your audience starts using their services and products, after getting introduced to them by you.
Isn’t a 10% discount or a $15.- savings worth clicking through your links? I think so. It doesn’t take that much time to set this up and sometimes you can also get something out of these deals for yourself (a discount on next months bill, a check for commissions you’ve earned).
One word of caution–actually two:
- Let your readers know that they are clicking through an affiliate link. Just a short note at the end of the blog post, tweet or post; the last thing you want is for your readers to think that you’re taking advantage of them. I don’t want to break the trust that my audience has placed in me for a few bucks. If I’m excited about a product I’ll share that.
- Promote products and services you use and know. Maybe I’m don’t write on a big enough blog, but the products and services I push are the ones I use. The ones that help me do my job better. I go after these sponsors, affiliate links, what ever you want to call them. These are also often the same companies that give me door prizes for the live workshops I teach.
You’ll find these links in blog articles I write or on the sidebar of my blog. Sometimes I’ll use them in Social Media posts or on forums when someone asks a question, where I can help give a solution and a discount.
If you wanna get all fancy, use bit.ly links to help track how people are using your recommendations and to help remember what the links are; I can’t remember the PhotoShelter affiliate link for the life of me, but http://bit.ly/DepuhlPS is easy.
Now go to your favorite software site, you most used cloud service, … and share why you love to use them with your audience. And figure out how to get them a discount; your audience will love you for that.
