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Becoming an e-learning affiliate is a fantastic opportunity to gain recognition and earn money by promoting online education. As an affiliate, you can recommend courses from online schools to your network—whether it’s family, friends, colleagues, customers, or website visitors—and earn commissions for every successful enrollment you generate.
How does affiliate marketing for online academies work? It’s really simple: you get a unique affiliate link from the academy website or course page you want to promote and attract clicks to it. When someone buys a course through your link, you earn a portion of the revenue. It’s a win-win situation where the academy gains a new student, and you are rewarded for your referral efforts.
Sounds easy right? That’s because it is. With advanced affiliate management systems like the one built directly into LearnWorlds, the process becomes even more streamlined. The Affiliate Management feature is available for any LearnWorlds school with a Pro Trainer plan or higher, making it easy to automate and manage your affiliate marketing efforts efficiently.
What you need is the right strategies and a solid plan to turn affiliate marketing into a profitable and sustainable passive income stream, all while helping others discover valuable educational resources.
Stay put as we go over key considerations, strategies, and tips to help you make the most of affiliate marketing for e-learning.
How Affiliate Marketing Works?
As explained earlier, in affiliate marketing, you promote a company’s product through a unique affiliate link. When someone clicks through your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. This is how affiliate marketing programs function, offering a simple yet effective way to generate affiliate income.
To find the best fit for your marketing efforts, you can start researching the best affiliate programs, like the Amazon affiliate program or ShareASale. Each program has different commission rates and payout structures, so you need to choose one that aligns with your audience and business goals.
💁These are The 25 Top High-Paying Affiliate Networks and Programs
Different Types of Affiliate Marketing
Pat Flynn, a well-known expert in the field of affiliate marketing, highlights three primary types of affiliate marketing (2009) that can help you understand the different ways to earn income as an affiliate.
Each type varies in terms of effort, involvement, and potential reward.
1. Unattached Affiliate Marketing
In unattached affiliate marketing, you have no direct connection to the product or service you’re promoting. As an affiliate, you might use pay-per-click (PPC) ads or other forms of online marketing to drive traffic to your affiliate links.
This type requires minimal involvement but can be challenging to generate trust and high conversions since you are not personally endorsing the product.
2. Related Affiliate Marketing
Related affiliate marketing involves promoting products or services that are relevant to your content but aren’t something you’ve personally used.
For example, if you have a blog focused on digital marketing, you might promote marketing tools or e-commerce platforms that align with your content but aren’t products you’ve personally tried.
This type of affiliate marketing strikes a balance between involvement and authenticity, as you’re still providing value to your audience with relevant recommendations.
3. Involved Affiliate Marketing
This is the approach Pat Flynn strongly advocates for. Involved affiliate marketing is where you promote products or services you have used personally and can genuinely vouch for.
This method often involves creating in-depth product reviews, tutorials, or case studies that highlight your experience. By sharing your thoughts, you build trust with your audience, which often leads to higher conversion rates and stronger affiliate sales.
Understanding these types of affiliate marketing can help you choose the best approach and affiliate marketing strategy when promoting e-learning products like online courses.
Promote Online Courses as a Beginner Affiliate Marketer
Now, let’s say that you have agreed to promote an online academy. How do you go about launching effective affiliate marketing campaigns? Luckily, there are simple ways to ensure that you maximize exposure and profits.
Here are some proven-to-work strategies to get affiliate commissions:
Strategy #1: Create Blog Content
Building high-quality content is crucial for driving traffic and generating affiliate sales. If you already are a blogger, you can use different types of content, such as product reviews, comparison guides, how-to articles, personal case studies, or even in-depth tutorial videos that give details about the course.
These forms of affiliate content can provide immense value to your target audience while creating awareness of the course you are promoting.
💁 Check out 30 Marketing Ideas to Promote an Online Course
Strategy #2: Try Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing is a powerful tool in digital marketing. If you know people with a big following on platforms like TikTok, LinkedIn, X, or Instagram, reach out to them and discuss the possibility of forming a partnership with them and promoting your affiliate offers to their audience.
By collaborating with famous personalities and popular brands while sharing your experiences, you will have a bigger chance of boosting your affiliate income.
Strategy #3: Take Advantage of Social Media
Don’t hesitate to share your affiliate links to your own social media profiles, groups, or pages. If you have a YouTube channel, that’s even better.
As long as you continue to provide value and motivation for people to sign up, more and more will come and gradually start clicking on your links. Your audience will be looking out for those promotions in their social media feeds.
Strategy #4: Build an Email List
A strong email list is a valuable asset for any affiliate partner. By using email marketing effectively, you can send targeted promotions and updates to your subscribers.
Ensure you have an opt-in form on your WordPress site to capture your site visitors’ emails and gradually work to build a connection with your audience. In your emails, make sure to offer content that shows your affiliate link in a strategic position as well.
Strategy #5: Offer Lead Magnets
Give your audience free resources like guides, checklists, e-books, worksheets, or templates that include your affiliate link. Use these lead magnets to encourage sign-ups for your email newsletter, where you can further promote the courses.
Strategy #6: Host Free Webinars
Webinars are a great tool to increase product awareness. To make them work though these live sessions should be informative and offer solutions to problems through the course you are promoting.
You can choose to collaborate with the course owner in a joint webinar as well, to make a bigger impact and answer key questions potential learners may have related to the course.
Strategy #7: Host or Guest a Podcast
Podcasts offer excellent exposure for your promoted products. Whether you are hosting or guesting, be prepared to discuss the product in depth. If you are running your own podcast though, consider inviting the academy owner or course creator to share insights and speak about their work.
Strategy #8: Capitalize on Seasonal Offers
Seasonal offers like Black Friday, Christmas, and New Year’s are the best times of the year to introduce a new product to your audience. People go on a buying frenzy on those dates and the vendors offer great discounts on digital products.
Work with the academy owner that you are affiliated with, and come up with a 12-month promotional calendar that aligns with the academy’s sales events. You can also agree to offer coupons to encourage more members of your audience to purchase.
Strategy #9: Explore Co-marketing Campaigns
Explore co-branded advertising, cross-promotion, guest posting, and other collaborative marketing efforts with the academy owner. Both parties can benefit from gaining exposure to each other’s audiences.
Strategy #10: Invest in Relationship Marketing
Building long-lasting relationships with customers, partners, or prospects in your professional network can help you increase your sales and the possibility of them getting interested in the product you are promoting.
Relationship marketing is all about bringing the product and brand you represent to the forefront and offering a customer experience that is based on mutual trust, recurring customer engagement, and respect toward the customer.
💁 The most effective way to cultivate a genuine connection with your audience is by creating an online community. Learn how to build yours here.
Strategy #11: Consider Dropshipping
Online courses are digital products which means there is a dropshipping option for you right? Well, that’s not entirely true. Combining dropshipping with affiliate marketing is another equally effective strategy you can try out.
By integrating dropshipping into your affiliate marketing business, you can offer physical products alongside the online courses you promote, creating multiple streams of affiliate income.
Best Tips for Effective Affiliate Marketing
To ensure your promotional efforts yield positive results, your strategies must be well-aligned with your audience’s needs and interests.
Here are some key tips to help you succeed in your affiliate marketing campaigns:
If you’re affiliated with a LearnWorlds academy, you can use the comprehensive Affiliate Management Dashboard to track your performance and further optimize your campaigns.
Keep on reading to learn more about this tool and make the most of it.
How to Start Promoting a LearnWorlds Academy
The first step in this journey is to choose your favorite LearnWorlds academies you want to partner with. Then approach them to express your interest in working with them as an affiliate, and encourage them to start using the LearnWorlds Affiliate Management.
As an affiliate, you will need to learn how to use the Affiliate Dashboard. This should help you understand what it can do for you and the affiliated academy.
The following screenshots will give you an insight into the process of becoming an affiliate with a LearnWorlds academy step-by-step:
Step 1: Access the Affiliate Dashboard
Visit our affiliate page to register and log in to your affiliate dashboard. Write down the URL of the academy website you want to promote followed by /affiliate-registration.
For example – https://www.schoolname.com/affiliate-registration. When you land on this page, this is what you will see:
Once you register, you automatically become a LearnWorlds user. Then, you will be asked again to join the affiliate program.
As an affiliate partner, you will be able to sign in each time from this page.
If you are already an academy user, you need to visit the same site to join the program or you can ask the academy owner to add you manually. Once you are in, you will be redirected to your affiliate dashboard.
There is also the option to visit this dashboard directly from the home page as shown below.
Step 2: Set up Your Payment Method & View Your Earnings
From the Affiliate Dashboard, you will be able to see a quick overview of your affiliate performance, your sales, the amount due to be paid, payments received, and more.
While you are there, click on the ‘Set payment method’ option under Actions to choose your preferred payment method option and hit ‘Save’.
Step 3: Create Your Affiliate Links
To create your affiliate links, click on the ‘Affiliate Links’ under the Affiliate Management list.
From there, simply insert a URL to generate an affiliate link for any page of the affiliate website.
You will need to add the public URL of the promoted page into the designated field. You can even get affiliate links for specific product pages chosen by the academy owner, as shown below.
If you want, you can also choose to create affiliate links with coupons. Ask the academy owner for the coupon code to offer your audience a discount.
Here’s how your affiliate links will look like from inside the dashboard:
💡 For more information on how to use the affiliate dashboard check out this Guide for School Affiliates. It should give you all the information you need to navigate through and use the affiliate dashboard effectively.
Of course, our support team is always here to help you should you have any questions about promoting LearnWorlds schools as an affiliate.
Ready to Make Money Online Promoting eLearning Products?
To become a successful affiliate in online education, there is no doubt you will need a well-thought-out affiliate marketing strategy.
Whether you are new to affiliate marketing or looking to optimize your current strategies, understanding the basics and using the right tools can lead you to success. Explore different types of affiliate marketing, join the best affiliate programs, and continuously refine your approach to maximize your monetization potential.
It doesn’t matter if you are running a startup or already have an established online business, being upfront with your audience and maintaining transparency will always lead to better results.
Find out what LearnWorlds can do for you. Get your free trial today!
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Start FREE TrialFAQs – Frequently Asked Questions
Question #1: What are the best affiliate programs for beginners?
Some of the best affiliate programs for beginners include the Amazon affiliate program, ShareASale, and Shopify’s affiliate program. But if you want to become an eLearning affiliate you can start earning commissions by joining LearnWorlds’ Affiliate Program.
Question #2: How do I optimize my affiliate marketing content?
Focus on creating high-quality, SEO-optimized content. Research keywords, use them strategically in your content, and ensure your website is optimized for search engine visibility.
Question #3: What is the typical payout structure for affiliate commissions?
Payout structures vary depending on the affiliate program. Most programs pay commissions based on sales generated through your links, with rates ranging from 4% to 10% or more.
Question #4: How can I improve my conversion rate?
To improve your conversion rate, focus on targeting the right audience, optimizing your content, and providing clear, persuasive calls to action (CTAs). Regularly analyze your metrics to refine your strategies.
Question #5: What types of affiliate marketing are most effective?
Content marketing, PPC campaigns, and email marketing are among the most effective types of affiliate marketing. Choose the approach that best aligns with your audience and business goals.
Kyriaki is a Content Creator for the LearnWorlds team writing about marketing and e-learning, helping course creators on their journey to create, market, and sell their online courses. Equipped with a degree in Career Guidance, she has a strong background in education management and career success. In her free time, she gets crafty and musical.
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