Introduction to affiliate marketing for online courses
Affiliates are a great way to sell your product better on the Internet. Of course, this also applies to your online course.
You still have no idea how this is supposed to work? Maybe affiliate is still a foreign word to you? No problem, in the following article we explain everything you need to know about this popular marketing strategy.
What is affiliate marketing?
You've probably seen a TV broadcast of a soccer match or even been to the stadium. You will certainly have noticed the perimeter advertising that runs around the pitch. This is similar to the affiliate principle. Let's take a closer look.
The theory first: important technical terms
Affiliate literally means "partner". The party placing the order is called the advertiser in technical jargon. In affiliate marketing, there are therefore two parties, the affiliate and the advertiser, who do something for each other. One party produces a product that they want to make better known or - as in your case - has created an online course.
The other, called an affiliate or publisher, advertises the product or service on their own web application, for example a blog, via newsletters or on a social media channel, such as a TikTok channel.
Why does he do this? Because he gets a small commission from every sale that results from his advertising. And that can pay off quickly - for both parties! The advertiser increases his awareness and, in the best case, sales, the affiliate earns money by using his reach.
How does affiliate marketing work in practice?
Let's play through the principle using your online course. Let's say it's about how to build a successful e-commerce business.
So the first step is to find a partner, a publisher who specializes in the topic and would like to promote your course. The publisher then places a link to the course on their website or promotes it in some other way via their network. They can place it in a blog, for example. Of course, the link must also fit the topic.
If a visitor to your publisher clicks on this link, they will be taken directly to your online course. However, this alone does not earn the publisher anything. Only when the visitor books access to your course does the publisher receive a commission. The amount of this commission is negotiable between the publisher and the advertiser. We will come back to this later.
The logical consequence: He won't just hide your link somewhere on his website, but will actually actively promote your course. After all, he wants to earn something, and he will only do so if you make more sales thanks to him. A win-win situation for both of you!
What is the advantage of affiliate marketing?
And what does this have to do with perimeter advertising in soccer? Advertising is also done there. Admittedly mostly on a large scale for companies and not individual products, but advertising nonetheless. And for the most part, the advertisers have nothing directly to do with soccer. However, they use the reach of a match to attract the attention of potential customers.
The big difference: in retrospect, it is no longer possible to trace whether a spectator likes the car manufacturer's models, for example, and therefore bought a car, or whether he did so because he sees an advertising banner in the stadium every two weeks. This is why companies have to pay a lump sum in advance for perimeter advertising - and a lot of money at that! 👀
With affiliate marketing, on the other hand, you only pay if you generate a sale. At the same time, you receive the brand awareness effect that arises when your product or brand is placed in front of potential customers.
How can I use affiliate marketing as an online course creator?
Are you under the impression that affiliate marketing is only for marketing products? You thought wrong! We explain why you can benefit enormously from this marketing strategy as a creator of online courses!
Why do you need to advertise your online course?
So back to your online course. You've probably thought carefully about the area in which you want to share your expertise with other users. Your course has been well thought out and filled with good content and added value. With a platform like Memberspot, you can create an online course for you and your customers with little effort. This is because Memberspot offers a clear course structure for you and your users. The short loading times in the tool ensure smooth processes. → No more annoying waiting.
The tracking function makes it easy to check how far your customer has progressed with your course. This can also be done completely automatically. You can therefore intervene at an early stage if you notice that your customer is not making progress at a certain point and contact them to find out the cause. There is also the option of integrating a freely customizable mood barometer into your course so that you can regularly find out how your customer is feeling.
Memberspot also takes a lot of work off your hands with various automated features. For example, you can automatically send individual welcome emails. In addition, your members can communicate with each other in the members' area in a secure location and without any concerns about data protection, as Memberspot is a German tool and data protection is a top priority for us.
You can customize the customer portal, a kind of "customer hub", and your courses to suit your brand. The customer portal allows you to store individual links for your customers, e.g. you can store a link for a WhatsApp group or specific documents.
You already have an online course on another platform and would like to switch, but don't want to go to the massive effort of laboriously moving all your content?
No problem.
→ Memberspot offers you a free relocation service. - We'll move your course for you! This saves you time and stress.
And now? Now, of course, you have to let people know that your course is available to them. Let's be honest: thousands of bloggers, influencers and newcomers are probably launching their YouTube videos every day, explaining things and making them available online for free. So why should someone pay for your online course when they could probably find the same information by doing extensive research?
You have information that is not easily found through a Google search or chat GPT! Your online course provides access to content that you show from new and unusual angles. You've finally created a guide that really helps with learning a new language or that really helps to accelerate career progression and get to the top of the podium.
Unfortunately, nobody sees you yet because nobody knows about you and you have no reach. And: Users are usually skeptical at first when they discover something on the Internet that they are supposed to pay for. Affiliate marketing addresses precisely these two points.
How does affiliate marketing for online courses work?
Basically the same as for a product or service. You create a course or digitize your existing training program. When you use Memberspot, it's a breeze and you get a user-friendly interface in which your videos are stored on European servers in accordance with data protection guidelines.
Then look for a publisher - or better yet, several publishers. We'll explain exactly how to do this in the next section. The publishers will now include the link to your course in their blogs, newsletters or social media channels and actively promote it.
And then you just have to wait for the manageable work to bear fruit. Perhaps Sabine is browsing through her favorite blog, which is all about literature recommendations - and discovers an article advertising your course ("In 10 steps to your first novel"). Coincidentally, the idea of writing a story has been on her mind for some time anyway. So, after some thought, she books your course.
Don't expect to become a star overnight - it rarely happens that quickly, and even then success is usually only temporary. Instead, focus on a continuous growth of your participants, an ever-increasing reach and also increasing sales - but with patience.
However, since this marketing strategy ultimately costs you nothing unless it bears fruit - apart from a little time to find the right publishers and the creation of advertising materials - you actually have nothing to lose at the end of the day. Affiliate marketing is therefore just as suitable for online courses as it is for physical products or services.
How do I find suitable publishers for my online course?
We have already explained that affiliate marketing is ideal for online courses. However, success ultimately depends largely on the choice of your publishers. The better they match your course, the more likely you are to attract potential customers.
So simply distribute the link to your online course generously across the web? Absolutely not, as this can give the impression that you are not creating content that is relevant to your target group. So really pay attention to suitable publishers. But when is a publisher a good fit for your course?
Find publishers with your target group
Be honest, with affiliate links you want to profit from someone else's already established network. You want the publisher's followers to take your course!
However, this only works if the publisher has the same target group as you. A counter-example: If you advertise your online sales training course on a healthy lifestyle blog, it has little chance of success. The people who visit the blog simply have completely different topics in mind than your potential course participants.
To use the soccer example from the beginning again: Do you remember companies like L'Oreal or Syoss being represented in the perimeter advertising? Probably not. Perhaps these companies simply don't need this large-scale advertising.
However, it is much more likely that they expect little success from a placement in the soccer stadium. After all, they tend to sell "women's products", whereas soccer is still a "male domain". This may be outdated, clichéd and stereotypical, but cosmetics companies generally advertise elsewhere because they are better able to reach their target group there.
So if you want to market your course, first think about: What target group do I want to reach with it? Career starters, managers, pensioners? Dog owners, vegans, car drivers? Sports enthusiasts, cooking fans, relaxation seekers?
And once you have identified your target group, think about where you are likely to find this person online. Someone who likes to cook might also be interested in regional or seasonal food. A dog trainer who wants to learn more about behavioural psychology will also need an accounting program and calendar tools for organization. They may read blogs about animal behavioral psychology or about different dog breeds.
And it is precisely in these areas that you then look for publishers! This increases the chance of reaching people who are interested in your course.
Find publishers from your niche
When creating your online course, you must have given a lot of thought to serving a niche market. It simply doesn't make sense to offer the umpteenth course on writing job applications or completing tax returns. In that case, the competition would be too great.
But even in your niche, you're probably not completely alone. And you can use this for affiliate marketing! Let's assume that you've created a course that teaches the basic functions of a spreadsheet program, specifically aimed at teaching, i.e. teachers.
Your niche could then be career changers in the teaching profession. Or older teachers who struggle with newer technologies. Or teachers who teach computer science outside of their subject area. Here, too, the success rate of publishers from the same niche is more promising.
Find publishers in an affiliate network - this makes the search easier!
Another way to find suitable publishers is the affiliate network. This is a platform that brings advertisers and publishers together. You can offer your online course there as an affiliate program and interested publishers then apply for it.
Of course, this has the advantage for you that it is the most convenient way of all to find a publisher. You don't have to rack your brains in advance about where you could find suitable partners, but the partners come directly to you - you then only have to decide whether a collaboration is worthwhile.
Another advantage of the affiliate network is that both the tracking of the generated traffic and the subsequent payment of the publisher are processed via the network. This also makes your work much easier, as you have all organizational activities under one roof.
On the other hand, of course, nothing is for free. For advertisers - i.e. you - affiliate networks are often associated with high setup fees or monthly fixed costs. This means that you first have to make a substantial financial investment before you get anything in return.
It is therefore important to weigh things up individually:
- Is an investment in the marketing strategy worthwhile?
- How much am I prepared to spend?
- What service do the various affiliate networks offer me?
- Which topics are mainly represented there?
A cost-benefit analysis - i.e. how many course participants would have to be generated for the contributions to the affiliate network to be worthwhile - can also be useful in advance.
How much commission do I pay to the publisher?
One question that is certainly on your mind is the amount of commission. After all, you have certainly calculated the costs for your course well. Giving away part of this as commission could upset your financial considerations.
In fact, amounts of 10 to 20 % of the turnover generated by the publisher are common in the industry. This is precisely why affiliate marketing is so popular. If publishers only earned pennies, hardly anyone would bother to advertise for other companies.
However, if you start looking for a publisher yourself, the prices are of course not set in stone. It remains a matter between the two parties as to which commission model they agree on.
The situation is usually different with affiliate networks. Although individual agreements are also possible here, an average of 30% commission is added for the network operators. Alternatively, the service is financed via monthly fees paid by the advertiser.
You may be disillusioned now, because the bottom line is that you won't get much from your sales if you resort to affiliate marketing and possibly even an affiliate network. But remember: expanding your reach will ensure that you achieve higher sales in the long term! 🔝
And: You can use the marketing strategy for exactly as long as you need it to reach more potential course participants.
How is the sale of the online course tracked?
One last question remains to be answered: How does it work that the right publisher is credited a commission when they have recruited a paying participant for your online course? There are several options here. We'll briefly introduce you to a few.
Tracking with URL
By tracking the URL, it is possible to check the origin of conversions (sales) in affiliate marketing.
The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the page address, so to speak. It doesn't sound very exciting at first, but it is important for a good website and its performance.
So what is the URL? The URL is the link (www.) that leads to your website. Behind the URL is also the IP address. This is a prerequisite so that the computer and server can communicate with each other and you can then find it in the search engine.
Your own URL gives your blog or website a professional, personal touch. The URL also plays an important role in search engine optimization (SEO). The URL helps your website to rank better in search results because it makes your website more readable for the search engine. When someone searches for it, the search engine accesses the stored information and you are displayed higher. This makes it easier for your target group to find you.
How do I use the URL to track where the customer comes from? To find out whether the customer comes from the affiliate, the affiliate is first given a URL in which a unique tracking code or ID is embedded. This allows you to track exactly how many clicks and conversions have come via the affiliate. The affiliate is then credited a commission accordingly. In addition, it must be ensured that the URL is secure so that data remains confidential and cannot be intercepted by third parties.
Tracking via the affiliate network
If you join an affiliate network, you don't have to worry about tracking at all, as the platform takes care of this for you. Each registered publisher is often assigned a unique ID. If this publisher now creates an affiliate link, it will - of course - contain your URL, but also their ID.
The platform itself also takes care of the tracking evaluation. It automatically analyzes how many participations in your online course have been generated by which publisher. It couldn't be more convenient, but as already mentioned, you also have to pay for this service.
Conclusion: Why use affiliate marketing for yourself?
You probably already know how you can easily create online courses with Memberspot. The use of affiliate marketing can be helpful for marketing. Publishers who have the same target group as you refer to your course and promote it. In return, you give them a share of your sales.
The most convenient type of this marketing strategy is affiliate networks, where suitable publishers can approach you. The costs involved can pay for themselves after a short time. Get started today and start strategically marketing your online course!
We hope you enjoyed reading it.
Best regards
Your Memberspot Team
