How I Made $2,751.23 Writing About This One Tool
If you’ve seen my work on Medium before, you know that I share small income reports based on how I monetize my writing and content creation channels. I started this series of articles after I realized how much I enjoy reading similar case studies, income reports, and “this is how I did it” style articles.
Income reports are meant to be transparent and share the successes and failures of trying to make money online. I hope my mini-income reports will inspire other writers and content creators looking for new and innovative ways to monetize their work.
This report will focus on one particular tool that has helped me generate over $2,751.23 promoting this video optimization tool.
The Tool That I Promoted
Tubebuddy is a tool that optimizes your YouTube channel for better ranking, more subscribers, and ultimately more views. I’ve been using Tubebuddy since early 2018, and it’s one of the first tools I recommend to anyone looking to start a Youtube channel.
I started promoting Tubebuddy in 2018 after I realized how valuable the tool was for optimizing a video and making sure it was formatted correctly for YouTube’s algorithm.
I wrote an article on my blog called “How to Optimize Your YouTube Videos for Better Rankings” and embedded my affiliate link to Tubebuddy throughout the post.
I also created a video tutorial on using some of the features in Tubebuddy, and I hosted a few webinars about building Youtube channels.
I embedded my affiliate link in the description of the video.
I made the majority of my income from two sources: my blog post and my YouTube video.
The blog post generated $1,599.63, and the YouTube video generated $1,151.60.
I also made a few hundred dollars from the webinars I hosted and emailed my list about Tubebuddy.
My Results From Promoting Tubebuddy
In total, I’ve made $2,751.23 from promoting Tubebuddy. I earn a 30% commission based on the subscriber’s monthly or annual fees. The tool is not very expensive, but with 49 paying subscribers, it adds up.
In all, I sent 4,898 clicks to the website. These may not have all been unique users. Some people clicked more than once, and some clicked on other links on the website before signing up (there are several CTA’s on the homepage).
Of these 4,898 clicks, 159 signed up to use the free chrome extension. That’s about a 3% click-to-referral conversion. From these 159 trials, 49 became paying members. That’s a 31% conversion.
My Promotion Strategies
When it comes to promoting a product or service, there are several strategies you can use. I’ve tried quite a few, and I’ve found that some work better than others.
For example, I’ve had the most success writing blog posts and creating videos. I’m already making these forms of content, so it wasn’t much extra work to promote Tubebuddy within them.
I’ve also had success with webinars and emailing my list. I think these work well because I’m already talking to an engaged audience interested in what I say.
As for where I promoted my content, most of my traffic came from YouTube and Google.
I think it’s important to promote your content in multiple places. You never know where someone will see it and decide to click on your affiliate link.
How I Track My Affiliate Programs
Most of my affiliate programs have some sort of reporting dashboard with analytics. For example, with Tubebuddy, I can see how many clicks I’ve sent to their website and how many people have signed up.
I also use Thirsty Affiliates to cloak my links and add them to a central location. This makes it easy for me to find my links and add them to my content.
Thirsty Affiliates also gives me some basic analytics, like how many clicks each link has gotten. It also makes it easy to change a link in one location and update throughout the website if an affiliate program changes networks or links.
I use Quickbooks to log each affiliate payout and add each affiliate program as a customer. This helps me keep track of how much money I’m making per program and helps me know where to spend the most time moving forward.
It also allows me to quickly see how much money I’m making from each program and compare it to previous months and years.
My Top Promotional Tip
If you’re looking to promote a product or service, my number one tip is to be genuine. Only promote something you would use yourself and know would be valuable to your audience.
When you’re genuine, it shows, and people are more likely to trust what you’re saying. They’re also more likely to click on your affiliate link and make a purchase.
And that’s how I made $2,751.23 writing about this one tool.
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