It's never been more straightforward to set up and run an affiliate program on your WishList Member site with Easy Affiliate. We give you the lowdown and tips to make the most of this potent growth combo.
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It's hard to overstate just how much affiliate marketing dominates the ecommerce marketing landscape. In 2022 the affiliate marketing industry was valued at over $20 billion, a figure that's projected to almost double by 2030.
That's particularly impressive when you consider that for the most part affiliate marketers only get paid a commission once they've made a sale. We're talking about trillions of dollars of sales and revenue generated by this one marketing strategy.
If your business hasn't yet tapped into affiliate marketing, or if you're looking to pivot away from costly affiliate platforms to grow your membership site, this latest integration is exciting news for your business and your pocket.
Introducing Easy Affiliate – the all-in-one affiliate program plugin for WordPress that now natively integrates with WishList Member.
Read on for a guided tour of the main features of this plugin complete with tips on how to leverage its profit-pumping potential for your business.
Affiliate Marketing 101
First, just in case you're completely new to affiliate marketing, here's a quick explanation to bring you up to speed:
Affiliate marketing is a widely used strategy where individuals are rewarded for promoting a business's products or services. Essentially, when a sale is made through their unique referral link, the affiliate marketer (or simply affiliate) earns a commission from the seller.
This marketing technique offers a number of benefits for membership and ecommerce sites:
- With affiliate marketing, you only pay out once a sale has been made. That makes it a low-risk cost-effective way to expand your membership base without the upfront costs associated with traditional advertising methods.
- Its performance-based nature also means it's easily scalable and suitable for membership sites at any stage of their growth. As your subscriber base grows exponentially you won't have to deal with a corresponding increase in marketing effort or expense.
- Affiliates, especially those who are well-aligned with your site's focus, can directly reach specific, niche audiences. Run a soccer club fanzine, or a vegan cooking school? Niche affiliates are the best people to spread the word. And with them on side, your marketing efforts will be highly targeted, attracting members who are more likely to engage with your content and community.
- Unlike one-time ad campaigns, affiliate marketing provides ongoing promotion for your membership site. This continuous exposure helps keep your site top-of-mind and attracts new members over time.
Now you're all caught up on affiliate marketing, and its potential for your business is clear, it's time to take a look at what the Easy Affiliate integration means for your membership site.
What is Easy Affiliate?
Easy Affiliate allows you to run a fully self-hosted affiliate marketing program straight from your WordPress dashboard.
By running a self-hosted affiliate program, you have more say over your affiliate application process, have direct control over commissions and payouts, and skip the transaction fees charged by third-party platforms.
And as the name suggests, it makes the whole process of setting up and running your program a breeze – no special knowledge required, virtually anyone can make this work for their business.
That's because Easy Affiliate is packed with all the tools and systems you need to make your program a success, each designed specifically to be easy to set up and use.
So let the tour of key features commence!
Easy Affiliate Features and Tips For Success
Effortlessly Connect to Your Ecommerce Plugins
At the click of a button, Easy Affiliate can detect and connect with key ecommerce platforms including yours truly (WishList Member), PayPal and WooCommerce.
You can enable your integrations either during Easy Affiliate's setup wizard process, or by heading to Easy Affiliate > Settings > eCommerce tab.
It really is that easy to connect your affiliate program to the products and services you sell on your website.
Screen For High Quality, Valuable Affiliates
Opening your affiliate program to everyone might seem like a good idea, but in affiliate marketing, quantity doesn't always equal quality.
Research shows that less than 10% of affiliates are responsible for 90% of total conversions and sales. This highlights the importance of focusing on attracting and working with those top performers.
Simply accepting all applicants can divert time and resources away from nurturing valuable relationships with high-quality affiliates. You might find yourself overwhelmed with queries and support issues from a large number of participants, rather than concentrating on those who truly drive results.
To ensure a better return on investment, it's advisable to manually review and approve new affiliates, verifying that their audience aligns with your target market.
Easy Affiliate streamlines this process with its built-in application and approval system. Here's how to set it up:
Navigate to Easy Affiliate > Settings > Affiliates tab, and select Application as the Registration Type.
From here, you can also choose to automatically send emails to notify applicants that their application has been received and approved.
Once you've selected the application registration type, Easy Affiliate automatically creates a registration page. Your prospective affiliates will then be required to complete an application form and await your approval before they can start promoting your products.
The form requests essential information, including:
- First name
- Last name
- Websites they plan to use for promotion
- Their promotional strategy
- Social media profiles/links
This detailed information allows you to evaluate each applicant's potential fit with your business. By requiring applicants to specify their promotional websites you also enables Easy Affiliate to monitor and prevent fraudulent activities by flagging unauthorized site promotions – more on that later.
Boost Conversions with Compelling Campaigns
To really reap the most benefits of your affiliate program, get your affiliates involved in each of your marketing campaigns
Say you've got a new feature or product or a sale to promote: this presents a perfect opportunity for your affiliates to shout out about your brand.
Affiliates are continuously on the lookout for fresh content ideas and reasons to engage their audience. Involve them in your latest promotions and feature launches, creating a symbiotic boost in engagement.
As affiliate program host, you can amplify their impact and incentivize your affiliates further by equipping them with tools to make each campaign a roaring success.
Easy Affiliate makes it straightforward for you to create unique links for specific landing pages.
Say you have a landing page with all the info on your newly released feature. By distributing a link specifically for that landing page, you can guide your affiliates' audience straight to the heart of the action, bypassing the homepage for a more strategic dive into your sales funnel.
Easy Affiliate also makes it easy to distribute campaign images and banners.
Arm your affiliates with eye-catching, branded content that's not just easy to use but also boosts your campaign's visibility. It's a win-win: effortless content for them and enhanced exposure for you. Transform your affiliate program into a dynamic force that propels your brand forward, one campaign at a time.
Track Affiliate Performance in Google Analytics
Not only does Easy Affiliate features it's own real-time reports, tracking clicks and sales, but unlike other affiliate program plugins, it also makes it super easy to track other major KPIs in Google Analytics.
That's thanks to its UTM Affiliate Link Tracking feature.
By simply enabling this feature, Easy Affiliate will automatically add UTM parameters to affiliate links so you can get in-depth insights into things like…
- Top performing affiliates
- Highest converting campaigns
- Which websites your affiliates publish on
- Which type of content performs best
…right in Google Analytics.
This sets the stage for you to optimize your affiliate program and strategy for maximum returns.
Motivate Marketers to Sell More with Special Commission Rates
Incentivize affiliates to pull out all the stops for you affiliate program by rewarding top performers with special commission rates.
With the plugin's Custom Rules add-on, you can set up custom affiliate commission rates to reward high achievers and specific behaviors. For example, you can set up a higher commission rate for affiliates who sell above a certain amount, or offer a special rate on your latest product to boost your new launch. It's all possible and easy with Custom Rules.
Protect Profits with Fraud Prevention
With Easy Affiliate's Fraud Prevention add-on, it's easier than ever to flag or even block commissions that are suspected of fraud before you pay out a cent.
Set whether you want to allow, flag or automatically block commissions from:
- Own referrals – if an affiliate makes a purchase using their own affiliate link.
- Unapproved referring sites – the site that referred the click is not one of the sites listed on the affiliate's application.
- Affiliates with a suspicious conversion rate – Address anomalous conversion rates that significantly deviate from the norm, suggesting possible fraudulent tactics.
This proactive approach safeguards your earnings and upholds the integrity of your affiliate program, making it a stronghold of trust and reliability.
Reward Affiliates Quickly and Simply with One-Click Payouts
With Easy Affiliate's One-Click Payouts, sending rewards is as straightforward as it sounds, making the affiliate payout process quick and effortless.
✅ Instant rewards – A single click is all it takes to transfer earnings to your affiliates, eliminating delays and complexity.
✅ Boost affiliate morale – Fast payouts keep affiliates happy, motivated, and more engaged with your brand.
✅ Streamline operations: Forget about the hassle of manual payments. One-Click Payouts simplify your workflow, freeing up time to focus on strategy and growth.
When your affiliate reaches the payout threshold (which you can easily adjust in your settings), you're just a click away from sending their earnings. Easy Affiliate integrates with PayPal 1-Click Payouts, offering a straightforward and secure way to pay your affiliates.
How To Integrate WishList Member with Easy Affiliate
WishList Member now integrates natively with Easy Affiliate – meaning they're practically made for each other, and connecting them in a cinch.
Easy Affiliate currently supports the following WishList Member payment provider integrations
- PayPal Checkout,
- PayPal Legacy,
- Stripe,
- Authorize.net Simple Checkout.
Here's how to set Easy Affiliate set up and integrated with WishList Member:
(For the purposes of this article, we're going to assume you already have WishList Member installed and activated on your WordPress dashboard.)
- Purchase an Easy Affiliate license.
- Head to your Easy Affiliate Account Downloads page and download the plugin .zip file onto your computer.
- Login to your WordPress Dashboard.
- Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin > Upload Plugin
- Click Browse, select the .zip file and click Install Now
- Once download is complete, hit Activate.
- Now from your WordPress Dashboard head to WishList Member > Setup > Integrations > Other Services and click on the Easy Affiliate icon.
- You should see Easy Affiliate in the side panel of your dashboard. Click on it and then Settings
- Head over to the eCommerce tab
- WishList Member should be automatically detected – switch the toggle to on.
- Click on Update Options
And you're done! It's as straightforward as that.
For more information on the integration including how to cross-reference commissions between the two plugins, check out our knowledge document.
Your next step is to spread the word about your affiliate program and start accepting applicants.
In no time, you'll be watching your sales roll in and your membership site flourish.
Conclusion
With WishList Member and Easy Affiliate, you have all you need to create a powerful affiliate program for your membership site.
Easy Affiliate offers all you need to create and manage a seamless, streamlined affiliate program that will magnify your reach and bring in more engaged members to your community.
Remember to keep your affiliates motivated with clear communication, timely payouts, and by sharing best practices for promotion. Use the data insights from Easy Affiliate and Google Analytics to refine your strategy and focus your energies on turning your affiliates into true brand ambassadors.
Their success is your success, and together, you can achieve remarkable growth for your membership site.
It all starts with this one integration!
Got any questions or want to share your experience of affiliate marketing? Let us know in the comments below.
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