Creator's MBA

The Sunday Edition

Your weekly, 5-minute playbook for growing consistent digital product revenue using AI and growth flywheels.

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In this issue

→ What I changed to grow my affiliate program, which is almost nothing

→ The two things that did change, and only one had to do with affiliates

→ Why partners need a calendar more than they need a higher rate

→ The week in August where you build your own program with me

→ Closed Door Talks starts tomorrow at noon Eastern

This Week's Deep Dive

What Actually Grew My Affiliate Program Was a Calendar

People ask what I changed, and the honest answer disappoints them.

Almost nothing. What I'm doing on my HobbyScool side today is what I was doing at the very beginning. Same commission structure, same terms, same basic idea. It has paid out $126,077 to 313 partners, and I got there without a single overhaul.

Two things did change though, and only one of them was about affiliates at all.

The first was the funnel my partners were sending people into. I spent real time on the registration page, working on how the paid pass gets presented right after somebody signs up for the free event. I also stopped leading with the monthly membership and started leading with the annual, with monthly behind it as a downsell, and conversions went up. Neither of those is an affiliate change, but every partner started earning more per person they sent without doing anything differently.

The second one is the thing I'd point to if you made me pick.

I run twelve or more free summits a year on that brand, which means there is something to promote every single month, scheduled well in advance. For a partner, that solves a problem they probably never told me about. Promoting somebody once is a favour. Promoting them regularly means knowing when, and working out when is work.

When my calendar is published a year out, my partners don't have to plan anything. Their promotional schedule is already sitting there. That's also how the affiliate page is positioned now, because the schedule is the offer. Come promote, here's every date for the next year, pick the ones that fit your audience.

Compare that to how most programs invite people in. You get a link, a commission rate, and no idea what you'd ever promote or when. Somebody says yes, files it away, and never thinks about it again.

The rest of the honest answer is that it took years. There was no month where something clicked and the numbers jumped. If your program is set up fairly and there's something to promote every month, mostly what it needs is time.

One more thing worth saying. The partners who promote you are almost always people you already know, which is why the rooms you're in matter more than the rate you pay.

If you'd rather build yours than read about mine, that's what the Amplify Lab is. It runs August 24 through September 1 inside the AI Mastermind, and it's a full week where members set the whole thing up with me. We pick the model, set the commission, choose the first partners, and build the materials they get handed. You come out of it with a program, not notes about one.

Before You Go

See you tomorrow at noon,
Destini