The affiliate marketing is a huge part of the space. It is one of the only parts of the influencer space that we don't touch. It's not because it's a bad business, it's just a very different business than we were on. Affiliate marketing is great. It is bottom of the funnel so if you don't know what I'm talking about, look up marketing funnels.

Think about where you are. Are you bottom of the funnel? Top of the funnel are people that can get people's interest in a brand, to say, "I've never thought about that brand. I've never heard of that brand. I respect this person. If they like this thing, I will pay attention to it." Bottom of the funnel is like a Facebook ad. It's a brand you're probably familiar with.

You're already probably close to the point of purchase and somebody said, "Buy this now, it's on sale. I buy it," or-- You know, you look at a lot of the influencers that do like to know it and it's a type a certain type of influencer. Every post they do generally is full body outfit or waist up. They keep it under $100. They are like, "It's summer. Here are my favorite slides. They're $54. Click on like now or go to my blog, click on the link," whatever. It is very much the posts are not meant to inspire you. They're not meant to be aspirational, they're meant to get you to fucking click and buy.

The products you need to work with are ones that people would be like, "I need that. I'll click and buy it." I'll give an example for me, personally. I am wearing these loafers today. I wear them all the time. I talked about them on my Instagram once. I was like, "Hey, these loafers are $180. They're great. They get the job done. I bought three pairs. I love them. You should buy them." I got like 15 messages from dudes over the next month being like, "What were those loafers you mentioned? I'm looking for loafers. Could you send me a link?"

It was the right kind of product. It was affordable. I talked about it in a way that was like, "Hey, you should buy this." I'm not trying to sell you on the brand of Jack Erwin when and say like, "Oh, it's such a cool startup. They're doing all the shit," because I don't think they're that cool, but they make a good pair of loafers and there's no reason spending $500 on a pair of Ferragamos. I think these do the fucking job. It's a different kind of product and it's a different kind of influencer and it's a different kind of message. You have to think about am I going to be that top of the funnel aspirational?

Good examples like Taylor LaShae who is beautiful, she looks very French, she is not trying to get you to buy anything. If anything, she's getting trying to get you to buy her lifestyle and her look and just like buy into that and so brands want to be associated with it because there's a lift that comes with that. And you look at something Navy who is very much like she posts something, it sells. Her audience is there because they like her, because they respect her, and they're also shopping. She likes the same things that they do and she gives them suggestions on that.

If you are a more bottom of the funnel, more product-focused influence, affiliate marketing is essential, you should definitely do it. If you are trying to be aspirational, if you're trying to create art, if you feel like you're more of the brand lift, brand awareness type influencers don't do affiliate marketing. You don't have to. You're not going to make any money on it because you are not going to sell shit. It's really hard to get people to buy stuff just because you say, "Buy it," so if you're making 5% on sales and you sell $1,000 worth of shit for a brand, you make what? Fifty bucks? You make $50.

Do you think your post is going to sell-- Okay, let's step back. We'll cut that out. Let's just do some quick math and let's say you have 100,000 followers. You could get paid $1,000 a post. Let's say most affiliates pay out 10%. I think that's generally, maybe a little on the high end, but that's in the realm. To make that $1,000, at 10% you would have to sell $10,000 worth of stuff. Is that correct? My math's right?

To make $1,000, you have to sell $10,000 of product. Do you think you could move $10,000 of product with one Instagram post, from one blog post? There are people who can do that and do much more than that but it is really really really hard. There's a lot of value in brand lift and brand awareness but once you start putting yourself into the affiliate, the other thing is the brand's going to be like, "Cool, we did a post with you. You sold one thing so I don't see the value."

Look at the funnel, figure out where you are. If you think you're bottom of the funnel influencer, lean into the affiliate programs. Check them out. There's a lot of different ones with a lot of different rates. It's not all just reward style, there are also people that pay per click. If you think you're more of a top of the funnel brand lift, brand awareness, stick to sponsored posts.