Blog :: Affiliate Program for iThemes, PluginBuddy, & WebDesign.com

Free Ebooks – A Great Way to Build Goodwill

March 16th, 2012

If you follow the iThemes blog, you probably saw the notice about our new collection of Ebooks we’re giving away for free. Our goal, as part of the Make Waves 2012 Manifesto is to produce at least one new valuable ebook resource each month.

http://ithemes.com/publishing/

To help you build goodwill, and get cookies placed, we’ve created affiliate links for the page with the entire collection as well as the individual pages for the ebooks. You’ll find them near the bottom of your list of affiliate links (the most recently added links are at the bottom of the list).

Here’s one way to share these resources and build goodwill.

First, download the ebooks yourself and read them. As you read them, pay attention to what you think will be most valuable to your followers.

Then, write a blog post or article about one of the ebooks, referencing what you think will help them the most, including the page number they should refer to to get that gem of information. Not only will this show them that you are really thinking about them and their needs, it also gives them an exact spot in the ebook to refer to. This, perhaps more than anything, will get them to click through your link and download the ebook.

Even better – write a post about more than one of the books.

While we don’t have unique affiliate versions of the ebooks available, if they click through your link and have cookies enabled, when they do decide to purchase, say, BackupBuddy after reading the Getting Started with BackupBuddy ebook, they will be making their purchase via your affiliate cookie. Of course, we can’t control whether people clear their cookies or click through someone else’s link before making their purchase. You’ll want to encourage people to get the book and read it right away (which is why mentioning specific pages is helpful) so that they are more likely to take action all in one sitting.

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We are looking for software or a service that will allow you to create an “affiliate version” of some of the ebooks, with your affiliate links embedded.

Two important criteria are that it be super simple for the affiliate to use and that they be able to embed their links into the existing text (hyperlinking the product names) vs. inserting an awkward looking link. So far we haven’t found anything that meets those two criteria. If you have experience with anything that does, please let us know!

Categories Tools
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BackupBuddy Month – Sample Emails You Can Use

by Nina East (Nina!)

March 8th, 2012

March is BackupBuddy Month…leading up to the release of BackupBuddy 3.0 at the end of the month, as well as the Plugin Palooza LIVE training event in Oklahoma City on March 30th & 31st.

You’ll find information about what’s going on this month on the BackupBuddy Month page.

There is an affiliate link for this in your affiliate links area. Not sure how to find your affiliate links? Watch this video.

We’ve also added other affiliate links to help you out…links to

the MakeWaves2012.com site
the Make Waves Manifesto announcement (blog post)
the State of iThemes and Make Waves video
the blog post announcing Getting Started with BackupBuddy ebook (a free download)
iThemes.tv (where you’ll find the Getting Started with BackupBuddy webinar

In the sample emails below, be sure to add your affiliate links. The bolded words and phrases are suggestions for where you may want to insert your affiliate links as hyperlinks. You may not want to turn everything into a link…these are just possibilities to consider.

Short Email:

If you’re like me you’ve invested hours into your website. You need to protect that investment. You need to know all your hard work is safe, secure and backed up. You need BackupBuddy.

BackupBuddy is the best backup solution for WordPress:

•   It’s easy.
•   It’s automatic.
•   It’s powerful.

Check out BackupBuddy today.

If you need some help, you can download the Getting Started with BackupBuddy ebook. It’ll walk you through using BackupBuddy, and it’s free.

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Slightly longer Version:

If you’re like me you’ve invested hours into your website. You need to protect that investment. You need to know all your hard work is safe, secure and backed up. Anything could come along and ruin all that hard work, whether it’s hackers, user error (it happens to the best of us!) or just a fluke system error. You need BackupBuddy.

BackupBuddy is, hands down, the best backup solution for WordPress:

•   It’s easy: You can set it up in just three clicks.
•   It’s automatic: You can schedule it to backup on a regular schedule.
•   It’s powerful: It can backup to multiple locations and can also restore and migrate your site.

Check out BackupBuddy today.

As a bonus, March is BackupBuddy Month and the team at PluginBuddy has several free extras this month:

•   Free ebook: You can download the Getting Started with BackupBuddy ebook. It’ll walk you through using BackupBuddy, and it’s free.
•   Free webinar: There’s a free Getting Started with BackupBuddy webinar on March 22.
•   Free swag: They’re also doing a contest to win free T-shirts and jump drives.

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Categories BackupBuddy, Tools
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How to use the WordPress Developer Course to Promote WebDesign.com

by Nina East (Nina!)

February 28th, 2012

The next WordPress Developer Course is March 1, 2, & 3, 2012.

This course is the premier training program for people using WordPress as the platform for their web design/development business. The hitch, though, is that you have to be a member of WebDesign.com to attend.

For the first time ever, we have opened up the Thursday night portion of the webinar for guests to view at no cost. This free preview is an excellent opportunity for you to promote the premium annual membership at WebDesign.com.

In your affiliate links area you will find a link to the blog post announcing the free Thursday night session.

All you have to do it share this link with people, tell them why you think the course is valuable, and let us do the “selling” for you.

When you let people know about the free preview, make sure you tell them that the preview is a “watch-only” version. They will not receive the massive course handout or have access to the chat room. (There’s a 35% coupon they can use if they want to upgrade to full membership – WPDEV35).
p.s. You can use the coupon, too.

Want to create a meatier blog post to help them get the most out of attending a training webinar? Feel free to use all or part of the post 4 Ways to Get the Most From WebDesign.com Training Webinars.

Remember, the course starts this Thursday, March 1, so spread the word.

Categories Tips, WebDesign.com
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BackupBuddy Affiliate Program Gets Kudos

by Nina East (Nina!)

February 28th, 2012

A well-known affiliate-info blog recently posted about how to use your blog posts to make money. In addition to it containing valuable information, the author also referenced BackupBuddy and how easy it is for him to promote.

Here’s a snippet of what he said:

The best affiliate offers are based on recommending a product that was undeniably helpful to you already.

Think about the products, services, courses, etc. you’ve used and benefited from over the past year that might also be helpful to your audience.

For example, I recently fell in love with the BackupBuddy WordPress plugin (my affiliate link). I’m now using it to run nightly backups of all my blogs (and sync with Amazon S3). BackupBuddy has been a godsend when it comes to migrating WordPress sites to other blogs.

Backups are something you don’t want to mess with. One mistakenly deleted file or server disk failure could take your WordPress site down for good. Trust me, I’ve learned this the hard way.

After using manual methods for backing my sites up and various free plugins that never seemed to work for more than a week or two, I was ecstatic to find BackupBuddy.

So…the question for you is which iThemes products do you use and love and find yourself telling people about? Those are the ones to promote in your blog posts because you can speak about them from an authentic perspective, and because you already know your audience wants to hear about them.

Categories Examples, Tips
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iThemes Affiliate Planning Guide

by Nina East (Nina!)

January 26th, 2012

The 2012 iThemes Affiliate Calendar and Planning Guide has just been released!

The theme for the planning guide is “Make the Most Money by Making the Most of 2012.”

This is a handy tool to help you plan ahead, be deliberate about your marketing, and be in it for the long haul. What we find is that our affiliates who reap the highest rewards are the ones who are consistently sharing the tools they love to use and telling their readers and followers why they love them. They don’t do it just once and hope it works. They are consistently sharing their ideas.

While this guide is designed with iThemes affiliate marketing in mind, it’s also a perfect tool to use in developing the overall marketing plan for your entire business. Please use it in whatever way serves you best.

Download the 2012 iThemes Affiliate Calendar and Planning Guide.

Categories Tools
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iThemes Affiliates Help Make People’s Lives Awesome

by Nina East (Nina!)

January 26th, 2012

2011 was a great year for the iThemes Affiliate Program – and an amazing year for some eager affiliates! We had 4 affiliates earn over 5-figures, and 14 other affiliates bring home more than 4-figures. Since we paid out well over $100,000 in affiliate commissions in 2011, you can see that these people were taking home a nice chunk of change for themselves.

We want to help EVERYONE earn 4- and 5-figure affiliate commissions!

Why? Sure, we make more money. We wouldn’t pretend that’s not a part of it.

But it’s more than that, too. The more money you make, it means the more success we’re having in fulfilling our mission to Make People’s Lives Awesome.

Not only can it make your life more awesome by having some extra spending money, but you are helping make other people’s lives awesome by introducing them to tools and training that make web design easy and simple.

And the easier and simpler web design is, the more time they have to focus on their families, their business, their own personal development, and the less time they spend being stressed out about web design…hence a more awesome life.

So the way we look at it, the iThemes Affiliate program is a win-win-win. And we’re so happy you’re a part of it!

Not an affiliate yet? Be sure you apply - and then use the tools and tips on this site to help you join the group of well-paid affiliates!

Categories News
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Affiliates Show 500% Increase in Sales Activity in 2011

by Nina East (Nina!)

January 2nd, 2012

Wow! At the end of December we paid out our affiliate sales commissions for November – and they were the highest ever. That’s always exciting. But what’s even more exciting is that our total payouts have increased 500%! That means the iThemes affiliates are rockin’ the house!

Thanks to all our affiliates who are helping spread the word. We know that all your links, blog posts, tweets, and word-of-mouth advertising are helping build the foundation and strong reputation. And the more you do this, the more people will turn to you for trusted advice and then click on your link when they make their first purchase at iThemes, PluginBuddy, or WebDesign.com.

Thanks for an awesome 2011! Can’t wait to see what happens in 2012!

Categories Uncategorized
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Links Added for all iThemes Builder Child Themes

by Nina East (Nina!)

December 7th, 2011

In addition to the links we’ve added to help you make money promoting the Web Designer’s ToolKit during the 44% off special, we’ve also just finished creating direct affiliate links to all the individual child theme sales pages. So every child theme listed in the Builder child theme warehouse now has an associated affiliate link.

Previously all the child theme links went to the demos. These links still exist, and are indicated by “Builder Child Theme Demo – Name of Child Theme” as you can see in the image below.

Categories Tips
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New Affiliates Links – ToolKit Special Plus 12 Days of WebDesign.com

by Nina East (Nina!)

December 7th, 2011

The Web Designer’s ToolKit is on special right now – for 44% off. This is a great deal and people are snapping it up. If you think new customers won’t make such a large purchase as their first purchase, think again. Almost all the most recent ToolKit purchases have been made by people who have never bought anything at iThemes before.

And that’s great news for the affiliates! It means once people get to the site and see the video of Cory talking about the ToolKit, or attend a webinar at WebDesign.com using the free One Month LIVE Webinar pass, they are sold on the ToolKit. So all you have to do is get people to the site, clicking through your affiliate link.

We’ve made that easier for you by providing affiliate links that take people directly to the announcement about the 44% savings on the ToolKit, as well as a link that takes people to the landing page (post) for the “12 Days of WebDesign.com” where they’ll see all the gifts from each day.

The deadline for the ToolKit sale is December 12th (Monday) at midnight central time.

Just log in to your members area and navigate to your affiliate links. You’ll find all these links near the end of the list since the most recently added links are always at the bottom.

Categories Tips
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How to Make Money with iThemes, PluginBuddy & WebDesign.com

by Nina East (Nina!)

November 22nd, 2011

“Making Money with iThemes” is a training session from the November LIVE Event (2011) in Oklahoma City. Watch the 20 minute video for some great ways to use your affiliate links to generate more commissions.

A couple of notes:

In the video I refer to the “panda lady” – this is the “sales chat” icon (a panda) located on the main website pages.
The video also references two other sessions on trends and how to make money by providing specific services. These videos are available to people who attended the LIVE training, and to members of WebDesign.com on the November LIVE Event page. (You will need to log in to WebDesign.com to view the videos.)
When providing financial examples I reference a discount that was only available at the LIVE Event. We usually offer a hefty discount that can be used while attending our LIVE events, which is a great incentive to attend.