Get ready to get inspired this week side hustlers!
This week, we’re excited to bring you an in-depth story about Matt McWilliams, a.k.a. “the affiliate guy”.
Matt has found incredible success in the world of affiliate marketing, and it all began with a little side hustle.
From his early days in the industry to the strategies he uses today to grow his business, you won’t want to miss a word of this newsletter. So grab a cup of coffee, settle in, and get ready to learn from one of the best in the business!
Introducing Matt McWilliams
This is Matt.
Matt McWilliams is a man who knows how to turn a difficult situation into a success story.
When a golf injury ended his pro career in the early 2000s, he turned to teaching golf with his father. But he quickly found that he was making more money than he knew what to do with, thanks to the high price of his golf lessons and a steady stream of students.
He discovered the world of Google advertising to drive even more traffic to his teaching business. And it paid off – at just 22 years old, he had a whopping $200,000 in the bank.
But even though the money was good, teaching wasn’t his passion. He found that he got more enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment from making sales, so when he was fired by his father in 2003, he saw it as an opportunity to strike out on his own and create his own business.
And that’s exactly what he did, working with clients on marketing and building websites and becoming a one-man consulting company.
Then Matt discovered affiliate marketing…
Fast forward two years and a large portion of that $200,000 was gone…
One of Matt’s friends asked him if he wanted to be a part of a company he was starting up. Although Matt initially refused, he finally accepted after his friend’s persistence.
The company they created sold leads to insurance agents. Both Matt and his friend did not have a lot of money to start up the business and unfortunately, learnt some hard lessons along the way.
While trying to market their business, they spent around $5,000 on banner advertising and made a grand total of $8.
$8.
Meaning a loss of $4,992.
Obviously what they were doing wasn’t working.
They needed a better solution to make their business work.
So Matt started to do his research.
And that’s when he discovered affiliate marketing!
What is affiliate marketing?
Before we dive further into Matt’s story, let’s take a closer look at affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is a process where side hustlers and entrepreneurs earn commissions by promoting another business’s products or services.
If you decide to become an affiliate you will use a special affiliate link when promoting someone else’s products. You then receive a payout if you make sales for the business. So you can make money without having to develop any products or services!
Most affiliate programs are free to join, so you don’t have to worry about high startup costs. If done right, affiliate marketing is a highly effective tool that can elevate a side hustle to a profitable online business bringing in a healthy and steady income.
There are many aspects to affiliate marketing, but what do you really need to succeed in affiliate marketing?
What skills do you need if you want to become a successful affiliate marketer?
There are a few key things that can help you become a successful affiliate marketer:
- A strong work ethic: Affiliate marketing requires dedication and persistence. You’ll need to be willing to put in the time and effort to learn about the industry and to continually test and optimize your campaigns.
- A willingness to learn: The world of affiliate marketing is always changing, so it’s important to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices. This means being open to learning new things and adapting your strategies as needed.
- Good communication skills: As an affiliate marketer, you’ll be working with a variety of people, including advertisers, publishers, and customers. Strong communication skills will help you build relationships and effectively promote your products.
- Marketing and sales expertise: While you don’t need to be a marketing or sales expert to become an affiliate marketer, having a basic understanding of these disciplines can be helpful. This includes understanding how to create effective marketing campaigns, how to sell products online, and how to track and analyze your results.
- A niche focus: Many successful affiliate marketers specialize in a particular niche or industry. This allows them to become experts in that area and to more effectively promote products to a targeted audience.
You can find more on affiliate marketing here where Shopify breaks down affiliate marketing for beginners.
How Matt approaches affiliate marketing
Matt and his business partner were looking for a solution to make their business more successful when they discovered the world of affiliate marketing.
Unlike other platforms like Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn, affiliate marketing allowed them to bring on affiliates and use them to bring in traffic without having to pay upfront.
This seemed like the perfect solution for their business, so Matt spent days and days researching and learning about affiliate marketing and how to find affiliates.
After studying and testing, he felt confident that he had cracked the code and was ready to apply his new knowledge to his business.
Fast forward 18 months later…
The business had a 12.6 million dollar affiliate program.
So how did Matt find success?
You need to remember that this was a time before social media. People were only just starting to discover the power of email lists.
Matt’s affiliate marketers used email marketing along with banner ads to help Matt’s business gain more reach and traction.
In 2008 Matt decided to leave his business and seek work in other places. He decided to start helping other businesses to succeed by offering his marketing expertise.
As a result of these efforts, he received multiple job offers. Faced with the decision of which company to choose, one potential employer suggested that he consider becoming a business consultant.
What is a business consultant?
As a business consultant, Matt was able to provide valuable guidance and recommendations to help clients achieve their goals and overcome challenges.
Working as a consultant also allowed him to work for multiple clients simultaneously, with a team to help manage the logistics. This not only provided him with the freedom he desired, but also gave him the opportunity to gain a diverse range of experience by working with startups, guitar instructors, retail stores, parenting companies, and more.
Today, Matt has leveraged his expertise in affiliate marketing to create programs and courses that can be used by businesses around the world.
Where is Matt now?
Matt has built a successful business that offers courses and programs to teach others how to succeed in affiliate marketing.
His signature coaching program, “Your Affiliate Launch Coach,” is designed to help entrepreneurs at all income levels rapidly scale their affiliate marketing efforts and achieve success.
In addition to this program, he offers a range of courses on topics such as email list building, monetizing with affiliate marketing, running affiliate programs, and building websites.
Although Matt offers a wide variety of courses, affiliate marketing provides around 40% of his annual revenue. Affiliate marketing is his bread and butter and something he is very passionate about.
Matt’s best tips for aspiring affiliate marketers
They are…
- You don’t need to be miles ahead of your audience
- Provide your audience with a killer lead magnet
- Visualise “your avatar”
You don’t need to be miles ahead
When researching what your audience are interested in, or finding content to educate your listeners on, Matt believes in not stressing about being ahead of the game. Instead, use the experience of researching and collating information as a source of genuine discovery.
When you find some interesting information, make content and share with your audience. Because you’ve just discovered it you are going to come across more engaged, honest and natural, because you HAVE just discovered this new information and you ARE excited to share it with them
“Most of us think we have to be two miles ahead. You only need to be one step ahead of your audience… Find something where you are one step ahead. Maybe you’re learning, maybe you don’t even know the next step. The cool thing is you can learn the next step and then share it with them”.
Lead magnets
Another thing Matt believes strongly in is having a killer lead magnet for your audience.
What’s a lead magnet?
A lead magnet is a marketing tool that generates leads by offering potential clients and customers a resource in exchange for their contact information.
Here’s Matt’s breakdown of a lead magnet, “It’s a quick win… If somebody says to you, “Oh man, my back is hurting. I can barely move. It’s killing me” and you write something down… and it’s a list of 37 exercises they need to do to improve their back in six months and two chiropractor appointments from now on… That’s a terrible friend. If he says his back is hurting, give him a Tylenol. Give him ibuprofen. You can give him the chiropractor appointment and the 37 exercise but he came to you in severe pain, if you give him the Tylenol, it provides a quick fix. Think of a lead magnet as like the Tylenol to their problems”.
Want to learn more about creating effective lead magnets? Check out Seven Figure Freedom’s video for a thorough breakdown of the concept, as well as some helpful tips and tricks on how to engage your audience and turn leads into revenue. Click here to watch it.
Visualising your avatar
Matt believes in the power of visualizing your ideal customer, also known as an avatar. By creating a detailed description of this person, including their name, interests, and why they would benefit from your product, you can gain clarity on who your target audience is and better understand how to market and promote your business to them.
To help guide you in creating your avatar, take a look at the image below for inspiration.
If what Matt has spoken about interests you or you think it can help you elevate your side hustle to the next level, check out his ebook “Turn Your Passions Into Profits”.
It offers a step by step guide on how to turn your passion into a profitable and lasting business. It delves into how to attract your audience, build a following and how to monetize your venture quickly and sustainably!
You can also learn to;
- Gain clarity on the steps needed to to start, grow, and monetize your online platform
- Build your confidence to be able to share your message with the world
- Be firm in your choices and know that you deserve to create a good income doing what you love
- Have access to tools and strategies that will help you succeed with an online business and build your own online platform
With Matt’s wealth of knowledge and the resources he has available, you will be able to start learning about the affiliate world and how best to use it to help your side hustle.
To learn more about “The Affiliate Guy” you can check out his website here, listen to his podcast, and subscribe to receive updates so you never miss the latest news on affiliate marketing.