Affiliate Marketing For Musicians

We are either entertainers that love being on stage, or musically gifted individuals that love to share or express ourselves through music. No matter what genre of music you play, there is a therapeutic edge to playing music. We not only enjoy the energy from our audience, but we also enjoy the simplicity and art of playing music. Musicians not only get to do what they love, but also can profit from their performances. The pay range can differ depending on the venue or artists, but mishaps can put a damper in our projected budget. This article is intended to assist in helping musicians establish multiple streams of income. One profitable way that musicians can make money is ….. Affiliate Marketing.

• 

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning commissions by promoting other people’s or a company’s products. Once you have identified your niche, you simply search for a product and promote it to others. You earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make. You can view my video on YouTube for a visual presentation HERE if you are new to affiliate marketing. It will take time to learn strategies of Affiliate Marketing, but you will benefit from all your hard work. NOTE: The flashing banner above is an example of affiliate marketing. When the banner is clicked, the consumer is forwarded to the Amazon website for percussion instruments. If the customer buys any product, I would get a percentage of that sale. My affiliate link is embedded in the link and it is used to track my sales and clicks.

Affiliate Marketing is passive income, which means that you make money while you sleep. This is something you can do from the comfort of your home. All you need is your laptop to run your affiliate business. Programs are free to join and you are in control of how much you want to earn or grow. It is a constant learning experience and can be the bridge to other online opportunities.

Although there is a learning curve, there are many working parts to get things up and running smoothly. There are many great resources online to assist you in setting up your online business. The key is to study and copy techniques as you learn. There are many affiliate gurus, but in comparison, the information is generally the same. There are many platforms that can allow you generate massive sales, but it will take some time to learn what works best for your niche. Research and testing will be key in helping you to grow quickly. You may need to invest a little money in a good entry level Affiliate Marketing Program, but you have many options to learn. With time and persistence you will began to see income on auto-pilot.

Now, I must let you know that this isn’t a get rich quick scheme or venture. It will take some time and work to get ball rolling. Your expertise is valuable. Offer value and help your readers/visitors with their problems or questions and you will find success with affiliate marketing. There are marketing strategies that you will learn as you go, but lets take a look at the main things to get started.

1. Define Your Niche – The Music industry is such a broad niche, so its important to narrow down to a specific part of the Music Niche . Are you a musician or an artist ? Are you targeting drummers in the Music industry. It will take some research to narrow down your niche as much as possible. You simply won’t reach everyone. Be sure to watch some videos to help because it will save you much time and money.
2. Define your Audience – Are you reaching a certain age group ? A targeted audience will save time when you know actually who your trying to reach. It will take time to determine who is “your audience”. Initially you will feel like everyone is your audience. YouTube and Google both have tools to help you to see who you are reaching. Have fun building an audience and you will start to see who’s interested.
3. Identify What Platform You Would Like to Use – Some would say the email marketing is the way to go, but if you are just starting out, you may not have a big email list. Perhaps you love using YouTube and love to make videos. Although its not recommended, you may want to place ads to promote your affiliate product. It can be costly if you don’t know what you’re doing, but decide what works best for you. I recommend a blog/website and YouTube to get started. To get started, its okay to start with FREE sites if you don’t already have your own website. The free sites usually won’t offer a specific domain name like .COM or .NET – If you plan to have a money making business, you should have a website. Every musician, artist, singer, etc should always have an online presence to refer customers. Youtube, FaceBook and other social media platforms are good, but you don’t own those sites, therefore there are rules in place to dictate what you can display or advertise. There are many website platforms that you can join for FREE, such as WordPress or Wix.com. WordPress is great for bloggers or content writers. If you like fancy websites, Wix is a drag and drop type program, but can be a little expensive if you buy a domain name. This will also provide a way to build your email/contact list, which will be an ASSET for developing your successful affiliate marketing business. Note : You can also build a landing page for direct sales or ad promotions, but this technique can be costly and should be looked into later down the road….after you get your feet a little wet……. 🙂
4. Choose Relevant Affiliate Partners – A common mistake that beginners make is choosing a bunch of products to promote that have nothing to do with your niche. We always think that people will buy from us either way, but the truth is….they WON’T. People will buy from you when they know that you are an expert in a specific area, or that you can help them in a specific area. It’s okay to have more than one niche, if they correlate or work together, but keep everything relevant. You can always design another website and promote products for that niche later. Most of the gurus have more than one site and multiple niches. Once you master the strategies, you will be able to sell dog food if you like…..It won’t really matter as long as you follow the blueprint.
5. Get Traffic to Your Website – This is probably the most challenging piece of the puzzle. Getting quality traffic to your website. When starting out, you typically just want EYES on your website. You don’t care about where the EYES are from, you want VIEWS. There are many FREE traffic exchanges like EASYHITS4U that will get your site viewed as you view other websites. You are happy with just having daily visitors. Eventually you start to realize that they aren’t your targeted audience. Although you are getting views, its not quality traffic. Your aren’t generating clicks to your links, therefore you have NO sales. A couple of sales might trickle in, but you aren’t reaching the people in your niche. A good way to promote your website is on social media platforms. You can always include your link to get visitors to view your website. YouTube is also an excellent way to get visitors. Make a video about a product that you use and in the description have the link to your website. Work towards offering a free E-book to get their email for future marketing strategies. As you progress, you will need to learn about SEO (Search Engine optimization). This will help you identify keywords to get traffic to your website. Don’t worry that will come later…..
6. Create Good Content – This is important. As you know, you can’t paste your links all over social media platforms. There are also some forums that don’t allow you to SPAM or paste links. Avoid being SPAMMED, and learn how to create good content. When you help your viewers or give valuable information you will gain subscribers and viewers. It may take some time, but you have plenty of time to learn all about affiliate marketing. Its not an overnight business venture.

1) CJ (Commission Junction) – Musicians Friend Affiliate Program – The CJ Affiliate program is the third party site in which the tracking of your affiliate links will be monitored. Your payment method and commissions (6% of sale) will be handled by CJ Affiliate Network – CJ has been around for years and has a vast selection of products for any niche. They are one of the biggest and most popular affiliate programs so they can be a little strict about who they choose to market products. Make sure that you have a viable website or traffic source. Example : YouTube platform, blog, etc.

Apply as a PUBLISHER and log-in to view music products to promote. Click on Advertisers and and type “Musicians Friend” or “Guitar Center in Keyword(s) box. If you are interested in other niches you can simply input a keyword.

Once you have found the program that you want to promote, simply click on “Apply to Program” box. You will receive instructions concerning your application.

Once you have been approved as an affiliate, you will have access to banners, links, etc to place on your website, blog, etc. SPECIAL NOTE : See rules about placing links on Social Media platforms. Don’t get banned !! (There is a video below to walk you through the sign-up to CJ affiliate network)

Direct link for Musicians Friend https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pages/affiliate-program

2). Guitar Center Affiliate – This program is also through the CJ (Commission Junction) program. Once you are approved, you will have banners, links that will bring you to various pages. Commission are around 6% for each sale.

** Don’t forget to view the video below to help you navigate on CJ (Commission Junction) for Beginners **

There are many videos about signing up with Commission Junction, but this one should be very beneficial. Always do your research before signing up for any affiliate program.

3) Rakuten Advertising – Sam Ashe – This is another platform that offers many products for various niches. Its free and easy to join and Sam Ashe Stores have been around since 1924. The commissions range from 6 – 10%. Sign up as a PUBLISHER. Fill in account information. Then go into CATEGORIES and Choose the Entertainment/Music section.

Once you have located programs that you like to promote, click the APPLY Button. (There are a few programs related to music. You should get a reply within a few days.

4) Amazon Affiliate Program – This is probably the most popular affiliate program because Amazon is one of the #1 Shopping Platforms for almost any product. Its FREE to join, but make sure that your website is presentable and professional to get approved. You also must make at least 1 sale within 3 months to stay active. Earn 1-10%, depending on the product. Amazon has great banners that are easy to display on your website. You can promote specific instruments or books on this platform. Although the commission percentage can be low for instruments, the higher the cost of the product, the more you will earn.

5) Clickbank – This is a popular affiliate program in which you can sell products like, courses or How To’s. This is a #1 Affiliate platform which allows you to make specific dollar amounts for each sale. Once you learn how to master this platform, you will be able to promote click bank products on auto-pilot.

Once logged in go into MarketPlace, and the Entertainment section on the left of screen. There are great programs like PianoForAll, SINGORAMA, and production software type programs that musicians can promote. Simply click the PROMOTE red button, and the affiliate link will be generated for you to insert on your website. The commission amount is noted. **Pay attention to gravity (the higher the number the better) and refund percentage (how many people have asked for refunds). I would recommend watching a Youtube video for Clickbank Beginners. There are are many strategies to help you get started, but it will take time to master sales on clickbank.

In conclusion, affiliate marketing takes time due to the strategies to drive effective sales. You must be patient while being persistent. More than anything… get ready to LEARN, LEARN and LEARN. Watch Youtube videos, read articles and take notes. You may feel a little overwhelmed at first, but take one step at a time. Get your website up and running with good content or make some cool videos. Solve some problems or offer some good advice about your expertise. There are many music affiliate programs to promote, but first build your foundation. Take the time to nurture and build your audience. The sales will come later. Have fun making videos or creating content. Most of all ….DON’T GIVE UP !!

More music affiliate programs links that you may want to try – I will add to this list periodically, so be sure to check back……. Don’t Miss a Beat !!!

zZounds.com – zZounds has a low price guarantee and has been around for years. As a zZounds’ affiliate, you will earn a 6% referral fee when your site visitors purchase anything on our web site

LoopMasters – High-quality sample libraries for musicians and producers – LoopMasters offers a 20% commission rate on their products. They are also affiliated with PluginBoutique.com where you can earn a 15% commission. They offer a small bonus just for signing up. 

Music Teachers Helper – Refer music teachers to this program and EARN commissions ! – This unique and valuable service offers a program that helps music teachers manage their students, schedules, and business in general. Get a 20% commission rate on 1 of 3 different membership levels. Membership programs allow you to earn recurring sales each month.

Teaching Children Music – Family owned business that offers a program of techniques in making music fun to learn for children. Offers 20-50% in commissions.

Virtual Sheet Music – The leading source of Classical Sheet Music Downloads, Traditional and Jazz Sheet Music as well MIDI and Mp3 files on the web. Earn 30% of commissions or earn a recurring amount for memberships

ShareASale – In 2017, Awin Group acquired one of North America’s largest platforms, ShareASale – This company has been around for 20 years and offers a large platform of affiliate offers to promote.

Find a sponsor for your web site. Get paid for your great content. shareasale.com.