Welcome to Design Cuts Affiliate Academy, where we’ll walk you through what you need to know to help generate affiliate income whilst you sleep! 

Now, don’t be fooled. Affiliate marketing isn’t like ‘Field Of Dreams’ - you can’t just build it and expect them to come. You can’t simply sign up, throw a bunch of links into a blog post and expect to watch the money roll in, if you’re lucky you may see a trickle. 

However, follow the lessons and advice we’ve provided here, put the work in, and we know you’ll see results and enjoy a healthy income; some of our most proactive affiliates make thousands of dollars a month with us.

Jacob Cass

"I’ve been a Design Cuts Affiliate Partner since 2015. DC have the best products on the market, which have been quality tested. Not only that, they support you and help you earn more money along the way. What that means for me is I can earn passive income  recommending awesome products to other designers. And, with DC you’ll learn how to optimise your website better in terms of SEO and they’ll help you look at how to improve your marketing of products too. You are in for a treat!"

Jacob Cass

Founder of Just Creative

The big plus side to affiliate marketing

  • Content you’ve taken time to produce, can earn you money for years down the line with little to no maintenance work required. 
  • It’s less work than a lot of ways to earn money - we didn’t say it was no work, you still need to build a following and create great content, but it’s a lot easier than creating a product for instance.
  • You get paid for promoting awesome products you believe in, and let’s be honest our marketplace is chock full of them!

The golden rule to be successful at affiliate marketing is...

You need to build a following, publish content consistently and build trust. 

Two clear ways to build trust is to be transparent and honest. Make sure your audience knows the links you are sharing are affiliate based and you get a commission, but at no extra cost to them. This isn’t just about building trust with your audience, although in our opinion it’s the primary reason to do it, it’s also a legal requirement -  you’ll find the latest FTC  guidelines here. 

And of course, always be honest with what you’re putting out there and true to yourself - say how you feel about the products/events you’re sharing, don’t just share because you want the cash - if you don’t believe in what you’re posting people will see straight through it. 

There are tons of ways in which to share affiliate links and we’ll cover those that are the most effective for DC products within this academy including:

  • Reviews
  • Blog posts - incl. Listicles
  • Tutorials
  • Emails
  • Resources page
  • Social posts

But before we get into all that good stuff, let’s just run you through what you need to know about Tapfiliate; this is the system we have in place where you can manage and review your affiliate account.

Key Takeaways

  1. Put the work in and you will get rewarded; publish content consistently.
  2. Be honest and transparent in what you do.
  3. Meet your legal obligation and ensure to mention that you make a small sum from links you share/products you recommend.

Take me to: Tapfiliate Introduction

Jem Pennick

About The Author

A self-confessed Marketing geek, Jem Pennick is our Senior Marketing Manager at Design Cuts. Having worked in Marketing for nearly 20 years and with some of the world's biggest brands; including Fila, BRITA, Virgin  Media and Hachette Book Group to name a few, Jem has a wealth of knowledge and experience.