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Welcome back to Call Her Creator, the show where we help you turn your content into cash and build the businesses of your dreams. Today's episode is for every creator who's ever asked, where do I even start with affiliate marketing? I'm sitting down with Claire Cin, VP of Marketing at Collective Voice, the leading creator monetization platform. And Claire brings a unique perspective because guess what, she was a former TikTok executive and now she's a leader driving innovation in social commerce and affiliate marketing. We're going to be breaking down how you can start with affiliate marketing, why it's one of the fastest ways to build new revenue streams as a creator, and how Gen Z's need for speed and simplicity is changing the entire creator business model. By the end of this episode, you're going to walk away with clarity on where to start, how to build momentum, and what's possible when you lean into affiliate marketing as a serious business tool. Hey friend. Welcome back to Call Her Creator. Powered by your all in One Creator Store Stan Stan is the easiest way for you to make money online. All of your courses, digital products and bookings are hosted within your link in Bio. If you're ready to start your free trial, visit my show notes and click my affiliate link to get started today.
B
Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for having me. I this is literally my favorite topic and it's not just because what I do for a living, but I'm just so passionate about building creators of small businesses and so being able to share this space and time with you and your audience. I'm just so grateful. So thank you. I got, I didn't have a very traditional path into creator marketing. I have a unique background where I worked on brand side for a really long time. I worked in paid media agency, I worked, you know, leading high performing digital marketing teams back on brand and ultimately went to platforms, platforms I really wanted to go to because that's where social commerce and creators, creators built them. And so from that standpoint, it's also the place where as a platform I sit in a unique position to hear creator feedback and be able to build solutions and tools for them to help them drive their monetization. So it's where I feel like I can make the greatest impact in helping to grow creators and their businesses as they increasingly contribute to the, you know, the gdp. And this is a job and a career that didn't exist when I was in school. So I think you can never guess as to like where things are going to take you. But I always I look at every industry, every job, every career through the, the lens of four Cs, consumer category, culture and consumption. And the last one from a, the last two, I think are the most important in where we are right now. Relevance is driven by culture, and relevance is the backbone of marketing for the next five to seven years. Who is driving that culture and that relevance are creators. And that's really where the consumption piece comes in. You know, where is attention shifting? Consumers have been predominantly on social for the past decade. Platforms have really heated to that and creators as well, to find ways to, you know, drive monetization and be able to capture that share of attention. And that created the creator economy. So from that standpoint, that's kind of the, the lens in which I look at where to go, what's happening next. I consider myself a little bit of a marketing futurist. And so it's through, through that methodology that I look at the places and spaces to grow and where I can be adding the most value to our industries.
A
I love that. And I love, I love how you said, you know, these jobs weren't here a while back, like, for me too, like, who knew that I would be dancing on Instagram? So amazing that this became something. But if we think about it, you guys all know, like, Instagram started. When did they come out? I think it was like, I don't know, I don't remember exactly, but I.
B
Remember just around 2014, 2013, maybe it was even earlier 2010.
A
I think it was 2010, 2010, somewhere around there. I remember, you know, we were all posting our food with those weird. But now it's like, hey, you can still post your food with those weird filters. But guess what, you can now get paid to do that when you, you know, your affiliate links or tell us where you're eating, or maybe you're, you know, using a really cool utensil, like a fork that we all need to use. So let's kind of peel back this onion on a little bit. Say that there's some creators on here that are just new to their journey and they don't 100% understand what affiliate marketing even is. Can you explain it in simple terms for us?
B
Absolutely. So affiliate marketing is think of it as earning money for someone buying something because you recommended it. Right? So just affiliate marketing, again, is earning commission is what we call it, but really that's dollars in your pocket. As a creator, when one of your fans or followers buy something through your social media, through your platforms that you have active channels on, that is A really, really simple journey. Now because of the rise of mobile commerce, because of closed loop commerce, it's really easy. Why do. Okay, I'm a fan or follower of you, right? You post your, you know, morning. Let's say you do. I'm really into this coffee and protein combo and let's say that you talked about that and how, you know, you've incorporated into your routine. You put a link in your post. I, as your fan and follower, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm looking for that too. I want caffeine and protein in the morning. I'm a woman in my 40s. Like that's super important. I'm all about my macros. I'm going to click that link. Takes me right to the site. I can purchase it and you earn dollars or revenue share from that sale. It's super straightforward.
A
It's straightforward, it's easy. I think it's kind of like when people come to me, they're like, how are you making money on, you know, Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is. I always tell them that's the easiest way to get started with it. Say, say that someone is brand new to this and they want to get started. Like where would you tell them to go first?
B
So first things is you need to find a partner, a creator monetization platform partner. That is where Collective Voice, who I work for, comes in. We are here to help creators no matter your stage. So specifically early creators, it's free to join. We on our network have over 140,000 creators. So you're joining a really inclusive community where you have access to creators that are at the same stage as you, creators that maybe are at your next stage or even further along that you can get advice from. And we have a community built around that within our Instagram broadcast channel. But we also are going to give you access to over 22,000 brands from day one. There's no gatekeeping. You can sign up for free, get started day one. We even give a welcome bonus offer for to help you get started where we're going to triple your commissions within the first 30 days to really help you get earning those dollars. Right now I have one of my social media managers who runs our TikTok account. You guys should definitely tune in collect. At Collective Voice HQ she is doing a specific series on called Zero to Commission. It is for creators who are just getting started and she's documenting a journey of starting a brand new TikTok handle and growing her fan base. And then at the same Time growing commissionable sales. And so she's documenting the journey, what steps she's taking week by week, what she's learning, how she's switching up her content. I know we're going to dive into a lot of that as, as we continue our conversation together. But like the first step is to find a partner that's going to give you access to the brands and retailers that you want and most importantly the tools and community. So I already spoke a little bit about community but let's talk tools. Like why are tools, what kind of tools do you need? What do you look for inside these platforms? We have a. You need a link in bio storefront, right? Because if you're getting started and you're creating links, you need to house them somewhere and you want those to be accessible to your fans and followers. 24. 7365 we have a link in bio solution that is a virtual storefront and it's called Tap to Shop. So we're the consumer. It's quite intuitive. Just your taps on your link in bio and is able to shop all of your products from a catalog. And that catalog houses your creator content as well as the links to purchase. So it's the perfect place for them to go and learn more and then ultimately be able to, you know, purchase wherever they feel whenever they want. It's. It's up 24. Seven working 365 the benefit of that, that virtual storefront is that it's going to give you as the creator more robust analytics and in your back end dashboard within the collective voice app. So you're going to be able to see the products that your fans are clicking on. Which products have your highest conversion, you know, which videos are performing the best is their overall trends. It's going to say like okay, people are really into your shoe content or your coffee content, you know, or your vacation edits. So you're going to get insights to help make your content stronger, to help you then refine, define your content calendar and kind of like define that niche. So you get the robust analytics in the platform.
A
Yes, I love that. That's the biggest thing. So I own a social media agency and the biggest thing is when we're creating content calendars, what do we do? Every month we're going back and looking okay, this kind of content really hit. We need to lean into that a little bit more. So I love that you guys are giving them those, those analytics and insights because that's at the end of the day that's going to help you make More money because you're going to want to, you know, share what your people are wanting.
B
I like to use the metaphor, like the grass is greener where you water it.
A
Yes.
B
It'S really sticky to like keep that in the back of your head. When you're looking at your analytics of like where is the interest? Where is my community going and how can you give them more of that water the grass that is already green, it's going to grow clients. Yes, absolutely. Deal with pride.
A
I will steal with pride, girlfriend. Is there certain this is a lot. There's a lot of few questions actually. Are there. First off, is there certain platforms that you see performing better? Like is TikTok working better than Instagram or is there specific niches that are performing better than other niches? Tell us about that.
B
I think the biggest thing to keep in mind as an emerging creator is you definitely need to be on more than one platform, but you don't want to bite off more than you can chew.
A
Yes.
B
Right. So like where, where you start and where you grow are very different. So I'm going to answer that question. I know we're trying to keep it in like the emerging creator space. It would start with one platform. Right. If you are just getting started, if you already have a robust following on a platform but you haven't started your monetization journey and you have a lot of followers, you just haven't introduced links and you know, affiliate opportunities for yourself. Start where you have an established fan base. So that's the question of like, not like which one do I get started? Get started where you have bilk community. If you are just building your community then you have a little bit more choice. And then I think it comes down to kind of the confidence that you have in the type of content that you feel most comfortable making. Like do you love long form written content and probably substacks for you? Like if you have that journalist, blogger, you know, you sit down to do a video but you want to write a marathon in the caption. Like maybe you are meant to be a substacker. If you love giving really educational tutorials or if you have a service based business, YouTube is a really good place for that. YouTube does, is probably like the most time invasive platform, I will say that. So it's a hard one to get started with out of the gate. But it's a very, very loyal community as you do build followers there. And like your Tik Tok and Instagrams, um, they can kind of go head to head. So I think it's the preference of where you like to create. For TikTok, you absolutely have to be sound on video first, breaking that fourth wall. If that is not as comfortable to you, then you may want to start on Instagram where, you know, there's still really the option of having, you know, the static posts in addition to videos and playing around with stories. But more and more TikTok and Instagram are becoming at parody products. Even with some of the advancements that TikTok released in terms of like their, their DM functionality, like they're really going head to head I think, and trying to pull over the, the younger gen with Snapchat. But that's for another conversation. But they're really starting to kind of be at parody in terms of creator preference. I think it's just where you naturally like to create content. If you like a little bit more stills with some video, then start on Instagram. If you are full blown camera, mic on camera, on talking to camera, then TikTok's your first place to go.
A
I love that advice. You really broke that down. Easy for people to understand. If creators. I'm seeing a lot of creators dabble in affiliate marketing myself too. Like it's not my number one revenue driver, but I still like, I wish it was because I love sharing my favorite things. But what shifts or strategies do you think help creators go from like small commissions to having real income growth from this?
B
Yeah. So creators. Well, let me first reference some research that we did, which I know you teased at the beginning, some of the generational research that we did, but we actually sat down with millennial creators and Gen Z creators and really wanted to talk to them and understand their differences in approach to affiliate marketing. Because like any new monetization or social media technology or you know, commerce based technology, I should say rather the speed and evolution is going to change by generation just on how quickly they're able to adapt. And also the fact that like affiliate marketing came of age with millennials, so they had to learn it alongside. Whereas as platforms we've been able to really make the products, our apps, the monetization platforms that really help power all of the technology behind the links for the creators that has already been established for Gen Z. So they're coming in and they're seeing a plug and play model. They're like, I get this, I know how to grow. So it's like where do. From that standpoint, what we see among gen zers is they want. They know that they have to build a really engaged following as the first step and that which I just talked about, and then two is unlocking, unlocking that buying potential and that shopping behavior within their audience. And that's where the affiliate piece comes in. So when you're talking about kind of like making it your mainstay, from that research that we found that actually a majority of Gen Z creators do see, see being a creator as a full time job. They see themselves as small businesses. And they quickly understand that it's growing that organic traffic through links for their first dollars and then stepping into branded partnerships as a secondary revenue model for millennials in many cases, because the affiliate linking and the partnership and the Rev share model wasn't as common as social media was growing. They started with trying to get those flat fee partnerships and then trying to scale their organic linking at the same time, which ended up being like a little bit of a push pull, right? Like, how do I dedicate my time? How much effort should I put in here? Should I get an agent? Like, there was so much more complexity, whereas now the roadmap is really, really clear. It's step one, grow audience. Step step two, monetize audience on platforms. Step three, create an audience and a following on multiple platforms. Right. Creators really need to be diversifying across multiple platforms and revenue streams. As consumers once again are spending different amounts of attention on different platforms for different reasons, you want to be present. So that's really where they're approaching it, like a business. So if you think about, you know, in your case, you're like, it's not my main hustle, but I want it to be a bigger, you know, source of income, you know, going back and just like reflecting on that. Like, do you feel like you have diversified enough? Do you feel like you have the storefront set up? Do you feel like your content is, you know, tailored by platform? I mean, we can even talk about it here. We could talk about other creators too.
A
Yeah. Wow. I like, you're making me think, okay, first off, I have a bunch of gen zers that work for me and I'm the millennial. They keep me young. But you're right, like they grew up kind of having the path paved. Whereas, like, someone like me, like, it wasn't, it wasn't all the way normal. Like, you know, it kind of. We just started learning about it. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, you really broke that down for me to really understand that's. I don't know where I'm getting at right there, but I think I'm just. You're making Me feel better about myself and my age and affiliate marketing because it came at a different time than my employees.
B
It did. And I think that's. But that's the opportunity right now, right? For millennial creators. You can kind of like, take a. Like, take a step back and just ask yourself these questions of, like, how am I allocating my time? Do I have my channel set up appropriately? Am I leaving anything on the table? Broadcast channels, huge opportunity. I didn't talk about those, but that is where a ton of shopping behavior is happening. Do you have broadcast channels set up on your Instagram? TikTok's also starting to play there too. These are the hidden gems where your most loyal followers are going to be requesting your links. I think the other piece is when we think about servicing link requests. This is where technology comes in to help as well. Millennials had to answer every single dm. Some probably still are. This why? At Collective Voice, we have a product called Shop the Look, and it is an automated DM tool that allows you to set up a trigger word. So, for example, you could use the word shop or lip gloss, you know, the chair or throw pillow, you know. And then when your fan or follower comments on that in the comments section of your post, it automatically DMS them your affiliate link. That means that they are getting the link immediately when they request it. There's no lag time. The creators are saving time and energy not having to manually respond to link requests or send them into their link in bio. They can go into the tap to shop. They can find it, of course, but instant gratification, that's what consumers want. I'm interested. You've hooked me. I want to buy it. I want to learn more. Give me the link. From that standpoint, that's time back for creators to then do what they do best, right? Which is spend more time creating content, less of the admin. So I think it's the use and the adoption of these automated tools that creators now have access to from platforms like Create, like Collective Voice, that also speeds up that monetization journey. And that's where Gen Z creators are really, really dialed in. They're like, I want to know what technology is going to work for me and work harder for me in the places and spaces that I cannot replicate my own human talents. But technology can definitely fit some of those gaps and places, you know, where automation is your friend.
A
I want to ask you a question off script too. There's a lot of people that have, you know, regular 9-5ers. They're not exactly content creators, but they're dabbling in content. But I even tell them too like there's a, there's a chance for you to make affiliate money too. Like for example, I've got a couple small business owners that work with us. There's a pool company, a girl, one of my best friends, she owns a pool company and I told her that she needs to start doing affiliate marketing for all of the accessories, like the pool toys and you know, like outdoor living. Like, could you give an example for someone who's just, they're kind of thinking like, oh, I want to do this, but I don't know how I can do this. Can we walk through like maybe an example, you know, somebody that started doing this and she did it really well. What was she linking to? What's her business? Tell us about that.
B
Yeah, I think I'm going to pull on Lauren Wickham who's a San Francisco based creator. She's a real estate agent agent. So she definitely has a 9 to 5 hustle. Also on her Instagram, you can tour the most gorgeous mansions in San Francisco. Side note for any real estate junkies, but she's also a lifestyle creator, right? And so this is where she's blending those two things together. She has around 15, 000 followers on Instagram. So you know, she's, you know, in that area of she's managing both, right? She's managing that nine to five, but she's found a way to integrate it. So she does a lot of get ready with me. It's like my day in the life of, you know, being a real estate agent. This is what I'm wearing this time, getting ready. This is, you know, my gym routine. This is how like my whole person is showing up. And then she also does a lot of home content because she's in homes, right? So like it makes sense from that lifestyle standpoint that also, you know, she gets to be a little bit of authority on decoration, pore and you know, Renault and things like that. Like this was beautifully done. This is really tasteful. I really like that they've done this. Like she's able to kind of build that authority space within the home space as well as fashion, beauty, lifestyle. So I think that she's a great example of how she's integrating her creator content business into her nine to five and doing it in a way that's mutually beneficial for both of her businesses.
A
Do you know how many times a week she's posting about that stuff? Like I'm sure her Instagram or TikTok, you know, is mainly her real estate business. But how many times a week is she posting her outfits of the day or the decor?
B
Like, I would have to go back and look, but I want to say that it's probably a pretty good split. Like it's not overwhelming. Like, you don't land on that page and your first takeaway isn't, this is a real estate agent. All she's posting are listings. Because that's also like not that interesting. Right. So from that same, there is a healthy mix on her channel. I don't know, I could probably garner without looking at it right now, like maybe a 50 50, but there's some of that through line, right? Like that's her niche that she's established and she's finding the spokes off that hub to explore through content. And she's doing that. She also has a tap to shop, right. As her link in bio solution. So from that standpoint, once again, everything that she's talking about, everything that she's linking, you know, you can find in that tap to shop.
A
I've kind of dabbled in that too. Like my main, my main content is social media marketing. But, you know, I might do like, here's what I'm wearing at the agency today, or here's what my morning routine looks like. Now I mainly will put that stuff in stories, but you've kind of, you've kind of got me thinking, like, maybe it's time to start incorporating that into my normal posting because that's probably how I'm gonna go from small commissions, you know, to a real income.
B
It is, it's, it's around holding true to that like, core value of who you are. But I think as millennials, we often are like, feel like we have to live through a filter of like what is on the grid, right. Or what is stories appropriate versus the in feedback. And I think what we can learn from our Gen Z friends and co workers is that less of that discipline, more of that flexibility is also going to open your audience up more to, to be able to discover you in a new way. And I think for millennials, that we, we try to keep a little part of that guarded still. But that authenticity that behind the scenes, the, the real day in the life, the unfiltered part of your life is going to be very attractive and people want to know.
A
Yeah, that's what people fall in love with. Can you, I know we just an example, but can you share one more example of a creator who's used Collective Voice to really grow their business through affiliate marketing. I know we talked about the Realtor example. Give me one more.
B
Yeah, so I'm going to talk about. We run a creator in residence program which is creator to creator, educational advising for the most part, right? It's like years. Join. You can join our broadcast channel and you get access to our creator in residence, who is Chanel Tyler. Excuse me, Chanel Tyler. You can follow her at by me, Chanel, which is just a brilliant handle, but she has, she works on so much educational content with us, covering topics like we're talking about here. And she will give and break down real life examples. For example, we talked about on the latest webinar last week, which was From Chaos to Chill. Like how do you manage, you know, getting through the mental fatigue and the burnout? And we focused a lot on automation tools and she actually broke down a skincare routine post that she had done and how she. The metrics that she saw from her post. And so I'm going to share those with you guys here because I think these are the real examples and the transparency that we're talking about within our collective voice community. And this is what we mean by like no gatekeeping. And Chanel does this day in and day out as part of our creator in residence program. But she had one post and she used our shop the look tool, which is that automated DM tool that I talked about where you can set a trigger word and then it will automatically send the link. She had over 70 auto DM delivers without lifting a finger. She had 300 saves logged, meaning her audience was showing clear purchase intent. She had a 9% conversion rate.
A
O.
B
Correct. And that growth was really, really, you know, that was showing that content that didn't just engage, but it converted. Right? That is the power of the influence. 60% of her reach came from new audiences, which was really, you know, she had 163 new followers gained by just using automated technology to deliver the links for a piece of content that she had already filmed featuring five or six skincare products and her, you know, summer skin routine. So I think it's like that's what we talk about, breaking it down, understanding the source, understanding the power of each post, understanding what works. She's going to look at that and she's going to be like, oh, I need to do some more skincare. My people want skincare. Okay, let's talk fall skincare next, right? Talk hyperpigmentation. Let's talk, you know, retinols. Let's talk retinol. Versus vitamin C. Like it can go in so many different directions. But as a beauty creator, that gives her the, the opportunity to spend her time thinking about what is next. But I think that is another great example of a creator who's grown with us as well. You know, Chanel came on our network many years ago as kind of like a mid tier creator and she was just getting started with monetization and we've been her partner ever since. And she's really grown into this brand ambassador and was like, I want to share these tips. We were like co created this program with her. When I talk about brands inviting creators in flat fee partnerships into the kitchen to co create, we definitely walk that walk at collective voice and that is what inclusive collaboration looks like. And I really, really beg brands to continue to adopt this. It's something I talk a lot about with brand on brand podcast, but that they just need to invite the creators into the kitchen to co create because that's where the magic happens and that's where authenticity shines through and that's what drives high conversion.
A
Okay, sister, we need a book with all of these great things. Just pull them out. That was really good. That was really good. You know, one thing we didn't mention, just for anyone that's curious, we what are like the commission percentages just for someone who's never even looked at something like this?
B
So on the network we have like I said, 22,000 brands and they will run commission rates from everywhere from, you know, it could be on home, you know, like a low end, like 5%. When you get up a little bit higher, we're looking at like 10, 12, 15 getting into like high commission. It's, you know, a higher commission tier is kind of like we advertise a lot like up to 15% on certain categories. And then there are kind of similar to like the big sales days. There's like the big, when brands are having big sales days, they also increase the commissions for creators, right, because they need the creators to talk about their products to help drive that traffic to their sites, to their stores and be able to have that conversion. So from that we can see upwards of like 20, sometimes even 30% as we get into holiday season on like flash commission days. So you really have to be prepared as a creator, kind of like know when those are coming, understand the marketing calendar from the brand lens. And when we think about the super bowl for creators, which is holiday, which is coming up. I want to come back to. We just did some holiday research and we interviewed 1200 creators and consumers on like, what are your shopping behaviors this, this, this holiday season? How is, what do you want to hear from creators? Creators? Where are you focused on building your businesses? One of the most surprising facts, and digiday and Emarketer just picked this up last week, is that 70% of creators this holiday season plan to get a majority of their revenue coming from affiliate linking versus flat fee brand partnerships. And the reason for that is, is because it puts them in the driver's seat. Right? They know retailers are going to raise their rates during the holiday season. They know that Q4 is the make it or break it for brands to end their year, report their earnings. And they know that, that as much as they can prepare now, like they're all preparing now. September is where you start posting for holiday. You have your holiday gift guides. You're creating that content. You're getting ready to be able to drop it when those commission rates come up.
A
That's good info. Yeah, Black Friday is coming up too, guys. So now is the perfect time to get started with all this to wrap us up. If a creator listening today only took one action after this episode, what should it be to move the needle with affiliate marketing?
B
The biggest thing I would say is that you have to commit to getting started. Commit to the bit is an ism that my boss says all the time that I have stolen with pride. But she says, commit to the bit. A majority of creators don't succeed because they're not willing to be consistent. So what we talk about consistency is building out that content calendar, making sure that you're posting at a high frequency before the holiday season. Right? Making sure that you have learned tools and have affiliate, you know, monetization partners like Collective Voice there to help you join the broadcast channels, get involved in the communities, ask the questions when you get stuck. Like I said, that's why we have the community. We have Chanel. We have everybody there to like. If you have a question and you're like, oh, this is just too hard, I can't figure it out. Why isn't this working? Ask this. The creator economy was built on building communities. It is the most inclusive place. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You can ask us as a platform, you can ask fellow creators and once again lean into that community. But you have got to be consistent and you've got to come back and refine your content. But the hardest thing is just committing to the bit.
A
I love that. Adding that one to my book too. I love it. Where can our audience learn more about you and about Collective Voice.
B
Yes, absolutely. Follow @ Collective Voice HQ on TikTok Instagram. Join the broadcast channel also on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn @Claire Sidman. But most importantly, you know, for all the creators out there, it's. It's less about connecting with me and more about connecting with the community. So please do join us there. We can't wait to have you on the platform. We can't wait to help you grow and flourish and hopefully one day for you to drop that nine to five and that would be our biggest success. If is your success.
A
Oh, I love that. I love that so much. Thank you so much, Claire. I really appreciate this conversation. It was really insightful. You also have me like, I'm going to go run to work on all this stuff. Like, I'm leaving so much money on the table by not just taking advantage of affiliate marketing. So I'm glad you reminded me about that.
B
Thank you so much for having me and diving deep on this topic. And I can't wait for us to do it again soon.
A
Yeah, love it. All right, we'll see you later.
B
Okay, bye. Bye.
A
Bye.
This episode dives deep into affiliate marketing as one of the fastest and simplest ways for creators to turn their content into consistent income. Katelyn Rhoades sits down with Claire Sidman of Collective Voice (formerly ShopStyle Collective) to demystify affiliate marketing for beginners, reveal actionable steps for getting started, and share strategic insights on how creators (including entrepreneurs and even small business owners with traditional “9-5” jobs) can build real income streams through sharing what they love online. The discussion draws on Claire’s marketing futurist perspective, generational research, and practical examples from creators successfully earning with affiliate links.
“Relevance is driven by culture, and relevance is the backbone of marketing for the next five to seven years. Who is driving that culture and that relevance are creators.”
— Claire Sidman (03:04)
“Affiliate marketing is earning commission... that’s dollars in your pocket as a creator when one of your fans or followers buy something through your social media, through your platforms.”
— Claire Sidman (05:20)
“It’s up 24-7, working 365... The benefit is that it’s going to give you more robust analytics in your backend.”
— Claire Sidman (09:57)
“Definitely need to be on more than one platform, but you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew... If you already have a robust following, start where your fan base is.”
— Claire Sidman (12:00)
“Gen Z knows first step is engagement, second is unlocking buying behavior—then branded partnerships come later.”
— Claire Sidman (15:43)
“Instant gratification, that’s what consumers want. I’m interested, you’ve hooked me, I want to buy.”
— Claire Sidman (20:35)
“Content that didn’t just engage, but converted—that’s the power of the influence.”
— Claire Sidman (29:00)
“September is when you start posting for holiday—you have your holiday gift guides, getting ready to drop content when those commission rates come up.”
— Claire Sidman (33:18)
“Commit to the bit. A majority of creators don’t succeed because they’re not willing to be consistent.”
— Claire Sidman (33:56)
Claire’s closing advice: Start now, be consistent, join community spaces, and use available tech tools to maximize and streamline your affiliate marketing efforts. Tap into resources at Collective Voice HQ and check out Katelyn Rhoades on Instagram.
For anyone wanting to monetize content, whether full-time creator or side hustler, this episode is a practical, action-oriented guide to leveraging affiliate marketing for dependable income.