Home Stitchery Decor Craft Booth Set Up.

How I became an Affiliate Marketer for The Brands I Use in my Craft Business.

January 22, 2022

Hey all, I am the owner of Home Stitchery Decor. And here is a story all about how my life got flipped...finish it off if you know it. Love me some Fresh Prince. Seriously though this is the story of how I became an Affiliate Marketer for brands I use in my craft business.

I'd like to tell you that it was easy and everything fell into my lap, but that would be a lie. Truth is affiliate marketing takes work, hard work! And consistency.

When I started my business three years ago I actually told a cleaning client of mine - oh yeah I clean houses - that I wanted a sewing business where I sold my own products and worked with brands and designed my own fabric. Well I have not designed my own fabric...yet. But everything else I have done.

I started out with Rugs, then systematically added in more products so that I had 10 coordinating farmhouse diy decor items. I use modern fabrics and take it back to farmhouse days. Cottage Core designs if you prefer.

Wow that's a lot of I statements. But it's true, I build a farmhouse diy business from scratch. I sell in local stores and farmers markets and online.

Each step of the way I started to document my journey. Via Instagram, blog posts, Facebook, TikTok , Pinterest. Literally everywhere.

Then last year I though I was good enough and applied to some affiliate programs. Denials and crickets was all I got. Ok fair enough, not good enough was the deafening silence on the other end.

Well that just motivated me to do better. So I redesigned my craft booth, wrote better blogs, made better Instagrams and worked on my website on everything from SEO to tags, to making sure no image I put out on the internet was named jpeg22 - they are all now named HomeStitcheryDecorFarmersMarket - for instance. You can still find some images with Jpeg22 if you look.

When you put all the pieces together, from displays, Pinterest, Instagram followers, Facebook engagement, hits on my webpage, a newsletter, blogs about the brands and good imaging it increases your authority. And low and behold I got more views everywhere.

I cut out the crap and started focusing on the small details. If the platform says you can have 10 related tags make 10 related tags. If you get 5000 characters in a description stop at no less then 4999.

Then I went back to the platform that offer Affiliate Marketing and entered my application again. They ask for details and I had details. I had links, I had numbers to back it up. And every single brand I applied for said yes!

Now one would ask what is the point of Affiliate Marketing. Well for me I am hoping if I send enough people to the companies that sell the brands I use and enough people shop thru my links I will a) earn passive income and b) get individual brands to sponsor my content.

More about this. Passive income is not passive and any person that tells you it is is full of it. Passive income in income where you put an enormous amount of effort into a project on the front end and put it out in the world in an evergreen format so that you continue to earn money on that work forever.

Which leads to the question...what is Evergreen Content. Well in a nutshell it's information that never goes out of style. For instance I made a JellyRoll Rug Tutorial. I put it on YouTube. Now for years anyone looking to sew a Farmhouse Rug can watch my video. In the video description I will have links to all the fabric companies, sewing machine supplier, cutting machine, rotary cutter etc. If anyone watches the video I can earn money from view time and watched ads. If anyone clicks over to my website to see what else I do I earn from views to my website. If anyone shops thru a link I earn commissions on products that they purchase. If anyone signs up for my newsletter where I share coupons and deals on the latest from the companies I am an Affiliate for I also increase my authority on my website - which earns me money!

Now what I don't recommend. Don't use crap products. Just stop it. You put just as much effort into earning on 10 cent items as you do to say sell a sewing machine. If the commission is 10 percent on both and the both take the same amount of time why would you work with 10 cent items. In my case this could be fabric. I can just as easily share links to quality fabric as I can to cheap stuff. The end product lasts longer, photographs better, sews better, etc.

Here's the thing about women - I mostly sell and teach to women. We gossip. If you sell a lady a piece of crap gadget she is going to show it off to all her friends. BUT if you sell her something amazing she is going to do the same thing. Now that customer you gave a great coupon to is going to tell all of her friends about you and your products.

Now you want in right? It would be unwise for me to write a blog with all the places I am an Affiliate for as not every brand is going to appeal to each person. But I use Share a Sale to connect with the brands. They are the host company, and you need to set up your profile with them and then apply to the brands you want to recommend. If you want to be an affiliate yourself I appreciate you entering Share a Sale thru my link. You guess it I'm an affiliate for Share a Sale.

I will write about each brand individually and share some links.

If you want links and coupons on a regular basis follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and SIGN UP for my Newsletter. Click on this link and scroll to the bottom of the page.

https://www.homestitcherydecor.com/

It's a lot I know...but I do even more. I find it extremely hard to focus. Perhaps it's because I have so many balls in the air but I suspect it's because I have some form of undiagnosed ADHD. And this girl loves a challenge. So I created a secondary YouTube Channel. It features Ambient Music and Nature Videos which now play in the background of everything I do. LIFE CHANGER. I'm not looking up at the TV following along with some drama I don't need in my life and then trying to figure out why at the end of the day I am anxious and feeling like I have not got one dang thing I wanted to do done. Now I can focus and my productivity is thru the roof.

Here's a link to the Channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-olKHhaaSDZ1-TnPQyyzOg