9 - Leaving Money On The Table

Jim Banks [00:00:00]:
I've got one of the slowest growing channels on YouTube. I've had this YouTube channel since 2012. Since then I've grown my follower count to 316 people. That's two subscribers a month for twelve years. But if you know me, you will know I'm nothing if not super persistent. I've watched many videos from content creators like Nick Nimmin, Brian G. Johnson, and Sean Cannell from Think media who share tips and tricks to help channels grow. Ive watched so many think medias videos, I think I could do a university thesis on the structure and content of the videos they made.

Jim Banks [00:00:32]:
The Think media crew have a great team of content creators talking about growing your channel, but also the gear you should consider buying, or in some cases, not buying. On every video I watched, there was almost always affiliate links to some or all of the gear featured in the video, mostly links from the Amazon Associates affiliate program. Now ive been a member of Amazon Associates for many years. As a performance based digital marketing expert, it's important to understand how these programs work. I'll talk about the mechanics of the Amazon affiliate program soon, but first I have a story about the Think media team and Sean Cannell in particular. You see, back in January 2020, just before the whole world went into pandemic panic, I was going over to Las Vegas to attend affiliate summit. I always go to affiliate Summit west, mainly because it's in Las Vegas, but also to hang out with friends. I also would take up my usual residency as the mayor of the chandelier bar in the Cosmopolitan Hotel and proceed to make some bad decisions.

Jim Banks [00:01:24]:
It's an unofficial title, obviously, but I think I'd be a great evangelist for the bar. I know a lot of people go have a drink there because I wax so lyrically about the bar so frequently. As a Brit who travels a fair bit, I always like to get into town a few days early to get jet lag out of my system and to meet up with other industry friends who think the same way I do. After watching so many videos on the think media channel and buying a lot of gear from links on the channel, I'm absolutely convinced that sync Media would not be getting any commissions from sales from my visit because I'm in the UK and the links were primarily for the United States. I actually think it's an incredible, janky way to set the program up across all the markets that Amazon operates in, but it does mean that a lot of the clicks that result in sales go unpaid, and I don't like to leave money on the table in respect to commissions, I'm sure that think media will have teared up to a higher level of commission without my sales, but I really did feel bad about it. So when I heard that they were organizing a local meetup in Las Vegas called Vegas influencers, I thought I would swing by, meet some other creators, but also to buy Shaun a gift to say thank you for all that he'd done for me. At Heathrow airport, waiting to board my flight out to Las Vegas, I popped into the Harrods shop and I bought some english breakfast tea and a presentation tin. And I also bought some luxury shortbread.

Jim Banks [00:02:38]:
Now, most of my american friends love english biscuits and they also like a nice cup of tea if they're able to get one. And just to correct all Americans, it is not called hot tea, it is just called tea. So I jumped into an Uber to head to the venue, but I found myself on the other mothership coffee roasters a long way from the one I should have been at. Just as a quick aside, if ever you're in Las Vegas and nearby mothership coffee roses make fantastic coffee. So I found my way to the right coffee venue, met Sean and Omar and Heather and Sean's lovely wife Sonia. They were all as nice in person as they came across on screen. I explained the story to Shaun about the affiliate links, the non commissions, and thanked him for giving such great advice and making great content. I then saw that Sean and Sonia were expecting a baby.

Jim Banks [00:03:25]:
I'm sure the shortbread and tea combo was a contributing factor in this, but without a tracking link it will just be speculation on my part. So back to the Amazon Associates program. Recently, when trying to establish how best to optimize the video description on YouTube, I noticed that a lot of YouTube creators are using Genius links instead of Amazon affiliate links. That is Geni us. It turns out that for $6 a month you can optimize your Amazon affiliate links and deal with the geo targeting anomalies that allow so many affiliate sales to go uncredited and therefore unpaid. I'm part way through a 14 day trial of the product, but I thought I'd make this quick episode to say thanks again to Sean and the team, but also to let you know how you can optimize your affiliate links using genius links and to stop leaving money on the tape. I know it might reduce the sale of tea and biscuits, but let's be honest, I'm almost convinced Shaun would have preferred the commissions. I know I would.

Jim Banks [00:04:19]:
If you like this short form tip type of podcast content, I'm looking to add a tip a week on Monday, so make sure you follow the podcast to get notified when the next one is posted. I'm aiming to make them no more than five minutes. It's important to cover the topic and not cut stuff out to fit a time allocation, and I'll see you on the next episode.