39. Making the Most of Amazon Affiliate Links with Yari Aguilu

Stephanie 0:00

Welcome to a special episode of the pay less for traffic podcast. Today, we are joined by Yari from Sweet Tooth Teaching. Yari is a former elementary teacher turned content creator and entrepreneur. She is dedicated to making teachers lives easier with engaging hands on resources. She helps educators reignite their passion for teaching by sharing practical ideas, time saving strategies, and relatable content. As a mom and business owner, she also shares insights on balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship while building a thriving online business. Yari has a lot of experience with sharing Amazon affiliate links on her blog and on social media. She has generously agreed to share some tips and strategies that she's learned over the years to make the most of this income stream. In our last episode, we talked about Amazon mistakes to avoid, and in this episode, you are going to hear some great strategies and ideas for success. I hope that by the end of this conversation you'll have some great takeaways for strengthening or starting this monetization method in your business.

Stephanie 1:08

Hey there, teacher business owner, it's time to give your bank account a break and pause that ad campaign. I'm your host, Stephanie Royer, and I'm going to show you how to pay less for traffic.

Stephanie 1:19

Well, hi, Yari. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Yari 1:22

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be on here. Yeah.

Stephanie 1:26

So when I was planning out monetization March, and I knew we were going to talk a little bit about the Amazon program, I just thought, you know, Yari does a great job with Amazon stuff, and she would be a great person to have on the podcast. So thanks so much for being here.

Yari 1:42

Thank you.

Stephanie 1:44

So can you share just a little bit about your teaching background and what led you to start Sweet Tooth Teaching?

Yari 1:50

So I started as a teacher. I taught second, third, fourth grade, I taught for about, I'd say, maybe like, six years, and then I did admin for a little bit, but throughout my entire teaching career, basically since my first year of teaching, I started TPT, something that I kind of stumbled upon because we didn't have many resources in our classroom at the time, so I kind of started making my own things and selling them on TPT. And little by little, I grew my business accidentally, I guess, like a lot of TPT sellers, and then it slowly turned into a business. It was started as a hobby, and then it turned into a business. And in 2020 with the whole virtual teaching, I was pregnant with my first daughter, I decided to just kind of take a leap of faith and leave the classroom for what I thought was a little bit to pursue TPT full time, and I've been home ever since. So I've been home for almost five years now. And yeah, that's kind of where I'm at right now, just working on continuing to grow my business, and not sure what what will happen from here.

Stephanie 2:54

And also, you welcomed a second beautiful baby to the mix too, and all of -

Yari 3:00

Crazy, but yes.

Stephanie 3:02

And so, you know, you talked a little bit about how your business has kind of evolved and grown over time. And you know me, I love to talk about blogging, and so I would love to know what role does your website play in that overall business strategy that you have.

Yari 3:18

So my website is actually a big part of my business. When I look at numbers, I realize that's when it hits you, like, you're like, Wow, this website is a huge traffic generator for my business. And sometimes we don't see that. We get so caught up in Instagram and the need to post every day because it feels like it's the most important thing, because it's what everybody's quote, unquote, doing. But when you look at the numbers, your website has such a big impact on your business. So when I left the classroom, one of my biggest goals was to grow my blog. And I was blogging very consistently. I was creating a lot of blog posts that would soft sell my resources. So I was creating idea content like teaching strategies. And then within those teaching strategies, I would embed one or two of my resources, a lot of overall soft selling of my resources. And now looking at my data, those blog posts are still generating so much traffic to my resources on TPT. So now I did kind of fall off the blogging bandwagon for a little bit last year, just because I was pregnant, I had my first daughter. It was just crazy. So this year, that's one of my big goals, again, is to continue blogging and create more of a plan and a strategy for my blog, but it is a huge part of my business.

Stephanie 4:40

I love that you talked about how the website, it's just kind of that quiet workhorse. You know that we think of email marketing and Instagram, because you get that like immediate influx of traffic when you share. The traffic comes, but yeah, with a website, it's more gradual. It's not very flashy, it's not very instant, but it just turns along in the background. And I love that you brought that up, that sometimes you have to stop and and look.

Yari 5:09

You have to really dig into the numbers. If you don't look at your analytics, you won't realize what an impact that website has. With Instagram, you immediately see the likes, you immediately see the comments, which don't always convert into sales. That's another thing I'm slowly learning.

Stephanie 5:26

Yeah, well, so then you have your website, you blogged consistently. So at what point in that journey did you first start using, you know, the Amazon affiliate links? What made you interested in it to get started?

Yari 5:40

So I think the first time I kind of dove into the whole Amazon links was I was writing a blog post about text feature surgery that I did in my classroom, and I had ordered some things for Amazon to do that in my classroom. I had ordered, like hair nets and like surgery equipment. And I was like, Okay, I'm sharing how to do the surgery in your classroom, might as well make some money if somebody wants to use the same things. So I think that's actually when I signed up for the affiliate program, just so that I can share those little like hair nets. So I put pictures of my students, and then I linked the supplies. And then I slowly started doing that with a lot of my blog posts. I would think about, what did I use in my classroom with this activity that I bought on Amazon, or what could a teacher use that they could purchase on Amazon? So I slowly started tying Amazon into my strategy for each blog post. Now it doesn't work for every blog post before a big majority of them, you could find things on Amazon that are related to whatever it is you're talking about. So I made a blog post about, like, a fraction transformation. It was like an ice cream shop. I linked those things, and then I made from that I was like, okay, I can do fraction books to use in your classroom. And I linked all the books that focused on fractions that I could find on Amazon. So that's kind of where the whole idea started, and I've kind of just been incorporating that ever since,

Stephanie 7:02

Yeah, so then you kind of saw the opportunity, and you started putting those links in, you know, your blog content. So then over time, did that evolve as well? Like, because I know if people follow you on Instagram, they know that you share links there. So nowadays, how do you typically utilize the Amazon program in your business?

Yari 7:25

So it definitely has moved a lot to Instagram, because Instagram is a great tool for Amazon affiliates. I feel I share a lot on stories. I link a lot of products that I'll use, like with my daughters. People tend to love toys. I love, like hands on toys and activities to use. I have a four year old and a nine month old, so if I take a picture of them or record them playing with it, I'll link it. And those tend to do very well. People really like those kinds of links. Or if I have an outfit on, I'll link the outfit. Sometimes I make little collages, and I'll share those on stories. And I did have a time period where I was sharing a lot of reels with Amazon finds. Those are a lot of work to put together. They are, but they did generate a lot of income as well. But I still continue to do Amazon on my blog. That's something that I will always do, and I'll continue to do, just because it's more of a passive thing. It's something that I can just set and kind of forget. It's not so much as like social media, I'm every day I have to share something, you know? I have to think about, what can I post today? What can I share today? So that's where blogging always comes in handy.

Stephanie 8:39

So then, you know you talked about that the because I know Amazon is overwhelming. Like, when you go to look for a gift for someone, you're like, there's so many choices. And so I appreciate when, when people narrow it down, and they're like, Hey, I have this product right here, and it's great. I do find that really helpful. So on the website end of it, what types of products do you feel like do the best on the website that actually get people to want to click and go see what you're talking about?

Yari 9:09

I would say, like, kind of the example I gave you, the text teacher surgery, things like that that tie into what I actually used with my students. Like, if I did an activity with them, what what materials did I use? Or I actually have a blog post that's spring teaching outfits, and it's like dresses and shoes. And that blog post does really well. I still get tons of traffic to it, and I get a lot of clicks on that one, but yeah, generally, when I tie it into whatever it is that I used with that particular activity, I feel like people tend to click more.

Stephanie 9:42

I love that you said that because an episode that aired last week, you haven't heard it yet, obviously, but I talked a little bit about some of the mistakes we make with Amazon, and one of those is that people share only things that they've never used before. And I think the fact that, you know, it's something that you show in use, and people who look at that activity and think, wow, that looks so much fun and I want it to look just like that, yeah, and so you're showing them like, this is exactly what I did, and you can still do it this way with this product. So, yeah, I think that's so helpful for people. And, you know, sometimes it's a good reminder that the most helpful content is usually the best performing content, right?

Yari: 10:27

Yeah. And I think it's great, like, if whoever's listening, if they are still in the classroom and they blog, or they have a TPT store, like, take as many pictures as you can of whatever it is you're using with your students, obviously, like, don't get their faces, but that's one of my not my regrets, but I wish I would have gotten more pictures or videos of like, things that I did, because now that I'm not in the classroom, it's a little bit harder to show these activities. So it's just like, one little tip on like, I wish I would have done that looking back.

Stephanie: 10:57

Yeah it's a good tip. And so I was curious, what would you say has been the biggest perk of the Amazon affiliate program for you? I mean, has it been a pretty consistent income stream, more modest, like, what would you say is the biggest perk?

Yari: 11:15

Um the perk is that it's very passive, especially on the blog, not on Instagram, but on the blog. It's very passive, because it's blog posts that are sitting there and you're gonna get clicks if your blog post is getting views. So in that sense, it's very passive. Another perk is now they recently, I would say maybe like a year ago or so, they launched this, like bonus program that on top of your standard commission, so you make commission off clicks and sales, but now you make an extra bonus on shipped items. So if you need, like, a certain quota of shipped revenue, you get an extra bonus on top of that. And the bonuses, like, increase depending on your shipped revenue. So it's nice. It's like an extra it can be 200 extra bucks. It can be 800 extra bucks a month. So that's been great. And it's really kind of like motivated me, because I'll look and see how much my shipped revenue is, like, Okay, I need, I need to sell $100 more so that I can get that bonus. So that's been really nice, and I feel like that's really pushed me to continue doing Amazon. As far as consistency, it's not a consistent thing. You have to work on it, you know, like, especially with social media, like, if you don't post every day, then you'll notice it's, it's something that you have to consistently do. And some months are better than others. Like, December was a great month for me, and then January was like, I mean, like, half of what I made in December, so it's not something that you can 100% count on, but it's a nice little extra paycheck. That's the good thing. And the not so good thing, it's not something that I would do full time. I TPT is my main source of income.

Stephanie: 12:53

But like you said, it's so nice to just have that extra little boost of income with content that's already, like with the website. It's content that's already sitting there, yeah. And when done correctly, you know, and thoughtfully and strategically, those links can serve your business for a long time.

Yari: 13:10

Yeah.

Stephanie: 13:10

And so other than you know, the effort when you're using those links on social media, have you noticed any other challenges or downsides with this program?

Yari: 13:21

I think it's mainly just that the the having to be consistent with it, and not knowing what you're going to make from it each month, it's kind of up in the air, depending on how often you share and how not. So that's, I guess, that that would be the only downfall of it.

Stephanie: 13:40

And there's definitely the seasons to it. Like you said, it just it goes off a very steep cliff, you know, right after the shipping window for Christmas has closed, it's like, nothing.

Yari: 13:51

Yeah sales like tanked in January, I was like, What is going on? Like, okay, well, everybody probably spent all their money.

Stephanie: 13:56

Well, and then the returns, because I think sometimes people, if you're not using that program, you don't realize that if something that was ordered through your link gets returned, that money comes out of your account.

Yari: 14:10

Which is also why it's important to share things that you know are good, because you can share all this cute stuff, and then if it's crap, it's gonna get returned. So it was kind of a waste of time. So that's something to keep in mind, too. The good thing with Amazon, which is one of its perks, is for those that don't have the program and don't really, like, understand how it works, but you if someone clicks your link, like, let's say I link this sweater, and they click it, they don't end up buying this sweater, but they end up buying a bunch of other stuff, product cleaning products for their house, I still get commissioned because they used my link. So that's the good thing, that as long as you're getting them on Amazon, they're probably going to purchase something, even if it's not that direct thing that you linked.

Stephanie: 14:54

Yeah and I think that's you know, for people that aren't quite aware of the cookie situation, that is why you know, like Yari every what, 24 to 48 hours, or however consistently you want to, you know, you kind of add another link to kind of revive that cookie. Because, especially during the holiday season, when everybody's sharing links, because they want to be the last cookie before someone places their order.

Yari: 15:17

Man, yeah, I never thought about that.

Stephanie: 15:21

Yeah it's like the battle of the cookies in the holiday season for the people that treat Amazon more like their full time gig, you know.

Yari: 15:28

yeah.

Stephanie: 15:30

Well, so if someone is just getting started, you've dropped some really great tips so far. But is there a tip that you would give them to just maximize their success with using Amazon?

Yari: 15:41

I guess I'd say, be consistent with it. It's not something you can just share once and expect a ton of money. I do, I get, like, those questions a lot from people that just like, friends and stuff that I want to share things on Amazon. Like, how do you make money off Amazon? And like, I feel like a lot of people have this perception that linking things on Amazon makes you all this cash, and it's super easy, and it is not - you literally make cents, like pennies off something like a sweater can be 30 bucks, and you'll make maybe 30 cents off of it. You know, you don't make this crazy commission. So in order for you to really make money off of Amazon, you have to link very consistently. I would say, have pretty decent audience, whether it's on your blog or your Instagram or whatever you're going to use to share these links. But it's not as easy as sometimes we feel, because we see all these influencers have all this money, and they share links all day. They also have a very big audience. So I think that's something important to keep in mind.

Stephanie: 16:47

That does make a big difference if you're if you're using those links on social media, for sure. So then how do you moving forward? Do you foresee changing your strategy at all moving forward? Are you going to keep doing the same things? Have you been experimenting with anything? Because we know Amazon releases all sorts of new features.

Yari: 17:11

Yes, they actually just released a new like version of their site. It's called Amazon Haul. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's basically Shein and Temu, so they're, like, their direct competitor, and their whole thing is that all their products are, you know, made the right way. And there's, like, you don't have to worry about all the all the things that Shein and Temu, like, people hate, but everything on there, I believe, is $10 and under. So they actually sent out an email that they're going to have, like, a higher commission rate for sharing products on there, because they want to get that Amazon Haul like out there, and they want people to find out about it. So that's been interesting. I haven't really played around with it too much, but I know that'll be kind of the next big thing on there. I have been kind of incorporating more Amazon into my blogging strategy this year like, I'm actually working on a blog post now, it's not directly Amazon, but it is affiliates. So I searched for what, what's trending, keywords, things like that, and I found Teacher Appreciation bulletin boards. And I was like, maybe I can do a blog post for that. So I'm doing think it's like 15 Teacher Appreciation bulletin boards, and they're all from Etsy, so they're teacher sellers or TPT sellers, but they also sell on Etsy, which is nice because I can actually link to Etsy through my like to know it account. So I'm sharing those bulletin boards with the direct links. And teachers can just purchase print and set up a bulletin board.

Stephanie: 19:03

Well, and I think that's a really great point to bring up for people, is that Amazon, I think, is one of the most common affiliate programs out there, because it has such a low barrier to entry. I mean, anybody, you don't have to have a certain audience size or anything, you just apply and you do it. But there are, there are so many different affiliate programs out there, many that pay better than Amazon,

Yari: 19:28

yeah, yeah.

Stephanie: 19:29

And so I was curious. And this is just me being curious. You're part of the influencer program, right? So do you have a store? You have a storefront?

Yari: 19:39

Yeah, all of that.

Stephanie: 19:41

So have you ever thought about repurposing your reels and your videos that you put in your stories and putting them on Amazon?

Yari: 19:50

I do actually do that.

Stephanie: 19:52

Do you do that? Okay.

Yari: 19:53

I do do that. I try as much as I can every every so often, maybe, like twice a month, I'll go in there and just start uploading videos, like I upload all my reels, I'll upload some stories. I always upload all the collages that I share on stories. Because a great thing with Amazon is the content that you have on your storefront can be featured on the product pages as well. So if someone's going to - I keep talking about this sweater, because it is Amazon - but if they go to this sweater, this the page on there, and there's a picture of me wearing the sweater, and they click it because they want to see what it looks like on me, then I automatically get a click, and now it's my link, so I can make a commission if they do purchase the sweater. So I always try to share on my storefront as well.

Stephanie: 20:39

I love that, because that has, in the blogging world that has gone, I don't want to say viral, but it's become very common, and people are actually using that as a like a business goal. They don't really want to share on social media or anything. They just want to make the influencer videos on Amazon. And I think the reason for that is because they have, like you said, when it comes to user intent, they're on Amazon. They are looking to buy. It's not like they're on your blog post and, oh, maybe I'll go to Amazon. It's I'm here with my dollar bills ready to spend.

Yari: 21:16

That's so true. Yeah.

Stephanie: 21:17

And so with having your video there, that's such a great thing, because, like you said, if you are the last click before they purchase, you get credit for that. So I was just curious. You popped into my head one day when I was listening to a podcast about the influencer program, and I thought, Yari makes the cutest videos and stuff on Instagram. I wonder if she uploads them.

Yari: 21:37

Yes. And the cool thing is, on the Amazon app, I don't know if you've noticed, I always wonder if people actually use this feature, but on the Amazon app now they have like a video tab, and when you click on it, it's kind of like Instagram, and you scroll and it's just videos, and the videos are showcasing influencers with their outfits or whatever it is they're sharing, and there's categories, so you can click education, teaching, outfits, and you'll see videos. And I go on there all the time. Sometimes I'm like, I want a cute outfit for something, and I'll go to the women's style, and I'll look on there, and everything that you need is right there. But I'm always curious if I'm the only person that uses that, because I know about it, or I don't know, regular Amazon users use it.

Stephanie: 22:21

When I hear some of the numbers of the people that focus solely on that as their strategy, I think, wow, it is getting used. But I think, I think it's good for people to hear that there are, there are just so many other ways to use Amazon, that program to help increase your income. And I think especially for people with a larger audience, they might not realize that, like they qualify for the influencer program and can do those videos and have a storefront, and yeah, so I think that's -

Yari: 22:55

And if you don't have a large audience on Instagram, but you still want to do Amazon, that's definitely a great route to go, because you don't have to worry about how big your audience is. You just worry about being on Amazon.

Stephanie: 23:06

And I think you know for people, so I don't have a large Instagram following, and so social media was never part of my Amazon strategy, but I had a couple of posts that a similar situation, if I was giving tips for a certain life event. And there was one item that I was like, everybody needs to have this. It's a game changer. And so I wrote the post I was completely honest. Like, if you buy anything off of this list, let it be this, because this is the game changer. And that post, single handedly, has paid for my website hosting for seven years, you know, like, it's just - and so you don't necessarily, I'm proof that you don't have to have, like, a huge following, but you do have to use your links strategically, kind of like you were talking about and and to use things and link to things that you've actually had experience with, I think,

Yari: 23:59

Yeah, and that's a great strategy in itself. Like thinking about what is, what's something that I use in my classroom every day and I couldn't live without. And you can write a whole blog post on just that one thing. Or if you want to do a list of the top five things that you use the most in your classroom. Thinking about, if I was a new teacher, what, what would I need to know about that I I didn't know my first year of teaching.

Stephanie: 24:23

Yeah and I think another one, I used the example in the last episode, but just like with crafts, you know, you have the templates for them to put the things together, but maybe there's a, like, a little embellishment or something that you add, and everybody's going to want to know, like, Oh, that's so cute with that embellishment, where do I find it?

Yari: 24:42

Yeah, and so

Stephanie: 24:43

well, I have really enjoyed chatting with you about Amazon. I know we could talk shop all day long, but where can listeners connect with you and to just follow your journey and learn more about what you do.

Yari: 24:58

So I am on Sweet Tooth Teaching everywhere. So my Instagram, Sweet Tooth Teaching my website, Sweet Tooth Teaching.com and think this is about two main places where I'm usually at, either Instagram or my blog. I don't have tick tock and use Facebook. So that's about it.

Stephanie: 25:15

Well, awesome. I just want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, and I I hope that listeners got a sense for just the different ways that Amazon can improve and add to your business that I mean, I think you can agree, Yari, Amazon is not a huge percentage of your monthly income. I would assume that.

Yari: 25:40

No, it's a nice bonus check that I'm never going to know what it is.

Stephanie: 25:43

It's like a surprise, yeah? But would you, I mean, I guess my last question for you would be, do you feel like it's worth it? Yes,

Yari: 25:53

Yeah, definitely it's a good you know, it's a good bonus. But, yeah, I definitely do think it's worth it.

Stephanie: 25:59

Oh, good. And I, and I'm, I'm hopeful that that's the message that we send out today, is that there are, it's more than just hyperlinking a couple words in your blog post, that when you use those links strategically, you can see results. And I was just really grateful that you were willing to share your experience with us today,

Yari: 26:18

Of course. Thank you.

Stephanie: 26:20

Yeah, we'll talk to you later.

Stephanie: 26:24

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation, I'd love it if you could share it with a teacher biz bestie. You have created high quality resources. Now let's help teachers find them. I'll see you next time.