$48K+ in VideoHive Affiliate Sales in 1 year

In this post you will:

  • Learn how I generated at least $48K in Affiliate sales in 1 year and most of it from 1 video on my YouTube channel

  • How To make partnerships successful for both You and the YouTuber

  • Learn to compete with larger corporations to get placements on YouTube channels

  • Learn tips for getting the most out of a youtube promo

Hi, VideoHive Authors! It’s been about 3 years since I actively promoted any VideoHive item on my YouTube channel. Emile and Nick on the affiliates team have convinced me to start promoting VideoHive items again.

So I’m going to test it out with ~12 videos over 90 days starting in August.

To kick it off I thought I’d give you some tips for promoting products on YouTube based on my experience running a Youtube Channel with 312K subscribers and a cleaned email list of 27K videographers.

Back in 2018 I generated AT LEAST $48,211 in Affiliate Sales for VideoHive authors….more than 90% was for one author.

I say at least $48,211 because the Envato Affiliate program doesn’t give you insight into repeat customers. So if someone had purchased anything from Envato prior to seeing my video, then clicked my affiliate link and purchased an item, I would have no insight into that.

So assume the numbers are higher if repeat sales were included. Emile…wink twice if the repeat sale was enough to buy a Tesla :wink: :wink:

I started promoting Envato a few months before the move to Impact Radius. We’ll have to use the old system and the new Impact affiliate platform to review the 1 year results.

Let’s get into the numbers!

In the old system it shows my payouts for early 2018. So take my payouts between Jan 2018 - April 2018 of $8,449 and divide it by .30 to get a gross revenue of $28,163.37.

Now onto the shiny new system :clap:t5:

Impact Radius says that between May 2018 - Dec 2018 I generated $20,048.11 in Sales for VH authors.

If you add both numbers ($28,163.37 + $20,048) that means at minimum I generated $48,211 in gross revenue for VH authors in 2018. That equals $33,747.70 in money directly to authors if they were earning 70% of the sale.

Pretty sure that’s enough to buy a used Tesla Model 3 :clap:t5: :clap:t5: :clap:t5:.

Again, This Does Not Include Sales From Customers Who Purchased ANY Item from Envato Before Clicking My Link. This Revenue Is From New Customers Only!

90% of the revenue I generated for VH authors in 2018 came from this video which became what I call a “marathoner”

You see most Youtube Videos have a short burst of views and then fade off. I call these videos sprinters. Here is an example from my channel:

But other videos have that sudden burst of views and then…20, 60, even 90 days later….you see them pick up steam and consistently hit or exceed their initial burst numbers each day. Here is an example of that from my channel:

Marathoner videos are great for consistent sales if you use them to show the value and utility of the product or service in your tutorial.

The video I made to promote Handy Seamless Transitions (now Videolancer Transitions) had over 200K views in the first year and A LOT of clicks.

Let’s Dive Deeper Into The Winning Formula

I have a teacher on my channel that has one video generating 75 - 90 sales a month of an item he sells independently. It’s been doing this for many many months with no end in sight.

The video takes an evergreen concept in videography and marries it with a tutorial showing the value and utility of his item.

If you’re going to have a YouTuber promote your item make sure they do not:

  • Limit the promo to a 30 - 60 second shout out and that’s it

  • Or Simply review your item (This is lazy, but somewhat effective).

Make sure YouTubers YOU WORK WITH promoting your item(s) do the following:

  • Use your item as the centerpiece of educational content. Example, if your product is a transition pack, have the Youtuber create a tutorial on “How To Edit A Travel Vlog” in which they repeatedly use your item for the transitions between clips. This reinforces the value and utility of your product through a PRACTICAL demonstration.

  • If possible, pay the YouTuber to have a free project file that goes along with the video. Here’s the kicker. The project file uses elements from your item and the viewer needs to purchase your item to take full advantage of the project file. That’s what I did with the handy seamless transitions pack…

  • Make sure the Youtuber is an Envato affiliate and they use their affiliate link to drive traffic (no, Emile did not pay me to say this, but he should). This will increase their earnings from working with you and increase the likelihood of them doing another video on their own. And tbh, if the affiliate generates any meaningful sales numbers Emile and/or Nick will likely be hounding them to keep promoting. Hopefully it doesn’t take 3 years for them to promote items again (story of my life)

  • Make sure the video idea is based on something that has medium to high search volume and is evergreen. This gives it the best chance to succeed long-term. If the YouTuber isn’t doing this research for you, you’re going to limit the ROI on your investment unless they have a massive channel or luck out by accidentally choosing a topic people are interested in.

  • You want the YouTuber to promote the video on their instagram (story swipe up) and to their email list (if they have one), etc.

Now this is about 20 - 25 hours of work for most Youtubers. While all of this won’t guarantee success it will give you both the best chance at getting what you both want which is a video that is sending sales every day for more than a week, and generating on-going revenue for you both.

By the way, the larger the channel the less the stuff above matters. If Mr. Beast gives you a 60 second shout out you will sell enough transition packs to buy a house next to Jeff Bezos. Whereas with a channel my size you’ll need to do all the above to have a good shot at earning enough to buy a VERY used Tesla Model 3.

Channel size changes the rules a bit…

Paying for Promotion

The corporations in this space are willing to pay well.

It’s amazing. Not going to lie, but you can compete!

In the past 10 months and in the middle of COVID, I’ve had a full on ad campaign with ASUS (film crew, rented location, the works), a campaign with MSI, a campaign with Storyblocks, did a 5 video campaign with Adobe, and just finished talking with “not Envato” about an August paid video + affiliate deal for their service. There is no shortage of companies in our space looking to work with YouTubers.

But YOU can still compete and land placements with YouTubers

So how do you compete when trying to get extra promo for your item?

  • Make the email personal. Most large companies automate these emails. Mass emails only work if you have an @adobe @envato, or similar email address.

  • Be great at follow-up

  • Be persistent. Send follow-up emails each week for the first 3 weeks.

  • Respond within 24 hours or 2 business days to any emails. I’ve sent emails to VH AND Elements authors about partnering so we could both earn enough money to buy our parent’s matching Range Rovers. Unfortunately none replied :man_facepalming:t5: Wondering if that email feature on your authors page is broken :thinking:

  • Send messages via Instagram DM. Employees at large corporations rarely use their personal instagram for work. Which makes sense since they probably hide what’s on their from their boss and definitely don’t want partners like me seeing stories of their weekend debauchery. Depending on the size of the account this probably has a higher rate of being read than a cold email. I read close to 100% of the Instagram DM’s I get.

  • Be willing to let us be creative. The thing about working with larger corporations is their inability to be flexible. The number of revisions XXXXXX XXXXXX asked for made my head :exploding_head:. Knowing that you aren’t going to ask for 12 revisions on a video and you’re giving full creative control to the YouTuber means you don’t have to pay what the large players pay. Gently remind the YouTuber of this during your communication with them when discussing rates.

  • Have a great item! Can’t stress this enough. Fortunately, if your item is on VideoHive there is a high-probability it’s at the very least good!

  • Look for creative ways to partner. Discounts, contests, giveaways, etc. Be flexible here.

I hope this helps!

If you’re interested in working with me to promote your items on my YouTube channel you can fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/xNztF49iCkhjdyoy5

Like I said, a few videos over the next 90 days. After that we’ll see what happens.

All the Best!

6 Likes

Is this valid only for Videohive authors?

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No, this information is valid for any niche. I just used VideoHive as an example because I have real experience there.

But you will significantly increase your chance of success if you have an evergreen tutorial where your item is instrumental in solving a problem, and there are multiple instances of the YouTuber demonstrating the item’s utility to reinforce the value.

3 Likes

Inspiring stuff here Josh :muscle:

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Great post @jenobakhare - thanks for sharing it here!

Love the distinction between “sprinter” and “marathoner” content - those are some incredible results from evergreen videos. There’s a lot of potential for any author selling flexible, powerful items to articulate how their item solves an ongoing customer problem - video transition packs, multipurpose website themes etc.

I look forward to seeing your results from the August batch of videos!

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