You might have heard of Jason “The Metal Jesus” Levine.
He’s a Seattle rocker who worked at the now-defunct Sierra video game company in the nineties and was featured in one of their FMV graphic adventure titles. His music style runs the eighties and nineties metal scene. He happily defends Stryper, even though the band doesn’t require much defending, and his affinity for Dream Theater is noteworthy (even if they outclass Iron Maiden’s head-up-the-ass antics).
Jason’s schtick on YouTube is collecting and promoting video games. He’s not fond of Umbrella Corps anymore than his wife is considerate towards E.T. on the 2600. Since Seattle is a ground-zero for video game development companies (Nintendo of America moved its offices from New York City to Seattle, just so you know) and there’s a massive tech scene where people can easily salvage classic hardware and software still in fair condition, Jason collaborates with several personalities there.
“The Radical One” is the channel for Radical Reggie, an armed forces veteran and total Play-Station weeb; he chats with Jason on their collection finds. Nobody can forget Kelsey Lewin, perhaps the other major face of the scene who owns and runs a shop for video game curio and stands as the most level-headed one until you wave a WonderSwan before her eyes. “The Immortal” John Hancock, a school guidance counselor by trade, has a channel of his own, too.
There have been many others that have come and gone over the years but, of this group, Of the group, however, John Riggs, a family man with an adorably Sausage-Teeth Cal-Art YouTube channel avatar, is the most underrated. With 1,900 videos and climbing since 2014, John has maintained a considerable work ethic and stands as a pinnacle of inspiration and aspiration despite looking like a chunky beta.
Why? Because he’s an affiliate marketer, and a good one at that. He makes sure to disclose what’s a link and what’s not, for instance. But, he tends to look down on the Amazon affiliate conversion rate. I don’t quite blame him, but we all start somewhere. He noted that he gets a trio of pennies per minor purchase:
Despite the wide difference between our experience points, John, let me offer some advice. Conversion rates for Amazon, Wal-Mart, Target, etc., are low (approximately 1-3%) because they expect redirected clients to purchase other items in passing, possibly in bulk, upon seeing other things they might need. To be fair, if your target nice audience viewers follow your link, they often buy other things.
Since you directed them to the big boy that can afford to nickel-and-dime affiliates, you’ll be credited with all those finds, even though you get less than quarters per instance. They’re cumulative quarters, though, and you got plenty of visibility that means 1% of the audience (mind you, 10% of those who’ve actually subscribed) will take the hint and act. After all, you make the actual process of restoring console cartridges look easy to pick up despite the admittedly mixed success rate.
Regardless, apply to specific companies and manufacturers of the implements you use. Their manufacturers want you to promote their stuff head-on instead of wasting time and money on billboard advertising that savvy viewers (e.g. your crop of enthusiast viewers) either click past or use programs and apps to circumvent. Since they count on direct and efficient purchases at their storefronts, the typical rate for a specific company with affiliate program often starts at 5% on average, possibly more for high-priced items.
It’s a kind of gambling except you’re not spending cash in excess. Affiliate marketing is a lot more cost-effective for companies at large since they can advertise directly to interested customers, not everyone else all at once. This goes for everyone else who wishes to take up affiliate marketing via authority blogging: apply to specific companies wherever possible!
If you demonstrate prowess in driving traffic to Amazon on regular basis, or have modest, decent metrics on YouTube (which John has), then companies are more than willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. Even if you’re getting a pittance of peanuts with the popular storefronts, it makes sense to have more options available to you. Just don’t give up!
You’ve been around long enough to get a foothold in this biz John, so I see you’re already well-skilled.
Good hunting!