Speaker 1: Hello, my name's Santasha Nabananga Bamblet. I'm a proud yor
Speaker 1: the Order Kerni Whaltbury and a waddery woman. And before
Speaker 1: we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I
Speaker 1: would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
Speaker 1: of which this podcast is recorded on a wondery country,
Speaker 1: acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming
Speaker 1: through as this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing
Speaker 1: and the storytelling of you to make a difference for
Speaker 1: today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: She's on the Money, She's on the Money.
Speaker 3: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcas
Speaker 3: Whiles that helps you dodge the scams, skip the gimmicks,
Speaker 3: and focus.
Speaker 4: On real ways to create your wealth.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Victoria Devine, and if you've been following along,
Speaker 3: you know that I have been on and will continue
Speaker 3: to be on a little bit of a crusade against
Speaker 3: multi level marketing schemes. Yep, those too good to be
Speaker 3: true quote unquote businesses that promise big bugs but usually
Speaker 3: end up only making your upline rich. And since I
Speaker 3: started calling out MLMs. A lot of you have been
Speaker 3: reaching out with questions about affiliate marketing. Is that the
Speaker 3: same thing? Is it legit or is it just another
Speaker 3: scheme dressed up in sleek Instagram stories and seven dollar courses? Well,
Speaker 3: my friends, here is the thing. Affiliate marketing is a real,
Speaker 3: totally legitimate way to earn money by promoting products from
Speaker 3: brands you love. But there are some bad eggs out there,
Speaker 3: especially on social media, that have made affiliate marketing feel, well.
Speaker 4: A little bit sketchy.
Speaker 3: Let's just say there's a side to affiliate market that
Speaker 3: isn't as shiny as the Instagram stories make it seem,
Speaker 3: and we'll get into that a little bit later.
Speaker 4: Today we're going to be diving into.
Speaker 3: What real affiliate marketing actually looks like, and then after
Speaker 3: the break, I'm going to reveal some red flags to
Speaker 3: watch for in those social media courses that don't always
Speaker 3: live up to the hype. If you're ready to sort
Speaker 3: the real from the red flags, lets my friends get
Speaker 3: into it all right, Let's get down to basics and
Speaker 3: start from the very start.
Speaker 4: What is affiliate marketing really?
Speaker 3: At its core, affiliate marketing is a way to earn
Speaker 3: commission by promoting products or services.
Speaker 4: So think of it like this.
Speaker 3: You're recommending a product to a friend, but instead of
Speaker 3: just giving them a heads up, you're getting a special
Speaker 3: link to track the sale, and if they buy it,
Speaker 3: you get a cut. It's a way for companies to
Speaker 3: reach more customers through people who genuinely like and use
Speaker 3: their products, and for the affiliate it's a pretty handy
Speaker 3: side huzzle. You've probably seen a lot of your favorite
Speaker 3: influences using platforms like lack to Know It or who
Speaker 3: What Where and their affiliate marketing platforms.
Speaker 4: It can be a little.
Speaker 3: Bit strange when you see your favorite influencers saying, oh
Speaker 3: my gosh, the skirt that I'm wearing is linked here,
Speaker 3: and you're kind of thinking, well, I wish you would
Speaker 3: just tell me the brand of the skirt. But the
Speaker 3: reality is, if you are wanting to click on that
Speaker 3: link because they've essentially influenced you to purchase the product
Speaker 3: or even just look at the product, I think they
Speaker 3: deserve a cut. After all, they have influenced you, and
Speaker 3: if you're purchasing a product because of them, I think
Speaker 3: they deserve a bit of the cut. They've done a
Speaker 3: lot of the marketing work right. So typically it works
Speaker 3: like this. You sign up for an affiliate program with
Speaker 3: a big platform or a big brand. There are big
Speaker 3: names like Amazon and Lulu, Lemon, and even airlines that
Speaker 3: offer these programs. So once you're in, what will happen
Speaker 3: is you'll get a unique code or a link that's
Speaker 3: tied to your personal account, and when someone clicks that
Speaker 3: link and makes a purchase, you get to earn a
Speaker 3: percentage of that sale. That percentage is going to vary greatly,
Speaker 3: but usually it's between like five and twenty percent, depending
Speaker 3: on the brand and the.
Speaker 4: Type of product.
Speaker 3: And the best part, you can get started without any
Speaker 3: upfront costs, So most legitimate affiliate programs don't require you
Speaker 3: to pay any money to join them. Instead, they're betting
Speaker 3: that you're going to have some genuine recommendations that will
Speaker 3: bring them business. So the only way for you to
Speaker 3: make money is if you do and vice versa, right,
Speaker 3: because if you're signing up to an affiliate platform and
Speaker 3: sharing products that nobody's interested in, nobody's going to be
Speaker 3: making money. Some of the most popular places for affiliates
Speaker 3: to share their links so obviously Instagram, stories, blogs, YouTube
Speaker 3: channels literally all over social media and even in email newsletters.
Speaker 3: The key here is that you're genuinely recommending a product
Speaker 3: or service that you think your audience is going to
Speaker 3: benefit from. You're not actually pushing a membership or a
Speaker 3: subscription to join the affiliate program itself, right, And at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, if they look at the
Speaker 3: product and don't purchase, nobody is in a worse off position. Also,
Speaker 3: there aren't quotas to be met and things that you
Speaker 3: need to do in order to participate. Brands aren't saying
Speaker 3: you have to share this link this many times this month,
Speaker 3: and if only one person purchases, you're not getting paid.
Speaker 3: You get paid every single time it converts. And that's
Speaker 3: why for big influences and people on social media, makes
Speaker 3: a lot of sense, but they also make a lot
Speaker 3: of money. But for smaller creators often affiliate links are
Speaker 3: only going to bring in a few dollars here and there.
Speaker 3: Sounds pretty straightforward, right.
Speaker 4: That's because when.
Speaker 3: It's done correctly, affiliate marketing is really straightforward, really ethical,
Speaker 3: and makes a lot of sense. You're helping people find
Speaker 3: really good products and you're getting a small thank you
Speaker 3: commission in return. In this space, I don't believe there's
Speaker 3: any shame in you collecting a commission for the marketing
Speaker 3: that you've done on behalf of that brand. But here's
Speaker 3: the thing, right, there's I would say, there's a bit
Speaker 3: of a dark side to affiliate marketing on social media
Speaker 3: that's catching a lot of you off guard.
Speaker 4: It's why a lot of.
Speaker 3: You are asking me, is a filing marketing VI a scam?
Speaker 3: It looks really shiny, but behind the flashy promises and
Speaker 3: influencer success stories, some of these so called like affiliate
Speaker 3: opportunities are hiding something really sketchy. After the break, we're
Speaker 3: going to dive into the red flags that you need
Speaker 3: to watch out for so you don't get pulled into
Speaker 3: a side hustle that's more of a scam than a success.
Speaker 3: So stick around because I don't think you're going to
Speaker 3: want to miss this. My friends, we are back, so
Speaker 3: let's start talking about the darker side of affiliate marketing.
Speaker 3: Because before the break, we determined that affiliate marketing just
Speaker 3: makes sense. Right, this darker side of affiliate marketing seems
Speaker 3: to be spreading all over social media. Now by now
Speaker 3: you should know the basics. Real affiliate marketing is very straightforward.
Speaker 3: It's focused on promoting actual products from reputable brands. It's
Speaker 3: typically free to join, and if you're recommending products that
Speaker 3: aren't of interest to anybody, you're not making any money.
Speaker 3: But there's this whole other side to the that's making
Speaker 3: waves on TikTok and Instagram and beyond. To be honest,
Speaker 3: I just live on TikTok and Instagram where certain quote
Speaker 3: affiliate programs are advertised as the fast track way to
Speaker 3: financial freedom, and you and I both know that that's
Speaker 3: going to give me the ick immediately. They say things
Speaker 3: like all you need is your phone, a laptop, Wi
Speaker 3: Fi and one to three hours a day. They say,
Speaker 3: but instead of teaching you to promote products, they're more
Speaker 3: interested in getting you to buy their course.
Speaker 4: Right ick.
Speaker 3: One example of this that keeps popping up in the
Speaker 3: news is Legendary Marketer. You can look them up later
Speaker 3: and it's a perfect case study on how these schemes work.
Speaker 3: Right So, according to a report from NBC News, Legendary
Speaker 3: Marketer starts with a hook that's pretty hard to resist.
Speaker 3: A super low cost entry like a seven dollars fifteen
Speaker 3: day challenge that advertises as your first step into a
Speaker 3: side hustle that could eventually make you millions of dollars.
Speaker 3: Right at first glance, it sounds like pretty low rech.
Speaker 3: I mean it's only seven bucks and like a total win,
Speaker 3: just seven dollars, and you get to learn the ropes
Speaker 3: of affiliate marketing, right I just taught you in the
Speaker 3: first half of this episode. But moving on, after a
Speaker 3: few days, things start to shift. Suddenly you're introduced to
Speaker 3: a new coach who's pitching their business blueprint package. Right,
Speaker 3: it's a hefty twenty five hundred bucks. They frame it
Speaker 3: as absolutely essential if you're in the business for making money,
Speaker 3: and they turn up the pressure to invest in yourself.
Speaker 3: It's so important. But here's the catch. When someone buys
Speaker 3: that twenty five hundred dollar package, the person who originally
Speaker 3: referred to them gets a big cut. It's usually around
Speaker 3: one thousand dollars. So when you see those influencer or
Speaker 3: TikTok personalities saying that they're making bank with affiliate marketing
Speaker 3: in New could too, and they're calling themselves digital marketers,
Speaker 3: all thanks to them taking a chance on a seven
Speaker 3: dollar course. It's not from promoting everyday products like U
Speaker 3: Lululemon tights that you love or address that you wore
Speaker 3: to the races, and you linked it so that other
Speaker 3: people could buy it because you looked really cute in it.
Speaker 3: Their income actually comes from recruiting others to buy these
Speaker 3: high ticket up cells. It's giving multi level marketing and
Speaker 3: what's taught to these new recruits as the way to
Speaker 3: make big money. Well, of course it's selling the course
Speaker 3: to get more people, who are then encouraged to recruit
Speaker 3: others themselves to rinse and repeat. So what are you
Speaker 3: hinter watch out for. Apparently everything in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: But how do you actually spot when a program is
Speaker 3: more about getting you to spend than actually setting you
Speaker 3: up for success because so many of you might actually go.
Speaker 3: But v investing twenty five hundred dollars in a coach
Speaker 3: makes a lot of sense for me. So here are
Speaker 3: some key affiliate marketing course red flags.
Speaker 4: That I have highlighted.
Speaker 3: All right, So the first one is a low cost
Speaker 3: bait to hook you in, so that initial really low priced,
Speaker 3: so like seven bucks. It's a classic baiting tactic. It's
Speaker 3: low enough to feel like really risk free. I mean
Speaker 3: seven dollars these days is basically an oat latte right,
Speaker 3: and they lower your guard. But the real intention is
Speaker 3: to get you in the door and then get you
Speaker 3: ready to be able to be upsold to.
Speaker 4: And this low cost.
Speaker 3: Entry kind of acts like a gateway because once you're inside,
Speaker 3: the real pitch begins with essential upgrades that cost hundreds
Speaker 3: and even thousands of dollars, and that is giving massive
Speaker 3: red flag energy. The next is the high pressure up
Speaker 3: cell midway through. So you've gotten in and you're doing
Speaker 3: this course and you're like, this is some money win.
Speaker 3: It's seven bucks, this is fantastic, and then the course
Speaker 3: it pivots suddenly a coach or a mentor ap who's
Speaker 3: basically out of nowhere, emphasizing that to truly succeed in
Speaker 3: this world and with what you're destined to do, you
Speaker 3: need to buy their business blueprint that costs thousands. This
Speaker 3: up cell is framed as the key to making a
Speaker 3: big like you can't make a big without this, adding
Speaker 3: pressure to invest far beyond that original seven dollar latte price.
Speaker 3: The next red flag is they focus on recruitment instead
Speaker 3: of real products. We talked about this in the multi
Speaker 3: level Marketing episode. So many of the women who are
Speaker 3: involved in multi level marketing if you just do a
Speaker 3: little bit of an audit of their posts, more often
Speaker 3: than not, they're talking about this incredible opportunity joining the business.
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, there's two spots in my downline that
Speaker 3: you could join. Like, they're not really talking about the
Speaker 3: value of the product, and to me, that's a massive
Speaker 3: red flag. Genuine affiliate marketing is all about promoting an
Speaker 3: actual product or service. They're not going, oh, join a
Speaker 3: course you could learn about this. Like, affiliate marketing is very,
Speaker 3: very simple. They signed up to a website, they got
Speaker 3: a code, and if you buy the leggings that they
Speaker 3: are talking about, they're going to make a cut. So
Speaker 3: they might talk about the leggings all the time, but
Speaker 3: in that interaction, you as the consumer, you're not misled
Speaker 3: about what purchasing is. You might be feeling a little
Speaker 3: bit misled because you're like ve, I didn't know that
Speaker 3: because my favorite influencer was promoting the leggings so often
Speaker 3: it was because they were getting paid. That's a different
Speaker 3: front story. I'm very much on the page of influencers
Speaker 3: getting paid for their recommendations because at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, that's part of the marketing wheel. But it
Speaker 3: is very transparent what you're getting. At the end of
Speaker 3: the day, if you purchase, you will receive the leggings
Speaker 3: in the mail, right Like, that's it. But these programs, however,
Speaker 3: lean really heavily on getting you to recruit others into
Speaker 3: the same course, and the income structure is built on
Speaker 3: upselling new members rather than helping you to promote a
Speaker 3: range of real products that arguably everyone would want. The
Speaker 3: next red flag I've got listed down is vague earning
Speaker 3: claims and misleading success stories. So the promoters of these
Speaker 3: courses often going to showcase really impressive earnings, same as
Speaker 3: multi level marketing people.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: I saw so much content online the other week about
Speaker 3: people saying, oh, yes, but there are twenty two millionaires
Speaker 3: that have been created in Australia because of this business.
Speaker 3: Yeah great, but there's also twenty two thousand of you
Speaker 3: doing that. Numbers don't stack up. Those numbers are not impressive.
Speaker 3: But these promoters of these courses are going to often
Speaker 3: showcase super impressive earnings or talk about the freedom that
Speaker 3: they've achieved, but they're usually really vague on how they're
Speaker 3: actually making that money. They might imply that their income
Speaker 3: comes from traditional affiliate marketing, sometimes even claiming it's from
Speaker 3: a separate account or a product link that they never
Speaker 3: clearly reveal. In reality, most of their income comes from
Speaker 3: recruiting others into the same course and upselling them on
Speaker 3: really expensive packaging.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, influencers.
Speaker 3: Who are really promoting and making money through affiliate marketing,
Speaker 3: they're not really talking about it, and they're not talking
Speaker 3: about it, not because they're not transparent. Influencers who are
Speaker 3: using affiliate marketing know that the reason affiliate marketing works
Speaker 3: for them is because they have a very large and
Speaker 3: engaged audience. They know that this isn't something that anybody
Speaker 3: could get into. I mean you could. You could sign
Speaker 3: up for a fe eli marketing platforms and start promoting
Speaker 3: the leggings or the dress or the shoes or whatever
Speaker 3: fashion you've got. And I mean, if you're doing fashion content,
Speaker 3: that makes a lot of sense because a few dollars
Speaker 3: here and there do add up. But if an influencer
Speaker 3: is making bank through their affiliate links, it's very unlikely
Speaker 3: that they are going to be talking about it because
Speaker 3: they know it's not easily obtainable for the average Instagram user.
Speaker 4: Right if you're.
Speaker 3: Finding it really hard to tell what products they're promoting.
Speaker 3: So if a company is really like a bit wishy washy,
Speaker 3: or what they're promoting or the details about their earnings
Speaker 3: seem a little bit unclear or like overly broad, to me,
Speaker 3: that's a very strong indicator. The recruitment, not general affiliate
Speaker 3: product sales are at the core of their business model.
Speaker 3: So you're asking me Va, what's the bottom line? As always,
Speaker 3: I need you to do that. Is it too good
Speaker 3: to be true?
Speaker 5: Test?
Speaker 3: If something promises to turn you into a millionaire working
Speaker 3: just a couple of hours a day, or claims that
Speaker 3: you'll achieve financial freedom with zero experience or effort, it's
Speaker 3: probably time to pause and think critically. Quick and easy
Speaker 3: paths to wealth are very rare, and programs that overseell
Speaker 3: simplicity are often masking what's really involved. Before you decide
Speaker 3: to dive into any course, take a few minutes to
Speaker 3: google the course name along with the word scam and
Speaker 3: see what comes up. Scanning through real people's experiences can
Speaker 3: reveal a lot about what's behind the flashy marketing works
Speaker 3: with multi level marketing as well. My friends also very
Speaker 3: spicy good for a drink on a Friday Nash. Are
Speaker 3: there consistent complaints about these high precial sales tactics? Do
Speaker 3: people mention unexpected up cells or maybe like some hidden costs.
Speaker 3: Seeing these patterns is going to be able to help
Speaker 3: you spot red flags early and avoid the trap of
Speaker 3: spending more than you'd planned, or even.
Speaker 4: Being sold a dream.
Speaker 3: If the main pitch is less about promoting real products
Speaker 3: and more focused on recruiting others into the program, to me,
Speaker 3: that's a definite red flag. When the emphasis shifts from
Speaker 3: actual product promotion to recruitment, it signals a structure where
Speaker 3: the real money comes from getting other people to join,
Speaker 3: not from genuine affiliate commissions. It's never about the product
Speaker 3: in that situation. This recruitment based model is often a
Speaker 3: warning sign that you're dealing with a scheme that has
Speaker 3: a lot more in common with a multi level marketing
Speaker 3: company or MLM than legitimate affiliate marketing. Right, my friend,
Speaker 3: if you enjoyed this episode, because I'm done now and
Speaker 3: one more content that keeps you one step ahead of
Speaker 3: the latest money scams, make sure that you are subscribed
Speaker 3: to She's on the Money, And if you want to
Speaker 3: see what else I'm exposing in the world of scams
Speaker 3: and multi level marketing and get rich quick schemes.
Speaker 4: You probably should be following me on my personal.
Speaker 3: Instagram, which is Victoria Underscore Divine and I think you'll
Speaker 3: be shocked at what I'm finding and sharing.
Speaker 4: Have a good weekend, guys.
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