Affiliate Influencers and Super Affiliates: Who Are They? [+ REAL STORIES]
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Influencers are those who determine the motion in every niche, and affiliate marketing is not an exclusion. If you are an aspiring media buyer, brand owner, or marketer, you must be familiar with the well-known personas of the industry – influencers and super affiliates.
You must know them from forums, blogs, and social media. They share expertise, give advice, and simply bask in glory. Some of you just want to follow them online, while others dream of becoming an influencer, too.
Who are they? Where to find them? What do they think about their stellar position?
We have contacted a couple of really influential people in the affiliate marketing industry, asked some questions, and prepared a worthy motivational material for you.
Is there a difference between affiliate influencers and super affiliates?
In general, these two categories of internet stars may coincide, which means that an affiliate marketing influencer can also be a super affiliate. The core difference is:
Super affiliates are about incredible income and a highly-professional approach to advertising. These are people who make money. Big money. However, not all of them care about their online presence and eagerly share their experience and cases.
Influencers usually can boast of great profits, as well. Still, what makes them influencers is publicity: social media presence, blog posting, active participation in thematic events, etc.
Affiliate marketing influencers and their stories: did they leap to fame overnight?
We have interviewed affiliate marketing influencers to give you a glimpse into their stories and grasp some interesting thoughts from their experience.
iAmAttila, an affiliate marketing influencer and 7 figure super affiliate:
- How did you become an influencer?
Well, in 2012, when SEO died, I had no choice but to figure out the next best thing, and thus I was left with pay-per-click advertising. It was a steep learning curve. As I started learning, I realized I needed to take a lot of notes, and my blog, attila.com, became my notepad.
What I did not expect was that thousands of people would start reading my blog every single day. At its peak, I had over 150,000 visitors each month.
Over time, this is how I became an influencer. People started doing interviews and asking me to speak at conferences, and my brand grew from there.
- What are the pros and cons of being an influencer?
Well, one of the biggest cons of being an influencer is that other marketers believe that if they tell you something, you are going to “out” it. While this may be true for fake gurus who make money by selling courses, for someone like me who actually walks the talk, it is extremely offensive.
One of the pros of being an influencer is being invited to a lot of exclusive events and private masterminds where you get to meet people from all over the world.
Another big perk is that you usually get a lot of things for free, such as tools, memberships, and conference tickets. But it’s similar in every industry if you have a following.
- Any advice for those who strive to become an affiliate marketing influencer?
If I had to give some tips on how to become an influencer in the affiliate marketing world, I would suggest starting a TikTok, YouTube, or blog where you share a lot of value without expecting anything in return. If people like the information you’re sharing and find value in it, they are going to share it with their friends, and your name or brand will grow, along with your follower count.
Emmanuel Cinca, Founder of Stacked Marketer and Entrepreneur:
- How did you become an influencer?
The plan was not really to be an influencer, but the plan was that our Stacked Marketer newsletter is influential.
So, I wouldn’t call myself personally an influencer, but I do think our newsletter has a good impact in our industry.
- What are the pros and cons of being an influencer?
I think two big cons are having less privacy and feeling like you always have to create content. It’s kind of like a hamster wheel, and it can become a trap.
But there are certainly pros to it too. When it comes to future business, you have an easier time testing concepts because you don’t always need to run paid traffic – you have an audience who will give you feedback quickly.
That’s probably the biggest pro.
- Any advice for those who strive to become an affiliate marketing influencer?
Consistency. You have to share content consistently to gain an audience. Whether you do that on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, in a newsletter, on TikTok, or another place matters less. If you have the time to tailor content for each, that’s probably even better.
But the main tip is that you have to consistently deliver practical content for your target audience.
Luke Kling, an affiliate marketing influencer, founder of the AffLift forum:
- How did you become an influencer?
I did not intentionally become an influencer, but I do remember when I realized I was one. I was at Affiliate Summit (an affiliate marketing conference), and I had around 5 people come up to me over the course of about an hour and say they knew who I was because of my blog. It was kind of surreal.
My affiliate marketing blog had gained quite a readership, but it didn’t dawn on me how powerful that was until I was at the conference, and people recognized me and wanted to talk to me because of it.
So, I suppose I became an influencer because of my old blog, and I’ve carried that into growing my affiliate marketing forum and maintaining being an authority in our space 🙂
- What are the pros and cons of being an influencer?
Being an influencer is great in many ways. I was able to successfully launch affLIFT primarily due to the fact that people trusted me and knew I was knowledgeable about affiliate marketing. Over the years, I’ve been able to make a lot of money (and help a lot of people) from being an influencer.
However, just like anything else, there is definitely a downside. The biggest one to me is not being able to manage people’s expectations. New people to the affiliate space think they’re a few weeks away from buying a Lamborghini and they assume that I’m going to be able to help them make that happen.
First off, you don’t need a Lamborghini. So, let’s talk about how we can start making small improvements in the right direction 🙂
- Any advice for those who strive to become an affiliate marketing influencer?
The only reason anyone wants to listen to what you have to say is because you’ve shown them that you know what you are talking about. So, it is important to be transparent about what you don’t know.
Also, people are going to use your advice and fail. Then, they’re going to let you know. Everyone fails at some point.
Hopefully, both you and people you are influencing will learn from your failures. Don’t take it too personally.
Josh Sebo, an affiliate marketing influencer, COO OfferVault:
- How did you become an influencer?
I didn’t even know I was an influencer! Lol. I guess I would say, just focus on delivering value to your audience, and with enough time, becoming an influencer kind of naturally happens on its own.
- What are the pros and cons of being an influencer?
The pro is that you have people looking to you for advice. The con is that you have people looking to you for advice. 😉
- Any advice for those who strive to become an affiliate marketing influencer?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. As long as you’re learning from your failures, you’ll always continue to improve! Focus on helping other people and adding value to their lives. The rest will take care of itself.
Instead of conclusion
As you can see, none of the influencers we interviewed had any plans to become stars of the affiliate marketing world when they just started. They were doing something they are really passionate about with no fear to experiment and make mistakes. Let these inspiring comments motivate you to move further and… Who knows, maybe you will become the next influencer?
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