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Affiliate Marketing

What is it - and is it worth it for student-athletes?

You may (or may not) have heard of the phrase ‘affiliate marketing’.

What is affiliate marketing, you may ask?

Affiliate marketing is defined as: “A marketing arrangement by which an online retailer pays commission to an external website for traffic or sales generated from its referrals.”

Essentially: A person promotes a product or service (generally with a unique code), that person’s audience makes a purchase from viewing and clicking on the content, and said person makes a commission from products sold.

Pretty straightforward, right?

Yup.

However, is this viable for student-athletes to pursue affiliate marketing partnerships?

The Verdict

• Most oftentimes, no

  • The main reason is simply student-athletes don’t sell enough products to make this worth it for them. (No disrespect to any student-athletes, but it’s a combination of effort by the student-athlete and how engaged their audience is in wanting to purchase said products.)

  • The commission amounts are generally very small as well.

    • For example: If a company sells a $50 product, athlete provides a code (ex.: LISA10 to save 10% on your purchase) to their audience, then the brand pays a small percentage (typically 5-10%) for each product sold. So for selling one $50 item, the athlete will typically make ~$2-4.

      • Additionally, while some brands payout creators every 30 days, other brands only pay when you reach a certain threshold of commission. (ie., $50 - meaning in this case, you need to sell 12-25 items before receiving compensation.)

  • This mainly benefits the brand moreso than the athlete

    • The brand is in business to make money (and rightfully so).

    • However, numerous brands will opt out of paying athletes upfront cash and push affiliate marketing in order for athletes to market for them while said brand rakes in sales and revenues. (Brands will also offer free products in lieu of cash, which may or may not be worthwhile for the athlete.)

• When should a student-athlete agree to an affiliate marketing deal?

  • If there is an upfront cash payment tied to it.

  • This way, athletes are being compensated for their NIL and will make better efforts to create engaging content and attempt to generate additional money for themselves.

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