Affiliate Marketing for Dancers - Build a Profitable Side Gig
On vacation with my family while passive income was flowing into my biz!
Heads up: This post contains affiliate links. If you click and purchase, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.
As a former professional dancer, I worked crazy hours. I would be at the studio by 8:30 am for rehearsals and wouldn’t leave until 9 pm at night after I finished teaching. I loved my work, but it wasn’t sustainable.
As a dancer, I had been conditioned to idolize the hustle. I romanticized the idea of being a starving artist, barely scraping by in the name of pursuing my passion. It wasn’t until I left the world of professional dance that I began to see how harmful that narrative had been.
As I transitioned from my life as a pro dancer and started thinking about becoming a mom, I knew that I wanted a different lifestyle. I wanted to build something that would allow me to have both time and financial freedom as a parent. I wanted the flexibility to be home with my kids while contributing to my family income and filling my personal cup by staying involved in the dance industry.
In January 2019, I began researching everything I could learn about building passive income. And that’s where the idea for The Brainy Ballerina® came to me - a company providing printable resources for dancers and dance teachers. A product that had the potential to give me the time and financial freedom I so desired.
My business has grown considerably since that day four years ago and I’ve now incorporated four different passive income streams into my business. One of these is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is the process by which an affiliate earns a commission for marketing another person's or company's products. This is a great option for dancers or dance business owners like yourself to earn extra income so you can get back to focusing on what you truly love! Curious how you can get started? Here are three ways I earn affiliate income through my business:
Amazon Storefront
You can set up a storefront through the Amazon Influencer Program and direct people to the site. This is great for anyone who is continuously recommending the same products to their community. For instance, a studio owner could set up an Amazon storefront with all the recommended products their students use and send them out to families at the beginning of the season. A dancer could set up a storefront with their favorite products to use in the studio, theatre, for auditions, etc.
I use my Amazon Storefront to share all of the book picks for The Brainy Ballerina Book Club, plus all of my favorite products for dancers, everything from athletic wear to beauty favs to my dance bag must-haves!
LTK Creator
If you want to share individual links (for instance, on your IG story), LIKEtoKNOW.it is a great way to go. You can create links for specific products from a broad spectrum of companies and share them with your community.
You can also use the app as another form of social media. Simply set up your storefront and share posts with your followers of all your favorite products with the products directly tagged. Anytime someone purchases a product from your link, you’ll receive a kickback!
Any product you use and love!
Before recommending any product check to see if they have an affiliate program! You would be shocked how many companies will pay you to promote their product.
I’m currently an affiliate partner for brands such as Apolla Shocks (the best socks of all time), Kizik (my absolute favorite shoes), Bonfire (amazing customizable merch), and Constant Contact (I literally use this every day to run my business).
These are fairly larger businesses, but even smaller creators you know and love may offer affiliate kickbacks! For instance, I’m an affiliate for my colleagues at Danscend, sharing their incredible mental health resources for dance educators.
If you have a product you want to recommend, check their website to see if they accept affiliates! If so, submit an application, and once approved you’re good to go! Many of the affiliate programs I’m a part of even offer discounts to my community, which is an amazing extra perk!
Just remember: you have to disclose when you are an affiliate and may benefit financially from a purchase! (See my disclaimer at the top of this blog post for an example!)
This is just one of four ways I use to generate passive income in my business. By setting up multiple passive income streams, I have been able to design a business that continues to earn income while on vacation, spending time with my family, on maternity leave, taking and teaching dance classes…even sleeping!
Meet the Author
Caitlin Sloan is a Dance Educator and Career Mentor based in Madison, WI.
Caitlin received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Grand Valley State University and Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Missouri.
She danced professionally for nine years with companies including Ballet Tucson and Missouri Contemporary Ballet (now Mareck Dance). Caitlin has taught at schools all over the Midwest, most notably serving as Director of The School of Missouri Contemporary Ballet and Youth Company Director for Central Indiana Dance Ensemble. She is currently on faculty at the School of Madison Ballet.
Caitlin founded The Brainy Ballerina® in 2019, a virtual resource providing support and guidance for aspiring ballet dancers. Follow @thebrainyballerina on Instagram for your daily dose of dance career guidance and inspiration.
If you liked this post, you might also like:
