Chinese Medicine Affiliate Programs
Posted on April 21, 2009 by Yael
One of the most amazing things about the Internet is the ability to have passive income.
These days, passive income can come from Google Adsense (one example of many options that are out there), and affiliate programs.
It seems that when it comes to Chinese Medicine, the affiliate program options are very slim- almost close to none.
There are a few programs out there, sure, but I keep wondering why there are just a few and not many programs.
In this post I will try to understand this issue, hoping to reach an answer and maybe help make a change.
Affiliate programs- huh?
As I e-mail with many practitioners around the globe, I find that many don’t know what an affiliate program is.
For the long and detailed version- click here (recommended).
Basically, when you have a website, you can recommend certain products and refer to a certain store to get more information and buy that product. If a person buys the product from your link- you get a certain percentage from that sale. More people buy through your links equals to making more money.
Amazon is a great example for an affiliate program that helped make an on-line store huge. With thousands of people on their affiliate programs, they are a well-known on-line store, with thousands of “sale agents”, that are all over the world, selling their products- baby products, books, CD’s, DVD’s, MP3’s and more.
Chinese Medicine affiliate programs
Looking at Amazon from a Chinese Medicine point of view, we can really only look at books.
Many of the books that are being sold through publications like Redwing, Paradigm Publications and Blue Poppy Press, can be found on Amazon and that’s quite comfortable for me, as an owner of a website or a blog.
But not all books can be found in Amazon, and also, when I promote Chinese Medicine books, I would rather promote the publications I mentioned above and/or other good stores like the JCM on-line store and Chinese Medicine Times on-line store.
There are other items that can be sold through affiliate programs- needles (I would love to promote Seirin needles on my websites!), Chinese herbs, charts, DVD’s, TDP lamps and so on.
On this point, the on-line stores I mentioned above have a clear advantage for someone like me, for example, who writes for practitioners more than to people new to Chinese Medicine- I can promote almost all of their products!
And it’s all being made in a professional environment- for example, if the JCM on-line store had an affiliate program, I could promote books and articles on certain subjects that I’m writing about, I could promote needles, tea, herbs and so on, and maybe I could promote a number of copies of the book A Manual of Acupuncture signed by Peter Deadman!
I am promoting good brands from a reliable proffessional on-line store, and making a passive income through my website. This way, everybody’s happy:
The JCM is happy- their products get mentioned through various links all over the world, my readers are happy- they are being exposed to new products and a good reliable store to buy from, and I’m happy- I have a passive income through my website, and my readers are able to find many things that they are looking for through my website.
Sounds great, right?
Reality check
As I am writing this post, the JCM does not have an affiliate program.
No store that I know of, or a publication for that matter, has an affiliate program. I’ve been looking for a number of years now, and I’m still checking to see if maybe something has changed.
I exchanged a number of e-mails with Lorne Brown over at Pro-D Seminars, asking him how come we don’t have more affiliate programs in Chinese Medicine.
Lorne pointed out that it might have to do with having a business plan that doesn’t include an affiliate program, simply because it is not the standard marketing plan everybody knows.
Affiliate programs are a part of a new marketing plan, that emphesizes the key-role of a website. Maybe one of the reasons then, is that the business plan that does include a website, does not include the various options that having a website these days are available to us.
Signs of change
Things started to change from a different direction, and I am very happy to be a part of that change!
I already told you about Lisa Hanfileti’s e-Book about marketing through a website for practitioners. She has a great affiliate program that is worth joining in. On that note, I also told you about Burton Kent’s Never Market Again e-Book.
These are important on a business level, we must know how to promote our clinic, what are the important things to notice when we build our website for our clinic and how we can make the most out of our websites.
On an educational level, Pro-D Seminars added an affiliate program that you can join.
This of course is great- we can promote post-graduate courses through our websites, get paid for it and contribute to our readers in their way to becoming better practitioners.
Final thoughts
I think Lorne is right, but I also think there’s a basic mis-understanding of the conecpt of affiliate programs.
Once you understand what it is and how simple it is to apply it- both business owners and future affiliate partners- you can decide whether you want to be a part of it or not. If you do- it’s very simple to join in- and it’s free.
From a business owner point of view, the adjustments that need to be done in the website are minor and can be very quickly done.
If you are a business owner in the field of Chinese Medicine reading this, and you decide to add an affiliate plan or you already have one- let me know about it!
Over to you
What do you think about affiliate programs? Are you familiar with the conecpt? Do you like it? Maybe you hate it?
Let me know what your thoughts are, leave a comment.
Wow, this is great! I want to thank you Yael for helping with a cause that I have been preaching for sometime now,…the concept of affiliation & passive income online. The word ‘passive’ being used very lightly here, because to actually make any amount of money that is worth while, it still takes quite a bit of work. The first step being fully understanding affiliate programs!
The affiliates you speak of above are great, if you have a website like yours or mine (http://chinesemedicinetools.com) that cater to the actual TCM/OM population. But alas, there are really only a handful of these and this does not really help the average practitioner with a website that is strictly for his/her clinic. It is obvious that Lisa’s ebook, or Pro-D Seminars TCM courses are not for the general public. Affiliate programs that help our patient population from a clinical point of view are out there, ready willing and able to help increase your monthly income. Check out http://www.cj.com. Commission Junction has been around forever and has so many affiliates that you are sure to find supplements that you recommend, and anything else you believe your website browsers could benefit from on their healing journey, including TCM patent herbals.
At our clinic we use sell pregnancy tests and LH ovulation sticks, that are also available to our large browser base via affiliate software. This generates a nice little addition to our monthly bottom line.
Again, thanx for the article Yael, it is really great that more people are catching onto this concept, as it is a great tool that will help our industry prosper, so that TCM will continue to be largely available to the general public.
Spence
Just bought Burton Kents book on your recommendation- it’s really good! thank you again for posting on it
-amy
Hi Spence,
Thank you very much for your kind words and also for your detailed comment.
I believe it will give good ideas for practitioners who read this and maybe it will encourage them to join an affiliate program.
I’ve been on affiliate programs for about 2 years now, with my Hebrew websites, but the variety, as you know, is close to none. But I do feel that there is some kind of awakening about it! Or maybe it’s just spring sending it’s great vibes?
Thanks,
Yael
Amy- I”m glad it’s helping you!
I think there are very good ideas in that e-book and it also provokes the reader to come up with a few ideas that aren’t mentioned in the book.
Thanks,
Yael
Hi Yael!
Nice to connect through a different language, isn’t it..?
I recently bought Lisa Hanfileti’s book, following your recommendation, and found it very enlightening. Especially the other e-books that accompany it (I’m reading all three simultaneously, but really like “Make Your Content Presell”).
This really opened a new world to me…. and I’ve been thinking a lot about it lately. I like the whole idea of delivering free quality content and earning money through it -it’s seems like a healthy and fair exchange of giving and receiving. I am wondering though - from your experience - can one make a significant income through Hebrew sites?
Roy Green Pach
Hey Roy,
It’s a growing market and there are various ways to create an income from the Internet.
Some of it can be done immediatly and some will take years.
From my experience- yes, one can make an income from Hebrew websites, and in Chinese Medicine.
That’s my day job you know.
Thanks for your comment and I’m glad you’re enjoying Lisa’s books, I think they’re great.
Take care,
Yael
Hello All,
I sent this to Yael and she asked that I post it here.
RE: Affiliate Programs
We looked at Affiliate programs a couple of different times by examining affiliated web sites at 6 month intervals. We saw a lot of turnover (started then dropped ads) and concluded that sites were not finding the programs profitable enough to continue. This is, of course, not a statement that no affiliation works for people, just that from a policy perspective we didn’t see much incentive.
Redwing has a professional discount program that gives a 20% discount (on trade books, not all books) to those who wish to give-away or sell books from their clinic or other enterprise without becoming regular booksellers. This seems to work very well. Also, those giving seminars who wish to include the books, as well as all booksellers, can receive standard wholesale rates. Schools, professional associations and others who are willing to confirm their membership receive either across-the-board discounts or discounts on the specific titles on their reading list. This is offered as an incentive to membership in those organizations. It is my feeling that giving larger discounts to those who are actively engaged in promoting and selling books is better for us.
Finally, most of the affiliate sites we see are aimed at the on-line discount sites. This makes us very wary because there is neither a policy nor a “trade reputation” limit on pricing. Following is a chart showing the current Amazon prices for in-print Paradigm Publications titles listed as of interest to professionals (as of 4/22/09). Frankly, it is a mess and we would prefer to keep our distance from it as the more naive customers tend to believe that we have approved these prices or are profiting from them– we have not and we are not. A number of these sellers are clearly depending on buying books from stores and turning them around on Amazon for a substantive profit.
It seems I am unable to post the table here. I posted it at my blog site for those who wish to see it.
http://www.paradigm-pubs.com/blog
Bob
Hi Yael,
Thanks for the bringing awareness about affiliate programs and more importantly about all the great products and services available to practitioners. Thank you for including Pro D Seminars in your list and acknowledging us a great resource for on line learning. Chinese Medicine Tools is starting to list some free on line learning from Pro d Seminars. I have included the URL for the free course as I think one needs to experience an on line seminar from Pro D to really get a feel for what we offer. This is only 80 minutes out of the full 4 hour seminar…..http://www.chinesemedicinetools.com/video/ivf/understanding-ivf-dr-ashim-kumar
Lorne
http://www.prodseminars.com
http://www.acubalance.ca
Thank you Robert and Lorne for your comments.
I am sure they will be useful to those reading this post!