WordPress Creator Connections: Connecting Influencers to Affiliate Programs

[eidolonnight]

Comment

Over several years, numerous folks have noted the challenge presented by WordPress competitors paying influencers and creators to promote their products. A few months ago, @jonoalderson pointed to a specific case of Wix buying favorable opinions.

More recently, a popular creator on YouTube (unnamed to protect their business) noted that he’s successfully using WordPress to run his business and processing thousands of orders annually. Despite this, he ends the video with an ad spot for Squarespace. The software keeping his business running gets a 5-second mention, while Squarespace gets a dedicated minute-long spot.

Affiliate partnership opportunities exist within the WordPress ecosystem but can be hard to find. A new “WordPress Creator Connections” (working title) landing page on WordPress.org could help connect creators to these existing programs. This way, they can share their love of WordPress, make money, and stop pushing their audiences to our competitors.

Project Scope

As a proof of concept, we can start with the hosts listed on the hosting page, as they each already offer an affiliate program. These companies are also already involved in the broader community, and using this list should allow us to implement an MVP quickly. Later iterations of this page could include additional companies and resources such as promotional materials, orchestrated campaigns, and more. The goal of this initial phase is to establish a new page quickly and then review data to determine the level of demand and engagement with these opportunities.

Success Metrics

Primary success metric: Page visits (I.e. Are online creators finding this content?)
Other metrics: Page clicks, New WordPress installs, Successful referrals

Tasks

• Draft landing page copy (working doc: WordPress Creator Connections)
• Share copy draft with Design Team and #website-redesign group
• New landing page: Connecting influencers to affiliate programs ("Creator Connections") wporg-main-2022#433
• 30-day measurement period
• Add Hostinger (new addition to /hosting page)
• Amplify new page across social platforms
• 90-day measurement period
• 6-month measurement period

[eidolonnight]

@rmartinezduque and I started drafting a bit of copy for this page based on the idea that we could re-use the template for /hosting and keep the design simple for this MVP. This is only a few hours work, so we welcome feedback.

[Bretteroo]

Brett from DreamHost here. We think this is a great idea and would be happy to be featured in whatever form makes sense. We'd be happy to provide text for the page, graphics, a landing page on our side...whatever you'd need to make this initiative successful.

[StacyCarlson01]

I think this is a beautiful idea!! I've been chatting with the other products at WordCamp, and I think it would be awesome to bring more light to the affiliate programs they have going.

[thetinyl]

👋 I've finally had a chance to come back to this landing page. I think it's mostly ready to go, my only question is whether or not the hosts sections would be stronger with language that was focused on the affiliate programs vs. hosting services.

I've made some suggestions in the copy draft to illustrate what I mean. I think keeping the copy there short and relevant to the goals of the page (sharing affiliate opportunities for online creators) is a stronger direction. I'd love to know your thoughts @Bretteroo and @StacyCarlson01, and also make sure we're speaking to some of the values of each program appropriately.

I'm also curious about any concerns or risks that come up for you. Some that come to mind are:

• Keeping the content current if affiliate programs change—is there a low-effort way to manage that? Do programs tend to change often?
• Talking about specific money/compensation in an open source context—does this feel inappropriate for WordPress.org?

In the meantime, I've built the page in the Editor with the current content. Progress on that can be followed at this GitHub issue in the WP.org repo. Any subsequent changes/iterations we want to make on content are easy to do even after the page is live.

[Bretteroo]

Thanks for working on this, @thetinyl! Looking great so far.

• I've updated the text for DreamHost in the copy to put the focus more on the affiliate program itself and less on our brand. I agree - that's where the focus should be.
• Our affiliate program terms/platform/linking info change very, very infrequently. On the order of once every several years.
• Having specific dollar amounts on the page definitely feels like more of a wp community decision. I don't personally see it as being out-of-place any more than the affiliate page itself might be. If it helps, we are comfortable with having our payout prices appear on the page.

[thetinyl]

Thanks @Bretteroo!

I've updated the text for DreamHost in the copy to put the focus more on the affiliate program itself and less on our brand.

I've made a suggestion for how to condense the text you provided. It's still a bit long for the layout we're working with. Let me know if you have a preferred edit or if the suggestion works for you.

I also appreciate the additional thoughst/context. I figured affiliate programs might not change so much, but you never know.

[eidolonnight]

As of August 9th, the Creator Connections page is live.

Metrics since launch

• Page visits: 72
• Program clicks: 10

Next steps

• I’ve drafted and scheduled social campaign content with help from @rmartinezduque and @bjmcsherry. Content will start going out next week after WCUS.
• I intend to do some hands-on outreach to WordPress users currently promoting competitors. I welcome anyone else who wants to do this as well. Questions to ask:
  • I see that you’re using WordPress but promoting [competitor]. Is this due to your sponsorship or other reasons?
  • Are you able to discuss your partnership with [competitor]?
  • Are you aware of the ways in which you can earn by promoting WordPress?
  • What would change your mind about promoting WordPress in the future?
• I've updated the page excerpt (what displays in search and social) to quickly highlight what the page contains.

[mdemop]

As of August 9th, the Creator Connections page is live.

This page looks great! I am curious on how other WordPress companies with Affiliate programs get added? What is the process, vetting and associated costs? I think this could also be a source of revenue for the Foundation or PBC.

I know that Affiliate Hunter has a curated list of many programs, many of which are WP related and we (Codeable) would love to be listed as well.

[eidolonnight]

I am curious on how other WordPress companies with Affiliate programs get added? What is the process, vetting and associated costs?

For this first iteration, the companies highlighted are those that have been vetted and approved by Matt for listing on the WordPress.org/hosting/ page.

This approach was specifically taken to avoid needing to create a whole new set of criteria and processes, and then selecting the right people to curate the list. IFF this initiative proves successful (i.e. we observe a growing number of page visits and clicks) then I think it would make sense to explore expanding the offering.

I think this could also be a source of revenue for the Foundation or PBC.

For now, the goal is to see if this attracts the attention of creators and meets their needs. Eventually growing this into a revenue source would be nice, but there will likely be organizational, technical, and possibly legal hurdles for that (i.e. out of scope).

we (Codeable) would love to be listed as well.

If anyone wants to reach out to creators and report back here, that help would be appreciated. If I were running an affiliate program at a WordPress-based company, I'd certainly be contacting any creator currently pushing competitor products and inquiring how to get them to switch. There's no need to wait to be listed here.