4 Tips for Affiliate Success with TemplateMonster [ThemeFurnace.com Case Study]

My name is Oliver Dale and I’m the founder behind ThemeFurnace, a website which has been providing free and premium WordPress themes since 2011, when I first started the site off. I have a long history with WordPress. Back in 2010, I also founded the blog WPLift.com, which I grew for 6 years until I sold it on Flippa this year. The final sales price was $205k!

Since the sale of that site, I decided to spend more time with ThemeFurnace to see how far I can grow the site. In this post, I will talk a little about how I work with TemplateMonster. I will also provide some tips on how to improve traffic to your website and also grow your affiliate income with TemplateMonster.

Acquaintance with TemplateMonster

I would like to start off telling a few words about my history with TemplateMonster. I have been aware of the company for many years since around 2003, when I started my own forum for designers DesignersTalk.com. TemplateMonster provided HTML templates and a lot of Flash items, like intros and animated headers.

I became re-acquainted with TemplateMonster in the years when I started WPLift and saw that they had started offering WordPress themes. They also offered HTML templates and themes for other CMSs. I decided to sign-up for the affiliate program and started including them in my posts. As I found out, they converted quite well, and there was a wide range of themes in different niches, so they were perfect for including within lists and collection type posts.

I started working more closely with TemplateMonster when they launched Monstroid. I wrote a detailed review of their new flagship theme. Monstroid2 looks really good, it includes some great layouts. It looks like they have really upped their game with this one to try and compete with some of the other large multi-purpose themes such as Divi and Avada.

Why Do I Deal with TemplateMonster

Here are some of the top reasons why I like working with TemplateMonster.

• 365-day cookies. This means when you refer a customer via your link, it will store a cookie on their computer. So, if they purchase a product within the next year, you will still get credit for it. This is a huge positive for me as most companies will only leave 30-day cookies or even less (some are only 1 day!).
• Lots of niches to choose from. You can include TemplateMonster themes for many different areas. For example, if you run a photography website you can write a post about the best photography themes and include links to TemplateMonster products.
• Good designs. There are loads of well-designed themes to choose from for your posts. Make sure you take nice clear screenshots to show them off.
• Payments. You can request a payment by PayPal at any time and they will send your commissions within a few days.
• Refer more and earn more. They offer a tiered commissions structure starting at 30% and rising to 50%, which gives you an incentive to work harder sending traffic to them.
• Large company. Lots of times I have been working promoting different affiliate programs, and they will change their terms, link structure or even just close down, which means wasted time and lost money. In 2016, they paid out $1.5 million to affiliates, that's huge and shows how large the company is. I’m confident working with them and spending time and resources promoting them as I know they will not be going anywhere.

How to Earn as TemplateMonster’s Affiliate

Now, let’s take a look at some ideas you can use to promote TemplateMonster and earn affiliate commissions.

#1 Build Themed Posts

You can write a blog post, which lists themes in different categories. These are not as effective as they used to be due to being overly saturated. It's not likely that you will rank number one on Google for generic terms like "Best WordPress Themes" or "Photography WordPress Themes." You need to be a little more creative and also bring value to the post as Google will reward better content.

How about writing a long detailed post on how to setup a website for different niche businesses? For example, in a Guide for Hairdressers to create their website from scratch, you can show how to install WordPress and add a theme. Then, list relevant themes from TemplateMonster. I have done something similar on ThemeFurnace in our WordPress Guides section.

#2 Write Reviews

If you use a TemplateMonster theme or did this in the past, then a detailed review can be a great way to go into details and sell the theme to other people. You should only write honestly about your experiences, though. Writing reviews just to earn affiliate commissions is a fast way to destroy your credibility, which could also get you into troubles with the FCA advertising rules.

#3 YouTube Videos

The video is a great online selling tool, which is only growing bigger day by day. If you have a YouTube channel or would like to create one, putting together some videos is a great way to get search engine results. You can use a video paired with a blog post, embed the video in your post and link to your blog post in the video's description. “How to” videos are always useful and tend to do well in search results. You could create a tutorial series, which shows people how to accomplish different things with WordPress, Joomla or other CMSs.

#4 Newsletters

If you have a mailing list, why not monetize it by sending out some curated affiliate links to TM products? For example, if you have a photography related list, include some links to photography themes in the next newsletter. Newsletters are most effective if you take the time to build your list correctly and earn the trust of your subscribers. Take time to genuinely help people and provide value in the form of free items, free reports, and articles, and then from time to time, you can also send offers or items which are monetized. If you constantly spam people with affiliate links, they will unsubscribe. I found out that people are receptive to affiliate offer if they are carefully selected and matched to the audience profile.

Conclusion

I hope that helps. Remember that it always pays to try and be a little creative with your promotional activities. Don't do the same as everyone else as you will be competing against a lot of people. By thinking outside the box, you can achieve more success with less work.

The other thing to mention here is consistency. You will not become rich overnight with affiliate income. The trick makes sure that you are consistent - if you post content online regularly ( at least 5 times a week ), you will notice that results will start to come and will build up over time. Once you start to get the first trickle of conversions coming in, identify where they are coming from so you can see which methods are successful. Then duplicate that method and scale it up, you will see the income starting to build over time.

I have seen great results with the TemplateMonster affiliate program using some of the methods outlined above, every month I have been a member my payouts have increased to the point where they are now one of my top programs and I receive monthly payouts of $x,xxx. I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has about increasing your income with affiliate programs, just leave a comment below!