(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to the Six Figure Business Mastery Podcast,

where every week, Kirsten and Jeannie dive into

the essential topics to fuel your business growth.

From copywriting to course creation, mindset to video

marketing, they've got you covered.

Tune in for expert guest interviews on all

things marketing and business, and learn how to

work on your business, not just in it.

So, get ready to unlock your business potential

and take it to the next level.

Have you wanted to build a profitable online

business from home?

We have a special guest today, Whitney Bonds.

She is a YouTube expert and an affiliate

marketing pro, and she's going to break down

how to simplify, scale, and succeed using content

that builds trust and drives sustainable income.

So, welcome to the show, Whitney.

It's nice to have you here today.

Yeah, thank you so much.

I'm so happy to be here.

Well, we're excited because you have had a

fun journey with YouTube.

I see your little silver plaque back there.

So, tell us about your YouTube journey.

Yeah, so my YouTube journey is unlike many

other people, I think, because I used to

say I would never start a YouTube channel.

I was terrified of being in front of

the camera, and just the idea of just

having to talk to a camera was not

me personally.

Yeah, I can't talk to a camera.

I didn't think I spoke professionally.

I had this lazy eye I was insecure

about.

My house was not the Instagram-worthy house,

so I was thinking very insecure about what

I had at the time.

And I didn't know how to stay on

track with like, how could I make a

video?

I would just kind of be drifting, right?

So, I just had all these excuses in

my head that I was coming up with

that prevented me from starting a YouTube channel

until I met this guy named Nate O

'Brien.

And when he told me, I asked him,

how much do you make?

Well, he said, well, in the month of

January, I made over $30,000 in just

ad revenue.

So, that was enough for me to say,

where's my camera?

Because I was not going to allow my

fears hold me back from being able to

be a stay-at-home mom and work

on my own schedule.

So, that's when I got over myself and

actually started a YouTube channel.

And one of the things that was holding

me back was being able to stay on

like subject, because I could drift a lot.

I just wanted a tangent on something else.

So, I bought a teleprompter.

And to this day still, I am reading

word for word on my YouTube channel.

So, I'm reading so I can stay on

target.

So, I just always say, you have to

eliminate all excuses.

So, if I can't stay on target, I'm

going to get a teleprompter and just read

my videos.

So, that's what I do.

And that's how I got started my YouTube

channel.

And it has just blossomed into an awesome

passive income source.

So, I really can be a stay-at

-home mom and raise my kids and make

money at the same time.

I love hearing that.

That is so awesome.

I know Jeannie started her business a few

years back, many, many few years back, when

her kids were little.

And yeah, but that is amazing.

And I feel like we do have all

of these excuses.

And it's interesting because the clients that we

work with, some people like Jeannie and like

you like to script every word.

Jeannie is a teleprompter.

She has a different little process.

Some people like a teleprompter.

Give me an outline and let me go

at it.

Yeah.

I love it.

Like you always, I was like that.

Or if I kind of scripted, I just

fumble all over myself.

If I tried to read off a teleprompter,

you know, I would get, yeah, it would

not go well.

We all have to lean into whatever strengths

we have, whatever, whatever works for us.

Right.

Well, you had said earlier, but before we

hit record that you were blogging and that's

where you learned the power of SEO.

I'd love to share with our audience about

that.

Yeah.

So, I was working a nine to five

and I was trying to figure out how

in the world can I make money from

home and work on my own schedule?

And one of the things that I saw

with these bloggers, they were making a hundred

thousand dollars a month.

And I said, if I could just get

a fraction of that, all I needed was

2000.

So I said, okay, let me start a

blog and let me figure this out.

And a guy gave me the idea because

I was literally looking for how actually, actual

moms making money from home.

And that's one thing that I was looking

for online.

I couldn't find.

So my problem birthed my solution.

I ended up saying, okay, let me start

a blog that is going to help people

in my same situation, figure out how moms

are actually doing this.

And I was following the same blueprint that

the guys that were making a hundred thousand

dollars a month were doing, which was affiliate

marketing was their prime source of income, but

they also were getting traffic to their blog

through the power of Pinterest and Google.

And Google, you have to understand SEO, which

is search engine optimization.

And that was how they were getting their

traffic to their blog.

And that was completely Greek to me at

first.

I'm like SEO.

It was one of the things that I

did not want to have to do, but

I knew if I wanted to get consistent

traffic to my blog, I had to figure

this out.

So long story short, I ended up trying

to figure it out on my own and

I was just stuck.

There's one piece of the puzzle that was

missing.

So I got on a coaching call with

this woman that was doing really well with

SEO.

And just that call, it gave me all

the clarity I needed to say, oh, that's

what I was missing.

And from that, I was working on my

blog.

It took me a whole year to just

writing articles every day.

And then when I learned SEO around the

sixth month of my blog, just starting it,

things started to click.

So then I was starting to really be

very intentional with my articles.

So every day I would write an article.

And then the very next year my blog

blew up and I had made over $200

,000 just from the sheer amount of traffic

that was my blog, because I started ranking

high up on Google and I was getting

Pinterest.

So I was getting so much traffic to

my blog.

I was making a lot of money through

affiliate commissions and ad revenue.

And that's how I was able to make

the $200,000.

But all of that, majority of that came

from learning SEO.

So that's how I kind of found out

about the SEO.

And I literally take the same thing that

I do for my blog.

I just turned it into YouTube.

And that's how I've been able to get

consistent passive income from YouTube following the same

SEO strategies that I use with my blog.

I love that.

Kirsten calls SEO voodoo magic.

Yeah.

Once you understand it, it's easy, but in

the beginning, is it what's going on?

Do you still have your blog today?

I still have my blog today, but the,

so the one thing that I'm so happy

for is that having all my eggs in

one basket.

So because early in, in 2009, I was

getting over a hundred thousand pages from Pinterest,

but I also knew that I wanted to

be like those bloggers and then just have

not all my eggs in one basket.

So then I did Google and Pinterest, but

first I always mastered one thing first.

So I was getting, so in the end

of 2019, Pinterest changed their algorithm and I

lost all my traffic.

So I went from a hundred thousand pages

a month to just a thousand.

And I was so happy at that time

that I had diversified where it was okay.

I was still making the money because I

was still getting so much traffic from Google.

But then again, I'm so happy that I

transitioned to you.

I shouldn't say transition, but I added YouTube

as another income source because Google changed their

algorithm last year with a helpful content update.

And I lost like majority of my traffic

there.

So if I just didn't continue to adapt

and move on, you know, with the way

things changing, I honestly have nothing.

So I do have my blog, it's making

me pennies, but it's still, it might make

maybe $200 a month in ad revenue now

when before I was getting like $400 a

day.

So it's a huge difference with my blog.

I still make money from it, but it's

nothing to you know, bloat about.

Yeah.

You were smart to go to YouTube though,

because you know, video isn't going away.

You know, blogging is certainly not as popular

as it once was.

There's so much more competition now, but video

is certainly the way forward.

Yeah.

Especially with AI, with the way people write

with AI on blog posts, you can just

spit them out.

There's no originality these days.

It's like, you can't even compete with video.

It's you, you're one of one.

No one can be you and no one.

So I have my own tribe.

People would rather listen to me than someone

else about the exact same thing and the

same vice versa.

People would rather listen to somebody else about

the exact same thing.

So I don't have as much competition when

it's just me and myself.

Yeah.

And the one thing too, for us is

that when someone finds you on video and

they've watched enough of your content, when they

reach out to buy something for you, they

already know, like, and trust you.

That was my big aha moment.

When I first started doing videos many years

ago for my mortgage company was just the

power of video.

The power connection that's created by video is

really what's amazing.

Yeah.

Well, for those people who are not really

familiar with affiliate marketing, why don't you tell

us a little bit about that and how

you find the right affiliates to work with

and things like that.

Yeah.

So I love giving this example just for

it to make sense.

So if someone's watching this video or my

YouTube video and they'll say, hey, Whitney, what

kind of camera do you use?

Well, instead of me actually saying it's a

Canon 90D, which what it is, I'm going

to go to Amazon, for example.

Not everything is Amazon offers very low commissions,

but I'm giving an example.

I'll go to Amazon and get my affiliate

link.

So instead of just telling you what camera

I use, I'm going to just give you

the link and say, hey, here, this is

the camera I use.

So I actually do the work for you

where you can just click on it, go

right to my camera.

And if you liked it and you purchased

that, then I earn a commission because I

caused you to go to Amazon and make

a purchase.

So that's how affiliate marketing works.

And that's what you typically call affiliate partnerships,

because it's a partnership.

You partner with a company and they say,

hey, if you can actually tell people about

our product, you'll get paid for it.

You'll get paid a commission for it.

But it happens best when it's online.

You can track those links.

So that's really in a nutshell, really quickly,

what affiliate marketing is.

It's just basically referring a product or service

and making using a unique referral link.

And if someone purchases with your referral link,

you can earn a commission.

So how do you sign up your affiliates?

Do you go out and find different products

or services on affiliate?

Because there are affiliate programs, I don't know

if you call them programs, companies that list

different companies that offer affiliates.

But what do you do?

What do you prefer?

Yeah, my strategy, I don't really use that

strategy.

Actually, I typically find out what is my

topic, what do I want to cover?

And then I ask myself, what can I

promote in this video that can further help

this person?

So it's all about like the only reason

people really buy is because they believe that

this can help them further.

And that's so I'm always thinking about the

subject matter first.

And then I think about, okay, what product

or service can I have?

So there's been affiliate program where I even

I just thought about it again, there was

this woman that she had a course that

she was showing people how to make money

with, with food photography.

So taking pictures of food.

And she didn't have an affiliate program.

And I just asked her, I told her

that I wanted to promote her stuff.

Does she have one?

She's like, No.

And I said, Well, we can do something

where you can create a coupon code or

something like that for me.

So you just know, you have to have

some way to know that that person came

from you.

So as long as you have that it

doesn't have to be all the fancy links

and stuff like that.

It could just be like, oh, they use

that coupon code.

Okay, so every time I see that, I

know that's from Whitney.

So she's going to get a certain percentage

every time for that.

So I actually don't go the traditional route,

I'll sometimes go to where I know this

can help somebody.

And then I'll reach out to that person

and say, can we work out a partnership?

Because I want to promote your product.

And then typically, they'll say yes, because everybody's

trying to make more money.

And so that's how I typically do it.

So sometimes I'll do it like that.

Very rarely will I go to sites and

just kind of look to see what affiliate

programs they have, and then try and promote

it that way.

I typically start with the problem first.

And then I think about what can best

help the person.

Well, the food photography, how did that go

for you?

As far as promoting that?

It went really well.

So I made $100,000.

And I get like a $20,000 out

of that.

I have to go back to my dashboard.

But she so she was really like, how

else can I help and anything else I

can do.

But the only thing with that now is

because blogging is not as great anymore, as

far as like it, the Google update hit

a lot of people.

And it's like a trickle down effect.

So because the bloggers are not making as

much money anymore, they can't pay these food

photographers to do so much for their blogs

anymore.

So with the the way the world has

gone with that, and AI and AI did

not really affect her.

But because the business has changed a bit,

it has not gone as well as anymore.

So it was like it was it worked

well for its season.

So that's why I always got to keep

on moving, you know, in this world.

That is so amazing.

And then when it comes to finding like

affiliates that you really trust, I mean, yeah,

that's important to you, right?

Because very important reputation, my Yes, my reputation

is everything.

Like I just had a sponsor come to

me with good money, but I don't believe

in it.

I went to the reviews, and they're all

bad.

I'm like, my name if someone signs up

for this, and then they have bad experience,

you're gonna remember that they signed up to

because of me, and no amount of money

can't my reputation is everything my reputation is

monetized.

So if I go and just promote something

out of the sheer just to make money,

that's going to be worse on me.

So I actually I see so many people

on YouTube promoting things that I know is

not true.

And I'm just like, they're just literally doing

that just so they can make money.

But that's why I feel like I'm being

just authentic and trustworthy is the reason why

I've been able to do so well for

so long is because people actually say, Oh,

no, Whitney promoted that.

And that's probably something and that's how when

you make money with affiliate marketing, you have

to have that trust because they can go

anywhere else and they can go to Google

and do it themselves.

But because I've given them a reason to

trust me, they're going to use my link.

And that's why I think I've done so

well with it.

I just find it so interesting.

And I love how you you seem to

know the right time to make changes from

Pinterest to Google from Google to YouTube.

So it is really smart.

Are you worried about YouTube at all?

No, I'm not.

And I should be.

But I just like the way the way

I see the world going is just more

video.

Like I can't see it going anywhere else.

YouTube is literally just the one best platform

for everyone.

It's the best platform for users.

And it's the best platform for creators as

well.

So it's just like right now, this is

the time to be on YouTube.

And I like when I try and think

that out, look at the future.

Yes, social media is there.

But social media is work.

And social media is something that I don't

necessarily like doing.

I'll do it just to continue to diversify.

But if I can just do one video

a week, and it takes me five hours

a week to create a $300,000 business,

then I'm gonna stick to what works.

So YouTube right now is one thing that

I'm still passionate about.

I don't see it going anywhere anytime soon.

But I'm definitely always gonna be on the

lookout.

But right now I am.

I'm all in on YouTube.

And it's interesting that we often get asked,

but isn't it saturated?

Oh, and I always say, Can you name

five YouTubers that you know, we're making a

full time income on YouTube by show of

hands if I'm in a group setting.

And typically, no one cannot say they personally

know five people.

And I'm saying, Okay, well, that's proven that

that's not everyone.

Because we have this idea in our head

that everyone has a YouTube channel.

No, they don't.

You can't even name five people.

So everyone does not have a YouTube channel.

And I always say to because you are

one of one, it doesn't even matter if

they did, people just will resonate better with

you than they do with me or someone

else.

So that's why we are not we are

our own competition.

It's funny, because my background is real estate.

And I was at a network meeting today

that I've been invited to by the real

estate agent.

And she's lovely.

And she's always saying I need to do

YouTube.

I'm just so afraid to be on camera.

She's very shy.

And so I was talking to someone and

she was standing there.

And I said, Denise, you know, I've said

this to you.

I think if you're in real estate, you

don't have a YouTube channel, you're gonna get

left behind in the next 36 months.

Because, you know, YouTube is such a great

way to passively generate leads for real estate

agents.

And yeah, I mean, it's amazing.

We were looking at stats the other day.

And Jean, tell me if I'm wrong about

this.

But 80% of all people who are

going to buy a home will go to

YouTube and watch videos about the neighborhood in

the community.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, they're definitely going on YouTube to find

out all kinds of information about buying a

home and, and selling a home.

That's their first their first stop.

And that's where they do all the research.

That's so smart.

I've never even thought about that.

And that's why it's so important to know

your customer and how they interact and do

things because that's the answer.

Be where they are.

Yeah.

And because real estate is so important to

build that relationship to build that know, like

and trust that, you know, YouTube is a

perfect platform, just like you were saying, you

know, you are building up your reputation, and

people are trusting you because you do go

through and, you know, personally choose what you're

promoting.

And so, you know, it's really important, especially

when you're, when you're making such a large

purchase, to be able to trust the person

who's helping you with that.

Yeah, yeah.

I love that so much.

My sister-in-law's a real estate agent.

So I can't wait to share this with

her.

Well, don't forget, you're not just leaning into

traditional SEO, you also have to integrate local

SEO.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So that's better for search too.

Because this Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, local SEO.

I think, again, YouTube is such a powerful

tool for local businesses.

You know, whether you know, I was talking

to an attorney today, I was talking to

a guy about to a guy who owns

a plumbing company.

And it's really funny, because there's a plumber

who started a YouTube channel years ago, I

can't think of his name.

And he literally was showing people how to

do almost everything.

And his family and friends are like, you're

not gonna have business.

But the reality is, he got so busy,

he couldn't keep up, because he would show

people how to do it.

But they don't, it would cost them more

to go buy the tools to do it.

You know, there were a risk of pipes

or something.

So yeah, so what happened was they liked

him, and they trusted him simply because he

was not afraid.

That's so smart.

I didn't think of it that way.

I was thinking you could make money through

ad revenue.

But no one's not everyone wants to do

the job of a plumber, they're always gonna

be hiring out.

Right?

Well, he did end up building his channel,

he does make ad revenue.

And he does teach YouTube as well now,

because the intention was he just for some

reason wanted to have a channel.

And he thought, well, there's some things that

people could do themselves, it will be affordable.

And like, if I can help them do

this and save the money, then I'm helping

people at a tight time.

But what happened was, you know, I'm sure

a few people fix their toilet based on

what he taught them.

But what happened was he really just ended

up his business just exploded.

And it's such a, you know, a great

thing.

And that's what we talked our clients about,

you know, give value based educational content, help

people.

If you love helping people, YouTube is the

platform for you.

Yeah, I think that's why YouTube is so

great.

Like I can make money and help you.

That's even more incentive.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, you get loads of feedback, too.

I bet you get loads of people saying,

Oh, thank you so much, Whitney, you know,

I wouldn't have found this without you.

And I'm so grateful.

Yeah.

And one thing I always do the end

of my videos to increase engagement, I always

say something like, and if you're still here

watching at the end of this video, I'd

love to hear from you.

So I'll ask him to say something.

So sometimes I'll say like, just say the

word I made it.

One time I said put the word butter,

like just random stuff, like people like that

kind of stuff.

And because they do that, they're still they're

like, Oh, I'm still here.

Let me go ahead and comment.

So she knows that I actually watched and

it really increases the engagement too.

So you can even have fun with it.

That's so awesome.

I'm definitely gonna stop your channel a little

bit more today and encourage everyone else here

who was listening to do the same.

So if you had one piece of advice

for people, when it comes to YouTube, what

would it be?

And then what would it be for affiliate

marketing?

If you had somebody who could have told

you something a long time ago, what would

it have been?

I would say the people that see successful

YouTube are the ones who are obsessed with

it.

So become obsessed, love it, just spend time

with it, want to get better every single

time.

So just study other people's just it's something

that can just be a hobby that you

end up doing.

But do make it a hard that you

just want to you love because this is

something that there's no other platform that you

can have an idea, create something and get

the results like right away.

So it's really fun just to be able

to create something and then get the results

and then say, Okay, maybe I should have

did this better, you can just continuously adjust.

And if you become obsessed with it, you

can build something that can just be beyond

your dreams and make a boatload of money

at the same time.

So become obsessed with YouTube is the best

thing that could ever you could ever do

out of all the other platforms.

Just this is the one where you can,

I always say, make more work less.

I love that you're getting us all inspired

about YouTube.

Yeah.

And then for affiliate marketing, because I know

you have had, you know, a couple affiliate

programs that you promoted for 100 grand.

So what would you like to have learned

about affiliate marketing when you first started?

And what would your advice be for people

now?

Yeah, my best advice for affiliate marketing is

that you don't do not have to reinvent

the wheel, you don't have to say, Oh,

I don't know what to promote.

I always say look at your competitors, the

ones who talk about the exact same thing

as you and see what are they promoting?

And then ask yourself what I want to

create, create content around this topic.

When promote this product, if the answer is

yes, then great, write it down and start

thinking about content you can put around it.

If there's if you don't want to promote

it, don't promote it.

It's your channel.

But the one thing that you have that

you don't have to figure out is actually

looking and studying your competitors and seeing what

they're already doing.

That's the number one mistake people make when

marketing as a whole.

And we always use the example that, you

know, McDonald's before they decide to build a

new location, they spend hundreds of 1000s of

dollars doing research around that neighborhood around the

flow of the traffic.

And I feel like small business owners really

miss out on learning.

It doesn't mean you're stealing.

It doesn't mean you're going to copy them.

It means you're getting inspiration from them and

you're seeing what's working for them and what's

not.

And then you're leaning into what could work

for you.

How many videos on average do you do

around a certain affiliate product?

Like the LLC product?

Yeah, you know, that's a good question.

I don't even really like measure it like

that.

I probably should.

But I literally just think, well, OK, so

this week, what do I talk about?

And then I look at my views on

some videos that have done better.

Oh, that did well.

Let me do another one like that.

Like, I don't I just kind of just

kind of think of at the time, what

do I think my people are looking for?

And then if I see a video that

I want to get more traction on, then

I'll do another one on that.

So it's not like a real science that

I have to, which I probably should.

But it's really just thinking about at the

time what kind of videos do I think

my audience will resonate well with?

Because it's always about creating curiosity, too.

So you have to make them curious and

say, what's that about?

And then you've got to get them to

click.

So it's all about just creating enough curiosity

to make them want to click.

So that's another thing about that, too.

That's a way to tell us the name

of your channel.

Yeah.

Whitney Bond is my name.

So YouTube dot com slash Whitney Bond.

You can find me that way and just

kind of look at my channel.

And the one thing I love on my

channel, I'm always like experimenting.

I should just stay in one lane, but

I like to see what works.

And so I have some videos that perform

really well and some that are just duds.

I'm not doing that again.

But it's just all a learning experience.

So sometimes you think about wanting to hide

your videos because if it didn't perform well.

But I'll never forget, I did one video

about the LLC one that I was talking

about.

No one watched it.

Five months, it was a dud.

It was embarrassing.

Should I delete it?

It just makes you kind of feel like

I look bad.

But then it took off.

And that video now has over 200,000

views.

So what if I would have deleted that

out of just thinking about other people who

I should not be thinking about?

So I love you as an example to

say like, just YouTube is its own animal.

Sometimes a video won't take off right away,

but sometimes it'll take off months or years

later.

So keep it there and keep it moving.

So yeah.

And it's funny when you said years later

when Jeannie and I were, we were doing

something one day we were doing, we were

doing a Google search, actually.

Oh no, actually we were searching on YouTube.

And the video that popped up was 10

years old.

Think about it.

That video has been around for 10 years.

It was still relevant to what we were

looking up.

Like, wow, that's amazing.

Because you don't think there really isn't anything

else with marketing that I can think of.

Jeannie, again, if you think of anything, let

us know.

But I can't really think of anything that

you can do one time.

And it's only working for you 24 hours

a day, seven days a week for years

to come.

And that's pretty powerful.

Yeah.

It's the one platform.

That's why I'm like, there's no other thing

that you should be investing your time in

than the one that can get you the

most bang for your buck.

Well, you've inspired me.

We have two podcast channels and I've been

thinking about doing another traditional channel.

So maybe you've inspired me to take that

action soon.

Yes.

We love our other channels because we get

to talk to amazing people like you, but

I think I do want to get back

to kind of, I always call it a

talking head kind of channel.

Yeah, exactly.

Five hours a week.

I always say like, I only work five

hours a week.

You do your research and you study in

and then I'd record 30 minutes and that

sends up to my editor.

So that's it.

You know, if you've got an extra five

hours, you can do it.

I love it.

I love that.

Well, Whitney, this has been so fantastic.

You've given us so many ideas and inspiration.

So we can't thank you enough for joining

us on our episode today.

Thank you so much for having me.