Affiliate Programs
Overview
Welcome current and future affiliates! Below you will find Compost Guy products that offer an affiliate program. If you wish to purchase any of these (you don't yet own), please refer to my "Educational Products" page just to make sure you are aware of any discounts that may be currently available*.
All programs pay 50% commissions (via Paypal - you will need a PP business account), with a 14 day waiting period before automatic payout. NOTE: refunds are fairly rare, and they are almost always during the first week or two - but in cases where someone does refund after 14 days (all my products offer at least 60 days to decide), there will be what's known as a "claw back", whereby the commission is retrieved from your Paypal account.
When you sign up for any of these programs you will end up on my CG affiliates e-mail list, where you can learn more about the programs and how best to promote them.
*In case you are wondering, affiliates are not permitted to purchase products through their affiliate links. ;-)
Easy Worm Farming
This educational package explores the topic of producing and marketing composting worm starter cultures (what I call "Worm Mix"). This is a great business model for anyone just starting out, or add-on strategy for those already in the game. It's a much more natural approach with great benefits for the worm farmer, the customers, and the worms!
Compost Guy Ultimate
This educational product bundle and membership is designed for anyone who wants to take their vermicomposting and/or vermiculture efforts to the next level. It includes The Walking Windrow Project, Trench Vermicomposting, The Suburban Worm Farmer, Easy Vermicomposting, and The VermBin Series Plans package, among other resources.
Worm Farming Alliance
The WFA is a private community designed for those wanting to start or further develop a worm farming business. Get help and mentorship from others who have gone before you, so you can avoid a lot of the common pitfalls and frustration!
Professional Worm Growing Secrets
This eBook package features an in-depth interview with large-scale Australian worm farming pro, George Mingin. George doesn't hold back - sharing an incredible wealth of insider information about how he's become so successful at growing composting worms (among other topics).
VermBin Plans Package
This package features plans for wooden, DIY continuous-flow bins known of the "VermBin" series. Three different size options - VB24, VB48, and VB96. Includes a report about my own VB48 building/usage experience.
How to Sign Up & Get Started
All of the Compost Guy affiliate programs are hosted on "Thrivecart" - the shopping cart platform I use (and love). If you have already signed up for one or more of the aff programs listed above (or another affiliate program that uses Thrivecart), you will already have a Thrivecart account. If not, step #1 will involve getting signed up. When you click any of the program links you will be taken to a page that looks like this:
Assuming you need to create a new account, you will select the first option, and you'll then end up on a page that looks like this:
You get to pick your "Affiliate ID" - but it must be unique to the entire Thrivecart system, so you might find some of your choices already taken. Try to pick something short and sweet, and relevant for your brand. Adding numbers at the end can increase your chance of finding one that's not taken.
NOTE: Filling in the "Business/Company Name" field is not mandatory to create the account.
Once you've filled out the fields and clicked the "Create My Account" button you will be taken to a page that looks like this:
Agree to the Terms & Conditions and then click "Confirm my registration".
This immediately takes you inside your new affiliate account (we will come back to this topic a bit further down) BUT, your registration is not actually complete yet.
Check you inbox for an e-mail with the subject line: "Complete your registration as an affiliate for <Product Name>"
Inside that e-mail, click the "Complete the setup of your affiliate account" button.
This takes you to the page you see below.
At this point you should look for the e-mail with your password and sign-in link.
As you can likely guess, you just click the "Click here..." button and use your email address and the password you're given to sign in to Thrivecart.
You will be taken to https://thrivecart.com/signin/. I recommend bookmarking this address, since it is where you will sign in any time you need to access your affiliate dashboard. Below is what it looks like when you are logged out:
Once you sign in you will see the affiliate dashboard. You will find your approved affiliate programs under the "Products" tab.
NOTE: Most of the Compost Guy products are directly under me. The one exception is the Worm Farming Alliance, which is under Steve Churchill (one of my managing partners for the project). So, you'll only see Steve's pretty face (lol) if you've signed up for that one (or I've added it for you manually).
From there, you chose the product you wish to promote and click "View".
** Before you can get your affiliate link, however, you do need to connect your Paypal business account. **
When you click the "Set up PayPal now" button you will be taken to a page where you can connect to your PayPal account.
If you don't yet have a Paypal account, this is a good opportunity to create your new PP business account (i.e. these steps will lead you to a point where you can actually create the account). If you have an account already, just login with your existing credentials (NOTE: if you have a PP account, but not a business account, you can learn how to easily upgrade >>HERE<<. Be sure to do this before attempting to connect to Thrivecart)
To complete the PayPal connection process, please follow the instructions found about half-way down this page (in Thrivecart Help docs):
Once your PP account is fully connected to Thrivecart, you should see the "PayPal: Active" green button when you view any of the product pages for the programs you are signed up for, and your affiliate link(s) should be visible further down the page.
NOTE: The Worm Farming Alliance (WFA) and Compost Guy Ultimate (CGU) have two available links (at time of me creating this page). In both cases, I have created new sales pages, but have left the legacy pages up in case affiliates are still sending traffic to them. I highly recommend using the "NEW" (2nd) links for your promotions.
Making Your Aff Links Look "Pretty"
The raw Thrivecart affiliate links are long and ugly looking. I highly recommend using some form of link-shortening tool to make your links look a lot better. If you have your own self-hosted WordPress website, there are a variety of great plugins you can use to accomplish this. One I really like is called "Pretty Links" (the free version is all you need), but just about any sort of "redirection" plugin should do the trick.
Let's say your website address is MonkeyBarFarms.com, with Pretty Links (etc) you could easily create a link like MonkeyBarFarms.com/WFA which then redirects (via your affiliate link) to the Worm Farming Alliance sales page. Something like MonkeyBarFarms.com/CGU for Compost Guy Ultimate - etc etc.
NOTE: If you expect to get quite serious with any or all of the Compost Guy affiliate programs and think you can drive a decent amount of traffic, I would be open to the possibility of creating special "Compost Guy" redirects just for you (i.e. they would look like they are associated with the Compost Guy website, but would take people via your affiliate links to the product sales pages).
For those of you not using WordPress websites, there are online link shortening/redirection tools, such as "Rebrandly" and "bitly" (both of which have free versions).
With Rebrandly (and maybe bitly) you can connect a domain name or (likely even easier) register a new one with them and use that as your base URL for redirections. Using the silly example above, you could register MonkeyBarFarms.com with them (it's available as I type this - haha) and then you don't need to fiddle around with DNS settings to get it connected to the Rebrandly redirection service.
From there, you simply create the same sort of link redirects as I described for Pretty Links plugin above.
Testing Your Affiliate Links
Before driving boatloads of traffic to your shiny new affiliate links, I highly recommend checking to make sure they are all working properly (especially if you are using redirects). There is a very easy way to accomplish this.
Paste (or maybe type, if it is an easy shortened version) the affiliate link you want to test out into the address bar of a new browser window. First, make sure the link leads to the sales page of the product you are promoting.
Next, click on the "Buy Now" button (may have different text, but it should be obvious) on that sales page, so that you end up on the actual Thrivecart checkout page. Down in the bottom right-hand corner of that page you should see your affiliate ID (you created when you first registered for your Thrivecart aff account)
If you DON'T see this - and you definitely have your PayPal biz account connected - double check to make sure you got the link right. If so, it may have something to do with your browser-security settings (not allowing cookies). Feel free to get in touch, and I can test the link(s) for you - or ask a friend or family member if they can run the same test.
Once you know the tracking is working, you are all set for promoting the programs you signed up for.
NOTE: If you are signed up for at least one of the programs listed above, but don't feel like going through the process of signing up for them all (actually very easy if done at the same time, while still logged into your account), don't hesitate to reach out and request that I add the remaining programs manually for you. I'm happy to do so.
I highly recommend you get signed up for ALL programs, even if you have no plans to promote some of them, simply because you can earn extra commissions if a successful referral ends up purchasing any of the other products (either instead of the one you sent them to, or in addition to that one). I've set the cookie duration to "lifetime" so as to maximize the chances of affiliates being rewarded for their hard work! So, do take advantage of this. :-))
Speaking of which, don't forget about the affiliate e-mail list (you should see the welcome e-mail as soon as you sign up for any of the programs listed above), where you can learn more about how to effectively promote the Compost Guy educational line-up and other related topics.
Thanks for your interest and your efforts!
Your friend with worms,
Bentley "Compost Guy" Christie
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