Introduction: In this interview, Jotform affiliate account manager Yaren Büyükdere talks with LaShonda Brown, owner of Bootstrap Biz Advice, a YouTube channel that gives tips to businesses about how to automate their work. They talked about the importance of affiliate marketing for YouTubers and how Jotform helps her business.
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Yaren Büyükdere: Hello, LaShonda. Thank you for taking the time to talk today. Let’s start with our first question. Can you start by telling us about Bootstrap Biz Advice, its mission and vision, and its focus industry?
LaShonda Brown: So, Bootstrap Biz Advice is a YouTube channel that I started a few years ago and I started doing it full time in 2022. The mission behind the channel is to help busy business owners to work less and live more by leveraging technology. And it’s not about necessarily doing less, but it’s about using technology to help you to not do things manually.
So that’s really the heart behind why I do tech tutorials and tip videos and app reviews is to try to reduce the overwhelm that a lot of entrepreneurs have, when they look at tech tools they’ve never tried, and show them what’s possible, so that they can focus more on the things that only they can do.
Yaren: This is also what we talk about at Jotform: how to automate your business. So how do you determine which partnership programs to work with?
LaShonda: I typically will choose a tool that I actually use in my business or that a previous client used. With me doing YouTube full time, I don’t really have a lot of website clients to refer to. So if I’m doing a tutorial, more than likely, it’s for an app that I actually use in my business.
When I’m talking about things like Jotform — Jotform was the first website that I subscribed to, when we started our video production company. Because we had all this information that we needed to get from people, and instead of going back and forth with all these emails, we decided to make a single form and people would put everything we needed to know in the form.
That’s really what started that journey of finding different websites, and different apps, to help accomplish some of the things that I need to do to free me up to be more creative in other areas of our business.
Yaren: Perfect. I think this is important, right? When you are advising your audience about a product, you need to use this product first, because that’s how they know they can trust you. So how much importance does affiliate marketing have for your company and its revenue?
LaShonda: Affiliate marketing is the largest portion of how I receive income as a full-time YouTuber. I think the reason why is because so much of what I’m doing is helping people troubleshoot tech tools or teaching them about new tools. And so when they learn from me, people feel compelled to click on my links to support the channel, because I’m not selling them that many things.
So I do workshops, in person and online. But the majority of how I get support for the channel is by tech companies compensating me for customers that I send them. So affiliate marketing is huge. And that’s why I’m so selective with the tools that I choose to spotlight. Because ultimately, my reputation is tied to the tools that I speak about. And so it’s really important to me to advocate for platforms and tools that I know I can trust because my audience trusts me.
Yaren: You’re right. Can you tell us about one of your greatest successes in affiliate marketing?
LaShonda: So one of the tools that I use is such an essential part of my business that I wanted to create content about it before they even reached out to me. I genuinely wanted to share with people about this tool that was helping me to grow my business.
Recently, I happened to look at how many people I had referred to this company. And when I looked at the numbers, apparently I had sent them over 800 people for free trials, and 63 percent of those people became paying customers. So it really took me aback because I thought, Oh, my word, it’s almost like for every two people I sent to this company, one of them became a customer. That’s a huge deal.
It really helped me to understand the power of honesty when you’re creating content on a platform like YouTube, that people do respond, people trust you, and when they trust you in the beginning, they tend to become customers if the tool’s a good fit.
Yaren: So what makes you become successful at affiliate marketing? I guess, using the product, but do you have any other tips?
LaShonda: When it comes to promoting a tool on a platform like YouTube, you have to become the biggest cheerleader for that tool. You have to produce more than just a couple pieces of content because ultimately, when people search for that tool on YouTube, you want them to see more than one video on that topic created by you. That’s when you really start to become an authority on the topic versus just a hobbyist.
So I have multiple playlists on my channel and multiple videos about tech tools that I truly believe in. It’s not just, “Oh, here’s how to use this tool.” I give practical examples of applications of the tool or ways that you can use that tool with another platform. And so the more that you can double down on the tools you love, and create more content, the more traffic you’re going to drive to your YouTube channel and the more authority you’re going to have speaking on behalf of that company.
If you just do one video or one blog post or one Instagram post, it’s not going to carry the same weight as if you have multiple pieces of content on the topic.
Yaren: That’s a great tip for YouTubers. I hope our YouTuber partners will be inspired by your words. How do you promote Jotform as a partner? I guess you have a playlist for Jotform too, right?
LaShonda: I have a playlist for Jotform. I actually have a Jotform T-shirt. I know it sounds silly, but when you believe in a platform or an ideal, you’re even willing to wear it, it means something. So my thumbnails actually have photos of me in my Jotform T-shirt.
Yaren: Awesome! To finish up, we’re going to do some rapid-fire questions with short answers. And the first one is what is your favorite use case feature or product of Jotform among many that you use?
LaShonda: I love the version of Jotform that does one question at a time, because it makes the form less overwhelming. So I use that one a lot, the card format.
Yaren: What would be the biggest piece of advice you could give to people or companies just starting out in affiliate marketing?
LaShonda: I would say choose one company and talk about it a lot. Don’t feel the need to spread yourself super thin.
Yaren: Who is a mentor or influencer that you look up to and get inspired by?
LaShonda: I get inspired by a lot of other creators, to be honest with you, the YouTube community is actually fairly close. We support each other a lot in what we do. And so I just think the YouTube community in general, it’s just really inspirational.
Yaren: Lastly, can you tell us your favorite productivity tip?
LaShonda: Strategic unplugging. Being willing to just walk away so you don’t burn yourself out. So, I like to ramp things down before I break down.
Yaren: OK, that’s the end of our interview. It was a pleasure talking with you today. Thanks again for taking the time.
LaShonda: Thanks for having me.
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