As a company, one of our favorite things to do is pay you, rather than Google or Facebook. And Black Friday is one of the best times of the year to make money from the Lyrical Host affiliate program. Not only are people looking for deals, but they’re buying more and we bundle digital download items together for better value, which means you earn more!
The Affiliate’s Guide To Black Friday At Lyrical Host Share on X
Another key selling point for you is that Black Friday is literally the only time of year we do any kind of sale on web hosting. We’re not the kind of company that always has a sale running, and we’re super transparent about our pricing, so we don’t hide the costs somewhere else or present them to customers at a later date (like renewal time).
Some of our deals have quick clear commission, which means you can cash in before Christmas, while others will clear to perk up an endless January for you. Rewards can be taken as money in USD, GBP, EUR, AUD or CAD, or choose Lyrical Host credit and get a 10% bump.
If you don’t think your blog or business necessarily lends itself to talking about Lyrical Host, you may find this post useful: 7 Ways To Use Affiliate Links If You Don’t Blog About Blogging.
This guide is all about maximizing your Black Friday sales, so let’s get started!
How to sign up for the Lyrical Host affiliate program
If you’re not an affiliate yet, you can register here. We don’t have a long approval process, a minimum traffic or follower requirement, or ask for your firstborn child. We like to keep things simple. You can view our terms here. Some companies don’t pay out anything if an order is under a certain amount or an item is on sale – we don’t do this either. You make the sale, you get the reward.
Once you’ve signed up, your affiliate dashboard has links to both our beginner’s guide and seasoned affiliate’s guide to help you get sales. In addition, we also have a download on running an affiliate campaign that you may find useful for planning your Black Friday content.
Need some help? Just let us know – email marketing@lyricalhost.com or drop us a DM on Facebook or Instagram (@lyricalhost).
Make sure you’re signed up to our Affiliate VIP mailing list (tip: keep an eye out for any special tips, bonuses or advantages in the run up to Black Friday!) Check the Affiliate Dashboard for the sign up link.
Preparing your content in the run up to Black Friday
01. If you’re already an affiliate, review any and all content you have about us on your site (existing affiliate posts, reviews, and so on). In your WordPress Dashboard, search “Lyrical Host” in your Posts or Pages section to quickly pull up any mentions. Check your discount code and links are easy to spot and that your information is current.
If you haven’t written about us before, check out the beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing in your Affiliate Dashboard/our Affiliate Resource Center. There are also lots of other downloads to help you get started.
02. If you have a sidebar or header bar you’re promoting us in, check it looks up to date. It’s worth creating a new discount code specifically including a seasonal reference (e.g. Black Friday, fall, November, autumn) and the year. This allows you to track clicks and sales from your affiliate dashboard for this particular campaign and timeframe, and also means anyone seeing your code immediately thinks it’s more relevant for this time of year.
03. Prep some new Black Friday-specific images. (If you’ve done this in previous years, review what worked well for you and base it on that). Use the done-for-you images in the Affiliate Resource Center, or pull up designs in Canva and edit them to suit your brand. Don’t forget to include your affiliate code both on the image and in the ALT text [https://www.lyricalhost.com/blog/how-to-write-great-alt-text-descriptions-for-accessibility-seo/].
Here’s a quick list of different image sizes (if you’re using Canva Pro or Adobe Express, you can automatically resize them within the software).
In-post blog image: 900 x 600 (don’t forget to optimize it).
Instagram Story or Reel image: 1080 x 1920 pixels
Square Instagram grid post or LinkedIn post image: 1080 x 1080 pixels
Landscape Instagram grid post image: 1080 x 566 pixels
Vertical Instagram grid post image: 1080 x 1350 pixels
Square Facebook post image: 2048 x 2048 pixels
Portrait Facebook post image: 2048 x 3072 pixels
Landscape Facebook post image: 2048 x 1149 pixels
Landscape LinkedIn post image: 1200 x 627 pixels (1.91:1 ratio)
Portrait LinkedIn post image: 627 x 1200 pixels
LinkedIn article featured image: 1200 x 644 pixels
X/Twitter post image: 1600 x 900 pixels
04. Make a plan of what you’re planning to publish and how you’re planning to promote, and when you’re planning to do it. For example updating/publishing a blog post, launching a Black Friday deals page, emails you’re sending to your list – whatever is relevant to you. Don’t forget to check the dates the deals finish so you can plan your “last chance” promo!
Take a look at the Affiliate Campaign Planning Guide from the Lyrical Host customer Resource Library for a step-by-step outline on creating a comprehensive plan. Dividing it into different sections/themes can help, for example an “Early bird,” “Don’t forget,” “Last call” etc.
Keyword research can also help people find your affiliate post/code via Google. Take a look at our keywords blog post or ebook for more. As web hosting keywords are notoriously competitive, going long and focusing on the outcome can be beneficial (e.g. how to create a certain type of website or how to create an xyz store online).
You could:
Do a competitor comparison – If you were with another host previously, you could compare the two. This helps you target “vs” keywords and attract people’s interest if they’re close to buying and are doing more in-depth research to make a final decision.
Niche down – For example you could write a post on how to start a [niche type] blog, business website, or online store. This helps you target brand fans and followers who want to be more like you.
Write a Lyrical Host review – You don’t need to be technical to write a web hosting review – in fact, people prefer it if you’re not because it reassures them that they don’t need a computer science degree to have their own website! You’re also in the best position to write in a way that’s relatable.
Create a Black Friday deals page – Pick out your favorite companies and products and create a landing page with affiliate links, codes and descriptions. Be selective – don’t add too many things to avoid overwhelm. You could potentially niche down, for example a “Small/Indie Business Black Friday Deals” page or a “Black Friday Deals For Entrepreneurs” page.
Increase the chances that someone will purchase via a link on your page by offering a bonus to everyone who buys. This could be an exclusive digital resource, or a product or mini service of yours for free. Check your Affiliate Dashboard to see orders placed, or raise a support ticket with our team and we can confirm purchases.
Tip: If you’ve written a buying guide or a standalone post/page specific to Black Friday in the past, install the Duplicator plugin and duplicate it. It will appear as a draft in your dashboard you can edit for this year to speed up your formatting.
Repurpose your content – Including pulling short phrases and quotes for social media captions, turning your blog post into a course lesson, generating a short paragraph for an email, or similar.
If you’ve written multiple posts, be sure to link them to each other! Check the Affiliate Resource Center and the Affiliate post category on our blog for more content ideas and tips.
05. Keep an eye on your inbox for our Black Friday Affiliate email series. You’ll get the emails from signing up to our Affiliate VIP mailing list (raise a support ticket if you need the link). This is the first place we announce Black Friday offers, so once you have the details, you can decide what you’re promoting from the deals on offer.
How Black Friday works at Lyrical Host
We start our Black Friday sales early, because many people need time to prepare to move from their old host and like to see deals and plan even earlier than that.
All our deals are on one page, so it’s easy for you to link to and so people can see all the different things on offer. You can create an affiliate link directly to our Black Friday page from your affiliate dashboard, and share in emails, on social media, and in your blog posts. (Don’t forget to make a note in your calendar to update/remove any Black Friday specific copy or codes after the sales have finished!).
Each year we release images that you can use to promote our Black Friday deals, or you can use relevant ones from previous years, or create your own.
For your affiliate sale to track, it must be a new customer with a new hosting plan being ordered. They can use either your link or your code; however only the code gets them 10% off their first hosting payment (this stacks with Black Friday deals so they can benefit from both).
For digital products, existing customers can use your affiliate link (so you could exchange links with someone else and buy from each other). You can’t use your own link to track an affiliate sale on something you buy as everyone would just use their own! Digital products have quick clear commission as there are no refunds.
Make sure you’re representing us accurately and ethically (for example, we don’t build websites for people – we provide the tech and support for people to DIY their own); if you’re unsure if something is correct or not, just ask us and we can confirm!
Promoting your posts & getting sales
You don’t have to be salesy or sell in a way that feels uncomfortable. You’re not pushing someone to buy – you’re helping them out by suggesting a solution to fit their needs and solve their problem. Simply creating the content and having it to hand to link to when people ask you questions or the topic of hosting comes up is enough. As mentioned above, search engine optimization is super useful for passive selling, but here are some other tips and tricks:
Effective sharing on social media – As well as scheduling posts for throughout the deal period, use the “touch it once, use it twice” rule – if someone asks you for info or your blog post and you’re grabbing your code/link anyway, repost it on social media generally. It’s a good chance to say you’ve been asked for the info today so you’re sharing it more broadly in case anyone else is interested.
Don’t assume that just because you feel like you’ve posted it everywhere, people have already seen it. Use different imagery and pull a different message/benefit every time so it feels fresh, but chances are the algorithms mean you always have a chance of reaching new people. You could incorporate tips or use the done-for-you messaging in the Affiliate Resource Center.
A Black Friday highlights reel, pinned post or video can encourage people to peruse at leisure.
Engage on social media as well as sharing – look out for people in your circle looking for web hosting recommendations or who mention having problems with their current host. We do many things for free that other hosts charge for, for example malware scanning and professional cleaning. So being familiar with the details of what’s included in our hosting plans can help you provide strong and useful answers.
Email marketing – If you have a list, send an email with value snippets, not just sales messages, so your subscribers stay interested. A “PS” at the bottom always works to grab attention, especially in longer emails. Send emails as early as possible because people get oversaturated with Black Friday emails the nearer to the time it gets. During Black Friday week itself, switch to value-led emails and use value-led subject lines so you have a chance of standing out in people’s inboxes.
If you’re planning to send several emails, let people unsubscribe specifically from your Black Friday emails rather than unsubscribing from your whole list. Most email marketing providers have an option to segment groups or campaigns like this – ask them for more details if you need help. Try to send a variety of completely different emails rather than similar “buy now” emails where the main difference is really just a different subject line. This way you can also test what works best with your audience – short mailshots can be effective with some audiences but not others.
If you don’t have a list, try including your affiliate code and a quick sentence at the bottom of your email signature for the Black Friday season.
Website visibility – Can people see your Black Friday deals easily on your website? Do you have a sidebar, a header bar, or even a “Black Friday Deals” link in your navigation? If you have a Resource Library, are you updating the imagery/descriptions/deals for Black Friday and announcing your updates? Make sure it’s obvious and ideally within one click of your homepage.
Downloads – If you have any relevant content that people download from you/your website, figure out where you can add deals. This could be on a cover sheet or slide for your client onboarding guide, it could be an opt-in, or it could be on the intro page of a new PDF you’re sending out to customers. It’s also a good signal to the people downloading it that it’s fresh, relevant and timely content. (Don’t forget to make a note of everywhere you incorporate it so you can update or remove it after).
Consider second level promo – Getting more people to your content in general means a higher chance they’ll spot your Black Friday links, highlights, pinned posts and latest blog posts when they check you out in more detail. So anything you can collaborate on with other people during this time is helpful. This could be guesting on podcasts, doing workshops or takeovers on people’s social media, or even attending events.
Follow up on the one-to-ones – If you’ve had a conversation with someone specific about moving to us, or that they seem interested in our services, make a note to follow up with them before the deals are over and ask them if they’ve had any more thoughts on it. Some people will be meaning to get around to it but haven’t yet, and they’ll be happy you reminded them while the deals are still on.
Get on our discounts page – From time to time new customers ask us for a discount when they don’t already have an affiliate code to use. When this happens, we direct them to a hidden page on our site that lists a bunch of affiliates’ codes/blog posts. If you’d like to be listed on this page, please drop us an email at marketing@lyricalhost.com.
Tag us on social media – We’ll share when you tag us (@lyricalhost) in tweets or Instagram Stories, or you’re more than welcome to DM us and ask us to share your blog post or other content. This means people checking us out will see your code/content.
Arrange a trade – If you’re planning to buy something from us yourself, such as a limited edition digital downloads bundle, reach out to a friend and ask if they want to trade affiliate links (or ask in our Facebook group for swapping buddies). Since you can’t use your own affiliate link for your purchase, that way you both benefit!
If someone asks you a question and you’re not sure of the answer, feel free to DM or tag us and we’ll help out.
Do a retrospective
Review everything after Black Friday sales have ended. Pull your views and clicks stats from your Affiliate Dashboard and take a look at your conversions.
What worked for you? What didn’t? What do you want to change for next year? Make a list for future you to come back to next year. This could be as simple as a doc that lists your tasks, timings, what not to do, and what images to create. That way you’re all set for your next campaign.
Happy selling!
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