How to pick brands to promote

The brands you choose decide what you make and who believes it. The best choice is a product you'd recommend without being paid: your audience can tell the difference, and so can your numbers.

Start with what you already use

Open the tools you used this week. The software you rely on, the app you tell friends about, the shop you keep buying from: those are your first brands. You know the real problems they solve and you can show them working, which is most of a good demo.

Then look for brands your audience needs. If you make videos for small business owners, invoicing, scheduling and bookkeeping tools fit; a gaming mouse probably doesn't.

Read a brand's page before you join

• The reward line. What it pays for (a sale, every payment, a signup or a trial), how much, and for how long.
• The cookie window. How long after a click a sale still counts for you.
• How the brand approves. How long it takes to approve or decline, and what it has declined for.
• Where it works. The countries the brand accepts customers from.
• How you may promote it. Most brands allow social posts, videos, articles and newsletters; many don't allow paid search ads on their name, coupon sites or cashback.
• Resources and guidelines. Logos, screenshots, what to say and what not to.

Fit beats rate

A high rate on a product nobody in your audience needs earns nothing. For software, a free plan or a free trial makes the first click easy, and a recurring reward on a product people keep can pay for months after a single video. A product people cancel after a month pays once, however high the rate.

Follow each brand's rules

A brand's rules on traffic and countries are part of the deal. Promoting it in a way it doesn't allow can pause your links and cost you the earnings from that content. If you're not sure whether something is allowed, ask the brand before you post.

Joining

Some brands take you on at once; others ask a few questions first. Answer them honestly and show them what you make. Brands also invite creators: an invitation tells you the reward up front, and you can decline it or stop invitations from that brand.