Ep 8 - How to Make Money from Affiliate Marketing Without Compromising Integrity

OK, stay with me here – even if the idea of affiliate marketing makes you want to run for the hills!

Because I know affiliate marketing often sparks mixed reactions.

Lots of people who work in healthcare worry about the ethical side of things, when we hold a position of trust – but I promise you can do this with integrity.

Affiliate marketing works so well for me in my business that I can’t not share this with you!

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar? 

“Can I recommend products and make a commission without compromising my professionalism?” 

Or: 

“Is affiliate marketing even legal for healthcare professionals?”

If so, you’re in the right place.

I’m here to share that affiliate marketing can be a BRILLIANT way to earn passive income and help your clients find useful products or services. 

In this blog, I’ll show you how to embrace affiliate marketing ethically and effectively, turning it into a win-win-win for you, your clients, and the businesses you support.

(And who doesn’t love a triple win?!)

So let’s get into it…

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

You’ll be pleased to hear that affiliate marketing is a completely legitimate business model.

You (genuinely) recommend someone else’s product or service, and if someone purchases based on your recommendation, you earn a commission.

Let me share why I love affiliate marketing as a great addition to our health businesses:

1. Your clients benefit: You introduce them to products or services that solve a burning problem or meet a need
2. Other businesses benefit: They gain happy new customers through your referral
3. You benefit: You earn a commission as a thank-you for the referral

You may have also heard affiliate marketing referred to as partnerships, referral programs, or collaborations – they’re all the same concept.

Why Affiliate Marketing Can Be a Perfect Fit for Healthcare Professionals

As healthcare professionals, we’re constantly recommending things to our clients, aren’t we? Because we genuinely want to help.

I imagine, that much like me, you’re always telling your clients about books or supplements, equipment or even apps that might benefit them.

With affiliate marketing, you continue to do exactly as you have always done – with the possibility of earning income from those recommendations. 

And yes, without compromising your integrity. 

Let’s explore how.

1. Integrity Comes First

Your role as a healthcare professional is built on trust. 

This of course means that any affiliate marketing you do must come from a place of genuine sincerity. 

(And I know that this is as important to you as it is to me.)

So let’s get clear on how you can ensure you maintain your integrity:

• Only recommend products you truly believe in: Whether it’s something you’ve used personally, evaluated through scientific research, or seen work well for past clients, you must stand behind your recommendations
• Be transparent: Let your clients know upfront that you earn a commission if they buy through your link. Transparency not only keeps you compliant with the law but also builds trust with your audience

Think of it this way: if you’ve found something that could benefit your client, isn’t it a disservice not to tell them?

2. Understand the Legal and Ethical Framework

As healthcare professionals, we need to navigate affiliate marketing carefully to stay compliant with both legal regulations and our professional standards.

The good news is that we’re used to guidelines and legalities – and we care about following them. 

So keep reading and you’ll be well on your way…

Key Guidelines for Compliance:

1. Follow the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Codes

The ASA enforces advertising rules in the UK, and their CAP Code outlines what’s required of marketers. You should be familiar with all the rules, but for healthcare professionals, these sections are particularly important, so please do take a look at them:

• Rule 12: Medicines, medical devices, and health-related products
• Rule 13: Weight control and slimming
• Rule 15: Food, supplements, and health/nutrition claims

2. Be sure to disclose your affiliate relationship prominently and early in any content

E.g. “This blog contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you purchase through them."

I’m sure you will have seen similar statements in blog posts before.

Read the UK Advertising Code here.

3. Understand Nutrition and Health Claims Regulations

If you’re recommending food products or supplements, as a registered healthcare professional you must ensure your claims align with the UK guidance on compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006.

For example:

• You can say: “This [insert brand name of product] contains calcium.”
• You cannot say: “This [insert brand name of product] contains calcium, which supports normal bone growth in children.”

To stay compliant, separate the nutrition claim (about the product) from the health claim (about the nutrient’s benefits)

It’s best if these are separated by entirely different paragraphs.
 

4. Check Your Professional Standards 

Review the Code of Conduct from your regulatory body (e.g. HCPC for dietitians) to ensure you’re avoiding conflicts of interest and maintaining professionalism.

3. How to Get Started with Affiliate Marketing

Getting started is easier than you might think – I promise you!

Let me share this simple, step-by-step guide:

1. Make a List

Write down the products, services, books, or tools you already recommend to clients. 

(There are probably more than you think!)

These are your starting points for potential affiliate partnerships.

 

2. Research Affiliate Programs

Check if the businesses behind those products have affiliate programs. 

Many larger companies, like Amazon, offer affiliate opportunities. 

If a brand doesn’t have a program, reach out to their marketing team – you might be surprised how willing they are to collaborate.

 

3. Sign Up and Get Your Affiliate Links

Once you’re approved, you’ll receive unique links to share with your audience. 

These links allow the business to track purchases and attribute sales to you.

 

4. Incorporate Links into Your Conten

You can add your affiliate links to lots of places, like:

• Your blog posts
• Your social media captions
• Your YouTube video descriptions
• Your podcast show notes

Just remember to disclose your affiliate relationship at the beginning of any content!

4. Why Affiliate Marketing is a Win-Win-Win

When you do this with integrity, as I know you will, affiliate marketing benefits everyone involved:

• Your Clients: They gain access to carefully vetted recommendations that save them time and effort (hooray!)
• You: You earn income from products or services you believe in without needing to create or manage them
• The Business: They reach new customers through your trusted referral

Best of all, you don’t have to handle product development, inventory, or customer service, because that’s all taken care of by the business you’re promoting.

5. How to Build Trust Through Affiliate Marketing

Let me divulge one last secret – which will be vital to the success of your future affiliate marketing.

The key is to create genuine, high-quality content that helps your audience. (Which you may already be doing!)

Focus on solving their problems, answering their questions, and providing value.

As Oprah Winfrey famously said:

"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier."

When you’re authentic and aligned with your recommendations, people will naturally gravitate toward your content – and your affiliate links.

Action Step: Start Your Affiliate Marketing Journey

It’s action time!

I encourage you to take 30 minutes to:

• Make a list of products and services you already recommend to clients
• Research whether these companies have affiliate programs
• Reach out to those that don’t, because you might open a door to a valuable partnership

It will be time well spent. (And I’d love to know how you get on!)

Final Thoughts

Affiliate marketing isn’t about compromising your professionalism; it’s about amplifying the value you provide to your clients. 

By recommending products or services you truly believe in, you can help your clients, grow your income, and build stronger relationships.

All the while, you’ll be maintaining (or even improving) your integrity too.

What’s Next?

Join me in my next blog where I’ll tackle a question every healthcare professional struggles with: 

How Much Should I Give Away for Free and How Much Should I Save for My Paid Clients? 

It’s going to be another enlightening one! I’ll help you find the balance between being generous and building a profitable business.

See you then…

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This guide really is your master plan to business success! Grab your free copy, right here…https://www.sarahalmondbushell.com/master-plan

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Episode transcription:

[00:00:00] Sarah Almond Bushell: Welcome along. Today, we are going to be talking about what's probably one of the most passive and easy ways to make money, but it's also sometimes considered a little bit unethical or even a bit underhand. is affiliate marketing or earning money from recommending other people's products or services. So some of my clients often wonder, am I compromising my professionalism if I recommend products and make a commission from the sale?

[00:00:29] Sarah Almond Bushell: After all, I'm in a position of trust as a registered healthcare professional. And then sometimes they even ask me, you know what, Sarah, is this even legal? Now, I remember as a student dietitian, there was this long, rumour for want of a better word, that if you wanted to recommend a brand, you had to cushion it with two other examples, so that your client or your patient had three options to choose from.

[00:00:55] Sarah Almond Bushell: So that was just a rumour by the way, but I remember being told that on my dietetic placement as a student back in the 1990s and racking my brain to try and come up with a third brand of ,, Baked beans. So in this episode of the beyond the clinic podcast, I'm going to be sharing with you everything you need to know about affiliate marketing as a clinician and how to do it without compromising your integrity.

[00:01:23] Sarah Almond Bushell: Okay. Let's begin by making sure that we are all on the same page and outlining exactly what affiliate income actually means. So it is a legitimate business model where you as the marketer recommend someone else's product or service and you get a kickback when someone buys. It's usually a percentage of the sale and it's considered a bit of a thank you from the business owner who then goes on to deliver the product or the service.

[00:01:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: And then the cost to the client remains exactly the same. And then. You can flip this scenario where other people promote your offer to their audiences, and in return, you give them some money as a thank you. Affiliate marketing, it's also sometimes called a partnership arrangement or a referral program, but what you need to know is they all mean exactly the same thing.

[00:02:17] Sarah Almond Bushell: Sometimes a partnership or referral program just sounds a little bit nicer. So there's a lot of positives to being an affiliate marketer. First of all, your client learns about a product, say a recipe book or a course, or a certain brand of supplement that might be really useful to them that they may not have come across before without your recommendation.

[00:02:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: Secondly, the business that sells the product, the book or the course, they get a new customer that they might not have found otherwise. So via their usual marketing strategies. And then number three, as a result of the sale to your client, you will earn some money because the business gives you a commission.

[00:02:58] Sarah Almond Bushell: So our. Focus today is going to be on your role as that person in the middle, the affiliate marketer who makes the recommendation to the client and makes the money. But how do you maintain your professionalism as an affiliate marketer when you're a healthcare professional? It all starts with integrity.

[00:03:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: You must come to this from a place of integrity. of sincerity, a place of wanting to help people, which I know you will all do. It's why we train to be healthcare professionals in the first place. It's because we care and we want to help. So if you know that there's a product or a recipe book or a probiotic supplement or a piece of gym equipment that you wholeheartedly believe that your client would find helpful or benefit from, it might even feel like a disservice.

[00:03:50] Sarah Almond Bushell: Not to tell them. So whether you get a kickback from the brand or not only ever recommend things that you wholeheartedly believe in. Think of either something that you've read the scientific research on, you've evaluated it and you know in enough detail to know that it really does work. Or perhaps something where you've seen the results, you've witnessed the transformation, the benefits when a past client has used it.

[00:04:19] Sarah Almond Bushell: Or you may have even tried it yourself and experienced the positive impact from that product or the service. So if you come to affiliate marketing from this angle, you can be sure that you are still acting with your client's best interests at heart. Now, you need to tell people that you're an affiliate marketer.

[00:04:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: They need to be aware that if they purchase through your recommendation. You will earn a commission. And they need to know this well before they start exploring the product or the service. It's actually the law, which is a perfect segue into the legalities. Obviously as a healthcare professional, we hold this automatic position of trust with the public, which is why acting in integrity is, a must.

[00:05:06] Sarah Almond Bushell: We are, however, autonomous practitioners, and we can determine for ourselves who we work with including the brands and the businesses that we support. And because of this, it's really important that we do our due diligence. It's part of what actually allows us to remain on the HCPC register or whichever professional body governs your profession.

[00:05:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: So make sure that you're avoiding all conflicts of interest. Make sure that you do not allow yourself to be influenced by such brands and businesses where you end up creating a bias. And do check your professional body's professional standards and the code of conduct that you agreed to when you joined them.

[00:05:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, I am sure that as healthcare professionals, we would be doing this anyway. Before you sell anything, and actually this even applies to your own products and services, you should know what you need to comply with in order to be within the law as well. The Advertising Standards Authority, or the ASA, is the UK's regulator for advertising.

[00:06:13] Sarah Almond Bushell: They apply the advertising codes and rulings that's written by CAP or the Committee for Advertising Practice. There's 22 rules that must be adhered to and I suggest you spend some time reading through them but for us in health do pay particular attention to rule number 12 which is medicines, medical devices and health related products and beauty products.

[00:06:39] Sarah Almond Bushell: Number 13 which is around weight control and slimming and number 15 which is food. food supplements and associated health and nutrition claims. I'll pop the link to the full rule book in the show notes, but what is common for all of us is the absolute necessity for disclosure. Very clear when it comes to disclosure.

[00:07:02] Sarah Almond Bushell: You must clearly disclose your relationship in any communication and on any content that you produce where you're being paid, and that's whether that's being paid with money or being paid via vouchers or gifts or trips or meals out or free samples. They all count as payment in the eyes of the law.

[00:07:25] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, as I mentioned earlier, this disclosure needs to be upfront and prominent before anything else that you go on to say or do or write. And that's so that people have got the choice whether to carry on exploring the product or service. Or not. Now, another set of legislation that you need to be aware of is the government's guidance to compliance with the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

[00:07:49] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, this was updated in 2021 and it is explicit about what healthcare professionals or doctors can or cannot make reference to if we are being paid. And this ties into that Regulation 15 of the 22 that I mentioned earlier. And remember, being paid here still includes the vouchers, the gifts, the trips, the meals out, the free samples, as well as actual money.

[00:08:16] Sarah Almond Bushell: Now, remember that rumour that I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast about dietitians having to recommend three products? Let me just say this. These regulations that were updated in 2021 was like a breath of fresh air for us as dietitians because it states that RDs can recommend products.

[00:08:40] Sarah Almond Bushell: So we can make nutrition claims about products. We can say Sarah Armand recommends Arla Big Milk because it contains calcium. I'm not being sponsored for this, by the way. This is just an example. What we can't make is a health claim. We can't say, Sarah Almond Bushell recommends Arla Big Milk because it contains calcium, which is needed for normal growth and development of bones in children.

[00:09:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: We can, however, separate the nutrition and the health claim in two separate sentences in the same piece of content. So I could say Arla big milk contains calcium and then in a separate sentence say calcium is needed for normal growth and development of bone in children. And the reason for this is so that the information is presented in a way that's not misleading to your client or to any consumer of your content.

[00:09:36] Sarah Almond Bushell: And this applies to content in any format, whether it's spoken word in a conversation, whether it's a video, a podcast, a blog, or a social media post. I'm also going to link to this document for you in the show notes as well, so that you've got everything handy. Okay, so now we've discussed the ethics and the legalities. And I hope you'll understand that there's nothing shady about affiliate marketing when you do your due diligence and you act with integrity, which I know you will. You may have decided that you want to get on board with this and become an affiliate marketer.

[00:10:14] Sarah Almond Bushell: So the next question is, how do you go about getting started? You know what? It is actually very easy. All you need is a computer and your clinical expertise. It can be as simple as finding a business whose products you like and you want to work with. If they've got an affiliate program already, you just register.

[00:10:35] Sarah Almond Bushell: It's usually a link in the footer of their website. And if they don't have one, just contact their marketing department and ask if they're willing to set something up. They usually will say yes.

[00:10:46] Sarah Almond Bushell: These companies Often have some tech setup that generates a unique affiliate URL or link for you. And it's this URL that you share with your clients. And if they go on to buy, the company can trace it back to you in order to pay you. Now, if you're a blogger, you can insert this URL into a relevant blog post.

[00:11:07] Sarah Almond Bushell: You can add it to your video show notes, into your social media captions, or in your podcast show notes. Just remember to disclose it, that it's there upfront before they go on to read the rest of your stuff. Amazon have got an affiliate program and you can pretty much get anything on Amazon. Now, I absolutely love this quote from Oprah Winfrey, which is actually published on the Amazon Affiliates page.

[00:11:34] Sarah Almond Bushell: program website. She says, I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier. And essentially what Oprah is saying here is to just make sure that you produce genuine, Good quality, helpful content that really helps your client or your potential clients and the sales through your affiliate link will just naturally follow through because those people know you, they like you and they trust you.

[00:12:08] Sarah Almond Bushell: But my favorite thing about earning as an affiliate is that you don't even have to create the product or the service that you're selling. There's absolutely no customer service to deal with. That sits with the business owner. So it really is a very easy way to expand your expertise beyond the traditional clinic model.

[00:12:28] Sarah Almond Bushell: There we are now. Now you know you can get paid from recommending other people's things without feeling icky or questioning the ethics. You know what you need to do to remain in integrity and be compliant with the law. And your professional standards. And you also know how affiliate marketing can actually be a win for all parties involved.

[00:12:52] Sarah Almond Bushell: So action steps. If you've decided that affiliate marketing is for you, what I'd like you to do now is just make a list of all the products and services, the books and the items that you're forever suggesting to your clients, and then take a look at their websites and see if they have an affiliate program.

[00:13:10] Sarah Almond Bushell: There we have it for today. Next time, I'm going to be answering a common question. How much did I give away for free? And how much did I save for my paid clients? Join me then to find out. Bye for now.