Sponsors vs Affiliates: What's The Diff?

Sponsors and affiliates can be very similar to one another but there is one difference that makes them vastly different from one another.  

Almost all affiliates offer banners and links in which you can receive a % of commission sales or sign ups, some even offer options to create custom discount codes to help drive sales.  

Just like affiliates, sponsors also offer banners and links with % commission sales and custom discount codes but sponsors have one up on affiliates. A lot of sponsors will provide products and/or apparel to wear, use in videos or give away as prizes.  

There are also sponsors who pay to have their name or product blasted throughout social media, blog posts and YouTube videos. These sponsors usually sign contracts in which the sponsor agrees to pay a specific amount or provide a specific product in exchange for their name, links, products, sign up sheets, ECT to be displayed, used or discussed throughout videos, blog posts and social media posts.  

Affiliates are really easy to come by, especially when you sign up through Amazon Affiliates, Commission Junction and Share a Sale. There are literally hundreds of thousands of affiliates so you can pick and choose exactly the kind of company or site you want to be affiliated with that suits who you are and what your theme or persona are.  Affiliates will take on almost anyone because so many people sign up for affiliate links that even if you have only 10 twitter followers, the next guy might have 100,000. 

Sponsors on the other hand are not as easy to come by, while there are still thousands of companies that offer some kind of sponsorship, getting that sponsorship can require a lot more work. Sponsors really want to know that they are investing in a sure thing rather than a long shot. That means they want to see large numbers of followers on twitter, facebook and YouTube, 10,000+ ACTIVE followers. Sponsors want to know that their products are going to reach a very large number of people.  Sponsors also want to see you being active in your community, interacting with your audience on a regular basis. Whether you stream, tweet, instagram, blog, ect, the main thing (aside from follower count) that sponsors look for is interactivity. The more active you are the higher the chance of getting sponsored. 

Of course, there are always companies out there that will "sponsor" smaller blogs and influencers but they almost always send you affiliate style kits to brand your site with and rarely do they send products or pay anything more than a 3-5% commission sale. These sponsors I really hate to even call sponsors because in all honesty, they are glorified affiliates.  

Lately I have noticed a new trend in the gaming scene, Affiliate Sponsorship. 

What is that? Well, from what I understand, affiliate sponsorship is really just affiliates who give you on site (in store) credit rather than actual pay. I guess they are hoping that you will spread the word about them, their product or their company in exchange for % commissions that will earn you in store credit so you can buy their products.

Over the years I have dealt with a variety of both sponsors and affiliates for my various sites, streams and projects and I have learned that, while both sponsors and affiliates can be fairly easy to come by (especially when signing up to various sites) it pays to be picky. 

Rather than drowning in one affiliate opportunity after another I've found that sticking to a small handful of specific sponsors and affiliates has worked much better. While I may miss out on some opportunities to make a little extra cash, my return has been much greater with a smaller, more focused circle. 

Obviously every one is different so what works for me might not work for you, you might find that having a ton of affiliates works better for you rather than having a small number of sponsors or vice versa. The key to your success will be understanding that sponsors provide more with a higher expectation from you and affiliates, well they will accept just about everyone because they rely on the strength in numbers routine.