How do we make money through affiliate marketing?

While most of our income is from freelancing and client work, we supplement it from a few other sources, including affiliate programs. This means when you click on an affiliate link of ours and purchase something we might make a small commission (usually between 4-10%) on that sale. There is no additional cost for you when you purchase items this way.

[All the links we share on this page will be affiliate links.]

What sites are you an affiliate with?

We’re currently affiliates (or part of similar referral programs) with Deity Mics, Dracast, Amazon, Artlist, Adobe, EBay, Switchpod, and Peak Design. We only do this with brands that we have used and recommend.

Deity Mics, an off shoot from lighting manufacturer Aputure, makes absolutely killer microphones that are reasonably priced. We currently own several Deity products including the Connect dual channel wireless system, the award winning on-camera V-Mic-D3 Pro (that we use to record all our YouTube videos), and the S-Mic 2 super cardioid shotgun mic.

Dracast is a company that makes high quality film and video lights (among other gear). We use and recommend Dracast lights, and have been a huge fan of theirs for a few years now. If you purchase a light directly from them we make a small commission on that sale. Check out Adam’s review on the Dracast S Series Bi Color panels.

Amazon is an online marketplace where you can purchase pretty much anything from camera rain covers to dog poop bags (that you can use as camera rain covers if you need to). We typically use Amazon for gear that we cannot get locally. Gear links to Amazon from our site are almost always affiliate links, and if you buy something from Amazon after clicking one of the links, even if it isn’t the exact product, we usually make a small commission on it.

Artlist is a music licensing site for video producers and filmmakers. I’ve been hearing about them for awhile now and finally pulled the plug and got a subscription. Their site is minimalist, easy to use, and has a ginormous library of music for your video projects. If you sign up with my referral link we’ll each get 2 free months - a win-win!

Adobe’s products are made for creators by creators, and they’re incredible regardless of if you’re a photographer, filmmaker, designer, or app developer. We’ve been using the Adobe Creative Cloud (and formerly Creative suite) for well over a decade, and it’s seriously one of the most intuitive and powerful suites of programs out there. You can get your first month free if you sign up for Adobe Stock, and there are massive savings on Adobe CC if you’re a student or educator. If you use our links to purchase any Adobe products we make a small commission.

EBay has grown from the little auction site where you tried to sell your Beanie Baby collection to a large online marketplace where manufacturers and retailers are selling their products directly to consumers. Occasionally we’ll have an item that is easier or cheaper to get on EBay than anywhere else, and when we share those they are usually affiliate links that we make a commission on.

Peak Design makes high quality gear for filmmakers. Aimed at the traveling filmmaker, Peak Design’s stuff is sexy, functional, and so well designed. If you purchase something through one of our links we can make a small commission (check out Adam’s unedited review of their groundbreaking Travel Tripod).

Switchpod is a newer brand that came into the public eye after a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that launched their eponymous tabletop and vlogging tripod. If you end up on their site via one of our links and ordering a Switchpod or some accessories we can earn a small commission.

You can check out a fairly comprehensive list of gear, equipment, and resources we recommend on Kit. While Kit itself isn’t an affiliate site, they do a good job incorporating affiliate links so we wanted to mention it here.

How much do you make doing this?

This is not a large or viable source of income - on average we make between $650-750 a year through affiliate marketing. Mostly just enough to re-invest in some new gear, or pay for our editing software and music subscription services. That being said, the more often something is purchased through one of our affiliate links, the more time we can dedicate to producing helpful and educational content for filmmakers, video producers, photographers, and freelancers.

Why bring this up?

One of the things we love doing is sharing what we’ve learned (and what we’re still learning), about freelancing, filmmaking, and video production. To do that we need the trust of our audience - YOU. We want to be as open, honest, and transparent as possible when it comes to this. If we make a dime doing, recommending, or promoting anything, we’ll tell you about it. Other than the commissions we make if/when you purchase something through one of our links, we are in no way compensated by any of the businesses we are affiliates with, and we will only ever link products that we’ve used and recommend. It’s also required by the Federal Trade Commission, and most of the places we are affiliates with. And it can be a good opportunity for you to learn about affiliate marketing, in case you want to do it yourself, or just want to know more about how it works!

Still have questions about affiliate marketing?

Then swing on by our contact page and type your question(s) in the little message box, email us at hi@droimedia.com, or pester us on any of our social media accounts!