417: How To Make A Million Dollars Selling Bling With Natalie Mounter

Podcast: Download (Duration: 49:19 — 56.7MB)

To build an ecommerce affiliate program that actually drives revenue, offer free product plus a generous commission (20% with a 30-day cookie window), recruit micro influencers who do not have agents, and then stop micromanaging them entirely. Natalie Mounter runs Totally Dazzled, a seven-figure rhinestone and wedding accessory store, and her affiliate program brings in six figures a year in directly attributable sales.

In this episode I sat down with Natalie Mounter, a student in both of my courses and a good friend, to break down how she grew from selling AliExpress inventory on Etsy while pregnant to a seven-figure business run almost entirely by stay-at-home moms, without ever selling on Amazon.

Below is the full playbook: the affiliate commission structure that competes with Amazon Associates, the outreach email subject line that works, the top-tier creator program she pays flat rates for, why she staffs exclusively with stay-at-home moms, and the email and SMS cadence behind her repeat customer rate.

Key takeaways

• 20% commission with a 30-day cookie window. Generous terms are required to compete with Amazon Associates for influencer attention.
• Free product plus commission beats flat fees. It is a commission-only sales force, so you only pay when they perform.
• Never micromanage an affiliate. No required video counts, no deadlines, no check-ins demanding output. That is what kills the relationship.
• The subject line that works: “Can we pay you?” Micro influencers need income, and most brands only offer free product.
• Educate affiliates with an automated onboarding flow. Most failures come from creators not knowing where their link is.
• Hire My Mom is an underused hiring channel. Smart, educated, hardworking people with genuinely limited alternatives.
• Email captures at 10% off, SMS at 20% off. Most people take the bigger discount and give you the phone number.
• She deliberately does not sell on Amazon. Optimizing for happiness over the last 50% of the market.

How to start an affiliate program for an ecommerce store

To start an affiliate program for an ecommerce store, begin informally with free product before you build any infrastructure. Natalie started by researching YouTube channels making content adjacent to her products, building a spreadsheet, and emailing each one an offer of free product with no formal terms at all.

The initial pitch was simple: “You decorate for weddings. Here are some free napkin rings for your next wedding, on the house.” No contract, no deliverable requirements, no tracking links. Just product and an open door.

Once that generated traction, she formalized it on Refersion with real commission tracking. The order matters. Prove that creators in your space will engage before you pay for affiliate software.

What commission rate should an ecommerce affiliate program pay?

An ecommerce affiliate program should pay 20% with a 30-day cookie window if you want to compete for influencer attention. That is generous for physical products, and the competition is Amazon Associates, where conversion rates are higher because everyone already has an Amazon account.

The reasoning: your store almost certainly converts worse than Amazon for a cold visitor. To make promoting you worth an influencer’s time, the commission has to compensate for that conversion gap.

The structure is free product plus 20% commission, paid monthly. No flat fees for most creators. It functions as a commission-only sales team, so the downside is capped at the cost of the product you shipped.

Why you should never micromanage your affiliates

Never micromanage your affiliates. No required number of videos, no photo minimums, no deadlines, no follow-up asking when the content is going live. The moment you start chasing deliverables, the relationship sours and the creator stops wanting to promote you.

I experienced this personally from the other side. A company offered me $500 for a TikTok video and I declined payment, offering to just make it for free because I liked their product. They proceeded to hound me about when the video would post anyway, and now I am unlikely to work with them again.

Natalie’s framing: “I have already seen your content. I already know I like what you do. I do not need to micromanage you.” Send the product, share the link, get out of the way.

The affiliate outreach email that gets replies

The affiliate outreach subject line that gets replies is “Can we pay you?” Micro influencers at the tens-of-thousands follower level are typically not making meaningful money, and most brand outreach they receive offers free product only.

Leading with income rather than product changes the entire frame. For a creator trying to turn a channel into a business, a brand offering real commission on a product they already talk about is genuinely valuable.

The definition of “micro influencer” that matters here is behavioral rather than numeric: anyone without an agent or management company. That ranges from a few tens of thousands of followers up to around a million, as long as they will work on commission rather than demanding flat rates.

How to onboard affiliates so they actually use their links

Onboard affiliates with an automated email flow that shows them exactly where to find their affiliate link, who to contact for free product, and that the relationship is ongoing rather than a one-time product drop.

The most common affiliate program failure is not laziness. It is creators who genuinely do not know where their tracking link lives or how the attribution works, especially at the micro level where they may never have run an affiliate deal before.

The fix is a simple Google Slides deck with screenshots, delivered automatically through a Klaviyo flow when someone is added to the affiliate segment. It covers link location, free product requests, and the fact that they can reach out anytime for more.

Most of the work in an affiliate program is outreach and onboarding. Once someone is in and educated, maintaining the relationship is what produces compounding returns.

How to keep affiliates engaged month after month

Keep affiliates engaged with a monthly game plan communicated through a dedicated email segment: a new product to launch, a free download to promote, an upcoming sale, or simply an offer of more free product.

The cadence matters more than the specific ask. Some months it is “we have a new product and you get it first.” Some months it is “here is our sale calendar, promote whatever fits your content.” Some months it is just a check-in flow asking whether they need anything.

Share every sale and promotion with your affiliate list so they can promote alongside your own marketing. They are a distribution channel you are already paying for on performance.

The top-tier creator program that produces owned content

The top-tier creator program pays a flat rate to a handful of proven affiliates to produce content directly on the brand’s own Facebook page, which means the brand owns the content outright and can repurpose it across every channel.

The selection criteria: creators already in the affiliate program who consistently showed up, promoted reliably, and produced work the brand genuinely liked. They get invited up rather than recruited cold.

The mechanics: a weekly craft or DIY project filmed live on the brand’s Facebook page, with a loose theme provided for consistency and full creative freedom inside it. The flat rate buys full ownership rights, which is the entire point.

Owning the content outright is what makes repurposing possible. That footage becomes YouTube uploads, Reels, and TikToks with no rights disputes.

Why affiliate revenue is always underreported

Affiliate revenue is always underreported because most buyers never click the tracking link. They hear about your brand from multiple creators, remember the name, and search for you directly weeks later.

Natalie’s affiliate program shows six figures a year in directly attributable sales, and she believes the real contribution is substantially higher. Craft-community audiences follow multiple creators, so a viewer might hear “Totally Dazzled” from three different channels before buying.

The related experiment: we once put a coupon code directly on the checkout page, front and center, and only about 30% of buyers used it. People do not click things, even when the thing is obvious and saves them money.

Accept that affiliate marketing requires some faith in touchpoints you cannot track, and judge the program on total revenue trend rather than last-click attribution alone.

Why she staffs her entire company with stay-at-home moms

Totally Dazzled is staffed almost entirely by stay-at-home moms, including warehouse and fulfillment (run out of a team member’s garage, guest room, and storage units), customer service, video editing, and Facebook ads.

The talent pool is genuinely underused: smart, educated, hardworking people whose realistic alternatives are mostly MLM pitches and predatory work-from-home schemes. Real flexible positions are scarce.

The management approach is what makes it work. Nobody tracks hours or requires specific working times.

As long as orders ship within the promised window, when the packing happens is irrelevant. That flexibility is exactly what the team actually values.

Hire My Mom is the recruiting channel. It surfaced her editor and multiple other team members.

How to grow an email and SMS list with giveaways

Grow an email and SMS list by running frequent giveaways, which give you a legitimate reason to contact everyone and simultaneously grow email, SMS, and social following at once.

The capture structure: 10% off for an email address, 20% off if they also give you a phone number. Most people take the larger discount, which means SMS grows nearly as fast as email.

The sending cadence: two to three emails per week, and SMS roughly weekly with fewer follow-ups per campaign. A sale that gets four emails gets two texts. SMS now generates slightly more revenue than email for the store.

Why some stores deliberately refuse to sell on Amazon

Some stores deliberately refuse to sell on Amazon because the stress of platform dependence outweighs access to half the ecommerce market. Natalie has never sold on Amazon and does not plan to.

Her reasoning is entirely about optimizing for happiness rather than revenue maximization. Something goes wrong on Amazon roughly every other week, and when it does, you have no control and no recourse, and it ruins the day for everyone.

She started the business to be home with her kids. Any decision that conflicts with that gets declined regardless of the revenue attached to it, which is a genuinely defensible way to run a company.

Frequently asked questions

What commission should an ecommerce affiliate program pay?

Twenty percent with a 30-day cookie window is competitive for physical products. The benchmark is Amazon Associates, and since your store likely converts worse than Amazon for cold traffic, the higher commission compensates influencers for that gap. Pay monthly and offer free product on top.

How do you find affiliates for an ecommerce store?

Search YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok for creators making content adjacent to your product category, build a spreadsheet, and email them directly. Start informally with free product before investing in affiliate software. The subject line “Can we pay you?” works because most brand outreach offers product only.

What is the biggest mistake brands make with affiliate programs?

Micromanaging. Requiring a specific number of videos, setting deadlines, or following up to ask when content is going live all damage the relationship. Send the product, provide the link, and let creators work on their own schedule.

Why do affiliates fail to use their tracking links?

Usually because they do not know where the link is or how attribution works, especially micro influencers who have never run an affiliate deal. Fix it with an automated onboarding flow containing screenshots showing exactly where to find the link and who to contact for more product.

Is affiliate revenue accurately tracked?

No, it is consistently underreported. Many buyers hear about a brand from multiple creators, never click a tracking link, and search for the brand directly weeks later. One test showed only about 30% of buyers used a coupon code displayed directly on the checkout page.

Where can you hire remote workers for an ecommerce business?

Hire My Mom is an underused channel for finding smart, educated, hardworking stay-at-home parents. The talent pool is strong because legitimate flexible positions are scarce, and the workers value schedule flexibility over rigid hours, which suits ecommerce fulfillment and support work well.

Should you sell on Amazon or stay off the platform?

It depends on what you are optimizing for. Amazon offers access to roughly half of ecommerce, and it also means account suspensions, policy changes, and problems you cannot control. Some seven-figure sellers deliberately stay off Amazon entirely because the stress is not worth the revenue.