How Omid G Won a Trip to Maui as a beehiiv Partner

Good things come to those who use beehiiv.

Even better things come to those who use beehiiv and promote it as a partner.

Last year, we sat down with Omid to discuss his success as a beehiiv partner and strategies on how to grow your newsletter.

One year later, after hovering around 3rd and 4th place every quarter in our partner program’s Beach Club competition, he was finally crowned the champion.

His prize? An all-inclusive trip to Maui with a friend.

So, how did Omid win? He joined beehiiv’s Partner Program — one of the best partner programs in the world.

In the program, beehiiv partners earn a generous 50% commission for 12 months on all referred revenue. That means if you just refer three people per month to beehiiv, you could earn $18,000 per year.

In the first quarter of 2024, Omid G competed in the beehiiv Beach Club and secured the top spot by securing the most commissions.

In this beehiiv partner case study, we interviewed Omid G, founder of Marketer Milk, to cover exactly how he was able to crack the number one spot on the beehiiv partners leaderboard.

Keep reading to learn the exact strategies he used to refer his audience to beehiiv by leveraging SEO and other marketing techniques.

Dive in to learn how you can build passive income streams with beehiiv and get your chance at a tropical vacation for two.

beehiiv’s Partner Program

Before we unpack the strategies Omid used to win, let’s do a quick recap of the beehiiv partner program to catch you up to speed.

With beehiiv, you get access to one of the most generous partner programs online:

• Stacked commissions: Earn 50% on all referred revenue for 12 months.

• Limitless Earnings: We don’t cap you on your earnings at a certain point.

• Increasing Returns: Tap into the growth of one of the fastest-growing platforms online.

• Recurring Revenue: Use our powerful newsletter platform to create passive income streams on autopilot.

If you’re a creator, newsletter operator, or agency, the beehiiv Partner Program is an incredible opportunity to build recurring monthly income by simply recommending the tool you already use and love.

Plus, when you refer someone to beehiiv, they get a better deal than if they sign up directly through the site.

In addition to your 50% commission for a year, your referred users will get a 30-day, free trial and 20% off their paid plan for 3 months.

It’s a win-win and just another reason why it’s the best partner program available.

2024 Q1 Beach Club Giveaway Winner: Omid G

Matt McGarry was our first Beach Club winner, and he went to the Bahamas.

Waleed N went to Aruba as our second champion.

Nicholas Agardy won a trip to Cabo.

Now, Omid G is heading to Maui to cash in as the victor of the 2024 Q1 Beach Club. He closed out the quarter with $3,454.37 in net new sales.

What makes this so special?

Omid was one of our first-ever beehiiv partners when we launched the partner program back in 2022.

So what did Omid do to secure first place and win the trip?

We asked Omid about his unique strategy to find out more.

Before we dive into the exact strategies and methods Omid leveraged to secure first place in the Beach Club Q1 2024 competition, let’s dive into Omid’s backstory.

Falling in Love With Marketing

Omid recalled, “I was studying engineering in college to be a mechanical engineer, and my goal was always to launch a clothing brand. That was my first taste of entrepreneurship in a way. Long story short, it was a complete failure. Nobody bought anything.”

Omid learned that understanding audience-building and distribution is far more important than trying to build a product first, but that experience helped him realize how much he loves marketing.

He shared, “Originally I got into affiliate marketing running ads, several years back while I was still in college. And after college, I started working at a marketing agency, running ads for different clients, mostly in the SaaS space.”

Next thing you know, Omid starts diving into SEO — the very thing that helped him secure the top spot in our Beach Club in Q1.

Omid explained, “I was always attracted to the discoverability aspect of search engines. I saw Google Ads as a superior ads platform, which then led me to think, ‘Well, what about the organic side and how does that work?’ So I launched a bunch of different, small, media blogs. I constantly tried to build a media company, but it just wasn't taking off.”

That early experience in marketing led Omid to what he describes as, “the right place at the right time.”

Webflow: The Right Place at the Right Time

That right place was Webflow, a no-code website builder.

Omid recalled, “I got an intro to one of the co-founders of Webflow before they totally took off and exploded, and I ended up getting an offer to work at Webflow to do their content marketing. So I packed up all my stuff, drove to San Francisco, and started working at Webflow.”

Omid took over a bunch of the marketing responsibilities at the startup. He was, “...running a little bit of the ads, but owning the blog, and the content marketing side of things.” He also “managed the affiliate program there and ran the newsletter as well.”

Omid elaborated, “At Webflow, I was looking at what a lot of the big partners were doing, and I noticed there were a lot of templates and people driving commissions through the template marketplace.”

Omid shared, “There's so many of these website builder review sites. I was just seeing how much traffic and commissions they were driving, aso I started taking a lot of those insights. ‘What are the keywords that convert?’ So I started applying that to the Webflow blog.”

Next thing you know, Omid found himself in the middle of a startup that was just about to take off.

Omid shared, “The company exploded around me. There were three of us on the marketing team. By the time I left a couple of years ago, it was 40 plus people just on the marketing team, so slowly, each person became super specialized. Then, I became the main person for all things SEO on the entire Webflow site, but I primarily focused on the blog because that's where I saw most of the non-branded search traffic growth.”

This is where Omid really honed his SEO skills. He was able to get a constant feedback loop of what was working (and what wasn’t) since he was primarily focused on SEO now, but he shared how SEO is primarily about long-term growth.

Omid explained, “It wasn't until year two and year three that things really started to scale, and I started to develop this intuition for what's going to work and what's not going to work.”

From Webflow to Marketer Milk 

Eventually, Omid left Webflow to pursue his dream of starting his own media company.

But this time, he had the experience under his belt that he needed to succeed.

Omid recalled, “Going back many years, when I tried to start a media company and it wouldn't work, I was like, ‘Well, maybe I could do this again with this SEO knowledge that I have now.” So I built out marketermilk.com, and I wanted it to be like a newsletter platform.”

When Omid launched Marketer Milk, beehiiv was just about to launch, so he found his way onto Mailchimp’s platform.

Omid shared, “I just signed up to Mailchimp, and I was just capturing emails, but not sending any emails. This was August of 2021. I started releasing a few articles: maybe five about the best marketing books and best content writing services, just listicle articles in that space.”

Omid launched Marketer Milk because of his love for marketing itself. He wanted to document what he was learning, almost like a public journal of his passion.

Omid explained, “[Marketer Milk] It’s a curation site first and that's what the newsletter is. But the growth is the front end of the business, and it really comes from the blog and SEO.”

Why beehiiv?

Eventually, Omid realized Mailchimp wasn’t going to cut it for what he wanted, so he kept searching until he came across beehiiv online.

Omid recalled, “I remember being like, ‘I need to find a newsletter platform, and I want something that can do polls. And it can be very interactive.’ I didn't know how to code beyond knowing how to just build Webflow websites.”

Omid shared, “It was before the Partner Program existed. I remember hearing about Tyler being one of the employees at Morning Brew, and that gave me the trust to say, ‘Okay, maybe this team knows what they're building and what they're talking about when it comes to newsletters. So I'm going to try out this platform.’”

As soon as Omid gave beehiiv a shot, he “fell in love with it.”

Next thing you know, Omid began sharing his ideas with Tyler Denk (beehiiv’s CEO) on Webflow’s affiliate program and how beehiiv could do something similar.

Omid recounted, “I remember messaging Tyler, like, ‘Hey, you guys should launch an affiliate program because I really want to start promoting the tool.’ I pretty much told him what the structure was at Webflow, which was like 50 percent commission for the first 12 months.”

Enjoying this case study? Learn how Matt McGarry of Newsletter Operator won the first-ever beehiiv Beach Club and landed a trip to the Bahamas.

Crystal Ball SEO To Reach #1 in Google

Knowing beehiiv was going to be launching a partner program, Omid planned ahead and decided he was going to write a beehiiv review blog post in advance. 

Omid knew that if he could get his blog post about beehiiv out there first, he could start reeling in search engine traffic. He realized nobody had done it yet, so it was like he found unclaimed SEO territory online that he decided to claim as his own.

Omid shared, “So I had wrote an article about a beehiiv review, and I remember it was the first article reviewing beehiiv; so it ranked number one [in Google’s search engine results page] for [the keyword] “beehiiv review” in like six hours. There was no competition.”

Some SEO specialists refer to this as the “crystal ball” method. It’s where you write a piece of content ahead of time for a future event; so when the time comes when people will be searching for that term, your blog post is already established and primed to rank high and capture that future traffic.

SEO Tools Aren’t Always Right

While SEO tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz can be helpful to find target keywords to go after to improve search rankings, Omid believes they aren’t the be-all-end-all.

Omid remembered, “At the time, nobody was really searching for that term. It was a brand new tool. And then one day, I heard about this thing called ‘zero click’ or ‘zero volume’ keywords. It’s keywords that you search, and you see the [Google] auto-complete show up for a certain keyword.”

With the Google autocomplete method, you can find out what keywords people are searching directly in Google itself, without the need for a third-party SEO tool.

Omid continued, “So people are searching it, but a keyword research tool like Ahrefs or Semrush will say that it has zero search volume, or it's not available. And so I was looking up “best newsletter” [in Google], and then I hit space; and the first one was ‘platforms.’”

Omid explained, “A couple of years ago now, the tools were saying there's no search volume for this keyword, but I was like, ‘This sounds like a really good keyword to go after. It was probably the first article on the first page for that keyword that was mentioning beehiiv.”

Omid explained a bit about how Google’s algorithm favors certain aspects of SEO.

For example, Omid shared, “Google really cares about people's honest opinions, and even the reader wants to read things from people that have ‘been there, done that.’ I believe that beehiiv was the best option for newsletters, so I put it at number one and explained why I believe it was number one. I did a lot of research on the other tools and just made it a very thoughtful article.”

Despite there being tons of competition on the first page of Google’s search results from big media sites and SaaS companies, Omid went for it.

Omid explained, I would read their articles, and I'd be like, ‘Their number one option – I know it's not the best tool.’ And so I released that article.”

How Freelance Writing Helped Him Rank 

Omid also did guest blog posting on the side, while he built up Marketer Milk.

He shared, “When I left Webflow to build out Marketer Milk, it was making no money. So I started freelance writing a lot, and I still do that today, too. It  gave me the opportunity to also drive links to certain articles to help them rank. That [newsletter platform review] article started to rank really strong.”

Omid was writing for SaaS companies as a freelancer. While researching for their companies, he would start to see patterns keyword formats and structures, which helped with his own media company, especially when it came to driving traffic to his beehiiv partner links to get more commissions.

Omid explained, “Instead of it being my own product, it's an affiliated product, so that strategy is pretty much how I was able to drive commissions to beehiiv. It’s fairly passive; but, of course, with SEO, you’ve got to update articles every six months to a year, and you have to keep up with the maintenance. So nothing's fully passive, but it's as passive as it could probably get.”

beehiiv’s Commissions & Finally Winning the Beach Club

Since starting our beehiiv Partner Program, Omid has driven more traffic, signups, and paid beehiiv conversions than any other partner. He’s been so consistent, which is why it’s so nice to see him finally win our Beach Club vacation.

Concerning the partner commissions, Omid shared, “It's been a nice check that comes from beehiiv. I've always seen myself in the ranks of third or fourth for the beehiiv Beach Club competition. And I've never really expected to win because I had a feeling that a lot of people in the top positions were running email newsletter agencies, or they had direct contact with companies that wanted to build out newsletters.”

Omid admitted he was pretty surprised that he won the Q1 Beach Club.

Omid recalled, “I think at the end of March, I just saw that I was number one, and I was like, ‘What the heck? That's wild.’ I think in March there were one or two enterprise-level deals that came through, and I think that's what pushed me to the number one position; but that was just totally out of my control.”

Omid believes luck played a role in why he won the competition this past quarter, since a few of his referred users signed up for a beehiiv enterprise plan, which is a much more expensive plan for large companies.

Omid explained, “The outcomes of the commissions and the traffic is totally out of my control, but the inputs and the articles are. I’ve also mentioned beehiiv occasionally in my newsletter as well, but I'm not sure if those are really driving any affiliate commissions. My hunch is that most of it's coming from blog articles.”

Marketer Milk Monetization Methods 

Since leaving Webflow, Omid has built up his media company, Marketer Milk, which has brought several monetization options his way.

Omid shared, “So Marketer Milk is mostly monetized through affiliates. It can bring in some inbound, although I've pretty much rejected most people that come in through inbound because I will only work with companies that I know that I can help. My mindset is, ‘I'm only going to work with this company if I can turn it into a case study.’”

While the traffic he gets to Marketer Milk has given him inbound leads for freelance writing work, Omid typically just cold emails prospects, but he’s able to leverage the results that Marketer Milk gets in Google traffic and his newsletter stats as a personal case study.

“A lot of times it's just me simply cold emailing founders of SaaS companies, explaining who I am and what I can do for them. The credibility comes from Webflow, but also that I have Marketer Milk. I can show the traffic and the keywords that I’m ranking for. So I have this luck from Webflow, but I've also built this luck through the blog and its growth over the past couple of years.”

Newsletter List Growth Strategies

In terms of growing his newsletter list, Omid’s spent the majority of his efforts on SEO to bring in organic traffic from search engines that he then converts into newsletter subscribers on his site, but he’s also dabbled in the beehiiv Ad Network to grow.

Omid explained, “I’ve run some ads through the beehiiv Ad Network just to grow the newsletter, and it's worked pretty well; so I know that the quality is there with the beehiiv Ad Network. But most of the subscribers just come through SEO to the site, and now it's been kind of word-of-mouth marketing where somebody will subscribe and they'll forward the email to a co-worker and the co-worker will subscribe; and it's kind of like this referral effect.”

On top of his SEO efforts, Omid has also started tapping into beehiiv’s integrated Referral Program to fuel organic newsletter growth even more.

Omid shared, “I use the referral program. If they send one referral to me, they can download this digital PDF of how I grew a website from 0 to 200,000 visitors a month.”

#1 Strategy for Partners: Focus on Content Above All

I asked Omid what advice he’d have for someone looking to succeed with the beehiiv partner program to earn more commissions.

Omid shared, “I would say not to think too much about growing your affiliate revenue, but how do you produce very helpful content on whatever platform you're creating on.”

Omid continued, “Every time I create content, I look at it in both ways: Number one, it needs to serve the human side, so talk about things you know. My mindset as a marketer is ‘Be your ICP,’ so I'm a marketer. I talk about marketing topics. So when I create content, I create it for myself. In that way, people resonate with it, and it's seen as helpful content.”

Omid believes that crafting successful content online also comes down to understanding the algorithms.

Omid explained, “The other angle is: You don't want to turn a blind eye to how algorithms work. So with SEO, learning the tactical side of  SEO, like how should you structure a blog post? How should you structure your H1 headings, your H2 headings, your H3s? What is the structure of a great SEO article? And then within that structure, you add in that human side.”

Omid shared how understanding algorithms translates across to search engines but also social media algorithms.

Omid explained, “This goes for YouTube as well. Some of the biggest YouTubers, like Mr. Beast, understand the structure of how to make a video go viral. Then, it's a new idea each time within that same structure.”

For example, Omid mentioned, “If you were to create short form videos on reels or TikTok or YouTube shorts, understand what these platforms are looking for and how the algorithm works. In doing that, you will naturally grow an audience. And as that audience comes, you have distribution; and then you can promote affiliate products. You can create your own products. You can build out an agency or sell services.

Closing Advice: Build a Long-Term Brand

Omid’s closing advice for partners looking to monetize with beehiiv’s partner program is to skip over the quick “hacks” and instead build a brand that will serve your audience long term.

Omid explained, “It just goes back to my experience of launching — starting with the product first — with a clothing line and then getting no customers. Instead, let me build distribution first and then focus on the monetization aspect. That's one thing I see a lot when you Google ‘how to do affiliate marketing on YouTube,’ and it's people just showing you how to publish links all over LinkedIn and TikTok.”

Omid continued, “I don't think it's the right value. There are ways where that can potentially work in some industries if you run ads. But if you want to build something organic and long term, you have to think about building a brand.”

He really wanted to hit home that affiliate marketing isn’t about making a quick buck, but establishing a reputable brand.

Omid closed by stating, “Affiliate marketing is just a monetization method as a byproduct after you build a really reputable brand… Focus on building a really strong brand and distribution and build an audience. Then, it’ll be a lot easier to promote stuff. You should promote stuff you actually like. I actually like beehiiv, so I feel good about promoting it.”

To follow along with Omid, you can find him at Marketer Milk or read one of his latest issues, “My 26 best marketing books of all time to read in 2024” or “Is marketing (actually) a good major? (Honest opinion).”

Earn Passively With beehiiv’s Partner Program

beehiiv’s Partner Program is a powerful way you can earn recurring income by simply sharing the newsletter platform you already love.

At beehiiv, we made it our mission to make this the best (and most lucrative) affiliate program available, giving you 50% of all revenue from referrals for 12 months straight.

This means if 10 people sign up for our Scale plan through your partner link, you’ll earn $500 per month for a year!

Plus, what’s even better…

We don’t cap you on commissions like the other guys.

Whether you refer 5 users or 100 users, you’ll still receive a 50% commission.

Your income potential is limitless.

The average beehiiv customer pays $87 per month. This means if you get 20 people to sign up, you’ll earn $10,440 in a year!

Once you sign up, simply share your unique partner link to your audience; and when they sign up using your link, you’ll cash in on 50% of that revenue for an entire year.

You can join the beehiiv Partner Program in minutes. Just click the button below, and you’ll be fully set up in no time. 

The Next Beach Club Giveaway: Maui (Q2 2024)

Are you beach ready?

Well, the winner of beehiiv’s Q2 Beach Club winner is heading to the Bahamas for one week.

It’s a new quarter, and we’re only one month in. That means you have an opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid vacation for you and one lucky friend.

Are you a recent beehiiv partner? Or do you want to get started?

Don’t worry. Maui may be gone, but the Bahamas is on the horizon.

Check out the video below to see where the next winner is heading (it could be you).

The contest ends on June 30, so join now for a shot at the Bahamas getaway.

We’ll catch ya on the beach! 🤙

Join the Partner Program now.

*Full terms and conditions of the Beach Club Giveaway promotion can be found here.