Founder POV
Design a Link in Bio that Converts
Learn how to design a link in bio that actually converts—by showcasing creator deals clearly, guiding attention, and giving your recommendations a place to work over time.
Aardvark Team
Brand partnerships feel bigger, but affiliate links often compound quietly. This post breaks down how each pays, where creators get stuck, and why long-term earnings are usually misunderstood.
If you’re a content creator, brand partnerships usually feel like the goal.
They’re visible.
They’re negotiated.
They come with contracts, deliverables, and deadlines.
Affiliate links, on the other hand, feel smaller. Quieter. Less official.
Because of that, many creators assume brand partnerships are the “real” money — and affiliate links are secondary.
That assumption is where things get interesting.
Brand partnerships pay for distribution.
You agree to:
In return, you get:
That’s not a bad thing.
Brand deals are often:
But they’re also episodic.
When the campaign ends, the income stops.
Affiliate links pay for outcomes.
They don’t care when you posted.
They don’t care how polished the content was.
They only care whether a recommendation leads to a purchase.
That means affiliate income:
The same recommendation can keep paying you months — or years — later.
There’s a psychological mismatch here.
Brand deals:
Affiliate income:
So creators tend to overweight what’s visible and underweight what compounds.
That’s human.
But it leads to a distorted view of what actually pays over time.
Most creators don’t choose one or the other.
They do both — but they treat them incorrectly.
Common patterns:
So affiliate links underperform, reinforcing the belief that:
“Brand deals are where the real money is.”
In reality, affiliate links are often underperforming because they’re unsupported — not because they’re weaker.
Here’s the part that’s easy to miss:
Affiliate links benefit disproportionately from:
Brand deals don’t.
A brand partnership might pay well once.
An affiliate link might pay modestly — but repeatedly.
Over a long enough timeline, the math changes.
Brand partnerships require:
Affiliate links require:
One scales with effort.
The other scales with infrastructure.
That’s the real distinction.
If affiliate links are scattered, buried, or expire unnoticed, they’ll never compete with brand deals.
Creators then compensate by:
That works — until it doesn’t.
Without systems, affiliate links never get the chance to do what they’re good at.
This isn’t an argument against brand partnerships.
It’s an argument for balance — and for infrastructure.
Creators shouldn’t have to choose between:
Aardvark exists to make affiliate attribution persistent, visible, and timely — so creators don’t have to keep trading effort for income.
Brand deals still matter.
Affiliate links just need the chance to compound.
Learn how to design a link in bio that actually converts—by showcasing creator deals clearly, guiding attention, and giving your recommendations a place to work over time.
Adding creator deals is what allows your recommendations to work around the clock. This guide explains what creator deals are, why they matter, and how to add your first one in Aardvark.
Most creators don’t need more tools—they need fewer, better ones. This post breaks down the creator commerce stack, what actually matters, and what most creators can skip.
