Affiliate Marketing
(This article contains affiliate links to products and services. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links).
When you consider all the products and programs that are capable of generating affiliate income, it can be mighty difficult to choose which ones have the most potential to make you money now. This is why this article explains how to make money now with affiliate marketing.
In most instances, you won’t know for certain until you start promoting any given product whether you will make money with affiliate marketing. But some factors can help diminish the risk of choosing products that have little or no potential.
1. First and foremost, you need to establish whether or not there’s even a viable demand for a product. Aside from determining if people want the product, you have to find out what type of people would be interested and if you can easily reach that target audience.
2. How good is the product sales page? If it doesn’t look as though it can convert visitors into buyers, you have to decide how much work it will take on your part to override that particular drawback. Then you need to decide if it’s worth the extra effort you’ll invest.
3. Overall, you have to decide whether a website will help or hinder your ability to make sales. Go with your instincts. If you don’t feel comfortable with the look, the sales copy, or the order process, chances are the average viewer won’t either.
4. Can you make money now by promoting the product? Some owners reward their affiliates by giving them generous commissions while others merely offer a very small percentage. For the most part, those differences are associated with two very specific categories… digital and physical products.
For example, you can usually make at least a 50% commission selling ebooks and software products. With physical items such as vitamins, print books, and pet products, an affiliate commission can be relatively low (on average, somewhere between 5% and 10%).
Although the percentage is important, it also depends on the price of the product. If you’re selling an exercise machine that retails for $1500, even a minimal 10% commission will gain you $150 for each sale that you make.
Furthermore, if you’re an affiliate with a company like Amazon, you’ll mostly be promoting products that are very low in the sales price. Therefore, to make a significant amount of money from promoting their products, you’ll need to shift a huge volume of products. However, you can lessen this by selling high ticket products.
- The quality of the product is extremely important. If you don’t feel confident about how good it is or how well it performs, it’s going to be difficult for you to launch a successful promotional campaign, much less maintain it over an extended period.
- You need to have the ability to track and monitor everything related to your affiliate activities. That would include things like the number of visitors you send to each sales page, how many of them made a purchase, and running sales and refund statistics. Have an efficient tracking system to allow you to keep abreast of the product performance to help you tweak and improve your promotion going forward.
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Finding Affiliate Programs
There are three basic methods for locating good affiliate programs…
- Conduct searches based on a particular niche market.
- Sign up to use the services of an affiliate marketing network.
- Search through the categories of affiliate program directories.
The first option will require a considerable amount of time, but it’s definitely worth the effort. Assuming, of course, you’ve completed all the necessary preliminary work which would guarantee a positive outcome.
That would include things like determining your exact target audience, choosing specific and highly relevant keywords, and establishing what criteria would constitute a fair and equitable affiliate program.
The search itself would be conducted in two stages…
The first stage would involve the keywords. You would first need to select a list of search phrases that are highly relevant to the product. Then you would conduct searches using each of those keywords. This will lead you to niche markets and their products.
The second stage would involve any given keyword plus the word affiliate. For example, “dog training affiliate” or “affiliate dog training“. What this will generally turn up is either an affiliate program for products that are associated with that particular keyword or a content site that is already an affiliate.
Either way, it allows for further action about becoming an affiliate for a specific keyword or product niche.
With the second option, you simply open the main account with the affiliate network which in turn entitles you to promote any of the products that are included within their listings.
Although these affiliate networks might not always be as capable of giving you exact matches to what you’re looking for, they can be incredible time savers.
Affiliate marketing websites like Commission Junction and Click Bank make it extremely easy to locate good affiliate programs. And generally, for products and services that are highly compatible with the niche or target audience, you’ll be reaching.
Commission Junction offers all ranges of products, services, and programs – both digital and tangible. ClickBank, on the other hand, only handles digital products such as eBooks and software programs. If it can’t be downloaded or delivered electronically.
The third option is to search for affiliate programs by the company name the affiliate. This will direct you to that company affiliate page, then you can apply to them directly.
Make Money Now
Having to compete with hundreds or even thousands of other affiliates can make the task of generating income extremely difficult. And the only way to combat all that competition is to come up with methods and techniques that will make money now and stand out from the crowd.
Here are several ways you can do that…
- Use Your Website
If you don’t already have a website, get one. If you have a website but it doesn’t lend itself to promoting other people’s products and services, put a site together that does.
Although you can promote affiliate products without a website, there are distinct advantages to having a dedicated website.
The most important advantage is that you can pre-sell the products. Rather than send cold prospects to the owner’s sales page, you’ll have them warmed up and ready to make the purchase.
How you warm them up depends on the product itself. With some of them, you can simply write a positive and glowing testimonial, telling them just how great the product is and how many benefits you receive whenever you use it.
With other products, you might want to give them a condensed sales pitch that includes a common problem (poor performance on the golf course) and the ultimate solution (a revolutionary new club that is guaranteed to improve their score).
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Write Personal Reviews And Recommendations
There’s a reason TV commercials that have celebrities promoting products are so popular, it’s the same thing with Youtube Influencers or Instagram Influencers. If a celebrity drinks that soda or wears that jeans or drives that car, they must be worth buying.
Having someone personally endorse a product is the number one sales booster. And even though you might not be a celebrity, your recommendation will go a long way in convincing buyers how good your affiliate product is.
Review the product in a positive light. Use information from the owner’s sales page or list benefits that you have thought of. Give the prospective buyers a solid reason to click over to the product website.
Implementing the usual sales approach is fine. But the most effective tactic, the one that will quickly and easily increase the conversion rate, is you personally singing the praises of whatever product you’re promoting.
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Operate A Niche Blog
There’s no better method for promoting products than a blog. Naturally, you can do the same thing in a newsletter, but that only gets read by those individuals who are already on your mailing list.
With a blog, you can reach an unlimited number of people who would be interested in the type of products you’re promoting.
Of course, you can’t simply use the blog to sell things. You have to provide valuable and useful content, something that will not only make people listen, but will have them returning regularly.
The easiest content – at least for anyone who relies on affiliate sales – is simply to provide product reviews. If, for example, you promote various pet supplies and training eBooks, you could create a blog for that particular niche and then include in-depth reports about different aspects of individual products.
You could also give tips and advice concerning using any of the products. Or you could provide ideas on how the products can best be utilized. You could even ask readers to offer their own opinions and recommendations.
In most instances, these types of postings will spur comments from viewers, which in turn will spur comments from other viewers. And of course, the more comments that get posted, the more interest will be generated overall.
You can use blog software or you can simply sign up with one of the free online blog services. The most popular content management system online is WordPress.
- Decide on your blog’s name and niche.
- Get your blog online by grabbing your domain name for $0.88 hear, then sign up with a super reliable cheap hosting company called Namecheap.com
- Upload and Design your blog with a free WordPress theme.
- Write your first blog post and bang! You’ve lifted off!
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Write Articles
There’s no better way to get personal recognition than writing and distributing your articles. And once you establish recognition, all of your product endorsements will be taken even more seriously.
When it comes to choosing topics for your articles, always pick something that is directly related to at least one of the products you’re promoting. That way you can recommend the product and include your affiliate link right there within the article.
And make certain you take full advantage of the author’s resource box…
If you have a primary sales website, where you promote affiliate products, include that link. If you have a blog where you review products, include that link as well. Or, if you have a newsletter and would prefer to solicit more subscribers, direct readers to the page that gives them all the necessary publication and signup information.
Once you’ve written articles, you need to submit them to as many online directories as you can. And always let people know that your articles are free to re-publish as long as no changes are made and the resource box is included.
Here are three of the most popular article directories…
- Ezine Articles: http://www.ezinearticles.com
- ArticlesBase: https://articlesbase.com
- Article Cube: https://www.articlecube.com
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Offer A Special Bonus
This is by far the best method for outselling other affiliates. You enhance the owner’s original product package by throwing in yet another product (or products) at no extra cost.
Of course, the more valuable and unique the bonus, the higher the possibility of making more sales than the next guy. The only other criteria are that whatever bonus you choose, it needs to be directly related to the main product.
Although you could certainly offer a tangible item, the least troublesome bonus would be something digital. That way, you don’t have to worry about physically delivering it to the buyer.
For example, if the product you’re selling is that revolutionary new golf club, you could create an ebook that has tips on how a golfer can improve their swing. Or, you could create a video that shows them how to do it properly.
The point is, you want a bonus that the buyer can simply download once they’ve made the initial product purchase. That automatically reduces the amount of work involved in delivering the bonus.
Naturally, the amount of time and money you invest in creating the digital bonus will depend on how much money you receive as an affiliate for each sale.
Just keep in mind that you’ll only have the cost of creating a digital bonus once. But the value of offering prospective buyers a special bonus could easily bring in substantial income for a considerably long time.
And make certain you clearly announce that the bonus can only be acquired if they make their purchase through your affiliate link. If they get the product anywhere else, under any conditions other than yours, they won’t receive the bonus you‘re offering.
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Give Away Free Tips And Information
Rather than dismiss all those viewers who take a look at your offer but don’t purchase right away, you should offer them free tips and information. Naturally, the content will be directly related to the products you’re promoting.
You can place that content on your website but you also need to provide methods in which the viewer will have the information available on their computer.
For example…
- Put together a downloadable list of frequently asked questions regarding the product and how to use it.
- Create an eBook that includes ideas for gaining the full potential of a product or service.
- Develop an autoresponder instruction, how-to, or general information eCourse that will be delivered over subsequent days or weeks.
In each instance that you deliver advice, tips, or information, make certain you also include specific details about the product it‘s associated with. And of course, you’ll need to include your affiliate link as well.
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Capture Names And Email Addresses
One of the major drawbacks of being an affiliate is the fact that you don’t generally have an opportunity to gain the names and email addresses of people who purchase through your affiliate link.
Plus, you’re going to attract plenty of targeted individuals who just aren’t ready to purchase during their first exposure to your offer.
Do whatever it takes to encourage prospects to sign up for your mailing list. If you create an autoresponder course (and use a qualified autoresponder service), you’ll automatically receive names and email addresses. But what about any free downloads such as eBooks or reports that you’re giving away?
Instead of merely letting viewers take them anonymously, have them fill out and submit a form first. That way, they get the free information, you get their name and email address.
Now you can contact them over an extended period, continuing to give them valuable tips and information regarding the product or type of products they were initially interested in. Just don’t abuse the privilege by sending them promotional messages and nothing else.
Your ultimate goal is to sell something but to move your mailing list members into a buying position you first need to establish a relationship of trust and respect. That will be accomplished by supplying them with valuable information while at the same time letting them know the benefits the product will provide.
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Use Your Ads And Promotional Materials
Most affiliates rely on promotional materials that are supplied by the owner of the product. That would include things like solo and classified ads, banners, pre-written sales copy, and cover and product images.
Although it might be quality material, the fact that so many other affiliates will be using it will automatically dilute the impact and effectiveness.
You can get much better results by writing your ads, writing fresh sales copy, and creating new banners and images. The primary purpose is to have something different than any of the other affiliates. But it’s also possible that what you create is superior to the original marketing materials.
Overall, it’s simply a matter of doing something different and unique. And doing it better and more aggressively than your competitors.
