Now Richer With Affiliate Marketing

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Now Richer With Affiliate Marketing

Now Richer With Affiliate Marketing

Now Richer With Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

It seems that more readers are asking this question than I previously thought.

In a recent poll here on ProBlogger I asked readers whether they’d done any

affiliate marketing on their blogs. The results revealed that:

29% of readers regularly do it
24% occasionally do it
27% have never done affiliate marketing on their blogs
6% used to do it but don’t any more
14% don’t know what affiliate marketing is

There’s some interesting results there but it was the last category (of bloggers

not knowing what affiliate marketing is) that I wanted to write this post for

with the hope of answering the question. It’s pretty basic and quite beginner

focused but for the 14% of you who don’t know what affiliate marketing is –

here’s a brief introduction.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Perhaps the simplest way to explain affiliate marketing is that it is a way of

making money online whereby you as a publisher are rewarded for helping a

business by promoting their product, service or site.

There are a number of forms of these types of promotions but in most cases

they involve you as a publisher earning a commission when someone follows

a link on your blog to another site where they then buy something.

Other variations on this are where you earn an amount for referring a visitor

who takes some kind of action – for example when they sign up for

something and give an email address, where they complete a survey, where

they leave a name and address etc.

Commissions are often a percentage of a sale but can also be a fixed amount

per conversion.

Conversions are generally tracked when the publisher (you) uses a link with a

code only being used by you embedded into it that enables the advertiser to

track where conversions come from (usually by cookies). Other times an

advertiser might give a publisher a ‘coupon code’ for their readers to use that

helps to track conversions.

For example: ” 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook” I also give people

an opportunity to promote the workbook with an affiliate program whereby

they could earn a 40% commission for each sale. When you sign up to become

an affiliate you are given a special code unique to you that enables you to

promote the workbook and make $7.98 per sale. The top affiliates earned

over $2000 in the first few weeks after launch through these commissions.

Advertisers often prefer affiliate marketing as a way to promote their

products because they know they’ll only need to pay for the advertising when

there’s a conversion. I knew when I started this affiliate program that while

I’d earn less for each sale that having a network of affiliates promoting it

would almost certainly increase overall sales levels.

Publishers often prefer affiliate marketing because if they find a product that

is relevant to their niche that earnings can go well in excess of any cost per

click or cost per impression advertising campaign.

Why Affiliate Marketing Can Work Well on Blogs

Affiliate marketing isn’t the only way to make money from blogs and it

won’t suit every blog/blogger (more on this below) but there are a few

reasons why it can be profitable in our medium. Perhaps the biggest of these

reasons is that affiliate marketing seems to work best when there’s a

relationship with trust between the publisher and their readership.

I’ve found that as this trust deepens that readers are more likely to follow the

recommendations that a blogger makes.

Of course this can also be a negative with affiliate marketing – promote the

wrong product and trust can be broken (more on this below).
Affiliate Marketing – Easy Money?

While affiliate marketing can be incredibly lucrative it is important to know

that affiliate marketing is not easy money. Most people who try it make very

little as it relies upon numerous factors including:

traffic (high traffic helps a lot)
finding relevant products
finding quality products
building trust with your readers
having a readership who is in a ‘buying mood’
you being able to write good sales copy (and more)

There’s also some risk associated with affiliate marketing in that if you push

too hard or promote products of a low quality you can actually burn readers

and hurt your reputation and brand.

It’s also worth noting that affiliate marketing doesn’t work on all blogs. Some

blogs are on topics where it is hard to find products to promote – other blogs

attract audiences who are not in a buying frame of mind and for other blogs

it just doesn’t fit with the blogger’s style or approach.

Tomorrow I want to continue the focus upon affiliate marketing with another

post – this one on how to find affiliate products to promote.

Steps To Making A Successful Affiliate Website

Building a profitable website is never going to be a walk in the park. If it

were that easy, every man (and his proverbial dog) would be in on the

action. Whilst it may in fact be very easy to build any old website, actually

creating one that makes you real affiliate cash can prove to be a far greater

challenge. Today you’re going to learn how to make a successful website as

an affiliate marketer. I’m talking about building profitable websites that fill

your ClickBank account with those pretty little (or in this case, big) sales bars.

In particular, you are going to learn the tested formula for building successful

and profitable websites that both your visitors and Google will find

irresistible. By following this formula, you are going to see higher search

engine rankings, more traffic, more opt-ins, and even greater numbers of

sales.

So what is this magical formula for building profitable and successful affiliate

sites?

Great content
Attractive design
Powerful opt-in forms
Top-notch customer service

If you can nail all four of the above factors in the “successful sites equation,”

then you’ll be on to a winner.

Now don’t worry for a second that I’m going to leave you hanging without

actually explaining each of those factors further. It’s time to put on your

learning cap, and get ready to find out exactly how to build successful

affiliate websites.

Adding Great Content

When it comes to creating profitable affiliate websites, you need to focus on

adding great content that your readers will love and appreciate. I’m not

talking about filler content that doesn’t add any value or teach anything

useful; instead, you need to be building your sites based around cutting-edge

information, advice, and resources for your visitors.

How many times have you done a Google search for some information, only

to come across a website that doesn’t actually offer anything useful? In this

situation, you are far more likely to hit your browser’s back button in disgust,

never to return. On the other hand, if the website offers content (articles, blog

posts, videos, pictures etc) that actually give you what you are looking for in

the first place, you will be far more likely to continue reading and maybe

even purchase from that website.

Here’s a very simple checklist that will help you to ensure you’re providing

quality content:

Think about optimizing your content for human readers, as opposed to

search engines
Thoroughly research every piece of content that you create
Make sure you teach or give what you promised to give (for example, if

your article is about five ways to lose weight, make sure it provides five

different ways people can lose weight)

By adding great content to your site, you will have the first (and most

important) factor sorted for building a successful affiliate site.

Using Attractive Website Designs

It’s not 1999 anymore. The days of ugly websites laden with tacky animated

graphics, frames, and gaudy banner ads appear to be coming to an end – it’s

time to rejoice! However, I still see many affiliate marketers using sites that

appear to be straight from the 1990′s.

If you want to succeed online, then it is absolutely critical that you have a

great looking website that inspires confidence and makes people trust you

more. Think about the biggest authority sites in the world; invariably they

have attractive site designs that are clean, professional, and

easy-to-navigate.

Creating a beautiful website that is a true work of art no longer requires

complex coding knowledge, nor expensive website design software. Many

affiliates and webmasters have now caught on to the fact that you can build

professional quality websites with mere mouse clicks, by combining the

amazing power of WordPress with an attractive theme.

There is no excuse for an ugly or dated looking site. This may sound harsh, but

it’s a truth you need to realize if you want to build a successful website.

Powerful Opt-in Forms

They say that the money is in the list. Although there are some exceptions to

this rule, generally it is a very solid framework for getting the biggest bang

for your buck from affiliate marketing. By encouraging visitors to opt-in to

your list, you can build quality relationships and dramatically increase your

profits with effective pre-selling and multiple sales per customer.

Of course it’s not actually as easy as it sounds to set up a profitable list. One of

the biggest hurdles that seems to topple many affiliates is implementing your

list into your site with opt-in forms and squeeze pages that really convert. All

too often you can see affiliates who might have fantastic content and

pre-sells for their list, only to wind up with virtually no subscribers because of

ugly, clumsy, or misplaced opt-in forms.

You need to create powerful opt-in forms by combining these two things:

A list hook that makes people want to subscribe (for example, a fantastic

report that would normally be worth $27, but you’re giving it away for free!)
Opt-in forms and squeeze pages that convert – they need to be attractive,

well-placed, and designed with high conversions in mind.

Get this “mini formula” right, and you’ll have an unstoppable opt-in magnet.

Top-Notch Customer Service

Let’s imagine there are two websites; Site A and Site B. Now these sites are

absolutely identical, apart from the fact that Site A has terrible customer

service, and Site B always goes that extra mile to make sure customers (even

visitors who don’t opt-in or buy) are looked after.

Which website do you think will be more popular?

If you guessed Site B, then congratulations, you’re in the same league as

Einstein.

The final factor in the formula for building profitable affiliate sites could be

viewed as the most important. No matter how attractive your website is –

regardless of how great your content is – people won’t want to come back

and buy from you if you do not treat them with courtesy and respect.

Make sure you reply swiftly to email inquiries, blog comments, or complaints

and you should be fine!

In conclusion, if you want to build a successful affiliate website and load your

bank account with commissions, then you need to get your formula right. Just

as a good baker never leaves out a single ingredient, you need to make sure

that everything is added in the right order to make a fantastic website.

How Affiliates Can Make More Sales with Tangibility

Affiliate marketing is basically a lifestyle dream. As an affiliate, you can be

your own boss and set your own hours, which is what attracts many people to

chase those big pay checks. However, it’s not always as easy to make money

as you might think. Peel back the veneer of over-hyped training products

and you’ll soon learn the gritty truth of affiliate marketing. If you are still

trying to sell pure ‘info’ products, such as eBooks or reports, then you are

leaving a whole load of money on the table. This is because you are missing

out on what I like to call the ‘tangibility’ factor.. allow me to explain.

Tangibility, put simply, is selling a product or service where your customer

gets more than just information. Normally people think of something

tangible as having a physical presence, but you can apply the term when it

comes to digital products (albeit in a slightly altered sense). Still confused?

Allow me to explain further.

If I sell a weight loss eBook, that isn’t tangible. It’s nothing more than

information, which is probably readily available online. However, if I

combine that same weight loss eBook with an awesome motivational or

weight loss management software, I’ve just added tangibility. When it comes

to digital products tangibility is providing more than pure information.

As an affiliate marketer, you should consider promoting digital products that

have a higher degree of tangibility. This is because these products are more

likely to convert, and arouse less ‘product suspicion’ in customers who aren’t

already familiar with buying digital info products.

For example, the ClickBank marketplace is jam-packed with software (both

web and desktop) products you can promote. Instead of customers receiving a

simple PDF or eBook, they actually get something tangible, which they can

then install on their computer or access via the web.

In fact, many of the best affiliate programs are pure informational products

and their products are of a very high quality. However, if you are struggling

to get ahead of the competition, then I strongly urge you to look for the kind

of products that offer you a little bit of an “edge” and something that can be

of more value, both perceived and actual, to the customer.

Remember that any potential customer will look at your pre-sell (or the

product sales page) and ask the following question: What’s in it for me?

If you are able to offer something beyond mere information, then you could

very well see higher conversions and bigger pay checks! So what sort of digital

products offer a high degree of tangibility?

Software programs or web applications
Video training courses
WordPress plugins or themes

You should get the general picture by now.

By thinking outside the square and looking for products with a higher degree

of tangibility, you will be able to unlock niches that are hungry for what

you’re selling – without facing excessive competition.

How Affiliates Can Overcome Google’s Penguin Update

Google seems to be developing a habit of delivering crippling algorithmic

changes to affiliates disguised as animals. The Panda update of 2011 certainly

crushed many affiliates, especially those who relied on traffic and links from

so-called “content farms” like article directories. Just when all seemed safe,

Google unleashed its latest update for 2012 in the form of a penguin!

The Google Penguin update, which is still rolling out at the time of writing,

has the stated aim of reducing web spam by targeting sites that are using

what it deems to be blackhat link strategies to manipulate search results, or

sites that have developed an overly unnatural link profile.

The jury is still out as to whether Penguin has actually improved search results

for users at all – many prominent SEO voices (and “grassroots” Google users)

have plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that websites using spammy

links are actually ranking higher now than they were before. It also appears

that many legitimate websites, which have worked hard to build their

rankings over the years, have suffered badly. Another complaint about

Google’s Penguin update is that it has resulted in certain shopping sites

ranking unnecessarily high for massive numbers of search terms.

However, this debate is neither here nor there – the algorithm update has

occurred, and the effects must now be dealt with by us humble affiliates. In

this blog post, we’re going to look at how affiliates can overcome Google’s

Penguin update using ethical and reliable link building and traffic generation

methods.

The New Do’s and Don’ts of SEO for Affiliates

What you need to understand is that Google isn’t saying that you should not

build links! Instead, they are encouraging webmasters (and therefore

affiliates) to put the quality of their sites’ content before any link building

efforts.

Therefore, the most important thing you can do in order to “beat” Google’s

Penguin update is to make sure your site is jam-packed with quality content.

You also need to be adding more content on an ongoing basis. It seems very

unlikely that Google will ever penalize a website for having too much

content, provided it delivers value or use to readers.

If you want to overcome Penguin then create your content with the following

guidelines in mind:

Don’t use “filler” content – this is best defined as writing articles that have

plenty of words but no real meaning or value. Filler content might read well

and look great, but it won’t leave a good lasting impression on readers (and

could have adverse effects like a high bounce rate). Usually, this type of

content is outsourced or spun, and always highly targeted to long-tail

keywords. Make sure that any article or blog post you write actually offers

something useful to readers, rather than words for the sake of words.
Avoid spun content, at least on your main website. Although spun content

does have its uses on Web 2.0 sites, lower ranking article directories, etc., you

should avoid it on your main website. It simply isn’t as good as writing unique

articles from hand, even if you’re a spinning pro and can create perfectly

readable articles using a spinning tool, at the end of the day you’re not

delivering any marginal quality or value by adding multiple spun articles to

your website.
Above all, when creating content, ask yourself whether you would subscribe

to your content, or whether it would actually teach someone something. If the

answer is no, you need to increase the quality of your content.

Now that you know the importance of quality content for beating the

infamous Google Penguin, what can you do for link building?

The following link building methods are going to give you the greatest

advantage in the search engine rankings game:

Optimizing your internal linking. Okay, this isn’t strictly “linking” per se, as

this is on-site. However, really sprucing up your internal linking structure will

beef up your website, yielding both more traffic, and higher search engine

rankings. You should be linking together relevant and related pages on your

website, new pages to old pages, and vice versa. This will help PageRank to

diffuse naturally through your site and help index new pages more quickly.

Don’t make the mistake of linking only to your home page or affiliate

pre-sell pages.
Guest post regularly. Guest posting on blogs is probably the most effective

link building method in 2012. Because virtually every niche has a stable of

popular blogs, this is a huge (and often untapped) source of powerful links.

Reaching out to bloggers in your niche and offering quality, free content in

exchange for anchor text links back to your own website is now one of the

most effective SEO methods out. A single do-follow backlink from a reputable

high PR blog is probably worth hundreds, if not thousands of context

irrelevant links from article directories. The referral traffic element of guest

posts is also impressive, especially if you add a good call-to-action into your

post. The secret here is to write outstanding blog posts that really enhance the

site you are writing for.
Create link bait. This can loosely be defined as any content that naturally

attracts links from other sources over time (as opposed to actively seeking

links for a page or piece of content). Central to the mysterious art of link

baiting, is creating very informative, engaging, or entertaining content that

people share with others. Social networking, such as Twitter and Facebook,

plays a huge role in propagating link bait, as do social bookmarking sites

such as Reddit and Twitter. Although there are no hard and fast rules for

making link bait, and it can be a bit of a crapshoot at times trying to build

links this way, you can increase your chances by researching what people in

your niche want. Then it’s just a case of fulfilling this desire with awesome

content (it could be an article, video, infographic, or even a podcast) and

then promoting via social bookmarking and social networks.

Although Google’s Penguin update has hurt many affiliates, it isn’t an

insurmountable problem. What you need to remember is that Penguin was

released to combat web spam, especially those sites which are trying to

artificially manipulate Google’s search results using blackhat linking

methods.

However, if you focus on creating quality content first (as well as building

more “discerning” links using methods such as guest posting) then you will

find yourself in a far better position to counter the Penguin update. Not only

that, but you will also be safeguarding yourself from future algorithm

changes, as Google looks set to continue rewarding quality over quantity.

So now that you know what (and what not!) to do with your SEO, it’s time to

put it into action.

New Affiliates Guide: The Importance of Finding a Profitable Niche

Would you build a house without solid foundations? Probably not. And if you

did then it wouldn’t take much to bring it crashing back down to the ground.

We all know that foundations are important for buildings, but what you

might not understand is that the right “foundations” are also crucial for

successful affiliate marketing.

So what are the foundations of affiliate marketing?

Selling a great product (if the product you’re promoting isn’t very good

then you’ll have a high refund rate, dissatisfied customers, or people just

won’t buy it in the first place).
A proven marketing method – whether you like to build multiple highly

targeted niche affiliate sites or sell through a highly personal blog, it pays to

stick to a method that is proven and which is known to work for others. Once

you’ve found a great method, rinse and repeat it for increased profits over

time.
Sufficient niche research. Not all niches are created equal! Some are always

going to be more profitable than others, some have more competition, others

are fleeting yet lucrative for a short period of time, whilst there are always

the tried-and-true “evergreen niches”. Picking the right niche(s) can make

the difference between struggling to make money and lining your bank

account with cash.

If there’s one affiliate marketing foundation I see people ignoring the most,

it’s niche research. Many affiliates seem far too keen to dive straight into site

building, content creation, or traffic generation. It’s kind of like jumping into

a car and driving off before you check to see if there’s any fuel in the tank –

you won’t get very far, and once the warning signs come up it could be too

late!

The importance of finding profitable niches should never be underestimated.

You will never regret spending that little bit of extra time in the early stages

of niche research, as it will almost certainly result in you making more sales.

Let’s take a brief look at the mistakes that many affiliates make with their

niche research:

Not remembering that the long-term trend is your friend. It can be

tempting to promote products in the latest red-hot niche, but often these can

be here today and gone tomorrow. On the other hand, evergreen niches such

as pet training, hobbies and sports, weight loss, and relationship help will

almost certainly always have long-term appeal. This means that all your

hard effort will keep on reaping rewards for years to come. Compare this

with the frustration of building a website in a non-evergreen niche, where

you might make lots quickly only to have your earnings taper off over time.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, or want to build a consistent and passive

income, then start with niches that have long-term appeal. Think of markets

that will be popular in years to come, and promote accordingly!
Ignoring product quality. If you sell poor quality products then you will

have the unpleasant experience of high refund rates, dissatisfied customers,

and low earnings. However, if you do your due diligence and thoroughly

check for great products that offer lots of value (and have top-notch

customer service and support) then you’ll be on your way to making much

bigger commissions. Keep an eye out for affiliate products that really deliver

on their promises, and avoid anything that doesn’t have positive reviews from

REAL customers (avoid relying on so-called “review sites” that are just soft

selling the product). The best way to do your market research here is to look

on forums or discussion boards in the niche and see what people are saying

about the product in question. Don’t hesitate to ask the product owner for

review access as well, so that you can thoroughly check it out for yourself.

Some niches have far more quality products than others do.
Avoiding or fearing competition. When you next have some spare time for

more niche research, head over to any popular Internet marketing forum;

one of the most common complaints will along the lines of: “I can’t find any

niche that doesn’t have much competition. Where are all the ‘hidden gems’?

Unfortunately, when it comes to online niches there aren’t many hidden gems

left! Niches with low competition and high demand are in short supply, and

the very nature of the Internet means it is difficult to hide any such niche from

others for long. However, instead of fearing competition you should learn to

embrace it. Competitive niches have high competition for a reason – because

there is lots of money for the making. A great example of this is the fat loss

niche; it appears over-saturated at first. However, when you think of all the

various sub niches (lose stomach fat, get 6 pack abs, fat loss diets, etc) that

are closely related yet different in terms of customer base, you will realize

that there is still room to carve out your own little slice of the profit. These

competitive niches also tend to have high quality products available to

affiliates as well, which is an added bonus.

The secret lies in creatively seeking your own slice of profitable niches. If you

can master niche (and keyword) research then you’ll do well in evergreen

niches that still have that higher level of competition. The benefit of this

approach is that you will build a lasting business that will continue to earn

you profit for years to come. Long-term profitability is the biggest benefit of

proper niche research!

How To Be Profitable With Your ClickBank Product

Testing

OK cool – you now have traffic coming to your sales page… what’s next? The

next step is to test absolutely everything you can think of on your sales page.

Believe it or not, things like the color of your background, your headline font

size, what your “add to cart” button says (i.e. buy now, get access now, sign

me up, etc.), and the height of your header image can all affect your

conversions. Changing your headline font can be the difference between

making $500 and $1000 in a month. Use a tool such as Google Optimizer to

test various aspects of your sales page. You literally can never test enough.

I won’t try and give any specific tips for increasing conversion rates because

with every product it will be different, but here are a few things I’ve had

success with: videos on the sale page, arrows pointing to my add to cart

buttons, making your guarantee offer nice and visible, and including lots of

testimonials.
Capturing Leads

Have you ever heard the saying “the money is in the list”? For those who are

unfamiliar with that saying, it refers to capturing leads usually with an email

marketing service (Aweber or iContact for example). I am a big believer in

this, as I have made a lot of money from leads I’ve captured and

communicated with through email alone.

I highly recommend that you try and capture the emails of as many of your

visitors emails as possible. There are a few ways to do this on a sales page.

You can have a mandatory squeeze page that captures emails before visitors

see your sales page (the downside to this is some people may close out and

never end up getting to your sales page), you can use scripts that have email

popup boxes when people try to leave your site, or you can offer a portion of

your product for free in exchange for their email (example “Get 1 Free

Chapter from my Cooking eBook to test out – simply enter your email

below). Whatever you do you should be trying to get as many emails as you

can without disrupting your sales process too much.

The next step is to create a follow up sequence with anyone who entered his

or her email but didn’t purchase the product. Provide them with as much

valuable content relating to your product as you can. Again, this can be sneak

peaks at certain parts of your product, or whatever you think will keep the

prospect interested in your product. Every now and again throw in a call to

action to try and get them back to your sales page to purchase.

Note: The email marketing services allow you to automate your lists so when

the prospect purchases they can be taken off the list. This way the emails

aren’t being sent out to customers who’ve purchased already.

Tip: I find the more the customers you’re trying to target are like you as

person, the more they are willing to purchase from you.

Don’t be overly annoying, and make sure you are providing value for free

more than you are trying to sell. Once you have this all set up properly it will

all be automatic and your sales will start to increase.
Cross Promoting Products

You’re now at the step where you have customers, and you have a list of

people who didn’t buy your product but you know are interested in your

niche.

The money making isn’t done just yet. You can now visit the ClickBank

Marketplace and find similar products to yours that you can become an

affiliate of and promote to your past customers and prospects list.

If your product is a video membership site teaching people how to cook

Italian why not show them a great home wine making course, or a Chinese

recipe cookbook?

I recommend purchasing the product first and trying it out yourself before

recommending something blindly. This way you can actually give your

personal experiences with the product and the selling will come easier and be

more natural. If you don’t want to spend your money you can always take a

look at the cool info that ClickBank has in their marketplace like average $

per sale and gravity and get a good idea of which products are the best to

promote.

Lastly you can always begin the process over and create another product to

cross promote to your now raving fans.

So that is how I’ve started to make a great income selling my own products on

ClickBank, and I hope you found at least one or two points in here that will

help you start making more money.

How To Be Profitable With Your ClickBank Product

Creating Your Product

Even if you have already created your product you might want to read this,

as there are some valuable tips.

The first thing you want to do is make sure your product is solving a problem.

For example, someone is overweight and wants to lose weight. You create a

product that helps them lose weight – you are solving their problem.

A man wants to impress his girlfriend by cooking her a nice dinner… problem

is he doesn’t know the slightest thing about cooking. You create a video site

that teaches a beginner how to cook like chef – you are solving a problem.

If you aren’t solving a problem you will have a hard time trying to sell your

product.

The next thing you want to do is figure out if there are enough people looking

to solve that problem.

Lets say you have an idea to write a strategy guide that is going to help

people beat your favorite N64 video game. Is there really going to be enough

people looking to solve that problem to make it profitable and worth your

time?

Remember no matter how good you are at getting traffic, marketing, selling,

etc., you are only going to get your product in front of a very tiny percent of

your target market. Focus on markets that have thousands, hundreds of

thousands, or millions of people you can target.

Sure the bigger market, the greater the competition, but there are lots of

potential customers on the Internet to go around.

You can always find a big target market and find a smaller “niche” within

that market. For example if you are doing a weight loss product, you could

focus on weight loss for woman over 50 and still have a big market. If you are

doing a cooking video membership site why not focus on people looking to

learn how to cook Italian meals.

The worst thing you can do is put in weeks of your time creating an awesome

product, only to find out no one is interested in what you have to offer. Do

your research before you start creating your product and make sure there is a

need.

Lastly I highly recommend creating a product worth at least 5-10x what the

customer is paying. This is tough to judge in some niches, but as an example,

if you have a course that teaches small businesses how to advertise online and

you want to charge $100 for it, you will want to make sure that if your

customers follow your course, they will easily make that $100 back and then

$500-$1000+ more on top of that.

Another way you can look at that is lets say you have a weight loss product

that costs $50. If you are completely replacing their personal trainer that

would cost the person $1500, there’s a lot of value in your product for the

customer so you shouldn’t be selling them too hard.
Product and Website Design

Alright, so you now have an awesome product that a lot of people are going

to want to get their hands on. Next is “packaging” your product, creating

your sales page, and creating your sales process.

A lot of products sold on ClickBank are “virtual” products, but that doesn’t

mean you don’t need any packaging. Getting a graphic designer to create

“packaging” for your product can pay off ten fold. If you are selling an eBook,

you can get a book cover created, membership sites can make membership

cards, and video courses can create DVD cases. These types of virtual

packaging will make your product look more valuable in the eyes of

potential customers (just make sure you remind them that your product isn’t

actually physical and that it is just for display purposes).

If I was writing this a year or two ago I would probably come out and tell you

to get a nice, professional looking template designed for your product’s sales

page, but I’ve learned over the years from others and from personal

experience that pretty websites don’t always result in the most sales.

Sometimes ugly is better. This is something you will have to test on your own.

What I would recommend as far as website/template design is that you

choose a template that allows you to have content “above the fold” (meaning

the part of your website that is visible when people first arrive on your sales

page). This gives you room to put an eye catching headline, video, and/or

content where visitors will see first. I also recommend having a sales page

design that isn’t too distracting. Try to keep the eyes focused on the sales

copy. Eliminating sidebars and other distracting stuff that takes the eye away

from the sales copy is usually your best bet.

Lastly, create a sales process following the ClickBank guidelines. You have the

option to offer customers a low priced front end product, and then upsell

them on bonus products. For example, using our cooking example, maybe

you will sell a basic cooking instruction book for $9, and once the customer

makes the purchase they will immediately be offered an upsell of $39 to get

access to the video instructions. Then after that you may want to offer them a

bonus cooking for fat loss recipe book for $19. Create your sales process and

make sure you get the customers email captured with an email marketing

service somewhere along the way (more on this later).
Getting Traffic

Once you have your product and website set up the next thing you will need

is, of course, traffic. I could probably write an entire article about finding

traffic, but I will just throw out some ideas here.

The first thing you can do is try and get natural traffic from the search engines

(Google, Bing, etc.). You will need to make sure your page is Search Engine

Optimized (SEO’ed). Depending on your product this may be hard to do,

especially if your site is new. For example, if you have a fat loss product it will

be pretty tough to rank for “fat loss product” or “how to lose fat”. If that is the

case what you can do is try to rank for a variety of “longtail” search terms.

The easiest way to do this is to start a blog and write relevant, quality articles

around your topic. Sticking with the fat loss product, you can start blogging

about anything fat loss related and you may have people finding your site

via searches like “yoga for fat loss,” “struggling losing weight because I’m

stressed,” etc. Once the visitor is on your site you can direct them to your

product via calls to action within your articles.

The next thing you can try is pay per click advertising. This is where you run

ads and pay a certain amount of money every time someone clicks on your

ad and gets taken to your sales page. Pay per click is popular on Google,

Bing, and Facebook (just make sure you meet their guidelines). Be careful

with pay per click advertising if you aren’t familiar with it, as you can run up

your advertising very quickly this way. I’m not too familiar with search

engine PPC, but with Facebook I know you can do some cool stuff such as

targeting certain categories and interests, which really helps get your costs per

click down.

My favorite way to get quality and cheap traffic is to contact website or blog

owners that have sites within your niche and ask them if they are willing to

sell you advertising space. Often times these sites are run for fun, and the

website owner will be thrilled to be paid for advertising. Create a banner

that stands out, grabs attention, and has a call to action and ask them to post

it somewhere (above the fold is best). Another thing you can do is ask to buy

an advertisement paragraph or sentence within their content. This gives you a

great chance to create a solid call to action and get click throughs to your

sales page. Plus it will help with your SEO (as long as you make sure they

don’t “no follow” the link).

Lastly is something that ClickBank does a great job with – affiliates. As you

probably already know, you can get other people to promote your product

for a percentage of the sales. If you are offering a virtual product that doesn’t

cost you money to take on a new customer I highly recommend looking at

offering at least 50% commissions. Think of it this way – without the affiliate

you wouldn’t be getting the sale. Assuming 50% and a $100 product – would

you rather have $50 over $0? Offer your affiliates a generous commission and

more people will be willing to promote your product.

Don’t be afraid to go out and actively search for affiliates. Find people who

are promoting other products within your niche and ask them if they’d be

willing to promote your product.

Also I highly recommend putting up an affiliate page, and link to it from the

footer of your site. On this page include your ClickBank hoplink, and creatives

(banners, email copy, etc.) that affiliate can use. The easier you make it for

the affiliates the more affiliates you will get promoting your product.

Three Constants in Affiliate Marketing

Those of us who have been involved in the affiliate marketing world for a

while are all too aware that it is an industry prone to change, and lots of it. A

website that makes you money one day, might literally disappear from the

search engine rankings overnight, and leave you struggling to find a reason

why. The terms of service (TOS) on one of your favorite Web 2.0 sites might

change in the blink of an eye, and you suddenly find yourself losing an

important traffic or income source. Wouldn’t it be nice just to have some

reliable marketing constants for once? Well today, you are going to learn

about the three constants in affiliate marketing; these are the things that

won’t change any time soon, and they should form the foundations of your

affiliate marketing efforts.
1. Content is King

You’ve probably heard this term referred to many times before, without

actually paying too much mind to it. However, one of the constants of

affiliate marketing is that search engines and readers alike reward quality

content. Not only are you going to rank higher in the search engines by

creating original, well-researched content that provides value to readers, but

you will also build trust. This trust factor will help you to achieve better

conversion rates and more sales, since people are far more likely to buy from

someone they trust.

Creating quality content IS actually an exact science, and there really isn’t

much guesswork involved at all:

Find a problem that people in your niche have
Research a number of different ways to solve the problem
Write it out in a clear and logical fashion
Make sure your content contains good grammar and spelling
Teach what the headline of your article/content piece promises to teach

(this is by far the biggest secret to creating quality content)

Proven Affiliate Products

The final constant in affiliate marketing is making sure you promote proven

products. There is always a massive temptation to jump on board and

promote the latest products from the Clickbank Marketplace that promise

huge commissions and launches, and then fade to nothingness after a while

(leaving you stuck promoting a product that isn’t really going anywhere).

As an affiliate, you want to avoid promoting “fly by night” products if you

plan to build a reliable income stream that has good growth potential.

Instead, focus most of your energy on promoting products that have been

around for a while and have a proven track record.

Our SaleHoo affiliate program, for example, has been running since 2005,

and provides plenty of resources for affiliates, with new ones added regularly.

Look out for affiliate programs of this nature, which provide consistent

support and potential on a going forward basis. Take your time when picking

products; research here will save you potential headaches down the track.

Some things to look out for are:

How long has the product and affiliate program been around
Does it offer free resources to help you, the affiliate, do your job properly
How easy is it to get in touch with the product owner/affiliate manager
Are customer reviews of the product largely positive (look for unbiased

reviews in forums or blogs)
Is the product high quality (consider asking for a review copy first)

In conclusion, you can see that there are some constants in affiliate marketing

– a world that usually evolves at such a rapid rate it can even give

experienced marketers a headache. Quality content, solid keyword research,

and promoting proven affiliate products; these are the three “bedrock”

constants in affiliate marketing that are unlikely to change any time soon.

Best Affiliate programs in India

Affiliate marketing is arguably the best online money making opportunity

that bloggers, webmasters and other Internet marketers have at their

disposal. The lack of good affiliate programs in India, however, force most

Indian marketers to look up to popular foreign affiliate networks in order to

carry out their campaigns and make money online. Many of them in fact

target the US and Canada traffic alone to sell products relevant there and

totally avoid marketing in India.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer of certain Indian products in the

Indian market via your blog, website or email-social marketing, you are left

with very few options when it comes to affiliate programs and networks. Here

are some of the best affiliate programs in India that I could dig out.

Matrimonial affiliate programs

Thanks to our huge population and arranged marriage concepts, the

matrimonial sites really thrive in India. Most of the matrimonial portals in

India have good affiliate programs though the leading ones are the

following:
1. Shaadi.com affiliate program – Shaadi Rewards

Affiliate network: own managed
Suitability: Any webmaster or blogger with personal blogs, news websites etc

can apply. Rated/explicit/violent/stolen content cannot promote the brand

(and that is the case with other affiliate programs mentioned below as well)
Referral commission: Rs. 10 to 25 per free profile. Revenue share of up to 40%

for paid profiles.
Minimum payout: Rs. 990/- for Indian affiliates and Rs. 5000/- for foreign

affiliates

Payment modes: Cheque for Indians and PayPal for foreign affiliates.
Payment schedule: Every month (i.e. Previous month’s earnings paid during

current month subject to minimum balance)
Promotion channels support: Allows email marketing, PPC advertising etc

but prefers website traffic and dedicated website page for matrimonial

promotion in order to achieve 50% commission.

2. BharatMatrimony affiliate program – MatriMoney

Affiliate network: own
Suitability: Any webmaster or blogger with personal blogs, news websites etc

can apply.
Referral commission: An ‘undisclosed’ fixed amount per free profile signup.

Revenue share of up to 25% for paid profiles from their first payment alone.
Minimum payout: Rs. 200/-
Payment modes: Cheque
Payment schedule: Every month
Promotion channels support: Allows PPC advertising but with very strict

copyright guidelines. Website traffic preferred.

Travel affiliate programs

Tourism and hospitality industry is booming in India and there’s plenty of

business travel as well – thanks to the fast developing economy. The

following are the best travel affiliate programs in India.
3. MakeMyTrip affiliate program

Affiliate network: own

Suitability: Any webmaster or blogger who write about with air, travel, hotel,

holidays, packaged tour, cruise program, car rental content can apply. Must

not have competitor content (Yatra.com, ClearTrip,…) on the promoted

pages.
Referral commission: 3% to 5% of air fare base price for domestic flights. Rs

500/- flat on International flight bookings. Holiday packages and hotels 8%

of the published tariff.
Minimum payout: Rs. 5000/-
Payment modes: Cheque
Payment schedule: Every month (45 days from previous months earnings)
Promotion channels support: N/A.

4. Yatra affiliate program

Affiliate network: Shoogloo Network
Suitability: Any website or blog
Referral commission: Rs. 120/- to 600/- per booking
Minimum payout: Rs. 5000/-
Payment modes: Cheque
Payment schedule: N/A
Promotion channels support: N/A

Flipcart.com : Flipcart.com is not now new for the indian as they have seen it

on the TV commercials. This is another great up coming website for the

Indians. The rates and the items they deliver are fabulous. Affiliates can get

up to 6% commission on the reffed items. They have different criteria for

each type of commission. So choose your items wisely.

Yatra.Com : If you have travel website or blog, then you can setup and add

the yatra.com search engine to your website and blog. You will be paid for

every registration made by your yatra.com search engine. The hack in this

case is they do not have affiliate program directly instead of that they have

collaboration with another network affiliate program soogal0o.com.

vcommission.com: vcommission is also one of the best affiliate website that

pays you on NET30 payout mechanism or as and payout is generally made

through Paypal or cheque. Weekly payments are also available forHigh

performing publishers.

Agriya Affiliate: Payment via PayPal every month. Payout is $75.
Clixgalore: You will earn upto 75% commission on each sale you made.
dgm-india: You will earn commission on each lead you made. These are just

like click bank , Commision Junction or share a sell like sites.

Bharat Matrimony affiliate: India’s Top Matrimonial website that will pay

25% of commission to you for every paid membership.For every high quality

free profile that comes through your site, you will get a fixed amount. For

every high quality paid profile, you will get a revenue share up to 25% which

is applicable only for the first payment and not on renewals.For every

not-so-good profile that comes through your site, you will not be paid but

you will get a revenue share up to 25% for every paid profile which is

applicable for the first payment and not on renewals. Payment is as low as

Rs. 200 of you decide.

Tyroo: Website owners can monetize their website to earn money with

tyroo.com

PayPopUp: You will earn 20% of the money made by webmasters under your

referral. It is a 5 tier commission program. Payment after exceeding $100.

Google Affiliate Network : At the last , but most effective and reliable

method, for this you have to have a Google adsense account ( not necessary

but help a lot. Payment by check in local Currency.

6. IndiaTimes Shopping affiliate

Affiliate network: Shoogloo Network
Suitability: Any website or blog
Referral commission: 10% per sale
Minimum payout: N/A
Payment modes: Cheque
Payment schedule: Monthly
Promotion channels support: Any

7. Ferns n Petals program

FnP is India’s leading flowers, sweets and gift delivery portal. They do have

an awesome affiliate program as per the following details.

Affiliate network: DGM India
Suitability: Any website or blog
Referral commission:15% per sale
Minimum payout: N/A
Payment modes: Cheque
Payment schedule: Monthly
Promotion channels support: Any

How to promote affiliate program

Joining affiliate programs is as easy as ABC, but earning from affiliate

marketing is another thing. There are a lots of things to do to it correctly.if

you.

Separate webpage : Most successful internet marketing Gurus strongly

advocate this for a successful affiliate product, that is the only reason most of

the successful product have separate websites for their websites. These

websites provide everything you need to know to promote you product.

Write a proper researched Review : People love to read user’s viewpoint on

that product. your insight story can help them to procure that product.

Perfect Traffic : Stunning website, Killer content and suddenly, You came to

know that you are alone to read your great content. Do you thing you are

going to make a very good affiliate income. No, not at all. So the whole hack

is “Targeted traffic”. 2 create a website have a simple ideas to generate quick

links and lots of targeted traffic.

Things to Avoid to become a successful Affiliate

So, Now you know the affiliate programs and the success formula. But what

about the most common hacks that does not allow you to crack any deal at

all. Here is my points

Never join any affiliate program because some one else is claiming that

he/she is very Good product and it is like a hot cake on the internet. if it is so

hot why he/she is sharing with you and just increased one more competitor.

Never ever endorse any product unless until you are its’ real user or sufferer.

Choose all product according to your niche. Your knowledge on that

particular subject may be a deciding factor.

Conclusion

Affiliate programs normally needs websites to promote. Mere adding links on

your website is not sufficient. Affiliate marketing needs a lots of efforts and

how you create your own brand is much much more important.

10 Popular Affiliate Programs for Small and Medium-sized Blogs

1. LinkShare

Reportedly the largest affiliate network, with over 10 million affiliate

partnerships, LinkShare took the number-one spot in the 2012 Blue Book of

Top 20 Affiliate Networks for platform strength, support quality, and

international capabilities.

LinkShare offers over 2,500 affiliate programs and lets you choose whether to

have every aspect of your affiliate channel managed for you or whether you

would rather manage your own program using the company’s various service

and support options.

2. Commission Junction

Said to be the largest affiliate marketing network in North America (though

it operates globally) and claiming the number-two spot in the 2012 Blue

Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks for being “the best at balancing the

relationship between the merchants, the network, and the affiliates,”

California-based Commission Junction, owned by ValueClick, Inc., offers

affiliate, media, and tracking services and provides either a

self-management or company-managed option for your affiliate

relationships.

In addition to its regular pay-per-action affiliate program, the company also

offers a convenient PayPerCall program to help affiliates “ensure they get

paid commission for the leads they generate, thus further monetizing existing

ad placements and having the opportunity to expand their

promotional…online and offline campaigns.”

3. ShareASale

Claiming the number-three spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate

Networks for being the “overall best performance marketing network in the

world today,” Chicago-based ShareASale has over 2,500 merchant programs

and features brands such as HootSuite and PS Print.

ShareASale has received excellent ratings, with the company’s

reputation/security, ethics, customer service, and ease of commission payment

receiving glowing reviews.

4. Amazon Associates

Placing fourth in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks, for a

reporting system that “far surpasses other big networks,” this is one of the

largest and most diverse affiliate programs available.

As most people know, Amazon.com offers such a wide array of products that

there’s bound to be something to fit your niche. In fact, they offer over a

million products from which you can choose to monetize your website or blog.

Amazon Associates is a pay-per-sale affiliate program.

5. Google Affiliate Network

According to the network’s Overview page, “Google Affiliate Network helps

advertisers increase online conversions on a performance basis and enables

publishers to monetize traffic with affiliate ads.”

Google Affiliate Network is a pay-per-action network that pays commissions

to its affiliates for driving conversions (sales or leads). The network requires a

Google AdSense account for posting ads to the affiliate’s website or blog and

facilitating affiliate payments.

6. ClixGalore

ClixGalore is an Australian PPA (pay-per-action) affiliate network that also

has offices in the US, UK, and Japan. The company offers various types of

programs, including PPM (pay-per-impression), PPL (pay per lead), PPS

(pay-per-sale), and PPC (pay-per-click). Many programs pay in US dollars.

Some well-known brands that use ClixGalore for their affiliate offerings are

Bluehost, Time Life, Trend Micro, Citibank, and Fox Sports Shop. While not as

widely known as some of the other affiliate networks, ClixGalore is a solid

network that offers thousands of potential merchant programs. The network

also offers a two-tier network. By referring other affiliates to the network,

current affiliates can receive a portion of their earnings.

7. PeerFly.com

PeerFly is a PPA network with its own proprietary software system. The

network made the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate Networks, which stated

regarding them, “They are courteous, helpful, and point you in the right

direction.”

The network also took the number-four spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20

CPA Networks, for its high popularity, great staff, and excellent platform.

PeerFly accepts publishers from all over the world and offers thousands of

merchant programs.

8. ClickBank

A well-known affiliate network, ClickBank features digital products, such as

e-books, software, and membership sites. The program reportedly offers up

to 75% commissions on its tens of thousands of products. Commissions are paid

weekly, and direct deposit is available to its affiliates.

Over the years, this network has remained popular, though some have

questioned a few of its practices. Despite this, the company enjoys an A-

rating with the Better Business Bureau.

9. MaxBounty

MaxBounty came in sixth in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 CPA Networks,

though it didn’t make a showing in the Blue Book’s top 20 affiliate networks.

In business since 2004, the network was founded on the philosophy of paying

its affiliates more.

MaxBounty pays affiliate commissions weekly, and the company appears to

have a good reputation among its affiliates. In fact, the network is popular

among many top affiliate marketers and has received numerous positive

reviews and writeups and critiques over the past several years.

10. Neverblue.com

Neverblue is a pay-per-action affiliate program that pays its affiliates for

lead, download, and sale generation, as well as for new affiliate referrals.

While Neverblue didn’t make the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20 Affiliate

Networks, it did take the number-one spot in the 2012 Blue Book of Top 20
CPA Networks.

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