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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