Choosing the Right Affiliate Program
May 25, 2008
You can’t expect a great gastronomic experience if you’re in the wrong restaurant, right? In the same light, you can’t expect a rewarding affiliate marketing experience if you’re enrolled under the wrong program.
It’s one of the primary rules of the game: always choose the right – if not the best – affiliate program out there.
Of course, that’s easier said than done.
With tens of thousands of affiliate programs in existence today, scrutinizing each and every one of them can be quite a chore.
Warning Signs Of A Disaster Waiting To Happen
Nonetheless, there are clear cut signs of a bad affiliate program. Let’s take a look at them:
- Offering a product that is of inferior quality. This product may fill a need somewhere, but because of its poor quality, refund requests will pour in. You may be able to refer some sales, but the refunds will take away your commissions. Worse, you might lose credibility amongst your prospects for leading them to a bad product.
- Offering a product that is difficult to sell. This is self-explanatory. You won’t be able to realize your commissions if the product you’re tasked to pre-sell is a “hard sell.”
- The affiliate program has a history of failing to pay its affiliates. Nothing is more frustrating than working for something, but being deprived of the rewards for some reason or another.
- The affiliate program has a dubious history in its dealing with its clients and partners.
- The affiliate program is struggling when it comes to its finances.
- The affiliate program is being operated by a person or persons who are quite hesitant to introduce themselves.
If these signs are present, do take heed.
Remember, there are a lot of other choices out there… options which will prove to be better for your interests.
Characteristics Of The Right Affiliate Program
So, we already know what to avoid.
Now it’s time to discuss what to look for in an affiliate program.
- A hot-selling product. Personally, this is my number one concern. I will not be able to earn as an affiliate if I cannot pre-sell any products, right? Hence, I always look for programs offering products that have a proven value in a particular market, or at the very least, products which offer a lot of promise.
- Gratuitous commission scheme. This is secondary only to the factor above. The minimum commission rate for me is 50%. Anything lower may take more consideration. This shouldn’t be a problem though, as most affiliate programs offer 50% commission per sale these days.
- A program that is well known for its credibility. Who would want to associate themselves with flash-in-the-pan, fly-by-night establishments, right? You want to be a winner? Stick with a winner! You will need to rely on recommendations and your own exercise of due diligence to find such an affiliate program.
- A program that has an excellent post-sales service. In affiliate marketing, refund requests are your enemies. You may be led to believe that you have bagged a sale, but if a refund is requested later on, you won’t get any commission. A program that has excellent post-sales support will be able to minimize such requests, and consequently, will be able to protect your interests.
Commission Rate Vs. Salability
A lot of potential affiliates are in a state of quandary when it comes to the choice of joining an affiliate program that offers a high commission rate per sale for a slow-selling product and a lower commission rate for a high- selling product.
The answer, of course, is to choose the latter.
A product may be selling for $100, and the program offers you 80% commission, or $80 per sale. But if that product is not sellable, you’ll never be able to see some earnings.
Another product may be selling for $50, and the program offers you 50% commission, or $25 per sale. The product is a proven seller. You will earn more with this system than the previous one.
In choosing an affiliate program to join, always choose one which has highly sellable products because you’ll never be wrong with such.
How Many Affiliate Programs Can You Join?
Since affiliate programs are regarded as supplementary earning opportunities, you are not bound by exclusivity.
You are not limited to just one affiliate program.
You can join as many as you like. There is absolutely no limit as to how many affiliate programs you enroll with.
But here’s the deal….
Yes, you can join hundreds of affiliate programs, if you wish, but will you be able to concentrate on all of them? Each campaign for a particular offering of a particular program requires your time and effort. Will you be able to handle hundreds of demands just as easily?
There is no bar as to how many affiliate programs you can join.
The only restriction is one of efficiency. You’ll be more productive if you concentrate on two or three programs throughout your affiliate marketing career.
Selling The Merchant’s Products
May 18, 2008
Actually, “selling” is not the correct term for the affiliate’s job. The affiliate is tasked to “pre-sell.” Pre-selling is very much different from actual selling.
Actual selling requires you to garner leads, convert them into sales, process payments, deliver orders, entertain refund requests, provide post-sales support and technical services, and the like. As an affiliate, you are not bound to these responsibilities.
Pre-selling only demands that you refer people to the affiliate merchant’s sales page. The affiliate merchant would then take care of the rest.
So, What Is Pre-Selling In A Nutshell?
If we are to define pre-selling, we can say that it is the process of conditioning your prospects’ minds to buy something and leading them to the mechanism that will convince them to make a purchase.
From the definition above, you’d know that an affiliate’s task is NOT to convince the prospects to buy. No, no, no. The affiliate’s job is merely to lead people to the affiliate merchant’s sales page. Better yet, the affiliate can also condition the prospects’ minds to make a purchase so that the sales page will have an easier time converting them into sales.
I’m going to break down pre-selling into three important components:
- Finding prospects
- Gaining prospects
- Conditioning prospects
All the secrets of affiliate marketing success will revolve around those three components, so I pray that you memorize them, dear friend.
Again, for emphasis….
Your job as an affiliate is to PRE-SELL the affiliate merchant’s products. If you’re able to master the components of pre-selling, then I am fully confident that you will make it big in this field.
Cool! Where Can I Find Affiliate Programs?
There are thousands upon thousands of affiliate programs on the World Wide Web. Each niche, no matter how big or small, has merchants that are employing affiliate systems to increase their direct sales. With information at your finger tips courtesy of this thing we call the Internet, finding these affiliate programs is easy.
It’s finding the niche or the market that you want to focus on that might provide a little challenge.
What Do You Mean By Finding A Market?
There are many fields that you can concentrate on.
You like dogs? Maybe you can consider the broader subject of pets, or a more specific breed like Chihuahua. Better yet, concentrate on a more particular branch, like dog health or dog care.
Your choice of market will depend on a variety of factors:
- How well do you know the said market? Passion will bring you a lot of benefits, so you might as well choose a market that you are passionate about from the very beginning.
- How interested are you in the said market? Knowledge is an ongoing commitment. You have to update yourself CONSTANTLY so as not to get left behind with the latest trends and tactics in your particular industry. Might as well choose a market that you are interested in to make the constant search for knowledge more enjoyable and fulfilling.
- What is the outlook for the said market? Naturally, you wouldn’t want to focus on a dying market where the products you are trying to pre-sell have saturated the digital shelves. You want a HUNGRY market, one which will be able to sustain profitability for a long, long time to come. This brings us to the basics of economic success
- How big is the demand in the said market? This is the first component of economic success: that demand should be high.
- What is the size of the competition in the said market? This is the second component of economic success: that supply should be low.
Low Supply + High Demand = Profitable Market
This is the ONE FORMULA you should remember when choosing a market. It’s the basic rule of economic success. It’s the secret of many high profit businesses throughout the ages.
You see, high yielding enterprises are not born overnight, and neither are they born out of whim.
They are products of meticulous study and consistent hard work.
And it all begins from selecting the perfect market for their ventures.
There are many online tools that you can use to determine the variables at play with the formula above.
To determine demand, simply go to www.nichebot.com . Type in a subject you have in mind. You will then be taken to a page where a number of keywords and key phrases are suggested, together with the number of times they have been searched for in the search engines.
You will want to choose subjects with high numbers of searches.
My personal determinant is at least 1,000,000 searches per month. This will assure me that there are a substantial number of people very much interested in the said subject.
Now, finding a sub-topic that commands many searches is not enough. You need to determine how many websites are catering to them, since you’ll be operating on the Internet.
Run a search of the sub-topic at www.google.com . Look at the number of web pages that appear, as indicated on the top area of the results page.
If the subject commands 1,000,000 searches per month and there are 2,000,000 websites catering to them, then the supply outweighs the demand and the chances of succeeding as an affiliate in such a field will be slimmer.
But if the subject commands 1,000,000 searches per month and there are only 2,000 websites catering to them, then you have for yourself a goldmine!
This is how you find a fertile market on the World Wide Web.
Great! When Can I Start? sinequan ??????? ????? ???? ???? ??? ??????
You can start as soon as possible! You can even start right now, while reading these pages.
As they say, experience is the best teacher, and what better way to learn than to immediately apply what you have read.
Your First Steps In Affiliate Marketing
May 11, 2008
Contrary to popular belief, affiliate marketing success does not start with the application of a particular strategy.
No.
Affiliate marketing success starts with the right attitude.
A nice analogy would be a boxer who is scheduled for a prize fight. He can learn all the tricks of the trade with his trainer. He can train for hours upon hours on end to build his stamina and endurance. He can eat the right diet to build his power.
But if he does not possess the right mentality – the mentality to WIN – then his chances of victory will be slim.
His confidence inside the squared circle will be shattered. His punches may connect, but his self-doubt will lessen their impact. His moves will be tentative. And when push comes to shove, he won’t have enough to muster his second wind.
The boxer will lose the fight… because he never believed he could win.
The same goes for an affiliate marketer.
If an affiliate does not possess the right mentality, he will never achieve success in this field.
And what is this mentality?
I call it the mindset to succeed. It’s quite simple really.
Ever wanted something so bad that you spent many countless nights thinking about it? You may have even told yourself the line, “someday, it will be mine.”
After a few weeks, months, or even years… do you remember how that particular thing you’ve always wanted came into your possession? It was a dream come true. You willed it to happen. This is the power of positive thinking.
And this is what I want you to realize…
It all begins by wanting it!
You have to WANT to become successful. You must desire it so badly and will it to happen. Consciously and subconsciously, you will be able to take every step necessary to make your dream come true. This is positive thinking at work.
Of course, it’s not enough to merely want something to happen, you have to do things to make it happen. I’m telling you right now, this is the easy part. Once you have the will to win, everything else will follow suit. The spirit is already there. You are already willing to try everything that is needed to succeed.
All you really need is knowledge on the best tactics to implement.
Keep an eye out for my next post! Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith movie I Heart Huckabees trailer
Is Affiliate Marketing a Viable Business Model for Successful Businesses?
May 11, 2008
Some of the most popular “how to” courses, bootcamps and seminars are built around affiliate marketing as a business model for success. If you do a search on the Internet, you’ll find literally thousands of E-books, Homestudy courses, and affiliate marketing products for sale.
But can you really build a business around selling other people’s products?
Yes. And no.
The truth of the matter is, there is a specific formula that can lead to success if you decide to base your business around selling affiliate products.
But if you do it wrong, you may never make more than enough to cover your Internet connection and telephone costs each month.
Why is there such a huge disparity between the really successful affiliate marketers (those who make several thousand dollars each and every month) and those who are barely eking out a living?
Like with any business, it all boils down to creating solid systems that are scalable and can be duplicated to bring income from as many different sources as possible.
Here are some things to keep in mind when getting started:
Start with one product. Do your research. Find a market with a product that people want and are buying. Set up a system for promoting that product. (Think article writing, white papers, case studies, product reviews, e-books, workbooks, etc.)
Find additional and complimentary products or services that you can sell after you’ve started making a profit with the first one.
Create a squeeze page where you can collect names of people who want to find out more about the affiliate product or niche market.
Drive traffic to your Squeeze Page and offer them valuable information in exchange for their contact information.
Create a way to keep in touch with the people on your list, and continue to promote the additional products to them over time – but make sure that you’re offering good solid information to them as well, to help build your credibility and their loyalty.
Once you’ve got your first affiliate product selling well, it’s time to start cross selling and upselling. This may take you from a few weeks to several months – but like any other business, it’s important that you are willing to spend the time and money necessary to build your affiliate business.
As soon as you’ve got the first product and cross sells operating at a profit, you can expand. For example, you could go into another complimentary niche. Or, I you want something a little more advance (and this one is a trick used by some of the Internet Marketing gurus in many different niches), go into competition with yourself.
That may sound a little crazy – but think of it this way: by competing against yourself – especially if you’re able to grab onto the two of the top five positions – you’re really just giving yourself a bigger piece of the pie!
If you’re the type who gets bored easily, or is always looking for a new challenge, you might want to go into a totally new niche. Find something that doesn’t have anything to do with your first niche.
Whatever you decide to do, just make sure that you’re following the proven formula for success. Build each product or niche until it becomes profitable before moving on to the next one.
After that, you can just “lather, rinse and repeat” to your heart’s content – and you’ll be able to watch your bank balance grow too!
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Arbitrage Conspiracy Launches With A Huge… Fizzle?
May 11, 2008
Well, well, well, I guess even the “big boys” aren’t immune to technical glitches, hey?
The Arbitrage Conspiracy site was supposed to launch yesterday at 3pm Pacific time and when I got to the site, it said that the sales page wouldn’t be available until “EXACTLY” 3pm.
So, since it WAS already 3pm, I waited a couple minutes and refreshed.
Same message.
I continued with some work I was doing and then went back to the page about a half hour later. Refreshed. Same Message.
An hour later, refresh. Then there was a “we’re having technical difficulties, sorry for the delay” message.
You’d think that with all the heavy-hitters involved with this launch that they would’ve had enough resources available to not only have all their ducks in a row, but have the ducks performing like F-18’s in attack formation!
About 3 or so hours after the scheduled launch, they announced that they were going to delay by 21 hours.
Now, you haven’t heard a word out of me concerning the Arbitrage Conspiracy until now and for a good reason.
I had planned on evaluating the package, as I do with any product, before mentioning it.
I’ll admit that I was definitely intrigued by what little information they had released during pre-launch and even though one of my clients had attended their $10,000 one-day workshop, they were sworn to “secrecy” and couldn’t share!
After viewing the video on the site and reading the Arbitrage Conspiracy Report, I was a bit skeptical, but still interested in the product.
My main concern was that in the report, they mentioned that you could get started for as little as $5 a day, but later mentioned multiple campaigns costing $2500+ per day.
If you know anything about Adwords, even if you’re bidding on words that cost a few cents per click, $5 would be gone within an hour or so.
So, I went and signed up as an affiliate anyways, just in case.
Once inside, there was contact information for their affiliate manager and I immediately tried to contact him.
I was hoping to get early access to the product for review. I would have been willing to pay for it, but never heard back.
Why am I telling you this? A couple reasons.
First….
Because they have said that they’re ‘only releasing 500 copies’ of this system and I needed to get in early so that I would have enough time to review the product and tell you what I thought about it.
Unfortunately, I will be teaching a class today at 3pm Pacific and I won’t be “at the ready” to refresh the page and purchase.
So, if you’re reading this before then, you might want to go and download the report and watch the video for yourself.
You can download it here: Arbitrage Conspiracy Report
Second….
I want you to learn a lesson from this.
Instead of going ahead with the launch and having a BUNCH of pissed off customers and/or affiliates because the system wasn’t working properly, they held off.
Sure, people were disappointed when the site wasn’t open and I’m sure that there were a couple people that were mad about it, but disappointed is WAY better than having to deal with refunds and lost commissions.
Now, I don’t know what the problem was exactly, but I do know that they did the right thing.
My point is, don’t ever be afraid to delay a launch if you’re having technical problems.
This doesn’t mean that everything has to be perfect either.
There will always be small issues to deal with during and after a launch, but if it’s something major (and I’m sure it was), don’t shoot yourself in the foot by launching anyways, just to open on time!
And third….
The downside is for affiliates that scheduled promotions according to their launch.
I got emails all afternoon telling me that “It’s Live!” go now before it’s sold out!
But, if you’ve done your job as an affiliate by creating a relationship with your subscribers, it shouldn’t be an issue at all. They’ll understand that it wasn’t your fault and as long as you’ve done your homework and haven’t referred them to a piece of crap product, it will be a no harm, no foul situation.
Jeffrey Levesque – The Affiliate Mechanic
May 8, 2008
Whether you learn to love or hate me, you won’t be able to deny that I’m right about this one thing:
Most Online Business Owners Are Complete Failures When It Comes To
Having A Successful Affiliate Program! Period!
Am I talking about you?
I think you’ve already answered that question yourself, haven’t you?
If you’re currently running any sort of online business and feel that you’ve been successful without an Affiliate Program, you’re selling yourself short and leaving tons of cash on the table!
If you are using an Affiliate Program, congratulations! But, are your affiliates performing? Or are there just a handful that are active?
Simply providing your affiliates with tools and resources simply isn’t enough!
In addition, if you’re encouraging your affiliates to use hype-filled propaganda, you’re not only damaging your reputation, but you’re setting up your affiliates to fail miserably!
Believe me, I’ve been involved in training business owners and affiliates for a long time now and everything on this site, the books I write and what I teach is from the heart. It eats me up inside when people contact me and tell me that they’re putting out 110% and seeing no results.
Most of the time, this is the result of poor training on the part of the business owner. Shame on them!
You may be telling yourself right now that I’m full of crap and don’t know what I’m talking about and if that’s the case, LEAVE – BYE – ADIOS! I DON’T WANT YOU HERE!
There are plenty of people, both business owners and affiliates, that have learned from me and continue to come back for more!
It is for them that I continue to maintain this site.
So, whether your a business owner, looking to create or improve your Affiliate Program or an Affiliate looking to make some sense of this crazy online world we live in, I welcome you with open arms!
The content I provide for free throughout this site, my books and tele-conferences I host makes my so-called competitors sick because why would anyone want to PAY THEM for it!
I’ve bought their books, audios, videos and courses and believe me when I tell you, most of them aren’t worth the price of a Triple Venti Caramel Macchiato at Starbucks!
It’s the same old lady in a new dress.
In my personal life, I have no desire to “Keep up with the Joneses”, but when it comes to working online, I’m constantly trying to find new, intuitive ways to promote and motivate.
Well, if you’ve read this far, I can only assume that you’re willing to allow me to help you!
If that’s the case, all I ask is three things from you:
- Join My Newsletter By Clicking Here
- Always Keep An Open Mind
- And Please Bookmark My Site
Before You Leave!
I’ll do my very best to keep you “Moving In A Forward Direction”! And that’s really what we all want, isn’t it?
Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
May 4, 2008
Affiliate marketing presents a fantastic opportunity that boasts of the following things:
- Minimum to zero financial investment to start out with this earning stream;
- A variety of programs to choose from;
- Unlimited number of programs to join;
- Extravagant commission schemes ranging from 20% to 90% of the selling price;
- Get paid as you produce results. You’re not handcuffed by time, you can work at your own pace;
- No limit as to how much you can earn.
Because of these amazing benefits, millions of online users have tried their hands at affiliate marketing.
I will not sugarcoat the facts.
A great number of them fail. The majority of them can’t even earn a single buck from their efforts.
Why?
It’s not because affiliate marketing as a system is flawed.
It’s because tried and tested strategies were not implemented in their campaigns – if ever those who failed were aware of them.
And this is what this eBook is all about.
You’re currently reading the first of two comprehensive volumes that aim to become the ULTIMATE resources for online affiliates all over the world.
In succeeding chapters, you will be introduced to some amazing concepts, that will in turn introduce some magical techniques that, when practiced, will almost always guarantee success for your affiliate marketing campaigns.
This is the knowledge that not many are aware of.
And by simply knowing them, you will have an advantage.
Keep an eye out for my next post!
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