Affiliate Incubator Part 2
The other day we went over some stuff you can do to promote products as an affiliate, but what can you do to get others to promote YOUR affiliate products?
As of this writing, I sell 48 different products from one Clickbank account. Affiliates only account for about $1,000 per month of my income, but hey that's a free $12,000 per year on top of everything else so it's definitely worthwhile.
I'm sure the seminar will have some kind of non-disclosure agreement, so I don't want anyone to think I'm passing on something from the seminar... which I haven't attended yet. Let's get my affiliate MANAGING tips out in the open right now.
Affiliate Management Tactic #1: Offer High Commission or Recurring Commission
I joined Amazon.com's affiliate program, the first BIG affiliate program on the net, in 2000. They offered 15% commission on DIRECT sales (if you linked right to that product) or 5% on SIDETRACKED sales (you link to that product and the person buys something else on Amazon.com).
Screw that. If you are running a pay per click ad campaign, the sales letter you're promoting converts at 1%, the product costs $30, and you get 50% commission, your maximum bid would have to be 15 cents just to break even. 10 cents per click if you even want 50% profit.
Likewise, if that same vendor offered 75% commission, you could bid up to 22 cents per click. If they offered a $297 upsell, and 10% of buyers took the upsell, that brings the "average" product price up to $56.70 and means you can bid up to 42 cents per click.
Introduce backends: upsells or one-time-offers, thank you page offers, recurring commissions, anything to give your affiliates more money... and they'll be able to afford sending the serious pay-per-click and targeted traffic your way, instead of the usual "setup a blog and post to forum" half-assed effort.
Give free access to the product after a certain number of sales. Incentives for the top affiliates... plasma TVs and MacBook Airs... but only if it's a big launch. Russell Brunson gave an H3 Hummer to his top affiliate once! Show affiliate leaderboards to get people clawing for the top spot.
Affiliate Management Tactic #2: Provide Banners and Solo Ads for Affiliates
When I give affiliates something to promote, I create a page for them where they can fill in their ID and it shows them their affiliate link and a solo ad branded with their ID. I do this using JV Plus.
A solo ad is simply a quick e-mail your affiliate can cut and paste to send to his list. It doesn't have to be long, just 250 words. Find the best bullet points or the biggest benefit/takeaway and write a SHORT article about it. Tell affiliates they can post it on their blog, submit it as an article, send it as an e-mail, do whatever they want with it.
468x60 sized banner ads are also popular but for me (not being a graphics-oriented guy), the solo ad is most important.
Affiliate Management Tactic #3: Remove Distracting Links
Remove opt-in forms, squeeze pages, offsite links from pages affiliates will send traffic to. I just had this argument with Ben Prater about an opt-in form he had on a sales letter I was promoting as an affiliate.
If I'm sending affiliate traffic to someone else's site... it's not leading to a sale... and it's building someone else's list without giving me credit, I'm GIVING away subscribers. Your list is your baby... your affiliates value their own lists as well.
What's your TOP TIP for getting affiliates to promote your products? Give me ten comments, below and I'll increase the affiliate payout on ALL my products across the board from 50 percent to 60 percent.
Filed in: Seminars
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Provide a product worth promoting! Seems obvious, but I’ve been contacted by a few people asking me to promote their product, and I honestly couldn’t find even the slightest reason why it’d be worth promoting – let alone buying.
Hey Yank!
Happy Birthday!
Have a great day Robert.
John
Hey – I understand it is your 24th birthday – HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Robert,
Happy birthday!
Great article. I particularly enjoyed the PPC breakdown info. Thanks!
Joanne Mason
Happy 24!
Being as successful as you are right now, I predict that it’s only a few years before you are you going to buy your next house!
Enjoy it.
Case
Why didn’t you tell me it was your birthday? I would’ve gotten you a present for when we meet up in Dallas.
Anyway, look forward to seeing you at Affiliate incubator.
-Jason
Hi Robert,
I *SO* totally agree with you about the dang squeeze pages being where your afflinks are being directed… and it’s too bad that so many really good product owners do exactly that.
I get ticked off enough when I have to fill in my info just to see a sales page, and quite often, when someone does that to me, that I give them my cr*p pseudonym name and a throwaway email just to *see* their sales page. I certainly don’t want to refer some trusting person over to suffer the same consequence… I want them to see the actual salesletter and make their choice after the fact to opt-in to that person’s list IF they want to.
Lastly, even tho I wished it on Twitter to you, I want to re-wish you a VERY HAPPY 24th BIRTHDAY, Robert, and a healthy, long, happy life!
Your ‘forever fan’ Donna
Happy b/day Plankie 🙂
You share it with my little brother, so that’s A-OK by me.
Yeh, those damn squeeze pages, just to see a sales letter.
Like Donna, I use a throwaway email address and a fake name, just to get past them. Drive me crazy, they do.
You’re 3 tactics are all on the money. Guess that’s why you make $100K (+ taking massive action!) and most of us don’t…
Keep up the good work Rob.
Eran
Hi Robert,
My tip?
Be generous with your commissions.
All the sales you get from your affiliates are a bonus. These are sales that you wouldn’t otherwise get. You’re not having to do any promoting, press releases, article writing – anything!
So whether you make 50%, 40% or less – it’s still more income for some one-off work creating the best affiliate tools you can.
Thanks for your great newsletter and continuing advice …
Vic
Congrats and happy birthday! Great post by the way. I would like to warn some people about clickbank products. Make sure you follow every link on the vendor’s page and even sign up to their optin box to see what they mail out to the people you send them. You will be surprised how many vendors tries to cheat their affiliates out of commissions.
Here is an example…
I opted in to a popup box on the salespage for a product I was about to promote to my list yesterday, and guess what I found out? The vendor sends out an email with a link to a fake review on his personal website with his own affiliate link pointing back to the salespage for his product. Always check stuff like that before you promote anything.
I’ve seen my affiliate sales go up since I’ve been adding a page with pre-made promo tools which my affiliates can personalize with their own affiliate link.
For my next product, I’ll be offering a reward for every affiliate that refers a certain number of sales. I’m curious to see if this will have any effect…
Greetz!
Mieke
P.S.: Happy B-Day! 🙂
Happy Birthday Robert.
How about creating a “membership” that would deliver your new product at or near your “first crack” pricing. I seem to always miss the lowest price when you release new education opportunities.
I’d sign up!
Thanks
Hi Robert,
Tom “theToolman” here :o)
Happy Freakin Birthday Dude!
I don’t know if you want me to create a new post per tip, but I thought what would be the use…
yes first of all I would remove all the affiliate leaks on the website such as my peel away ad, my lead capture box, and any other thing that would distract your affiliates prospect!
If you’re going to have an affiliate product then having promotional materials are a must if you or your affiliate plan to survive online! Everyone of my affiliate products come with pre written spam busted emails for higher delivery rate to the inbox, banners, html ads, and a free cloaker to help my affiliates protect their commissions from being stolen!
Here’s a few tips I use to boost affiliate productivity when I want a raise!
Tip #1
I would boost affiliate productivity by giving them a brandable report to giveaway to their prospects to draw traffic to their affiliate site… Everyone loves a free report!
Tip #2
I would also cookie their affiliate url for 10 years, this way they know they have time for me to close the sale for them if they don’t buy their first visit… if they don’t buy within 10 years they never will!
Tip #3
I would also reward them with a free copy of the product if they sold a designated amount of copies! Not only do they rake in the commissions but they get the software free too! (Win-Win)
Tip #4
I would give them 50%-75% off their own copy for referring 25-50 (or more) people to their affiliate site, nothing they wouldn’t already do if you have a good product!
I love what I do, and I do what I love…
I LOVE helping people!
Have a Great Birthday!
“To Your Greater Success”
Tom “theToolman” CEO
Innovative Internet Marketing Tools!
http://thetoolman.net/
Toll Free 1-866-602-6411 or 248-232-0635
Happy Birthday, Robert! I truly appreciate all the gifts you give US throughout the year.
First, I want to disagree with sending them to an optin page. If it’s a good marketer, they are going to offer a bribe that has meaning and leads to sales. Plus they are going to follow up with those optins so that you close more sales in the long run.
However, I have to agree – many of the newer marketers don’t understand the purpose of the optin page – they just see it as a way to build their list. The real purpose is to follow up with those who don’t buy immediately. You can easily increase conversions 20-50% with great followup.
Second, I have to agree with Pawel – check them out before you promote. Unless you know the product owner personally and have experienced their sales process, don’t jump too promote until you’ve personally experienced it. I, too, have found pages that “changed” the links midstream, especially at Clickbank – and probably more from ignorance than malice. Just be careful.
Finally, my favorite tip is Educate your Affiliates! So many people don’t know how to market as an affiliate. When you take the time to teach them that – plus give them the tools to use – and THEN introduce them to your products one by one – you’ll be amazed at the results!
Again, Robert, thanks for great information as always. Keep up the great work and keep those birthdays coming!
Jeanette
Hi Robert,
Happy Birthday mate!
I wonder what you will look like if you grow mustach? 🙂
Keep up a great work!
Thanks & Regards,
Sam Odiaka
http://www.oraifite.com
Yes, I think you should grow a mustache.
Robert,
you need to increase the comment rule to 25 comments.
😀