Your affiliate marketing business is just that … a business. To be successful, you need to treat your business like a business and focus on growth. Your affiliate links are your business; you are the owner of a marketing company, and it is an asset you can grow into more and more assets. Here are three strategies to build your marketing business.
1. Get your own website and domain name.
It looks cheap and marks you as a “newbie” when you post a long affiliate link in your ads. With domain names as inexpensive as they are now you can purchase your own domain name. You can then either forward your URL to your affiliate link or set yourself up with some free hosting and establish more of a web presence. Your best bet is to write a benefit-full description of your affiliate program and link to your program via an HTML link that is part of your description.
2. Build your own list.
Stop relying on one-shot ads to make you money. Real businesses have repeat customers that they cultivate in order to make more profits. You must do the same. Make a commitment to establish relationships with your customers and especially with visitors to your site. Create an email list to keep in touch. Send out periodic tips or articles and focus on helping your customers. Only promote your affiliate links in unobtrusive ways; don’t make your emails one big ad.
One of the best ways to build traffic to your list is to write a short report that describes the benefits of your affiliate program. Make this report available only by email. When someone sends for your report, they are added to your list and you can continue to communicate with them.
3. Build traffic to your own site and list.
This is where you really make your affiliate links your own business. By having your own site and building your own list you are building your own business and brand, not just marketing someone else’s. By doing this, you can market to your own customers over and over again. Do not overlook this point: When your ad redirects a customer to your affiliate link, you have lost that person as your own customer because you lost the ability to communicate with them on a repeat basis. When you direct customers to your own site and list, they build a relationship with you.
There are many ways to build traffic: write articles, post in forums, market in safelists, advertise offline, etc. My advice is to pick one traffic-building method, work on it for awhile, and master it before moving on to something else. If you focus on offline advertising, write and rewrite your ads until you determine how to get the best response. If you market on safelists, make a list of the top 50, and send your ad to 10 each day. Keep testing to make sure your safelists are responsive.
These three strategies will help you build and grow your affiliate marketing business.
Showing posts with label clickbank affiliates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label clickbank affiliates. Show all posts
February 16, 2010
February 4, 2010
Sorting Out Clickbank
The problem that comes up sometimes when creating an online business using the Clickbank marketplace is that Clickbank almost is drowning in its own success. For many people, sorting through his vast marketplace to figure out what product to promote can be a nightmare. Because Clickbank is the virtual marketplace of choice for any digital product that can be bought and delivered exclusive through the internet, at any given time there may be over ten thousand products you can pick from to promote in the huge Clickbank products catalog.
Just going through that vast catalog can become your second life all by itself. And if you did try to sort, catalog and understand every product, your brain would be so muddled it would not be able to figure out which products are the winners for you to promote and get big money from. But at the same time, anyone who has been successful with the Clickbank system has done it by being a smart marketer and learning first how to pick the product that is choice for the market right now and then how to promote it to land big sales from the system.
The first order of business is to set yourself up as an affiliate on the Clickbank web site. This is just getting your foot in the door but it's an essential step. It's easy to do and free at the Clickbank web site so take the few minutes you need to get yourself set up in the system and step through the easy sign up form and become an affiliate citizen of Clickbank.
The first thing that will jump out at you when you start looking for a product to promote is that there is a small elite group of products that are clearly the most popular sellers in the catalog. You might be drawn to those on the idea that if they are popular now, why not cash in on the wave and get some of the revenue from all those sales. But keep in mind that a popular product also is one that is probably being merchandised by hundreds or thousands of other Clickbank affiliates. So the internet customer base is being bombarded with sales pitches for that product. Why join the flood when it may be already dwindling down to a trickle?
This doesn’t mean you pick a product that is not selling well just because it isn't on a lot of other affiliate web sites. The skill is to pick a product that there is a good market out there in cyberspace for that product but it is a market that has not been heavily "tapped" yet. Its tricky business and give yourself permission to experiment. You may not hit pay dirt with the first product you select. But you will make some money and you can experiment and learn how to select the right product over time. There is an "intuition" to any kind of market and getting a gut feel for what the internet market is going to want can happen but it’s a gut feel that is developed, it doesn’t just come naturally to you.
There are some other factors of how a product is positioned and how it is already performing that can help with your decision. Look at the sales copy for the product to see if it is the kind of marketing tool that is likely to work. Read through it and see if it creates a desire in your to buy the product. If they can't convince you, it's probably a poorly crafted sales page and you would be wise to steer clear of the product.
But another variable about the products you pick other than popularity or movement numbers is far more important to your profitability. You should pick products that pay outstanding commissions. A commission on the sale of a product on Clickbank can run from 1% to 75%. That’s a pretty huge variation in profitability. A good guideline is never promote a product that pays less than 50% commission. That way even if your sales are not through the roof, you still make a decent return on your investment for promoting the product and the product owner makes money too. That’s what this partnership is all about.
Just going through that vast catalog can become your second life all by itself. And if you did try to sort, catalog and understand every product, your brain would be so muddled it would not be able to figure out which products are the winners for you to promote and get big money from. But at the same time, anyone who has been successful with the Clickbank system has done it by being a smart marketer and learning first how to pick the product that is choice for the market right now and then how to promote it to land big sales from the system.
The first order of business is to set yourself up as an affiliate on the Clickbank web site. This is just getting your foot in the door but it's an essential step. It's easy to do and free at the Clickbank web site so take the few minutes you need to get yourself set up in the system and step through the easy sign up form and become an affiliate citizen of Clickbank.
The first thing that will jump out at you when you start looking for a product to promote is that there is a small elite group of products that are clearly the most popular sellers in the catalog. You might be drawn to those on the idea that if they are popular now, why not cash in on the wave and get some of the revenue from all those sales. But keep in mind that a popular product also is one that is probably being merchandised by hundreds or thousands of other Clickbank affiliates. So the internet customer base is being bombarded with sales pitches for that product. Why join the flood when it may be already dwindling down to a trickle?
This doesn’t mean you pick a product that is not selling well just because it isn't on a lot of other affiliate web sites. The skill is to pick a product that there is a good market out there in cyberspace for that product but it is a market that has not been heavily "tapped" yet. Its tricky business and give yourself permission to experiment. You may not hit pay dirt with the first product you select. But you will make some money and you can experiment and learn how to select the right product over time. There is an "intuition" to any kind of market and getting a gut feel for what the internet market is going to want can happen but it’s a gut feel that is developed, it doesn’t just come naturally to you.
There are some other factors of how a product is positioned and how it is already performing that can help with your decision. Look at the sales copy for the product to see if it is the kind of marketing tool that is likely to work. Read through it and see if it creates a desire in your to buy the product. If they can't convince you, it's probably a poorly crafted sales page and you would be wise to steer clear of the product.
But another variable about the products you pick other than popularity or movement numbers is far more important to your profitability. You should pick products that pay outstanding commissions. A commission on the sale of a product on Clickbank can run from 1% to 75%. That’s a pretty huge variation in profitability. A good guideline is never promote a product that pays less than 50% commission. That way even if your sales are not through the roof, you still make a decent return on your investment for promoting the product and the product owner makes money too. That’s what this partnership is all about.
January 29, 2010
Be careful of Clickbank – The one secret I should not have disclosed!
I have a secret I have got to reveal. Keep this to yourself. Do you notice when you visit most sales page, they have an “affiliates sign up” or “make money here” link which directs you to their affiliate sign up page? Imagine this scenario, Thomas visits the site through your affiliate link, he reads the sales copy and is convinced but the price $79 is a little steep. He sees the “affiliates sign up” link and clicks. He realizes he could get at 60% discount with the commission and so he signs up with clickbank and buys through his own link.
The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong! Fact is, they had intended to sell at $31(40%) of the price and so set it at $79. The affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.
Armed with this knowledge you should be able to be more discerning when selecting the products to promote. That said, here are some ways which you can profit from Clickbank.
Tip 1
Criteria for selecting your products. Never select a product that is priced too high, pays out commission below 50% and a sales copy that sucks. Amazingly, there are affiliates promoting these products still!
Tip 2
Make full use of the resources page. They are there for a reason, they must be working otherwise or they would not have been there. That is not to say you can use your own promotional tools, by all means go ahead!
Tip 3
Getting traffic. There are many ways of generating traffic. One of them is by using Google Adwords. It is targeted and fast. You get quick targeted traffic and the thing is, if you do your keyword research well, you can get it cheaply too. More on free traffic generators is available in my book Clickbank Profit Machine
The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong! Fact is, they had intended to sell at $31(40%) of the price and so set it at $79. The affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.
Armed with this knowledge you should be able to be more discerning when selecting the products to promote. That said, here are some ways which you can profit from Clickbank.
Tip 1
Criteria for selecting your products. Never select a product that is priced too high, pays out commission below 50% and a sales copy that sucks. Amazingly, there are affiliates promoting these products still!
Tip 2
Make full use of the resources page. They are there for a reason, they must be working otherwise or they would not have been there. That is not to say you can use your own promotional tools, by all means go ahead!
Tip 3
Getting traffic. There are many ways of generating traffic. One of them is by using Google Adwords. It is targeted and fast. You get quick targeted traffic and the thing is, if you do your keyword research well, you can get it cheaply too. More on free traffic generators is available in my book Clickbank Profit Machine
January 28, 2010
What Clickbank Do Not Want You To Know!
This is something many affiliates do not know and really ought to know. Keep this to yourself. Do you notice when you visit most sales page, they have an “affiliates sign up” or “make money here” link which brings you to their affiliate sign up page?
Imagine this scenario, Mr X visits the site through your affiliate link, he reads the sales copy and is rather swayed but the price $97 is a little steep. He sees the “affiliates sign up” link and clicks. He then realizes he could get at 50% discount with the commission if he signs up with clickbank and buys through his own link.
The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong answer! The fact is they had intended to sell at $48.5(50%) of the price and so set it higher at $97. In addition to that, the affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.
Now you know why these “affiliates sign up” or “earn money now” links does not seem so subtle anymore.
Some tips you can and should use.
Number 1 – Choosing the right product to promote
There are several factors to consider there. I shall list a few. For me, I never choose a product with commission below 50% and a sale which results in less then $19. I only promote products which I have mailed the vendor and he has replied. I visit the sales page and rate it upon 10 on persuasiveness and would not promote products with a rating below 6.5
Number 2 – Make use of articles to promote
Articles just like this one brings me lots of fresh traffic everyday. Not only that, it also brings in targeted traffic as people reading and finding the content in the article are more then likely to visit the link at the resource box. Just remember to “mask” or “cloak” your affiliate link into a web address become most article directories do not accept direct affiliate links. Just do a Google on these cloaking services, there are many free ones out there
Number 3 – Drop the vendor a mail
Doing this serves two purposes. Firstly, you can determine the responsiveness of the vendor and much he cares about you- the affiliate, enough for him to reply. Secondly, you can ask him for tips and extra resources (other than those on his affiliate page) to help in your promotion. More often than not, the vendors are very likely to help.
Imagine this scenario, Mr X visits the site through your affiliate link, he reads the sales copy and is rather swayed but the price $97 is a little steep. He sees the “affiliates sign up” link and clicks. He then realizes he could get at 50% discount with the commission if he signs up with clickbank and buys through his own link.
The vendors do not want this to happen right? Wrong answer! The fact is they had intended to sell at $48.5(50%) of the price and so set it higher at $97. In addition to that, the affiliate link was prominently displayed so visitors could easily see it and sign up and get the discount. This make the buyer thinks he has got into a “winning” situation but in fact the vendor got the sale he wanted and an affiliate at the same time.
Now you know why these “affiliates sign up” or “earn money now” links does not seem so subtle anymore.
Some tips you can and should use.
Number 1 – Choosing the right product to promote
There are several factors to consider there. I shall list a few. For me, I never choose a product with commission below 50% and a sale which results in less then $19. I only promote products which I have mailed the vendor and he has replied. I visit the sales page and rate it upon 10 on persuasiveness and would not promote products with a rating below 6.5
Number 2 – Make use of articles to promote
Articles just like this one brings me lots of fresh traffic everyday. Not only that, it also brings in targeted traffic as people reading and finding the content in the article are more then likely to visit the link at the resource box. Just remember to “mask” or “cloak” your affiliate link into a web address become most article directories do not accept direct affiliate links. Just do a Google on these cloaking services, there are many free ones out there
Number 3 – Drop the vendor a mail
Doing this serves two purposes. Firstly, you can determine the responsiveness of the vendor and much he cares about you- the affiliate, enough for him to reply. Secondly, you can ask him for tips and extra resources (other than those on his affiliate page) to help in your promotion. More often than not, the vendors are very likely to help.
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