Super Affiliate Secrets
As explained in the previous section, affiliate programs give you the ability to promote a company’s website, products, and services and receive a commission from any sales made through your efforts. For the beginning Internet marketer, this can be one of the easiest ways to start creating real profits on the net. Because you’re promoting another company’s website, you have none of the normal hassles and headaches of a regular online business. You have no products to stock or ship, no employees, no office space, no customer service issues, no technical issues, no worry about servers or bandwidth, and you never have to process or fulfill a single order. You simply refer other people to the company’s website and when one of the people you refer buys, you get paid. However, affiliate programs are NOT just for beginners. In fact, some of the world’s top Internet marketing experts use affiliate programs as extra income streams. And many joint ventures are run through affiliate software.
Over
the years I’ve been on the Internet, I’ve promoted various products and
services through affiliate programs. Currently, I probably get from 5
to 10 checks each month from a variety of affiliate programs, including a
website hosting company, an autoresponder service, an online bookstore,
a membership site, and a baked goods company. Most of my marketing
efforts are on autopilot, so I rarely spend much time promoting these
affiliate programs but the checks continue to roll in each month like
clockwork.
As
an affiliate, you can promote virtually any type of product or service,
from both small websites, as well as major corporate websites,
including:
Yahoo.com
Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger
eBay.com
Quicken Loans
Marriott Hotels
Marriott Hotels
Barnes & Noble Home
Shopping Network
IBM
IBM
Best Buy
Staples
Mrs Fields
Mrs Fields
ShopNBC
Avon
Apple Computers
Apple Computers
1-800-Flowers
American Express
Land’s End
Land’s End
Macy’s
Cingular Wireless
NetFlix
NetFlix
Office Depot
Delta Airlines
Omaha Steaks
Omaha Steaks
Disney
PetSmart
Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Enterprise Rent-a-Car
Foot Locker
Sharper Image
The Franklin Mint
The Franklin Mint
Sony Music
Time/Life
Tupperware
Tupperware
Hallmark
H&R Block
Zales
Zales
Western Union
...and thousands more!
While
many people are making a nice part-time income with affiliate programs,
other people have taken the concept to the next level. Rosalind Gardner
is a perfect example. Rosalind used to be an air traffic controller,
but she hated her high-stress job. When the Internet started to blossom
and grow, she decided to go online and trade seeds with other gardeners
from around the world. During her time online, she decided to try online
dating and soon discovered that the matchmaking sites had affiliate
programs. The rest is history. Rosalind started to promote the affiliate
program for the matchmaking website and the money started to pour in.
During one year, she made $436,797.00 just by promoting other companies’
affiliate programs. She quickly quit her 20-year job as an air traffic
controller and is now making money full-time with affiliate programs and
her own products.
People, like Rosalind, who create a full-time income with affiliate programs are known as “Super Affiliates”. Many super affiliates make up to $100,000 to $1 million dollars or more every year with affiliate programs. For example, here’s a direct quote from eBay.com’s website, talking about their top affiliates:
“Several eBay affiliates earn over $100,000 every month – well over $1,000,000 each year! Our top 100 affiliates average nearly $25,000 each month.”
Affiliate Marketing Secret #1:
Build a Website to Build a List.
One of the key secrets affiliate marketers all understand is the importance of a list of prospects and customers. (In fact, just for your information, most marketers would agree that their mailing list is the #1 asset their business has. You can always replace computers and furniture cheaply. You can create new products quickly and without much effort. But creating a mailing list of high-quality buyers can be very time-consuming and expensive. Plus, it’s the only asset in your business that can produce money for you on a regular basis.)
While many companies with affiliate programs suggest that you don’t need a website to promote their products or services, it’s highly recommended that you create a website to feature the affiliate products on, so that you can create a mailing list. The reason to create a mailing list is simple. First, many of the visitors to your website won’t buy the 1st time. So you’ll need to contact them multiple times (at least once a month). Second, you want to build a bond with your customers. If you’re able to write a monthly newsletter, display your personality through it, and send it to your list, you’ll find two things happen. #1: Some people will NOT like you and they’ll drop off of your list. Don’t worry. That’s a GREAT thing. You can’t please everyone (that’s a good LIFE LESSON), so you shouldn’t waste your valuable time and energy trying. Not everyone is meant to like everyone else. So let those people who don’t connect with you drop off your list. However... #2: Other people will LOVE you and buy affiliate products based on your recommendation alone. Anytime you find a new product or service that you know will be beneficial to the people on your mailing list, you can easily send them all a message and create extra affiliate sales.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #2:
Ask for higher percentage commissions.
As you start making more money with affiliate programs, you’ll have more leverage to negotiate your commissions. For example, Company A might give every affiliate a 35% commission on all referred sales. However, if you generate a large number of sales for Company A, you can contact their affiliate support person and ask for an increased commission rate, possibly 50%. If you really are producing consistent sales, it’s likely you’ll get an increased commission.
Many affiliates could easily make an extra 10% to 20% in commissions, but they miss out on this extra money because they’re simply afraid to ask or don’t even realize that they CAN ask. The worst thing that can happen if you ask is that you’ll be turned down. However, you may also get exactly what you want, the increased commission, and that has the potential to increase your monthly commissions and put more cash into your bank account. So once you get established and start generating significant sales, start asking for increased commissions.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #3:
Do Tele-Seminars.Recently, I interviewed affiliate expert Russell Brunson for my Affiliate Wealth System course. Russell is a master when it comes to making money with affiliate programs and he revealed a technique during our conversation that was amazing.
Here’s how it works: Russell finds an affiliate program for a hot product in which his list of prospects and clients would be interested. He contacts the creator of the product and invites him or her to do a LIVE telephone seminar (also known as a tele-seminar) at a certain time during the week. Once this is set up, Russell produces a one-page website (or a page on one of his already existing websites) and sends an email out to his entire email list, inviting them to the live tele-seminar-- FREE! All they have to do is go to the Registration Page, sign up, and they’ll get full details about the tele-seminar emailed back to them. (Russell uses an autoresponder service to take their info and automatically email them back the tele-seminar callin
date, time, and phone number.)
Russell already has a low-cost tele-seminar company that he works with that can handle 100’s of callers, all calling in at the same time, to listen to Russell and his special guest. At the scheduled time, Russell starts the tele-conference (often with 100’s of people listening in from all over the world) and interviews the expert for an hour.
At the end of the hour, Russell asks the expert about the product they have for sale. The expert explains it completely and Russell tells his callers that if they want to buy it, they need to go to a special website address (which is his affiliate link). He gives them the website address a few times during the last few minutes of the tele-seminar and then finishes up. Russell told me that he averages about $5,000 to $8,000 in affiliate sales per 60-minute tele-seminar! And because he records these tele-seminars, he can re-run them at anytime; each time he runs them, he makes another $4,000 to $5,000 (and this time, he’s not even there!).
Russell has used this trick multiple times and every time he does it, it creates another tidal wave of income for him. Instead of simply adding a link to his website or emailing it to his entire list, he creates an “event” and then “sells” his listeners during the call, closing the sale at the end. Because this method works so well, Russell has been able to create huge affiliate commission checks every month. It’s truly an incredible money-making secret!
Affiliate Marketing Secret #4:
Viral Marketing.
While I mentioned viral marketing before in the section on Internet marketing, it’s such an important marketing concept, I wanted to re-visit it in this section as well. As you know from my previous writing on this marketing method, viral marketing is any type of marketing that spreads from person to person like a virus.
For example, Blue Mountain Cards is a website that gives visitors the ability to send free e-cards to friends and family. It started off small at first, with just a few people sending e-cards to one another. However, each person who received an e-card saw a link to Blue Mountain’s website, so if they chose to, they could send a card to someone else. Soon, Blue Mountain was growing by leaps and bounds. As more people received cards, more people started sending cards. More servers were added, traffic reached an all-time high (almost 9 million users A MONTH!), and it soon became the 18th most visited website on the Internet! Then, it was bought-- lock, stock, and barrel-- for $780 MILLION DOLLARS! That’s the power of viral marketing.
Here’s another example of viral marketing. And this will give you an idea of how you can use it to make a lot of money with affiliate programs. A friend of mine created an Internet marketing e-book entitled The Traffic Toolchest. It shows Internet marketers dozens of free and low-cost ways to drive traffic to their web businesses. Inside the e-book, alongside the valuable traffic techniques, are his affiliate links for products and services he recommends. Currently, he’s giving his entire e-book free of charge AND letting anyone and everyone also give it away free.
Why? Because whenever people read his e-book, they normally end up buying one of the products or services he recommends inside. So naturally he wants his e-book to be downloaded and given away thousands of times. As more people download it and give it away free, it gets into the hands of more people who also have the ability to give it to others. And, like a virus, his e-book can spread to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people all around the world.
This method of marketing can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. For example, you can write a short “report” (2 to 5 pages) on a specific topic and include a few affiliate links throughout it. Then, you can give it away free, either on your own website or through some of the many, many free e-book websites and directories on the Internet. (Use Google.com to find these directories and sites). I suggest publishing your report as a PDF file, because people on both Apple computers and PC’s can download it and everyone can get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view your PDF report. (For information on publishing using PDF, go to: www.adobe.com and look for information on Adobe Acrobat.
You can also create (or hire someone to create for you) an e-book (50 to 200 pages) that features many, many of your affiliate links throughout it. One word of caution: Do NOT junk up your report or e-book with affiliate links. The BEST affiliate links are featured as a recommended source, within the context of your information. Large half-page or full-page ads or banners inside a report or e-book are seen very quickly as “ads” and not as helpful recommendations.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #5:
HIDE URL’s behind new domains.
Here’s a simple trick that will help you save your affiliate commissions. When you become an affiliate for a company, you’re often given a very long, coded affiliate link for you to promote. For example, if you’re promoting something like my Millionaire-In-Training Coaching Program, your affiliate link will look like this:
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest
That’s not too bad. I’ve actually seen affiliate links that look like this:
http://www.metareward.com/mr/Page?p=ez45&ci=30045&pubci=41666&offerId=1914&sn=rv&showmrpx=F&nord=T&c=RV_1500STOREGC&wsh0=1155&px1=webspon1500Kmart&ptr_id=33111&sid2=33111&sion=on
Let’s take this link as an example:
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest.
It’s very easy for someone to shorten the link down to just millionaireintraining.com, go to the website and, if they buy, the affiliate (id=toolchest) is out of their commission.
Here’s how you can fix that problem: Instead of promoting your affiliate link, you can go to any domain name registration company (I recommend www.thedomaincenter.com) and register a new domain name for under $10 bucks. Then, you can have your new domain forward visitors to your affiliate link. For example, instead of promoting...
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest
...you could register a domain like...
www.soontoberich.com
Then, you simply advertise the shorter domain and when people visit it, they’re automatically re-directed to your affiliate link. Most domain registration companies even let you set up the forwarding service so that your visitors won’t know they’ve been forwarded to an affiliate link.
This is a great technique if you plan to promote your affiliate links in any offline media, like TV, radio, newspapers, or magazines. It’s also an effective marketing method for email, business cards, and promoting your affiliate links through word-of-mouth advertising.
“Several eBay affiliates earn over $100,000 every month – well over $1,000,000 each year! Our top 100 affiliates average nearly $25,000 each month.”
Affiliate Marketing Secret #1:
Build a Website to Build a List.
One of the key secrets affiliate marketers all understand is the importance of a list of prospects and customers. (In fact, just for your information, most marketers would agree that their mailing list is the #1 asset their business has. You can always replace computers and furniture cheaply. You can create new products quickly and without much effort. But creating a mailing list of high-quality buyers can be very time-consuming and expensive. Plus, it’s the only asset in your business that can produce money for you on a regular basis.)
While many companies with affiliate programs suggest that you don’t need a website to promote their products or services, it’s highly recommended that you create a website to feature the affiliate products on, so that you can create a mailing list. The reason to create a mailing list is simple. First, many of the visitors to your website won’t buy the 1st time. So you’ll need to contact them multiple times (at least once a month). Second, you want to build a bond with your customers. If you’re able to write a monthly newsletter, display your personality through it, and send it to your list, you’ll find two things happen. #1: Some people will NOT like you and they’ll drop off of your list. Don’t worry. That’s a GREAT thing. You can’t please everyone (that’s a good LIFE LESSON), so you shouldn’t waste your valuable time and energy trying. Not everyone is meant to like everyone else. So let those people who don’t connect with you drop off your list. However... #2: Other people will LOVE you and buy affiliate products based on your recommendation alone. Anytime you find a new product or service that you know will be beneficial to the people on your mailing list, you can easily send them all a message and create extra affiliate sales.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #2:
Ask for higher percentage commissions.
As you start making more money with affiliate programs, you’ll have more leverage to negotiate your commissions. For example, Company A might give every affiliate a 35% commission on all referred sales. However, if you generate a large number of sales for Company A, you can contact their affiliate support person and ask for an increased commission rate, possibly 50%. If you really are producing consistent sales, it’s likely you’ll get an increased commission.
Many affiliates could easily make an extra 10% to 20% in commissions, but they miss out on this extra money because they’re simply afraid to ask or don’t even realize that they CAN ask. The worst thing that can happen if you ask is that you’ll be turned down. However, you may also get exactly what you want, the increased commission, and that has the potential to increase your monthly commissions and put more cash into your bank account. So once you get established and start generating significant sales, start asking for increased commissions.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #3:
Do Tele-Seminars.Recently, I interviewed affiliate expert Russell Brunson for my Affiliate Wealth System course. Russell is a master when it comes to making money with affiliate programs and he revealed a technique during our conversation that was amazing.
Here’s how it works: Russell finds an affiliate program for a hot product in which his list of prospects and clients would be interested. He contacts the creator of the product and invites him or her to do a LIVE telephone seminar (also known as a tele-seminar) at a certain time during the week. Once this is set up, Russell produces a one-page website (or a page on one of his already existing websites) and sends an email out to his entire email list, inviting them to the live tele-seminar-- FREE! All they have to do is go to the Registration Page, sign up, and they’ll get full details about the tele-seminar emailed back to them. (Russell uses an autoresponder service to take their info and automatically email them back the tele-seminar callin
date, time, and phone number.)
Russell already has a low-cost tele-seminar company that he works with that can handle 100’s of callers, all calling in at the same time, to listen to Russell and his special guest. At the scheduled time, Russell starts the tele-conference (often with 100’s of people listening in from all over the world) and interviews the expert for an hour.
At the end of the hour, Russell asks the expert about the product they have for sale. The expert explains it completely and Russell tells his callers that if they want to buy it, they need to go to a special website address (which is his affiliate link). He gives them the website address a few times during the last few minutes of the tele-seminar and then finishes up. Russell told me that he averages about $5,000 to $8,000 in affiliate sales per 60-minute tele-seminar! And because he records these tele-seminars, he can re-run them at anytime; each time he runs them, he makes another $4,000 to $5,000 (and this time, he’s not even there!).
Russell has used this trick multiple times and every time he does it, it creates another tidal wave of income for him. Instead of simply adding a link to his website or emailing it to his entire list, he creates an “event” and then “sells” his listeners during the call, closing the sale at the end. Because this method works so well, Russell has been able to create huge affiliate commission checks every month. It’s truly an incredible money-making secret!
Affiliate Marketing Secret #4:
Viral Marketing.
While I mentioned viral marketing before in the section on Internet marketing, it’s such an important marketing concept, I wanted to re-visit it in this section as well. As you know from my previous writing on this marketing method, viral marketing is any type of marketing that spreads from person to person like a virus.
For example, Blue Mountain Cards is a website that gives visitors the ability to send free e-cards to friends and family. It started off small at first, with just a few people sending e-cards to one another. However, each person who received an e-card saw a link to Blue Mountain’s website, so if they chose to, they could send a card to someone else. Soon, Blue Mountain was growing by leaps and bounds. As more people received cards, more people started sending cards. More servers were added, traffic reached an all-time high (almost 9 million users A MONTH!), and it soon became the 18th most visited website on the Internet! Then, it was bought-- lock, stock, and barrel-- for $780 MILLION DOLLARS! That’s the power of viral marketing.
Here’s another example of viral marketing. And this will give you an idea of how you can use it to make a lot of money with affiliate programs. A friend of mine created an Internet marketing e-book entitled The Traffic Toolchest. It shows Internet marketers dozens of free and low-cost ways to drive traffic to their web businesses. Inside the e-book, alongside the valuable traffic techniques, are his affiliate links for products and services he recommends. Currently, he’s giving his entire e-book free of charge AND letting anyone and everyone also give it away free.
Why? Because whenever people read his e-book, they normally end up buying one of the products or services he recommends inside. So naturally he wants his e-book to be downloaded and given away thousands of times. As more people download it and give it away free, it gets into the hands of more people who also have the ability to give it to others. And, like a virus, his e-book can spread to tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of people all around the world.
This method of marketing can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. For example, you can write a short “report” (2 to 5 pages) on a specific topic and include a few affiliate links throughout it. Then, you can give it away free, either on your own website or through some of the many, many free e-book websites and directories on the Internet. (Use Google.com to find these directories and sites). I suggest publishing your report as a PDF file, because people on both Apple computers and PC’s can download it and everyone can get the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view your PDF report. (For information on publishing using PDF, go to: www.adobe.com and look for information on Adobe Acrobat.
You can also create (or hire someone to create for you) an e-book (50 to 200 pages) that features many, many of your affiliate links throughout it. One word of caution: Do NOT junk up your report or e-book with affiliate links. The BEST affiliate links are featured as a recommended source, within the context of your information. Large half-page or full-page ads or banners inside a report or e-book are seen very quickly as “ads” and not as helpful recommendations.
Affiliate Marketing Secret #5:
HIDE URL’s behind new domains.
Here’s a simple trick that will help you save your affiliate commissions. When you become an affiliate for a company, you’re often given a very long, coded affiliate link for you to promote. For example, if you’re promoting something like my Millionaire-In-Training Coaching Program, your affiliate link will look like this:
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest
That’s not too bad. I’ve actually seen affiliate links that look like this:
http://www.metareward.com/mr/Page?p=ez45&ci=30045&pubci=41666&offerId=1914&sn=rv&showmrpx=F&nord=T&c=RV_1500STOREGC&wsh0=1155&px1=webspon1500Kmart&ptr_id=33111&sid2=33111&sion=on
Let’s take this link as an example:
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest.
It’s very easy for someone to shorten the link down to just millionaireintraining.com, go to the website and, if they buy, the affiliate (id=toolchest) is out of their commission.
Here’s how you can fix that problem: Instead of promoting your affiliate link, you can go to any domain name registration company (I recommend www.thedomaincenter.com) and register a new domain name for under $10 bucks. Then, you can have your new domain forward visitors to your affiliate link. For example, instead of promoting...
http://www.millionaireintraining.com/?id=toolchest
...you could register a domain like...
www.soontoberich.com
Then, you simply advertise the shorter domain and when people visit it, they’re automatically re-directed to your affiliate link. Most domain registration companies even let you set up the forwarding service so that your visitors won’t know they’ve been forwarded to an affiliate link.
This is a great technique if you plan to promote your affiliate links in any offline media, like TV, radio, newspapers, or magazines. It’s also an effective marketing method for email, business cards, and promoting your affiliate links through word-of-mouth advertising.
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