When You Sign Up
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So, it's easy to get started...of course you do it the smart way by investigating the program first and ensuring that there will be a market for what you are selling...and of course it certainly helps to know where they are, so you can market to them.
Lets get past the "start-up" aspect and look as some other aspects that many are NOT taking into consideration when they sign up as an affiliate, shall we??
Let me ask you...when you promote an affiliate program who profits?
The question should be easy enough to answer...you and of course the affiliate program manager profits. You receive some form of compensation via a commission and the manager gets the rest. It's a win/win, right??
There is only one problem that is always over-looked and if you have been with ProfitSpace for a long period of time, you already should know what that problem is ;o)
In almost every case, by promoting an affiliate link you LOSE THE LEAD.
Yup you get the money that that lead has generated for you, however, what if that person was interested in something else you had to offer? If you have no way of contacting that person, then you are losing out on more potential income from that person.
Let me show you how detrimental this is to your eBusiness with a little example:
You join a program and are provided with an affiliate link. So, you know that you need to promote this link so go out and spend your money on oh, perhaps pay-per-click advertising, some solo and classified ads in newsletters...you promote this link hard.
As a result of that hard work you generated 500 visitors to your affiliate webpage of which say...7% of them decided to buy from you. So doing the math you know that you made 35 sales. Hey congrats, the hard work paid off!! ;o)
Not to be a stick in the mud here and quash your success, but let me ask you a couple of questions...and seriously read them carefully.
Question #1 - Were you able to build a list?
In most cases you make the sale and are notified that you are receiving a commission, however, you aren't able to have access to the person who bought from you. That essentially is a lead and that lead goes to the program manager...you can't use it.
If you do know who purchased from you and are given a name and email address, quite often you are not able to access them again, because you are prohibited from doing so. It is stipulated in your affiliate program agreement that you are not able to contact them. Basically regardless of whether you have a name and email address it is useless to you.
Question #2 - What happened to the 465 visitors who visited and didn't buy?
You spend your hard earned money, you take time to post your ads, follow the keywords so your pay-per-clicks will be beneficial for you...and it paid off of course with 35 sales. But...what about the people who came by and for whatever reason didn't buy. Typically those 465 people didn't buy because they needed more information before they made an informed buying decision but you can't help them with that process, because you have lost them.
You can't expect someone to bookmark your site and come back when they have more time. I mean sit and look at your surfing practices and you tell me how many sites you bookmark and go back to later? I am willing to bet not many. What a risk to take...especially when you have money on the line!!
See what a passive approach does for you when you are marketing affiliate links? You do the work, spend the money, yup make some back and if you have done it right, profit...BUT you lost out on the MAXIMUM benefit of all your work.
Ready to work on the side of being proactive now?
I bet ;o)
Ok, first of all don't beat yourself up if you have taken the passive approach that we just laid out above. There are 1000s out there who take the same path. The good news is that if you are down this road, you can take a turn easily enough and get on the right path. The path where sure you can still promote your affiliate programs, but build YOUR list...actually should say LISTS because you have 2 potential lists here. One list as a result of the sales you have made and of course the other consisting of those that haven't purchased, yet ;o)
Ok then, lets get proactive and this is what you do...
1. Free eCourse or Report - you either do one of two things, write your own which is highly recommended...or, you can get your hands on an eCourse or Report that you have customized with your links inside.
Once you have the Report or eCourse, then load it into your autoresponder.
2. Drive Traffic - now that you have the info piece loaded into your autoresponder then you want to drive traffic to it in order that people can download it and read it.
3. Get The Email Address - this aspect is already done for you when you use an autoresponder. Each time someone downloads your Report or eCourse they need to provide their name and email address, so this part is done for you automatically.
4. Promote Your Affiliate Program - this is done already through the eCourse or Report. However, REMEMBER...the whole point of your freebie is to build trust and rapport with those who have downloaded it, PLUS promote your affiliate program in a non-hard sell way. Make sense??
5. Follow-Up/Back-End - now that you are getting a list of contacts rolling you can promote other offers to these people...REMEMBER however, you can totally blow it if all you do is send one sales pitch after another. You already are building trust and rapport by providing good, quality information. The kind of information that will help your list members. Keep that momentum going.
I'm not saying don't contact your list...by all means do so that's what it is there for. HOWEVER, do it in an informative, helping, trusting way. Take the time to write or find a good solid article or tip that goes hand in hand with your offer and weave in your offer within the confines of that info article or tip. Just like you did with the eCourse or Report ;o)
In the end what you are doing is not only building a list - actually not just a list. A list of good QUALITY contacts, how cool is that!!
This is NOT a hard process and EVERYONE/ANYONE can do it. It takes a little time finding the right informational piece to use, but we are in the "information age" and there is a ton of good quality stuff out there waiting to be used ;o)
Have at it!!
By Denise Ryder
Marketing Coach
Denise Ryder is a Marketing coach specializing in Niche Markets. Her latest project is where she sits right now. http://www.land-homes-real-estate.com/ Want to get into some niche markets, and get them profitable fast, then talk to Denise at webmaster @ land-homes-real-estate.com