Chapter 2 : Landing Pages or Content Sites?
One of the decisions you will need to make in approaching your affiliate marketing decisions is whether you will use landing pages or content sites. Both methods have their advantages as well as their disadvantages. Some affiliates have found that landing pages have proven to be more effective while others have found that content pages are the safer and more effective option.
One thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to choosing how you will promote your affiliate products, there is really no wrong way or no right way. The key is to make sure that the method you choose is working and stick with it. If it’s not working then you may need to consider tweaking it until it does work or try a different method.
Landing Pages
A landing page is a special type of page that allows you to pre-sell a product or service. The key to the landing page working is the assumption that you will be able to convert the prospect in a more effective fashion than the actual merchant site. In order for this method to work, you are also banking on the assumption that you will be able to convert the prospect before they even arrive on the merchant’s site. Keep in mind when considering this method in most cases you will have better results with fewer clicks. Generally speaking, the more clicks that a visitor must make to arrive at the check-out, the greater the chance that the visitor will change their mind.
Of course, that does not mean that landing pages cannot work. If you have a site that is really great and does an excellent job of pre-selling the product or service then you have a good opportunity to make the sale and earn a commission.
Content Sites
A content site works to obtain the same goal as that of a landing page; the ultimate result being a visit that has been converted to a sale. The key to making this method work is ensuring that your page is relatively simple, has a sufficient amount of solid and interesting content and is fast loading.
In order for content sites to work well, you must have plenty of content that is interesting, unique and relevant to the topic. This can be time consuming and is one of the primary factors why many people choose not use content sites or use them and fail with them.
If you do not feel that you have the time and the patience to develop a high quality content site then it is best to avoid using this method altogether. Opt for a landing page instead.
One option that you might choose to use is to set up a landing page campaign first in order to get some income rolling in. The benefit to this is that it does not take as long to build a landing page and you have an opportunity to get started working with affiliate merchants. In the interim you can then begin working on some solid content sites.
Succeeding with the Pre-sell
Developing a successful pre-sell is a skill that you must be able to develop if you are going to succeed as an affiliate marketer. The basics involved in the pre-sell are making sure that your visitors are warmed up and that they are in the frame of mind to buy the product or service. This is crucial before you send the visitor on to the merchant’s site. In the end, pre-selling is an essential skill that can either make you or break you.
The words that you place on your page are essential. They are the means by which you connect with your visitors. Keep in mind that people prefer to buy from people that they know, people that they like and people that they feel they can trust. Learning how to get your visitors to get to know you as well as like and trust you is a skill that you can learn and it is a skill that you must learn if you want to succeed at affiliate marketing.
Developing your Message
First, you need to make sure you have a message on your website that is clear and focused. One of the biggest mistakes that many beginning affiliate marketers make is developing a message that is lacking in focus. Such messages tend to stray toward too many topics and are anything but concise and to the point.
Also, it is essential to work toward developing your own voice that can be used on your website or landing page. This is one of the ways that you can help your visitors get to know you. Remember to write as though you are talking directly to someone. This technique can go a long way toward helping visitors get to know you as well as like you.
Look for a unique position in which you can place the product or service that your are promoting. This is critical if you have a fair amount of competition. Everything that you can do to make the product or service stand out from the crowd will improve your chances of conversion.
Finally, make sure that you are working at honestly convincing visitors to trust as well as like the product that you are promoting. Never resort to dishonest tactics just to try to make a conversion. It will always come back to haunt you in the end. Remain honest in all that you do and you will be rewarded.
Removing the Roadblocks
In order to succeed, you need to make sure that you remove any potential roadblocks that could prevent visitors from converting to buying customers. There are several things that you can do to succeed at this.
First, consider providing additional information about the products that you are promoting that may be necessary to help remove any hesitation on the part of the visitor that is holding them back from making a purchase.
It is also important to make sure that you provide links on your page that links to the most appropriate page on the merchant’s site. Pay careful attention to where you link in order to have the best results.
It is also crucial to your success to make sure that you have a good call to action on your page or website. Remember that it is not enough to simply encourage people to make a purchase. You must tell them what it is that you want them to do.
If you take the time to follow these guidelines and steps, you will find that you have a much greater opportunity for succeeding with your affiliate efforts, regardless of what product you promote or how much experience that you have when you get started.
Developing your Plan
The most important thing that you can do is to develop a plan and see that plan through every single step of the way. In business, it is often said that if you do not have a business plan you plan to fail. This is certainly true to a large degree when it comes to affiliate marketing. Even if you are starting out small, it is critical to have a well developed plan that will allow you to see that single product through from start to finish.
Sit down and develop some short term goals as well as define some action steps of what is necessary to help you meet those goals. Where do you see yourself in six months with your first product or service that you have chosen to promote? If you do not have any clearly defined goals, it can certainly be hard to reach them.
Do not stop there; however. Beyond developing a plan for your first product, it is also important to develop a plan for the future and where you see your business heading. What is it that you want to accomplish within the next year? What will it take to allow you to leave your full-time job? How much money do you need to earn? In what time frame do you need to earn that amount of money? What will be necessary for you to earn that amount of money?
Do you see how this flows? By developing a plan today, complete with goals and action steps that must be completed in order to accomplish those goals you set yourself up for success rather than failure. This is critical to succeeding as an affiliate.
Your Personal Plan for Succeeding as an Affiliate
Short Term Goals :
Action Steps :
Long Term Goals :
Action Steps :
Chapter 1 : What is Affiliate Marketing?
Before delving into the steps of how to succeed as an affiliate marketer, it is first important to explore the subject of affiliate marketing in a bit more detail to understand what is involved. Essentially, affiliate marketing involves taking a product or service that belongs to someone else and using it within your own website in order to earn income.
There are different ways in which an affiliate marketing relationship may be set up. One method would be to develop a revenue sharing relationship between two different websites. In this situation, an affiliate site would typically provide advertising for an online commercial site with compensation being based on performance, such as registrations, clicks, sales, etc.
Another option would be in which a company pays affiliate partners a commission for either leads or sales that are generated through the marketing efforts on the part of the affiliate. Generally, the commission involves a percentage of the sales. That percentage may vary among different affiliate programs.
In some cases, affiliate marketing may involve a relationship that is developed between a merchant and the affiliate in which the affiliate links to the merchant. When a visitor clicks on the link in the affiliate’s website and makes a subsequent purchase from the merchant, the affiliate receives a commission. In some cases, the affiliate may also receive a referral fee or also a pay for click fee.
While there are different ways in which affiliate marketing may be handled, it is ultimately a fairly widespread method for promoting a product, service or website in which the affiliate is rewarded for all leads and visitors they provide for their marketing efforts. Basically, it is a high-tech way of paying a finder’s fee.
With a bit of knowledge and experience, the process behind affiliate marketing can be quite profitable and simple, providing a win/win for everyone that is involved in affiliate marketing. It should be understood that affiliate marketing is certainly not a get rich quick method that will make you a millionaire overnight. Like any profitable money making system, it does require time and work. Many affiliate marketers who first get started continue with their regular jobs for some time until they have earned at least enough money to replace their regular income before they begin to use affiliate marketing as a full-time revenue stream.
Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing
Once you have made the decision to become involved with affiliate marketing, the next step is to get started. The first decision you will need to make is whether you want to have your own website or whether you prefer to advertise using an affiliate link that is unique to you. Many affiliate marketers opt to create a website that is informational in nature and which can be used for affiliate links that are related in nature. This is an excellent option because of the fact that you only need to advertise a single website while still retaining the ability to make money. Other affiliates choose to have a website for each product or service.
Identifying a Niche
If you choose to have a single website, you will first need to identify a niche. Consider different topics that interest you or which you are passionate about. Consider subjects that are considered to be ‘hot’ or in high demand now.
It is also important to consider the amount of competition that is currently present within the niche that you are considering. While it may sound terribly tempting to choose a niche that is highly popular, the downside to this is that you will face a tremendous amount of competition. When you are first starting out, it can actually be better to choose a niche that is fairly narrow and does not offer a lot of competition.
Taking Advantage of Keywords
Once you have decided upon the right niche to focus your affiliate marketing efforts upon the next step is to determine which keywords will be relevant to that niche and which will rank well within the search engines. Generally, long tail keyword terms will rank well. In other words, try to focus on multi-word search phrases rather than just one or two works. For example, it is typically easier to rank in the top ten on a search engine for ‘Ultimate French Country Cookbook’ than just ‘French Cookbook.’
After you have researched your keywords, you will need to make sure that you have incorporated them in the right places. In the next section, we will get into more detail about setting up your website for success as an affiliate, but keep in mind that you should make sure that you have your keywords appear in the title text, meta description, meta keywords, H1 and H2 tags and within all of the text that appears on your pages.
The Basics of Setting up your Website
After you have decided upon a particular niche, you will need to come up with a name for your website. Some of your keyword research can help with this part of the process. Take some time to research some keywords associated with your niche and consider using those as a URL for your website.
Getting your Website Set Up
After you have a niche and a name for your website, you will need to ensure that your domain name is registered and that you have hosting for your website. Although it can be tempting to use free hosting, you should try to steer clear of free hosting. Free hosting accounts typically include advertising that can be unrelated to the theme of your website as well as annoying to potential visitors. When you are developing a website to make money through affiliate marketing, it is worth it to go ahead and pay for a professional hosting account.
Once you have registered your domain and obtained hosting for your website, you will then need to develop your website and ensure that it has sufficient information that is related to the niche that you have selected. Remember that content is still king of the Internet. In order for your website to succeed and thus your affiliate marketing efforts, you will need to ensure that you provide a steady supply of fresh and original content to your website.
Search Engine Optimization
After all of the information has been fed to your website, you will then need to concentrate on search engine optimization. Make sure that your website contains plenty of relevant keywords that are related to your niche, but avoid overusing keywords to ensure you stay clear of spamming problems.
It is also a good idea to offer a free newsletter or ezine through your website. This is a great way to get word out about the products and services that you want to promote as an affiliate as well as encourage repeat visitors through your website.
Understanding Affiliate Networks
In most cases, as an affiliate, you will need to sign up for an affiliate program through a broker or affiliate network. The affiliate network provides affiliates with links to merchant sites. They also provide a host of different metrics and statistics that make it much easier to determine how different merchant links are performing at different times. Keep in mind that signing up for an affiliate network should never cost you a fee.
When you sign up for an affiliate program and create a website where you will place links, you will also receive an affiliate ID that is contained within the links that are placed on your website. This ensures that the merchant will know who to pay commissions for sales. When a visitor clicks on the link within your website, this is known as a click through. At that time a cookie is placed on their computer. If they make a purchase on this compute then the affiliate receives a commission.
In order to ensure that you receive the most commissions possible, it is critical to understand how the cookie process will work with the affiliate network or program. It is essential that you find out how long the cookies will remain good before they expire. If the cookie expires too soon and the visitor does not make a purchase right away, you will have a hard time earning a commission. Also, if the cookie expires too soon, it prevents you from receiving credit for repeat sales. The length of time that a cookie remains active can vary from one program to another. Some cookies may remain active for up to 120 days, but the average amount of time is about 30 days. Always make sure that you find out before you sign up for an affiliate network or program.
It is also essential to understand conversion rates. Do not make the mistake of thinking that every person who visits your website will make a purchase. The average conversion rate from clicking on an affiliate link to actually making a purchase is only around 1%. This means that for every 100 people who visit your website and click on a link, only one person will actually make a purchase.
You also need to make sure that you find out what the minimum payment amount will be with an affiliate network or program before you sign up. Due to the costs involved with making payments, many affiliate networks and programs require that you build up a certain amount of money in commissions before you actually receive a payment. This can range from one network to another, but $25 and $50 are fairly common.
As you can see, there are a few things that you will need to look for when searching for affiliate programs to get started with. So, what should you look for when deciding upon a product or service to promote. The key is to make sure that you select a product or service that converts well and is also reasonably priced.
Keep in mind that practically anything will sell eventually, but if you are like most people you do not want to wait for an eventual sale, you want to aim for a product that will provide you with consistent sales.
You also need to take into consideration the price on the product as well as the amount of commission that you will receive. For example, if you are selling a book that has a cost of $10 and you are only receiving a 10% commission then that means that you will receive one dollar on each sale that is made. How many sales would you need to make to meet your revenue goals? As you can see these are critical issues that must be considered when determining which products and services will be most profitable for you to promote as an affiliate.
Keep in mind that it is a good idea to begin with one really good affiliate network. Make sure that you do enough research to ensure they are reputable and reliable. Avoid the temptation to sign up for every affiliate network that you can find. Certainly, after you have had some time and experience in affiliate marketing then you will be in a better position to sign up for more affiliate programs. There is nothing wrong with being signed up with a lot of programs, in fact that is a good way to broaden your horizons and make more money, but in the beginning you should try to focus on building your efforts through one really good affiliate program.
Research can be critical here. Research a few affiliate merchants carefully. Look over the affiliate sections of their websites and read their affiliate agreements. It is critical that you make sure you are fully aware of who you will be working with before you sign up with them and agree to market their products or services.
Selecting the Right Products
Another crucial element involved in succeeding in affiliate marketing is in carefully choosing the products and services that you choose to sell. In many ways, choosing the right product or service is similar to choosing a good investment. If you choose wisely, you have the potential to make a lot of money. If you choose unwisely, you can lose a tremendous amount of money.
When choosing products to promote for affiliate marketing, you need to pay careful attention to what people are looking for and what they want. Spend some time looking around online to determine what types of products are selling the best. In general, you will find that the best selling products will typically be those that will help people to solve a problem or help them to get something that they want.
For example, if you find an affiliate program or product that will help people learn how to lose weight then this might be a good product to consider, as it addresses a problem that a large percentage of the population faces. The same could also be said of a product that shows people how to increase their profits. Look for products that you know are products that people will be interested in.
You also need to taken into consideration how you will be able to get a message across to them in an inexpensive manner and then how you can persuade them to purchase the products that you are promoting. When choosing a product, at the forefront of your mind always needs to be the question of how you will promote that product. It is never a good idea to blindly select a product and then try to decide later how you are going to promote it. Always consider that first before you make a final decision to promote a product.
Consider what you need to know about a product or service before you decide to promote it. First, you should know how many people would potentially be interested in purchasing that product. You also need to know how much the product costs and how much it will cost for you to sell one unit so that you can determine the potential profit margin that you can make on that one sale.
Making sure that you have enough information about the products you are going to sell is critical. It all boils down to common sense. If you do not have enough information about the product then you will need to either become educated about the product or move on to something else.
Introduction
Congratulations! You have decided to become an affiliate marketer and are looking forward to creating a new lifestyle for yourself and your family through your efforts. The biggest question at the forefront of your mind is what you need to do in order to become a successful affiliate marketer.
Regardless of how much experience you may or may not have in online marketing, it is important to understand that anyone can become successful at affiliate marketing provided that they have the right knowledge at their disposal. The problem for many people is locating an affiliate marketing course that provides them with the essential techniques and a plan that will allow them to set their own personal goals and achieve them.
Arming yourself with knowledge about affiliate marketing is really not any different from learning about anything else that you desire to know more about and be successful in. The biggest reason that many people fail in affiliate marketing is that they simply do not make the effort necessary to arm themselves with the right training and knowledge that is necessary to succeed.
There can be many different reasons for this, but in the end it comes down to not having the essential knowledge that is necessary to ensure your success. Taking the time to educate yourself and research this industry is the best thing that you can do to ensure your success. You are taking the first important step by reading this guide.
Let’s get started!