The ideal world of affiliate marketing avoids many of the normal business issues by being hands off. There is no product, no shipping, or many other issues or activities associated with your standard business model. As a result, affiliate marketing is one of the go-to online business models people are rushing to as an internet business. One of the biggest problems is that sales are slow. Here are some things that you can do to boost affiliate sales.
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It’s true that you can earn affiliate income without having a full-fledged business. Start small, and grow respective to the amount of time, work, and dollars you can invest. Affiliate marketing makes a great side hustle. And with higher prices at the pump and store, and tighter budgets, it is becoming harder to makes ends meet. Affiliate marketing offers a great way to supplement your income and develop reoccurring passive streams of income.
This is exactly how I started, and I can share a ton of hurdles and issues that come up when you’re just starting out. (But that is another blog post for another day). But certainly, affiliate marketing is a great starting place for any online business and a way to make some extra income.
So, let’s assume you have already begun with affiliate marketing. You have got started, but now you’re ready to see the revenues kick in. Where’s the sales? When do sales kick in, so you start generating commissions? As time goes by, you become more concerned, wondering if sales will ever ramp up.
What is it that you need to do to get sales rolling and start gaining commissions?
Here are some powerful tips to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight… Well, my quippy title stated, “overnight plus 6 months”. While it is true that any improvements you make will begin to have positive impacts right away, (overnight), you still need to allow time for your work to have a full, sustainable impact to your business.
The reality is that this is a business even without all those things I mentioned earlier. Any worthwhile business takes time, and I find that especially true with affiliate marketing. So yes, start immediately today, and you will see a boost to your commissions. Some can be overnight. But be realistic, don’t be impatient and shoot for the long-term.
Set your sights on longer-term goals, and your business will be the better off for it. Think of it like making a snowman in the perfect wet snow conditions. Start off with a handful of snow, and begin rolling, and it grows, and grows and grows.
The snowball grows so big that it begins to take on it’s on life. The strategic actions you take with affiliate marketing work in a similar way. These actions compound upon themselves, and everything grows and grows. Your content and programs grow. Your traffic, leads and lists grow. And your SALES COMMISSIONS will then grow relative to these respective inputs and actions.
So, let’s get started with some strategies that will boost affiliate sales and commissions.
1. First and foremost, determine the best programs and products that best fit your business and audience.
Obviously, you want to strategize and create a foundation with programs and products that enables you to achieve the best success and greatest profits.
There are several factors to consider in selecting the best program. Here is my Affiliate Program Checklist that I use to assess individual program criteria. The best program is one that meets your specific needs and works well with your business and audience. Choose programs that have products that fit with your target audience, and more specifically, will help them in addressing their problems or providing them solutions. This is the most important component in selling.
Remember, it is vitally important to know your audience and meet their needs, not the other way around where you are trying to push a program or product on to your audience. This is key to being successful in affiliate marketing.
I talked about this in a previous blog post discussing some of the mistakes that affiliate marketers make, and it is critical to understand that you are not pushing products, but providing solutions to problems, or helping your prospect to grow, learn, or do things faster, easier, better, or whatever the case may be. Help them be successful. When you master how to do this, you will be successful.
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs and products available. This gives you the opportunity to be very selective. Perform due diligence and select the best program fit to avoid wasting time, and resources. Be strategic about this. Have your plan to follow… and follow your plan.
A solid strategic plan created to meet your goals and needs serves as your foundation and guiding map to keep you on track. I provide a free 12-Day Challenge and Training that leads you through this process. Without a solid plan, you tend to get distracted, veer off course, or jump to the next shiny object that comes into view.
Check out my 12-Day Challenge and Training HERE. The training is free and provides free resources to help you stay on the right track and maneuver uncharted waters to achieve results. No more bunny trails. No more shiny objects. And plans and tool to navigate stormy seas.
You must continually assess how you are marketing the programs. There are so many ways to market a program or product that this is often overwhelming for affiliate marketers, especially for those who are just starting out and struggling to finding their stride.
Try different marketing strategies to see what might fit your business and audience best. Consider something unique to you such as writing a report or review or creating a short eBook. There is a ton of competition out there and there will be many other affiliates promoting the same program. Try to set yourself apart to stand out from the crowd.
Writing quality reports or reviews about the products you are promoting will allow you to distinguish yourself from other affiliates. Reports are a great way to provide valuable information for free. Add in specific details and benefits about the product. What set’s it apart from its competition? Why should your audience buy it? Know your products or services so that you can promote them well.
Tip: As a huge bonus, any creative content you produce provides a great opportunity to include your own business information, such as your blog, your website , learning or other valuable resources. And icing on the cake is to add an additional page of related “recommendations” of more products or offerings so you can cross sell related products or services easily in your content. The goal, and art, is to tie this all together to flow naturally and seamlessly. And always strive for valuable content.
2. List building is a must. Traffic is king! Build your list to boost affiliate sales.
Collect email addresses from those who download your free reports and resources. Also, create a list of your recommendations or resources, or a resource library to leverage. This can be made public, or you may make this “private” and require subscribing to or signing-in to grow your list. This is a great list building method.
You need to continue to nurture and work with your list and grow your relationship and their knowledge of you over time. Build your personal brand. You need to nurture their “know, like and trust” of you. The more they know, like and trust you, the more success you will have with your promotions.
It is always important to gather contact information of a prospect whenever possible before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, without collecting their contact information, they will be lost to you forever.
When you gather their contact information, then you have them on your list to nurture and send messages to them to grow their knowledge of you. Although growing and nurturing your list does take time, it is a time-tested, proven superior means of affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, it really isn’t very realistic to think you can just post a link to a cold audience and you will have great success. This is an ongoing process, and due diligence, patience and time is necessary. The time it typically takes to make affiliate sales is more accurately measured in months, not days.
This is not to say you can’t have some immediate results. Some types of programs are more adapted to quick returns or more immediate actions. For example, CPA, (cost per action) or PPC, (Pay Per Click), programs pay you for generating leads to products or services for others. Think of providing leads to a credit card company or insurance offer as an example.
CPA and PPC have an advantage for potential quicker results; however, you need to market differently and in the right way. You either need to have an audience that is already looking for or needing the service without warming up, or you need to use paid advertising that can be more specifically targeted. This is just another example of how your marketing must fit with your product or service and the target audience.
Another way to gain traffic is to publish an online newsletter, Ezine or blog. These forums help develop your brand and build relationship and following. (See my Personal Brand blog here). It is always best to recommend a product to someone who knows, likes, and trusts you vs. cold traffic to a stranger. This is the primary purpose behind publishing your own newsletter or blog. It allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.
Your readers will get to know you over the course of time, and this will take an ongoing process of continual posting of information and resources. And this needs to be something that they find of value. One example of a blog that I hoped would provide value was a list of 50+ Entrepreneur newsletters for startups, including online marketing, SEO, etc. See that blog HERE.
These forums are a delicate balance between providing useful, valuable information and resources, while incorporating some offers that can contribute to your sales. And you should always market good quality products that you truly recommend.
Tip: You will want to share your blogs, articles, and website content with other sites and social media. Take your time to find audiences that fit your niche and content. A great way to find the best fit is just spend some time on google. Search the following with your niche.
- Search “social bookmarking site + your niche”
- Search “submit content + your niche”
- Search “submit article + your niche”
- Search “article directory + your niche”
3. Use what you promote.
Yes, I highly recommend purchasing and using the product, service, platform or program that you will be promoting. This serves 2 purposes. First, it gives you direct firsthand experience and knowledge. Second, your knowledge and experience will serve as the foundation for unique, quality promotions and you will have additional credibility.
This experience will allow you to provide a much higher value to your audience by being knowledgeable and credible.
We have all experienced it. You can clearly tell when someone is recommending a product just to make a sale. Quite often, the information they provide is not even accurate, and they come across as a salesperson who will say anything to make a sale. Don’t be a salesperson.
Make sure all your information is accurate and be factual. And of course, make sure this is something that you do truly recommend that is of value.
I almost always purchase before I recommend or market. This is especially true with my high-ticket offerings. Now I know not everyone can afford several thousand dollars to own a high-ticket program. But if you have purchased and used the program with success, then you are in a much better position to market it. For example, this high-ticket program is not only something that I purchased and know inside and out, but it is also one of my largest income generators! Therefore, I am very comfortable, confident and excited to promote it.
I also purchased the Product Licensing Formula before I began promoting it. This was beneficial to my business as well as to my ability to promote the product. I needed quality products for my business and this was the fastest, most efficient way to get quality products.
But just as important as getting new products to grow my business, was the experience for marketing the program. Instead of relying on the owner’s sales information, I wanted to fully understand and have firsthand experience with it.
Does it really work, and how well? How good are the products, (i.e., quality, value, etc.)? How successful do these products fit and how much have they helped my business grow?
Because I now have this firsthand experience, I am head and shoulders above other affiliate marketers. I am totally comfortable and confident that I am promoting a quality product. So, I gained in two ways. One: I have new high-quality products that greatly contribute to my business and revenues, and Two: I am knowledgeable, experienced, and well-versed as a spokesperson who knows what I am talking about and confident in my promotions.
Tip. If you cannot purchase to try out yourself, another helpful strategy is to get on their email list as a perspective buyer. That way you will receive all their emails and experience how they market their product.
This gives you valuable insights to the selling points, benefits, and strategies that they are using. You can then utilize this content to create your own marketing strategies and content along with the resources that they provide to you as an affiliate seller.
I sincerely hope these strategies and tips help you in your journey to growing your sales. Most sales start with lists, and knowing, liking, and trusting.
Affiliate marketing is as much of an art as it is a science. There is no right or wrong way; just find your way. And your way is whatever works for you and how you may find success.
Try these strategies and tips and see the difference they can make to your commissions in a short period of time…. and, in a little longer-term period of time as well.
Remember, this is a marathon, not a sprint.
Dave Seth
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Last Updated January 10, 2023
