Six ways to skyrocket your commissions

By: www.morodak.com @ 2013

When it comes to affiliate marketing we’ve all heard the big promises, and the sad stories.

While no one knows the exact statistics, it’s safe to say that over 95% of affiliates fail to make any substantial money and fewer than 1 or 2 % are making a full time living. 

 So, affiliate marketing is tough - no doubts there. But it still remains the starting point for almost all who try to make money online. It certainly was for me. So let’s deal with how YOU can gain the upper hand and move toward being in that happy 1 or 2%. Unlike other online marketers, I never show Clickbank screenshots or talk about the money or prizes I win. That’s because my Momma raised me better.  But I have been the #1 affiliate for every product I’ve promoted in the last year.

While I don’t do as much affiliate marketing as I used to, I do promote other peoples’ products a few times a year. When I do I work hard to do it right.

How did I do it?

I’m going to share my secret weapon in one moment. Before I do allow me to share three principles that drive my affiliate marketing. These are the pillars on which my affiliate marketing business rests. While I don’t share exact numbers of what I earn I will say that I earn much more than the average American income from my affiliate marketing alone.

That’s not including the DOE or Followup Selling Systems or any of my books, etc.

I say that not to brag but to say that this technique works. And I want it to work for you too!

First, my three principles.

1. I never promote anything I have not bought and used. People on my list know this and that causes my recommendations to carry more weight.
2. I give the people on my list a high amount of value with no strings attached. If you have been on my list very long you know that I give freely.
3. I don’t over-promote. Some marketers pound away with every new launch that comes along. Not for me.

What these three things do for me is simple – it allows me to do very well with a relatively small making list. You’d be surprised how small my list is. Which is why I wrote the book “How to make BIG Profits from a small malling list.” It’s currently off the market but will be back soon.

Enough build up. Now to the secret weapon. My secret weapon is so simple you might miss it at first glance. So take a moment to consider what it really means before you read on. My secret weapon is this … I add value to the product I am promoting Told you it was simple.   What do I mean by “adding value”? I’m glad you asked. I mean this – I help people succeed with the products I promote. It’s easy really. Because I only promote what I buy and use I can be very open and honest about results with those who buy from my link. I can share case studies, ads I wrote, ad sources I used and more.

So how can YOU put this into practice in your own marketing?

There are six proven ways. I’ll share them and a brief word about how to do each. I’ve done each.

After all, what good is knowing what to do if you don’t know HOW to do it?

First the list, then the “how to.”

1. Provide a valuable bonus

The key here is simplicity itself. Give buyers from your link something that compliments or expands the product they just bought. In the list following I’ll make some very specific suggestions of what that looks like. I have done each of the things listed below and know they work wonderfully well. If you want to give them something else that will work as well. The gift does not need to compliment what they bought, but if it does you will find your sales are higher.

One exception is if you own you own product. If you do then giving away your product to buyers can be very powerful indeed.

Full disclosure: I’ve never given away access to my own sites but have used this with clients when they wanted to give away their product as a gift or targeted bonus. Last tip – if you do own your own product and don’t want to give it away consider using a discount code. That works very well if the product is in demand.

2. Offer personal help

This is the big one. If you have succeeded with a product and are willing to share personally you’ve got it made. The best way to do this is to set up a private Skype chat and only approve those who provide their receipt. Since Clickbank won’t show you who has bought from you (what’s up with that?!) this is the best way to move ahead. More about how to set up the Skype situation coming very soon. Be on the lookout for that.

3. Write a resource guide for the product

People love resource guides. A great resource guide will list tools and resources, both paid and free, that will help the person use the product you are promoting. It does not matter if the site you are promoting provides a resource guide – your buyers will appreciate your take on what tools work best. If you want a cover for your resource guide see the note in the next suggestion.

4. Create a quick start guide

How many times have you bought a product and wished you had a step-by-step guide for using it? We’ve all been there. I’m working on exactly such download-able guides for all of my products right now. I believe members need, and deserve, exactly that.

If you want to supercharge your affiliate sales just write such a guide, or have it written, and then give it away as an exclusive bonus. Buyers will love you for it. A PDF file, easily created from Word or Pages will do just fine for this. I have found that getting a custom cover for your Quick Start Guide does help with this. I use and recommend VA Classroom for this type of work. Other options include ODesk and eLance.

5. Hold a webinar about how to use the product

If you are comfortable with webinars or teleseminars this will work very well. Best of all, it’s highly durable and repeatable. Do the webinar once and use it many times. Now that’s leverage!

IMPORTANT: Please never record the inside of a membership site without the site owner’s permission. We have had affiliates do that at the Directory of Ezines only to find out that it is against our terms of service. They would have saved everyone a lot of grief by just asking first. Please ask before recording anyone’s site, not just mine.

6. Record a FAQ webinar, teleseminar or write a PDF

Everyone is in a hurry today and wants to save time. That’s understandable. Many people who work online do so after they work their day job. Tiring to say the least.

So give buyers what they want and help them save time with a great Frequently Asked Question guide aimed at buyers only. Just list the questions you had before you bought, and shortly after, and then answer them in the best way you can. You don’t have to be a great writer to do this. In fact, being plain-spoken will work better than soaring prose ever could.

INSIDER TIP: In many cases the product owner will be happy to help you create these value added items.

Now —> HOW to do this.

It’s incredibly easy. Just include in all of your advertising that you are offering an exclusive bonus for buyers. All they need to do is contact you (give them a way to do it) to collect their bonus after they buy. They can send you their receipt and you can provide the bonus. They can do that via email or your website. Easy. Simple. Effective. Want to add more power? If you can create more than one bonus item you can rotate them and give them expiring dates. Or only offer X number of bonuses.

When using scarcity like this to sell you want to do it with integrity, so be sure to honor the X date you set (or the limited number) and change the bonus offer. This works especially well with your offer of free help via Skype or email. This keeps everything tidy – you get sales now because your bonus is expiring and maintain integrity too. A real win-win!

Soon I’m going to share my secret weapon for automating this entire process.

You won’t want to miss that one. This is something I normally only share with paid members of my sites but this week I’m giving you that inside stuff.

See you then.

Have questions about this technique? Leave a comment below and I’ll be happy to help. 

How To Choose An Affiliate Program

By: www.morodak.com @ 2013 

 

There are a thousand ways to make money on the Internet. And for every one of those ways, there are at leastten more ways to waste your time and money!

One of the best ways to make money online is to join an affiliate program. It’s how many people start online. But the question often arises — which affiliate program should I join?

It’s a great question. The right affiliate program can make you a lot of money.

The wrong affiliate program will waste both your time and money. Over the years I have discovered five things that will help you choose an affiliate program that fits you, is fun and should be profitable. Starting as an affiliate makes perfect sense. As an affiliate all you do is promote and get paid. No product creation, no customer service, no building websites.

But we all know it’s not that easy! Let’s look together at the basics of affiliate programs as well as some things to watch out for if you decide to affiliate. First, what does the word ‘affiliate’ mean? Webster’s Dictionary defines the word this way…

Affiliate: [verb] To associate as a member <Example: She affiliates herself with the local club>

That’s exactly correct. When you become an affiliate you are associating with the product or service you will be selling. You are the front person for that product. You are the first point of contact for a potential customer. So this is a very important consideration …

When you promote an affiliate product everything the product owner does reflects on you. 

So being an ‘affiliate’ is simply a fancy Internet way of saying that you are going to be a commissioned salesperson. Just like your car insurance agent collects a percentage of your premium (a commission) when you pay your bill, so you too will be paid a commission when you sell someone’s product or service. Now that we have that definition out of the way, here are five things to look for BEFORE you associate yourself with someone’s product or service.

1. Find a program that fits you

If your passion is fashion it’s going to be very difficult for you to succeed outside of the fashion world. But SO many people try. People who love cooking try to promote autoresponders, even when they don’t use or understand autoresponders. The good news is this — you don’t have to go outside the area of your passion to succeed as an affiliate marketer!

Today almost all companies, big and small, have affiliate or “partner” programs.

If your passion is fashion, or genealogy, or cars, you can easily find an affiliate program to join.

By pursuing what you love your work will become less work than play.

Let’s explore that idea by sticking with the fashion example for a moment.

If your passion is fashion you will have fun …

• Writing about fashion ideas
• Reviewing new trends, fabrics and ideas in fashion
• Keeping up with trade shows, events and more
• Knowing who is wearing what at public gatherings
• Watching videos about fashion and fashion shows
• Researching accessories that go with various styles
• And more

Here’s the magic move –

Take all of those things (things you like to do anyway) and begin a curated blog about fashion.

Then find a few affiliate programs you love and display their ads on your blog.

Over time an audience of other fashion lovers will find your blog, become addicted to your great information and, yes, buy the products you recommend.

This is building a real business online, not just trying to make a few commissions.

Want to make money in markets where you don’t have a passion? No problem.

Stick with what you know at first and, once you learn how to promote on the Internet, move on to different products. Here’s a truth many don’t share — once you learn how to promote one product successfully you will have the skill to promote ANY product successfully!

2. Don’t just jump in because it’s easy

How many times have you been told to “find a high gravity Clickbank product, run an ad and watch the cash roll in?” You’ve probably heard that often. And I’m sure you know by now it doesn’t work.

If it was THAT easy everyone would be doing it!

So what does work?

• Aligning yourself with products you believe in
• Promoting products that pay well
• Making sure you will get paid on time
• Learning the process of marketing those products
• Repeating the process once you become successful

It takes time. It takes some money. And it takes work.

That’s why 99% of affiliates fail to make any real money. Or so we hear.

Ask yourself this question; Is the product or service you are affiliating with something you would bring to your best friend? If not, you may want to keep looking.

3. Look for appropriate support

What is “appropriate” support?

In my view it includes answering questions, providing materials and making suggestions.

While affiliate program owners won’t make sales for you they can and should do everything in their power to help you make sales easily. After all, they get a share of every sale! You are driving customers TO them! If you need something from an affiliate program owner, ask. If it’s reasonable and they don’t provide it, or don’t respond, move on. One word of warning – Don’t believe everything you hear on affiliate forums. The sad truth is that many people will say anything, including slandering a product owner, to avoid admitting their own failure.

Do your own homework and draw you own conclusions based on your interaction with any company and you will do well.

4. Think long term

Thinking long term involves to things.

1. Your unwillingness to fail
2. The type of product you will promote

Let’s look at each.

If you are unwilling to fail at affiliate marketing you will succeed. Others are succeeding and you can too. But you can’t expect your first try to yield huge results.

Like all things this is learning process. By all means, learn all you can and emulate those you trust but know that everyone fails their way forward. This is why limiting your ad buys is important. More on this in another article. Now to the type of product:

There are many choices here but for this article let’s focus on one-time payment products and residual products. If you promote a one-time payment you get paid a higher commission now but never paid again. That can be fine, and fun. But if you promote a residual product, one that is billed every month, you can get paid every month! Now that’s thinking long term!

Doing the work once and getting paid many times is a cornerstone of what I teach.

And promoting residual affiliate programs is part of that process. But hear me – I’m not saying to only promote residual programs. You really do want a mix. Most of all, don’t give up.

Many people on the net are making excellent incomes with affiliate programs. You can too.

5. Go for quality

Remember what I asked before about your best friend?

It’s important — if you are proud of what you do you will do it with all your heart.

Avoid all programs where you don’t really understand what they are doing but move ahead because they are so persuasive about you joining. Here’s my advice … Make a checklist of everything you want, find twowho meet the criteria, and go all out with those two.

Regardless of the hyped up videos, guys driving in sports cars or other “rags to riches” stories, you probably won’t get rich in the next 3 days with affiliate programs.

But you CAN make huge money with affiliate programs once you learn the process, learn how to choose which products to promote and have some success under your belt.

Begin today to find the right two to start with and, in time, be making buckets full of money.

You can succeed as an affiliate!

When you do you will work when, where and IF you choose.

And when that happens you will have found a beautiful thing indeed!