Affiliate Programs
Four Steps to Increased Affiliate Income
But there’s more that you can do … much more … if you really want to market and promote like a pro. These tips can raise conversions from 3-10% to the upper end of 30%. It’s all about going the extra mile for your readers – doing things that typical or average affiliates don’t do because of the effort involved.
Using a Comprehensive Review Strategy
Most newcomers study how reviews are done. You write a certain number of words, talk about the specs of the product, mention why consumers love it – and make sure you include a superficial “cons” list of the product just to look unbiased.
With a little more effort however, your newly created content for this review could set you up with some amazing commissions – and since you place it on your blog, it should serve you well into the future.
1 – Pick a product that you would buy as a consumer – and buy it.
Don’t just pick anything – be a discriminating buyer. It’s always a good idea to buy the product yourself so you really can talk about your honest feelings about the usefulness, quality, and results of the product.
You can ask the product owner for a review copy if you don’t have anything in your budget, but make sure you find out how his sales funnel is set up so that you can report in your review about the one time offers and other opportunities related to the product.
Some super affiliates suggest breaking up your review into a multi-part series. Don’t do it all in one blog post. This creates curiosity for the next installment and keeps people coming back to your blog.
As you go through the review, make sure you post the links to the previous and next installment at the bottom of each review entry in case your reader happened to enter the discussion on Part 3, for example.
Start the review by evaluating the sales copy of the vendor’s offer. In order to properly form an opinion, you have to know what was promised in the sales copy versus what the product actually delivers.
What kind of copy is it – a video that plays automatically and has no pause button? If you wish it had a text version, say so in your review. It’s okay and appropriate to be honest – your conversions won’t be hurt – and your subscribers will appreciate your candor. This is supposed to be an unbiased review, correct?
2 – Discuss the buying process in your review.
How many one time offers (OTOs) did you encounter? Did you get your download or access to the product quickly and easily? Is the information you bought organized well?
If customer service is involved, talk about how it went. For example, if you couldn’t log into a members’ area and had to contact the product owner for a password reset, did they get back to you quickly and solve the problem?
Go through each section or step of the product and discuss your thoughts without giving away the information itself. You don’t want to share what was taught exactly, but talk about how you learned something new regarding a specific topic.
Implement the product as you go. This helps you adequately review the product because you’re applying the information that’s being taught. At the end of the review, you can report your results or findings and whether or not the product performed as advertised for you.
Make sure you use the product name and the word “review” – along with the part number (if applicable) – in each blog post title, something like this: XYZ Product Review – Part 1. This will be great in the search engines and entice people to choose your review over others.
3 – Using Your Blog for Private, Exclusive Reviews
Another way to up the ante a bit and get people to convert to buyers early on is to give private access to those who buy the product through your affiliate link. You can do much more with this type of review because the only people seeing it are fellow buyers!
So in a private review, whenever you make a blog post, in the right sidebar in edit mode, you’ll see the top publishing section. Click on “Visibility”. It will default to the Public option.
You want to change that for “password protected” for those who buy through your affiliate link. Now your review can go the same way as you did before. But you can also make videos of screen captured images while you implement the product – it’s okay because those seeing it are buyers, too.
Another great thing you can do in these exclusive reviews is provide additional information like your own tips or different ways of doing things. So for example, let’s say you are reviewing a make money online product and the owner says to use a free keyword tool.
You can capture your screen and tell your audience why you are giving further detail, like for instance, using a paid keyword tool like Market Samurai. Make sure you include an affiliate link to Market Samurai in your private blog post because chances are good that one or more of your readers may see the usefulness of the tool you mentioned and want to purchase it as well as the product you’re promoting.
Your readers will love these private blog groups because it becomes a specialized community with everyone asking questions and sharing ideas together on a relevant topic. They all have access because they purchased through your link!
You can promote the private, exclusive review on social networking sites and to your list. Make sure you include these sites at a minimum:
- Facebook fan page or group
- Google Plus
- YouTube
You can also give a “lite” version of the review on your blog. This ensures you get the benefit of catering to the search engines – and those who want to see your final opinion before they make a purchase.
If you build a reputation for going the extra mile, people will want to see your additional tips and insight that are included in the private group. For them, it’s like getting another course or a bonus for their purchase.
4 – Creating Content That Complements
Another thing you can do to become more efficient and effective as an affiliate is to provide additional value that’s not part of the review – but sometimes can be.
Things that were left out of the product that you feel should have been included make great additions to your review. It can serve as an incentive for people to buy through your link.
For example, let’s say a affiliate product told people to “write articles for their blog,” but the product never explained how to write articles.
You could write a short report that teaches what’s left out and in your review, reassure your readers that you’ve got them covered – all they have to do is send you their receipt after they buy through your link, and you’ll send them their bonus report!
Topics that work well in conjunction with the original course topic also work well. For example, if you’re reviewing a diet plan on your blog, you can write an accompanying exercise guide and give it as a freebie to those who buy through your link!
Try these approaches and see whether you convert more prospects to buyers than you did previously!
To your online business success!
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com
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