In this article, you will learn 5 ways to increase your affiliate commissions and be a Super Affiliate.
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1. Seek Out Recurring Billing Offers to Promote
If you want to make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, then you need to sell more products and more expensive products to your existing customers.
That’s because it’s easier to persuade an existing customer to buy something else (as opposed to finding a brand-spanking-new customer and persuading him or her to buy something for the very first time).
Now here’s a ridiculously easy way to make those backend sales:
Promote recurring billing products.
Just as the name suggests, recurring billing (also called “continuity”) are those sales that happen automatically.
The customer is charged automatically – typically on a weekly or monthly basis – and the product or service is delivered as long as the customer doesn’t cancel.
It’s easy for the merchant, the customer and the affiliate.
——————-
SIDEBAR: You probably have several recurring billing contracts lined up both personally and for business.
Common examples include your cell phone contract, your web hosting, your monthly payments for an autoresponder, any monthly membership sites that you’ve joined, etc.
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Here’s the
beauty of recurring billing products:
All you have to do is find and persuade the customer once… yet you get paid month after month for as long as the customer remains a member.
That’s an easy, passive affiliate income for you!
In fact, Clickbank.com has a recurring billing affiliate program. Which of these is best…
- Promoting Affiliate Offer A which sells for $24.00 and earns you a 50% commission? Or, all things being equal…
- Promoting Affiliate Offer B which sells for $24.00 PER MONTH and earns you a 50% commission PER MONTH for as long as the referred customer remains active?
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out “B” stands for
“Better”!
- Offer Time-Limited or Number-Limited Bonuses
You probably already know that one quick and easy way to beat your competing affiliates is to add value to the products and services you promote.
So while your affiliates are just promoting the offer as-is, you’re giving your customers a valuable freebie if they buy from you.
Example: Let’s suppose you’re selling a diet book. You can offer a free diet recipe book to anyone who buys from your link. And you can bet more people will buy from your link simply because they get more bang for their buck.
But here’s the problem: More affiliates are catching onto this little trick.
And consumers are beginning to realize that they can go “bonus shopping” to find the best deal.
The solution?
Kick your potential customers into immediate action by offering them a time-limited or number-limited bonus.
Such as:
- A time-limited bonus ends at a certain time – in fifteen minutes, an hour, at midnight, 24 hours from now, etc. The shorter time the consumer has to claim the bonus, the greater the sense of urgency.
- A number-limited bonus means the first X number of people who act now get the bonus. This technique is particularly powerful when you provide constant updates showing how many bonuses are left. For example: “Hurry, just 50 47 33 25 18 bonuses left!”
So what should you offer as a bonus? Here are five ideas:
- An ebook or special report that complements the main product. You can even use private label rights material to create this bonus.
- Access to a customer-only webinar. (Hint: Ask the product owner to be your guest!) You’ll also have the recorded call to offer as a bonus to future customers.
- A video that compliments the main product.
- Software or other tools that complement the main product. For example, you could offer a calorie counter as a bonus to a diet product.
- If you’re an expert in the subject, offer a free email or telephone consultation.
There are lots of options available at your disposal.
The important thing is this: you offer an incentive for those ordering through your link.
Firstly, it allows you to create some “urgency” by setting either a numerical or time limit.
Secondly, it allows you to offer something more than your competitors.
Bottom line: it’s gonna increase your affiliate commissions! And that is, after all, why you’re here.
Want me to
give you a GREAT hint on how to really make
this strategy work like crazy? Here it
is…
Create a special report to give away, register a domain for it, write a sales letter for it and instead of creating an order link, make it exclusively available for those who order through your affiliate link!
In other words, you dramatically increase the “perceived value” of the report.
It has its own domain. It has a full sales letter that describes it and creates interest in it.
Only it’s not available for sale at any price.
You’ve made
the reader “want” it, but force them to order a product through your affiliate
link in order to get it.
3. Write Case Studies Showing How You’ve Achieved Results Using the Product
People are looking for social proof.
They want to see that other people have used and enjoyed the product.
But here’s the thing – most of the social proof your prospects see is absolutely lame.
They’ll see a review for a diet book that says, “Fast read! I love this stuff!”
They’ll excitedly read one affiliate’s opinion on an affiliate marketing book only to find it says, “WOW! This is truly amazing! I know I’ll make a gazillion dollars with these tips!”
Your prospects AREN’T looking for a thriller (otherwise they’d be reading Steven King). They aren’t looking for theory. Instead
They [your prospects] are looking for real proof that the product/service does what it’s advertised to do.
That’s where your case study comes in.
Instead of just writing a review that reads like an 8th-grade book report, you use the product and report your results.
And you back up your case study with other forms of proof whenever possible, such as before and after pictures, videos, screenshots, etc.
Examples:
- If you’re creating a case study for a weight loss book, give a week-by-week account of exactly how much weight you lost, the strengths of the product and the product flaws. Be sure to post before and after pictures and measurements.
- If you’re creating a case-study for a dog training book, videotape yourself training your dog using the method. Then edit the tape to show how well it works (without giving away the product’s secret).
Remember, the
more specific your case study, the more credible it will be – and the more
money you’ll make in affiliate commissions!
4. Develop Your Own Ads and Content
Think about this from your customer’s perspective.
If she’s on a lot of mailing lists, and/or if she’s doing some product research, she’s bound to run into many affiliates who are all promoting the same product.
Problem is, she’s going to run into the same ads over and over. And if she’s on multiple mailing lists, she’s going to get the exact same email repeatedly.
Eventually, she’s going to develop ad blindness for all these similar ads. And when she sees that same email coming into her inbox, she’ll delete it.
Do you see the problem?
If you use the same ads and content as everyone else – AND if you’re not one of the first your prospect encounters – she won’t be buying from you.
That’s why you need to develop your own ads and content.
Truth be told, some people get downright angry when they see the same ads coming in from multiple affiliates … and they’ll even unsubscribe from your list and stop visiting your blog if they are one of these people who get offended!
If the affiliate vendor provides pre-sell content, you can use it as a base for your own materials.
Here’s how:
Tip #1: Rewrite the email subject line. Your subscribers will decide whether to open your email (or not) based largely on your subject line.
If you use the same subject as all the other affiliates, your email will get deleted without getting opened.
Likewise, if you’re posting a sales letter on your blog, change that headline (as the headline is the most-read part of a sales letter, and thus will be most recognizable to your prospects).
Tip #2: Change the opener. Here’s where you can really write from the heart and make this ad your own.
If you’ve had experience with the problem – or if you know someone who has – tell the story (which will help the reader identify with you).
Or you can use the opener as a product review.
Either way, make it your own… in your own voice.
Tip #3: Tweak the bullet points. The bullet points are where you lay out the benefits of the product.
Tweak them to make them yours (in much the same way you tweaked the headline/subject line), while retaining the overall benefit.
Another option: You can instantly separate yourself from the other affiliates by writing your own ads.
Note: When you write your own ads, they’re in your voice.
They’re from the heart.
They include your opinions, case study results, and perceptions.
And that means more sales.
5. Minimize Lost Commission by Cloaking Affiliate Links
Sometimes when you’re promoting a product, your prospect “cut off” your affiliate ID at the end of a link so that they bypass your link and go straight to the vendor’s page.
Maybe they think they’ll get a better deal that way.
Maybe they hate the thought of someone making money just because they clicked on a link.
Or whatever the reason could be.
Anyway, you slice it, you’re losing money.
And that’s why you need to start hiding your affiliate links.
One of the easiest ways to do it is to purchase a new domain and make the index page of that domain forward to your affiliate link.
You can also just use one of your existing domains, create a new page on that domain, and redirect that page to your affiliate link.
Here’s another bonus idea: If you’re promoting an affiliate program that closes down, you want to have dead links floating all over the Internet (in ebooks, reports, videos, articles, blog posts, etc).
Simply change all your redirect links to point to a different (but similar) product.
And just like that, you save thousands of dollars in commissions!
Sometimes increases mean minimizing decreases.
In this case, you can earn more affiliate commissions by minimizing the loss of commissions through theft and bypasses.
These 5 ways will definitely help you to make more affiliate commissions!
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