|
That's pretty powerful and it's also a testament
to the power of affiliate programs. However, if you want to make a lot of sales
and serious profits, keep reading. As
with all marketing programs, you will need to put the time and energy in to
building your affiliate program. But, as you'll find out, just about no other
online marketing campaign can achieve the same substantial return for your time
or money.
One of the great advantages to running an
affiliate program is that, although it does take an effort, it takes very little
money to successfully promote your affiliate program once it's set up. With some
effort, it has the potential to be very profitable. By the very nature of the
program, you do not pay for sales until they are made and then you do not pay
the commissions until the cash for the sale is in your bank account. For this
reason, it is the best way for new sites to begin competing.
The most basic activity in running an affiliate
program is looking for new affiliates and continually growing the rank and file
of affiliates. This is easy and can be done in an hour or two a day achieving
good results. You simply search the web for sites that you think have relevant
content to your site and are sites that your potential customers are likely to
visit. Once you find a site, you should decide how much effort the site is
worth. If it is a decent site, but not incredible, you can send them an email
about how they can make money by displaying your banners and text ads. In your
email, include a link to your affiliate program's sign up page. This way they
can go and sign up without any further effort on your part. It's quick and easy
so you can hit a lot of sites and send a lot of email.
When you find a dynamite site that is worth
more of an effort than normal, then skip the initial email and try this... send
the site owner a letter, follow that letter up with an email and if they do not
sign up from those two communications then give them a phone call. You may find
that it might take creating some custom advertisements, possibly a reciprocal
link or simply personal attention to get them to sign up to your affiliate
program and begin promoting your site. Great sites consistently get quite a few
affiliate requests. So, to get them to pay attention to yours, and to get them
to put the needed effort in, you might have to differentiate yourself. The
letter and phone call will do this while telling them that you care and you are
serious.
Without fail, if you put an hour or two a day
in to recruiting affiliates you will see some results each and every month. The
key is be consistent and not to get discouraged. You will probably only sign up
one affiliate for every ten to twenty sites you visit and emails you send out.
This may not seem worthwhile but as the affiliates you do sign up begin making
sales you will realize that this efforts builds month by month. The effort may
not seem worth it in the first month. You may only get a few sales. In the
second month, again, you may only get a few sales but this month you will be
adding a few sales generated from last month's affiliates to this months sales.
By the third month you have some new sales from new affiliates and two months of
past affiliates generating sales this month. You can see that this pattern will
continue month by month. Within six months you will not only have a nice base of
affiliates making sales each and every month you will also have learned a lot
about recruiting affiliates and you will keep getting better and better and keep
closing more and more new affiliates each month.
Once you have a base of affiliates, you should
begin a weekly affiliate newsletter and blog. Both of these can have the same
text about a new sales theme and/or new materials each week. Tell your
affiliates how to sell your product and what they should promote. This will not
only give them new materials but it also keeps your site on their mind.
The newsletter will go out to the email address
that they used during sign up. This will usually be one they check consistently
so they will see your name weekly even if they do not act on the offers you
send. The blog is important because it allows affiliates to comment. You can
choose whether to makes the comments public or not. Even if you keep them
private, they will give you a lot of insight in to what your affiliates think.
So, for the basics, that’s it. Keep a daily
recruiting routine, begin a weekly newsletter and set up a blog. Nothing too
difficult here. It only takes a few hours a day and it will have a better return
than just about any other online marketing plan available to small businesses.
Being in the Holiday Season now, I am short on
time and my blog will suffer. But, please keep an eye out for more affiliate
building tips. I have had more interest in affiliate marketing lately than just
about anything. So, I will try to keep a consistent push on writing for this
subject. As I have said many times, affiliate marketing is great for the new
and/or cash strapped entrepreneur. I have sold millions through affiliate
programs. You can too.
- JD
|
