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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
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