Associate Programs Newsletter #187
Today I answer the question: “What is the best way to earn money with affiliate programs?”
Wayne Porter explains how super affiliates generate sustainable revenue streams.
CONTENTS:
1. The best way to earn money with affiliate programs
2. Super affiliates – PART 5
How to generate sustainable revenue streams
3. Make a note for next Christmas
4. We’re in “Lord of the Rings” country
5. Thought for today: On being somebody
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1. The best way to earn money with affiliate programs
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One question I’ve often been asked is: “What is the best way to earn money with affiliate programs?”
I was replying to an e-mail on that topic this week when it occurred to me how much my answers have changed over the years – and how I alter the answers depending on who’s asking the question.
Should you publish a newsletter, build mini sites, create themed web sites… or try something else?
If the methods you tried in 2001 didn’t work very well, perhaps you’ve been following advice that’s not right for you.
Now would be a good time to think carefully about:
Your strengths.
Your knowledge, skills and interests.
Your goals for 2002 and beyond.
How much time you want to spend on this.
There are dozens of ways to earn money with affiliate programs. Your challenge is to choose the ones which best suit you.
For example, publishing a newsletter suits me because I like writing and I have many years experience in journalism. That doesn’t mean it will suit you.
If you’re ambitious, you might decide to plan a vortal – a vertical industry portal – providing information and resources for a particular industry. You could aim to provide news, research, statistics, forums, a newsletter and online tools. If so, be prepared to invest a LOT of time and energy.
If you don’t have much time, you might decide to create a simple mini site, as described so well by Phil Wiley in “Mini Site Profits – https://www.associateprograms.com/phil .
But that’s just one of the many methods you can choose. Here are a few ideas to consider:
Build a site based on a topic in which you’re already passionately interested. If don’t have a topic, don’t despair. You’ll find that if you immerse yourself deeply in a subject, you’ll become enthusiastic about it.
Choose a hot topic, become passionately interested in it, and build a site based on that.
Identify a problem and build a site which aims to help people solve it.
Offer a product of your own and use affiliate programs to supplement your main income.
Create a gimmick which people talk about, and sell things to the hordes of resulting visitors.
Marlon Sanders describes 25 ways of earning money with affiliate programs in his “Associate Program Handbook” – https://www.associateprograms.com/affiliate-manual. It’s fantastic value at only $20.
By now, you probably know that one of the best ways of earning good money from affiliate programs is to build a web site based on a theme. You can choose a small niche and aim to be the best in that niche.
With a themed web site, you’re building the sort of site search engines are taught to love – and humans will love them too, linking to them. The more keyword-rich pages you have the better, to give you plenty of opportunities to be found in searchengines.
That exactly what we’ll be doing in the new year.
I’ve just hired a new assistant, Rupert Farrow, and one of his first jobs is going to be creating a themed web site.
To save time and to avoid the technical stuff, Rupert will use Site Build It! – https://www.associateprograms.com/buildit .That will give him plenty of time to concentrate on creating useful content.
Site Build It! is a really good option for anyone who doesn’t have time to learn all the details about optimizing pages for search engines, submitting to search engines, tracking click- throughs, HTML, etc. If your goal is to get going quickly, this is the tool for you.
We’ve identified a small niche that suits Rupert’s skills and doesn’t appear to have much competition. We’ve done our research carefully and we’re optimistic that this one will be a winner.
You can do this.
Think about your existing knowledge, skills and interests. They’re your strengths. Use them.
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2. Super affiliates – PART 5
How to generate sustainable revenue streams
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By Wayne Porter, V.P. Product Development, AffTrack
Probably the most difficult challenge surrounding affiliate marketing is the creation of sustainable revenue streams.
Many affiliates have had success with a single CPA (cost per action) campaign or perhaps one particular merchant. However, creating mechanisms that provide consistent revenue remains the most elusive part of becoming a professional affiliate.
The key to creating sustainable revenue is to focus your efforts on supporting the buying process. Unlike pure content providers who derive a good portion of their revenue from advertising sales, the performance marketer must always focus on the sale and how they are going to facilitate all the checkpoints that lead up to the sale.
The most successful super affiliates have designed a major part of their online strategies around the buying process. From incentive sites that reward users for shopping to deal and discount sites to enable consumers to save money, the name of the game remains the same – repeat conversions. Savvy affiliates also understand that if you do not offer something of value the user has no reason to come back to your site.
Some will argue that successful affiliate marketing lies around simply transferring the right people to the right merchant at the right time. This is true but somewhat shortsighted. An affiliate who sticks solely to traffic transfer as their value proposition to the buying process will find their profitability squeezed as targeted traffic costs steadily increase. The less it costs you to generate sales, the more money you take to the bank and the more breathing room you have to acquire new customers.
The affiliate should also not confuse delivering value with delivering content. While good written content is certainly valuable it is not the only way to support the buying process. There are a number of ways affiliates can add value to this chain.
Stewart Davidson of https://www.CompBroker.com builds his super affiliate earnings by serving the needs of all of his previous dirt world customers. In this case the value added to the selling process is the bond and trust Stewart has with his existing corporate clients. They do business through him because they know they can count on him to answer questions or assist them with larger technology buys. This type of trust can haul in large numbers.
Affiliates can provide the best shopping values to customers. Often this takes the form of coupons or savings codes. This is a very competitive field but one that generates repeat traffic as clients return to keep their budgets intact.
Most people in the affiliate community are familiar with Tim Storm’s https://www.FatWallet.com or Connie Berg’s https://www.FlamingoWorld.com. Both sites have carved out a solid niche with loyal, repeat visitors and therefore repeat sales.
Super affiliates deliver information. For example, one very successful affiliate focuses a major portion of his efforts on explaining how book clubs work, where to find them and how to get the most benefit from them. He delivers value in the form of educating consumers thoroughly on how to navigate the book club buying maze. Think about all the things people buy online and how you might educate them on getting the best possible product for the best possible price.
Super affiliates also use community feedback to create value. If people are coming to your site to talk, exchange ideas, and get feedback before they shop, there is a good chance you may get them to shop through your site on a repeat basis.
Another example of community feedback enabling the buying process would be https://www.BizRate.com . BizRate provides a feedback tool rating merchants based on other users’ experiences. Users are more comfortable when they see BizRate’s ratings and therefore more apt to make a purchase. Naturally customers need to go to BizRate before they buy to get this information.
Affiliates can also provide entertainment. Another super affiliate I know, who asked not to be named, creates fantastic stories for her child-focused site. Parents frequently come back because of the new and entertaining stories, which set the stage for her product recommendations. Because of her ability to write compelling stories to entertain their children, parents trust her recommendations and make her site a place to visit before taking out a credit card to buy a toy.
The opportunities to augment the buying process are large and limited only by one’s creativity. Without some sort of value proposition the affiliate is merely an extra step in the shopping process. This is one of the reasons cybermalls, for the most part, perform poorly. A typical mall’s greatest value proposition is the close proximity to a number of stores. This proximity has limited value online where geography is meaningless. Because of this other ways to support the buying process must be found.
By adding supporting content, recommendations, unique selling propositions, reviews or a unique service the affiliate transcends being just another shopping site.
It is far easier and cheaper to service repeat business than it is to continually forage for new.
If you are supporting some aspect of the sales process there is a good chance you are creating a place that is worthy of a bookmark. For every bookmark you generate there lies the potential for a repeat visitor. Every repeat visitor builds your sustainable revenue stream.
This is the final in Wayne’s five-part series on super affiliates. For the previous articles, see:
Part 1:
Super affiliates Part 1
Part 2:
Affiliate heavyweights
Part 3:
Create your own software empire
Part 4:
Defeating predatory advertising
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3. Make a note for next Christmas
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I see that as Christmas approaches, Yahoo! is promoting online sites where you still have time to order and get your gift to sent by Christmas. Yahoo! gives the deadline for each site.
If your Christmas sales have been slow, now would be a good time do some quick research around the Net and make notes for next year.
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4. We’re in “Lord of the Rings” country
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Joanna and I are back in beautiful New Zealand for the southern summer. For us, one of the huge advantages of having a business on the Net is that we can run it from anywhere in the world.
New Zealand is the country which provides the spectacular scenery in the movie “Lord of Rings”.
We’re in Dunedin, about four few hours’ drive from the Glenorchy area, which becomes the magic woodland of Lothlorien in the movie. Enjoy the photos (without Hobbits):
glenorchy.com/images.htm
justourpictures.com/newzealand/si2000/
(These really are spectacular.)
Last night we had a large family gathering to celebrate the 83rd birthday of Joanna’s mother, Marion. It was one of those happy, special occasions that this family I married into does so well, with good food, wine, singing and laughter.
Joanna and I were very grateful we were able to be there for it.
For the occasion, the family took over most of the small restaurant in Lisburn House, a delightful Gothic-style house built in 1865.
heritagebedandbreakfast.co.nz/lisburn.house/
(Sorry, there’s no affiliate program for it.)
If you’re setting goals for 2002, remember to set a few non-monetary ones.
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5. Thought for today: On being somebody
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“I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific.”
– Lily Tomlin
All the best
Allan Gardyne