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What's the secret to getting affiliates?

by topcoder
9 replies
Help me out, I'm sure everyone goes though this..

I was informed that setting up affiliate marketing will increase sales, you know the spiel.

I researched a bunch of different affiliate systems and decided on Clickbank for better or worse. I liked that they had indefinite subscription lengths, phone support, lower costs to get started and people say they have the most affiliates.

Steps I taken..

1) I switched from Paypal Processing to Clickbank.
2) I had ads made up for affiliates to use.
3) I generated an affiliate page
4) I sent out numerous emails to different sites, in related categories trying to get them on board.
5) I received close to 0 responses, I did find one person that didn't want to display the ads but said I can post on their forums as long as I use their affiliate codes (I thought this was reasonable)
6) I generate sales through clickbank, just like I did with paypal. But none of them come from "affiliates". So in the market place, it shows avg/sale as "N/A" - Since I'm the one making all the sales. I think this might be hurting me
7) The affiliates I do see, appear to be the clickbank scrapping bots affiliates, that just generate pages with keywords to use as clickbait to try to get the sale.

What's my next step? Keep repeating step 4? Or am I doing something else completely retarded that I'm missing? I know I have a product that sells and is needed/useful, I have a lot of recurring subscriptions and I get a ton of awesome feedback from users.
#affiliates #secret
  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    Recruiting affiliates is much harder than most would have you believe.

    I don't know what your niche is, but what I would do is make a list of all of the other products on Clickbank that are related to yours.

    Take that list and go to Google and then enter each product with the word "review" after it into Google. Go through each site that has a review of the product you just entered and contact the site owners. Give them a review copy of your product, and then contact them in a week or two and ask them what they thought.

    If they liked your product, then pitch them on becoming an affiliate and reviewing the product on their site. You can even offer to let them interview you. Bloggers love posts where they can review the product and have a video of them interviewing the product creator in the post. Those posts are very effective and make sales, so any affiliate worth their salt would want to do this.

    Also, make sure you are offering at least 50% commissions. Some very successful affiliates won't even promote for any less than 75%. Offer them a custom commission if you think that's what it will take to bring them on board.

    Another tactic you can use is to find squeeze/lead capture pages for similar products and sign up for those lists. You should then be able to get the list owners contact info and you can approach them and pitch them about your product. If it's a good product there is no reason why they would not want to promote it to their list as long as it fits their niche.

    Another tactic you can use is to go to Facebook and find fan pages and groups related to your niche or product. Chances are the group admins are affiliates and may have a website and/or a list in that niche. Get in touch with them and give them a review copy. If they like your product they may even agree to promote it in their Facebook group and you could end up with a few sales, or even other affiliates.

    Hope that helps a bit. Good luck recruiting!
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  • Profile picture of the author Lucian Lada
    A couple of things regarding your sales page:

    1.) It's not what your average Clickbank sales page looks like, i.e. it's not a sales letter, which means a lot of affiliates are going to avoid it simply because they have no experience promoting products with this type of sales page.

    2.) You have "leaks," i.e. links to pages where there's no "buy button." Affiliates care about links to one place, and one place only: order form.

    I don't have much experience, to be honest, but maybe Clickbank isn't the best platform for your type of product/service. Have you tried other platforms, such as CJ (commission junction)? I think their type of affiliates would be more interested in what you're offering. (For example, Aweber handles their affiliate program through them instead of Clickbank.)
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  • Profile picture of the author jamescanz
    As pasted from your affiliate page:

    "The payout offered on our monthly product 75% on the initial sale and 10% on monthly rebills. Affiliate Payout: $13.12 for the initial sale and $.90 per month for the lifetime of the subscription. That's $23.02 for the year. "

    How nice of you to be so "generous" with your 10% monthly rebill commissions.

    Affiliates care (mostly) about 3 things.

    1) If the product can actually help their customers /subscribers
    2) If it will make them money
    3) If the offer converts

    Keep that in mind.
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    • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
      Originally Posted by jamescanz View Post

      As pasted from your affiliate page:

      "The payout offered on our monthly product 75% on the initial sale and 10% on monthly rebills. Affiliate Payout: $13.12 for the initial sale and $.90 per month for the lifetime of the subscription. That's $23.02 for the year. "

      How nice of you to be so "generous" with your 10% monthly rebill commissions.

      Affiliates care (mostly) about 3 things.

      1) If the product can actually help their customers /subscribers
      2) If it will make them money
      3) If the offer converts

      Keep that in mind.
      I didn't realize that the commission on the rebill is only 10%. The 75% on the FE product is great, but the 10% payout on the rebill is one of your major problems.

      No offense, but any relatively experienced affiliate would probably have a good laugh at that. Then, they would move on and never give your product a second thought. If you want to be looked at seriously by successful affiliates you need to pay competitively. My advice would be to give 75% on the FE product and 50% on the rebill.

      Remember, when one of your affiliates makes a sale you make money, sure, but you also add a customer to your buyers list and you can market to them again. Meanwhile, you're still grabbing 50% of each recurring billing. Some people will cancel, but many won't, as long as your product delivers.

      Also, don't be afraid to hand out free copies of your product to potential affiliates. You would be surprised how many affiliates go through products in order to decide whether or not to promote them.

      You might also consider advertising your affiliate program. Your product is on Clickbank, and I believe they offer advertising of affiliate programs. Also, there is nothing wrong with launching your product on more than one network. Many vendors sell on Clickbank, Warrior Plus, JVZoo, Warrior Payments, Deal Guardian, Avangate, Zaxaa, E-Junkie, Payspree, PayDotCom, Clicksure, etc.

      You should definitely be looking on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for other people interested in your niche and start networking with people that have blogs. Ask about guest posting. Maybe you could review your product and also talk about becoming an affiliate. You can look on Fiverr for Gigs about guest posting. There are website owners who will publish your guest post on their blog for $5. Another site where there are quite a few listings looking for guest posters is SEOClerks.
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  • Profile picture of the author EPoltrack77
    There is no secret! First you have to have a product that converts. You need some EPC's. Earnings per clicks.

    Once you have that and a jv page setup displaying this information you can then network with some top affiliates and other product owners via facebook and skype.

    Build a relationship with these guy's/gals and if your product is a good fit for their list they will be glad to promote you.

    Main thing is you want those epc's to attract any worthwhile affiliats. All it takes in one good one!
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Affiliates are easy. But the most powerful affiliate strategy is contacting super affiliates directly. They are hard to find but they aren't elusive. Also checkout clickbank and commission junction.
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    • Profile picture of the author topcoder
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Affiliates are easy. But the most powerful affiliate strategy is contacting super affiliates directly. They are hard to find but they aren't elusive. Also checkout clickbank and commission junction.
      How do you find who the super affiliates are? Any pointers will be helpful..

      My order form conversion rate is 50% according to Clickbank - I'm not really sure if that's good or bad.

      Once a person creates an account (Which generates an account #) - This allows me to automatically active it, when a purchase happens. Once a person creates an account, they keep getting presented with a PAY page.

      The website I run is full with tools and resources.

      Used to be the homepage --> https://unlocktheinbox.com/default/
      Then it was changed to --> https://unlocktheinbox.com/

      To minimize sale leaks to the full site..
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  • Profile picture of the author zaccks
    *Offer an attractive commission
    *Give your best perks to top affiliates.
    *Offer access to the product to top affiliates.
    *Advertise your affiliate program
    *Court and recruit super affiliates.
    *Create volume incentives.
    *Start an affiliate contest.
    *Send out motivational emails
    *Create new offers for affiliates to promote.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattj84
    What you should do is to go to Google and search for whatever your niche is + blog. This will give you a list of blogs for your niche. Contact the owners of the blogs and ask them if they would like to promote your affiliate offer. But be sure to send them the numbers of what they can expect in return for sending their offer out to their list and subscribers

    I hope that helps and good luck!
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    Moderator's Note: Affiliate sig not allowed. Please edit.

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