Broke or Newbie? Here is a Simple Affiliate Strategy You Can Use!

[ivana]

You know, lately I am seeing many people who are really struggling with affiliate marketing, so to give back to the community, here is one strategy to make commissions and the best of all, it will really cost you ZERO Dollars to set it up! I know you have seen those headlines, no website, hosting etc… Well this is the real deal and simplest strategy

Here is what you need:

You will need to have 3-5 products that you can sell at the discount! So the merchant has to be able to provide you with discount code! Each product you find, take a look at Google keyword tool (free) to see if anyone is searching for keywords such as: “Product name + Discount” “product name + promo” You can even look within WSO and see the products people are selling there and approach the product owner asking if you can get exclusive discount code!

Just to give you an example: “Keyword Elite Discount” there are 480 monthly searches for it. BUT competition is huge, so not a good market to get into, but your goal is to get keywords such as that one, with low competition. A good strategy is to get away from those very popular products and search for products that are not in the direct contact with IM/AM world.

The good news here is that the “discount page” can be a very small ad. You can use the http://usfreeads.com (free version) for this. Of course if you do have your own blog, you can use that page as the ad (but in this example, we will concentrate on doing it with zero cost!)

The ad page just needs to provide them with instruction on how to claim discount code. It might be built in through your link OR there may be a space to enter discount. Just explain how!

So you are going to set up 3-5 product pages around the keywords you select. Make your title attractive such as “Limited Offer – PRODUCT NAME Discount Code” or something like that. Optimize each page for the “product name discount” as this is what you want to rank high for!

Send traffic to each page, using forum marketing (zero cost) or article marketing with your anchored text link back to the ad page. OF course, you can use as many free traffic methods as possible.

Now here is the good news. You really do not have to sell anything to these people, they already have been sold on the product, and all you really need to do is give them the right discount. And if you get an exclusive deal, this is a no brainer and simplest strategy for any affiliate!

p.s. People love discounts and in recession or no recession, people will always be looking to save money!

Ivana

[Intrepreneur]

Good tip but it still takes a lot more work to get the traffic... unfortunately

[dmarze]

Good post Ivana. Simple but effective.

D.Marze

[ivana]

Originally Posted by Intrepreneur

Good tip but it still takes a lot more work to get the traffic... unfortunately

You can have the traffic with 30 articles, and normally there is not too much competition for those keywords (if working out of IM Niche)! your main goal is to get your ad on the first page of Google anyways, as those people are the buyers (people searching for "Discount + product name"!

One more thing I forgot to mention, once you see which product is really selling, you can make multiple ad pages and optimize for other keyword such as "product name + promo" etc. This way you will dominate the whole page of Google and have more than one result.

[TheGodfather]

Hey,
great post who knew that I could have inspired you to write it.

I just read it and I think it is great, very simple and useful to know. But, how can you ask the product owner to give you a special kind of discount - with what authority, based on what, why would he give you a discount? What makes you so special?

By you, I meant, the affiliate that is promoting the product.

Thanks for the post.

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

[mrwoods]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Hey,


But, how can you ask the product owner to give you a special kind of discount - with what authority, based on what, why would he give you a discount? What makes you so special?

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

This is a good question. How do you approach someone about offering their product for a discount? The only argument I figure I could make to the owner would be an increase to their sales volume, but then I would be concerned they would want some sort of proof...

[TheGodfather]

Originally Posted by mrwoods

This is a good question. How do you approach someone about offering their product for a discount? The only argument I figure I could make to the owner would be an increase to their sales volume, but then I would be concerned they would want some sort of proof...

this is exactly my point, in case you would ask for a discount you would probably have to have a webpage with a giant amount of traffic. So unless you do already have such a page you have to build one and that could take several months or even more dependent on the niche.

As great as it sounds, I really think that the idea would need some more improvement, some brainstorming or perhaps a different approach.

[megabuck4u]

It's a good post, but people must realize it's no free lunch. It will still take real effort to achieve something from it.

[Dennis-White]

Iv e done this method and had some success with around 50 articles, takes a lil work but you can def. see some money

[ivana]

Originally Posted by Dennis-White

Iv e done this method and had some success with around 50 articles, takes a lil work but you can def. see some money

Great yes just as little as 30 articles can bring in results. There are people who struggle with making that first sale, TheGodfather is one of those, and he inspired me to write this.

Option #1
In regards to the approach. You have options. One is: Get someone elses discount code see if it works with your checkout process by clicking your affiliate link and entering a code. So once you have few sales, all you have to do is say, hey, I just sold x number of products, and I can do so much more if I had an exclusive discount!

Option #2
You can cut your commission. Yes, you can ask the owner to offer the product at special discount for you only, and you say if you normally pay other affiliates 50% I will take 25% only if you can lower the price! Now if the product sells at $100 dollars, and they pay 50 affiliate commissions, if you can sell at $79 and get only 25%, you still make nice you take $20 merchant $60 commission and the merchant actually takes more home!

Option #3
Sound confident and write:

Hi My name is "YOUR Name"

I have developed a great marketing system and I can guaranteed to increase your sales by at least 10%, and I can promote your "PRODUCT NAME" for the next 6 months exclusively.

I am wondering if you would like to try it out?

The only thing is, with my system, I have to offer my visitors and subscribers an exclusive deal. Something they cannot get anywhere else. So I am wondering if you can provide a coupon code for "product name" at 20% discount.

Your Name

[TheGodfather]

Option 3 requires for me or anybody else to have a site with enough targeted traffic already running so I can actually implement that "marketing strategy".

Like I said, the strategy will only need a little bit more work in order to produce some tangible results. Perhaps some bum marketing methods to get some initial sales going and then asking the product owner to allow you a discount and perhaps ask for a same amount to be taken away from your share. By that I mean that you would sacrifice the percentage of the discount from your own share, that means if you ask for a 20% discount that you should receive 20% less commissions.

Perhaps, this would be a better approach. But on the other hand, why would the product owner customize his affiliate system just in order so you can receive a lower commissions so your customers can benefit from it. Personally, I think that it would require a deal of effort on the manufacturers part, and since they have so many affiliates who promote their products and yield good results, to make such an effort to customize its interface so they can give you the 20% or more discount.

Just something to think about...

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

[opportunites]

Hi Ivana!

Nice job! Your post is simple, very clear... good strategy.

[ivana]

Originally Posted by TheGodfather

Option 3 requires for me or anybody else to have a site with enough targeted traffic already running so I can actually implement that "marketing strategy".

Like I said, the strategy will only need a little bit more work in order to produce some tangible results. Perhaps some bum marketing methods to get some initial sales going and then asking the product owner to allow you a discount and perhaps ask for a same amount to be taken away from your share. By that I mean that you would sacrifice the percentage of the discount from your own share, that means if you ask for a 20% discount that you should receive 20% less commissions.

Perhaps, this would be a better approach. But on the other hand, why would the product owner customize his affiliate system just in order so you can receive a lower commissions so your customers can benefit from it. Personally, I think that it would require a deal of effort on the manufacturers part, and since they have so many affiliates who promote their products and yield good results, to make such an effort to customize its interface so they can give you the 20% or more discount.

Just something to think about...

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

You ask for the discount and take the cut, but you will make many sales. you will have to drive a little traffic, but I do hope you understand that without traffic non of the methods work, because you have to have visitors. It does not matter how you get them, bum, PPC, JV, viral etc...You have to have people on that site!

#3 does not require you to have your own site, and plus, you can create WP blog just for the look of it, or the bloggers blog!

If you take a look at the math, the merchant will actually make more if you cut your commission, and they lower the price:

100 original price they make $50 if they pay 50% affiliates

80 discount price (at 20%)

You only take 25% so they pay you $20 and the merchant gets $60 you actually are increasing their bottom line!

If you get out of the IM industry, there are plenty of great products out there, and very low number of affiliates are promoting them! Plus, using this strategy, you can help many high end products be sold in the recession!

One more thing, last year I had a campaign around a great product using this strategy and I made over $5000 in commissions on just that one product! Yes, I had a little help from my list and I paid a little for traffic, so I am not saying expect the same results, but for many people just a $1000 per month sounds good.

[TheGodfather]

Heck,

I would be glad to have 200 $ a month from each site, let alone have 1000 $ from each site.

Currently, I'm experimenting with my blog, I'm posting content on it and I write the articles in advance and had been scheduled to be published at a later time.

My current goal is to produce enough traffic, say about 1000 visitors or so a month, and then I will monetize my blog and produce some solid income. For now, I'm just scouting around and I'm trying to get a good list of products that I can offer.

Once I get this momentum, with the targeted traffic, I will incorporate an e-mail list and a membership site which I will own. For now I only look to get high-quality content to be used both for the blog and for the membership site.

I am deeply honored that you were inspired to write this post because of me and people like me that need help getting started. But, like I said, I would rather gather enough targeted traffic to my site and the leverage that traffic into buyers.

Please do not get me wrong, I really appreciate your help, but currently it does not fit into my plans for my site. However, I will implement the strategy once my site starts to get some decent traffic.

Sincerely,
TheGodfather

[ivana]

Ok you see, that is exactly where you are wrong. You can have your blog bring you money right now, you want to make money? right?

If you are building that blog, I bet there is something your visitors need? I am not sure what your niche is, but there has to be something they need and will pay for, now you will convert at 20-70% if that something comes with a great discount!

Ivana

[TheGodfather]

So far I do not have a single visitor since the blog was opened two days ago... once I started getting visitors on a more regular basis I will implement what you have said...

sincerely,
TheGodfather

[Hobo82]

Thanks Ivana for the post. Its nice that there are some people who love to help. I am a newbie, and having a hard time getting started. Just need to focus and get started. Not sure how and which direction though.

Hobo82

[RichGal]

Wow, this really is a solid strategy, and you have really given people great tips.

I do hope people take action, as that seems to be the biggest problem for all

Thanks!

[jamestame]

Excellent Idea. i have already come across a few affiliates that are successfully using this method but i could never work out how they managed to get the owner of the product to issue them the special discount code...

Another way is to use good tracking system and ask the customer to email you their purchase confirmation email with reference code and issue them a small refund/discount yourself out of your pocket...

Meaning that once the customer confirms that they purchased the product through your link/your website and quote a special code or provide the order confirmation to you via email you can for example send them the promised amount to their paypal account... Say if the product was worth $40... you get a 50% commission and you promised them a 25% discount, you simply send them the $10 to their paypal account when they meet all your terms!

The method i described is great for rebill products and membership sites, the sites that will pay you your $20 next month and months after that as long as your customer stays there... So you will still be making your $20 but not the first month where you make $10 because you make that discount...

I hope this helps also

[ivana]

Jamestame,

You are right, your strategy can work as well, but normally they need to have an extra software in order to run this. And the ultimate goal of this thread is to explain to newbies that you can really make affiliate sales without site, hosting and your own domain!

And RichGal was right, this is a very solid affiliate strategy, but what is really hard is to get people to take action. Second, this strategy is worth gold, and can provide someone with full time income, but because it is offered for free, people do not value it as much! I can only hope that someone will take action on this and that this strategy will make someone full time income!