Offering an affiliate bonus with a ClickBank product

[Harvey.Segal]

As you might know an affiliate can offer a bonus item
to a customer who purchases through his link subject to
certain conditions (in brief - that you make it clear
it not the responsibility of ClickBank or the vendor
and you will handle all issues)


My question is would you as a vendor** provide
such a bonus for your affiliates to use - or
would you just add it to your own offer ?


** Even if you are not a vendor I'd be interested in your thoughts

Thanks
Harvey

[Steven Wagenheim]

Harvey, I wouldn't offer it to my affiliates and here is why. And it has
nothing to do with whether or not I'd add it to my own product as a bonus.

They key to affiliate bonuses actually working is the fact that they are
unique for each affiliate.

For example, I know for a fact that in some niches, for certain products I
promote AS an affiliate, nobody offers any bonuses at all, let alone the
ones I offer. So that gives me a distinct advantage over everybody else.

If you give all your affiliates the same bonus, then all it does is put them all
on the same playing field. No one affiliate will have an advantage over
another. Sure, you as the merchant might make more sales, but you would
have made those same sales had the bonus been included with your
product in the first place.

If the goal is to have your affiliates stand out from each other, and force
them to come up with their own bonuses, much like the way the super
affiliates do for the big ticket item launches, then giving them a bonus
to include defeats the purpose.

At least that's the way I look at it.

[SteveRenner]

Hi Harvey,
Click Bank marketers often offer Bonuses with the purchase of their products on
their sales page. Some more sophisticated marketers offer Brandable Reports
or other Give-Away type stuff that you can use in your Marketing.

Ewen Chia is the Master of this. Check out at some of the Affiliate Tools he
provides for selling his products. Another good one to check out is Jimmy D Brown.

One good idea is to go through the Buying Process of a product yourself, and see
exactly what the buyer sees. Sign up as an Affiliate and see what Tools the Vendor
offers his Affiliates to help make the sales.

If the Vendor does not have one, you can create your own. Often times an Ethical
Bribe is just what it takes to close a sale!

As Steve W has mentioned, on a new product launch it is almost Mandatory to offer
a bonus. When several Marketers are all promoting the same offers, buyers will shop
around to see who has the best bonus before making the decision who to buy from.

All The Best!

[adventureman89]

I agree with Steve on this one. Your affiliates would be much better off if they got to choose a bonus of their own.

Most affiliates will use your bonus that you have tooled them with and add other bonuses of their own, to make themselves more unique anyway.

If every customer receives the bonus, then is just part of the sale of your certain product. The point of a bonus is to make the individual selling it stand out from the herd.

It will help you out more than your affiliates.

[Harvey.Segal]

Sorry I should have explained the background
to the question.

Only some affiliates would know about the bonus.

It would be like an affiliate program directory where the
vendor could announce his affiliate program together with
a bonus.

So the problem of a bonus being unique to an affiliate is
somewhat reduced. Only visitors to that directory would
know.

Harvey

[Steven Wagenheim]

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

Sorry I should have explained the background
to the question.

Only some affiliates would know about the bonus.

It would be like an affiliate program directory where the
vendor could announce his affiliate program together with
a bonus.

So the problem of a bonus being unique to an affiliate is
somewhat reduced. Only visitors to that directory would
know.

Harvey

Better, I guess, but as an affiliate marketer, I would still prefer to offer
my own unique bonus so that I stand out from everybody.

As a merchant, I'd do what you're doing and take a poll to see what
affiliates would want such a thing. If enough don't care that the bonus
isn't 100% unique to them, then I guess it would be worth doing IF it
makes them more sales which in turn makes the merchant more sales.

[Blitzian]

I have seen a few vendors actually do this - giving affiliates the bonus to use in their promotion.

While it might reduce the value of the bonus when multiple affiliates have the same bonus pack, its probable that each affiliate has different set of subscribers - so it would help the affiliate close more sales - and provide motivation for the affiliate to promote the vendor.

One additional thing vendors can do is provide promotional/bonus angles for affiliates. And some vendors actually do provide keyword lists / articles which kind of helps the affiliate get started with the promotions.