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Is it dumb to launch my first product & NOT have affiliates?

by oldwarrioruser1
14 replies
I was going to use Clickbank for my first product, but I keep reading bad reviews about it...

Is it unheard of to launch and just drive your own traffic? Will I be cutting myself short of a lot of sales without affiliates?

Maybe I can run my own affiliate program?

I guess I'm wondering if any of you have been successful without using affiliates..

Thx
#affiliates #dumb #launch #product
  • Profile picture of the author matty-81
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  • Profile picture of the author defaultuser
    My partner and I releases a 91 video course about how to use Joomla as a website platform.

    We created our own traffic flow and THEN we went out and recruited affiliates. It doesn't do much if you don't know where your fellow marketers are and how they react with the market.

    You can always launch a new version of your product and test it in different spaces like Clickbank. In fact we are going to do the same once we know what the expectation is from our audience in the Clickbank space.

    We generated our original traffic from YouTube. It's perfect for screen cast tutorials, but every niche is different.
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  • Profile picture of the author Irnes Jakupovic
    I assure you some people here have done pretty good without affiliates but having affiliates will make you a lot more money. I believe frank kern offered a Ferrari to whichever affiliate made the most sales for him when he released list control. Other markets have offered prizes such as vacations, tv's, boats, etc. I'm sure these example alone lets you know the power of affiliates.

    Not only do they make sales for you but they also raise your brand awareness even if sales aren't made by them. This is very powerful to have in the long run.
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    • Profile picture of the author oldwarrioruser1
      Originally Posted by Irnes Jakupovic View Post

      I assure you some people here have done pretty good without affiliates but having affiliates will make you a lot more money. I believe frank kern offered a Ferrari to whichever affiliate made the most sales for him when he released list control. Other markets have offered prizes such as vacations, tv's, boats, etc. I'm sure these example alone lets you know the power of affiliates.

      Not only do they make sales for you but they also raise your brand awareness even if sales aren't made by them. This is very powerful to have in the long run.
      Man what a great idea! Rewarding the top affiliates.. so simple of an idea that I would have never thought of!
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  • Profile picture of the author CurtisN
    Is it unheard of to launch and just drive your own traffic?
    Definitely not - it's called an internal launch. This is where you launch only to your own list. Once successful, you've now got powerful proof for future customers (happy existing customers) and future affiliates (hopefully good stats to show).

    But if you don't have your own list, then you won't have a launch either. Launches require lists - you can't just stick a product on Clickbank and call it a product launch.

    Will I be cutting myself short of a
    lot of sales without affiliates?
    Of course you will be, but there are pros and cons of doing big JV launches.

    For example, if you DIY, it's a lot less work (ironically) and you get to keep virtually all the money. If you recruit affiliates or JVs, you'll be giving away over half the profits.

    Curtis
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    Curtis Ng (blog) - Product Launch Manager
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    • Profile picture of the author LucasT
      If you're about to launch, you may want to hold off and check out the "product launch formula" by Jeff Walker. He's the launch master.
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  • Profile picture of the author Branlan17
    Now let me preface this by saying that I personally haven't been a product creator yet. Having said that, I would recommend making some sales and driving traffic yourself so you can have real conversion statistics and testing done BEFORE you have affiliates driving traffic for you. Of course, that may be backwards... who knows! But as an affiliate I want to see a well laid out and tested site before I go "Yeah, I want to spend the next X months promoting this thing".
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  • Profile picture of the author defaultuser
    Building your own list is crucial because you need to know weather or not JV lists will be effective. Offer your product to the wrong lists and you will have negative brand awareness.

    Even if you don't have a massive list start asking questions to determine your lists commercial intent. If you have something that few others offer your information becomes more valuable.

    Search for commercial intent surveys or something and you can begin surveying your list and finding out what is important to them and if they are willing to pay. There are a lot of theories out there to determine what is the best way to go about it. Again. It's another test. If they like what they have so far and just want more... keep going. If not, the right survey will give you the information you need to correct course and alter your offer and even content.
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  • Profile picture of the author oldwarrioruser1
    That's a problem of mine.. I don't have a list..

    That was my main idea behind this product launch, to start to build up my own list..

    I thought the best way to start a list off was to launch a product in the niche I am interested in.. That way it will help me with future product launches.

    Is that normal? Or am I doing it wrong
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  • Profile picture of the author statelizard
    Kory,

    A couple of questions.

    1) Do you currently promote any affiliate products?
    2) Do you currently have a website that gets traffic?
    3) Is the product that you are going to sell in the same niche as either of the above if applicable.

    I ask because if you already have a site, and it's getting traffic, then you have pretty much everything you need to get your product out there, you will just need to tweak a few links and maybe a couple of pages.

    If any of the above is true, post back here and I'll go into a bit more detail about how I would go about doing this.
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    • Profile picture of the author LucasT
      You can always do pay-per-click...
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    • Profile picture of the author oldwarrioruser1
      Originally Posted by statelizard View Post

      Kory,

      A couple of questions.

      1) Do you currently promote any affiliate products?
      2) Do you currently have a website that gets traffic?
      3) Is the product that you are going to sell in the same niche as either of the above if applicable.

      I ask because if you already have a site, and it's getting traffic, then you have pretty much everything you need to get your product out there, you will just need to tweak a few links and maybe a couple of pages.

      If any of the above is true, post back here and I'll go into a bit more detail about how I would go about doing this.
      No I don't. The most I've done with affiliate marketing was create some Squidoo pages which generated a few hundred bucks over all.

      I wasn't very motivated trying to promote other peoples products so I decided to take a step forward and create my own.

      None of those Squidoo pages get any traffic anymore..

      So I'm kinda just starting from complete scratch.. (Gotta start somewhere, right?)
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  • Profile picture of the author bizfox
    It's fine to launch your product without affiliate program yet because of the SEO.
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