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Setting up my affiliate marketing program and would love some insight

by razorect
14 replies
Hello,

So I have a physical product I'm selling and I'd love to utilize affiliate marketing in spreading that product. Its $35 and its a tool to lengthen the life of a razor 7 to 10 times. Its wooden, with high-quality rubber and looks great.

A few questions -->

So, I'm under the impression that I need to:
1) Create a landing page for affiliates (or can this be a page on my website for affiliates... or does it need a "Sign up" section)
2) Create a landing page for affiliates to send leads (this needs to be a special landing page, right? A special landing page that markets the product where they purchase there. Or... can I just have the affiliates send them to my website)
3) Create an affiliate program. (What commissions should I do? I want to be SUPER generous to attract lots of affiliates. Should I use a two-tier program?)
4) Send emails to my email list of affiliates with information on:
a. how to sell the product
b. the advantages of the product
c. the message to convey
(Should I include advertising materials in this? If so, what?)
5) Advertise my affiliate program by posting it on directories and forums throughout the web.


Can you please look through that and let me know your thoughts on those respective bullet points and questions embedded.

Also, what role does clickbank play into all of this?

As well... what's the best solution for software with the affiliate's links. What I'm referring to is the links that identify leads as coming from them as an affiliate. What would you recommend as the most cost-effective solution?

I'm launching my product next week. Should I wait until I've had some revenue or can I start with affiliates right away?

Thanks so much !!!!!
#affiliate #insight #marketing #program #questions #setting
  • Profile picture of the author xlachlan
    Yes all that is what you should put on the affiliate site, if you are unsure check out some affiliate landing sites that are already made and use what they have as a template for yours.

    I would suggest having capital for your product but as far as money capital for affiliates goes, they create money for you from directing clients to you. That's how they make money so no need for capital for them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Will Edwards
    Originally Posted by razorect View Post

    Hello,
    Its $35 and its a tool to lengthen the life of a razor 7 to 10 times. Its wooden, with high-quality rubber and looks great.
    Please don't misunderstand this: however, before you start, make sure there is actually a market for that product! Don't think that recruiting affiliates is the answer to your sales problems. If the product does not sell for you, it will not sell for affiliates either.

    OK, that said ...

    So, I'm under the impression that I need to:
    1) Create a landing page for affiliates (or can this be a page on my website
    A landing page IS (or certainly can be) a page on your website.

    ... or does it need a "Sign up" section)
    No, you don't need a sign-up section but, if you have a sign-up, you can regularly send your affiliates details of your offers and help and advice on how to promote your stuff. So it's not a bad idea.

    2) Create a landing page for affiliates to send leads (this needs to be a special landing page, right? A special landing page that markets the product where they purchase there. Or... can I just have the affiliates send them to my website)
    You can do either. The best advice is to find out what YOUR affiliates prefer. This may sound a bit like chicken and egg because you may not have affiliates yet. But look at what your successful competitors are doing - that will give you a good indication of what works. BTW if you don't have any competitors, make sure you take the advice right at the top ^ there.

    3) Create an affiliate program. (What commissions should I do? I want to be SUPER generous to attract lots of affiliates. )
    Generally, I would say that good affiliates will more interested in the $/per click value than the commission percentage. There will be people here who will argue but 100% commission on a product that sells 1 per year (affiliate commission would be $37) or 10% on a product that sells 100 per year (affiliate commission would be $370) - clearly the latter would be a more attractive proposition. I'm not saying you should offer 10%; just underscoring that fact that what matters is creating a win-win arrangement. My personal view is that 50% on digital products (that actually sell) is very reasonable; for physical products, 10% could be reasonable (check Amazon's commission rates on physical products as a comparison.

    Should I use a two-tier program?
    There's no 'should' about it but, 1-tier programs and good for those who can find affiliates for you.

    4) Send emails to my email list of affiliates with information on:
    a. how to sell the product
    b. the advantages of the product
    c. the message to convey
    Yes.
    (Should I include advertising materials in this? If so, what?)
    Yes ... banners, email swipes, articles, affiliate links etc

    5) Advertise my affiliate program by posting it on directories and forums throughout the web.
    Yes - you definitely need to get the word out.

    Also, what role does clickbank play into all of this?
    They are an easy way to setup a single tier program.

    As well... what's the best solution for software with the affiliate's links. What I'm referring to is the links that identify leads as coming from them as an affiliate. What would you recommend as the most cost-effective solution?
    That's one of the things ClickBank does for you - you won't need software if you use their service. Historically ClickBank started out with digital products only. It is my understanding that they now allow physical products so they may be a good solution for you. Other people here may be able to provide you with some alternative (software) recommendations.

    I'm launching my product next week. Should I wait until I've had some revenue or can I start with affiliates right away?
    WAIT!!! See my first point ^ above.

    And, good luck my friend.

    Will
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    • Profile picture of the author razorect
      Thank you so much for the thorough response !!!

      I'm writing this in order of reading your post.

      1) There certainly is a market because a lesser-quality product sold 400,000 units.

      2) Does my landing page to get affiliates need to look like...
      This:
      Or can it just be a webpage, like this:
      (I'm going to be including a sign up too)

      3) How do I find out if my competitors are using affiliate marketing? Do you want me to tell you who they are?

      4) Is one-tier going to be the most attractive to affiliates?

      5) Do I do BOTH $/click and commission or just one of the two.

      6) What is an email swipe?

      7) So, altogether, the advertising materials include:
      a. Articles (both blog articles by my company and articles we have in publications)
      b. Information on the selling points, message, etc
      c. Banners (do you mean for banner ads?)
      d. Email swipes (what are these?)
      e. Anything else?

      8) Any recommendations for services better than clickbank?

      9) So, if I'm EXTRA generous, will that make more affiliates flock or will it make less. My fear is that people might think "this is too good to be true, there must be something wrong."

      10) Should my commission rate change depending upon number of sales?

      How is this...

      10% on 1 sale
      15% on 2-10 sales
      20% on 11-30 sales
      25% on 30+ sales
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  • Profile picture of the author webhosting
    Hello razorect,


    Originally Posted by razorect View Post

    1) Create a landing page for affiliates (or can this be a page on my website for affiliates... or does it need a "Sign up" section)
    When we started our affiliate program we considered these options too and I believe both of them should work fine for you. If you look at our page for affiliates - $600 Per Sale - Web Hosting Affiliate Program | MarbleHost.com - you will see that the affiliate can easily navigate through the website to learn more about the product. On the other hand, there is no link to the affiliate program on the home page and the product pages because some people who would become clients anyway may sign up for the affiliate program in order to get commission from their own purchase.

    So my recommendation is:
    1. Keep it simple to visit your product page (affiliates want to see what they are going to promote before they sign up).
    2. Make sure that your affiliate program is not visible to anyone else.

    2) Create a landing page for affiliates to send leads (this needs to be a special landing page, right? A special landing page that markets the product where they purchase there. Or... can I just have the affiliates send them to my website)
    Does your website convert well? If so, I would take an advantage of that and let the affiliates drive traffic directly to the homepage.

    3) Create an affiliate program. (What commissions should I do? I want to be SUPER generous to attract lots of affiliates. Should I use a two-tier program?)
    I will give you customer's point of view. When I am buying something and see that the seller offers something like 75% commission to the affiliates I consider the product overpriced. So you should take into account how many of the website visitors will also visit the affiliate page. If you implement my advice above, any amount may be ok, but if you plan to promote your affiliate program on your product page, too high commission may decrease your conversions.

    Two-tiers will help you not only motivate your affiliates to recommend the affiliate program to others, but you will also get easier listed in various affiliate program directories which may send you very good affiliates.

    4) Send emails to my email list of affiliates with information on:
    a. how to sell the product
    b. the advantages of the product
    c. the message to convey
    (Should I include advertising materials in this? If so, what?)
    Many affiliate managers do that. I cannot give you my own experience - we have coded our own affiliate software which allows easily include tips for affiliates and promotional material to the affiliate control panel. This way affiliate can see these tips and materials immediately after the signup, i. e. in the right moment - when they are most motivated to start to work.

    5) Advertise my affiliate program by posting it on directories and forums throughout the web.
    Sure, internet marketing forums and especially affiliate forums are places where you can attract experienced affiliate.

    Also, what role does clickbank play into all of this?

    As well... what's the best solution for software with the affiliate's links. What I'm referring to is the links that identify leads as coming from them as an affiliate. What would you recommend as the most cost-effective solution?
    Clickbank is an affiliate network. If you use them or other affiliate network you do not need to install your own affiliate software. Using affiliate networks costs more money (you have to pay commission to the affiliate network from every sale), but is much easier, especially if you have a lot of affiliates, because you pay only once to the network and they send payments to your affiliates.

    Your own affiliate software gives you more control over the settings and is cheaper, but requires more work from your part.
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  • Profile picture of the author razorect
    Thanks again !! This is fantastic.

    #1 --> Can Clickbank only work for a single-tier system?

    #2 --> Are my customers a good group to get affiliates from?

    #3 --> What is an email swipe?
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  • Profile picture of the author webhosting
    1. Yes, Clickbank offers 2-tier system.

    2. Who are your customers? If you would run e. g. a web hosting company, there would be a good chance that many website owners would have some experience with website promotion. Since your customers are men of any age (judging from description of your product), most of them will have no idea how to promote something. The only thing what can anybody do is to recommend the product to his friends. Because using affiliate link for most of these people would be something new (and difficult in their eyes), you can provide them with some coupon code and if their friends use this coupon they get some reward (cash, discount, your product for free...).

    3. I was also curious what does it mean (never heard about this before) and found an article from which it is clear:
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    #3 --> What is an email swipe?
    It's a pre-written email that you provide for your affiliates. So affiliates can simply "swipe" your email and use it for their own marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author razorect
    Thank you so much everyone. This has been great. I have just a couple more questions...

    1) How do I find out if my competitors are using affiliate marketing? Do you want me to tell you who they are?

    2) Do I do BOTH $/click and commission or just one of the two.

    3) Are the banners for banner ads (in info I give to affiliates)?

    4) So, if I'm EXTRA generous, will that make more affiliates flock or will it make less. My fear is that people might think "this is too good to be true, there must be something wrong."

    5) Should my commission rate change depending upon number of sales?

    6) I want to have a "get 3 friends to buy, and you get yours free" program. Any recommendations on the software I should use? I figure I'll give them a special individualized promo code, but how do I determine if they've gotten 3 friends to buy?

    Should I just give them a clickbank special URL and determine it that way?

    Lastly, what are your thoughts on this tier -->

    1st tier = 35% ($12.25)
    2nd tier = 20% ($7)

    Its a $35 product.

    Will that be enticing?
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    • Profile picture of the author webhosting
      Originally Posted by razorect View Post

      1) How do I find out if my competitors are using affiliate marketing? Do you want me to tell you who they are?
      Many companies have link to the affiliate page on their homepage. So you can simply use Google to find the top companies in your niche and check out their website. Or search for terms like "niche name + affiliate program" or "your-competitor + affiliate program".

      2) Do I do BOTH $/click and commission or just one of the two.
      I would NEVER offer PPC commission to the affiliates. You will see that most of them will send you worthless, untargeted traffic, e. g. from expired domains, popups and similar. Moreover, this traffic usually originates from developing countries.

      4) So, if I'm EXTRA generous, will that make more affiliates flock or will it make less. My fear is that people might think "this is too good to be true, there must be something wrong."
      Good question, difficult to answer But you can always to do one thing - start with lower commission than what is the maximum you are going to pay. Then contact the owners of websites which promote your competitors and offer them higher than standard commission if they put your advertisement in the best place on their websites.

      5) Should my commission rate change depending upon number of sales?
      Some clients may find your affiliate program and use it to get commission from their own purchases. If the commission rate will depend on the number of sales, you will not lose so much money in such case because you will pay them only the lowest rate.

      On the other hand, when I was an active affiliate I did not like it. If the commission rate started e. g. at $50 and the higher level was $125, I prefered to promote other company offering $100+ from the first sale.

      Lastly, what are your thoughts on this tier -->

      1st tier = 35% ($12.25)
      2nd tier = 20% ($7)

      Its a $35 product.

      Will that be enticing?
      I would rather try something as 50%/5% or 45%/10%. When an affiliate comes to your website and sees that you spend 55% on the marketing, he will want to get most of the amount because he does most of the work. The second tier is fine to get listed in affiliate directories and you will usually get listed no matter how much do you offer (since they probably list companies selling low margin products like electronics together with companies selling high margin products like e. g. ebooks, they cannot have requirement of some fixed %).
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  • Profile picture of the author bluebrain
    You could try listing your product at Amazon, this way it will get exposed to a lot of customers and affiliates!
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  • Profile picture of the author ivonna88
    Why not offer your Affiliates this Free software to build review websites for your product. You could just recommend it in your affiliates area as a promotional tool. It's software that basically creates product review websites in a few minutes. And review websites are really effective in driving BUYER traffic to affiliate offers, and in this case to your offer!
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  • Profile picture of the author yakim1
    ClickBank will not work for your needs because ClickBank only allows digital products for sale and you have a physical product.

    PayGoBank.com will allow you to sell physical products.
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  • Profile picture of the author AceOfShirts
    Another program that allows physical products is ShareASale. There is a fee to get listed.

    If you are thinking of hosting your own affiliate program and have a wordpress site I use:

    WordPress Affiliate Platform Plugin

    or my custom shirt affiliate programs. I also use their WPEstore for the shopping cart. The two integrate very well together.
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