Missing thread?

Steve - That was an excellent post. If you can reconstruct it, or PM it to me, it would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks - Neill Phillips

Steven Wagenheim
Article Marketing Wiz

Steven Wagenheim's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Roselle, NJ, USA
Age: 50
Posts: 9,066

Default Crash Course On Affiliate Marketing
Okay, I have just insulted every affiliate marketer on the planet, for which I
am humbly sorry. Well, one person said, do something about it. Train them.

Well, I can't do it individually, but maybe this post will help affiliates who
can't seem to understand why they can't sell their way out of a paper bag.

This is going to be a long post, so I suggest you save it in PDF format.

Let's begin.

Product Selection

This is where so many affiliates make their first mistake, especially if they are
just starting out and don't have the skills to promote the really competitive
products.

They'll either wait for the next big product launch, such as PLF 2 or TS 2
or whatever it was and jump all over it.

Now think about this logically. You have no list. You have no credibility.
You're a virtual unknown and you're trying to go up against guys like
Mike Filsaime, Willie Crawford and heaven knows who else and actually
make some sales? You need to get real here.

Same thing with the top products at the Clickbank marketplace. Take a
look at some of the gravities. They're up in the clouds.

But here is what those gravities DON'T tell you.

A gravity of 300 could mean 299 affiliates selling just 1 copy each and
maybe 1 affiliate selling 100 copies. It doesn't tell you how many of those
affiliates are actually having any REAL success.

You're better off picking products with gravities of 30 to 50. Forget mine.
They're not even on the charts. But gravities of 30 to 50 show that the
product sells BUT the competition isn't as fierce.

These are your best products to sell...hands down.


Promotional Strategy

Look, you've got to go against the grain if you're going to stand out in
this business. That means you have to stay away from the following:

Canned Ads - Yeah, I know, all you affiliates want these. That's why
merchants create them. So you have ready made ads to plaster all over
the Internet. Well, here's the problem. If every affiliate is using these same
canned ads, how does ANYBODY stand out from the crowd? They can't
and they don't. Making a sale is a crap shoot.

Bogus Review Sites - You know the ones I'm talking about. Where every
product on it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are even
templates being sold for these sites. Don't use them. They have no
credibility.

Okay, that's what you don't do. So what DO you do?

Step 1 - Get the damn product. If you can't afford it, write to the merchant
and ask him for a copy. Write him a really convincing email as to how
serious you are in promoting it. I've done this many times and more times
than not, you'll get a review copy.

Step 2 - Go through the product and review it. Write up a comprehensive
review on the product. Go over the good AND the bad. You want the
review to be as honest as possible. If the product really sucks, don't
promote it and ask for a refund.

Step 3 - Post the review up on a blog. Even a Blogger blog will do fine.
Trust me, you don't need anything fancy. At the end of the review put
your affiliate link. Make sure it's cloaked. I use a PHP script that I wrote
myself.

Step 4 - Write just one article daily on the subject related to the product
itself. Make sure you choose the relevant keywords to that subject and
product.

Step 5 - Submit the article to Ezine Articles late in the day so that it ends
up getting approved late in the day, assuming a 24 to 48 hour turnaround.
You can submit elsewhere if you like, but I find EZA is hands down the
best directory out there.

Step 6 - Make sure in the resource box of your article is a strong call to
action to your blog. Tell them that it is a review of the product. If they're
interested in getting the product, they'll read your review.

Step 7 - Okay, this is where things get good. Create a video. If you can't
afford Camtasia, download Camstudio. It's free. The video you're going to
create is going to be a review of the product. But, you're going to do one
additional thing. You're going to tell people that if they get the product
from you, they'll receive a bonus in addition to the product. Tell them what
the bonus is. Make it a damned good one. I offer personal mentoring for a
week for any IM related product I sell. When the video is done, upload it
to YouTube at least. You can send it elsewhere too, but YouTube will be
your best bet.

Step 8 - Create a free report related to the product. Embed your affiliate
link in the report, cloaked of course. Submit the report to as many free
download sites as you can.

Step 9 - Create an AR series and squeeze page to collect opt ins. Place
the link to the squeeze page on your blog, on your site, anywhere you can
that is related to the niche. Make sure the AR series contains at least 7
followups and of those 7, at least 3 of them contain a sales pitch for the
product at the end.

Step 10 - Sit back, relax, and let this all work for you.

I've been doing this for so long, in spite of the fact that I create my own
products that I am now starting to sell more affiliate products than I do
of my own products.

And the beauty of this is, there are so many products out there to choose
from, this method IS NOT IN ANY WAY AFFECTED BY COMPETITION.

I am selling products that you'd think would never sell based on their
gravities. Yeah, I know, i said stick to 30 to 50 gravity. That's just to make
it easier for you. But truth is, this system will work for any freaking product.

Is it a little bit of work? Um, yeah. That's why most affiliates don't do
squat.

If you think I'm feeding you a load of bull, go ask Travis Sago how I'm
cranking out his stuff.

Okay, my apologies for lumping all affiliates into one messy pot, but it was
5 years of frustration coming out. I'm sorry.

Anyway, now you have no excuses not to clean up with affiliate marketing.

Hi foxtrot3,

Have you tried to Google for the thread? They may have a cache version.

I noticed that the threads and posts seem to get index higher and faster in the serps since the forum move.

Hope this helps ...


Mary

Steven,

Part of the thread was still in Google's cache:

=============================================

Okay, I have just insulted every affiliate marketer on the planet, for which I
am humbly sorry. Well, one person said, do something about it. Train them.

Well, I can't do it individually, but maybe this post will help affiliates who
can't seem to understand why they can't sell their way out of a paper bag.

This is going to be a long post, so I suggest you save it in PDF format.

Let's begin.

Product Selection

This is where so many affiliates make their first mistake, especially if they are
just starting out and don't have the skills to promote the really competitive
products.

They'll either wait for the next big product launch, such as PLF 2 or TS 2
or whatever it was and jump all over it.

Now think about this logically. You have no list. You have no credibility.
You're a virtual unknown and you're trying to go up against guys like
Mike Filsaime, Willie Crawford and heaven knows who else and actually
make some sales? You need to get real here.

Same thing with the top products at the Clickbank marketplace. Take a
look at some of the gravities. They're up in the clouds.

But here is what those gravities DON'T tell you.

A gravity of 300 could mean 299 affiliates selling just 1 copy each and
maybe 1 affiliate selling 100 copies. It doesn't tell you how many of those
affiliates are actually having any REAL success.

You're better off picking products with gravities of 30 to 50. Forget mine.
They're not even on the charts. But gravities of 30 to 50 show that the
product sells BUT the competition isn't as fierce.

These are your best products to sell...hands down.


Promotional Strategy

Look, you've got to go against the grain if you're going to stand out in
this business. That means you have to stay away from the following:

Canned Ads - Yeah, I know, all you affiliates want these. That's why
merchants create them. So you have ready made ads to plaster all over
the Internet. Well, here's the problem. If every affiliate is using these same
canned ads, how does ANYBODY stand out from the crowd? They can't
and they don't. Making a sale is a crap shoot.

Bogus Review Sites - You know the ones I'm talking about. Where every
product on it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are even
templates being sold for these sites. Don't use them. They have no
credibility.

Okay, that's what you don't do. So what DO you do?

Step 1 - Get the damn product. If you can't afford it, write to the merchant
and ask him for a copy. Write him a really convincing email as to how
serious you are in promoting it. I've done this many times and more times
than not, you'll get a review copy.

Step 2 - Go through the product and review it. Write up a comprehensive
review on the product. Go over the good AND the bad. You want the
review to be as honest as possible. If the product really sucks, don't
promote it and ask for a refund.

Step 3 - Post the review up on a blog. Even a Blogger blog will do fine.
Trust me, you don't need anything fancy. At the end of the review put
your affiliate link. Make sure it's cloaked. I use a PHP script that I wrote
myself.

Step 4 - Write just one article daily on the subject related to the product
itself. Make sure you choose the relevant keywords to that subject and
product.

Step 5 - Submit the article to Ezine Articles late in the day so that it ends
up getting approved late in the day, assuming a 24 to 48 hour turnaround.
You can submit elsewhere if you like, but I find EZA is hands down the
best directory out there.

Step 6 - Make sure in the resource box of your article is a strong call to
action to your blog. Tell them that it is a review of the product. If they're
interested in getting the product, they'll read your review.

Step 7 - Okay, this is where things get good. Create a video. If you can't
afford Camtasia, download Camstudio. It's free. The video you're going to
create is going to be a review of the product. But, you're going to do one
additional thing. You're going to tell people that if they get the product
from you, they'll receive a bonus in addition to the product. Tell them what
the bonus is. Make it a damned good one. I offer personal mentoring for a
week for any IM related product I sell. When the video is done, upload it
to YouTube at least. You can send it elsewhere too, but YouTube will be
your best bet.

Step 8 - Create a free report related to the product. Embed your affiliate
link in the report, cloaked of course. Submit the report to as many free
download sites as you can.

Step 9 - Create an AR series and squeeze page to collect opt ins. Place
the link to the squeeze page on your blog, on your site, anywhere you can
that is related to the niche. Make sure the AR series contains at least 7
followups and of those 7, at least 3 of them contain a sales pitch for the
product at the end.

Step 10 - Sit back, relax, and let this all work for you.

I've been doing this for so long, in spite of the fact that I create my own
products that I am now starting to sell more affiliate products than I do
of my own products.

And the beauty of this is, there are so many products out there to choose
from, this method IS NOT IN ANY WAY AFFECTED BY COMPETITION.

I am selling products that you'd think would never sell based on their
gravities. Yeah, I know, i said stick to 30 to 50 gravity. That's just to make
it easier for you. But truth is, this system will work for any freaking product.

Is it a little bit of work? Um, yeah. That's why most affiliates don't do
squat.

If you think I'm feeding you a load of bull, go ask Travis Sago how I'm
cranking out his stuff.

Okay, my apologies for lumping all affiliates into one messy pot, but it was
5 years of frustration coming out. I'm sorry.

Anyway, now you have no excuses not to clean up with affiliate marketing.

=================================================

MadMoney wrote:

Steven,

Great post, as always, if I would add just one thing to the above. It would be that don't forget to also write an article, a short review version, of the actual product name. For example "Traffic Secrets Review" if traffic secrets was the product name.

You may also want to check Word tracker free keyword tool for other keywords of the product. If there are no keywords for the product yet. You can rest assured that if it's a seller. There will be. These are some examples of keywords, you can use to write articles about.

Traffic secrets review.
Traffic secrets reviews.
Traffic secrets download.

Wow, I guess this thread will be optimized for traffic secrets.

There are other Keywords you can use along with the title of the product.

For commission Junction products, I find that these work the best.
Cheap, discount, coupon, and free.

Just my two cents, to an already Incredible post.

Madman

PS By the way Steven, you know you probably could've made this into a book and made money selling it. Thanks again for the great post.

==============================================

Steven and Kat wrote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kat Bartone View Post
Steven, another superb post indeed!

Question for you, Steven - you said:

"Submit the report to as many free
download sites as you can."

Can you give me an example, or a tip on how to locate these sites? I'm not up to speed with this, and when I googled 'free downloads' or 'free download sites' I get download.com and a bunch of what appears to be software- shareware sites.

Thanks!

- Kat

Kat, here's the top site in my opinion.

Download Free Ebooks

Just type in "free download sites" + ebooks

There are tons.

================================================== =====

Suzanne

I saved most of it accept for maybe the intro.

Here you go:


Product Selection

This is where so many affiliates make their first mistake, especially if they are
just starting out and don't have the skills to promote the really competitive
products.

They'll either wait for the next big product launch, such as PLF 2 or TS 2
or whatever it was and jump all over it.

Now think about this logically. You have no list. You have no credibility.
You're a virtual unknown and you're trying to go up against guys like
Mike Filsaime, Willie Crawford and heaven knows who else and actually
make some sales? You need to get real here.

Same thing with the top products at the Clickbank marketplace. Take a
look at some of the gravities. They're up in the clouds.

But here is what those gravities DON'T tell you.

A gravity of 300 could mean 299 affiliates selling just 1 copy each and
maybe 1 affiliate selling 100 copies. It doesn't tell you how many of those
affiliates are actually having any REAL success.

You're better off picking products with gravities of 30 to 50. Forget mine.
They're not even on the charts. But gravities of 30 to 50 show that the
product sells BUT the competition isn't as fierce.

These are your best products to sell...hands down.


Promotional Strategy

Look, you've got to go against the grain if you're going to stand out in
this business. That means you have to stay away from the following:

Canned Ads - Yeah, I know, all you affiliates want these. That's why
merchants create them. So you have ready made ads to plaster all over
the Internet. Well, here's the problem. If every affiliate is using these same
canned ads, how does ANYBODY stand out from the crowd? They can't
and they don't. Making a sale is a crap shoot.

Bogus Review Sites - You know the ones I'm talking about. Where every
product on it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There are even
templates being sold for these sites. Don't use them. They have no
credibility.

Okay, that's what you don't do. So what DO you do?

Step 1 - Get the damn product. If you can't afford it, write to the merchant
and ask him for a copy. Write him a really convincing email as to how
serious you are in promoting it. I've done this many times and more times
than not, you'll get a review copy.

Step 2 - Go through the product and review it. Write up a comprehensive
review on the product. Go over the good AND the bad. You want the
review to be as honest as possible. If the product really sucks, don't
promote it and ask for a refund.

Step 3 - Post the review up on a blog. Even a Blogger blog will do fine.
Trust me, you don't need anything fancy. At the end of the review put
your affiliate link. Make sure it's cloaked. I use a PHP script that I wrote
myself.

Step 4 - Write just one article daily on the subject related to the product
itself. Make sure you choose the relevant keywords to that subject and
product.

Step 5 - Submit the article to Ezine Articles late in the day so that it ends
up getting approved late in the day, assuming a 24 to 48 hour turnaround.
You can submit elsewhere if you like, but I find EZA is hands down the
best directory out there.

Step 6 - Make sure in the resource box of your article is a strong call to
action to your blog. Tell them that it is a review of the product. If they're
interested in getting the product, they'll read your review.

Step 7 - Okay, this is where things get good. Create a video. If you can't
afford Camtasia, download Camstudio. It's free. The video you're going to
create is going to be a review of the product. But, you're going to do one
additional thing. You're going to tell people that if they get the product
from you, they'll receive a bonus in addition to the product. Tell them what
the bonus is. Make it a damned good one. I offer personal mentoring for a
week for any IM related product I sell. When the video is done, upload it
to YouTube at least. You can send it elsewhere too, but YouTube will be
your best bet.

Step 8 - Create a free report related to the product. Embed your affiliate
link in the report, cloaked of course. Submit the report to as many free
download sites as you can.

Step 9 - Create an AR series and squeeze page to collect opt ins. Place
the link to the squeeze page on your blog, on your site, anywhere you can
that is related to the niche. Make sure the AR series contains at least 7
followups and of those 7, at least 3 of them contain a sales pitch for the
product at the end.

Step 10 - Sit back, relax, and let this all work for you.

I've been doing this for so long, in spite of the fact that I create my own
products that I am now starting to sell more affiliate products than I do
of my own products.

And the beauty of this is, there are so many products out there to choose
from, this method IS NOT IN ANY WAY AFFECTED BY COMPETITION.

I am selling products that you'd think would never sell based on their
gravities. Yeah, I know, i said stick to 30 to 50 gravity. That's just to make
it easier for you. But truth is, this system will work for any freaking product.

Is it a little bit of work? Um, yeah. That's why most affiliates don't do
squat.

If you think I'm feeding you a load of bull, go ask Travis Sago how I'm
cranking out his stuff.

Okay, my apologies for lumping all affiliates into one messy pot, but it was
5 years of frustration coming out. I'm sorry.

Anyway, now you have no excuses not to clean up with affiliate marketing.

Thanks Steven for a great read.

Regards,
Steve