Do I have to do a launch if I want to attract super affiliates?

Not necessarily, you just have to show them they are going to make a killing promoting your product.

What kind of affiliates do you want to attract, affiliates with lists or PPC affiliates?

With the latter, you have to focus on showing them they will make an awesome return on investment. In this case, they might not with your price point being particularly low.

Supewr affiliates (generally speaking) like high-priced, high-commission programs and products. If they own an email list, the people on that email list may have lifetime values of a few hundred dollars in some cases. That is why they will think twice before sending their leads to a product or promotion with a low-price point.

You have to make a good pitch to the super affiliates, and some times, it helps to know some one who knows them. Pitch to them like you were pitching for investment. Give them details of previous sales and successes, talk about your background and the great feedback you have about your product etc.

Adam has got it spot on with what he is saying.

A lot of these guys rolling out product launches are good friends with each other, or have at the very least, known and done business with each other for a long time now.

They do develop an inner-circle of people they trust and work with. This more than anything is to protect themselves to extent. They know what they will get from each other and they accept that. Whenever they promote a new product from a total new face in the market, they are taking a risk, or a gamble. To reduce this risk, they have their "regulars" who they cross-promote, and a perceieved inner-circle is created.

Like Adam says, a good way of trying to break into this is by becoming one of their friends. There is another couple of ways you can break into the "inner-circle" though and by-pass that system.

1. Get a good JV broker with a lot of contatcs in the industry. A good example of this in the IM industry is Mike Merz. Willie Crawford is another one with an excellet reputation in the industry.

2. You could sign up to one of the guru's premium membership, coaching or mentoring programs. The business people in this market like continuity and passive income. They often will have mentoring or membership sites where they coach 100-200 students for a reasonaly high price. Some, (like Lee Mcintyre) do personal one-to-one coaching for like a 1000 dollars a month. This is a really good way of getting their "ear" and getting them to recommend you to their other partners.

3. Work for them. You could always try working for some, doing content for their sites or autoresponder etc. Agan, it's difficult to get your foot in the door, but it is doable.

The pattern I am seeing is a lot of the new comers to the field are actually being recommended by one of the established marketers, and that is usually down to one of the three reasons I have discussed above.

I am not saying you have to do any of the above to be successful in your project, I am just suggesting that the above might make it easier for you to accomplish your goal.


The Reason They Prefer Product Launches

What I am about to say here maybe a bit controversial, and there are those that deny it and won't like it. What I am saying is not universally true either, but is the case for a fair number of the marketers. I say this having worked for one or two and spoken to some more.

I have developed a small theory that some of the top internet marketer's have created a "product launch business model" that is almost exclusively about big product launches (and there is nothing wrong with this at all in my opinion). Here is why I think product launches are popular:

1. They can be done relatively quickly

2. You can leverage your contacts and lists to make a good launch and get some good promo's. If you have what we often call "guru status" then you have LOTS of leverage, so why not ue it?

3. Product launches often pay big, as we are all aware.

4. Due to the short-term nature of launches, there is no continuous work needed on the business, less customer support issues, and the average loyalty of some one on continuity is on avergae 3 months in this market, allowing the marketer to do what they want for a few months.

The above are good and compelling reasons for doing a product launch, but in my opinion they are not the only reasons why the same marketers release launch after launch.

You see, after tax, overheads, affiliate payments (typically 50%) the marketer is left with very little. If a launch pulls in around 100k revenue, then I would imagine that the marketer would take 4ok or less of that to their bank. Which isn't bad! I wouldn't mind that!

But when marketers talk about their earnings they rarely talk about profits, and focus more on revenue (it's a more impressive figure).

The other problem I have seen a number of marketers have is that they spend a lot after their launch and then need to create more launches to keep up with their spending habits and lifestyles they have created for themselves.

And lastly, I think some marketers do it a lot because they don't know of any other ways to make money anymore.

Don't get me wrong, some marketers do the launches for no other reason other than they enjoy it, they are good at it, and see a decent return on it. But the reasons I have given above come to play in some cases among some of the IM inner-circles.

And it's just my opinion/theory based on first-hand experience and a bit of anecdotal evidence.

In general this has been my experience...

There are only a couple ways a super affiliate will promo for you.

1) You promo for them and crush it.

2) You can prove you have a quality product that converts like crazy, offers a high commission (usually higher than you're offering), and offers high backend commissions or continuity.

dbrock1

You have it spot on my friend.

The present day experts and marketers we are talking about today forged their alliances, networks and friendships very early on in their career when they had little going on in their business and very small lists. They grew into the market leaders together from very humble beginnings.

I think what you said is right. Forging your own network which can grow together will certainly pay dividends in the long run, and it is what I am attempting to do at the minute. Forge long-term business relationships and partnerships that will pay off in the longer-term.

What Jason says is right as well. If you have got copy written by a pro, and a product that is going to hit the top of clickbank fast, you'll find most of the top marketers downing tools and promoting hard for you!

You can also get your foot in the door if you promote some of their products and make them a bunch of money...when you contact them they can't ignore you simply because you gave them a bunch of sales.

Another way is to simply get 1 or 2 super affiliates to promote your product with 100% commission's...because their "competitors" or friends are bound to be on their list and when they see X promoting your product they are bound to ask some questions about it...and you can also contact them yourself and say "Hey, I got X and Y on board, would you like to join?"

Offtopic: If your serious about building a business you should be on ALL of your competitors lists and analyze them from time to time.

I really don't understand all the people saying "I unsubscribed from all the lists because there is no good content etc...", if you are in the same market as them you should pay a little attention to what your competition is doing/selling/promoting etc...

This Inner circle thing is quite frankly true only for IM and Make Money Online niches.

For all the other niches, affiliates are really secretive about what they promote and how they promote it. And frankly, many IM guru's can't drive traffic without their own lists or other people's lists to email to.

You need to go for affiliates who not only have lists, but who continuously build lists by driving frsh traffic to their sites. And these affiliates are found in places where you can associate with them and prove to them their efforts won't be wasted on your product.

That their traffic won't hate you or them for being sent to your sites.

And know this my friend- I hear people saying affiliates are lazy, which is never true cause the real super affiliates who make some serious dough, they aren't lazy. If they smell an opportunity, they try it out. Build a page just for affiliates and tell them what their benefits would be if they choose to work with you. How you'd welcome their suggestions (EGO is a big thing with them, and its not pseudo ego, its a by product of self respect that comes from success) and try to implement it.

They need to know

1. you want them to make maximum aomunt of money and
2. You are willing to work with them to make this possible.

-Lakshay

P.S. No launches are necessary when you are driving frsh traffic- so find affiliates who are really capable of driving real fresh traffic and profit with that. Not as easy as it sounds, especially when it comes to 1000 or 10,000 visitors per day. If they do not have fresh supply of paid traffic, they're stale. Their lists grow only becuase of launches. Not a bad thing, but not the people whom you want to go after either.

P.P.S. Better to have 10 affiliates making 1 sale each, every day than, say, one affiliate doing 100 sales in a day and being gone thereafter.