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Advice from successful affiliates wanted

by Eric Neyer
12 replies
Hi Warriors,

I just started an effort to build an affiliate network to promote a new product that I'm marketing.

I'm wondering what the best practices are for providing affiliates with marketing support. On ClickBank we offer banner type ads / images (on ClickBank), a custom brand-able lead magnet, and that's about it.

I am considering creating an email or series of emails for affiliates to use, but I don't know if most profitable affiliates prefer to use their own copy...or would it improve my affiliate recruitment to write some email content for them? I really have no idea what most affiliates do in terms of building their own sales/marketing funnels, if most of them sell to their own lists, etc.

My impression is that only a small percentage of affiliates actually make most of the affiliate money, so ideally I'd like to hear from people that make at least a few hundred dollars a month by selling other people's products.

Appreciate any insight offered, thank you!

Eric
#advice #affiliates #successful #wanted
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  • Profile picture of the author superwebscripts
    It's great to provide marketing materials. Providing email templates that have seasonal copy, that are responsive and work in mail clients like outlook, along with providing suggested subject lines saves me time and money. Mailers have a ton of crap to deal with just cleaning and making sure their data is compliant, domains & IP's aren't blacklisted, etc. I personally don't want to build any email creatives.

    Just remember as the publisher you can set the rules to some degree on what you will allow your traffic providers to do. I say to some degree because your traffic providers still need to be compliant with all laws and regulations. Having marketing materials shows your commitment to to try different creatives as well and you are just some hit and run site. What I may do is tweak email copy to make it flow with my traffic source but you can ask folks to just provide you with an email proof you approve of before they do a drop.

    Hope that helps. Good luck.
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Neyer
      Thank you. I interpret your reply to mean that you do most sales promotion through email? Where do you find offers to promote, or how do product owners find you and invite you to promote? I know most of the major platforms so you don't have to list them, but I'm seeking info from real people about their experience. ClickBank, for example, doesn't seem to provide much support or functionality for vendor / affiliate communication. They've allowed me to send a brief message to 10 potential partners based on some algorithm.
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  • Profile picture of the author pheonix44
    My impression is that only a small percentage of affiliates actually make most of the affiliate money
    That's because they spend a lot of money in order to generate sales. I'm sure some can make a lot without using paid traffic mediums, but most of the top affiliates I've seen spend lots of money strategically in order to dominate. Even using free methods becomes a form of paid method, because they heavily outsource all the work required in order to get the benefit of free traffic. More money equals the ability to scale in either one of these areas. I can either spend more money on the paid advertising that works or I can hire more people to use their time to use free traffic to my benefit.
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  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    You need to fully test your own product and have all aspects dialed in and be able to show that it's a high converting offer and have the stats to back it up?

    What good is an email series if it's not tested / proven to convert.

    I'm what is considered a super affiliate. I have what I have always termed opportunity costs. During any given day/week I can only promote a certain number of offers. So I'm obviously going to promote those that have proven to produce the greatest income....provide me with the best opportunity to make the most amount of money.

    I get contacted all the time by those wanting me to promote their offers. If they can't convince me that it is worth testing (worth risking my opportunity cost) then I tell them I will run a test on CPM. That way I am guaranteed a return. Of course, this is rarely acceptable, as they want me to bear all the risks of testing their unproven offer. Which shows the lack of confidence in their own offer.

    Something to think about.
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    How to Build LARGE EMAIL LISTS on a Budget and MONETIZE Like a PRO
    20+ Years Exp . . . . . . . . . . . . Email - CPA - PPL
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Neyer
      Thanks, I do agree with your perspective on opportunity cost and not wasting time with poor products or funnel materials. On the other hand, it seems difficult for me to create a successful, tested email sequence for affiliates without having any affiliates trying to promote...but if I was as affiliate I wouldn't be "testing" emails for a product owner either.

      I think part of what I want to know from super affiliates is how much of their marketing materials do they create themselves and how much do they rely on vendor/product owner? Ideally I would create a turnkey, one-size-fits-all marketing package that would just allow affiliates to plug in their list and start making money...but if I could easily accomplish that I wouldn't need affiliates, haha!

      Diabl0, is there an example of a real product that you can share that you would say is a high-converting model? And do you market mostly or solely via email?
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric Neyer
    After reading some of these responses I feel like I should concentrate on writing emails for potential partners. Phoenix44 mentioned paid traffic, but I have had some trouble running ads due to the nature of my product...it's not a get-rich-quick scheme or anything like that, it's a straightforward video course presented by a well-respected technology writer.

    Is there a consensus among successful affiliates that email is dominant in terms of ROI? Do you use paid ads, social media and ?? more to build lists than to drive traffic to sales pages?
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Hunsons
    I love PayPal affiliate program.
    They have a great strategy which is helpful to learn as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author DIABL0
    I promote all offers 100% via email.

    90%+ of the offers that I promote are PPL (pay per lead) offers. I promote a very small number of actual products and I promote zero MMO offers.

    For the most part, I create a custom creative that I use to promote the offer with. It is, however, based on the materials provided by the advertiser. That way I'm not using the same thing as everyone else.

    Anyone that is a successful affiliate has probably become one by building an email list. That way they are able to promote offers at very low cost.
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    How to Build LARGE EMAIL LISTS on a Budget and MONETIZE Like a PRO
    20+ Years Exp . . . . . . . . . . . . Email - CPA - PPL
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Neyer
      Thanks for sharing your real techniques, I am learning a lot. My guess was that top affiliate earners probably are doing their own thing because that's the only way to stand out amongst the shoddy content and identical offers. Our product could conceivably be used to help MMO, but that's now how I focus the pitch because I find that approach spammy and dishonest.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Bridgen
    To be honest I would never use your copy emails. I want emails that are mine in my language. My ways YES. I take the emails to get a idea on the product. but never use Them
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    • Profile picture of the author Eric Neyer
      That's definitely how I would operate as an affiliate, since I would likely know my list or target audience better than the vendor. And many product creators aren't very good at copy writing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mihai1555
    you have to be unique, offer bonus, create video reviews but showing your face is better, you get better conversions when you are actually you, dont think about just promoting something, believe you are helping people in exchange of money
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    How To Launch Your Product Without Doing Nothing!..
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