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Impossible Affiliate Success?

by gronstone
14 replies
I am trying to control myself and not rant about all the promises made for IM products. I have bought and really tried countless affiliate income products with little to no success. My big problem is in the numbers.

How can anyone sell an affiliate product and make money with less than a million visitors a month even with a really good pre-sell site? Allow me to throw out some numbers which illustrate my problem. Let's say I manage to get 1,000 free (don't even get me started about PPC) visitors a day. Let's be generous and say 10% of these visitors click through to the affiliate product's sales page. And let's say 2% (1% is more likely) buy the product, earning me a commission of let's say $25. Result: 1000x10%x2%x$25 = $1,500 per. mo. in my optimistic scenario. Hardly enough to quit your day job, huh? So, what am I missing with all the mega affiliate income promises for all the affiliate IM products.
#affiliate #affiliate income #affiliate success #impossible #success
  • Profile picture of the author patJ
    You're not missing that much. It's a numbers game. Most "mega affiliates" promise a lot because they can get away with it.

    However, my PPC campaigns usually have a CTR of 30-50% and 15-25% sign up for the offer. Sometimes higher, sometimes lower.
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    • Profile picture of the author gronstone
      Nice PPC results. No matter how hard I tried or whose PPC strategy I used, the best I could do is just over break even. The product owners made money. Google made money (and got paid well before I did) but not me.
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  • Profile picture of the author artwebster
    Might it not be that you are being shown that IM products aren't all they are cracked up to be?

    You might do better to look at a niche where real people need a real product to solve a real problem by real and effective action.

    Another thing, you might be making more sales than you think but internet marketers are dab hands at paying the full price to the producer while cutting out the affiliate by trunkating the affiliate url. I'm still trying to work out why they do this.
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    • Profile picture of the author 2ndAccount
      Originally Posted by artwebster View Post

      You might do better to look at a niche where real people need a real product to solve a real problem by real and effective action.
      listen to artwebster. i have invested $0 in IM products, schemes, secrets or anything else that promises me riches.

      instead i read these forums, looked for a niche (non IM), created my own product, marketed it myself and am doing pretty well from it.

      it may not work for everyone but the advice from my experiance would be: do something different from the crowd.
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      • Profile picture of the author DavidTheMavin
        Originally Posted by 2ndAccount View Post

        listen to artwebster. i have invested $0 in IM products, schemes, secrets or anything else that promises me riches.

        instead i read these forums, looked for a niche (non IM), created my own product, marketed it myself and am doing pretty well from it.

        it may not work for everyone but the advice from my experiance would be: do something different from the crowd.
        Sounds like a good strategy to me. That way you're also bettering yourself as you increase your knowledge as well as your own "brand image".
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      • Profile picture of the author gronstone
        Great advice. Oddly enough, that's what I am doing and am very optimistic. I just get all these IM offerings and was just wanting input from others (Non "Guru") trying to make money through the internet. Thanks.
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    • Profile picture of the author gronstone
      New to me. Maybe that was one factor in me not making money. Probably had some customers who bought through their account also. So many hurdles. So little time. Nobody has posted anything so far to make me feel my belief that you can't make (net, not gross income like on all the PPC product income videos) serious money selling other people's products. You Must have your own product or service. Also, looks like you need to promise the world for e-books.
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  • Profile picture of the author 2PercentPlan
    Trunkating the affiliate url? Thats a nice way of saying they steal your commissions?

    Dana
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesEcho1
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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  • Profile picture of the author TLTheLiberator
    If that's your situation then you're on the right track.

    You're making money right?

    You may have to have 5 or 6 successful promotions going in order to reach the 5 figure per month mark but it can be done.

    On the other hand...

    If your landing pages only converting at 10% CTR they suck and something should be done about it.

    What presell tactic are you using?

    - Headline & Bullet Points?

    - Article?

    - Review?

    - Product Comparison?

    - Personal Story?

    At a 10% CTR you should try something else.

    Anything less than 75% is not good.

    If you're other numbers remain the same , all you have to do is increase that landing page CTR and you're in the money.

    But, it seems like...

    Your landing page is scaring people away instead of warming them up and inducing them to click on through to the sales page.

    1,000 visitors per day equals 30,000 per month and even if you averaged only 10 cents per visitor that would be $3,000 per month from that landing page.

    - Are your building yours lists?
    - Do you have any exit software on the page?
    - Do you have any tell-a-friend on the page?

    You should not have a problem making very decent money with 30k targeted visitors per month in most any niche or for any product.

    Hope This Helps!!

    TL
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  • Profile picture of the author RGallowitz
    Do yourself a favor. Learn to market CPA offers. Your income will more than triple.
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  • Profile picture of the author callmestrip
    I am trying to learn more about marketing CPA's. Best network?

    I am giving the site flipping strategy a go. I love the thought of big paydays.
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  • Profile picture of the author X
    I convert at between 2-5% on ALL clicks
    so that's probably where your problem is.

    If you're only getting 10% of people coming
    to your site to visit the merchant then
    you're either not targeting the right traffic,
    or doing an ineffective job of getting them
    to take the next step.

    No - based on your numbers you're not
    going to be successful but your numbers
    aren't typical for a good affiliate marketer.

    On 1000 clicks, I'd get between 200-350
    optins and 20-50 sales (on a product that
    converts).

    By building the list, I'm OK with spending
    .50 per click and getting 20 sales with a
    $25 commission - I'm not *just* breaking
    even - I'm building a targeted list for free
    and that's means I will come out ahead
    month after month after month at no
    additional cost.

    X

    PS - Don't confuse my post with me saying
    some of these guys aren't full of crap.
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  • Profile picture of the author TLTheLiberator
    It also helps when your prospects are not in the business themselves.

    PPC and promoting "how to make money" products is normally not very responsive.

    Many people are your competitors clicking on your ads just being curious and/or trying to waste your clicks to drive you out of the market.

    As far as I'm concerned, everything is 10x easier if you sell to people who are not trying to sell something themselves.

    TL
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    "It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled. -- Mark Twain

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  • Profile picture of the author chillpill
    Originally Posted by gronstone View Post

    I am trying to control myself and not rant about all the promises made for IM products. I have bought and really tried countless affiliate income products with little to no success. My big problem is in the numbers.
    It's enough to make your head spin, and spin, and spin and spin and ...

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