is this the key to affiliate success

27 replies
After spending countless hours reading up different information on making money online and I have came to the conclusion that many people go about it differently in some cases but the basis is generally the same.

I see so many people saying to pick a product or offers first then go out and promote concentrate on making money.

I would disagree with this and say that your mindset should be "how can I help people".

Firstly by finding a specific group of people you can find out what their problem is and then meet that demand if there is an offer to promote or by creating your own.

So with that in mind let's say I find a specific group of people that are interested in getting traffic from Facebook, I find out from research that a common problem is how to get cheaper clicks.

For a start I would think that I could come up with a little strategy that would help with this in some way and then put it together in a video tutorial or pdf in exchange for an email I.e. optin

once you have them subscribed you can then promote a product as an affiliate saying for example if you liked the video or report then you might like to check out an in depth course and then link to your affiliate product.

The next step of course would be offering further help to your new subscribers by asking them what else do they need help with and using this information to either produce more free content or your own products.

Some will buy your products and some won't I guess that's just the way.

So overall the key would be 3 pages.

Your optin page with a tip or stratrgy on choosen topic/problem
your Thank you page with an indepth course link affiliate product
your download page with free pdf or video

then your autoresponder emails offering more help, asking questions, surveys etc

at the end of it all you can package up your most frequent questions into your own indepth course and replace your affiliate offer with your own.

Finally building your freebie list and buyers list and moving on to the next stage of getting affiliates to promote your own course.

This is generally the bare bones of the project but how I think put together it all makes sense.
#affiliate #key #success
  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    I would disagree with this and say that your mindset should be "how can I help people".
    Definitely work out how you can provide value to the end user and they will bit your hand off to buy whatever you offer.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
      Originally Posted by Stuart Walker View Post

      Definitely work out how you can provide value to the end user and they will bit your hand off to buy whatever you offer.
      Yeah I agree, but as I say most people start with an affiliate program and think to themselves right how do I promote this.

      Sure you could still probably do it this way but from there I would work backwords, finding people that want that product and figuring out how I could lead them to it.

      I think it would be easier and best to go about it the other way though that I have outlined in my first post
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    • Profile picture of the author webmarke
      Originally Posted by Stuart Walker View Post

      Definitely work out how you can provide value to the end user and they will bit your hand off to buy whatever you offer.
      I totally agree. I see alot of people who want to make money online taking shortcuts.

      These shortcuts are the reason 95% of online marketers fail.

      Too many people try and buy traffic and send it straight to a sales page. That fails 99% of the time.

      Give people value for free and they will listen (trust) you when you promote a product that can help them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Highway55
    You're trying to validate what you've learned so far? I get that...

    Making money is funny sometimes. You begin with all these thoughts about what you "want" to do. But many of those thoughts are built around false assumptions because you don't have the practical knowledge you need to execute those "wants" the way you envisioned... Later on, you realize what you can do - which is sometimes a lot different than what you originally considered - and you build around that (and hopefully create long term wealth).
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  • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
    Yes, I remember reading a quote somewhere cant remember exactly who said it but it was something like,

    "Give people what they want and you will get what you want"

    Basic quote but pretty much sums it up.

    1. Give people what they want (solution to their problem)
    2. Get what you want (satisfaction for helping and money to grow business and help others)
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    I would disagree with this and say that your mindset should be "how can I help people".
    I agree.

    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    Firstly by finding a specific group of people you can find out what their problem is and then meet that demand if there is an offer to promote or by creating your own.
    I don't really agree with this part.

    At least, I can see that it's true for some people, some of the time, and that it's an example of something that might work. But it seems to me to be putting the emphasis on identifying "problem-solving niches", and that makes it not a good example at all.

    I don't think "problem-solving niches", overall, are nearly as good as "enthusiasts' niches". I know all those awful "affiliate marketing guidebooks" tell you to "find something that solves people's problems and sell it to them". They haven't quite thought it through. So, let's think it through ...

    When you're an affiliate marketer, once you've built your subscriber-list, established your credibility, formed your subscriber-relationships, and all the other basic, essential things you need to do to make affiliate marketing worthwhile, you're then going to promote your first product to each subscriber, according to the number of days for which s/he's been a subscriber and autoresponder emails s/he's already received from you (assuming that you have the sense to wait until then, and not lose most of the potential customers by promoting too early, as many people do!). A proportion of them will buy it.

    At this stage, "in problem-solving niches", looking at it in very simple terms only, one of two things happens.

    Either they like it, they think it's great and it solves their problem (the result is that you can't sell them anything else because they don't need to buy anything else, so you've just lost most of your potential future income) ...

    Or they don't like it, they don't think it's great and it doesn't really solve their problem, (the result is that you can't sell them anything else because you recommended a bad product, from their perspective, and blew your credibility, and they don't trust you any more).

    Not a great outcome for you, either way.

    In "enthusiasts' niches", people gradually buy more and more and more, to feed their enthusiasm, so you don't have that problem to anything like the same extent. (Having bought expensive things from this spring/summer Louboutin collection won't stop me from enthusiastically buying more expensive things from their 2014/5 winter collection.)

    Be aware that for successful affiliate marketers, most of the long-term money comes from making repeated sales to the same captive audience (your subscribers - that's why listbuilding is so important!). That's why "enthusiasts' niches" are better than "problem-solving niches", and we're perhaps better off looking at those, rather than at how to solve others' problems.

    TL;DR version - once you solve someone's problem, they may not still be a customer at all; and once you fail to solve it, they may not be your customer.

    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    So with that in mind let's say I find a specific group of people that are interested in getting traffic from Facebook, I find out from research that a common problem is how to get cheaper clicks.
    Well, if you're going to look at IM-related niches, you're possibly stacking the deck so firmly against yourself that it becomes less significant, and less worthwhile even discussing the details, perhaps.

    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    This is generally the bare bones of the project but how I think put together it all makes sense.
    Starting off in IM-related and/or MMO-related niches is the single commonet mistake that aspiring marketers make, and the single commonest cause of the failure-rate in internet marketing being so high.

    You're ten times as likely to make money in the "skating videos niche" or the "make your own wine at home" niche or the "how to decorate kids' bedroom ceilings" niche as you are in any IM-related and/or MMO-related niches, in my opinion.

    And there are reasons for that.

    Many Warriors make the classic mistake of starting off in IM/MMO niches, and a result, some of them believe that it's normal to struggle, to have terribly low open-rates and click-through rates for their emails, and to make very few sales at all even from comparatively large numbers of subscribers.

    Some related thoughts are here: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8561081

    And here ...
    Niche Selection Roadblock
    Weight Loss Market: Still Profitable ?
    Most Lucrative niche in Internet Marketing?
    Guess who is going to have the most profitable business?


    .
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    • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post


      Starting off in IM-related and/or MMO-related niches is the single commonet mistake that aspiring marketers make, and the single commonest cause of the failure-rate in internet marketing being so high.

      You're ten times as likely to make money in the "skating videos niche" or the "make your own wine at home" niche or the "how to decorate kids' bedroom ceilings" niche as you are in any IM-related and/or MMO-related niches, in my opinion.
      I agree with what you are saying, I didn't want to give the wrong impression so I was just using the Facebook campaign as an example.
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    • Profile picture of the author Highway55
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      I don't think "problem-solving niches", overall, are nearly as good as "enthusiasts' niches".

      At this stage, "in problem-solving niches", looking at it in very simple terms only, one of two things happens.

      In "enthusiasts' niches", people gradually buy more and more and more, to feed their enthusiasm, so you don't have that problem to anything like the same extent. (Having bought expensive things from this spring/summer Louboutin collection won't stop me from enthusiastically buying more expensive things from their 2014/5 winter collection.)

      You're ten times as likely to make money in the "skating videos niche" or the "make your own wine at home" niche or the "how to decorate kids' bedroom ceilings" niche as you are in any IM-related and/or MMO-related niches, in my opinion.
      I'd never considered THIS ^^^ ... you learn something new and powerful everyday.

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Many Warriors make the classic mistake of starting off in IM/MMO niches, and a result, some of them believe that it's normal to struggle, to have terribly low open-rates and click-through rates for their emails, and to make very few sales at all even from comparatively large numbers of subscribers.
      I think the above statement can be said of anyone starting in ANY market - weight loss, forex, golf - not just IM.

      I always go back to the same thing. You need qualified, targeted traffic at a reasonable price. If you can generate that, you can find an offer that works and profit.

      Driving traffic is the single most important aspect of an IM business in my opinion. Even above giving value. A person can learn to give value "after" he/she learns how to drive traffic.

      Best part: after a person learns how to drive traffic, that person has some knowledge to provide value with, instead of posting in the forum with posts that say nothing.
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  • Profile picture of the author nysoh
    Interesting discussion...
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  • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
    The original post is just basically an overall view of how I see it but it would then be broken down into different smaller components.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    I realise now that I made a long-winded and rambling post, above, and didn't expressly answer your question of whether it's "the key to affiliate success".

    Anyway, I don't really think it's the key to affiliate success. I think it might be one possible path to affiliate success, but certainly not a very characteristic one, and almost certainly not the easiest or most probable one for most people.

    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    I see so many people saying to pick a product or offers first then go out and promote concentrate on making money.
    I think, overall, I'm more or less inclined to do it this way, myself.

    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    I would disagree with this and say that your mindset should be "how can I help people".
    I agree entirely with that being a good mindset which increases one's chances of success, but I don't think it necessarily excludes what you're contrasting it with. At all. I think they have different frames of reference: one (asking yourself how you can help people) is what I'd call "background state of mind/intention", while the other (looking for the products/offers first) relates more to the order in which one takes actions. In most of my best niches, as an affiliate, I've actually selected the niche itself in accordance with the available products for me to promote. So the products/offers have more or less been my starting-point, really. I think that's the best way to try to help people: there'd be no point in trying to help them by selling bad products, products I don't know how to sell or products they're probably not going to want even if they do need them?

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author wickid
    I agree that what you wrote is one avenue of affiliate success. I look at some of the free webinars being offered by some of the big named guys out their. They give out great information for free in hopes that you will then signup for their coaching platform. They hint at the gems after giving away some really good information and I'm sure they are able to convert pretty well by giving people quality information for free.

    Is it the key to all affiliate success...no. If you know how to build a list and write good copy you can easily succeed by promoting products just to various lists. Creating and ranking review sites is also another way many affiliates find success. If you know how to target with PPC networks you don't need to give people anything...just a great landing page and you can pretty much start counting your money.
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    • Profile picture of the author Joseph Villanueva
      The key is doing both promotion of the affiliate through list building as a one time offer redirect and also branding your name or business as an authority by providing value and solution to people's problems while "recommending" the affiliate product to help them succeed.

      It is on the person's level of work ethics, drive and money to invest which path they can take and start their business with.

      There are many ways to promote a product and many ways traffic comes from but the most important key to affiliate success is yourself
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      • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
        Originally Posted by Joseph Villanueva View Post


        There are many ways to promote a product and many ways traffic comes from but the most important key to affiliate success is yourself
        love it great point
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

    I see so many people saying to pick a product or offers first then go out and promote concentrate on making money.

    I would disagree with this and say that your mindset should be "how can I help people".
    That's a contradiction, because it's very easy to help people out by promoting products. You just have to be able to show them how they can benefit from it in their business and they'll love you for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
      Originally Posted by JensSteyaert View Post

      That's a contradiction, because it's very easy to help people out by promoting products. You just have to be able to show them how they can benefit from it in their business and they'll love you for it.
      This is also true, I think what I was trying to get it was that thinking long term the idea of getting a list built up would be beneficial to providing more help, asking questions to your list and finding out directly what they are looking for in order to provide free information or paid products.
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  • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
    Yes another way to succeed with affiliate programs is to ride the launch wave, setting up sites to promote one product and rank on buyers keywords like;

    1- product name review
    2- product name bonus
    3- product name discount
    4- product name scam

    just a few that I can think of from top of my head.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

      Yes another way to succeed with affiliate programs is to ride the launch wave
      So I hear. (Again, definitely not one for me. I promise all my visitors and subscribers, in all my niches, that I'll never promote anything new to them, because I want them to share my confidence that everything I recommend is well tried and tested and proven and certain. Customers love this, and say so. It earns me extra credibility-points and trust, and those are where the money is, in affiliate marketing. ).

      Originally Posted by ADavidson View Post

      setting up sites to promote one product and rank on buyers keywords
      7-8 years ago, perhaps. Not so much now, I think? People were still talking about that (just about) when I started online in 2008, but I think it already wasn't typically working too well, even then ... http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8659398
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      • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
        Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

        7-8 years ago, perhaps. Not so much now, I think? http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8659398
        Well I don't know 100% myself as I haven't focused on it myself but tried it before and it worked, didn't bring hoards of commissions but a few none the less, as for it still working now I'm not sure, it would be worth checking it out again just for testing purposes, I do still see lots of these sites come product launch days.
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  • Profile picture of the author tmauto
    From my own experience, certainly adding value helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author huester
    Add value and test buddy.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steve B
      After many years online and a few successes and a few failures, my ultra condensed advice is this . . .

      Sell into demand. Targeted prospects receiving demand-targeted offers.

      It's really that simple.

      Lexy is right, of course, solving people's problems is not the only kind of demand out there.

      There is also demand for entertainment, demand for mental stimulation, demand for socialization, demand for escape from personal shortcomings or circumstances, demand for validation and acknowledgment, demand for group or community affiliation, and many, many more.

      When you fulfill one of these personal desires (demands), you are helping the individual with his/her expressed need or want. It's so simple.

      So many new marketers don't understand their role as seller of a product or service in response to an already existing demand.

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
    Yes I also agree there's other ways to than just solving problems, there could be ways of helping people out by creating things that will save them time or money too, such as software to automate things for example.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    Affiliate products or your own... you need to start with opt-in email marketing. This is just the simplest way to sell anything. Price is a prime factor too.
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    • Profile picture of the author IMToThePoint
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      Affiliate products or your own... you need to start with opt-in email marketing. This is just the simplest way to sell anything. Price is a prime factor too.
      This is the point I was trying to make, I think the key to getting lots of sales, commissions and the benefit of actually helping people can be made faster with the building of an email list.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trey Morgan
    Build trust with your targeted audience. Establish yourself as an authority in your niche and your job will be a lot easier.
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  • Profile picture of the author avago
    Get your customers on board with your affiliate program. I have a membership site and present the affiliate program at their login page. If the product /service has worked for them and they are that way inclined they can be motivated to tell others and earn income. Make sure you have a good affiliate tools/ resources pages.
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