Affiliate marketers often put way too much emphasis on affiliate products that pay the highest commissions and never give a second thought to some of the strategies that can really impact your affiliate marketing sales.
Of course finding a great affiliate product or service is where it all starts but one of the things that clues me in on how successful my affiliate sales are going to be is the interest and interaction I receive from the product’s affiliate manager.
Your affiliate manager is your most important resource for helping you promote successfully and increase sales, first of all they know the product and its creator intimately, secondly they know how their most successful affiliates became so successful and they are willing to share that information with you.
Before you can promote anything you first must have confidence in the product, I think that begins with using the product, liking it and believing that the price point is a fair one, don't forget, that's just as important as the product.
Once you've decided that you have a product that you can promote with confidence and will be of interest and benefit to your audience, set the wheels in motion for getting to know your affiliate manager.
Start by sending an email to the affiliate manager and introduce yourself. Ask questions about the product, how many affiliates and customers they have and ask them what suggestions they might have for helping your promotion efforts.
Sitebuildit for example, which is one of my favorite products and affiliate programs, created a special promotional banner with my picture, now that's great affiliate support. That tells you that they have great people behind the product and that they value their affiliates.
Developing a working relationship with your affiliate manager will open a lot of doors. Just by contacting themthey will see that you are motivated and driven to succeed, that's something that motivates them. After all they want nothing more than to see you succeed, the better you do the better they do.
Always start with writing product reviews that are your own. I've never been a fan of canned product reviews; I think they give you away as a phony. If you think about it, someone researching a product that sees your product review as exactly the same as the product review they just read a few websites back, your credibility will be tarnished and they'll move on.
Writing a product review that is personal, candid and well thought out will set you apart from the 'lazy' affiliates who put less effort and interest in their promotions. You might also try sending your review to the affiliate manager asking them to take a look at it and provide comments and suggestions. This is an excellent way to help you make sure you touch on the most important points of the product but you'll get feedback that will be from the professionals.
In Summary… don’t simply look at the amount of money you will earn with an affiliate product or service, yes the money's important but how well the product performs, the quality of its content and the support you receive from the affiliate managers are the things that can literally triple your affiliate marketing sales.
4 responses so far ↓
Good advice on affiliate marketing. I too use SBI! and sell it on one of my online businesses. You do have to take the time to comb through all the drek, but there is usually a diamond in the rough if you look long enough. One of our affiliates makes 30% of our sales so it is legit if you know what you are doing.
This post is right-on. I would be interested to see the statistics of how many people actually have used the products they are trying to sell–I bet it’s pretty low.
As you said, that makes their reviews often seem very phony because they’ve never even used it! Did you triple your success?
I love your blog, just bookmarked it!
Regards, Evelina
Yes I have, and for some products I’ve done even better than that. There’s an enthusiasm or quality you acquire when you’ve used something. That’s not to say the people don’t promote things they don’t use, they do and I think that’s ok to an extent, but if you’re going to do that, I think it takes more research on the promoter’s part, you must have absolute confidence in creator and understand enough about the product or service and its quality that you can confidently promote it.