7 Proven Ways to Increase Affiliate Sales

Jimmy D. Brown knocks it out of the park with this article titled How to Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Products. I'm reprinting it here as part of our talk on Affiliate Marketing in the ongoing series on ways to make money online.

You'll also want to check out Jimmy's Blog. Bookmark it, add it to your feed reader, subscribe by email - whatever your preference. It's good stuff!

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How to Make a Fortune Promoting Other People's Products
by Jimmy D. Brown of Affiliatenaire

There must be a reason why some affiliates succeed and some fail, a reason why some affiliates profit moderately and some affiliates profit substantially.

There must be a reason.

There is...

And that reason is this: "super" affiliates start, sustain and strengthen relationships with subscribers. It begins and ends with a list. Even a small one can be a powerful, profitable mechanism if you follow these 7 guidelines:

1. CAPTURE THE OPT-IN FIRST.

Instead of sending traffic directly to your affiliate link, send them to YOUR site where you offer some kind of list for them to join. (Hint: Mini-course works best) Once you have them on a list, they become an asset. If you send them directly to an affiliate page and they don't buy, they're gone forever.

On your list, you can follow-up with them indefinitely.

You can even redirect them to your affiliate link AFTER they join your list, effectively getting them where you wanted them to go in the first place.

If you need step-by-step help with this method (setting up "squeeze pages") see Mini-Site Profits by Michael Rasmussen. This is a FREE online video training series. See the entire outline at: Minisite Profits Video Summary

2. DIFFERENTIATE THE OFFER.

Instead of sending out the same, tired, lame advertisement that every other affiliate in the world sends out, write your own.

Trust me when I say that many people find it OFFENSIVE when they receive two dozens duplicate emails from two dozen list owners all promoting the exact same thing in the exact same way.

And even if they don't find it offensive, it's not as effective if you simply rinse and repeat what everyone else is doing.

Hint: Here's how you differentiate...

3. SPEAK FROM EXPERIENCE.

Nothing - nothing - nothing speaks louder than RESULTS. If you want to lose a few pounds, who do you turn to? Someone who is still struggling with their own weight or someone you've seen drop 35 pounds? Exactly.

The way you make your mailings / ads different is you speak from your own personal experience. This product or service that you are promoting as an affiliate, how has it been useful to you personally? What results have you personally achieved? When you used it, what happened?

Note: If you haven't personally used the product, then shame on you for trying to make a quick buck from it hocking it to others!

4. OFFER A COMPELLING INCENTIVE.

Another way to be different - and to dramatically increase your chances of getting a sale as an affiliate - is to offer some kind of compelling incentive if someone buys the offer through YOUR referral link. Whether it's a special report or access to an audio recording, personalized consultation or advertising, a private training call or existing products and services, this can be a highly effective method of converting fence-setters into paying customers.

In order for it to work well, it must be UNIQUE (I.E. You're the only one making the offer) and USEFUL (I.E. Something of great perceived value to the reader).

Note: Don't have anything to offer? Don't worry! There are many ways to easily obtain extra incentives: conduct an interview, hire a ghostwriter to create articles / reports for you, buy reprint rights to other products, assemble a bunch of free articles and other resources into a private access site, etc.

TIP: There’s a handy little tool to help you manage a bonus/incentive very easily if you’re promoting ClickBank products. It’s called CB List Automator and allows you to build a list of buyers and send bonuses out automatically!

5. LOOK FOR RESIDUAL OPPORTUNITIES.

Rather than exhaust your efforts on purchases that give you a one-time commission, why not make the most of your marketing by looking firstly for offers that pay out ONGOING monthly commissions for your referred sales?

There are many different residual income generating services such as membership sites (ranging from PT Cruisers to weight loss), stock photos and clipart, hosting, autoresponders, databases (from hiking trails to sermon outlines) online magazines and a variety of other subscription based opportunities that reward you with monthly recurring commissions.

While you definitely want a mix of types of affiliate programs to promote, your priority should be in identifying and promoting those services and programs that will pay you month after month, instead of only one time.

6. BUILD A SALES ARMY.

One of the biggest untapped sources of income in any list is that of "turning subscribers into partners". In other words, find those on your list who are interested in making money and provide them with training and materials to promote affiliate programs as well.

This has a two-fold advantage for YOU:

* First, if you find 2-tier affiliate programs, you can get your subscribers to join the program through your referral. Anytime they get a sale, you'll earn a commission as well. You effectively get free commissions from their effort.

* Secondly, you can use their efforts to build your own assets. For example: If you provide them with a 10-page report to give away to promote their affiliate link, you can include a page in the report promoting YOUR list! You effectively get free subscribers from their effort.

7. MONETIZE FOR MULTIPLE STREAMS.

As your own list continues to grow, you certainly want to diversify in your offerings. (Not to the point of bombarding your list with offers every day of course!)

* Promote other affiliate programs.
* Create your own products.
(Even short $10 reports will earn profit!)
* Establish joint ventures.
* Co-author products.
* Cross promote.
* Conduct surveys.

There are MANY ways to make money from you list and keep your list growing, growing, growing! Remember, it all comes down to: starting, sustaining and strengthening relationships with subscribers. And that is how you make a fortune as an affiliate promoting other people's products.

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Jimmy D. Brown is the author of Affiliatenaire, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!
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I hope you enjoyed the article as much as I did. It's chock full of proven ways to increase your affiliate sales. Now get to work on setting up or improving your affiliate campaigns! 😉

Best,

Also see: How to effectively pre-sell products as an affiliate