Are you making $25k a month?
If not, let me help you out with this affiliate marketing guide.
This guide will help you to set up your online business by
- finding your perfect niche,
- finding which products to sell,
- setting up landing page,
- get quality traffic, and
- retargeting them back.
With that said...
Here are 7 Affiliate Marketing steps to start your journey.
Step 1: Hot Niche Research
The
easiest way to do hot niche research is to answer 5 basic questions:
1. Who,
2. What,
3. Where,
4. How, and
5. Why?
1. Who is my audience?
It’s
important to know your audience...
You
want to know who they are, how large
they are, and what they need.
Often a business
makes the mistake of promoting a product rather than promoting to an
audience.
The
problem with this thinking is that if
the product becomes obsolete, then so
has your market.
However,
if you know your audience, you know what they need, and you know how to help
provide that need, then you will have longevity in the niche.
1. What is my angle?
In a profitable niche, there will be a number of affiliates.In fact, avoid becoming involved in a niche that has few or no PPC advertisers or affiliate programs as well as products or services offered by only one merchant.
This means that you will need to set yourself apart from the competition.
●
Is there content lacking that you can provide?
●
Are there features missing?
●
What can you do better than the competition?
●
Is there a demographic being missed?
●
Are there unexplored avenues?
●
What is your voice?
Make
sure there is a strong point of difference
(POD) between you and the competition.
2. Where is the traffic?
Look
for search terms that generate traffic in your niche.
You
can use the following to help you search for these terms:
●
SEMRush
Each
of the above tools will help you find traffic-rich terms.
In
addition, you need to look at the trends for your niche. Is interest in your
niche and its competitors going up or down?
If
interest is declining, it is not a
good bet.
3. How can I break through this niche?
Thinking
about how you are going to break through this niche is extremely
important.
You
must analyse what affiliate marketing tricks are usually used to
market
this niche over the web.
●
What info channels are used to deliver the content to buyers?
●
Is it Video, Training Guide, Audio, or all of them at the same time?
●
What traffic channels bring you the most benefits? Is it PPC, SEO,
Solo Ads, Social Media, PPV?
4. Why should I choose this niche?
Once
you’ve answered all the above questions, the answer to this question
should
be easy.
You
choose the niche because you feel strongly that you can succeed there given all
of the available information.
You
must feel trust this is going to work
really. If it has worked for others it
should definitely
work for you too.
Before
we leave this step, there are 3
marketplaces that you should get familiar with.
These
areas will give you a lot more information about your niche.
1.
Amazon Bestsellers - It
is a great place to go to find physical products that will help you narrow down
your niche research.
This
site sells millions of products, so that means you will find millions of hot
topics as well.
2.
The ClickBank Marketplace is a great place
to find digital products and do your niche research as well.
An
array of categories can be found on the left side of the page. You can have the
awesome ability to sort all products by several factors.
They have organized a place dedicated to show you products organized by popular terms.
They
will even show you a really nice list or
popular searches on every niche you are searching on.
Just
see it for yourself, it’s amazing!
Step 2: Main Affiliate Product Research
So,
you’ve found your niche…
Good
job!
The
next step involves finding your primary product.
Here
are six important things to consider when choosing your product(s):
1. High Converting Sales Page
I
can’t tell you all the components of a high converting sales page.
Because
there are so many different sales pages over the web and many of them are high converting at the same time. It
also depends on the niche.
That’s
why it's important for you to turn to hot seller products...
And
no matter what kind of sales page they have, you just need to care they are high converting.
2. Price
Price
matters, but it isn’t necessarily the determining factor of quality or potential success.
In
other words, be careful not to let the
price define the product.
A
lower priced product can still be helpful for your customer while earning
commissions…
But
anyway, if high priced products are high converting, then you should take advantage of that.
Expensive
products don’t exist…
High
priced products doesn’t mean that the product is expensive because there is an
audience for every kind of product.
And
that audience already knows that product is high priced.
3. Commission
There
are a variety of options for earning higher commissions…
And
much of this is based on the product.
You
can earn up to 100% commissions on
some products on sites like JVzoo.com, and some businesses also pay for lead generation and referrals.
Same as price, here is where
you decide how much money you want to make...
Amazon
affiliate program offers a really low commission rate but getting 10% from a $3,000 product, for example, a laptop
(which sells well on Amazon) is not that bad.
Don’t
you think? Anyways…
4. Content
Make
sure that the content of the product is of high
quality.
The
products you promote will tell that kind of marketer you are...
The
smartest thing you should do as a marketer is buy the product yourself and make
sure it is of high quality.
Promote real
information that really works.
You
have to make sure the buyer won’t get disappointed once he hits the
payment
button and buy the product.
Remember
this and make customers for life!
5. Incentives and Rewards
A
business often runs incentive programs for their affiliates in order to
increase its sales.
An
example may be, “Double your sales this month and get 5% extra
commission”.
A
business can offer a long term incentive and a short term incentive, and both
will
increase your sales.
a)
Long term
incentives
are for a long time period like months or even a year, andb) Short term incentives are for a short time period like a month, week or day.
6. Testimonials
Testimonials
are a very important part of a sale page.
Testimonials
are proof that the product actually works and people are benefited by using
that product.
That’s
another way to tell that the product is
of high quality, without the need of buying it.
As
mentioned before, there are several sites that make your product search
easier.
As
an example, let’s say that I have decided to be an affiliate in the Parenting
niche.
then
I’d click on the Baby category, along with Potty Training. I’d end up on the page below:
Something
absolutely great about Amazon is that they make it very easy for
people
to leave their review about the product.
Right
here you can see some awesome information about the product.
This
will absolutely tell you how great the product is…
You
can even use these reviews as a guide to write a review about the product.
You
can do that in this case because I don’t think it would be a good idea to buy a
medicine or something alike to test if it works, if you don’t have a need for
it.
You
can do something similar with ClickBank by going to their marketplace.
This
is how the parenting and family section looks like:
Something
absolutely great about ClickBank is that you are able to sort the
products
by different factors.
The
way you can see a product is a hot seller is with the value called “Gravity”.
This
is what ClickBank says about Gravity:
Grav: Short for GRAVITY™ performance statistic, this number represents a
unique
calculation by ClickBank that takes into account the number of
different
affiliates who earned a commission by promoting this product over
the past 12
weeks. Since more recent transactions are given a higher value,
this number can
give you an idea of what products are “hot” at the
moment, in terms
of being promoted by many affiliates and making a good
number of sales.
However, high gravity can also indicate that there will be a
lot of
competition in promoting this product.
Grav: 140 means 140 different affiliates have earned a commission by promoting this product over the past 12 weeks.
That
number is not telling how many sales where generated but I’m really sure it was
not just 1 sale per affiliate.
There are 2
more affiliate networks I would like to mention:
I’m
sure you have heard about them before but these places are mostly for products
related to the Internet Marketing Niche, which
is one of the hottest and most profitable niches over the web…
Jvzoo.com is an instant
commission sellers’ platform that features a variety of
products
as well.
JVzoo
sponsors products not related to internet marketing as well, but
I never have seen anyone of them listed a bestseller JVzoo product.
Following
the same procedure, you can visit their products page to search for a product that fits your niche.
In
my hypothetical search for parenting products, I clicked on
Parenting/Children/Family:
The
only way you can check on detailed stats about a product things
like sales, conversion rates, EPC, commission percentages, and refund rates is
by been approved as an affiliate of the product which is by invitation.
There
are 2 ways to get that invitation:
The
first one is by going to the Sales Page of the product and going down to the
button of the page.
Most
of the time they will have an affiliates section for you as an affiliate to get
your invitation.
The Second one is for
products that don’t publicly show this page, and you just can contact the owner of
the product by email
They
have to have a way of contact in their sales page, support is a common page on
a sales page.
There
is a way to find out what are the best seller products on JVZoo.com, and
that
is in the Top Sellers and the Featured Section Pages.
Here
you can see that the products listed there as top sellers are often products
related to Internet Marketing.
You
can promote non Internet Marketing niches from JVzoo but the hottest topics on
JVzoo.com are the Internet Marketing related ones.
Warrior Plus gives you even
more options when it comes to staying up to date on new products and
promotions.
Not
only you get to take a look at new products and launches, you can also have
alerts sent to you.
And
they have a special place and programs for affiliate marketers as well.
They
are in some degree very similar to JVzoo.com.
As
an affiliate, it is important to know when new products within your niche are
about to be launched.
When
you know about a new product in advance, you can begin promoting that product,
take advantage of presales, and get
a jump on your competitors.
There
are several sites that help you to stay informed regarding new or
upgraded
product launches.
The
first one I want to talk about is MunchEye.
Merchants
can set up a launch on MunchEye for free, and
affiliates can go there, choose the category of their niche, and
stay up to date on new products that are about to be launched as well as keep an eye on their competitors.
It
can give you an edge when it comes to promotions, special incentives, and
increase traffic and actions on your page.
JV Notify Pro is also a great
site for the affiliate who wants to stay informed and gain an edge in
marketing.
In
addition to information about products and launches, assistance for vendors and
merchants, and programs for affiliates, JV Notify has excellent forums as well.
Step 3: Additional Affiliate Product Research
Okay, okay… I know your next question…
Why are two steps almost identical?
Well, the answer is: because this is what will make you money the most!
You already have find out what is the main product you would like to promote.
But I’m really sure you have notice there are so many great products you would love to promote, and let me tell you, you can promote all of them as well, that’s what this step is all about.
The Main Affiliate Product is the core product you will start promoting and you will dedicate the most of your advertising efforts.
Then after promoting that product you will also be able to advertise other
related products as well to the same audience but 100% free.
How?
Let me show you how:
1. All of your traffic will be sent to your Squeeze Page (next step) which will collect the contact information of your visitors that are highly interested in your topic.
2. Besides sending your free subscribers straight to your Main Affiliate Product- they will start receiving your emails talking and preselling the main product you will be promoting. You will prepare several emails to promote that product to your list of subscribers.
3. And then you will also start promoting some directly related offers
that will come after the emails promoting the Main Affiliate Product.
This will happen for days, weeks, months and years to come. And all of
this 100% automatically.
That my friend is what I call Making Money on Autopilot and you will know exactly how to do that in the coming steps.
Okay. Now…
I’m really sure you already know how to search for some high converting products to promote.
A very important piece of advice to consider is that the topic doesn’t have to be exactly about the same. You could cover other area of your niche without adverting something 100% related to your main offer.
For
example, I will be promoting a Potty Training Product from ClickBank as
my main affiliate product to promote. I think it won’t be necessary to
promote another Potty Training Product again.
That
is something that might confuse your subscribers and you will end up
been a wild advertiser instead of a big helper to your subscribers,
looking to really satisfy the needs of our subscribers.
A product that I can promote inside this niche might be something related to help solve the principal need, for example, a potty chair, or a potty training dipper, or something alike.
Amazon will give you a great list of ideas all centered in the same topic:
Something else I can promote to this same audience are other products related to parenting and families:
Here at ClickBank you will find a great deal of High Converting Products related to the Parenting & Family niche.
Step 4: Squeeze Page Set Up
Great!
Now
is time to talk about the Landing Page where you will be sending all
the traffic to, so you may build your list and start collecting your
Future Success.
Remember, the bigger your list, the greater your income will become.
A squeeze page is a landing page created to solicit opt-in email addresses from
prospective subscribers.
For now, let’s focus on an easy one.
There are many ways to create a squeeze page but I would you to consider a cheap and easy to use website called Instapage.
Its interface is really easy, just drag and drop stuff.
So, let’s build a squeeze page:
1. Create account.
Click “Try Free” at the top-right corner.
Now, enter your login details or you can just “Connect with Google”.
2. Build your page
Click “Create New Page” & click “Pick a template”. You’ll find lots of templates to choose from.
Within minutes you can easily make your layouts & set up your page.
3. Integrate
Now,
in this step, integrate your call-to-action button to your email
marketing tool (like Mailchimp, Aweber, InfusionSoft, etc.).
Edit your call-to-action button, from the menu click "Integrations".
Enable as much integrations you want.
Edit your call-to-action button, from the menu click "Integrations".
Enable as much integrations you want.
4. Publish
Now, time to make your layout live on your site.
You can publish your page to WordPress using Instapage plugin, or use custom domain, instapage domain, Drupal or publish on Facebook.
5. Improve
Use tools like A/B testing, analytics and compare conversion rates of your variations to decide which layout works best.
Step 5: Autoresponder Set Up
Here
I will show you two very important parts:
The
first part will be setting up your autoresponder lists and sequences,
and
in the second part we will creating and the sign up forms.
I will be using AWeber only…
Setting up your autoresponder lists and sequences
Login to AWeber and click where says create and manage lists.
Click on “Create list”…
Here we will be creating the list for all of your Potty Train Subscribers.
Basic Information:
Write down the name, description of the list.
Personalize your List
Here you will insert your Company Information, Social Information and snippets.
I myself really don’t use this area…
Confirmed Opt-in
And here is something I don’t use either, but is up to you to use it or not.
This is used so you may confirm that the people in your list are real people with real emails.
Once they signup they must go to their email accounts and click on a
confirmation link, AWeber will send to them automatically in order to get access to their Free Report. This is what is called “Optin confirmation.”
If you decide to use it this is the email your subscribers will get it right before
they are part of your list and then they will start receiving your emails.
I
advise you to edit the name of the list right here and put something
better, like the name of your Free Report, which is the same name as
your product.
Besides that you must provide a “Confirmation Success Page URL.”
This is the URL your subscribers will be lead to, once they click onto the confirmation link.
If you decide not to use all of this confirmation process and want to make sure
that every subscriber gets directly into your list and starts receiving your emails,
you can just turn it off. Click save Settings and you are good to go.
Now let’s start inserting the emails into this list.
You will go to messages and select Follow up series and click “create your first follow up”…
Here is where you will create all emails promoting your Front End Offer to your Special Free Report Subscribers.
The first email will be used to thank your subscribers for being interested in
getting information from you. You will invite them again to check out the Main
Affiliate Product.
Creating the sign up form
Now make sure the Subscribers’ list you have just created is selected. Click on signup forms and click on “create your first sign up form.”
Design
Here you will have the chance to edit the signup form however you want.
You can even pick among the different templates that are already there.
Just design it in a way that may be nicely fitted within the layout of the squeeze page.
We advise you to select among the popular templates, the template called
“Pointer”.
Settings
Right here you have to be very careful. You can put a name to the signup form
for you to identify it,
then you can insert the URL where your subscribers will be redirected once they enter their name and email.
Here you will place your Affiliate URL promoting the Main Affiliate Product.
Once
they put their name and email, they will be redirected to what is
offered in the squeeze page content, which is the main Affiliate
Product.
Click on “Save your Form” and click on “Go to Step 3.”
Publish
Step 6: Advertising (Promotion)
Something extremely important for you to get success is promotion.
You could be promoting the greatest product ever, but if you send 1 million
horrible quality visitors to your offer you will be wasting all of your money, time and effort.
Do not let other people deceive you…
Below you will see a really nice list of 15 traffic getting methods you can use, as well as where to get those type of services.
1. Pay per Click
Pay per click (PPC) is a form of Internet advertising that directs traffic to a website…
The advertiser then pays the website owner when someone clicks onto the add.
So,
instead of bidding on keywords relevant to their target audience, the
PPC displays, which are usually some sort of banner ad, are placed onto
either search engine results or some sort of website that has content
that is related to the item for sale in the ad.
2. Pay per Call
Pay-per-call is a type of performance based advertising somewhat similar to Pay per Click.
The
difference is that instead of there being a fee for each click, the
business must pay their service provide a fee for each call when the
customer calls the connected phone number.
The ultimate list of Pay Per Call Networks.
3. Email Newsletter
Email
newsletters are updates that a business sends out to customers who have
signed up to receive various notices from that business.
They are sent out on a regular basis and could include tips, facts, savings, and special offers.
Some include HTML hyperlinks to go to the business website for more information.
The content is written by a copywriter and the newsletter is designed by a graphic designer.
4. Solo Ads
Solo
Ads are an email centered advertising method that works through a
system two marketers have agreed upon that is used to reach the
subscribers to the program.
The marketer sends out emails to the subscribers on the behalf of the other marketer in order to show their offers or ads.
It usually has between eight and 10 lines of text.
5. Podcasting
Podcasting is a method of sending out audio files via RSS.
It is done just like any other RSS feed except that the feed is an audio one instead of a text one.
The resulting podcast can be listed on a website by a clickable link.
6. Traffic Agencies
Traffic agencies are services that create, plan and manage advertising and other promotions for their patrons.
They can also handle marketing and branding plans for their clients.
7. SEO/Organic
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the
visibility of a website or a webpage in a search engine's "natural" or un-paid
("organic") search results.
In
general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and
more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more
visitors it will receive from the search engine's users.
SEO
may target different kinds of search, including image search, local
search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific
vertical search engines.
8. Banner Media
Bash banners that employ images, text, sound and video.
Sometimes
they are also interactive between the customer and the advertiser,
i.e., asking the customer to play a game, go to certain pages, etc.
It uses technology like flash, java, JavaScript and DHTML.
9. Social Media
Social
media is a type of interaction between people where they generate,
share or exchange data, pictures, etc. via sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, Google Plus, etc.
10. Mobile
Mobile
marketing is a type of marketing where the advertiser sends out the ads
to a person’s mobile device, i.e., a smartphone or other Internet
capable device.
Mobile marketing provides patrons with all kinds of information on the advertiser’s goods, services, coupons, etc.
It has become a very popular advertising media since many people own mobile phones.
11. Content Syndication
Content syndication is a type of form of syndication where the content is available for other users and websites to access.
This
may be done via web feeds, forums, etc. It is also a kind of licensing
for website content to allow other websites to use the same material.
12. Video
Video is a type of advertising where short video content is compiled to send out either on the web or to mobile devices.
The
nature of these advertisements comes in several different forms and can
be used for information, entertainment, how to, or sales opportunities.
13. Offline Media
Offline
media is the traditional forms of advertising such as newspaper,
flyers, or any type of advertising that is not going out over the
Internet or over any sort of broadcast media like TV or radio.
14. Traffic Exchanges
A traffic exchange is a website that provides website owners with some type of service in exchange for them getting traffic.
The website gets transmissions from website owners when they join traffic
exchange networks.
Then,
the one who submitted the website must browse other member’s sites
listed on the network to get credits, and those credits allow their
websites to get seen by other network members.
This in turn helps all of the signed up sites get more traffic, and thus possibly more profits.
15. RSS Directories
RSS
directories are comparable to website directories, however, they have
lists of RSS feeds instead of lists of various websites.
An RSS feed contains full text or a summary, as well as metadata such as a publishing date and the name of the writer.
Subscribing to one makes it so the user is informed of any updates to the list of articles.
I just can’t finish this section without telling where you can find all kinds of
services.
It’s just crazy, but here you can find almost anything you may be looking for online, and only for $5. Yes, I’m talking about Fiverr.com.
Step 7: Retargeting
The smartest way in the world to get the most of your traffic is by retargeting.
What is Retargeting?
Retargeting is also sometimes referred to as remarketing.
When
you use retargeting, you place a piece of code on your website, and
every time someone visits your site, this code drops a browser cookie.
This cookie is also referred to as a browser tag, and it is a snippet of JavaScript
code that allows them to be “followed” as they surf the web.
This
allows your retargeting provider to know when to use ads and ensures
that your ads are served to people who have visited your site.
This trafficking tool is effective because it more effectively focuses your advertising.
The people who see it are already familiar with your brand and have
recently shown interest in it.
Therefore,
when a visitor comes to your site but leaves before making a purchase,
the retargeter shows them your ads on other sites they visit so that
they are repeatedly exposed to your product.
This can result in a return to your site, an action, and even a sale.
There are several different types of retargeting out there, and it’s important to
learn about all of them:
Site Retargeting is the best known, and that is the type of retargeting where
your banner ad will appear on other pages as recent visitors surf the web.
There is also Email Retargeting. In this method, a visitor who, for example,
placed
things in a shopping cart and then left the site will be sent an email
asking them to come back and consider purchasing the items.
In Search Retargeting,
a search engine user is targeted with ads that are based on their
searches. In this case, they may not have previously visited the site,
but they have expressed interest in the topic.
Contextual Retargeting
allows websites who share similar customers to partner and share
cookies. If the visitor leaves site A and visits site B, then an ad for
site A may appear there.
Why Retargeting?
Let’s face it…
For your initial advertising efforts, you are simply casting as wide a net as possible to get those initial visitors.
However, with retargeting, your advertising efforts are focused.
The people who see your ads are people who have already visited your site.
This also focuses your advertising spending so that it is used to bring in people who have already shown interest.
Think of it this way...
Initial web site visits can be like a billboard. Lots of people see it.
Initial web site visits can be like a billboard. Lots of people see it.
But retargeting is like the flyer you get in the mail after you visit a specific store.
You’ve been there, and the flyer reminds you what you saw and may encourage you to return.
I think we can all agree that the flyer for a previously visited store will probably be more effective that a billboard.
It
has been said that it takes seven contacts or interactions to close a
sale, so the benefits of retargeting are pretty clear. When they see
ads for a site they have already visited, they are reminded of that
site. It’s another interaction. It plants another seed.
There
are many reasons someone may abandon a site, from realizing they are
running late to a pot boiling over to a child needing dinner.
In
our busy lives, we may forget all about that great site where we saw
that amazing item. Retargeting reminds the visitor of their former
interest.
Where Do I Go to Start Retargeting?
There are a variety of retargeting services out there, and some are better than
others.
Here are a few of the top-rated retargeting services along with a bit on
information about each.
Their basic plan offers site retargeting, contextual retargeting, and behavioral
retargeting.
This service has their own patented technology, which is aptly named FIDO. It
analyses information on your visitors sent by smart pixels.
They are advertiser specific, so you have to contact them to get a quote specific to your needs.
They do have several pricing models available, and they also work with revenue-sharing.
This service offers site retargeting, social retargeting, and email retargeting.
They are also closely integrated with sites like SlideShare and KISSmetrics.
This provider specializes in search retargeting. They are a media buying platform
that offers full-service search retargeting along with limited site retargeting as
well. As with FetchBack, you must contact Chango for a price quote.
Perfect Audience is a great option for marketers who want to keep things as
simple as possible.
You insert a simple code into the body of your website, list the types of visitors
you want to attract, design campaigns to target those segments, and your ads
will begin to appear on visitors’ screens.
And because you do not have to pay a setup or maintenance fee, this is an ideal choice for someone on a strict budget.
And because you do not have to pay a setup or maintenance fee, this is an ideal choice for someone on a strict budget.
Conclusion:
From
finding your niche, to selecting the best products, to researching the
network that is your perfect fit, this guide has provided you with tools
to help you succeed as an affiliate marketer.
If you use these tools faithfully, our chances of building a successful affiliate marketing business are excellent.
So
it’s time to get started applying all your newfound knowledge.
Put your interests to work, and use your site to earn money for you and your merchant.
Put your interests to work, and use your site to earn money for you and your merchant.
As
your success grows, so will your partners’, and with consistent work,
the revenue you earn can go from some extra cash to life-changing.
I am thrilled that you have chosen to take advantage of this guide, and I wish you amazing success!
Thanks so much for the time you have dedicated to learning how to get the most advantages from Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate
Marketing has come to stay in the market forever. A lot of money is
invested in Affiliate Marketing, and all of it is for both of us.
