For some time now I have wanted to set aside time to help our affiliates sell our digital products. So here goes – for the next few weeks the focus on this blog will mainly be this series – an open exploration of that great enigma – affiliate marketing.
The Background:
We run a busy website at Adam-eason.com and although we offer an informative weekly Ezine "Adam Up" and podcast and separate blog and a membership site – the main objective of the site of course is to make money by selling Adam’s excellent audio programmes. The site has been running for about two years now and we have steadily built our own list organically – now standing at just under 8000 and growing by about 50 a day currently.
We are selling products across the available range and are happy with our own website sales. But we are at the stage where we would love to pay affiliates to sell our products and nothing would make me happier than to be writing large cheques for our own special sales team.
Affiliate Selling Of Adam’s Products:
We have an affiliate programme running through 1shoppingcart and another package product on ClickBank.
What we have found though is that oldest of rules on the web – the 20/80 rule does apply in so many instances. People will sign up for courses, programmes, tutorials etc on the web and yet much of that material sits on their hard disk never to be read. In the case of affiliates the ratio of people taking ACTION after signing up is an even worse proportion – probably nearer 5/95.
We have 161 people officially signed up as affiliates but I have only paid five of them to date.
Why is that?
Affiliate selling is very poorly understood – and the problem seems to be that it is portrayed often – by those who should know better – as an easy way to untold riches. Vast fortunes can indeed be made – but – very few seem to have the application and get up and go to make it happen.
I am going to get to the core of the problem now – this may offend – people are inherently lazy. They like the idea of the money but not the effort that is required, the ACTION that is needed to make things happen.
I firmly believe that we have the absolutely ideal products for an affiliate to sell. And so I will aim this series specifically at people who would like to sell our products and I will use them as examples througout. However if you follow the advice that I am going to give you here it will apply to any products.
This is NOT going to be an affiliate training course – because I believe there are fantastic courses out there already – I am going to be talking in general about the affiliate world and the relationships between merchants and their affiliates.
I will point you in the right direction to get the best courses, tools and products and encourage as many as I can to join us in a very active way so that I can be writing some big cheques.
Any course or product that I suggest to you will be because I have used them myself and can therefore recommend. Believe me I have downloaded some pretty dodgy stuff and I can save you a lot of money if you will heed my advice.
Tomorrow I will look further into what makes the perfect affiliate product and why.
My First Recommendation:
I am going to finish today by recommending an affiliate training website that I have belonged to for over three years. I have learnt so much from this clever young man – Anik Singal. He was still at college when I first started to take his newletters and I have seen those develop to be one of the best newsletters I receive each month. I always look forward to it. The course itself is brilliant and if you join – and take action – I think you are bound to succeed at this rather complex game.
Go and see what Anik is up to at: Affiliate Classroom
