As an affiliate, there are exactly two ways to increase your INCOME (i.e., the amount of money your business makes)...
1) Refer more visitors to the merchants that you represent.
2) Increase the Conversion Rate (i.e., the percent of visitors that you refer to your merchant… visitors who deliver the response for which the merchant pays, whether that’s a sale, or a lead, etc.).
Simple formula, right? If you refer 100 visitors per day to a merchant and 1% buy, you get paid for that one purchase. But if you send 1,000 visitors per day and 3% buy, you get paid for 30 purchases.
Yes, thirty times more! So it’s pretty clear how to maximize affiliate INCOME! Of course, every business has expenses, too. Maximizing profits does not imply that you must minimize expenses, too. After all, if you spend no money or time on a business, you have no business! You must get the best possible trafficbuilding and sales-converting results for every dollar you spend... and for every hour you spend on your business.
Time is money. Don’t count your hours as zero cost simply because they do not cost you “out of pocket.” Assign your time a dollar value -- it will put your affiliate business on a solid, professional “business footing.”
Let’s examine expenses by asking two questions...Question #1 -- What does it cost to build traffic to your merchants’ sites?
Traffic-building, no matter how you cut it, will cost you... in terms of both time and money. Spending dollars is optional, but spending time is not.
There are many ways, both offline and on, to drive targeted traffic to your merchants’ sites. This course will show you the most highly profitable, timeand-dollar-effective way to build traffic to your merchants' sites...
Build your own Theme-Based Content Site -- one that is loaded with high infovalue Keyword-Focused Content Pages that rank well with the Search Engines and that get the click throughs to your merchants’ sites.
Let’s break that down for closer examination. For your affiliate Web site to generate targeted traffic to your merchants, it must do two things well...1) Rank well at the Search Engines so that it pulls in lots of targeted traffic. So far, though, that traffic is still on your site. Therefore, it’s not generating income yet. Your visitors are just “looking around.” So...
2) Get those visitors to click through to your merchants. (Some affiliate program models can actually place merchant offerings on your Web site. In this case, your traffic does not actually visit your merchant’s site. But you still have to “get the click” to generate income.)
It makes sense, of course, that a Web site is the way to go. After all, this is the Net! But there are loads of other ways for affiliates to drive targeted traffic to their merchants, both offline and on.
We outline proven, cream-of-the-crop strategies in the “Getting Started Action Guide” which is free to 5 Pillar Affiliates. (SiteSell’s affiliate program is called the “5 Pillar Program.”)
This simple to understand resource provides all the information and strategies you need to PREsell effectively and generate substantial commission income. Naturally, the Guide focuses on SiteSell’s exceptional products and tools…
http://www.sitesell.com/sitemap.html… but you can easily and effectively apply its marketing theory/strategies to your other affiliate programs as well.
Would you like a closer look at the 5 Pillar Program and its affiliate tools/resources? Please download a free copy of the Getting Started Action Guide at...
http://freetrial.sitesell.com/
OK, that wraps up expenses and traffic-building. Now for our second question about expenses...
Question #2 -- What does it cost to maximize Conversion Rates?
Good news! Maximizing your Conversion Rate (CR) is simply a question of doing things right. There is no extra dollar or time cost to boosting Conversion Rates at your merchants’ sites. This course will show you how to achieve this goal, too.
Remember… when this course talks about Conversion Rates, we are talking about the Conversion Rate at the sites of the merchants that you represent as an affiliate. So we are talking about how you will maximize the percentage of referral visitors who deliver the response for which the vendor pays, whether that’s a sale, or lead, etc.
If you think that it’s impossible for you to change the sales-effectiveness of your merchants’ sites, you are in for a big surprise.
Your primary goals are...1) Maximize targeted traffic to your merchants, spending only dollars and time that maximize profits.
Don’t do just one. Do both. Why? Because, as you saw above, your payment is determined by traffic multiplied by the Conversion Rate... not “added.” Your profits grow geometrically when you concentrate on maximizing both traffic and Conversion Rates.
I have spent quite a bit of time reviewing the difference between 5 Pillar Affiliates who refer high traffic to us and who deliver high Conversion Rates (% of visitors who purchase), and those who deliver low ones.
The #1 reason for low traffic and terrible Conversion Rates?Banner ads! No content!
The futility of banners was first revealed by our 5 Pillar Program, both in our original 5 Pillar Manual and in the 5 Pillar Affiliate Reports (our near-weekly affiliate newsletter). Retinal studies have shown that Web surfers actually avoid banners. Yes, their eyes look away!
Our study found that 5 Pillar Affiliates who relied solely on banners had an average Conversion Rate of 0.5%. But those who used “in-context” text links (i.e., text links that are part of the content of the Web page) averaged over 3.5%!
How’s that for a reason not to use banners?Banners are cheesy and hurt your credibility. If visitors happen to click through (a big “if”), they arrive at their destination feeling “pitched” rather than informed. They have a resisting mindset, rather than with an open, ready-to-buy attitude.
Remember that example where you sent 100 visitors per day to a merchant and 1% bought? If you rely on flipping up some banners, it will be more like 10 visitors per day and not one person buys!
We reveal a lot about 5 Pillar Affiliates during this course. But it is not the 5 Pillar Program that is important here -- it’s the lessons to be derived. This course is about making any affiliate of any program more successful.
Conclusion?...Don’t use banners.
Yes, I know “they're so-o-o-o-o easy.” It’s always easy to not make money. That’s how all those get-rich-quick-guys do so well... the allure of easy money. No such thing.
I must repeat… don’t use banners.
If you simply must use banners, save them for the products that you don’t feel absolutely great about recommending. That way, you don’t hurt your credibility …after all, it’s “only advertising.”
Save your “in-context” text links for super companies with wonderful products that deliver true value to your reader.
Beside the obvious futility of banners, I’ve spotted another major point. This one is more subtle, but it’s important… extremely important.The #2 reason for low traffic and terrible Conversion Rates?
After banner advertising, it’s the second most common error. And it’s an even bigger shame because this boo-boo involves a lot of work... misplaced work. If you’re going to fail, the best thing would be not to spend much time at it, right?
Reason #2 is...Selling instead of PREselling.
Some 5 Pillar Affiliates have really made great efforts in creating sites to promote our SiteSell products. And they are building some sales and traffic. But when I see a low Conversion Rate (i.e., CR under 2%), I know that something is amiss. Great efforts deserve greater results than 1%.
Yes, I agree that these efforts are better than banners. But remember… creating these sites takes a lot more work than tossing up a couple of banners. We’ll see in a moment that it’s misdirected work. (The good news is that this course will redirect those efforts into high-profit areas.)
Time for a philosophical perspective... In life, the vast majority of people just keep doing the “same old thing.” Life seems easier that way. But “doing the same old thing” guarantees the “same old results.” So in the long run, it’s actually much, much harder.
In the movie, “The Renaissance Man,” Danny De Vito’s character makes a profound statement...“The choices we make dictate the lives we lead.”
To paraphrase...
“Where you are today is the result of all the choices and actions that you have made in your life.”
When he said that, I remember thinking, “You know, he’s right. Except in rare cases of extraordinarily good or bad luck, people basically end up where they are as a result of choices they make and courses of action they take.”
People tend to blame a lack of success in life on “bad luck” or “poor timing” or other people. And yes, at times, that can be accurate. A heck of a lot of factors beyond our control can blindside us. In the long run, however, as long as we persist in our efforts, these factors tend to even out and De Vito's statement remains valid.
Now, here’s the good news... E-commerce is simpler than life. Due to its digital nature, there are fewer variables... so the outcome is more controllable. Which means that we can boil De Vito’s statement down to “The #1 E-commerce Reality.”
This Reality is almost self-evident, yet it’s so easy to forget. Your success with anything you do in the world of e-commerce flows from it. Internalize it and act upon it... and you will succeed.
Yes, it’s that fundamental. And that leads me to…The #1 E-commerce Reality
“ Nothing happens by accident in the world of computers, the Net, and customer response. There is always a reason for what happens, good or bad, and that reason is YOU.”
When I see some 5 Pillar (“5P”) Affiliates with CRs over 10% (and a few over 20%!), I figure that those with CRs at 1-2% or less could be multiplying their sales five-or-more-fold. How?
Not by working harder, but simply by channeling their motivation in a better direction.Let’s continue with the case of 5P Affiliates who make “great efforts” but get soso results...
As I reviewed many of these affiliate sites (those who are getting sales but have CRs under 2%), I realized that almost half were basically one big sales letter for SiteSell products and Ken. Which means that these affiliates are SELLING (with sales copy) when they should be PREselling (with great, and related, content that is of value to the reader).
There’s really not much point in straight selling off your site -- that's what your merchant’s site needs to do. Picture this...A visitor arrives at an affiliate’s site that is really just one, big sales site. Yes, I know that the words are sincere -- I owe all 5P Affiliates a big thank you for the truly wonderful things they say. But put yourself in these visitors’ shoes for a moment. They don’t see inspiring, editorial content. They see a sales effort.
But they were searching for content!“ CONTENT!” I said. (Sorry for yelling.) People resist sales efforts, so your click-through actually goes down. And if a visitor does click, what does she see when she arrives at an SBI! site? More sales effort. And, in some cases, many of the words on SiteSell’s site are similar to the words that she’s just read. Result? Poor Conversion Rate.
If your site is basically a “bunch of sales letters,” you have not yet built your credibility and likeability with this visitor. Your visitor ends up feeling “pitched.” And then she feels double-pitched if(chances are low) she clicks through to your merchant’s site. That’s why the CR actually goes down.
To make things worse, as she “smells” a sales effort, she becomes less likely to click! So referred traffic drops, too.
Women now represent 50% of all surfers. And they control approximately 80% of all shopping dollars. To reinforce this in your mind, we’ll use the feminine pronoun to talk about readers/visitors/customers. To keep things simple and even, we’ll use the masculine pronoun when referring to affiliates.
OK, let’s see...1) Referred traffic down.
2) And Conversion Rate down.
But these are the two ways to increase your income. (That’s what we talked about near the beginning.) We’re going in the wrong direction!
Conclusion? Don’t SELL!
Instead, warm your visitor up for your merchants by PREselling her with great content that she values and respects. She’ll click-through with pleasure, arriving at your merchants’ sites in an open-to-buy mindset.
It’s your PREselling effort that will boost your traffic-to-merchants and Conversion Rate, which in turn maximizes your income.
This brings us to our second philosophical premise…“The #1 Affiliate Reality”...
“Your CR will literally vary from 1% to 10% (and at times, as much as 20%!), purely because of...
1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and…Your CR depends upon what you do and how you do it. You do not need Lady Luck, Sir Serendipity or anyone else. There is always a reason for how well you do, and that reason always relates to what you do and how you do it.
Once you realize this, then you know success really is do-able. Some people do succeed... big-time…but not necessarily the first time. Just keep trying until you find the right approach.
To quote Calvin Coolidge… “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
Of course, the goal of the 10-DAY Affiliate Masters Course is to reduce the amount of trial-and-error persistence that will be required before you find your own successful formula!
Why is “The #1 Affiliate Reality” true?... Because how you reach your customer, and what you say once you reach her, and how you refer your visitor to your merchant directly affects your visitor’s mindset when she arrives at SiteSell.
A positive mindset turns into a purchase with amazing regularity. A negative one is nearly impossible to overcome.And that is what “highCR affiliates” have known all along…
******************************************* “They refer people to their merchants in an OPEN-TO-BUY frame of mind.”
*******************************************
“Your CR will literally vary from 1% to 10% (and at times, as much as 20%!), purely because of...
1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and…
Some people contact our Support team after reading this course, refusing to believe that we have affiliates who can generate a Conversion Rate (CR) exceeding 20%.
Do they do that every month? No.But we know it’s not a fluke. Why? The reason is simple. Although each affiliate’s CR may fluctuate in any given month, a “high-CR” affiliate does not suddenly become a “low-CR” affiliate. The good ones score high, and make significant dollars, every month.
And the proof is in the pudding. SiteSell’s astounding success is affiliate-driven. Instead of paying for very costly advertising like other companies do, we pour our money into making you succeed by giving you the best products in the world.
http://proof.sitesell.com/#HEADTOHEADIt is amazing what a great product, successful customers and proud-loyal affiliates can achieve!
OK. Take a quick stretch and then we’ll continue. Back already? Let’s go... 