10 Ways To Turbo-Charge YOUR Affiliate Program in 2016

INTRODUCTION

Good Day! I hope you enjoyed that short video above, the idea was to introduce you to my site a bit and in particular mention some very general points of what this post is all about. As the title suggests, this is for you – I want help to get your sales ramped up asap!

With the start of 2016, many marketers are returning to full time work again after the long holiday season. They are coming back full of motivation, resolutions that they fully intend on acting on from the New Year festivities, and are chomping at the bit to get started.

This article will help them do just that. Let’s talk about some ways to effectively turbo-charge YOUR affiliate marketing program using these 10 bits of advice that really will do just that for you!

10 Tips For that “Turbo-Charge”

Here they are, in no particular order….Read and heed..Enjoy!

TIP #1: “Go Through The Numbers and Promote Higher Profit-Per-Transaction Offers.”

Did you know that almost the same effort is required to get a new customer to your page and convince them to buy a $20 product as it does to convince them to buy a $50 product? The difference of course is that you will increase your earnings by 2 1/2 times with that $50 sale!

The reason I mention almost is that some lower priced items will have a higher conversion rate so this is not a hard and fast rule. But the principal holds in general…

Here’s An Example: Let’s look at some products that are selling at different prices and see how this works. There are three selling at different price points for which you will get a 50% commission for every sale.

OK, have a look at the difference:

• A $10 product ($5 in commission) converts at 6%. So for every 100 people that you get to the sales page, you sell 6 of the products, earning you $60.

• A $50 product ($25 in commission) converts at a lower rate of 4%. Although that does not sound so good, it means that foe every 100 people that come to the page, you sell 4. This earns you $100. Sounding better now?

• A $150 product ($75 in commission) converts at a rather more pitiable rate of 2%. Now THAT sounds terrible. So of course it means that for 100 highly targeted visitors you draw to the sales page, only two people will buy… BUT you are now earning $150!

A simple change in what you sell at what price can drastically change what you will earn. The third example is 250% more earnings for you, even with a lousy two sales!

So when you look at what to promote, go through the numbers!

Review the items you are now selling. Do they make sense in this light, or are there other products that will return more earnings for you?

Keep the bottom line in mind, it may feel good selling a lot of cheaper items, but the earnings tell a different story.

THE LESSON: Review offered commission rates plus look for products with higher ticket prices.

A higher commission is better of course. Selling higher ticket items is also a good idea as can be seen with the examples above.

Remember your time investment is the same for all three items.  PLUS, remember that the money you make is not the same. You will very likely make more selling the higher items!

The activities to prepare for the sales requires the same effort no matter which of the three products you could sell using the example above…

• You are going to generate traffic to the sales page.

• You are going to spend time preparing the lead-in and maybe an opt-in page to build your lead list.

• You are going to prepare some kind of an incentive (giveaway).

• You are going to likely have a supporting review of the products, and interacting and promoting the post in forums and the social media platforms you use.

The real difference? I repeat myself, but this is something you want to hear: You will make more money or earnings for that same effort selling those higher priced items!

TIP #2: “Look For Recurring Billing Products to Sell”

Existing customers are some of the best customers. Over time, these are customers that you want to get into your lead list. Along with more expensive items you can sell them over time, these kind of customers can provide you more income through many sales, expensive or not.

Why do I say this? Here’s why: It’s  far easier to convince an existing customer you have with you to buy more products from you as opposed to a new customer who does bot know who you are or whether you are trustworthy or not.

OK the concept makes sense? Here’s a little secret about increasing your earnings with such customers:

You need to promote recurring billing products to them!

These are sales of products that are billed regularly over time (likely monthly) and they happen automatically (so do your earnings).

Another way of saying this is they are charged regularly and you earn regularly, without any further action (or only a little action) on your part, as long as the customer doesn’t cancel.

This is easy on everyone, The vendor is happy, the customer is happy, and you, as the affiliate who made the sale, are most happy!

Again the nice thing about recurring billing products is this:

You find and convince the customer to buy once… BUT you then earn commission month after month as long as that customer remains a member. You did the work only once, but earn month after month…

Is that some easy passive income or what?

OK so where can you find such opportunities? I will mention just three but there are many more:

1. ClickBank. Look there for any products that are within your niche having a value higher than $0 in the “future $” category. These are the products that have recurring billing and ones you need to research/select.

2. Do a Google alphabet search using your niche keywords. Use generic terms like “affiliate program” and add in  search terms such as  “recurring billing,” or “membership site,” or “passive income” or something else similar. Note the potential products and then research to see which would fit best for your program.

3. Look for any recurring billing products in your niche. This is not hard normally, once you have been in a niche for awhile, you get to know what is selling, what offers the best opportunity for your program.

Here’s An Example: A lot of people doing affiliate marketing online are also selling internet marketing support tools and courses/membership sites. There are many but as an affiliate marketer yourself, you know of most that are out there. Check to see which have recurring commissions and sign up with them.

My Number One Recommendation For This Tip:

Learning how to properly set up a successful affiliate marketing program is not an easy task. I am a member of a site that does just that at a VERY reasonable cost!

It is called Wealthy Affiliate. The commissions you can realize with this site are very generous and they are recurring as long as the members you refer remain active.

Depending on the membership plan the referrals select, you earn over $23.00 per month, or a bigger chunk if they do an annual membership. Read more about this program here:

===> WEALTHY AFFILIATE <===

This is the BEST education site on the internet based on my experiences with many other less than stellar sites. It offers a complete package for you to learn, set up your site, do the proper research for your niche, then teaches you how to monetize the efforts you make.

I have been a member for over 7 months now and have been extremely pleased. This is a program that you can not only be a member of, but also recommend it to others, as I am doing now. Recurring income opportunities like this seldom come along, check it out for yourself!

OK, let’s move on…

TIP #3: “Use Real Scarcity, Not Fake Scarcity, With Giveaways”

If you have been in affiliate marketing for any length of time, you know that affiliate marketers use scarcity all of the time. They also use giveaways. Let’s talk about scarcity first…

Whether it is a countdown timer, a “limited number” available, or a combination of “limited time and number,” the use of scarcity is to be found often on sales pages. Why? You are adding a psycholgical push to the viewer to make them feel they need to take action now.

This is a tactic I see used often but not THAT often. many of your colleagues may be promoting that product without the scarcity tactic, so it is worth looking into at times.

What you will see more often is the addiitonal bonuses or giveaways for product or service offers. Your offer has to be one that is of more value, fits with the product you are selling, and one that they would pay money for if it was not there as a bonus.

What if we combined the two? Let’s see what could happen…

Here’s An Example: Let’s say  you are offering a self-development eBook to your lead list and potential new customers. You then could offer a course that closely relates to the subject that offers a lot more information or will give them additional ideas. For sure you will get more people that will buy from you as opposed to someone else. Why? They get more value for the same money.

Of course nowadays many others are doing the same, so you have to differentiate yourself and your offer from theirs…Many people look at the bonuses prior to deciding which affiliate offer they will buy through. This is fact, I do it myself!

So what can we do?

Use scarcity to leverage your offer and push the customers into taking immediate action – make the super over the top bonus you have for them a limited time offer.

Here’s some examples:

• Use a time-limited bonus – Whatever works, i.e. in 3 hours, at midnight of a date, 24 hours only, etc. The psychology works better with shorter times (i.e. 3 hour early bird bonus offer), because there is a greater sense of urgency.
• Use a limited number of bonus items available – only the first (number) of people acting immediately will get the bonus. If you use this tactic, make sure to plan on providing updates on the number of bonuses left for the prospects. This is a powerful push for them to take action.

BonusTip: Usually when you use scarcity you will set up a manual process to parcel out the bonuses. The buyers will have to send you a receipt if their purchase, and in return they will get sent to a download site. This can be autmated if you are using an autoresponder.

There are many ways to set this up, here’s one:

Create a special email address just for receiving notification from buyers sending in their purchase receipt.  When the buyers send their mail, the autoresponder looks for specific words or phrases usually found on the receipt.

If the mail contents has these set criteria within it, the autoresponder then sends back to the mail address the download link. Of course if it does not have the required information, nothing will happen.

I have another couple of posts that drill down on the entire process of developing a good giveaway (and talks about lead magnets) that you can review here if you’d like:

===>  LEAD MAGNETS AND GIVEAWAYS

===> GIVEAWAYS

These tutorials can help you in setting up your own affiliate program and are worthy of a few minutes of your time!

So for the purposes of this article, let’s have a cursory look at the kinds of giveaways/bonus you could develop/use…

Here are five:

1. An ebook or special report complementing the main product.

2. A free webinar on the service or product you are selling.

3. A video that complements the main product.

4. Provide some software or other tools that complement the main product.

5. If you’re an expert in the subject, offer a free email or telephone consultation.

Remember, you need to set yourself minimally on a par with other affiliates that may be  offering a bonus. PLUS I think you want to set yourself ABOVE these folks with whatever you offer as a bonus and using scarcity for any customers ordering what you are selling  so that order through YOUR link. This will make you unstoppable!

What’s the Bottom Line:  You will see more sales and an increased interest from prospects who know you are offering real value over others and they will buy more from you at a later date, meaning more earnings!

Here is a tactic that I have used and seen some IM folks use successfully…

Create a tool, an eCourse, or a special report to give away. Creat a mini-website for the product/giveaway with it’s own domain, one that contains a salesletter and send your buyers there to download the free product.

This could be part of a sales funnel, for which I have additional training that can be found here:

===> CREATING SALES FUNNELS

Note: This training is a four part series, the link above takes you to part 1. There are follow-on links at the end of each part of the training to the next stage…

OK, back to the bonus tip/tactic…

What this does is it increases the “perceived value” of the product.  Why? Here’s why: This product is something that your prospect  thinks has so much value that it warrants it’s own domain, a salesletter with a full page on its benefits and how it provides a solution for the user. But it is not for sale, it only can be downloaded by the buyer if they bought a product through your affiliate link. 

Do you see the effect doing this can have on a prospect?

I have seen IM affiliate marketers prepare a complete page with all of their bonuses for an offer they were promoting, and the page explained in detail what each does, and often there were links to see the sales pages for each of the bonuses. BUT these were only available of you bought the product you are selling through them.

Very effective!

The last thing to be wary of when using scarcity is this: Do not use fake scarcity tools. I am talking about when the number or timer goes down as you are looking at the sale page, you may leave and when you come back the timer has started over again or the number is back up to where it started the first time you came across the page.

This is very annoying and the sophisticated buyers today know this trick and will be turned off. Many will simply consider you as uncreditable and cliick away, not providing you any lead or sale. Just don’t do it, not a reputable way to conduct business!

TIP #4: “Capture the Lead First Using An Opt-In Page”

This is something that seems to pounded into our heads, but many still do not understand why this is so important. I go to many affiliate pages and they do not have an opt-in widget or page anywhere…

You know by now that it is a lot easier to sell something to an existing customer over getting that first-time customer to buy something…You NEED these leads!

Consider the new customer as a cold call type situation. They do not know you from Adam. The lead that you have contact information on. and initiate communication with, on the other hand, DOES know you.

That is what I would call a “warm” customer, one that is more open to opening your mail/offer and possibly taking action moreso than that “cold” new customer.

How do we get and keep them “warm?” By staying in communication with them through regularly posted emails and using pre-selling emails that provide further valuable free information and then your offer.

So getting the opt-in down and capturing the contact information even if they do not buy that offer will afford you the opportunity to use email marketing to build up a rapport and trust – a relationship, if you will…

Remember we said above in the examples of products you are selling, the conversion rates are not high, 6%, 4%, 2% – none are that high that you don’t care if you lose completely the rest of the prospects you drive to the sales page, when they took no action!

These represent the opportunity to get that relationship started and eventually make a sale to them. So it is important that you capture their contact information.

Hence the opt-in page, or as it sometimes is called, the squeeze page. By adding this additional step into your selling process (or your sales funnel, as it sometimes is called) you can over time greatly increase your conversion rates.

The other thing is that you are leveraging and maximizing the visitors you get to your sales page, you are not wasting the effort to get traffic there…

The squeeze page must be effective and persuasive enough, along with the giveaway you offer, with both focused on the highly targeted traffic you are driving to the page, that such visitors jump to immediately opt-in and provide you their contact information.

It is not unrealistic to expect 25%, 35%, or even more of these visitors will opt-in to your mailing list! Then you will have the opportunity to sell them many products, not just the one.

How This Fits In

Here are 5 things that you need to consider when creating your giveaway and your squeeze/optin pages and process…

Your giveaway or lead magnet (training link above) should get the idea across that you will be exposing how you achieved some desirable result  that they too want to achieve/experience…You should point out that they too can achieve this with the giveaway.

Try to convey your points of difference from every other bonus offer out there. An idea that saves work, increases effectiveness, mistakes to avoid, etc. will act as a trip-wire and cause them to take action and sign up/opt-in.

Bonus Tip:  How to make great looking opt-in and landing pages? I use several tools, but the one I like the best, use regularly,  and have reviewed is found here ===> LANDING PAGE MONKEY

Tip# 5:  “Negotiate a Higher Commission Percentage”

OK picture this: You have gone through the process as described above and have created an effective giveaway and opt-in page, Your offerings for the prospects are selling like hotcakes, You are making a lot of money in affiliate commission and you are also making good money for the product developer. Your conversion rates are through the roof because of your work.

If this is a scenario that sounds good, there is a way to make it even better. How? Communicate with the product developer and let them know about your success. Then ask for a raise… : )

By this I mean open up communications and try to convince the developer to increase the commissions he is paying you..

Now here’s the key to successful negotiations:

You need to have a proven record of your success and be ready to show this.

Believe me if you are not having a lot of success, likely this will NOT work. But if you are, you have a strong case perhaps. If you walk away and the developer loses your efforts selling their product, they know they will lose a lot of sales and earnings. They may just be willing to pay you a bit more!

You will have to have a strong case or you will likely get turned down, I must emphasize this again, be in a position to justify asking for more…Don’t waste your time or the vendor’s time until you are in that position.

Bonus Tip: Some vendors will give you a higher commission rate across the board, if the conditions mentioned above are there, especially if they can see that you have been performing to a high level regarding sales over a period of time. So you may get a special link so every sale you make from now on is worth more money.

BUT, if you do not have that strong  a record of sales, but it is on the rise, you may still want to consider contacting the developer and asking for some special commission rate – maybe when you reach a certain sales level each month or when you have sold an agreed to volume of the product.

TIP #6: “Work At Driving More Traffic to Your Sales Pages”

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is a valid way to get more business. More traffic results in more opt-ins leads, more conversions, and of course more earnings.

Simple, yes?

So how can we do that better in 2016?

Let’s discuss what gets you increased levels of traffic…and why it makes a difference:

If you make $50 for every 100 visitors, it makes sense that you will make $250 if 500 see your offer, and $500 if 1000 prospects see your offer…Get more people stopping by, keep the conversion percentage the same or raise them, and you will make more money.

Here are some of the ways you drive traffic to your offers:

• Increasing your use of content marketing – things such as article marketing, infographics, explainer videos, blogging, etc.

• Create relationships with joint venture partners and work together to increase the sales for you both.

• Look at your social media marketing efforts and see how you can increase visibility and effectiveness. Look at your posting schedule, what you are posting, how you are posting, and who are you targeting. Fine tune your efforts to increase your effectiveness and sales.

• Do research on some hot topics and prepare and get out free in-depth reports, maybe some informational videos, and try to use viral posts to your advantage. Raise your visibility in the target market, Become an authority.

• Research PPC methods and try them out. Start small and increase your spend as you become more comfortable and are having success. I have some training you can review here:

===> PPC TRAINING

• Consider the use of press releases. These can have a good short  term burst of activity for your sales sites if used correctly

Just remember, with all of these efforts, the idea is to get more traffic…Why? Because more traffic means higher earnings at the end of the day.

Regarding PPC, focus on the cheaper sites first and then you can scale up. If you are making money on PPC, put some of the profits back in to scale up, it is an easy way to keep your costs down and if effective on a small scale, likely you will have more success as you scale up.

TIP #7: “Sell More Two-Tier Affiliate Programs –

and Sign Up Others to Do the Same”

The affiliate programs that are most familiar and used most often are one-tier. You will realize a commission or earnings for every product you sell as an affiliate.

A two-tier affiliate program, on the other hand, pays a commission for every sale PLUS you can get a smaller commission percentage for every sale someone in your downline makes.

In simple terms, here is how this works…

As with a one-tier system, you set up and promote the products…You add in your affiliate links to get credit for sales as they happen…

The additional part of the process is this: You actively seek to get other affliates to sell the product as well, and when they sign up to do so, they come in to the system under you in the product’s line of sellers.

From then on when they make a sale, you get a portion or the commission they earn. A nice way to make extra money having others making sales on your behalf (for commissions).

Bonus Tip: If you want to quickly find some programs that have this option, do a google search for your niche using niche information and terms such as “two tier affiliate program” or “multi tier affiliate program.”

Once you have a list together of potential programs, look through them all and see which are the best. You want the best commission rate on the top level (your sales) and a much lower percentage on the second tier. This keeps the focus on selling the products – not on getting more sign ups for sellers you bring in on that second level.

TIP# 8: “Do More Guest Posts & Publish More Articles”

This is a tip that many think is no longer effective. In the past this was very effective and lots of people were doing it. Today…not so much…

it still is an effective tool that you can use however. It is deciding where to post that article, or which site you should seek garnering an invite for a guest blog at, that will mean the difference in seeing results or not.

If you find a forum that is active and has many visitors in your niche, this is effective. Reddit, Warrior Forum, niche forum sites, etc. can all be a way to get your name out there, and people coming to your site to see what is there. You can draw in traffic over a long period of time as more and more people happen across the posts.

The key is to write something that is valuable and somewhat evergreen in nature. It can then have relevance over a long period and keep attracting people to your site month after month.

Now when you do this kind of writing, even if evergreen, I would focus on the problem, the solution you have, why it is the best and only workable solution, the benefits to the subscriber to that solution, and then be specific as to actions to take.

Be a leader, write your article in an authoritative style, describe the problem, the solution and the actions to take. You make it easy for the reader to follow through with your desired action, whatever that may be.

Another take may be a review of a specific product or solution that the reader is looking for. They came across your article based on research, and are ready to make a decision. You affirm what they are going to do anyway, and get the sale.

Here are a couple of examples for you to see what I am talking about:

Example #1: You put together an article on “How I Ranked My Video On the First Page of Google in 15 Minutes!” In the article you explain the exact steps you used in accomplishing this. At the end you mention that this was possible because you were using a tool called XXX that allowed the steps to be completed that fast to include ranking. You provide a link…

Example #2: You design an article providing very useful information about how to do something, but you save the real “meat” of the information for a link and sales site/page. Let’s call the article “5 Ways to Preparing An Effective Infographic.” In it you do provide the steps to get them started, and then to get the rest they will have to  purchase the product you are offering on another page. The idea is to give the reader good basic information, but to get the rest they have to sign up or buy or whatever your call to action may be…

These are just examples, but the same concepts can be applied to any niche…

TIP #9: “Show Prospects Your Results Using the Product”

There are needs or concerns that people have that you need to address when they buy things. One of these is social proof. They really look for social acceptance of the product. Think star ratings systems used by Amazon and other eCommerce sites.

But most of these are lacking in substance – they contain a few words, often are nonsensical and do not provide that social proof the prospect is looking for.

They would rather have a detailed review or report on what the product is supposed to do and a user’s personal experience when using it.

What was the good, the bad, and why this is the product they should choose over others out there that claim to do the same thing. This is where you come in…

Product reviews can be very influential for sales, for establishing your authority, for that social proof they are looking for! They want to read that the product performed for you, or not…

That’s where you come in – you use the product and report objectively the findings/results. Cover the strong points and the not so strong, and give a final verdict – would you recommend this to others?

Your reputation and authority is on the line when you do this, and reputable marketers will not compromise on their values and morals – they will state what they feel and clearly what they recommend.

It is ok to add to your experience with data from other sources (include the credits where appropriate)….Use photos, screenshots, videos, graphs, anything that will build support for your position…

Examples:

• Let’s say you are providing an in-depth study of a video editing software. You could combine a content based report along with some actual screenshots demonstrating your points, and perhaps a video showing the software in action. A sample project could be demonstrated from the steps to create it to the finished product.

• If it is an eBook on How To Create and Follow a Diet Plan for instance, you could show via a video the steps in creating the diet plan and even some of the products that are in the plan…It will show the prospect clearly what they will get in the book, but of course they have to buy the book to get the full package.

• In my case, I will use a real life example. I talked about Wealthy Affiliate above and what a great recurring income affiliate program they have. Why is it so successful? Because over the last 10 years, they have continually improved the site and what it offers, and do so to this day. As a member I see what they are providing and can vouch for the efficacy of their program. This web site is a result of their training and advice. But to see what I am talking about you need to check it out yourself! One more time, here is the link to find out more in case you missed it above…

===> WEALTHY AFFILIATE <===

and…..the final tip for you today is…let’s look closer ONE more time…

Tip #10: “Picking The Very Best Offer to Promote”

The secret to leveraging sales of your products to the maximum audience is to use an affiliate network. Product developers know this and they are going to work real hard to get you on their team of sales people.

This is why when you go to the affiliate networks and look at an affiliate recruitment/support site, you will often see a beautiful package of email swipes, banners, support materials, sometimes bonuses, and even contests for the best affiliate sellers of their product, especially for launches…

But since there is such a demand for good affiliates, you can remain in the drivers seat. Look through what the vendors are offering and look through the beautiful graphics and promises to find the very best offers you will want to promote.

Be discerning just a bit. It will make the promoting easier because you have confidence in the product being sold, plus you will likely be more enthusiastic about selling the product. You also need to protect your reputation, so you do not want to promote garbage..

Here are some things to look out for:

Is There Adequate Support. If this is a new vendor, it would be good to send an email, try to call or other wise contactt them to see what their response is… Are they responding promptly, are they courteous, can they answer any questions you may have? If the answers are all yes, that’s a positive sign.

Does The Vendor Have Experience. Do a little due diligence on the vendor. Are there any negative reports on his products or him personally or with his company? If so were they significant or not? What did the positive comments state from buyers of the products and the affiliates that sold them? Is the vendor’s reputation very good?

What Kind of Training Materials Are Provided. Look to see what they will provide to help learn how to use the program, or at least understand it, as well as any support materials thay may offer such as banners, swipes, etc.

Do They have Pre-sell Material. This is helpful to presell your leads on the product and if they provide a video, swipes etc. it will help the sales on the launch days. Look also for banners that promote the pre-sell,  and any other pre-sell content available for your use.

What Has Been Their Conversion Rates With This Product or Prior Launches. This will let you know in general how this vendor performs and how his product performs too.

What Are The Commissions. Look for around 8 to 10% commission if you are selling physical products or services,and if it is digital products you are selling, expect commission rates of at least 50%.

Are There Backend Commissions. See how many products are being offered in the sales funnel, and what the commission is for these. Make sure that once you are approved as an affiliate for the front end product that you also will get credit for the back end product sales.

Check For Potential Loss of Sales Commission. Have a look at the sales page to make sure that there are no other options to buy the product such as via a call etc. You do not want to lead traffic to a sales site, only to lose the sale and commission.

After you have done all this, make one last check with colleagues or on forums to see what others may think, then make your decision whether or not to offer this product or series of products to your leads and traffic. It sounds like a lot of work, but the work done in the front end will likely result in more a lot more earnings on the back end…

Good Luck!

CONCLUSION

OK there you go…I hope these tips will get you off and running towards the most successful year ever for your affiliate marketing program! I have 10 more tips that I will be adding soon, I am working on these now.

As always I would appreciate any feedback, suggestions, or comments on what additional tools or tips you may be using for increasing your affiliate sales in 2016.

Thanks!