What sets the top-earning affiliate marketers apart from those with average earnings? And how can you build an email list for affiliate marketing?
For me, there are three key strategies I implement that most affiliates overlook.
The Purpose of Affiliate Marketing is List Building
Commissions are just a way to monetize building the list. Usually my profit is at least double what I’ve spent on traffic, but even if it was only break-even I have a very good chance of being profitable because of the list.
Bypassing the merchant (see point 2) and building my own list means follow-up. Even the most pathetically, terrible follow-up sequence tends to double sales.
Top Affiliates Take Responsibility for Closing the Sale
Since Ken Evoy said affiliates shouldn’t try to sell a product – that should be left to the product vendor, according to him – affiliates have assumed a certain passive role. IE, put up a banner ad or insert a link at the end of an article and hope for the best.
My approach to affiliate marketing is what I call “Replace the Merchant”. I do not ever want to appear to be an affiliate, but rather I want my sites to appear as THE merchant. The buy button is on my site. Using some linking trickery (Link Loader/Soda Popper) I then send people straight into the shopping cart, while ensuring my affiliate tracking cookie is placed. This approach is especially useful in the case of a good product with poor web marketing.
Top Affiliate Marketers are Willing to Pay for the Best Traffic
There is no free traffic. You’re not putting yourself ahead by spending six months trying to game the search engines for top ranks. I have evidence that ranking multiple sites in the top-10 Google search results isn’t as effective as one paid ad.
Paid traffic is relatively low-risk if you know the correct keyword phrases to advertise on. Think 80/20 . . . except it’s more like 95/5. Use very few keyword phrases in your campaigns, but make them the most highly targeted that are possible. Guitar > No! Gibson Les Paul Menace > Yes!
I’ve been in this game for a very long time now and I’ve never met a successful marketer that relied on organic search engine traffic. It might be a part of the mix for some, sure, but it’s never the “go to”.
This is how to build an email list for affiliate marketing.
In essence, be as proactive, strategic and aggressive as possible. Do not wait for someone else to make your living for you. YOU, affiliate marketing pro, own the prospect; you are not simply a traffic conduit assuming all of the risk. It’s what’s been taught over and over, but it’s pure foolishness. You must find ways to turn the tables in your favor – you’re just as important as anyone else in the equation, or at least you should see yourself that way.
