Using Your Affiliate Program To Drive Targeted Traffic and Build Opt-In Lists
Using Your Affiliate Program To Drive Targeted Traffic and Build Opt-In Lists
©2010 Doug Champigny, http://captain-affiliate.com. All Rights Reserved.
When first starting an online work-at-home business, most Internet marketers make two common mistakes with regards to setting up and running their own affiliate program – first, they wait too long to set one up and second, they don’t maximize it’s capability to build targeted traffic and build opt-in lists simultaneously.
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So just when should an Internet marketing newbie start their affiliate program? As soon as they put their first product online, whether it be a master resell rights product or one of their own creation. There won’t be a stampede of traffic from affiliates looking to promote your product, but at least you should be able to attract a few and get the affiliate program running.
Using your affiliate program to build opt-in lists is another matter – this takes a bit more work, but also should up your conversion rate noticeably and help those in your affiliate program to make more money from your products.
Normally an affiliate program offers the affiliates banners, buttons, sample e-mail copy, tweets, etc. to promote the products. The latest development in affiliate marketing is to now include funnels that begin with a free gift of considerable value. Upload a free report, e-book, audio, video, etc, and put it behind a squeeze page so people have to opt-in to see it or download it.
That signup puts them into an autoresponder-based e-course that provides more useful information over 10-15 e-mails, along with pitches for the product. Do not use affiliate links in this e-course but just direct links to the salespage, since you don’t want to overwrite the affiliate cookie of the referring affiliate.
This arrangement gives more value to the prospect while giving the merchant more chances to sell the product, and can increase the affiliates’ chances of making the sale and earning more affiliate commissions. And have no doubt – the more money affiliates make from your program, the more ways they’ll find to send more targeted traffic to your sites.
These new affiliate funnels are not hard to set up for each of your products, but it’s easy to see how they’d really turbo-charge your efforts to build targeted traffic and build opt-in lists quickly, since each person who downloads your gift or watches your video is added to your opt-in list right from the start. And getting other to help you build opt-in lists is always a good thing!
About The Author…
Doug Champigny, a.k.a. Captain Affiliate, is a world-famous Internet marketing coach, mentor, speaker and the creator of the PowerStart Marketing 4-week Internet Marketing Crash Course. To learn more about Doug or to book him to speak at your next event, contact him through his blog at http://DougChampigny.com.
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8 comments
Mike Paetzold - Follow this person as @mikepaetzold on Twitter
on January 28, 2010 at 7:02 AM
Definitely a good idea. The easier you make it for affiliates to make money the more they will promote you.
Mike Paetzold´s last blog ..Understanding how your blog works
Lady Gaga fan on January 28, 2010 at 9:06 AM
Also, look after affiliates when you’ve got them – it’s usually not hard for them to go elsewhere.
Lady Gaga fan´s last blog ..Lady Gaga – Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say) – music video
DrKeithCurrie on January 28, 2010 at 1:10 PM
I know a good number of people at internet earning money with affiliate marketing. While it is a free business without big investment. Affiliate marketing may be Nice job for all who are interested.
DrKeithCurrie´s last blog ..Chiropractic Marketing
Andre Arnett - Follow this person as @learningaffil on Twitter
on January 28, 2010 at 6:03 PM
Some more outstanding information that we can all use. I like the idea of providing the affiliates with the tools to help sell your products. Now is that something you would make up yourself or would it be easier to outsource it?
Andre Arnett´s last blog ..Why Do You Want OTOs, UpSells, Downsells And Backends
What is a good email software program to use with windows 7? | Business Email List on January 30, 2010 at 9:41 PM
[...] Using Your Affiliate Program To Drive Targeted Traffic and Build … [...]
Romona Burns on January 30, 2010 at 10:04 PM
This is just what I needed for a little extra push. I’m just finishing up a new ebook. I have been thinking about starting an affiliate program for it. Well, now I must hurry and get it up & running rather than just thinking about it.
Thanks,
Mona
Romona Burns´s last blog ..New Things For 2010
Earl Netwal - Follow this person as @EarlNetwal on Twitter
on January 31, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Right on target for me. I hear you. I should have set up my system earlier. Now that I have a product I want affiliates to push, I realize I could have had them pushing other products of mine all along, and I would have had the system up and been more familiar with it, now that I have a mid-range product I want to push.
Thanks for the tip about not overwriting the cookie. I could easily see my greed factor blowing it for me there. I clearly see that I will make more money in the long run making sure my affiliates get credit for the sale.
Earl Netwal´s last blog ..What’s 18 Months Worth?
Rome Saranto on February 2, 2010 at 7:56 PM
Great post and great info on helping affiliate makes sale smoothly, helping them as much as possible will also help you in the long run, very true.
Rome Saranto ´s last blog ..Cheap Web Site Traffic-Increase Your Traffic Without It Being Expensive