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.

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.

Technorati Tags: affiliate programs, targeted traffic, build targeted traffic, affiliate marketing strategies, opt-in lists

There are a number of ways to make money with affiliate marketing. Some use articles, some do videos or podcasts, blogs are always a great idea, and your opt-in mailing list should always be your biggest source of affiliate marketing commissions.

But just WHAT you’re promoting makes a big difference too – for example, a one-off sale is usually much easier to make than selling someone into a membership, while a membership sale can mean good repeat (residual) commissions. In most cases the higher the price tag the higher the commission payable, but most affiliates find the difficulty goes up in proportion to the item’s price.

Once in a long while though, a different type of affiliate offer surfaces, as evidenced by Russell Brunson’s 12 Month Internet Millionaire 2.0 This is one you want to jump on right now, because the opportunity only lasts ONE WEEK.

From now until November 11, 2009, Russell is sharing his seminar from StomperNet that details how he went from 6-figures a year to 8 figures a year – heady stuff, and definitely a great watch for every Internet and affiliate marketer! And he’s letting you watch the video for free!

More importantly to affiliates, though, is the affiliate offer that goes with it. As soon as you sign up to watch the video you’ll be given an affiliate link of your own, and Russell is paying out $1.00 for each person you refer that watches the free video.

Did you catch that?

The $1 per person is paid to you for those you refer to the free video – not for anyone buying anything! So you’re making money without any sales taking place! Why would he do something like this – pay YOU for sending viewers who may not buy anything?

Next Wednesday, Nov 11th, Russell is launching version 2.0 of Russell Brunson’s 12 Month Internet Millionaire, and he’s counting on converting enough of the free leads to make back his money – and pay our commissions on those sales as well!

So not only do you make money if they eventually buy, but you’re ALSO making money online just by sending people to that free video – a free video that will teach viewers a LOT about how to structure their business to make a lot more money over the next year or two.

And that, fellow affiliates, is the easiest way to make money as an affiliate – by sending people to a free resource that will truly help them. And in this case it’s even easier, since you’re making money just for them watching the video – whether they buy later or not!

But again, this whole Pre-Launch only lasts 7 days, so get your affiliate link NOW and get it out there today! No matter how easy a promotion might be, you’ll never make any money online if you don’t take action! After all, my affiliate link to this promo is throughout this blog post, so I’m just suggesting you do as I do if you want to make more as an affiliate marketer!

[tags]affiliate marketing, making money online, Russell Brunson, 12 Month Internet Millionaire, work-at-home

Professional affiliate marketers know that when you are choosing affiliate products and services to promote, you should use extreme care. By not being careful when choosing which affiliate programs to promote, you will be doing a major disservice to your current and potential customers, as well as yourself.

Successful affiliate marketing involves a bit of front-end research… First, you want to look at the product or service. Is it a good product or service that will solve a problem or fulfill a desire that your market has? Is there are return policy? Is it priced to sell and is there added value? As a customer, is this a product or service that you would by for your self?

Will your customers be served? Is there a customer support ticket system or a toll-free number, as well as a support email address that your customers can use? You do not want to ruin your own affiliate mrketing credibility by offering a product or service that will not serve your customers well, or for which your customers will not be supported properly.

Once you are sure your customers will be well served, it is time to think about yourself and your needs. Is the affiliate commission high enough? Look for affiliate programs that pay at least a 30% commission, and preferably ones that pay 50% if possible. Is there the potential for a residual affiliate income? What about commissions from affiliate’s who sign up under you?

Next, read the affiliate agreement, as well as the terms and conditions. Will you be able to promote the products or services in the way that you choose? How often will you be paid and what method is used for payments. Under what circumstances will you not be paid.

Are sales and clicks tracked, as well as affiliate commissions owed and commissions paid? Is there a support forum for affiliates and/or an easy way to contact the affiliate manager? What about promotional materials? Are you provided with banners, sales letters, ads, articles, and free give-a-ways?

Finding out all of this information shouldn’t take more than just a few minutes of your time, and it is time well spent. Many hours and lots of potential affiliate commissions have been lost simply because affiliates don’t take the time to choose their affiliate programs with care. Your affiliate marketing is a BUSINESS – and like all businesses, doing your due diligence is a necessary part of affiliate marketing success!

©2009 Captain-Affiliate.com. All Rights Reserved.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, affiliate commissions, sales, agreements, marketing, commissions, promote, payments, success

The easiest affiliate marketing sales to make are continuously eluding 95% of all affiliates – not because most affiliates don’t approve of them or choose to ignore them, but because they are outside the realm of most affiliates’ experience.

I’m talkin, of course, about affiliates commissions made on the backend after someone downloads a free gift. The affiliate either gives away the gift or refers prospects to a free gift, and makes their affiliate commissions on anything the person then buys, either through links in the gift itself or from the One-Time-Offer on the download site.

Let me give you a prime example of each…

Twice a year, the big FreePLR giveaway offers great free products with unrestricted private label rights from some of the best-known names in Internet marketing. After joining the FreePLR Affiliate Program, you, as an affiliate, send your link to your list telling them about the 20 free gifts from people like Willie Crawford, Jeff Dedrick, Doug Champigny & Nicheology’s Paul Evans. Once your referral signs up for the site, they are shown a $47.00 OTO for 50 additional e-books they can download. Should that person decide to take that OTO, your affiliate commission is 50% or $23.50 for each sale.

This is very powerful for you as an affiliate – your subscriber wins because you showed them where to get 20 free PLR products, the site wins by getting a new member and a new sale, and you win from both happier list members AND the commissions from the OTO sale.

Will every referral end up taking the OTO? No, of course not. But that’s no different from any other affiliate promotion you do – only a small percentage of prospects you send to any one offer will buy, and this is no different. So why not remember to promote the higher-end giveaways like the FreePLR event, both to give your list great free resources and to boost your affiliate earnings?

The second option works equally well – you give away a free resource that has your affiliate links already branded inside the e-book. Since you’re the one giving away the e-book, you can choose to leave it online year-round – just schedule any promotions you do for it to run between the giveaways you promote, as opposed to at conflicting times.

Now don’t worry – it’s not like you have to create these e-books yourself… There are various places you can get them already ready to go, provided by the merchant themselves and ready to brand with your own affiliate links. The source I like best for them, since it covers a number of topics and a number of different affiliate programs, is run by well-know Internet marketing ‘big dog’ Jeff Dedrick.

His brandable e-books site provides numerous brandable e-books for you to give away after inserting your own affiliate links in them. In fact, Jeff even provides the squeeze pages for you to give them away from! This basic service is free, and there are higher-level services available too if you decide to opt for one of the paid levels of membership. To see what all’s available free, just take a look at Jeff Dedrick’s Viral E-Book site here.

So there you have it. Affiliate marketing will never be easier than just giving away free resources. I’m sure by now ideas for promoting these through your mailing lists, article submissions, blog posts, tweets, podcasts and videos are running through your head – after all, what can be easier to promote than valuable products for free.

Making money as an affiliate just doesn’t get any easier than this, so why not add a few of these to your current affiliate promotions and boost your affiliate commissions almost on autopilot? To get started, join the FreePLR Affiliate Program here, then get your free brandable e-books from Jeff Dedrick’s site here.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate commissions, affiliate programs, Internet marketing, FreePLR, viral e-books, brandable e-books, Jeff Dedrick, marketing, free giveaways, free e-books, free gifts, marketing