The 3 Biggest Problems With Affiliate Programs And How To Avoid Them
By Rockford Tapscott
It's a sad fact that of all the people who become affiliates and try to build a business around marketing, the vast majority fail to ever receive even one commission check. And of the ones who do earn an income as affiliates, most earn so little that it's pretty much a waste of their precious time and energy.
After coaching over 100 students in building websites and marketing, I've noticed three main reasons why many people don't earn the sort of checks that they deserve for the time they invest in their business.
Incorrect Niche Selection - Get This Wrong And You Have Set Yourself Up To Fail
I've seen people go into niche markets (against my strong advice) where there's been very little chance of making a good income from the programs and products available. To maximize your chances of becoming a high earning affiliate, you need a niche market that has -
* Plenty of interest (lots of search volume and merchant competition) from people who are passionate (even bordering on being irrational) about learning everything they can to get better at whatever it is they do. They also need to have plenty of money to spend to make sure they get what they want. You must avoid markets that have no money or where people want and expect everything for free, or they are only willing to pay a few dollars for products.
* A range of in-demand, high ticket products that are actually selling on the Internet (many people online have an aversion to investing in 'real' products and instead buy the latest cheap junk promoted by everyone else) so you have a variety of options to offer your website visitors and list members. This doesn't mean you have to promote a constant stream of different products, but it gives you the option to test and measure results until you find something that works really well in that market.
* Product promoters who are marketing savvy and who know how to hit their market's hot buttons and encourage people to buy on an ongoing basis. If you are promoting products as an for people who are not marketers, you will struggle to earn a reasonable income and you'll waste a lot of valuable leads between each sale you make.
Look for markets that have these three things and you could be onto a winner.
Promoting Low Priced Products Without Having A High Ticket Product Waiting In The Wings
Let's face it, unless you have a lot of website traffic or a large, responsive email list it's very difficult to make a lot of money if all you are selling is low priced products such as ebooks and Mp3 audio files. The most expensive of these sell for around $97 and with the typical commission set at around 50%, you'll only earn a maximum of $48.50 less any payment processing fees. It takes a lot of $48.50's to add up to a reasonable income.
By promoting high ticket products through a stepped, sequential marketing system (something like offering a Free Report to capture the visitor's contact details, a Free Initial Consultation with the product owner to discuss the prospects needs and goals, continual email follow up and special incentive offers) your chances of making some 'real' money are massively increased.
There simply isn't enough profit in low priced products for most merchants to be bothered going to the trouble of setting up a system like this to help you promote their stuff, so most low priced products simply don't have a sequential follow up marketing system in place to maximize your conversions.
Typically, here's what happens -
You send your prospects your link, about 10% of them visit the merchant's website, and they either buy or they don't (and in about 98% of cases, they don't). With a typical sales letter converting at something like 1% to 3%, you have to go through a lot of prospects to earn that $48.50.
Worse still, the product normally has a 30 to 60 day 'cookie' and if your prospect buys after this time (or returns to the merchant's site through somebody else's link) you don't get credit for the sale. The important thing here is to make sure your merchant has a long-term, no-overwrite cookie - it should last for at least 12 months, and preferably longer.
If your merchant is serious about building their business through their affiliates, they'll have a long term, no-overwrite cookie in place to make sure you get proper credit for all of your sales. And if you are serious about becoming a top-earning marketer, you'll promote merchants who offer high-ticket products as part of their range.
Not Having
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