Earlier this summer, we released Affiliate Marketing 101: The Crash Course Edition. That post shared what it takes to BE an affiliate marketer and the 4 things you need to be doing to be successful.
I thought it would be helpful to write a follow-up article, not only to continue to educate and train you but also to give you further insight on affiliate marketing.
(If you haven’t read the first one yet, I highly recommend you start there so everything makes sense.)
The question you’re probably left with after reading Affiliate Marketing 101 is simple: where do I want to start and where do I find resources?
Today, I’m going to answer that question by giving you actionable steps and reveal what WE do in our business.
In this article, I plan to share the following with you:
- The lowest hanging fruit for Affiliate Marketers
- The second lowest hanging fruit to get started.
- The 3 E’s – Educate, Engage, and Edify
- Build, Scale, Grow – Scaling to a real and sustainable business
First, let’s talk about the 2 ways you can grow your affiliate marketing business.
Method 1. Launch Jacking
When I started in 2009, I did something called “launch jacking,” and it’s the easiest way to capture and engage your audience.
The idea is simple; Instead of going after existing high-targeted keywords like, “make money online” or “internet marketing,” you go after long tail keywords that won’t be relevant until the product goes live.
Read below and I’ll share EXACTLY what I did, and what you can do:
1. Find your topic
First, you need to find your marketing topic.
I discovered that there is world of “releases” or “product launches” that can be easily accessed from sites like these:
Muncheye – Internet Marketing Based Launches
JV Notify Pro – Another source of products and releases
Clickbank – Existing evergreen products
JVZoo – Find hot launches
Now the point of this research is simple. Find hot upcoming or evergreen products you can promote!
Most of the time you will find a “JV” or “Affiliate” page where you can learn more about the product and even see a full demo.
Typically, you will also find out what upsells/upgrades are offered in the funnel and learn details surrounding the release of the product.
The goal is also simple: find out what products are a few weeks out from being launched and make sure they’re from a reputable vendor that has a proven success rate. Usually these are people you purchased a product from previously or are well-known in the industry.
2. Get your domain
Next, get a domain name from Namecheap – roughly about $7-$10 depending on the domain name.
This domain name should be something like “product name review” or product name bonus” or “product name demo.” Something that is very strongly centered around the product name and being a representative of the product.
You can also get a generic domain, but your strength of ranking on Google will be much tougher for each product you do, so I highly recommend a new domain for each product you promote.
3. Get hosting
Find a web host, such as Hostgator or WP Engine (for wordpress only). Start with something really basic, as you don’t need a big plan when you’re just starting out.
4. Install WordPress
This can be done easily by the host OR you can get someone on Fivverr to take care of it for you.
5. Choose your own theme
There’s a ton of great “review” themes out there, if you don’t have one, do a quick google search.
6. Get your affiliate links & product access
Simple task. Apply, let them know you’re going to be doing a review articles and ask for review access. (You have a 50/50 shot with this)
Now if they say no, which will happen as a newbie, you need to make a decision. You could:
- Buy a copy yourself! Why? Because if you’re promoting something, you need a clear understanding of the product, the angle, and why your audience needs it.
- Wing it. I highly recommend staying away from this tactic, but on a limited budget I can understand it. Just remember, you’re doing a DISSERVICE to your audience with this.
7. Write a post or get one written
There are two ways to approach this:
- If you’re confident that with the information provided you can write a strong post – about 750-1500 words or more, then start with that.
- If you’re weak in that department, you can hire a ghostwriter to read the affiliate page and write you an article. You can use places like Upwork, Freelancer, or iWriter to get these articles written.
Your goal is simple. Plan to have 1 or 2 strong, detailed, content-heavy posts that really explain what’s being offered and why they need it.
8. GO LIVE!
You’re all set. Get your first post live, make sure the keywords you need are included AND your affiliate links are inside the page.
Your goal is to have the page rank organically with fresh new content, heavy keywords, and a domain name that is related to the keyword.
PRO TIP: Give bonuses or incentives to buy from your link.
This one may be tough for people, but when I started, I got a membership to a PLR site that had lots of great content. I would offer a few of them as a bonus for buying through my link.
Remember, the traffic that comes with these types of sites is highly targeted BUYER traffic.
In most cases people came across your page by searching “product name review” and stumbled upon your site and therefore the key is to educate and engage your visitor. (We’ll share more on that later in this article.)
PRO TIP: Keep in mind, it won’t always work.
I want to be clear that if you’re late to start on the product launch, you probably won’t have enough time to rank for the keyword. I suggest you start about 30 days out in order to have a clear idea and plenty of time in order to rank and optimize.
Need examples? Go to Google right now, type in “Doodly review” and see what comes up!
Now – this method is time tested and works still to this day. Some of the largest affiliates in the world still use the “review” angle as their way of getting free traffic.
Method 2. Video Reviews
Let me break down the same concept for video:
- You still need to find the best product that fits YOU. (Refer to step 1 above)
- You’ll need a strong screen capture tool like: Camtasia or Screenflow.
- You need a webcam & microphone (if possible) for you to speak.
- A YouTube account – it’s free. If you have a Gmail address, you have an account already.
- Get your affiliate links & product access (step 6 above)
- Create your video!
Now this is the part that makes you go… OH OH… but let me tell you how it works.- Identify yourself, who you are and what you plan to do.
- Don’t be afraid to BE REAL. “Umms…” are acceptable. People want to know you are a REAL PERSON and not just some marketing ploy.
- Ask for the sale! In the next section, we’ll break down what you need to do in every website post or video, but remember this. ALWAYS BE SELLING. That means you need to do it by ASKING for the sale.
- Post your Video on Youtube.
- Use a custom thumbnail that will attract your visitors to click on your video.
- Make sure you fill out the TAGS, as these are KEYWORDS that Google ranks you on. So start off with product name, add things like review, bonus, demo, and more.
Example: If I was promoting something like Doodly – I would create tags like: doodly, doodly bonus, doodly review, doodly demo, demo, review, bonus, doodle animation, white board, black board, sketch videos, doodle videos, internet marketing, digital marketing, jimmy kim, snaptactix.
Descriptions are VERY important and you’ll quickly learn which tags are most effective.
- Make sure you fill out all the relevant info and put a call to action to get more info. The first line should be something like, “For more info on Product Name, visit us here – http://linkgoeshere.com”
With YouTube, they only display the first line until the user clicks “show more,” so you need to leverage that.
- Make sure to add annotations and here’s how.
- Also, use a tool like ClickPerfect to TRACK your links, that way you make sure you can see if a visitor clicked from your video to website.
- PUBLISH – very simple. Make it live!
PRO TIPS:
- Don’t be scared to talk on camera and just try and talk as you normally do. BUT if you’re scared, write a script and either have a voice over artist read it OR you can read it without a webcam and just show your screen so you can read and highlight the talking points accordingly.
- Get to the point. You have 15 seconds to capture the audience. Do it FAST.
- Turn OFF monetization. If you signed up for Google Adwords and you have monetization on your YouTube Channel, turn it off. Your goal is not to make 10 cents for the ad per view, but to entice and sell the customer.
Need examples? Go to Youtube right now, type in “ClickPerfect review” and see what comes up.
You’ll quickly discover TONS of great reviews – and people you can learn from and model your style after!
Now that you have two ways to start your affiliate marketing business, it’s time to get SERIOUS.
The 3 E’s – Educate, Engage, and Edify
The 3 E’s is my way of making sure everything I do is always SELLING in one way or another. It can be done in multiple videos, articles, emails, or in 1 shot.
I always recommend you are thinking of this actively in anything you do marketing wise!
That’s why I want to explain to you the meaning of the 3 E’s. They are: Educate, Engage, and Edify.
Educate
In 2017, it’s important to be TRANSPARENT. Don’t use “click bait” or try to trick your visitor. You need to make sure you’re positioning yourself as the person that wants to HELP them.
Engage
You have 15 seconds to give them a reason to WANT to keep watching or reading. Think about yourself and what you would want to learn. Your viewer/visitor wants the same.
Edify
This means to ask for the sale or the call of action. TELL your visitor or viewer to click on the link or click on the link in the description and do not be afraid to ask for the sale. They watched the video or read your article, they want YOU to tell them what to do!
Pro Tip: Click through to watch my video training on the 3 E’s. This is a great resource for anyone ESPECIALLY if you’re an email marketer!
In our business, it’s important to make sure anything we do has purpose. Even in this article, you’ll see tons of affiliate links inside it along with calls to actions for you to grab tools or resources.
And if you’re reading still and you’ve gotten this far, I can put my money that you’ve at least clicked or saved one link in this post.
Why? Because I’m doing a great job at educating and engaging you, and I’m edifying you to CLICK on links or take action on a particular action step. 🙂
Now to the last part – Build, Grow, and Scale!
The idea is simple, none of the tips and steps today will make you a pro. Setting up 1 site or video, won’t make you money.
This is a volume game, so it takes time.
When I first started, I used to make at least 1 or 2 sites a week, following my exact steps, and eventually and collectively, I was able to grow all my sites to start turning an average of $5k a month.
1 sale from 1 site. 1 from another. 1 from another… and so on!
In order to create volume, you need to build and grow. It’s not a set and forget type of thing.
There are 20+ releases that happen per week, so there’s plenty of options for you to create these sites.
You need to maintain comments, you need to build upon each other, and don’t forget, grab a tool like Sendlane to capture email addresses as well.
Advanced Affiliate Marketing – Final Thoughts
It would take me days to write out all the methods and strategies on getting started and being successful with Affiliate Marketing.
With this advanced affiliate marketing article and Affiliate Marketing 101 – you should have enough information to take actionable steps to start your affiliate marketing online business.
There are a lot more tricks and techniques out there, but this is my personal favorite as it’s the EXACT way I got started online 8+ years ago and it’s also the way that many still continue to maximize and grow their business.
So I hope YOU have learned a ton today from this information and you can go forward with these steps and start or grow your online business.
If you enjoyed this article, please make sure you share with us, what part of the Affiliate Marketing series you liked most, what action plan you plan to follow, and any questions in the comment section BELOW.
‘Til next time…
Jimmy Kim
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