INTRODUCTION
Hi and welcome to Successful Affiliate Strategies, where you will discover over 8
powerful methods you can use to offer a boost to your affiliate commissions from selling
other people’s products and services.
This guide discusses some of the methods you’ve probably not heard of, whereas other
methods you’ve thought would never work. In a real essence, it’s really only a matter of
doing it right and you can make a living off affiliate marketing.
Which is really fascinating, because you can earn big commissions just promoting
products you DON’T even have to create!
Of course, like everything else in life, it takes multiple practices to reach the top level.
But I assure you that through the coming pages, I can help you reduce your learning
curve significantly and you will make less guesswork… and mistakes!
I have written this book as short and precise as possible. Because I know you’re a very
busy individual (and it takes no guess), and above all, I also know that you’re excited
and that you can hardly wait. ☺
Without further ado, let’s quickly cover the first of the 8 methods you can use in boosting
your affiliate promotion… and the commissions!
Using Classified Ads
The process of using classified ads to generate sales for any product – whether it be an
original product or an affiliate product – is often over-simplified and discouraged. This is,
in part, because it actually is one of the harder ways in which you can advertise.
It requires you to use a small amount of words to communicate an important point,
which will either make or break your ability to garner interest in the product in question.
In most cases, supposed experts will discourage you from using classified ads because
they themselves have never had much luck using them – NOT because classified ads
aren’t a viable method of advertising.
So how can you use classified ads correctly to generate a considerable amount of
traffic to your affiliate product sales page?
The first step entails finding viable places to advertise. Again, many of the so-called
experts will jump in and either tell you to use free sites or that free sites never work. carefully. For instance, if you want to generate traffic from sites that allow you to post
free classifieds, you will have to find ones that actually receive traffic themselves.
One example of a site that receives a massive amount of traffic, but also allows you to
post classified ads for free is craigslist, which you can find at the following URL:
http://www.craigslist.com
As long as you post classified ads in the proper section, you can do it completely free of
charge. Additionally, you can do this on each of the craigslist sites for the metropolitan
areas in the United States.
Another place you can post free classified ads is Yahoo. You can find this feature at the
following URL: http://classifieds.yahoo.com/.
Again, as long as its on topic, you can post a classified at for whatever you want.
Now, with this in mind, you will want to consider the best way in which you can construct
your classified ad. I personally suggest creating a headline or first line that uses
psychological triggers.
Remember! With classifieds, you’re not paying by the click. It’s either free or you’re
paying for a certain period of time or impressions, so your goal should be to generate as
many clicks as possible, so use words like “cheap,” “free,” “proven,” and “shocking” to
draw attention to your ad.
Once you have successfully drawn attention to your ad through the headline, you will
then want to seal the deal by providing viewers with a reason to click through, provided
that your affiliate product is something they will want to buy. You can do this by explicitly
stating a quantifiable benefit in the second line of the classified ad – and then stating a
crucial feature in the third line.
Once you have gained some experience posting ads on free classified ad mediums, you
will want to move on to major electronic publications, including large e-zines and
authority sites; however, before you do this, you could be confident in the classified ad
and your conversion rate.
Leveraging with E-zine Advertising
Warning! If you’re ever bored and want to stir up some trouble, go to an
Internet marketing forum and post a question asking how well E-zine
advertising fares in comparison to other marketing methods.
each marketer has his own product to sell – and it is in his best interest to justify the
purpose of that product – but it is also because there has been a genuine debate raging
for the past few years about the effectiveness and direction of E-zines and E-zine
advertising.
There are those who posit that E-zine advertising is dead or is near the bottom of a very
steep decline. They see the average person as being overwhelmed by superfluous
emails on a daily basis – some coming from friends and others coming from businesses
and E-zines.
In their eyes, this amounts to a continuing decrease in attention paid to any emails that
look business related, even if they specifically subscribed to them.
Additionally, they argue that many people forget that they joined lists and eventually
begin to ignore emails coming from that address. And all of this is true – which is
precisely why it is important to take it into consideration when you are conducting E-zine
advertising campaigns.
So how can you affectively advertise in E-zines and reap a profit from affiliate
products?
There are a number of different ways, of which, I will cover three below:
1. Target E-zines that are related to your specific affiliate product.
Create a viral report that is related to your affiliate product (as we discussed in
the previous lesson). Purchase sponsor ads in reputable E-zines – and send all
of those interested to a page where they can download your viral report for free.
This report will have an embedded affiliate link, which will generate sales on your
behalf.
2. Create a persuasive solo ad.
Again, start off by purchasing solo ad space in cheaper E-zines – ones that are
responsive, but have a low subscription count. Test your solo ads to determine
your approximate conversion rate with the given affiliate product. Once you have
a rough handle on your profit margin, attempt to market your solo ads in larger
publications, including e-zines with subscriber bases of over 100,000. Keep in
mind that this will be expensive, but it will also pay off if you did your homework
in the previous steps.
3. Last, consider targeting high-end online publications with your ads.These will include ones that don’t normally include their sites in E-zine
directories, such as authority sites that publish a monthly E-zine in PDF format.
These often have high response rates and will similarly draw the best response if
you use them correctly.
For regular E-zines with reasonable fees, you will want to check out the following site,
which lists most E-zines that offer advertising:
http://www.ezineadvertising.com/cgi-bin/pz.cgi
If you’re looking for something less expensive, you may want to check out the following
URL:
http://www.ezinead.net/
http://www.ezines-r-us.com/
Solo Ads – Outmoded or Back in Style?
Now we’re going to go over solo ads:
For years, Internet marketers have asserted that solo ads are simply outmoded – they’re
a dinosaur that no longer has the potential to reap any profits; however, another group of
Internet marketers knows that the exact opposite is the truth: solo ads can reap
massive profits, but in order to do so, they must be engineered perfectly, as must
the selection of the solo ad distributor.
A solo ad can be a number of things. Usually, it is a large ad between 200 and 300
words that is placed at the very center of a page. The rate on solo ads is higher than on
all other potential options, but it also captures readers’ attention the most by far. If you
have the money to spend on a solo ad, it can be an excellent investment.
However, as with all investments (and advertisements for that matter), you must conduct
your due diligence. This involves a considerable amount of research.
Now, when conducting research for a solo ad, there are two things you will want to look
at:
1) The first is a list of your potential advertising outlets (in this case, probably
e-zines); and
2) A list of potential approaches you can take on your solo ad.
Let’s start with the first part – finding a list of e-zines in which you can put a solo ad. I
personally suggest starting with Directory of E-zines, which you can find at the following
URL:
http://www.directoryofezines.com/
This is the ultimate resource for advertisers who want access to all e-zines and also
want tips for advertising in them. If you don’t have any money to spend, I would suggest
starting here instead:
http://www.ezine-dir.com/
Once you have selected reputable e-zines to advertise in, you will then want to begin
creating your solo ad. There are a number of writing “formulas” you can use to do this;
however, you will always want to keep in mind what it is that your potential customer
wants most.
In advertising, it is often easy to project our own wants in a given product onto potential
buyers; however, it is important – when communicating with them – that you talk about
their wants, not yours.
Now, when it comes to creating solo ads, I personally suggest that you spend some time
at the following URL, learning about what it takes to convert readers into buyers:
http://www.copywritersboard.com/.
Furthermore, I suggest that you go beyond simply writing copy and write as you would in
the specific medium. For instance, if your solo ad will be featured in an e-zine, then you
will want to write as if you are contacting members of a mailing list about a special offer
or something similar. You may even want to refer to the owner of the list by his/her first
name if (s)he allows that.
Keep all of these skills in mind when conducting solo ad campaigns. All you have to do
is select the right advertising mediums and create an excellent ad – and your effort will
pay off three fold.
