Affiliate products, as the name suggest, are products that you promote as an affiliate whereby you earn some commissions if you make a sale or create a new lead for the product owner. I think the reason for promoting any affiliate product is very obvious. It’s money.
Of course then there are some exceptions. There will be times when you want to do some friends a favor or times when you came across something that is really useful for your readers. In instances like these, money will not come into play. Rather it is done as more of a social service and giving something back to the community. However, these will not be a common occurrence and even when it is done, it is more of a recommendation or introduction rather than a promotion for it is done without any obligations.
How Do You Promote An Affiliate Product
From a serious Internet Marketer’s perspective, most will do PPC marketing using Adsense Ads or now, Facebook Ads which is fast gaining popularity. It is the fastest way of getting targeted traffic and if their skill is good, they stand to make good profit. Yes, it takes good skills to come up with a good Ad copy which attracts the right kind of traffic.
It is easy to write an Ad copy that attracts lots of clicks. It is DIFFICULT to write a copy that attracts the RIGHT kind and which is, BUYING TRAFFIC. Attracting all the wrong clicks will only see your Ad budget depleting very fast without seeing any sales.
Getting the right traffic is only the first step, writing a good sales copy that hasten their decision to buy when they land on your site is the crucial part. If you have mastered both, then you are on your way to great richness. Regretfully, I haven’t, despite reading all those free ebooks that promises me that I can.
Promoting Affiliate Products Through Your Blog
Another very popular way done by amateurs like me is promoting affiliate products through our blog. Lots of blogs show affiliate product banners like those you see here. However, most are there just as a showpiece to make the blog look a little bit ‘professional’ if I may use the word. In most cases, those banners never make a single penny.
In all honesty, the only banner that makes me money here is the one from Elegant Themes and the slider bar. The others are here for other reasons which I best not say because I might sound foolish if I did, so you make your own assumptions.
Factors which I realize though are, if you want to promote something in your blog;
- Make sure it is something that is related to your topic or your niche.
- Make sure you know the product inside out.
- Make sure you do a good review of the product
- Make sure you follow up on your review occasionally
But then of course I am sure you have heard or read all these before. The thing is, not many takes the trouble to do them, expecting their readers to simply click on the banners and simply buy something. If it is as easy as that, then every one who has a blog will be a potential millionaire.
Change Affiliate Products When One Do Not Sell
A mantra chanted by Internet marketers is ‘Test, Test, Test’. If one method does not work, try another. If one product is not selling as expected, sell another. If you have done all of the above and still you get no sales or sign ups after 3 months or more, then there must be something wrong.
Maybe the sales page of your affiliate product is not convincing enough. Maybe the price is not competitive. There could be tons of reasons, but as an amateur affiliate, you do not and need not find out. You simply move on to another product. There is no need for whining and no need for crying nor is there any need to waste your time on a product which do not sell.
All the above is written with the opinion that you are serious in wanting to make some money by promoting affiliate products in your blogs. Be reminded that you will never make as much as those full time affiliate marketers who invest their earnings to promote many products for a living. They are professionals. You and I are just amateurs, so expect not a professional’s payout from promoting affiliate products.
well, it is almost a proverb that most people fail in affiliate marketing. As you already know that most folks out there are just like you and me, so what you should do is start selling an e-book on “How Not to Fail In Affiliate Marketing Like Most People”! Or something similar. Make yourself the authority on how to help these failed affiliates.
I think I will have to wait till I make my first million from Affiliate Marketing before I qualify myself to write such a book.
Most people fail in anything they start. This is why you don’t see every guy having his own business. The failing part isn’t what’s bothering though.
Edison has made the bulb after approximately 10,000 experiment. It’s mostly the unwillingness to try again and again and again and again until you succeed.
Hence people don’t succeed in affiliate marketing (or any other business) because they lack of persistence.
“Fail often to succeed sooner.”.
All these persistence and never give up motivational stuff sounds reasonable enough. But on the hand, being persistence or what I call stubborn to accept the fact that one cannot achieve it after after a long period of time and wasted lots of money, then PERSISTENCE is can be the path to failure as well. I know one will say if you don’t try you never know. What I am saying is there is a LIMIT to persistence.
The important thing is to know how long to persist and to persevere.
Once we realize that we are chasing a lost hope, it is time to give up and move on, especially so in the virtual world when things and circumstances changes ever so often.
When the tide has turn against us, there is no point wasting any more time swimming against it.
and this is why there very few know heroes and achievers for 2000 years. Cause people Limit their persistence.
Seriously when Ford invented the first internal combustion engine, after 5 years and wasting millions with the whole world saying it’s impossible to make such thing.. yeah I guess he was stubborn, just think about it when you driver your car now days.
And I guess 10,000 failed tries can be called stubborn yet your house benefits from the light at night. But hey those people where stubborn and HAD to limit their persistence.
I bet they feel pretty stupid now for not giving up earlier (*end of sarcasm*)
Just for the sake of keeping the ‘argument’ going..
You missed the point so I am using a very crude example to stress it.
If your cat had died, there is no point keeping the carcass because you believed it had 9 lives and would one day resurrect.
My point is and always have been, Know when to give up and move on. Ford, in his essence KNEW he had something going, so he persevered, so did Edison (or was it someone else?).
I do not believe in blind perseverance. It is foolish. When you KNOW fully well that something will work, you persevere. When you realize fully well, after persevering for months or years, something will NEVER work or is never going to work the way you planned it, you move on to other more worthwhile things.
And you might have to keep moving 10,000 times and try 10,000 times before you land on that something. That is the kind of perseverance I am trying to stress.
Then later on, when you have succeeded, you will indeed feel stupid for not giving up on those ‘impossible dreams’ earlier.
Well after it has been achieved it’s easy to say “he had something going on”. What if he didn’t. There’s another example where a guy bought a mine and decided to dig for gold.
He found something but it was barely enough. Two years later he though “he had nothing going on
” and that the mine is dead and sold it to a guy, who hired a geologist to inspect the mine. Turns out, they only had to dig 2 meters to the left to find what’s know to be the biggest gold mine now days.
I don’t see why this can’t be applied to ur example with affiliate marketing. Someone tries over and over and gives up, when the answer might have been right there “2 meters” next to him.
Anyways my point wasn’t to start an argument just state a bit different opinion and general view
Exactly. That poor guy did not know and he did not bother to find out for sure before he gave up the gold mine. Why did he not hire a geologist himself before he sold out?
Just as in the case of affiliate marketing, when the product owner decides to do something that I know for sure will not benefit me anymore, I will move on to another product.
But it is a nice argument! I like it