E-commerce is simpler than life. Due to its digital nature, there are fewer
This Reality is almost self-evident, yet it’s so easy to forget. Your success with
anything you do in the world of e-commerce flows from it. Internalize it and act
upon it... and you will succeed.
Yes, it’s that fundamental. And that leads me to…
“Nothing happens by accident in the world of
computers, the Net, and customer response.
There is always a reason for what happens,
good or bad, and that reason is YOU.”
Recently you will have noticed the FLOOD of pay per click software infiltrating the market place.
At the start it was highly effective but times are changing...
Everybody now has the 'secret pay per click software' which in turn creates a "saturation" problem.
The Affiliate Masters Course is an intensive course on becoming a
high-earning affiliate champion.
How? By “building income through content,” the proven, C T P M way!
An affiliate business is one of the easiest ways to get your feet wet in ecommerce.
Follow the natural, proven CONTENT TRAFFIC PRESELL MONETIZE
process…
1) Recognize the fundamental reality of how people use the Web. Eliminate
offline thinking of “location, location, location.” Online, people search for
solutions through “information, information, information” (i.e., Content). So plan
to build a tightly-niched Theme-Based Content Site.
2) Do the critical up-front thinking and planning...
• develop the best site concept/theme, based on what you know and love…
perhaps a hobby or past work experience can be your springboard.
• brainstorm the most profitable topics related to your theme.
• select the best related affiliate programs.
3) Then put yourself into the click path of your visitors. Achieve this by... • delivering customer-focused Content (i.e., information that meets the
needs/wishes of your target group).
• getting Targeted Traffic by building Search-Engine-Optimized pages that rank
highly on a search results page. The higher the ranking, the easier it is for
interested and targeted traffic to find you. More traffic means more potential
sales, which means more potential commissions for you.
• PREselling (i.e., “warming up” your visitors) through valuable content that
establishes credibility. Once you have that, your recommendations carry more
weight. The difference in Conversion Rates between visitors who arrive
PREsold to your merchant’s site via an in-context text link vs. a banner can be as
high as 20-fold.
4) Eliminate dependency on any single source of income. By diversifying
into other complementary Monetization models beyond affiliate programs, you
reduce risk and increase stability. You are protected in case, for example, your
merchant partner goes bankrupt, or shuts down its Web division, or reduces
commissions, or fails on its payments.
Multiple income streams also have the potential to make every visitor to your site
count. A particular offer might not spark any interest but another one may be the
match that lights a fire!
The C T P M process for affiliate marketing boils down to this…
Create searched-for content (the “C”) that pulls in targeted traffic (the “T”).
Warm up (i.e., PREsell) your visitors so that they click on your recommendations
with an open-to-buy attitude (the “P”). And then generate income through those
PREsold visitors (i.e., monetize) using the low-risk affiliate model -- as a primary
source of income (if you have no product or service of your own to sell) or as a
profitable secondary source (the “M”).
Is this process difficult?
Not at all! But do keep in mind that this is not a “get-rich-quick” scheme. You
need to bring effort and passion to the table. After all, you are building more
than a Web site. You are building a real business!
C T P M works, if you work it!
In life, the vast majority of people just keep doing the “same old thing.” Life
seems easier that way. But “doing the same old thing” guarantees the “same old thing.esults.” So in the long run, it’s actually much, much hard
“Where you are today is the result of all the choices and actions that
you have made in your life.”
When he said that, I remember thinking, “You know, he’s right. Except in rare
cases of extraordinarily good or bad luck, people basically end up where they are
as a result of choices they make and courses of action they take.”
People tend to blame a lack of success in life on “bad luck” or “poor timing” or
other people. And yes, at times, that can be accurate. A heck of a lot of factors
beyond our control can blindside us.
“Why do you rob banks?” the officer asked
infamous bank-robber Willy Sutton moments
after he arrested him...
“I go where the money is.”
With this goal in mind...
Let’s say that you love fashion. You eat, live and sleep it. You read all the
fashion magazines. You head straight to that part of any bookstore. Your friends
beg you to talk about something else “for a change!”
It’s time to brainstorm and prune. Initially, you’ll brainstorm as many related
“Keyword-Focused” topics as possible that are related to fashion. Then you’ll
prune out the low-profit-potential ones.
First thing you do? Power up what I will call your “keyword tool center.” There
are three WINDOWS of information that you will be researching...
1) DEMAND
2) SUPPLY
3) BREAKOUT
Open your browser and start with...
WINDOW #1 -- THE DEMAND WINDOW
Time to brainstorm some Keyword-Focused topics with Search It!...
The number in the left column is the number of times that each keyword was
searched in the preceding month at Overture. In a sense, it’s an indication of the
DEMAND (by your potential visitors) for each keyword that contains the word
“fashion.”
> Competition (STEP 1) > Google Single Keyword SUPPLY
(STEP 2) > fashion design (STEP 3)
This specific search yields almost a million pages…
Repeat the same process for each of the “fashion”-containing keywords that you
found in your DEMAND WINDOW. Yes, seriously, do a search for each
keyword. It is a bit tedious, but the research will pay off in spades.
I’ve started your MASTER KEYWORD LIST for you...
KEYWORD DEMAND SUPPLY SUPPLY SITE INFO
fashion 418,114 96,100,000 See NOTE...
from it we understand
NOTE: “Fashion” is too general. Don't bother researching this word for
products/services. The real opportunities lie in the niches, in topic keywords that
have more specificity.
Everyone, absolutely everyone, has a special interest... a passion. Everyone
knows something that is of value to others… something that others on the Net
seek.
Passion makes work fun and easy…
• What is it that you love to talk about? Read about?
• What is your hobby?
• What do you do for fun and games?
• What are your natural talents?
Don’t forget to look right under your nose...
• What special body of knowledge have you learned from your job?
• What do you do day after day, without even thinking about it (ex., child-rearing,
taking care of sick parents, renovation contractor, customs inspector).
Think about what you do in a typical day, and what you’ve learned from it
• What sections of a bookstore or a magazine shop do you automatically
gravitate toward?
• What kind of TV shows do you tend to like most? Movies?
What activities do you enjoy most about your current occupation?...
• Is it research?
• Helping customers achieve their goals?
• Managing other people?
• Teaching or explaining things to others?
• Talking/selling on the phone?
• Organizing things?
• Making a process easier?
• Discovering or creating new products or services?
• Marketing products?
“Do What You Love...
The Money Will Follow”
Goal-of-the-DAY... Identify the top 3 Site Concepts that you know and love.
Before you take this next step, take a moment to decide how you want to spend
your time. Benjamin Franklin gave us this valuable advice to follow…
“By failing to prepare,
you are preparing to fail.”
2.1. PREpare, Not REpair
You have just arrived at the most important part of your entire affiliate business.
Yes, I know some of you haven’t started yet. And I know you really want to get
going! And yes...
Wrapping up the necessary preparation work before you begin “doing business”
on the Net will, of course, delay your grand opening. But it’s important that you
take your time to prepare well now. Then there’ll be nothing to repair or repeat
once you launch. You’ll just roar ahead!
****************************************************
The few hours or so that you spend here,
in preparation, will determine exactly
how big your success will be.
****************************************************
Most people fail in any business because they don’t plan adequately. That’s
three times as true for an Internet business and five times as true for what you
are about to do. Here’s why... Let’s summarize the whole point of PREselling with this question...
Which would you respond to?...
A stranger with a sales pitch?
Or…
A knowledgeable friend making a recommendation?
Your road to success.
You are embarking upon a truly rewarding journey. Have no doubts -- this is
“winnable” e-commerce. It’s totally under your control.
What you are about to read is likely a radical departure from what you have been
doing. Take your time and read carefully. Receive the key to becoming an
Affiliate Master. Your road to success.
You are embarking upon a truly rewarding journey. Have no doubts -- this is
“winnable” e-commerce. It’s totally under your control.
What you are about to read is likely a radical departure from what you have been
doing. Take your time and read carefully. Receive the key to becoming an
Affiliate Master.
Let’s look at examples of how “low-CR affiliates” create negative mindsets by
making HOW-YOU-REACH, WHAT-YOU-SAY, or HOW-YOU-REFER booboos.
We’ll begin at the top…
1) How to Reach Your Visitor...
Free-For-All Sites (FFAs) are a great example of how not to reach people. For
the most part, FFAs have become so seamy and useless that no matter what you
say, you’re doomed from the start. I once made a request to all 5 Pillar
Affiliates for FFA success stories... not a single success story! I won’t bother to
ask again.
Compare this with how smart and open-minded your visitor feels when she
finds you via a Search Engine!
2) What to Say to Your Visitor...
Don’t write a site purely devoted to “hard-selling” your merchants’ products.
Imagine a visitor who hits your site and reads an immediate sales pitch. That
person will resist because she does not know you. Then, if she clicks to your
merchant, she gets another sales pitch on the SiteSell site ==> Negative x 2!
Never devote your site to one company’s product line. No matter what you
do, no matter how sincere you are, this kind of approach always ends up
“smelling”
A good domain name is...
• short and sharp
• meaningful -- conveys a clear message
• easy to spell
• easy to remember
• unique, descriptive, and “you”
• solid, classic, not hokey
In general, if you follow the above guideline for creating your a great domain name. A good domain name ends in “.com,” “.net” or “.org.” These are well established,
unlike some new entities -- “.tv” for example. When you are developing your
domain name, think about your visitor’s mindset. Which name has the most
credibility?
• Accurate, reliable, real-time, online accounting, preferably with some kind of
ability to “audit” by spot-checking
• Detailed traffic and linking stats
• Notification by e-mail when a sale is made
• Useful marketing assistance -- provides traffic-building and sales-getting tools
• High-quality newsletter that educates, trains, and accounts for amounts
earned
• Professional marketing materials available
• Affiliates receive discount on products
Great affiliate support is important for a “between the lines” reason, too. It
indicates a high degree of commitment to the program and its affiliates.
+ Pays good commission -- Hard goods have lower margins than digital ones
so their commissions will be lower. Still, you should make at least 10% (hard
goods) or 20% (digital goods) on any product that you recommend. Don’t be
(which means “good things to look for”). Here they are, in the approximate order
of importance...
+ High quality product or service -- Remember, it’s your reputation that is on
+ Merchant has a good site that sells effectively.
+ Ability for affiliate to link straight to individual products, rather than just to
the home page. (If the visitor has to find the product that you recommend, your
Conversion Rate plummets.)
+ Type of payment model... Pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead are good. This is
true “performance marketing.” If your referred visitor delivers the desired
response, you get paid. What about “pay-per-click?” See red flags below.
One of the major attractions of becoming an affiliate is the small amount of risk
involved. As an affiliate, you have little or no...
• product development expenses
• advertising costs
• inventory to maintain
• overhead expenses (salaries, physical location, etc.)
In other words, affiliates do not have millions at stake.
But you do have one big risk...
If a merchant or backend provider goes out of business, it takes you with it. Let’s
talk briefly about how to minimize this risk...
After you review the affiliate directories and backend providers, you should have
a good selection of programs.
So your best bet is to spread your business among as many programs as
possible that fit with your Site Concept. But there are some important
qualifiers to this policy...
1) If you represent 10 programs, don’t put them all on the same Keyword-
Focused Content Page. Work in only the few that are tightly relevant to the
content of each page.
2) Pick the best-of-breed from each category of merchant. For example, if you
plan on representing a Net marketing company, SiteSell would be the obvious
choice (ahem!).
3) Don’t choose too many programs. Tracking each program takes time, so 10
programs is probably a good balance. If any one of them dies, you don’t lose too
much.
4) Your best results will come from focusing on a smaller group of quality
programs (from within the 10). Their products must...
Showtime! Like any great show, whether it’s baseball, or the theatre, or the
Olympics, a successful outcome is all about preparation. And boy, have you
prepared!
And all that preparation has convinced you that your show should be...
WORLDSBEST-FashionFactory-outlet-stores.com
Your site must be a WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN proposition for four parties...
1) your visitor
2) the Search Engines
3) your merchants, and...
4) YOU!
6.1.1. Your Visitor Wins
Your visitor must get what she is looking for -- outstanding information.
OVERdeliver with original, high-value info. If you don’t do this, she simply clicks
the BACK button to the Search Engine and says... “Next!”
6.1.2. The Search Engines Win
The Search Engines are in business. Their product is the quality of their search
results. Help them make their product better, and they’ll love you.
6.1.3. Your Merchants Win
Your merchants want sales. As we have seen, the best way to deliver that is
through outstanding content that gains your visitor’s confidence and increases
your credibility.
6.1.4. You Win
YOU must win, too, of course. How? FIND-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK,KACHING
1) FIND -- Your potential visitor must find you in the Top 10 (no worse than top
20) of the search results for your keyword
2) CLICK -- Your potential visitor must read the Title and Description that the
engine uses in the search results.
3) CLICK -- Your visitor finds high-value content, learns to trust you as
someone honest who delivers, and so follows your recommendations... CLICK
4) CLICK-kaCHING -- Finally, your visitor arrives at your merchant in a “feeling
smart about myself” and open-to-buy mood, ready to click that buy button!
