Affiliate Marketing Secrets They Don’t Want You to Know: (Part- 2)

Fixing a Problem

Finally, look for products that address very specific issues. If you can do this, it will be much easier to highlight the benefits of your product and make it appealing to your target audience. Your USP should be something that you can summarize in a few words - this will allow you to capture attention and sell quickly and efficiently. Another way to look at this is to concentrate on your "value proposition"...

Selling Your Product and the Value Proposition

You 'don't sell hats, you sell warm heads,' as the old adage goes. What exactly does this mean? It means you don't sell the product itself, but rather what the product can do for your audience. So, if you have an eBook on how to get amazing abs, you're selling the abs, not the eBook. More than that, it's the opposite sex's attention, confidence, and good looks that you're selling. This is what you should concentrate on when selling an abs eBook. Similarly, if you sell an eBook on how to make money online, you're actually selling freedom, power, and status. You're selling the opportunity for someone to feel liberated from the constraints of their regular jobs, as well as the ability to wear nice clothes and watches and be proud and confident in what they've accomplished. This is critical because it is what will actually help your products sell. Understand that people do not buy things that make logical sense. People tend to buy things based on emotional impulses and whims. As a result, in order to get your buyer to click that call-to-action button, you must appeal to their emotions.

How to Create a Sales Page

A sales page is a website page that is specifically designed to sell whatever it is that you are attempting to sell. There are no links to other pages on your website, no advertisements - just one long block of text that grabs attention and sells the product's incredible benefits. This is, of course, interspersed with 'Buy Now' buttons. The key to a great landing page is to emphasize the value proposition and get the buyer thinking and daydreaming about how much better their life will be once they have the product. At the same time, you're fighting the constant urge they'll have to leave the page - because most of us have very short attention spans. Using a narrative structure is the best way to capture their attention right away. This simply means that you should begin your landing page with a story about how you once didn't have abs/didn't know how to plan a wedding/were terrible at cooking... You put this on thick and demonstrate your sympathy for your reader. This gets them reading and makes it difficult for them to put the book down because we always want to know how stories end. At the same time, it elicits the appropriate emotional responses. You can also use rhetorical questions at this point such as: 'ever thought there must be a better way?'. These are effective because they force the reader to think about what you're saying and thus engage with it. It all makes for fascinating reading. You can also use this opportunity to address the reader's concerns: explain how your product isn't just another scam. Discuss your money-back guarantee (which most affiliate products provide) and use facts, statistics, and authority figures to back up your credibility. That's when you hit them with your true value proposition and make them imagine and almost feel their life after they make this purchase. After they've vividly experienced and imagined the product, you finish with a little pressure to make them buy right away: this could mean telling them that the product won't be available for long, or that the special offer you're offering will only be available for a week. This ensures they buy now, while they are emotionally inclined to do so, rather than going away to think about it (and realize it may not be the best way to spend their money).

The Lifestyle

This value proposition should tie into a lifestyle that you’re promoting, and this is what’s going to tie together your brand with the products you choose to sell. So if you’re on Instagram, you need to promote this lifestyle and to inspire your followers. This is what will turn them into real fans and what will get them excited for the products you’re offering. If you have a fitness product then, your Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter should be filled with pictures of people working out on the beach, lifting heavy weights and looking sexy and healthy in their training gear. For that wedding product, you might upload images of beautiful weddings in exotic locations and with stunning decorations. Perhaps you could also share tips, advice and inspiring stories. This gives people a reason to follow you and warms them up to the idea of the product you’ll be selling to them intermittently. 

The Five Elements

This brings us nicely on to the idea of the sales funnel. You can consider a post on social media to be ‘one touch’ – or one interaction with your audience. This is important to recognize, because the general wisdom is that any sale takes approximately five touches. Throughout these five touches, you’re able to then build excitement and anticipation for your product, you’re able to build trust and authority for your own brand and you’ll able to demonstrate the value of what you’ll be offering. Your sales funnel means a sequence you’ve designed to attract and reel in leads. It might start with a social media post, follow up with a blog post and mailing list, follow that up with a newsletter and a free ‘seminar’ and ultimately lead to your landing page and product. (The mailing list is key here as it gives you the means to make the multiple touches.) This is another reason it pays to slowly build up your own audience and platform rather than relying permanently on PPC.

Creating Content, Building a Mailing List, and Establishing a Social Media Presence

So, how do you go about attracting this audience? There are two main routes: one is through your own website, which you will regularly fill with content that will be found via social media and Google, and the other is directly through social media. To be successful on social media, there is only one rule: provide a lot of value. Don't just post about promotions; keep in mind the lifestyle aspect we discussed earlier. Give people a reason to follow you and consider whether you would enjoy the type of content you're sharing. It's also important to be everywhere: use as many social media platforms as possible to generate the most 'in-roads' to your content. This should imply:

• Facebook,

• Twitter,

• Instagram,

• Pinterest,

• LinkedIn

• Tumblr &

• Google+

this also contributes to your brand appearing more professional and well-structured. In addition, you'll need to create your own website to host your landing page and blog posts. The most effective method is to use WordPress, which you will install on your own webhost with a domain name. The entire eBook explains how to easily set up a fantastic website.

Creating Outstanding Content

You must now begin posting blog posts to your website. Doing this will act as a free demonstration of the value and knowledge you can provide - it's the perfect example of that 'first touch'. At the same time, it drives more traffic to your website and encourages people to join your mailing list and follow you on social media. So, what constitutes great content? Again, the key is to provide genuine value, which means that the content should be of the type that you would want to read yourself. Most importantly, it should be distinct and distinct from all other content available. If you write an article about "ten things you're doing wrong with SEO," you won't stand out from the crowd. The same is true for 'best ab workouts'. Find something new to discuss and a new, exciting angle in your niche. Find interesting ways to combine different topics, and always keep a very specific target audience (or 'persona') in mind. This latter point will assist you in identifying markets to share with, as well as encouraging people to share - either to express themselves or to share the content with people they believe will enjoy it. Make certain that the articles are comprehensive and well-researched. They should ideally be around 1,800 words long. Remember how we said it was critical to choose a niche that you'd enjoy discussing? That's why! Another thing to keep in mind is that nothing prevents you from using your articles as landing pages. All you have to do is paste your affiliate link into the body of your text. If you do this and promote the product in the content, it may result in some direct sales. This is a great way to persuade yourself to keep writing and to gain even more value from your efforts. Of course, if you dislike writing or are unable to write, you may wish to skip this step. Better yet, hire someone to write for you or use another type of content. Video is another type of content that is frequently overlooked. You can easily sell the benefits of a product and engage your audience in a video.

Growth Hacks and Scaling

Now you’ve seen the basics of affiliate marketing, it’s time to accelerate your progress and to explode your profits.  There are a number of ways to do this. One exciting growth hack for instance, is to use ‘influencer marketing’. This simply means that you find someone who already has a very big audience that trusts them and then you try and get them to promote your website or your affiliate link directly. How do you do that? One option is simply to pay them: as in the case of a solo ad (paid e-mail promotion). Another option is to write them free content, which is known as a guest post. Better yet though, is to interact with an influencer on social media that doesn’t know quite how big they are. Use Twitter analytics to identify your most influential followers and then engage with them by asking questions or retweeting their posts. Often, they will respond in kind out of politeness if nothing else!

Another powerful trick is to network with the big influencers in person. Go to networking events and even try hiring their services. Once you’ve had a face-to-face discussion, you will be much harder to ignore.

Scaling

You now have a working business model that is rapidly expanding. But you can scale it even further for even higher profits, and one of the simplest ways to do so is to simply replicate the business model you've established for yourself. Simply find another product, a different audience, and create a second income stream. You can repeat this process as many times as you want, effectively making your affiliate marketing efforts infinitely scalable and significantly increasing your resilience. Not only have your profits multiplied, but you are now far less likely to lose all of your income due to a market fluctuation, etc. Alternatively, you could expand into physical products, sell new items to your existing audience, or develop your own product. In any case, you now have everything you need to start and grow a highly profitable affiliate marketing business. Begin with small goals and be strategic and logical. Don't overcomplicate things and select a niche with a clear demand for a product. If you do all of that, you will be successful. Best wishes!