Any Tips On Recruiting Affiliates?

by 22 replies
27
Hi all,

I have an ebook (which sells for $45) and a video course which includes the ebook for $100.

I've put a lot of time and effort into the book but i'm no expert on selling and marketing. Ideally I would like to learn it myself but I would like to see some money coming in so am considering hiring affiliates in the meantime.

Could someone please give me some tips on the best way to go about this.

Obviously Clickbank is the big one but have some serious reservations. It seems I have to give up 75% commissions that is A LOT! Sure if I get 1000 sales a month its worth it, but for a more realistic figure giving away the right to control who markets the product and spread it around to other marketers for not much upside seems like a bit of risk.
Also, every Clickbank product I have looked at seems really cheap and spammy.

Is there a more "up-market" way to meet with affiliates, get to know each other and I can work together on it... and negotiate a split?

Assuming those concerns are unwarranted i'm guessing hiring affiliates isn't as easy as just listing it on clickbank and there is a bit of an art form to getting people to promote for you?
#main internet marketing discussion forum #affiliates #recruiting #tips
  • The best advice I can give is to help your affiliates make good money with your products. If you worry about them, the profits for you will come.

    Focus on getting affiliates that can get lots of traffic - maybe through their newsletter, or their web site, or because they have a good sized list. Make sure you are targeting affiliates who either have a list that will be responsive to your offers, or those who will go out and drive traffic in your niche.

    You are looking for the best affiliates, the top sellers . . . as just a few of them will drive more sales than a hundred run-of-the-mill affiliates that won't give your product a fair shot.

    Twice you mentioned "hiring affiliates." In the traditional sense of the word, you're not really hiring them . . . they are going to work for you because they believe you have a great product and you will pay good timely commissions. Consider yourself working for them because it is your job to help them to be successful.

    If you product and offer is not of the highest quality in the niche, your affiliates will soon abandon their effort in your behalf.

    Steve
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Thanks Steve,

    You mention "You are looking for the best affiliates, the top sellers " does something like Clickbank allow you to talk to your affiliates? Is there a platform that allows you to get to know each other. I think it would hugely help the sale of the product because I know it inside out. And I know my niche inside out because it is all I have ever done. I can help them with suggestions of keywords and companies people search for that they may not have even thought of. Plus it allows me to adapt my pitch to their feedback.

    How would you start striking up a business relationship with affiliates?
    • [2] replies
    • Before launching your product, try to email a couple of people who have big authority websites in your niche, and ask them if they would be interested to be an affiliate for your product.

      Clickbank doesn't allow product sellers to speak with their affiliates, but you can definitely just message them personally through their website. Ask them to sign up to Clickbank as well since not each person is signed up with the site.

      Is your site with the Clickbank platform already?

      You don't have to give 75% if you don't want to but go for at least 50% of the commissions.
    • Banned
      Here are a few little things it may help you to know, Tommy ...

      ClickBank almost certainly won't allow you to list the $100 product until they "know you", i.e. until you have a history of successful trading there. $100 is over their normal limit for a "new vendor". (They do occasionally make exceptions, for people with very successful and reliable vendor-reputations elsewhere: you'd have to ask them).

      If you don't use some kind of well-known, reliable affiliate network, the serious, pro-affiliates (the 5% of us who collectively make over 95% of the sales) probably won't even be willing to look at it: "depending on the vendor for payment" is a problem we don't need. We have tens of thousands of products available for us to promote, just at ClickBank, so if you want to attract us, you have to make it very easy and very attractive and very reliable for us. Not trying to sound arrogant, or anything, here, but you need to know that this is simply "the way it is".

      I don't know who's given you this impression, but it simply isn't true. Only a minority of products sold on ClickBank offer 75% commissions. 50% and 60% are pretty common, too. (75% commissions on a $97/$100 selling-price are actually pretty rare!).

      There are many apposite comments about this, above, though. You need to look at this a little differently from how you're looking at it now.

      Just theoretically, if I can sell 3,000 copies of your $45 PDF product, that you can't sell on your own, would you resent paying me 75% commissions? If you do, you might be losing over $30,000 yourself!

      Yes and no.

      You can, if you want to, elect to "white-list" your affiliates. This means that nobody can become an affiliate without contacting you first. Very, very few vendors do this.

      Or you can encourage affiliates to contact you (maybe by offering them something useful in promoting the product?). You can have an affiliate page on your website, you can have wording in your Marketplace listing and/or on your Vendor Spotlight page, all of which encourage affiliates to be in touch with you. Good vendors tend to do this, but not to insist on it.

      Good affiliates like to be in contact with the vendor. The reality is that affiliates who don't contact you at all are likely to make very few sales anyway.

      By letting them know that, in the ways mentioned above, you'll be incentivizing them to contact you, and that can work well.

      The most important thing for you to know, perhaps (albeit that I'm oversimplifying it a little, here, to explain it) is that there are, broadly speaking, two distinct "groups" of affiliates available at places like ClickBank. One group comprises 95% of the people and makes fewer than 5% of the sales. The other group, the serious, pro-affiliates you actually want and need, are fewer than 5% of the affiliates but collectively make more than 95% of the sales. It helps to be aware of this.

      Key concept: there's an enormous difference between "attracting as many affiliates as possible" and "making as many affiliate-referred sales as possible", and those two very different aspirations can require different courses of action, from the vendor, too.


      .
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • thanks InternetMarketer1 good suggestions.

    Hmm i'm not sure if my site is CLickbank ready, I thought it was just a question of putting it on their platform.

    It is a wordpress site with a fully functioning members area accepting PayPal payments currently.

    I am adjusting some of the landing page at the moment, re-working the pitch. But other than that is complete.

    Anything else I would need to do for Clickbank?

    I'm happy to give 50% commissions, but was under the impression I would have to go higher to get any interest, i can imagine most affiliates just look at what their cut would be?
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Get help from ClickBank Knowledge Base

    Creating Your First Product

    Attracting Affiliates
  • Thanks Janice will check out the links
  • One method might be to:

    1. find forums related to your products' category, i.e. google: "your category" + forum

    2. double check the search results on Alexa so you remove forums with too little traffic

    3. so now you know where the people in your category hang out. Now you can find the owners of those sites by querying the WHOIS database... more info here:
    Whois - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    4. now you need to contact those "potential affiliates". But before doing so, I'd suggest you first "test" your product and your sales funnel, and use the result of that test when contacting those potential affiliates.
    The simplest way to recruit affiliates is to "prove" to your potential affiliates" that they will make money with you, and that it requires no work on their part - i.e. "easy money"

    I hope this gave you some pointers ... Best of luck !!
  • Just as important, you need to have marketing tools and promotional tools for affiliates in place before you even start trying to recruit. Other wise many will probably pass you up.

    When I check an affiliate page, if there is little to no promotional tools, I move on. Sadly so many affiliate offers don't have much.

    You need plenty of ads/banners in many sizes, email swipes, ect. Also would be helpful to have pre-written facebook updates or twitter tweets. The more promotional items you offer them, the better chance they will promote and sell.

    Something else to keep in mind, a majority of affiliates won't bring in many if any sales. Not being negative, just that as mentioned, it's good to find affiliates that will actually sell.
  • You may want to look at JVzoo also. Lot of great products on there within the price range you have.
    I haven't placed a product on there so can't tell you where to start but it is an alternative to Clickbank.
  • You're worried about giving up 75% - really?

    I don't think you understand the principles of marketing, my friend. A product is only as good as the people marketing and selling it. If you've got no-one selling the product it will die rolling in the dust, no matter how good you think it is.

    You talk about 'hiring' affiliates. Affiliates are marketers, they are not for 'hire' as such. They can do as they please, pick any product they want to promote; they don't need you.

    What affiliates DO need are good products. Ones which convert well and give them a good chunk of commission for the considerable efforts they put into selling. Good affiliates are hard to come by. Do all you can to attract them.

    That means giving them something they can work with. A good JV page is a must, outlining the product benefits, the target audience it is aimed at and, most importantly, the complete sales funnel. Affiliates work on a 'what can you do for me' basis - they don't respond to 'I've got a great product, please promote it 'coz you'll earn gazillions' - they get hundreds of requests weekly!

    Do some pre-publicity for your launch. Use the product launch sites to attract affiliate interest, that's what they are there for. Learn the ropes of how to do a product launch.

    You needn't give 75% on everything, just the Front End product. You can make 50% on the Back End if you wish.

    If I were you I'd forget about making a lot of money to start with. Treat it like a learning curve. Get your feet wet and see how marketing products really works.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • The best tip I can give you is this:

    Be selective.

    There is a common myth that once you create a product, and invite a legion of affiliates to promote it, you can sit on a beach sipping Margaritas.

    If only.

    You have 2 primary problems with running an affiliate program:

    1. Bad Affiliates
    2. Poor Affiliates.

    The bad affiliate is a crook who will cost you money on charge-backs; the poor affiliate is so inept that he requires constant attention, and is therefore a drain on your time.

    Solution: Expert Affiliates Whom You Trust

    It is better to have 10 expert, trustworthy affiliates than 1,000 dishonest, inept affiliates.

    GRM
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks GRM that sounds like excellent advice. I always suspected it was a little too easy just letting an army of highly skilled minions going out and selling for you.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • You're welcome, buddy.

      It would be super, wouldn't it? Of course, these issues are really not a concern for major networks (well, yes they're a concern, but they're an easily managed one). For most marketers, though, those 2 concerns are paramount.

      And your next question will be how to find them.

      I can tell you how I do it:

      1. Connections
      2. Networking

      (1) I have people who I trust to refer affiliates to me. (2) When I network (online or offline) I make - in a nutshell - friendships. Some are business, some are less than business, others are a bit of both. Some of these folks fall into the category of affiliate I like, so - blammo - I'm in business.

      GRM
  • One of the joy of making your own product is being able to keep 100% of the profit.

    Its normal to be apprehensive after putting so much time and resources into developing a product but the fact is, there is always two side to a coin. The advantage and disadvantage, the good and bad.

    You may choose to focus on affiliates to promote your product and also accept the risk associated with doing so or market your product yourself. And even if you sell the product anything can happen along the line when it's gets into a dishonest customers hand.

    What you should know is you must dedicate the same amount of time and resources you use in making your product or more to marketing your brand.
  • Who told you , you have to give 75% commission on clickbank ?
    Its the maximum commission you can give on clickbank. I would be happy if I can give 100% .
    As JPaston already told there are different principle whenever you want to market with affiliates.

    You said that very clickbank offer looks spammy. That doesn't mean clickbank have only spammy offers or all spammy offers on clickbank. They are everywhere.

    No matter which platform you use you can get affiliate if you know HOW.

    You can get them on forums. WarriorForum is also a good option. There are several groups on FB for affilites. Join the groups and connect (Dont just ask people to promote your product ).

    Best Of Luck.
  • I agree GRM,

    I have a good product I havent started marketing it yet but already have people coming out the woodwork wanting to work with me on it. But there are so many scammers out there. They offer to partner with me and I ask "ok what will you actually bring to the business" "oh, you know, i will help you market it, i know marketing" I am in the process of working out if I have been scammed by one person already that I paid up front for some work and not seen anything back.

    I have financial companies that like my course and want to integrate it into their training scheme. The credibility they would add would be amazing. But they want half my business and offer no unique skills to actually help me market it.

    I find it hard to trust people in business at the best of times but when you have something you know is good you don't want to just sell out at the first offer. But at the same time I need help marketing. Hence affiliates seemed to be the best option, if they perform they get paid... simple.

    You've done well to get a network of people you can trust
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Wow great insights Alexa. Thank you
  • Why not look for the top websites in your niche and contact them, offer them a free review copy in exchange for promoting your ebook?

    Also Clickbank has way too many restrictions for first time sellers I would recommend you checkout JVzoo since it's more flexible for newbies.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Why not look for the top websites in your niche and contact them, offer them a free review copy in exchange for promoting your ebook? this works also for me
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Thanks for the suggestion, its certainly one I have considered. But isn't there a risk sending your product to a blogger they might just steal your product and sell there own version of it?

    Also, what offer will entice them to actually want to speak favourably of your product? How do ypu make it in their interest?

    Thanks

    Tom
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Yes; but there's always a risk of someone doing that, anyway, just by selling the product.

      .
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed