Conversion - What an Affiliate Marketer Needs to Survive Online

I have risen like a phoenix from the ashes.

After 3 and a half years of hard work, frustrations, failures and huge financial losses, I now know what it takes to be a successful Affiliate Marketer.

This article does not deal with the 'Traffic' aspect of Affiliate Marketing, because with all the traffic in the world, you are not going to succeed if there are little or no conversions.

From my experience, I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a TOP CONVERTING sales page.

Forget about those that claim to have made millions, or make millions as affiliate marketers.

Let us talk about affiliate marketing as a livelihood, as a source of regular livable income.

Looking for a successful niche market that gives the biggest paycheck is OK, but that big paycheck does not come by the waving of a magic wand, it comes through sound, tried and tested marketing practices that have been proven over years.

Affiliate Marketing is no different from any other type of online marketing and what works for online marketing will and must work for Affiliate Marketing.

The Path to Maximum Conversion and Profits

Step Number One

Get to know the product you are about to promote

You cannot market a physical, consumer product online, if you, as the marketer does not know the product. The same principle applies to marketing a digital product as an affiliate.

To successfully promote an affiliate product, you must first answer these questions:

• Is the product good enough to promote?
• Do you know the product well enough to recommend it?

The only way to answer those questions is to buy the product and check it out.

• Get to know what the product is,
• Get to know what the product does,
• Get to know what the product has done,
• Get to know its limitations,
• Get to know if the product is, as described by the vendor's sales page?

Once you have equipped yourself with the knowledge about the product then move on to the next stage of promoting it.

Step Number Two

Give the product a unique image of its own, independent of the Vendors Sales Page

It is a gross misconception, when people think it is possible to successfully market a digital product as an affiliate without even a website.

There are a lot of marketers who have tired (and failed miserably) to market a digital product as an affiliate through PPC campaigns alone, with just their affiliate URL or LINK as the destination URL in their PPC campaigns.

What everyone who attempts this, fail to realize, is that, they just end up paying the search engines for the clicks that take the visitors to the vendor's sale page. A colossal waste of money.

There is not going to be any conversion, because in all probability the vendor's sale page is 'STALE', it is 'NOT CONVINCING ENOUGH', and most of all the prospective buyer has arrived there WITHOUT BEING CONVINCED ABOUT THE PRODUCT.

DO NOT RELY ON THE VENDOR'S SALES PAGE TO DO THE SELLING.

To ensure a high rate of conversion, especially if one is using PPC campaigns, the prospective buyer has to be completely convinced about the product, with his or her mind made up to buy it, before they arrive at the vendor's sale page.

It is vey important to consider or treat the vendor's final sales page as a CLOSING page and NOT as a SELLING page.

The vendor's sales page should strengthen, and/or reinforce the prospects decision to buy and actually be instrumental in closing the sale.

One should NEVER depend on the vendor's sale page to do the selling.

Before you decide to promote any affiliate product, do the following:

• Have your own website with your own domain name
• Create a web page dedicated to the product you want to promote
• Make the page on your website the first port of call for the prospective buyer.

Step Number Three

Sell the product on your website

In step number one

• you purchased the product and got to know it.

In step number two

• you set up your own website under your own domain name,

now create a web page and promote the product on it.

Make this web page, the first landing page for all prospective buyers,

• Write an independent and candid review of the product and put your name to it.
• Include a third party's review if possible.
• Include as many Testimonials as you can lay your hands on.
• Add a link to the vendor's sales page.

With the use of good copy writing you have an excellent opportunity to be candid, convincing and persuasive.

Build a picture of what your prospects' life would be without the benefits of the product you are promoting.

Give your prospect the chance to think about what you have to say about the product you are promoting, without out even the slightest hint that he or she has to buy it.

The prospect is not pressurized by the presence of a 'BUY NOW' or 'ORDER NOW' BUTTON or BUTTONS.

This removes the psychological sense of obligation TO BUY that pressurizes every prospect, giving them a little more freedom to study what is being said about the product. This can make a big difference.

Step Number Four

Having done the above, you will have a much better conversion rate from the traffic that your campaigns drive to your landing page.

You can be assured of a sale if the prospect clicks on the 'LINK' you have provided to the vendors' sales page.

This is true, because you have convinced the prospect about the product and motivated him to buy it, which has resulted in them clicking on the link to the sales page.

Their mind is practically made up before they arrive on the vendors' sales page. They know much more about the product than what that sales page can tell them.

You can check this out by running two identical campaigns.

• Send all traffic in one campaign directly to the vendor's sales page, and

• All traffic in the second campaign to your promotion page.

You will experience a higher conversion rate from the second campaign.

In all affiliate promotions, only two things can happen, you make a sale, or you lose the prospect forever.

I do not relish the prospect of losing the prospect for ever.

Profit from the prospects' visit sale or no sale.

This can never be done if you promote a digital product as an affiliate without the use of a separate web page on your own web site.

This is where a lot of affiliate marketers have failed to monetize that PPC click which did cost them money, whether it was just $0.50 cents or $3.50.

In the event of the prospect not wanting to proceed with the purchase of the product you are promoting he or she is going to leave that page and be lost to you for ever.

If you have an opt in box set up on that web page, you can entice the prospect to give you their name and email address in return for:

• Free Reports connected with the product, or
• Free Videos connected with the product, or
• Free MP3 Audio Interviews with Internet Gurus on the subject of the product and its creator, or
• Free monthly news letters on Internet Marketing or whatever 'Niche' market you choose.

There has never been a better and easier way to slowly and surely build an opt in list of your very own.

Your main activity still remains Affiliate Marketing, BUT you get to build a priceless list of prospects in the mean time, and you still have the chance of selling a product to them in the future.

Do the above and you will be a successful affiliate marketer.

This has been my experience.

To your success