Effective, ethical affiliate marketing is the combination of two things, traffic and trust. Sure, there are some other aspects to the game but if you can get down the traffic and the trust, you’ll never have a problem making sales.
Some of you know how to build traffic well. Some of you don’t. Some of you are naturals at building trust and being trustworthy. Some of you will have to work at that.
If you’re going to become an effective and ethical affiliate marketer, you’re going to have to learn to be solid at both.
Ethics and Affiliate Marketing
The AM world is full of unethical scammers. Commit to yourself now to not become one of them. Just the other day I wrote about some fraudulent marketing that I’ve been seeing ads for on Facebook. I bet those guys are making bank right now. They could be in jail next week. That probably won’t ever happen, but why would you want to live wondering if you’re going to get caught lying?
To me there’s no satisfaction in taking money again and again from loser ‘get rick quickers’ and that’s what most scammers do. They prey on the same people that spend every last dime buying lottery tickets and that has no appeal to me. What does appeal to me is making legitimate sales of solid products from legitimate companies.
I don’t find it harder to make affiliate sales this way, in fact I find it to be a lot easier. I don’t have to go spend a bunch of money on traffic to make affiliate sales, in fact most of the time the traffic finds me. That’s right – the trust I develop on my sites leads not only to affiliate sales, but also to more traffic. The traffic can be purchased as well, but that’s an option and certainly isn’t a necessity.
Two Distinctly Different Attempts at Selling
To understand clearly how to make affiliate sales, I want you to think deeply about two different ways people try to make sales.
#1 – The Describer
- The visitor lands on the page
- The page describes the affiliate product that’s trying to be sold
- The visitor is shown positive testimonials
- The visitor is invited to purchase
#2 – The Nurturer
- The visitor lands on the page
- The visitor is immediately taught a true concept that helps them to see that their problem can be solved
- The visitor is then invited to learn more by downloading a free, legitimate, and helpful resource
- The helpful resource provides the visitor with true education about the problem they are trying to solve
- The visitor is then provided with examples of how the product is used to solve their problem, by email
- The visitor is then provided with your positive testimonial, and other positive testimonials
- The visitor is asked to purchase and is provided with additional instruction upon purchasing the product
To you, how do these two different approaches relate to traffic and trust?
Tags: Affiliate Marketing, ethical affiliate marketing, trust
Great post Court. I look forward to seeing what you and Mark put out. I’ve made money with both methods you’ve outlined above. For me, each method has a place.
I will normally use Method #1 on products or services that don’t cost a lot of money. I think it’s left up to the Marketer to decide what a low cost product or service is. In my way of thinking, it’s around $20 to $30, maybe more depending on what it is.
Method #2 obviously builds more trust. In my experience, this method works well with high dollar products and services like membership sites or e-courses. For me, this method takes a while to make the sell as you’re holding the prospects hand and walking along with them building their trust. For my way of working, it just isn’t worth all the time involved to go through this method just to sell a $19.99 ebook.
Don
Hey Don! My thoughts exactly. #2 builds a lot more trust and if you have to make a large sale, that’s probably the way you want to go. There are definitely other times where it isn’t going to be necessary – for example if a person searches for an exact product they may already be ready to buy.
I love the post and am very interested, but I feel like I’m being “nutured into something” I’m sure whatever it is it’s good though.
Thanks,
Bill
Hey Bill! Around here our model is provide the best free information as possible and then make affiliate sales to people that need the products and services that we recommend. We also have our own products and chances are, they have already been offered to you.
We are going to release a more affordable version of our products this week, but this post doesn’t have anything to do with that. You can buy it if you want though. (really – i wouldn’t mind)
The nurturing method seems to have worked pretty well for you guys and the academy. I admit, I still love that ebook of yours that I first downloaded and use it whenever I’m introducing somebody else to the biz.
I think which direction you take has a lot to do with how A) your timeframe and B) your level of interest in what you are selling.
If you are going for a longterm company you will gravitate towards nurturing your company and your clients, but if you want a quick buck you hit up the short term money.
Also if you have little to no interest in a product, then you aren’t going to be able to build trust when you could care less. Your clients will feel that in every sentence you write. If you have a passion for what you are doing, then it will naturally result in higher quality and more trustworthiness.
Brawnydt ebooks can be huge for that. They really help people to get to know you. They can make a decision as to whether you really have the expertise or not and if they believe that you do, good things are definitely going to happen.
Great post, but I want to add something that i think is important.
I do the majority of my income through affiliate marketing, but I mostly target non internet marketing niches.
I just recently began creating products for the IM niche because the people with whom I network with are always asking me to show them stuff. So it was easy for me to just create a product and give it to them. They encouraged me to sell the stuff because they said they felt like it was extremely valuable to them and others would greatly benefit from it.
My point is that if you are promoting to the mainstream, it makes sense to show them the benefits of your offer and then ask for the sale. They are probably going to buy whatever you are promoting anyway, you just entice them to buy from you.
I agree that being ethical is definitely the way to go because you should be building a business. Going for a quick buck here and there will never breed success.
Hey Tommie, thanks for your thoughts – there’s a lot of insight there. You’re describing something that Mark and I talk about all the time. The right time to develop your own products is when people start asking you for them.
Great post. I’m glad I found you guys. In one of your other posts you tell us to stop reading other blogs. Well I’ve just added yours to my list.
I have one problem though. I like my rss feed by email. I know I’m old fashioned or just old but you don’t have that option available.
Something to consider. I’m sure that there are more people out there like me.
Thanks,
@ Court and Mark Glad to see you guys decided to do this series, thank you.
@ Luca I’m somehow getting this blog in my email inbox with Feedburner. I can’t remember how I did it, but there’s a way because I did it.
Hey Luca! I’ll get the email RSS taken care of for you. Watch for it today or tomorrow.
There is no doubt which concept will have the greatest effect on sales. Whenever I purchase an ebook or a piece of IM software I can help to see how the salespage and/or funnel is created. Every single time it follows the second solution (except when the product has been recommend by someone I trust – then I don’t even read the salesletter)
I’m always interested in the sales funnel too Mikael. Lol more than once I’ve ended up buying something because I got sucked in after analyzing the sales page.
Thanks for this helpful information. This is the type of affiliate marketing I value – trustworthy – everyone hates a scam! I had to create a link to this article from my blog – it’s a must read.
This was a very helpful post, as I dive into the world of AM. I’m still trying to learn the ins and outs, but #1 for me in every business venture is to bring value and to follow ethical business priciples. Glad to hear your vision for doing right!
Affiliate marketing is the fast catching trend in online marketing and it serves many purposes not only for the manufacturers but also to the consumers. Manufacturers do not have to put in extra efforts in selling their products and services, which are done by the third party affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketing, is just getting someone else to sell your products on the Internet.
I want to quote your post in my blog. It can? And you have an account on Twitter?