When affiliate programs first appeared on the internet circa 1996, the internet marketing community thought they had found Nirvana. On one hand the owners of these affiliate programs thought they had an army of sales people working for them around the clock strictly on commission. On the other hand, the affiliates thought they had found their pot of gold.
They were made to believe that this was the fastest and easiest way ever to make money. Needless to say, they were both dead wrong.Most affiliates failed because they believed all they had to do was sign up for as many affiliate programs as possible, place a few affiliate banners on their site and the checks would begin pouring in. They figured the companies would take care of the rest and they could sit back and enjoy the sound of the cash registers ringing out of control. This is akin to the "build it and they will come" mentality.
This was a direct result of what they were being told by the program owners. In essence, these program owners shot themselves in the foot by tring to sell their affiliates the dream instead of providing them with real world helpful marketing strategies that would have made both parties real money.However, there was a very small percentage of people who were making a lot of money with affiliate programs. These individuals were ambitious. They understood they had to work to achieve the dream. They also knew that in order to make money they would have to invest both money and time in smart advertising and promotion.
They did it all and the result was an astounding six figure income for most of these Super Affiliates.Many of these Super Affiliates belonged to affiliate programs that were managed by people who came from a direct marketing or sales background and knew how to motivate their sales force. They provided incentives, bonuses, recognition and much more in order to encourage maximum effort. These techniques were not rocket science, rather they were techniques taken right out of the traditional offline sales environment.
The goal of every program should be to have and nurture as many Super Affiliates as you can. So how do you turn an average affiliate into a Super Affiliate? The onus lies on the program owner to motivate affiliates and create program loyalty. In order to do this, the owner or manager has to develop an affiliate program that is exceptional, filled with incentives to succeed, provides a support network that guides affiliates along the path to success and delivers multiple streams of revenue for the affiliate.
So the ideal affiliate program would incorporate:
1) A Team Focus. This strategy originates from the traditional offline sales world. By bundling groups of affiliates together you are able to create teams of sales people who support and help each other promote, participate in co-op advertising, generate leads, and close sales. Since everyone is sharing in the wealth, it creates a tremendous incentive to function as a team.
2) A Front End/Entry Level Product and Multiple Backends from which affiliates can also profit. You want to make your front end product attractive and affordable so you increase your opportunity to sell more on the backend. The profits from backend sales have traditionally been reserved for the program owner. If you expect affiliates to stick around when they are just earning one time commissions on front end sales you are crazy. However, if you offer a share in the backend profits or residual income you will be on your way to creating an army of loyal Super Affiliates for life.
3) Incentives for Selling. Offer bonuses to your super affiliates. Run sales contests. Offer higher commissions to affiliates who meet a certain sales quota for the month. Recognize your affiliates efforts by recommending them in your newsletter, promoting them on your website and/or letting them buy your products at a discount.
What affiliates can do to become Super Affiliates:
1) Affiliates can look to their program manager or owner for support in helping them succeed. Ask to be mentored by a Super Affiliate. Find out what they are doing that makes them successful and model after them. Look to join affiliate programs that promote a team focus so you can benefit from the support of others.
2) Use Minisites to draw in highly targeted traffic in order to pre-sell the products and services of the affiliate program and capture names and email addresses of your prospects. This is one of the secrets of true Super Affiliates. They never send traffic directly to their affiliate link, instead they create a one or two page site that describes the benefits of purchasing the product or service of the affiliate program. Before sending your prospects away from this minisite, you should have a method of capturing their names and email address in place so you can follow up on them later in order to increase your sales and response rate.
3) Write an endorsement for the affiliate program in your own words. Use the product and service so you can wholeheartedly offer a testimonial. People do not buy products and services, they buy results. What this program will do for them. If you tell people what it has done for you and will do for them, you will greatly increase your sales percentages.
4) Finally, don't be an affiliate program junkie. Stick to a core of programs and promote them successfully. This is where many affiliates make a mistake, if they don't make commissions fast enough, they are off to the next program. Try to find one or a few programs that you truly believe in, (ideally they should meet ALL the criteria of the ideal program above) and remain loyal to them.If you do all of these things, your status as a Super Affiliate is virtually guaranteed.When program managers and affiliates come together like this they create a win/win situation for everyone involved. This is when an affiliate program is a success!
