How Successful Affiliates Are Making More Commissions Than Their Competitors

Affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online, without having to create your own products, build a formal website, or design a sales page with integrated payment processing.

So, why is it that most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could make? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet > 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance.

Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make 6 sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?

But guaranteed, there is something else who made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.

Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?

There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.

And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.

1. Build a Relationship

I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.

If you want them to open your email and click your link, or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.

This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.

Start with a blog post that is all about you, and then send new opt-ins to the post so they can get to know you better. Make the post silly, funny and most of all REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, where you live and what your goals are. Don’t even think about affiliate marketing yet.

Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mentions that too.

Reveal the real you.

Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not apply for a job, nobody wants your resume.

And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one is going to relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.

But they are going to relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off, or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your parent’s back deck into the pool.

And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship building in your lead magnets, your emails, your other blog posts, etc.

Always inject a little bit about yourself in everything you do. Not so much that you bore people, or make everything seem about you, but just enough to keep it real.

Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your own perceptions of what happened, as well as tell about how you got out of your car and stepped into the mud puddle just before your big presentation?

Use this same method of personal, one-on-one friend communication with your readers and followers.

Post on your blog as often as possible, at least once a week, but as much as every day. Encourage your list to follow you on social media or subscribe to your list so they know when you add a new post.

Your readers will realize you’re a real person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5-minutes. So, they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know there is a real live human being who is sending them these messages.

2. Use Your Own Voice

Just because you’re doing affiliate marketing, doesn’t mean you need to act like someone else. How many emails do you receive that say something along the lines of, “Buy this product – this product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – this is the one thing that will help you create success – but it now.”

Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.

There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of emails as a swipe file to new marketers.

Like a brand-new marketer couldn’t write their own 25-word email that basically says, “buy this magic product now.”

People don’t like getting sold to and are TIRED of seeing this crap. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.

Same phrases, same message, same B.S.

If you’re not going to stand apart from the crowd, then you’re going to have to share the same crumbs they’re getting.

Here’s what to say:

Instead, take 30-minutes and write your own promotional email with your own voice. You can even do this by dictating and having a free software like Google Docs to type the email for you!

Forget about all the hype. Be sincere, be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But, if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you, because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people, including me.”

I’ve written emails where I basically tell people not to buy something unless they really really want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do XYZ.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want _______. It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.

But the point isn’t tricking people into buying, it’s to be honest. You know this, but the latest, greatest product you’re promoting isn’t for everyone on your list. Some of them sure, but the rest of them, no.

Do you have any idea how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product, thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it.”

The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without even reading the sales letter. True story. I was just so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat, that I jumped at the chance to buy it, and support them.

Weird, but true.

My point is – be you! Be transparent. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends and you don’t want to lose your best friends by acting like a spam artist who is here today and vanishes tomorrow with their money.

3. Email A LOT

This is the one where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.

You’ve heard that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?

After all, every time you email, there is a potential that a subscribers will hit the unsubscribe button.

I used to think like that, and I even unsubscribed from many people who do email everyday…but that’s not always the case. There are others that I’ve stayed subscribed to for YEARS.

You’ve got to think about this from another perspective.

Do you know what the potential is when you don’t email? Nothing. No opens, no clicks, no sales…not even any relationship building.

Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY!

Follow these steps:

First, almost no one will see every email that you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the one and only email you send that lets them know, then they’ve missed out on the discount, and you lost out on a sale.

Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was interested in the new solution he was selling, clicked the link, and discovered it was no longer available.

What happened? This specific marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 AM my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the landslide of email that I get before I wake up.

Third, if you’re sending emails once a week or once a month, your readers are forgetting who the heck you are. And when you finally do send an email, they will likely think it’s spam.

Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Don’t just take my word on this, try it out for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more sales during that time period than during the previous month.

By the way, I’m not just saying to send out a promotion in each email. Make sure you have some content in there as well, even if it’s just an amusing short story.

4. Think of Affiliate Marketing As A BUSINESS

This isn’t just a hobby, nor is it an add-on for an additional income stream.

Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to send out an email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business that you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.

Your list is a comparable to a living, breathing organism – it needs constant nurturing.

You don’t have many support issues, since the product owners handle this. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages and so on. You don’t have to even drive traffic, unless it’s to build your list bigger.

With so much you don’t have to do – there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy into building relationships with your list and promoting to them every single day.

Affiliate marketing can be some of the easiest money you’ve ever made if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.

Want a little extra support? Consider finding a coach.