8 Ways to Outsell Other Affiliates

​ We know now that there are hundreds and even thousands of affiliates clouding the marketplace. How in the heck do we compete? It certainly makes generating an income difficult. Well the best way is to develop ways that will make you stand head and shoulders above the crowd.
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Here are eight ways you can do that…
 
1. Create Your Own Website

Build your own website where you can promote, not only your own, but also other people’s products and services. With a website you can do a bit of pre-selling or warming up the potential buyer by writing about the product.

Perhaps you know that you can promote affiliate products without a website but you may be missing out.  There are distinct advantages to having a place you can call home so to speak.

The primary advantage of having a website is that you can simply pre-sell the products. So, rather than send cold prospects to the owner’s sales page, you’ll have warmed them up in a post or article giving them reason to buy.

How you do this will depend on the product itself. With some of them you can write a positive and forthcoming testimonial, based on your experience with the product. For instance, you can tell them about the positive aspects of the product and the benefit you receive whenever you use it.

With other products, you might want to slow walk the sales pitch by identifying a common problem (the difficulty in training a dog) and the final solution (a brand new way to train your dog which guarantees results).
 
2. Write Personal Reviews and Recommendations

Have you ever wondered why TV commercials have celebrities promoting products? Well the answer is quite simple. They entice you to buy the product. After all if so and so promotes that drink, or drives that car, or wears that sweater, it must be good and worth purchasing it.   

When someone personally endorses a product, it simply boosts sales. It doesn’t matter if you are not a celebrity your personal recommendation will still convince buyers to tryout your affiliate product.

Always review the product in a positive light. Use the information the owner’s sales page provides you or list benefits that you yourself have thought of or experienced. Here you want to make sure you are giving prospective buyers strong reasons to click over to the product website.
Implementing the usual sales approach is fine. But the most effective tactic, the one that will quickly and easily increase the conversion rate, is you personally singing the praises of whatever product you’re promoting.
 
3. Operate A Niche Blog
 
The best way to promote products is with a blog. You can do the same thing with a newsletter but unfortunately it only gets read by those on your mailing list.

Your blog will reach out to an unlimited number of people who would be interested in the type of products you are promoting. Most of them you do not know because they read your blog anonymously.

A blog, however, shouldn’t just be used just to sell things. Here content is king. You will need to write something of value. Something that will grab people and make them listen and return to your blog on a regular basis.

One approach to content is to write product reviews – at least for those who are trying to make affiliate sales. For instance, you may want to promote workshops, training eBooks, or headphones, you can just create a blog for your particular niche and then include in-depth articles about different aspects of the product.

You could give tips and advice about your experience with use of the product.  Or you could give ideas about how the product could be used. You could ask the readers to suggest new ways of using the product, solicit their opinions and ask for their recommendations.

Often these kinds of postings will garner comments from your viewers, which will spawn more comments from other viewers. It goes without saying that the more comments you get the more interest there will be. And that is a good thing.

You can use a free blog software, such as Blogger: Reading List and start a blog found in the top right hand corner of that site. Personally I like to add my blogs and articles right in our eZine.
 
4. Write Articles

The best way to achieve recognition is by writing and distributing your own articles. This way you can establish your authority about certain topics and thus gain recognition. When you include a product within an article you write your endorsement of that product will be taken even more seriously.

One of the keys to choosing topics for an article is write about something that is directly related to one of the products you are promoting. Then put a link directly to a product you are recommending. And make sure you take full advantage of the product owner’s resources.

Write articles on your website and include a link. I often put a link to an affiliate offer on a side bar, like the one you see to your right. If you have newsletter and want to solicit more subscribers than direct readers to a squeeze and thank you page prior to forwarding them onto the product owner.

If you don’t have a website submit them to online directories and let people know that your articles are free to re-publish as long as no changes are made. I usually post free articles once a week and let those on my list know that they can republish as long as they indicate the source of the article.

Although I have not used these resources to date here are three popular article directories you may wish to consider.
Article City : http://www.articlecity.com
Ezine Articles : http://www.ezinearticles.com
Article Feeder : http://www.articlefeeder.com
 
5. Offer A Special Bonus

This is one of the best ways to outsell other affiliates. Here, you enhance the owner’s original product package by giving your potential buyer another product at no extra cost.

Two criteria you should use when offering bonuses are, a) make sure your bonuses are more valuable than what others are offering, and b) relate them directly to the product you are promoting.

Offering tangible items are not recommended unless you have a shipping method that costs you nothing. Keep your bonuses digital and you won’t have to worry about delivering it to the buyer.

For instance if you are selling a product like a revolutionary new golf club, you could author an eBook that has tips on how a golfer can improve their swing, or alternatively create a video that shows them how to do a correct swing.

The point here is that you want a bonus that the buyer can simply download once they purchased the initial product. This reduces your work in delivering the bonus.

One thing to keep in mind is the time, effort, and money you invest in creating the digital bonus. Make sure it is somewhat in line with how much money you receive as an affiliate for each sale.

The good news is that you only need to create the digital bonus once. You can use it over and over again and in time the income you make from sales overtakes the amount you invested in the first place.

A second piece of good news is that the more digital eBooks, videos, checklists and what ever you create, you will have a reservoir of bonuses you can you elsewhere.

As a final note make sure you identify that the bonus can only be acquired if they purchase through your affiliate link. Remember if your purchaser gets the product from any other source than from you, they will not receive the bonus that you are offering.
 
6. Give Away Free Tips and Information

Give away free tips and information. This is an idea for those who take a look at your offer but fail to purchase. You offer free tips and information ensuring that your content directly relates to the products you are promoting. You can do this by sending emails, a fact sheet, an eBook or a short course. All you need to do is ensure that your freebie is downloadable. Just upload your information to Google Drive and then share it only with those who you provide the downloadable code to. Don’t forget to include your personal affiliate link on your material.
 
7. Capture Names and Email Addresses

When you are an affiliate, you normally don’t capture names and email addresses of people who purchase through your affiliate link.
There is a way around this, however. If you offer a free eBook, Checklist or other information have your potential buyers fill out their name and email address using a landing and thank you page.
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Once you have their names and email address you can continue contacting them with other product offers, newsletters, or your own products and services. Just watch that you are not spamming them in any way.
The best way of doing this is to establish a relationship with them based on trust and respect. This takes time, patience, and consistency. Always provide your prospective buyers with valuable information and not just promotional material.
 
8. Use Your Own Ads and Promotional Materials
 
Most affiliates rely on promotional materials that are supplied by the owner of the product. That would include things like solo and classified ads, banners, pre-written sales copy, and cover and product images.
Although the material supplied by the owner is usually of top notch quality, the reality is that other affiliates will be using the same material thus diluting its ‘wow effect’.

You can get around this by writing your own ads, sales copy and creating new banners and images. What you want to do is set yourself apart from others and you also may be able to create marketing material better than the original. In the end you have one primary purpose and that is to make the sale.

By developing your own marketing material you are doing something different and unique and rising above anyone else.

As always, stay safe, keep well and continue becoming the best version of yourself.

Thanks for reading,

Richard Fontanie

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