What strategies do you use to increase your affiliate sales?

[rspadinger]

Hi Everyone,

I have some products, which I think are really fantastic and I also get quite a lot of click-throughs, but (nearly)no sales.

I few things I'm tending to do now are:

* I focus only on a "handful" of top affiliate products instead of promoting tons of different products.

* I verify the demand for a specific product – mostly I check the ranking in clickbank for products that are appropriate for my niche.

* Sales copy & design of sales page – I'm not 100% sure, but I get the feeling that sales letters with weak graphics (header, cover, product boxes…) just don't convert very well.

* Competition – I try to stay away from products which are heavily promoted by a huge number of affiliates. Do you know any reliable ways of checking out the density of your competition? One thing I do is to look at Google & Google AdWords to get a basic idea for the competition.

These little "tricks" definitely improved my results, but I'm sure there's more… Any ideas?

Thanks.

Robert

[web10]

Your first point was valid and critical, you're promoting tons of products on the one site?
Stick to just a few, see the difference

[5StarAffiliatePrograms]

One little tip:

Using customer testimonials on your affiliate landing pages or right above you links can help boost trust and credibiliby thereby boosting conversions.

The merchant typically has testimonials but if not and it's a big brand you can possibly find some good ones at BizRate, Epinions or Amazon.

One of my clients for instance is www.zZounds.com a musical instruments and DJ equipment retailer. They have TONS of positive customer ratings at BizRate so I always tell affiliates to use them. Can be a nice little conversion booster.

Hope this helps. Who else has some ideas to share?

[Kasparoff]

If you don't get sales, that might mean that your affiliates codes are not set up correctly. It can't be just like having tons of traffic and no sales. You bring relevant visitors to your affiate webstes, so they must buy something eventually. You are not dumping these visitors to these websites, you are referring them, so the visitors must be somewhat motivated to find out more about these products.

Another thing might be the nature of affiliate marketing. Your visitors might be interested to purchase affiliated products, but they might not be readily available to do so. They might add these websites into favorites and purchase stuff later. That's why you loose a sale. Cookies are not saving and affiliate conversion is not trasferring.

[Janet]

That is why I like using amazon for affiliate sales. They are a trusted company plus if a visitor adds something into their cart after a referral from my site, I earn a referral fee if the item is purchased before the shopping cart expires (usually 90 days). They don't just have to buy immediately. And, if most visitors are like me, they may need to think about the purchase for awhile before actually making the decision to buy it so the 90 day window helps.

[Jamsi]

One word .. Autoresponder

Use something like aweber to collect email addresses and offer additional offers.
Also use stories to project information as people relate better with stories.

For example if you are an affiliate for a Guitar ecourse, tell the story of how the course helped you become better at the Guitar etc, you get the picture.

Also for some of your more developed affiliate programs, BUY THE PRODUCT.
This way you'll know how to tap into the end users emotions by telling them EXACTLY where they could be and how the product can help to get them there.

[kickstart2]

Originally Posted by Jamsi

One word .. Autoresponder

A definite yes for me too.

Autoresponders make sure that you do not lose any of your visitors, and therefore foster a more fruitful relationship than with a visitor who would probably forget about your website the instant they click the dreaded X button.

Having an autoresponder system will ensure that you will always be in contact with them, and therefore, have a higher chance of enticing them to buy, and therefore, boosting your conversion rate to up to 300%!

This is not an exaggeration. It worked for me, so it should for you.



And do hide your affiliate ID, especially if you are an affiliate of internet marketing products, because losers out there don't like the idea of giving their money to someone else, even though it's rightly yours and that they don't lose any money anyway.

I know some who would cut out your ID and just go to the website themselves, thereby not being visited by your cookie, and therefore no commission for you..

I suggest building a redirect page with a redirect script so as to mask the affiliate ID

[Essive]

Your opt-in list is the most effective way to drive sales. Most do not buy on first glance unless the product is 'hot' enough that the curious buy on the spot. (Yes, I've done it myself). So,

1. Use an autoresponder - I agree with all the comments above
2. Send plenty of updates and notes to all of your users
3. Definitely mask your affiliate links
4. Write a good review of your products (this should be the landing zone to get your customers to sign up).

[ANS-Jen]

Are you targeting a specific group of surfers or are you selling a product or service that appeals to a large market of surfers?

Are you advertising your site in the right places to get targeted traffic?

Is your site designed to sell? Are you giving the surfer a reason to click out of your site?

If you want a surfer to give you his/her email address, are you giving them a good enough reason to do so?

Are you writing your own custom ads/sales pitch and/or testimonials or are you using mostly pre-designed ads?

Are you using geo-targeted ads?

Are you promoting products or services that you have an interest in or know something about? It's much easier, especially in the beginning, to promote a product or service that interests you or you have knowledge about. You will able to write and appeal to the your visitors.

These are just general questions and things for people to think about.

[DodgeCroft]

Something that I feel is the most important issue has only now been mentioned by ANS-Jen.

"Are you getting targeted traffic?"

It is tooo easy to spend a ton of cash to receive hits and click throughs but by the time the visitor realises that what you're offering isn't what they're looking for, they bounce!

Track your visitors through your own site and find at what stage they leave.

If you are referring your visitors to another site, make them aware of it! Personally it annoys me no end to find what I want, give my email address out and then be sent to another site to purchase what I was looking for.

In a situation like this I have to disagree with autoresponders!!!!

Hope there's something amoungst that of use to you...

[paulmarc]

Hi,

The Autoresponder is DEFINETELY a big one to use. You shouldn't be without it. There are two really good ones that I like, both cost about $17.00 a month.

Google AdWords is also a great idea if you have the time to learn how to do it right..(yes it takes time!).

There is lots of help out there if you look for it!

Good luck,

Paul-Marc