Can You Really Make Money With Affiliate Marketing?

Can You Really Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?

Yes, you can really make money with affiliate marketing as long as you approach it with integrity. Finding the right model for you is worth it and should feel comfortable for you and your audience.

Below are some affiliate marketing ideas to get you thinking.

Use giveaways and valuable information to establish a relationship.

Before people take your recommendations seriously, they need to feel you are honest—that you’re the “real deal”. If you focus on helping visitors and readers first and recommending products as a natural result of this, you will soon start to build the credibility you need before your recommendations can be taken seriously.

Keeping this in mind, make sure that all gifts you offer are your best ones.

The relationship (and the trust) has to come before any big sales push.

Be straightforward.

Just because you are taking a relationship-based approach to affiliate marketing, don’t feel you have to dance around the issue of what you’re recommending. Once you’ve identified your visitor’s problem and given her hope there is a solution—provide it, upfront and without apologies or explanations.

This is absolutely crucial, no matter what style of affiliate marketing you choose to embrace.

Boost your reviews and bonuses.

If you are running a review site, or including the occasional review on your blog or website, consider using a “double whammy” strategy. This can increase your targeted reach. In other words, don’t just promote the product, promote your review!

This doesn’t just mean sharing your blog post link on Twitter or announcing it on your Facebook Page. Get creative—try strategies such as video reviews, actively showing people what you are talking about in real-time as you demonstrate the pros and cons of a product.

Or give a micro-video-review that actually just hits what the product’s main purpose and benefit are, inviting readers to click on your link to learn more.

And if you are adding a great bonus gift to an affiliate product, promote your bonus gift too!

Review more than one product in the same post.

Even if you are not running a “comparison” review site in chart form, consider reviewing more than one product, brand, or version.

People love comparisons. Be as objective as possible and include affiliate links for both products.

Comparisons give you a chance to earn more money. And remember that what may be a detriment in your eyes could be the very feature someone else is looking for.

Don’t just tell people about a product—show them how to use it.

Making a video that shows visitors how to solve their problem by using a recommended product should be a “must” for all affiliate marketers. Not only does it appeal to those who learn visually or in a tactile, kinesthetic manner, it also provides real “proof”. Proof that you’ve tried and used the product yourself and it works!

You’ll also overcome fear barriers by making it look easy.

A warning: don’t buy the product, and hurriedly “wing” your “how to use” video. Sure, you may do a creditable job. But is it affiliate marketing with integrity.

Take the time to get to know the product, inside out. Use it in your everyday life. That way, you’ll discover hidden tips and tricks. These “insider” tactics are what will really convince your viewers that you are worth listening to and your recommended product is worth buying!

Choose your product carefully.

If you are promoting a single product, remember that it is better to specialize in one product. It should either bring a huge return by way of commission or brings in tons of sales. You should know your audience well enough to know what they need and want. Selecting the right products will help you really make money with affiliate marketing.

Be your own case study.

If you can prove what a measurable, positive difference a system or a course, has made in your own life, you will double your chances of getting a conversion.

If you are just starting out, you have a perfect opportunity to plan the documentation of your journey, step by step.

Use videos and tracking data screenshots, in addition to photographs. Note that people respond especially well to videos. They perceive these as less easy to fake, particularly if you are showing something happening in real-time, with mistakes and all!

Remember that people identify with mistakes and failures. Providing you also show the way to overcome or avoid these, you can create tremendous credibility by keeping it real.

Be clear about which specific niche you operate within.

Resist the urge to promote products all over the map. Only promote products that are highly relevant to your list. This is the only way to keep building trust with your followers.

Affiliate marketing is a huge field. There is room for everyone who conducts their business with integrity and recommends only quality products that you either use or believe in. You can really make money with affiliate marketing!

Ready to get started with affiliate marketing? This month’s MyNAMS Insider’s Club Challenge is all about affiliate marketing. Plus, we offer multiple courses, checklists, templates and trainings to help you get started fast. Until Sunday, May 31st, you can get into the Insiders Club for just $99 and get access to over 50 courses and trainings, tools you need to run your business and weekly live calls to help you progress quickly. Click now to get started.

Using Affiliate Programs For Bloggers

By Jen Perdew Leave a Comment

Using Affiliate Programs For Bloggers - The Best Programs

Using affiliate programs for bloggers can bring you a steady flow of revenue. It’s important that you do your research and find affiliate programs that align with your level of quality and integrity. Remember that your reputation is always at stake when you recommend something to your audience. The time you took to build a relationship and trust is worth protecting.

If you are just now setting up a blog, that gives you a great chance to build relationships with your audience, especially with those people who haven’t yet joined your mailing list. Once you have been able to build a relationship with your audience, protect that trust and only recommend items you 100% trust and believe in personally.

The beauty of setting up your affiliate blog gives you an opportunity to promote your affiliate offers in a variety of ways. Take a look at these ways to maximize your affiliate sales using your blog.

Your audience is looking for someone they can trust to give them the straight scoop on products in your niche. You can become that someone by doing honest product reviews and comparisons.

The components of these articles include:

A quick summary of what the product is and what it purports to do for the user.
The good features and benefits of the product.
The product’s weaknesses and flaws, along with how to overcome these flaws (where applicable).

The verdict - do you recommend the product? If so, include a link and call to action to purchase the product.

Post Direct Ads

Though you certainly don’t want to have a blog full of direct ads, you can post them from time to time. Think of this as a mini sales letter where you presell the prospect before sending them to the vendor’s sales page.

The components include:

An attention-getting headline.

An opener that draws attention to the pain of the problem, perhaps by sharing a story.

Introducing the product as a solution to the problem.

Listing the benefits of the solution.

Closing with a link and a call to action to click on the link/buy the product.

Embed Soft Sells In Content

The best affiliate marketing blogs use different ways to recommend products. The idea here is to post content and then drop a recommendation directly into the content. This isn’t a hard sell like a direct advertisement. Instead, it’s more like a gentle recommendation from a friend.

Here are two examples of different ways to embed a soft sell:

“Before you can start building your list, you’ll need to get an account with a reputable email service provider. I suggest Aweber.com.”

“You just learned how to write a good sales letter. If you want to make copywriting even faster and easier, then start with a set template.”

And any other content you share with your blog readers.

Get Guest Articles From Vendors

You don’t need to create all these tips articles, how-to articles, and other content on your own. You can ask vendors to create this content for you, and then insert your affiliate links at the end.

Most vendors provide blog articles in your affiliate dashboard. The problem is, this content is often used by dozens of other affiliates. If it’s good content, you can post it. Otherwise, you may seek out exclusive content from the vendor in one of the following three ways.

Ask the vendor to create a unique article for you. You may even propose a content swap, where you exchange articles for your respective blogs. That way you both get content, and you both get traffic and exposure.

Ask for permission to excerpt out part of the product itself and post it as an article on your blog. Be sure you get explicit, written permission for this activity, as doing otherwise could land you in a lot of legal trouble.

Request permission to rework the vendor’s content. If the vendor has posted content in your affiliate center, then ask if you can tweak the content to make it more unique.

Using your blog as a way to introduce affiliate programs to your audience is a smart affiliate marketing strategy. Ready to get started with affiliate marketing? This month’s MyNAMS Insider’s Club Challenge is all about affiliate marketing and you can get started right now for only $1!

YouTube Video Marketing Strategy

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YouTube Video Marketing Strategy: Tips That Work

Video marketing. Abstract vector concept background. Goal and target, aim and camera, optimization marketing

YouTube Video Marketing. Those words can be intimidating and keep people from using YouTube to market their business in 2020. This is a huge mistake! YouTube Video marketing must be part of your overall marketing strategy. The good news is that It’s not as scary as you may think.

Are you running out of ideas as to how to market your business for little or no money?

Need some tips and direction to get you started using YouTube video social promotion tactics? Read on.

Create the Perfect Video for Your YouTube Marketing Channel

You can use YouTube to market your business, product, or services. However, you need a good video in order to draw traffic and make people want to visit your website after they have finished watching.

So what goes into the perfect YouTube marketing video? Creativity always counts, of course, as does professionalism. Still, there are other things to take into consideration as well.

5 Things That Will Get You Started

Make your video creative. With all of the videos out there, yours needs to stand out in the crowd. Use fun music, great shots, and try to find an angle that hasn't already been done. People generally turn to YouTube to be entertained or shown how to do something and your video needs to be able to do this.

Give some tips or solutions to common problems that are associated with your particular product, business, or services. This is an informational type of video and the audience will like the fact that they are learning something. Try to make the tips unique enough that most people can use them but haven't necessarily heard of them before.

Make your video educational. People like to learn things when they watch a video. Your perfect YouTube marketing video doesn't have to be all about how to find your website and what the cost of your product is. For example, if you are advertising your mechanical business then why not give a demonstration on how to change a tire? People will watch your video, learn something, and then visit your website. These how-to videos are a lot less threatening than standard commercials or advertisements that you see on television. Plus, they are entertaining.

Add some realism or “behind the scenes” in your video. You can do this by introducing your team, introducing some customers, or even giving the audience a “behind the scenes” tour of the office or place of work. People appreciate this and it gives your product or business some authenticity.

Add closed-captions to your video. Keep in mind that not everyone is able to hear and that those audience members might be the very ones that want to order your product. It's very thoughtful to keep the hearing impaired in mind when creating a video, even a marketing video because most people rarely do.

A Powerful Marketing Tool

YouTube can be a powerful marketing tool for your business or products that you are trying to promote. Most of the YouTube videos are shot by amateurs and are low-budget. That doesn't mean that a lot of work didn't go into them, however. Still, the videos are mostly done on a low budget.

There are ways to make your video great. Keep in mind that when you are making your YouTube marketing video, your visuals and messaging match your brand. You want to attract your ideal client, so keep their client avatar in mind when you create your videos.

Video Marketing for Success

YouTube can be a great place to upload your marketing video for your business or product. Millions of people get on YouTube every day to watch videos and yours can be one of those that people watch. Your YouTube video marketing strategy for 2020 should be created with a purpose. Always include your website address and other information easy to spot so people will then be driven to your website.

For more tips on the benefits of Youtube and Video Marketing, check out our other blog posts

Every month in the MyNAMS Insiders Club, we focus on a foundational business topic all businesses need to create sustainable long term income. May is our Video Marketing Challenge. If you need to focus on video marketing for your business, join us now for just $1. You'll get access to all of our workshops, challenges, courses, templates, workbooks, monthly PLR plus our weekly mastermind! It's the best deal for growing your online business.

5 Benefits of YouTube Marketing

By Jen Perdew Leave a Comment

Benefits of YouTube Marketing Means More Traffic and More Money

To take advantage of the maximum benefits of YouTube marketing, then the first thing you need to do is create and customize your own channel. This isn't as difficult as it sounds. In fact, if you already have a website, you should already have a logo, brand style, and content that you could use for your channel.

So why should you create your own YouTube channel?

Once you have created a channel, you can upload your own videos. Not only that, but you will have a new social presence. You will go from being a single visitor amongst millions to an actual contributor. This will let you interact within the YouTube community, use some of the YouTube marketing tools, and the ability to embed the videos that you upload to your own website for free. You just can't find a better marketing reason than that.

How do you create your own YouTube channel?

Actually, when you sign up for an account, the channel is already right there for you, waiting. It is up to you to make it yours. You can add some personal information about yourself, or your company, as well as include your website address and other important information. In addition, you can also showcase your favorite videos-either made by you or someone else.

What are some of the other advantages of creating and customizing your channel?

You will have a profile and get a unique YouTube URL that you can use on other social platforms or where you want the viewer to go.

You can use various YouTube functions to connect with other users, promote your own videos, or to learn valuable information as to how to make your marketing videos better.

With your YouTube channel set up and optimized, you will be able to drive traffic back to your website. Remember that more traffic can create new sales.

Promote Your Business with These 5 YouTube Marketing Strategies

YouTube is great for promoting, but you need to do it the right way. Take into consideration that you will use YouTube to be a part of your marketing and promotion of your product and business, not as your overall marketing strategy.

Your website and other social media platforms can link to your YouTube video. This way, people who are already interested in your product will be able to see a video about it to help supplement the information that you have already provided on your website or on social media.

5 tips to Promote Your Business or Product with YouTube

1. Use your YouTube video on your company's blog. You can also use it on your company's Facebook page, as well as on the website itself.
2. The same goes for Twitter. Don't underestimate the value of Twitter these days. Make sure that your updates include links to your YouTube site. Encourage re-teets to increase your YouTube video views.
3. Use your YouTube channel URL to any out-going emails that you send. Make them part of your signature so that no matter who you send them to, they will be able to see your link. Do this for both business and personal emails, but make sure that the signature isn't needlessly large. That can be annoying.
4. Use the video or the video link in as many relevant areas as you can. It's better to place them in a few key areas where you will get a targeted audience. Post them where your ideal client can see them and grow YouTube views to your target audience.
5. Always have a call to action and drive viewers to your website where they can purchase your product or your services.

The key thing to remember is that the more traffic you have, the greater opportunity you have in gaining a new client or customer. So be strategic and reap the benefits of YouTube marketing, which is more traffic, more money.

For more Youtube and video marketing strategies, check out our other blog post called YouTube Marketing Strategies for 2020.

Every month in the MyNAMS Insiders Club, we focus on a foundational business topic all businesses need to create sustainable long term income. May is our Video Marketing Challenge. If you need you to focus on video marketing for your business, join us now for just $1. You'll get access to all of our workshops, challenges, courses, templates, workbooks, monthly PLR plus our weekly mastermind! It's the best deal for growing your online business.

Are you talking to the right people?

By Jen Perdew 1 Comment

“Are You Talking to The Right People?”

Make sure your message is right for the market...

You wouldn’t advertise underwear at a nudist camp, right?

A great salesperson can sell anything to anyone, right?

Let’s get the cliches out of the way right away… here’s a few examples:

He could sell sawdust to a lumberyard.
She could sell hay to a farmer.
He could sell wood to a forest.
She could sell a cape to Superman.
He could sell crutches to a sprinter.
She could sell a cage to a lion.
He could sell ice to a polar bear.
She could sell salt to a thirsty man.

This is relative to the topic today, because I’m going to prove to you that a GREAT salesperson NEVER sells someone something they don’t need.

In fact, if your message doesn’t match the actual market need with a real solution, expect at best one-time sales to customers who will never buy anything else from you again and at worst more refunds than you can handle.

Either way, your reputation is destroyed.

A great salesperson is a problem solver and a service provider.

A great business finds the problems in a market and creates solutions THAT group needs - desperately.

Once the problem is clarified and the solution is identified, the exact market with the desperate issue has to see the solution as not only an opportunity to fix a problem but a real Godsend.

When that happens, prospects come looking for you. And your business blows up.

So, What’s the problem?

Communication. It’s always communication.

Let’s look at an example. Read this brand message paragraph below. If you know anything about motorcycles, you have no doubt who this company is without naming the product.

But what’s the problem? Is it that we’re in an...

“Era of decreasing personal freedom”

Or that these are…

“Macho guys (and Macho ‘Wannabees’)”

Or that these guys want to…

“Join a gang of cowboys”

Look at it again.

In an era of decreasing personal freedom, these Macho guys (and Macho ‘Wannabees’) want to join a gang of cowboys…

That’s not really a problem. It’s a description of the symptoms of a problem.

In fact, the problem is more emotional than physical. By the way, it’s ALWAYS more emotional because a desperate problem causes some kind of pain, loss, or deprivation.

When describing the problem, it’s important to ask people suffering the problems a few questions:

What does it feel like to experience that problem?
When does the problem first appear?
Does the problem cause you emotional pain or suffering? In what way?
Do the people in your group have this problem? Does the group want a solution?
How does the problem affect your livelihood, status, money or relationships?
Does the problem seem desperate and/or hopeless?
Would you pay for a solution to the problem?

Identifying the problem is difficult. We talk around it to get the feeling behind it.

Having been a Harley Davidson rider myself, the problem in our example is:

Men want something that makes them feel like men again.

There’s insecurity, longing for respect, more prestige and some serious mid-life crisis resolution going on.

But no company is ever going to advertise that they’re “The ONLY motorcycle manufacturer that makes big, loud motorcycles for men going through a midlife crisis.”

But that’s a heck of a market. Motivated men with discretionary money and enough insecurity to want a lot of power under their butts.

Of course, that is not stated explicitly in the brand copy but the message resonates with the buyers in the market!

Actually, it’s not even a hard sell.

If you get the message in front of the right market, the only thing left to do is pick out the color, check the motorcycle inventory and schedule a delivery date.

This works in any niche if you find a motivated buyer with a desperate problem that you can solve.

But the key is putting the right message in front of them.

Get that right, and a bad salesperson becomes a wealthy person.

Dan Kennedy, one of the most respected marketers in the world, said something like this (and I’m paraphrasing),

If you have the right message-to-market match, then your sales message doesn’t have to be that good to ‘work’. BUT if you have the WRONG message-to-market match, then the best sales letter in the world won’t work at all.

We’ve had a lot of success selling products to interested audiences.

And we’ve had our share of flops too.

When we send an email that gets little response, the issue is usually that the message didn’t resonate with that audience.

It didn’t match. In some way, it was incongruent.

Nothing kills marketing faster than incongruence.

A marketing relationship is like a date.

Having a rich, sumptuous dinner at a 5-star French bistro complete with a soulful jazz singer accompanied by a soft piano and a stand-up bass sets the tone for an elegant, relaxed, intimate evening.

Follow dessert with ring-side seats at a mixed martial arts slugfest with sweat, blood and god-knows-what-nastiness raining down on you seems a bit (maybe a ton) incongruent with your original message.

And probably spells the end of that relationship.

Incongruence is a jolt to the system.

It’s like walking on the beach in a snowstorm.

Or dogs smoking cigars and playing poker around a table piled with chips and cash.

The subtlest of inconsistencies can coat your message with a thick layer of what-the-heck-is-this? And if they have to ask that question, it will confuse your market to the point that they walk away.

A confused prospect will not buy anything.

So your brand message has to be congruent from the first word to the last. If there’s a hiccup along the way, you’ll lose the market.

To reinforce your brand message, tell stories

Stories help your audience remember your message clearly because they attach the emotion and images you create with a narrative.

A message without a story is just data.

Nothing cements a message in a prospect's brain like a story. And if you create a story around your message and deliver it to the right market, they will remember the story for years to come hanging on to your message all the while.

So, your assignment is to create a brand message that is clear and succinct. Then, wrap that message with an entertaining story that’s hard to forget.

I know what you’re thinking…

“I don’t know any stories.”

Of course, you do. You tell dozens of them every day. All you need is a little instruction on how to shape those stories into unforgettable tales that embed your brand message to leave a memorable impression on your market.

That’s why we’ve created our brand new Simple Story Selling course.

In part 1 of this 4-part course, we focus on using stories to communicate the brand message most effectively to drive sales and keep the pipeline full.

We break down these messages into a simple 6-part formula using the book Zag: The #1 Strategy of High Performing Brands.

And then, we find the right market that wants to hear your story.

But first, it starts with the brand message. And you can download a special fill-in-the-blanks template today to create your compelling brand message fast.

Download the template and pop your new brand message in the comments below.