How do you sell an affiliate product?

We’ve talked in some detail about how Clickbank and E-Junkie work, and that there’s a whole host of stuff there that you can offer your readers and earn a commission from. So what do you do when you find a product on one of those and decide that you want to go ahead and offer it? Here are some tips:

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Buy it!

I would not offer to sell anything I hadn’t bought and studied myself. I know there are plenty of internet marketers who do so, and that they do well out of it, but as a blogger, I’m in the business for the long term, and I wouldn’t risk my reputation on recommending something that was not useful or value for money.

Understand the product in relation to your readers

You need to be sure that it addresses a need your readers have. People don’t buy features, they buy benefits. Study the features of the product and see if they translate to benefits for your readership. If they don’t, move on and find something else.

Come up with a promotional plan

The temptation, when you’ve found something good to offer, is to splash a cool graphic onto your blog and sit and wait for the money to roll in. It won’t! You need to devise a plan. Here are some ideas:

• Write a blog post about the product giving an honest assessment of why you think it will benefit your readers. Focus it on what they will get from it. You don’t need to even use a banner, but you can if you want to. I just use two affiliate links, one at the beginning and one at the end. Tip: if you put a photo in your post, link the photo to your affiliate link as well – it’s funny how often people will click it! Tip 2: I always tell people when I’m going to earn a commission.
• Use a broadcast email message to your subscribers telling them about the product. You can either link it to your post, or directly to the sales page. I would avoid using the pre written emails many marketers offer – it won’t sound like you, write your own! And yes I did make this mistake!

Now, this is the point at which so many people stop, and again, sit back and wait for the money to roll in. And this is where the smart people do so much more:

• I would then set up an autoresponder so that all my new email subscribers get the offer a few weeks after joining the community
• I would also go through all my old posts and add a link to any that were relevant to the product
• Finally, I would bear it in mind for all future posts, and again add more links if the post is on a similar subject

By doing all this extra work, you’re not only “seeding” your blog with lots of links to your original post, but you’re greatly increasing the chance of people seeing it.

I don’t see affiliate marketing as a one time hit, where you look to make a quick burst of money, I see it as a long term tactic, which will create a steady, stable addition to your income.

What are your thoughts on this?

Maybe also have a look at:

1/ When to start making money from your blog

2/ Remember to have fun!

3/ What happens when you guest post on John Chow