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5 Strategies to Make Money as an Affiliate Marketer Posted: 02 Oct 2009 04:00 AM PDT Since John’s blog is primarily about making money online, I thought I’d come up with a post that shares some tips on how you can make an excellent income as an affiliate marketer. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Mitchell Harper and I’m co-founder of BigCommerce, ecommerce software which you can use to sell physical and downloadable products (such as eBooks or music) online. We have 40,000 customers between our Interspire and BigCommerce products. We’ve recently launched our BigCommerce affiliate program which pays $300 per sale. Now to most this is extremely generous – after all, our highest plan is $149.95 a month, but why do we do it? We do it for two reasons: So we can attract the top 1% of affiliates. We have two affiliate programs – our own in-house program and our Commission Junction (CJ) program. CJ is the biggest affiliate network in the world and in order to recruit their premium affiliates your offer needs to stand out. Offering (significantly) more commission than our competitors – GoDaddy, Yahoo Stores and Network Solutions – made us stand out because affiliates are always after the BBD – the bigger, better deal. So we don’t have to expand our internal sales team. Affiliates are like a sales team for a company – except they work for commission only and no salary. An affiliate program is the smartest way to increase your sales without increasing your expenses, because you only pay affiliate commissions when a sale comes in. So now let’s look at the other side of the coin – being an affiliate marketer. I’ve learned a lot about affiliate marketing in the last few years (our Interspire affiliate program has over 3,000 active affiliates and our BigCommerce affiliate program is pushing 1,000 active affiliates even though it was only launched last week) so I wanted to share some strategies which you can use to make money (and even a full-time income) as an affiliate marketer. Feel free to add your own strategies in the comments section below. Here they are: Take the time to write detailed reviews for the products you’re promoting and get them listed in search results. For example, did you know that Top10Reviews.com is one big affiliate site? The key is that they provide excellent quality reviews and comparisons between similar products, but no matter which product you choose they get their affiliate commission. Use video to promote products. Grab your MacBook or a digital camera and record an unscripted review of the product, just like how CNet does. Be honest and talk about both the pros and cons of the product you’re reviewing. People appreciate honesty and you’ll build up an excellent following if you’re honest with your reviews. Use offline marketing methods such as postcards to reach prospects. Let’s face it. AdWords is expensive and there’s so much “noise” online that it can be hard to reach the people you want. Why not try a more traditional marketing activity such as postcards? Just create a domain name such as AcmeProductTrial.com (where “Acme Product” is the name of the product/service you’re promoting) and forward that domain using your affiliate link. Pick up on the pain points customers are having using products similar to those you’re promoting and address them. For example, if someone is having trouble using Intuit QuickBooks and you promote Microsoft Money, create a website with a comparison table and reviews from happy Microsoft customers and have a big “Try It!” button which of course links to the Microsoft Money website using your affiliate link. If you can afford it, run Google AdWords ads which take visitors to a survey. Ask them questions about their particular situation (such as Internet security if you promote McAfee products) and if it makes sense, show offers for 2 or 3 related products after they’ve completed the survey. Clearly tell visitors you will use their responses to create a website with more information and even ask for their email address so you can link them to that site when you’ve built it. This way you can get real insight into their pain points and what they’re looking for out of the kind of products you’re promoting and you’ll make your affiliate commissions. You can then use the information you learn to setup landing pages addressing their concerns which of course include your affiliate links. I could write a few dozen of these strategies because I know they work time and time again, but I’ll leave it at five for now. Remember, if you’re looking to make money as an affiliate marketer you need to promote products with a high conversion rate, large audience of potential buyers and excellent commission. The BigCommerce affiliate program, which pays up to $300 per sale is a great place to start Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

Sponsor a Child and Change the World Posted: 01 Oct 2009 04:02 PM PDT John has long since said (and I agree) that life isn’t about how much you make or how much you get; the value of life is really about how much you give. While we may complain about not being able to buy this toy or not being able to go on that trip, most of us enjoy quite the charmed lifestyle. Compared to many other people around the world, we are incredibly fortunate. I don’t have to worry about putting food on the table or getting access to clean water, but these are everyday concerns for so many people. That is why you may want to consider sponsoring a child through Plan Canada. This organization aims to change the world, one child at a time. I should note that while this is a sponsored review, the opinions expressed are wholly my own and have not been influenced by the nature of the sponsorship. What is Plan Canada? According to the about page, Plan Canada is part of a larger global movement for change, “mobilizing millions of people around the world to support social justice for children in developing countries.” In short, you can sponsor a child and Plan will aim to help these children “realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity.” This starts with enabling the children and their families to meet basic needs, like clean water, sanitation, medicine, and food. The funding is also used to build relationships and advocate the rights and interests of the world’s children. They have a particular interest in overcoming gender discrimination. Why Sponsor a Child? I certainly believe that we should re-invest in our own communities, but we should also recognize the pressing needs of people all around the globe, particularly those who live in some of the poorest regions in the world. Plan Canada does not expect you to change the world on your own, of course, but by pooling the resources of all donors, they can work toward saving many children from unnecessary poverty and mortality. The funding can be used to build infrastructure, provide proper nutrition, and educate people on how they can be self-sufficient in the future. How Does This Work? Plan Canada says you are sponsoring a single child, but that isn’t the whole truth. Instead, the contributions are pooled together and used to fun programs that benefit the sponsored children. That said, you are still connected to the one child you are sponsoring. You will be provided with their story and pictures. In turn, you have the opportunity to send pictures back and even visit your sponsored child if you so choose. However, you cannot send gifts directly to the child you sponsor, as this can pose security and jealousy problems in the community. Looking at the main page, I noticed that it said about 80% of all donations go to the programs benefiting the children and their families. The remaining 20%, presumably, goes toward administration costs. However, when I click through on the link for accountability to donors, I get an empty page. This seems to be part of the old site design, so I hope the Plan Canada webmasters update this very important page soon. Where and How Much Can I Donate? You can choose to donate monthly or annually. The minimum sponsorship level is $35 a month ($420 a year), which works out to just over a dollar a day. Your sponsorship can be higher, should you so choose, and you can end your sponsorship at your discretion at any time. The donation form gives you the opportunity to choose the age, country and gender of the sponsored child, but Plan Canada encourages you to leave these fields blank. This way, the sponsorship can go to the child who has been on the waiting list the longest. They have sponsored children from Bangladesh, Ecuador, Malawi, Thailand, and more. Plan Canada is a registered Canadian charity so you also get the associated tax benefits from your donation. Discover the SECRETS I’ve Learned to go from zero a month to over $40,000 a month from blogging. Download Make Money Online with John Chow dot Com for FREE!

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