Got “Affiliate Signup” Access On Your Blog?
Do you see Affiliate Signup button (the one I’m pointing at) on the upper left side of this blog?
I published that button a week ago (as an experiment) to test if I’d get a “passive” spike in attracting new Affiliate Partners and so far, I’ve doubled my daily Affiliate sign-up rate.
Even if this “doubling” effect doesn’t continue, “shame on me” for not adding that button to my blog sooner!
How about you? Do you have an affiliate program? Do you have a blog?
If you answered “YES” to both questions, then I encourage you to ask yourself this question before you put your Affiliate sign-up button on your blog:
“Do I want my Affiliate Program to be ‘closed’ or ‘open’?”
A “closed” program is typically only available to Affiliates who have also purchased one of your offers. An “open” program is available to anyone who is in good standing with you and wants to promote your offers.
For the first 8 years of my online marketing experience, I had a “closed” affiliate program. But it is now “open” as a result of wanting to build-out the AskAlexToday “outer circle” calls held on the first Thursday of each month.
Turning Pro: The difference between an “amateur” and a “professional” is $1. The moment you make your first dollar, you’ve turned “pro” from my point of view.
Since my goal to get you to “turn Pro” as fast as possible, I’ll bend over backwards to make your commission checks as “rich” as possible.
Key Point: I’ll pay you a 90% commission on most $20 Teleseminars I promote, so with ONE referred sale you’ll “turn Pro” 18X over! (Yes, I pay my Affiliate Partners $18 out of the $20).
The reason I mention the 90% commission is because that’s exactly what I encourage you to do with your own Affiliate Partners. Overpay them for all of your low-end offers (like a $20 Teleseminar or eBook) and they’ll be more enthusiastic to promote your offers more often!
My self-serving reason to give my Affiliate Partners the “better-end-of-the-deal” on low-end promotional offers (even if they have tiny lists) is to inspire, motivate and persuade them to promote more often on my behalf.
It’s that simple. I call it “self-serving benevolence” – It’s self-serving because they are promoting for me more often and it’s benevolent because they’re getting paid a lot more than typically expected.
What To Do Now: Get registered for my Affiliate Program by clicking the Affiliate Signup button you see on the upper left side of this blog – on the navigation bar. And then as soon as you make your first dollar with me, tell me your story at HowIMadeMyFirstDollar.com
Tags: affiliate, alex mandossian, Info Marketing, online marketing, partners
My hope for you after publishing this blog post is motivate you to pay your Affiliate Partners the highest commission you can afford for your low-end offers; and, to motivate you to sign up to my Affiliate program so you experience how I do it ;-)
Thanks for reading,
~ Alex
90% commission??? I’m just about to launch a new product where I was looking at 75% commission, but this post has got me re-thinking my strategy.
Thanks, Alex! :)
Kind regards,
-John.
I will sign up. I enjoyed the podcasting webinar.
Alex, You’re the Man!!!
Nice job with the Affiliate button. Just that little addition let’s people know about it, and the effectiveness of the button. Great job doubling your sign ups.
BTW, I love the Vegas chip race video. Everyone is screaming I’m sure, in true Alex fashion.
Dave Hale
Great idea Alex. But the button isn’t taking me to your affiliate signup page. I get an error page.
I was just thinking about adding this link to my blog.
I need to update my affiliate sign up page and then, I’ll add the link.
Thank for the reminder.
Franck
I think that is a great idea. You can make it up on the backend sales.
Tony Javier
http://www.TotalRealEstateSecrets.com
Hey Alex
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not seeing the Affiliate signup button you are pointing to. (I’ve refreshed my page a couple of times and still nothing). You might want to get your tech people to take a look at it.
Curious to know if you make any efforts to attract affiliates who don’t know you and aren’t readers of your blog? Hard to imagine it, but there must be people somewhere who haven’t heard of you (lol!)
Tx
Shelley
Hi Alex,
Yet another great post…. I have to be honest…. I didn’t notice the affiliate signup until this post, but with saying that, I travel here a lot and I always get excited to read what’s next…. I am a firm believer in you and I come to read every post…. You always submit excellent content….
I have been a part of your courses and I have been a participant in your affiliate program….
With you, it is as follows:
- This first year, you are a student.
- The second year, you are an affiliate.
- The 3rd year, you are a partner.
I know to meet the 3rd criteria, you must be a hard worker to do so and I aim high to be partner with you for this is my affiliate year and I must say that I am proud for I was able to squeeze in a sale for PodCast Secrets 2009 during the last few hours before the course cost increase…. I guess that makes me a professional…. I was my first affiliate sale for you….
Alex; you have my 110% respect and I work hard to help you and others…. I look forward to applying a good affiliate program to my product funnel and I highly look forward to becoming a partner with you in the near future….
Regards,
Philip J. Mutrie
http://www.SuperSqueezePageSecrets.com
http://www.PhilMutrie.com
Your affiliate program is the best one I’ve seen, Alex!
Alex,
How does one set up an affiliate program?
What a timely post!
I am in the process of calculating my costs for my Workshop, so that I can see how much I CAN pay my affiliates.
Knowing your bottom line helps in knowing what you can pay out!
Thanks for the great post Alex!
-Christina Hills
I’m a bit confused.
I come into this totally impressed with you, Alex and very thankful for all the great info I have gotten through your teleseminars and blog postings – great job.
However, when I signed up as an affiliate, this was in the e-mail that came with the link info:
“As promised, you’ll get paid 45% from the gross proceeds
of every sale, minus shipping & handling. I will cover
fulfillment, client services, bad charges, 4-pay
financing (when applicable), product development, etc.”
I am guessing that the difference between 90% in your blog and 45% in your finer print has to do with the fact that the 90% applies to the low rent items… so perhaps the 45% is an average of the payouts, including larger ticket items. That’s fine.
My disappointment is in feeling a bit misled…it would have helped me if you came out and said, in the email, that the over all commission is 45% because of – whatever the reason – and that the 90% promised in the blog applies only to the teleseminars. Or whatever is the explanation.
It is the apparent lack of transparency, or the disconnect between the blog and the e-mail, that is a disappointment to me.
On the other hand, perhaps it’s a mistake on one end or the other. Can you clarify this?
The good news is that your ready gifting of value around everything you know, to all of us who are trying to get better at all this, is so generous that I remain a big fan. I just feel the wind ruffling the trusting hairs on my neck…
Thanks for all you do – you have given me LOTS of great information over the years.
best,
Scout
My first product is an ebook. I feature it prominently on my blog (with a link to the sales page).
My concern with an affiliate button is that it will distract potential customers from buying the ebook, and may also make them focus too much on my desire to make money, as opposed to offering them quality information.
Clickbank sells my ebook, so I can easily handle affiliates.
Alex,
Great post! This paradigm shift will bring you exceptional results. I had always wondered about the closed vs open affiliate tracks and this really clears up the benefits.
Kevin Patrick
Thanks for sharing your results Alex. It’s amazing what seemingly small actions can accomplish in our online marketing efforts.
Take care.
Jason
Giving 90% commission sounds like a good idea to motivate your affiliates to get promoting for you.
This way you can focus your energy on other tasks like content and product creation.
And although there is not much money made through the remaining 10%, you know that you are getting heaps of leads which you can then market your back-end, high-ticket products to later on.
Great ideas Alex.
Thank for the post Alex.
Like Eileen, I too am keen to read the response to the question about setting up an affiliate program. In one part of my marketing strategy, I offer a commission for new business generated through a business contact or a member of the marketing team. However, I do not have a formal affiliate programme. What considerations should be taken on board in deciding commission based vs affiliate marketing? And, does it have to be one or the other or are they compatible?
Best wishes.
Veronica
http://www.executive-solutions.co.uk/business
Join me on Twitter at: ExecSolutionsTr
Scout,
I appreciate your candor and directness and you took 300+ words for what could have taken just three: “I am confused.” :-)
First off, if you feel disappointed, then I encourage NOT to promote anything I offer. If you feel a lack of transparency, thanks for expressing your feelings on my blog and my offers may not be right for you, if you continue to feel the way you expressed on your reply.
Secondly, as you read my blog post more carefully, you’ll notice that the 90% commission is ONLY for low-end offers such as my monthly $20 Teleseminars, which are available to you at least 12X per year.
Here’s what I said: “The reason I mention the 90% commission is because that’s exactly what I encourage you to do with your own Affiliate Partners. Overpay them for all of you low-end offers (like a $20 Teleseminar or eBook) and they’ll be more enthusiastic to promote your offers…”
Third, the email auto-responder you got was the third of three and referred to Teleseminar Secrets which does pay what I indicated, which is $1,000+ per sale. If that dollar amount doesn’t make sense for you to promote TSS, then I trust you won’t.
After reading this and you still feel misled or disappointed, then I do encourage you NOT to participate as an Affiliate. What I do know is one drop of bitterness in a glass of water bitters the entire glass.
Appreciate your comment,
~ Alex
Hi Alex!
Tried the affiliate link but it’s not directing me to anything. Anyway, just wanted to say that I can’t help but follow you because you always come up with great, value-oriented ideas. You’re a very agile leader. Keep it up!
Best,
Trissa
“Button, Button, Where Is The Button?”
Short answer: No.
Longer answer: Like Shelley Holmes I don’t see any button, might want to check for it on a Firefox browser. But you do look kinda’ cute just pointing up there into space!
Question: Is this a good example of an actionizer???
Regards,
Sharon
Sharon,
“AFFILIATE SIGNUP” …”AFFILIATE SIGNUP” … “AFFILIATE SIGNUP” … right up there next to RECOMMENDED RESOURCES … see it now? Click it and check it out because it works with IE or Firefox.
Actionizer is an “ethical bribe” so if that’s what my picture does for you, then great :-) A better example is the brief movie taken from my Teleseminar Secrets Reunion – see April 14th post.
Thanks for your comment,
~ Alex
Alex:
I couldn’t help but read a little frustration into the tone of your response to Scout. At the same time you were giving me another lesson – you can’t please everyone, all the time.
My service business has 6 sales people who seem to fixate and dwell on the 1%-2% of the jobs that have a customer issue. We strive to get better, but even if we were perfect, customers like Scout are going to be out there in every business.
In a future topic, I would love for you to give some insight into how you handle disappointments and setbacks – both personally and as a leader of your organizations.
Thanks for your gifts!
Fred
Fred,
It was a dollop of candor with a trace of frustration. So you’re right. Scout’s post merited a reply by me and my frustration hinged on the “time” I spent responding, versus my reaction to insinuations made.
Anyway, thanks for reading my reply. It means much to me when anyone takes time to click deep into my posts. I have plenty of training and experience with handling setbacks or disappointments so thanks for that offer as well.
With appreciation,
~ Alex
This site rocks!
[... - http://www.alexmandossian.com is other wonderful website of advice. Car insurance claims [… -