Recently I have been focusing on how to recruit affiliates as my primary source of traffic.
Whilst I have been taught the theory by my coach, Marc Milburn, I have been strangely reluctant to follow his advice. This puzzled me and I therefore requested his help to discover the reason why.
All internet marketers face a problem initially – they have few online friends, few good contacts, no proven track record, and little or no authority. This presents a major hurdle because affiliates will usually prefer to mail for people that they know, like and trust.
Put Yourself in The Shoes Of The Affiliate
Affiliates are only human after all:
they only want to send good quality offers to their list (- as their list is their most important asset.)
they don’t have a great deal of time to check out new products from new marketers
they already have a lot of product offers that they could send to their list – many of them with a proven track record
they want your proposal to be ‘presented on a plate’ – i.e. they want all the relevant information in an easily digestible format so they can make a decision – this is why your JV page or blog is so important. It helps if you have some metrics on how your offer is likely to convert and the Earnings Per Click.
they want to be incentivised with prizes and competitions i.e. top performing affiliates get rewarded for taking action.
However, something that Marc said really resonated with me – he said that he would mail for a friend ahead of any other consideration, such as a great offer or product.
He then said that recruiting affiliates was really about ‘making friends’ with people who have lists in your niche.
So how do you make friends with people who have lists in your niche?
Here are just a few of the ideas I have come up with:
interact with them on Facebook and show that you have some value to offer – good advice, an opinion, a tip, a free product or download for their Group or customers(no subscription necessary)
buy their product and interact with them and their customers within their membership site or product Facebook Group
offer to help them in some way – a testimonial, a service that you can provide, by resolving a problem they may have or you identify
going to live events and meeting them in person
interviewing them and promoting their product at the end of the interview (- give them a copy and a transcription)
supporting their launch and making sales for them as an affiliate
These are just a few suggestions – you can probably think of more.
Act With Purpose
In order to be effective, I think that you must act with purpose i.e. identify who you want as a partner and then deliberately take action to get yourself known to them in a good and ethical way.
Building relationships takes time but think of it as building an asset – it’s not an asset that you can touch, see or even value accurately but nevertheless it is a major asset because a friend will help and support you ahead of any stranger.
In order to act deliberately, set time aside to identify your preferred partners and then record their contact details, website etc on a spreadsheet and then take action to contact them in some way. Record your contact with each of them on your spreadsheet and take deliberate action to start and maintain a relationship with them. If you have access to CRM software like Sage ACT, this is ideal but an Excel spreadsheet will do.
Personally, I like the idea of interviewing potential affiliates because:
you can make a much deeper level of connection and relationship
you can make content or a product out of the interview for the benefit of both parties
both parties can quickly decide if you think the relationship is worth developing
you are not trying to ‘sell’ anything other than a conversation
My Mindset Block
And that brings me back to the mindset block I was having about contacting affiliates – the knowledge that I was trying to ‘SELL’ them on promoting my product.
That word ‘sell’ was the block in my mind. However, at the end of an interview it will be very easy to transition into asking them about what products they have available to promote, and visa versa, don’t you think?
Also, make a friend of them on Facebook and just keep them informed of what you are doing and your blog posts – I think a more natural relationship will develop as a result.
Where To Find Potential Affiliates
You may be wondering where you can find potential affiliates. Here are some good suggestions:
marketers connected to you on Facebook
marketers whose products you have bought
JV’s in JV Facebook Groups – I am a member of at least a dozen such groups
coaching students and colleagues who are taking action to build a list
Google your products keywords and the owners of the websites on the top few pages will no doubt have lists of people that are interested in your product.
vendors of similar products on affiliate platforms like JVZoo, Warrior Plus, Clickbank etc
Finding affiliates is not the main problem – building a solid relationship is much more difficult and time-consuming.
I will be using Skype (and Pamela) and/or Google Hangouts to carry out my interviews – I recently wrote a short eBook about how to use Google Hangouts to make online connections because I think that it is a great way for newbies to get started online – you can simply register here to download a copy of my eBook entitled ‘Quite Possibly THE Best Internet Marketing Business Model for Newbies’ :
Hopefully, this article about how to recruit affiliates will give you some good ideas. Oh, and look out for my interviews with some cool marketers shortly!
The Way of the Warriors eBook that I started last week is almost finished – I have basically written 1 chapter a day to get this book written. We are up to 63 pages now and almost 16,000 words. I hope to complete the final chapter of the book today. This will be a front end product and I will then try to upsell my other products from this eBook.
I basically chunked the book down into chapters to get it done because I found that I was getting fatigued if I tried to keep writing beyond one chapter per day. I didn’t want to find that I couldn’t finish the book because I got fed-up with it. To motivate me to write the chapter each day I added a more pleasurable task into my timetable to do when I had finished the chapter – it was something to work towards.
I am using Google Calendar and a piece of software called Action Enforcer to time-box my work in to 60 minute chunks to increase productivity.
I have taken the same approach to recruiting affiliates. I have joined a load of JV Facebook groups this week – this is where my potential JV partners will be lurking. Thank you to Manie Amari, a fellow Marc Milburn student, for this list:
*Make Money Online – JV – WSO – Solo – Adswaps – Giveaways – IM – Warriors
*Warrior JV WSO Group (VERY ACTIVE HERE)
*JV Launch Calendar
*WSO Launch & JV Network
*JV ELITE LAUNCH GROUP
*Forum Offers
*Official JVZoo.com Facebook Group
*JV Zoo Product Launch
* Launch Superstars
*Affiliate Products PROVEN To Sell
*Daniel Lews Kickass JV Group
*WSO Elite Inner Circle
*Elite JV Group
*IM Secret Elite JV Launch
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I have been steadily adding affiliates to my affiliate spreadsheet but found I was getting distracted when I looked up some personal information on them. I therefore decided that I would set a goal of adding 5 affiliates a day to my spreadsheet before moving on to another task.
There was an incredibly good thread in the WSO JV Central Facebook Group – it was started by Kenster which then sparked a reaction from Andrew Fletcher of DigiResults and I am copying these comments below because they are highly instructive about how to recruit affiliates to sell your products. They also re-enforce Marc Milburn’s teaching:
Don’t you HATE when somebody messages you for the first time asking you to promote something. Don’t you hate when somebody you never know just pushes their offers on you…like they just want to use you. Don’t these people know how to market? Don’t they understand that they are being rude? Shouldn’t they respect you and your time!
Well…
I’ve griped about these people before and I’m sure you’ve seen my comments in this group at one point or another.
But to be honest, perhaps I’m getting soft at my old age of 28, but I’ve learned to give these new marketers a break. Let’s be honest, I think most of us successful marketers have done something along the those lines when we first started out…right? I know I certainly did.
I didn’t intend to be rude or approach the affiliate-getting process wrong – I was just doing what I thought was supposed to be done. People said, “create a product and get affiliates”. I created a product and now I was emailing random people to “get affiliates”. Was is a bad way to approach affiliates…absolutely. But I was a new little IM sprout with no experience or knowledge…I was just trying to hustle.
So I’ve learned to respect these marketers that approach me to promote their stuff and ask for advice. They are trying to hustle and over time, they’ll learn the right way to approach affiliates and the right way to build relationships. I think we should give these newbie marketers a bit more slack!
Now the experienced marketers who know how this industry works and know how they should be approaching affiliates and networking partners and who still bombard me asking for advice, referrals, traffic, promos, etc…no slack given to you 😉
Remember struggling when you first started? I do and I have a new-found respect for hustler newbie marketers…even if they are doing stupid and annoying stuff!!! [/features_box_light_blue]
Andrew Fletcher then posted 3 times:
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Andrew Fletcher – 1st Post
Kenster just made an awesome post all about his approach to handling newbie’s sucky cold approaches.
I replied how one of my top JV recruitment strategies has been helping new starters out. The best example being one guy who went from not knowing what an upsell was to topping my leader board less than a year later!
Needless to say I immediately got a deluge of friend adds and messages looking to take me up on that … predictable if nothing else!
OK, so I don’t have time right now to make good on that and I feel bad. So instead I’m writing this post to show you how to make less sucky cold approaches. They are, after all, one of the hardest parts of the JV game.
First of all, let’s deal with the elephant in the room. I own DigiResults and 90%+ of the big affiliates in the space know who I am. So my cold approaches carry rather more weight than most.
So please believe me when I say, this is the stuff I used to get here from nothing and it still works really effectively now.
First up, making cold approaches not so cold.
This is where your branding and exposure come into play. It doesn’t have to be some Madison Avenue branding exercise, just a few basics that will massively improve your results –
1. Pick a brand word and stick it on your products. For 3 years I was the Digi guy. Everything I put out was Digi Something Something. Doing that makes you seem a bigger deal than you really are, which ironically starts to make it true!
2. Get yourself out there in an appropriate way. If you’re a newbie, aim to ask smart questions and seek advice. If you’re experienced aim to give smart answers and provide it. Parroting marketing theory that you have no experience of isn’t going to help. This isn’t Warrior Forum 101. The JVs you want to work with KNOW THEIR STUFF and will see through you without a second thought.
3. Pay attention to who engages with your content. If you ask a smart question and someone answers or provide a smart answer and something ‘likes’ it. That lead stopped being a cold approach. Engage!
Next up. Make an approach but do it the right way.
This post has already got quite long so I’ll cover some approach strategies next time. If you want to speed that up make sure you like this post and say nice things about me 😀
Andrew Fletcher’s 2nd Post (- read his ‘why me’ page on the link below – it’s really impressive!)
Yesterday Ken Ster inspired me to start posting about JV recruitment.
It’s several months and quite a bit of money out of date but it illustrates the point 🙂
Now, as promised yesterday, a simple approach that’s about 1000 times more likely to get someone to engage with you than a copy/pasted “Will you promote my shitty product” email.
Make your approach specific to the person you’re approaching and don’t make them feel like they’re going to be trapped in a conversation with you. (Pro tip: This applies just as well to picking someone up in a bar 😉 )
How to make it specific –
Either do a group of approaches at the same time, or find a few other people you could approach if you’re just doing a single one.
Now ask yourself, “Is my question/flattery/whatever applicable to other people in this group?” Contrary to every approach email anyone has ever sent, if the answer is “Yes” DO NOT SEND IT.
If it’s specific to them, then by definition it doesn’t apply to many other people.
You also can’t cheat.
I’m emailing you because I really liked PRODUCT_NAME and I’m on your list.
PRODUCT_NAME makes it feel specific but it’s not. It’s a mail merge in Word. It’s lazy.
So also ask yourself, “Could I substitute another name into this and have it apply?” If you could, DO NOT SEND IT.
Instead, pay attention to what they are currently talking about in their emails, on FB, on their blog, wherever and match your approach to something going on in their lives. This will massively increase your chances of engagement.
How to keep it short –
Realise they don’t care who you are to start with. If they are worth engaging with they already have a bazillion FB friends, Twitter followers and Skype contacts. Your goal is to stand out. You do so by fighting the urge to talk endlessly about yourself.
Make your own life harder by engaging about something that doesn’t imply you will follow up a million times. You’re much more likely to get a response if the person doesn’t feel that doing so will open them up to a million more questions or hearing all about you.
Some of my best approach emails have simply been flattery about a product (again, in specific terms) and a note saying “Please feel free to publicly quote me on that. If you need anything like a headshot photo or whatever to go with it, just say the word.”
You think that gets a response? Of course it does!
I started writing up some real world examples and bonus points on how to get a response but this post is long enough already.
Andrew Fletcher’s 3rd Post
Following on the topic of making your JV approaches suck less I’ve compiled a list of the most basic mistakes people making.
Just fixing these things won’t guarantee you a reply but getting them wrong will pretty much guarantee you don’t.
1 – Generic subject line: “JV”, “Hello”, “Promotion” for a marketer with 100+ emails a day, is this going to get opened?
2 – Being overly deferential and apologetic: “Sorry for the interruption, I know you are a great man and probably don’t have time but could you spend 60 seconds looking at my JV proposal, I’d really appreciate it.”
3 – Being needy: “I have a great product, I just need your sales and marketing skills, advice and access to your list to make it happen.” Big affiliates promote people who have their shit together.
4 – Not getting to the point: Copy can never be too long, only too boring but I guarantee 99% of the drivel people write by way of an introduction is TOO BORING.
5 – Guarding your idea: “I have a fantastic product and I’d love you to promote, I just need you to sign an NDA so I can give you details.” Ahahahahaha, No.
6 – Having someone run the process on your behalf: I actually did this one for ages and it can definitely work once you’re established but when you’re starting out trying to abdicate responsibility for this just plain won’t work.
7 – Being too casual: We’re IMers but that doesn’t mean you can type like,,, ths and xpct me 2 rspnd. If you message me sounding like a retard, I’ll presume your copy will sound like a retard and bin it.
8 – Being vague: I have a software, would you like to promote it? I have a trash can, would you like to be in it?
9 – Sharing nothing in the email: It’s fine to have the details on a JV page that you link off to but you’ve got to give me enough to make it worth clicking the link. This isn’t some “You have to check this out: LINK: solo ad we’re writing.
With top JVs getting 1000s of these kind of pitches the success ratio is probably about 1000 to 1. Do yourself a favour and skew the odds, stop making these mistakes.
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I wanted to record the above comments because these are the opinions of someone with experience in the field and represent a great template for recruiting affiliates.
As a result of the ‘branding’ comments by Andy Fletcher, I added my business name (The Business Renegade) to my header on this blog to keep my business brand alive. I also added the ‘salmon’ graphic to the background of my site to spice it up a little – it looked a little dull and boring before.
As a result of Marc’s training, I also sent out a couple of promotional emails this week about Webinar Express – the new Google Hangouts plugin. I’ve got it and really like it so I felt comfortable about promoting it. Here’s a sample landing page I knocked up in a few minutes – http://mark-salmon.com/sample-webinar/. I’ll send out another email today about this post. I couldn’t reach my target of 5 emails this week – must try harder next week.
I also did a video testimonial for Marc Milburn and ‘exposed’ myself on webcam – good training for what I know must come in future. I don’t mind speaking in front of an audience but its not an activity that I rush towards doing. However, I must get out of my comfort zone a lot more in order to become a leader, so more videos and webinars are on my agenda. Here’s the testimonial vid:
I also recommended another potential student for Marc’s coaching programme.
I think I have another idea for a front end product that I can start next week when I have completed The Way of the Warriors – I would like to create a simple graphics site, mainly because I love making graphics. (That reminds me, I also completed a header image for Tsahai de Silva this week for her blog and I helped Terry Weatherill to start improving his website (but nothing has changed yet! i would like to do a ‘before’ and ‘after’ makeover of Terry’s site if he will let me! ) as suggested by Marc.)
Finally, Marc Milburn recommended that we set up a help desk using a piece of free software called Hesk – this video tutorial shows me setting up the Hesk Help Desk – it is a live recording including the mistakes I made but it should give you a good idea about how to set-up a Hesk Help Desk: http://renegade.evsuite.com/hesk-setup/
If you are interested in joining Marc Milburn’s coaching and want to talk to me about his coaching programme, then feel free to contact me for the inside story.
As you can see The Way of the Warriors is not about lying on the beach with a laptop but it involves hard work and application i.e. the willingness to pay the price in advance. I am… are you?
Please post a comment below and let me know what’s on your mind.
