How to tilt value in affiliate marketing?

[Varun]

Hello everyone,
Just wondering of ways to do it. Some I've come up with:
1. Research more and deeper than competitors
2. Get a paid wordpress theme with simple, easy to read layout(can only do it once I start earning some money from AM, theme is just ok right now).
3. Just read about funnels, but they are useless until I start getting traffic.
4. Write higher quality non-monetizable content to get visitors.

I'm really new to this, have only got 10 articles on the site till now. I use quora to answer and refer people to my site, but I can only put in new articles once or twice a week due to another business taking up my time. Right now I just get 1-2 visitors daily, with a couple or organic searches 2-3 times a week.

As far as I can tell, the value array for online marketing is made of information and ease of interaction and reading on the site.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jonathan Hoch]

Businesses exist to solve problems, right?

If you have a product that you're dead set on pushing, you need to go backwards in the sales journey, like the game Jeopardy. You already know the answer, so what is the question?

In this case, you have the solution, and now you need to figure out the problem that your solution solves. The better you can pinpoint your problem, the more effective funnel you can build.

Since the goal of affiliate marketing is to get them to buy the offer AFTER going to your site, you're going to want to warm the lead up. The best way to do this, is by using the Hero's Journey.

In a nutshell it looks like this:
There is a hero who has a goal. They start working towards the goal. They have major setbacks. They overcome obstacles and then shit hits the fan. The situation is a do-or-die. They make a final push, using your product, and overcome the obstacles once and for all. Then life after the change is described, for the better.

So a way to present this on your site, would be to have a case study on how a person overcame a problem with a shocking/surprising/unheard of/brilliant/etc solution.

Showcase a person having frustration and discontent about a problem. Show them trying other solutions to have "close to success," only to have them fail. Then have them try your affiliate solution and have a slight setback again. But this time because they were trying to use your solution the same way as the old product. Show them having an epiphany moment where they use your solution in it's intended way, to gain great results and overcome the problem. Describe a fast forward in their life, a few months or year etc. and show how their way of life has been improved for the better. The person went to _(affiliate offer)_ and is now a lifelong customer.

_____________________

If you've ever been awake at 3am, this is how just about EVERY SINGLE INFOMERCIAL showcases their idiots with hilariously bad results. First they are idiots, then the solution gives them miraculous results. Reminds me of a video that I laugh way too hard at.

Now, to promote, you can keep what you're doing with sites like quora.

"What you're asking about actually sounds just like an article I read the other day. A woman was suffering from the same issue. She was having these issues: blah, blah, and blah. If I remember correctly, she's doing great now. Here's her story. Insert link."

_____________________

You can also use listicles (articles that are fleshed out lists) as a way of guiding people to your Hero's Journey case study.

"The little known 3 symptoms of _________ that you simply cannot ignore"

1. This symptom is a sign of that
2. This symptom is a sign of that
3. This symptom is a sign of that

Thankfully these things aren't as bad as you think. Here's a condition of someone's problem, obstacles that were overcome, and how they're now living life great.

"My mom just recently won the battle with _____. When we started doing research, there wasn't anything that helped us figure it out. There were pieces scattered here and there, but eventually we had enough information together that we were able to put together a battle plan. But it took us almost 4 months to compile everything. She's now more than just free from problem, she's thriving in the opposite!

Here's a conversion hack that I love to use. But dont use it everywhere, because it will lose its persuasive strength. At the end of what you type, add the following:

edit: wow, the responses I've gotten in my inbox are overwhelming. I've written an article to make it easier for others who were suffering from the same symptoms. Here's the link."

_____________________

tl;dr

To warm up the affiliate leads, hook them with the symptoms/conditions of the problem along with a curiosity tease. Once they're on the site, bring them through a Hero's Journey. At the end, send them off to the affiliate offer.

 

[Varun]

Businesses exist to solve problems, right?

If you have a product that you're dead set on pushing, you need to go backwards in the sales journey, like the game Jeopardy. You already know the answer, so what is the question?

In this case, you have the solution, and now you need to figure out the problem that your solution solves. The better you can pinpoint your problem, the more effective funnel you can build.

Since the goal of affiliate marketing is to get them to buy the offer AFTER going to your site, you're going to want to warm the lead up. The best way to do this, is by using the Hero's Journey.

In a nutshell it looks like this:
There is a hero who has a goal. They start working towards the goal. They have major setbacks. They overcome obstacles and then sh*t hits the fan. The situation is a do-or-die. They make a final push, using your product, and overcome the obstacles once and for all. Then life after the change is described, for the better.

So a way to present this on your site, would be to have a case study on how a person overcame a problem with a shocking/surprising/unheard of/brilliant/etc solution.

Showcase a person having frustration and discontent about a problem. Show them trying other solutions to have "close to success," only to have them fail. Then have them try your affiliate solution and have a slight setback again. But this time because they were trying to use your solution the same way as the old product. Show them having an epiphany moment where they use your solution in it's intended way, to gain great results and overcome the problem. Describe a fast forward in their life, a few months or year etc. and show how their way of life has been improved for the better. The person went to _(affiliate offer)_ and is now a lifelong customer.

_____________________

If you've ever been awake at 3am, this is how just about EVERY SINGLE INFOMERCIAL showcases their idiots with hilariously bad results. First they are idiots, then the solution gives them miraculous results. Reminds me of a video that I laugh way too hard at.

Now, to promote, you can keep what you're doing with sites like quora.

"What you're asking about actually sounds just like an article I read the other day. A woman was suffering from the same issue. She was having these issues: blah, blah, and blah. If I remember correctly, she's doing great now. Here's her story. Insert link."

_____________________

You can also use listicles (articles that are fleshed out lists) as a way of guiding people to your Hero's Journey case study.

"The little known 3 symptoms of _________ that you simply cannot ignore"

1. This symptom is a sign of that
2. This symptom is a sign of that
3. This symptom is a sign of that

Thankfully these things aren't as bad as you think. Here's a condition of someone's problem, obstacles that were overcome, and how they're now living life great.

"My mom just recently won the battle with _____. When we started doing research, there wasn't anything that helped us figure it out. There were pieces scattered here and there, but eventually we had enough information together that we were able to put together a battle plan. But it took us almost 4 months to compile everything. She's now more than just free from problem, she's thriving in the opposite!

Here's a conversion hack that I love to use. But dont use it everywhere, because it will lose its persuasive strength. At the end of what you type, add the following:

edit: wow, the responses I've gotten in my inbox are overwhelming. I've written an article to make it easier for others who were suffering from the same symptoms. Here's the link."

_____________________

tl;dr

To warm up the affiliate leads, hook them with the symptoms/conditions of the problem along with a curiosity tease. Once they're on the site, bring them through a Hero's Journey. At the end, send them off to the affiliate offer.

Thank you, your comment taught me a lot of new things. I was aware of Joseph Campbell but using it this way never struck me. Really appreciate the detailed information.

When should I start focusing on building funnels? Once I hit a certain article number (20, 30, 40?) or when my pages start ranking?

 

[TinyTim]

Thank you for the extremely detailed comment, really appreciate it. I'm aware of Joseph Campbell but it never occurred to me to apply it here! Come to think of it, human beings respond only to archetypes. Your comment taught me some really important things. Going to use them in my funnels once I start getting traffic.

At which article number should I start focusing on funnels? 20,30, 40?

Thank you, your comment taught me a lot of new things. I was aware of Joseph Campbell but using it this way never struck me. Really appreciate the detailed information.

When should I start focusing on building funnels? Once I hit a certain article number (20, 30, 40?) or when my pages start ranking?

Start building funnels when you have traffic. That's your biggest priority right now.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jonathan Hoch]

Start building funnels when you have traffic. That's your biggest priority right now.

Well, I disagree. Each article has the opportunity to be a “mini funnel.”

Each article that you post, should have numerous smaller articles written to be posted on various web2.0 sites and social media.

As an example, look at the stupid ads at the bottom of most blogs: “if you have a mortgage under $417,000 and you’re a veteran, Houston has a new law that you NEED TO KNOW before paying your taxes this year!”

Clickbaity as all hell. But, it causes an open loop, while qualifying it’s target audience. I fall into this category by “chance.”

You can do this without it being a paid ad. Make a small summary post, like a listicle intro. But don’t tell them what they are, because then you won’t give them any reason to go to your page!

It wasn’t until my 2nd year of owning my home, that I learned these three tax breaks. I posted an article about them to help other veterans like me.

You should be writing 5-10 of these per article, and posting them on different web2.0 platforms. A simple paragraph summary with a teaser is all you need.

Now, as for funnels and articles, I disagree with what @TinyTim is saying, and here’s why:

Traffic is needed, sure, but they need to have a clear path to follow otherwise you’ll waste all your time to create a F*cking bounce house.

Are you a non-profit library or are you building a business? Go back and look at the boiled down INTENTION of each article, and what you want the reader to do.

You don’t need to be selling every article, but you need to be guiding. Each article has the opportunity to guide someone to take action. And each opportunity should be taken!

Even if the action is “subscribe to this free mini course,” or “read this article that goes deeper on the topic.” You should be guiding them to an end goal of ... making profit!

If you already have a bunch of information on the site, leverage that into creating summary posts to be used all over the web. And I can’t iterate enough, take the time to write a paragraph teaser.

Nobody cares when you say “I just wrote an article.” But when you frame it with “this is the treacherous journey I was on, and here’s my life now. Oh btw, I wrote an article on how to get there,” people are going to show up.

If you want to go deep with the hero’s journey, I highly suggest The audible book by Michael hauge and Christopher vogler, “the hero’s 2 journeys.” It is a listen-in of a workshop for writing screenplays that sell. Each of them have great points, and formulas they talk about.

Phone is almost dead, so I’ll have to end my rambling here. I just realized, I wrote my introduction here under a loose hero journey’s format. It’s F*cking magical and can/should be used for everything.