Cant Find Any ClickBank Super Affiliates? Grow Your Own!

Affiliate marketing has become extremely popular, andClickBank offers a large and growing network of affiliatesto tap into, but only a tiny percentage of them know how tomake the most of their web traffic. Countless studies havedemonstrated the huge benefits of proper pre-selling, butmost affiliates do little more than display their merchant'sbanner ads.

Unfortunately, the cause of this problem lies with themerchants. Affiliate relationships are often treated aslittle more than risk-free advertising, with the affiliateproviding the space and the merchant providing the ad tofill it. What is lacking in this approach is any attempt toleverage the affiliate's unique relationship with her nichecommunity.

Even some of the largest online merchants, who spend hugesums setting up the infrastructure for their affiliateprograms, do nothing to coach or motivate their affiliates.Nor do they provide any of the basic materials necessary tooptimize the quality of referrals.

But, by treating affiliates as a valued marketing resourceinstead of a risk-free ad service, you can achieveastonishing results. This means investing effort in helpingyour affiliates.

The most fundamental way to prime your affiliates foreffective pre-selling is by producing a support pack thatleads them in the right direction and makes the process assimple and effortless as possible.

Of course, the pack should contain all the stapleadvertising tools, like banners, classified ads, headlinesand a variety of short and long descriptions for searchengines and classified listings. But it should also includecontent that your affiliates can use to extend the value oftheir websites or distribute in their newsletters.

This content should include templates for infomercials,product reviews and endorsements (ready for customization)as well as articles, interviews and case studies (to bereproduced verbatim).

A typical product review is a mix of facts and opinions.Although you may not wish to dictate the opinions of youraffiliates, you can make it easy for them to write their ownpersonalized reviews, by setting out all the most importantfacts in a brief article that they can customize with theirown impressions. The most effective product reviews explainexactly how and why the author uses the product, with a bigemphasis on benefits. Again, you can help out here, usingtemplate paragraphs that your affiliates can tailor todescribe their own experiences. The more work you do foryour affiliates, the easier you make it for them to presentyour product in the most favorable light.

This brings us to the important issue of product ownership.The best way for an affiliate to write a credible productreview is from personal experience. In other words, sheshould own and use the product before offering an opinion onits suitability.

So, as a merchant, it should be among your priorities toencourage your affiliates to own the products they promote.One way to do this is to allow them to buy your productsusing their own affiliate link. Some merchants are wary ofthis approach, fearing that it leads to commission theft andencourages buyers to sign up as affiliates purely to obtaina discount.

The alternative is to restrict the membership of youraffiliate program to existing customers, forcing them to buyyour product if they want to participate in its promotion. Anumber of very successful ClickBank merchants adopt thispolicy, although it should be noted that it carries the riskof seriously diminishing your affiliate recruitment rate.

A final - somewhat drastic - step is to offer your productfree to registered affiliates, thus encouraging them tobecome familiar with it and properly endorse it. Of course,you would need to employ this tactic discreetly, or you runthe risk of being overrun by freebie seekers.

If the thought of giving your product away free is toointimidating, consider making the offer conditional on atacit commitment by your affiliates to participate in yourcoaching program. In other words, you get the chance tointeract directly with the affiliate, mentoring her in herquest to deliver high-quality targeted prospects to yoursales page. This kind of one-to-one relationship withaffiliates can be extremely time-consuming at the outset,but as each affiliate tunes in to the most effectivepre-selling tactics, she becomes self-sufficient andlow-maintenance. And little by little you build a marketingSWAT team that delivers immediate results whenever youlaunch a new product.

About The Author

Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.

He is also the author of "ClickBank - The Definitive Guide" The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.

http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/