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Building Affiliate ''Super Sites'' to Stand Out from the Crowd
Copyright 2005 Ewen Chia
One mistake new affiliate marketers make time and again is
thinking that their 'product' is the merchant's product.
While one can certainly view their business from this
perspective, it puts you in the mindset of 'pushing the
link', rather than building a relationship with potential
customers.
Super successful affiliates understand that their job is
not to sell, but to
presell and their real product is content.
Let's look at this from a customer's viewpoint to see why
building a content-focused and interactive site is so
powerful, and why this type of site can radically boost
your commissions.
1. Shopping and Connecting
When the average shopper goes online, he or she is likely
to have a list of trusted sites already in mind. This is
particularly true for certain classes of products in the
tangible goods marketplace.
However, there is a large pool of potential customers
seeking information and doing research before they buy.
These may be first-time internet shoppers or they may
fall into a special interest group and have a lot of
comparision shopping to do before they make a decision.
These are the customers you can draw to your site with
quality content.
But I would like to recommend you go one step beyond just
linking up some articles or putting up a newsletter.
Instead, build a site that creates a sense of community.
In other words, provide a place where people can connect
with their interests and with each other. Why?
Simple: Any site that creates a sense of support is going
to generate trust, spawn word-of-mouth referrals and
attract repeat visitors. Your site becomes a 'hub' or
'authority' on a subject, making it an ideal 'jumping off
point' in the buying process.
It's like shopping with friends. There's safety in numbers.
There is also much more activity where ideas are shared
freely. Not only that, a customer-focused, interactive site
allows you to collect feedback and quickly adjust to the
needs of your target market.
2. Designing a Community
Setting up this type of site is no more difficult than
setting up a static content site it just requires a
little more advanced planning.
What you need:
- Structured content
- Message board system
- Newsletter
- Multiple related affiliate products
This affiliate site model relies on having multiple
products to promote within your niche. For example, let's
say you've chosen The South Beach Diet as your niche.
In your profit model, you would have a selection of
products like the following: a south beach diet e-book, a
south beach diet recipes e-book, a recommended merchant for
supplements or vitamins and so on.
Your content should be structured around beginning,
intermediate and advanced topics related to the diet. Your
newsletter content will cover these topics as well, but
with an enhanced focused on recommended 'solutions', ie,
your affiliate products. Of course, your affiliate links
will be sprinkled throughout the online content as well.
Now, here's where a clever tactic comes in. You set up a
message board for customers who have purchased your
recommended products through your link. Their ability to
create usernames and participate on the forum is dependent
on them mailing you their receipt of purchase.
However, general sections of the forum remain open to all
guest visitors for viewing. These sections should be
focused discussions on user's success with the product(s).
Basically, what you've done is set up a 'user's group' for
a product where one didn't exist previously.
This accomplishes several things. It allows your faithful
visitors to do extended preselling for you, and create
additional content on the fly. It creates an atmosphere of
trust, but also allows the visitor to be subject to peer
influence in the selling process, thus, taking the focus
off of your site making sales behind the scenes.
Finally, the message board will give you access to reams of
data: customer opinions and experience, their feelings
about the products, what they're really looking for and a
lot more. You can quickly adjust your offerings based on
this feedback, as well as compile a super list of ideas for
creating your own product a product which meets and even
exceeds their expectations, because you now know what they
did and did not like about the competitor's products you
just sold to them.
The type of site I just described to you is the same kind
employed by most successful super-affiliates.
Of course, you can still do quite well just using a simple
landing page and newsletter to promote one product.
However, if you're looking to target one niche and plumb it
to its depths, this expanded model is the one I recommend.
So, go ahead and set up some landing pages, start
collecting leads and test the response you get for various
niches.
When you hit on one that's hungry and hot, go ahead and
move up from the one page-one product model and build an
interactive, super-affliate hub. You'll soon find yourself
dominating your niche, and able to reap the profits from a
variety of product offerings!
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Ewen Chia Is An Expert Marketer Who Will Teach You The
Hidden Secrets Of Making Massive Money On Demand Online
Quickly And Easily! For Full Details, Click Here For
Time-Limited Free Information:
http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com
Check Out His Power Affiliate Diaries Blog Here:
http://www.EwenChia.com
More articles by Ewen Chia - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Ewen-Chia-253/
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