Agencies, Freelancers, Design, Copywriting & more.: [Copyblogger] Here’s How Affiliate Marketing Works

Here's How Affiliate Marketing Works

Here's How Affiliate Marketing Works

Affiliate Marketing

A while back you might have read Brian’s Effective Copywriting Tactics for Affiliate Marketing, which offered some great advice. But something tells me you might have wondered how to apply that advice to real-life affiliate marketing.

I'm going to show you exactly how I implemented those 5 tips with the Thesis theme affiliate program. And this isn’t theory–I used these five steps to earn a four-figure commission check in just ten days.

1. Endorsements

“Effective endorsements are sincere and enthusiastic based on real experience with the product or service.”

In the case of a blog theme, the strongest endorsement you can give is using the theme for your own blog. I bought the developers membership for Thesis, which allows use of the theme on an unlimited number of sites and other perks.

I left the credit link to the theme in the footer even though my membership didn’t require it, but changed it from a direct link to an affiliate link. Combine that with spending the time to heavily customize the theme for my own site, and you see that I not only endorsed the product, but also showed the heights to which it could be taken with a little work and ingenuity.

2. Reviews

“…you add credibility by pointing out how the product or service isn't perfect (let's face it, there are very few perfect offerings), and then go on to explain why the imperfection doesn't negatively impact your perception and enjoyment of the product or service.”

I decided to do an in-depth review of the Thesis theme after I had used it for a few days and spent a lot of time getting used to working with it and what it could do. I was completely honest in my review (and gave full disclosure on my status as an affiliate), citing why I liked the product, why I used it, the benefits I received from using it, and also a wish list for future upgrades (also known as complaints).

In addition to pointing out the few problems I had with the theme from an advanced user's standpoint, I posted the solutions for working around them. People reading the review knew I was aware the theme wasn't absolutely perfect, but also saw why those small imperfections hadn't prevented my use of or satisfaction with the theme.

3. Tutorials

“Remember, teaching and selling are closely related, so “how to” content that naturally gets a prospect more comfortable with a purchase is smart.”

About a week after I published the Thesis theme review, I launched a tutorial on how to make your Wordpress theme more user friendly. The tutorial was not directly related to Thesis, but I mentioned my use of the Thesis theme (linked to my review of the theme) several times in the review and one of the tips was specifically aimed at themes using widgets without PHP support (like Thesis).

The tutorial is extremely useful to all Wordpress users, and is aimed at people looking to improve their Wordpress theme. This is naturally the perfect audience to target when selling a premium Wordpress theme, and any hard-sell would be counter-productive.

4. Bonuses

“Using a bonus or special deal approach is a great way to uniquely sweeten an affiliate offer.”

Near the end of August, Chris Pearson let me know he was running a special offer for the Thesis theme, offering anyone who purchased the theme by August 31st a free copy of the soon-to-be-released Cosmo theme. I downloaded a banner advertising the offer and put it near the end of the review in an effort to “sweeten the deal”.

Additionally, I sent out a twitter message on my twitter account advertising the special on the last day of the sale. These two small actions tripled my sales for the last day of August over the few days prior.

5. Articles

“In other words, can you create content that has independent value and also makes you money, no matter where it's syndicated or scraped?”

You're reading it. This article shows you how I took Brian's Five Effective Copywriting Tactics for Affiliate Marketing and put them to real world use.

I've created an article that has independent value as a “step-by-step example” or “case study” for affiliate marketing that will likely still make me money in theme commissions, no matter where it is scraped or syndicated. That’s because people interested in learning how to make money from their blogs will more effectively click through and find out all of the features and benefits of using the Thesis theme on a commercial blog.

Easy, right?

About the Author: Rae Hoffman is a veteran affiliate marketer, CEO of website publisher MFE Interactive and the author of the often controversial Sugarrae Internet Marketing Blog.