The 5 Deadly Sins of Affiliate Marketing (You Could Be Making) #5

Not Respecting the Law of Economics

                Marketers are always saying the reason why most affiliate marketers fail is that they do not treat it as a real business. Now, I have always wondered what that means. Let me help you clear the air.

                What they are trying to say is that you must understand and respect the law of Economics. Fundamentally, affiliate marketers are operating under a monopolistic competition model. Now do not be afraid to read on just because you see something rather unfamiliar, it really is very simple.

                The small grocery stores are the best example of this model because there are many vendors selling the same products, just like affiliate marketers. Understanding the two features of this economic model will boost your income as an affiliate marketer.

1) Differentiated Products

                The only way to thrive in such an environment is to make your products differentiated, imaginary and real. As discussed in mistake #4, the differentiation of the products lie in the way you promote the benefits of the product. This could be in the form of testimonials, customer reviews or simply outlining the benefits of purchasing the products by playing to the customers' five senses and emotions.

                What I mean by the last method is this. Say you are selling the bestseller "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus"; you do not want to advertise a feature of the product: Improves communication with your spouse. Instead, you would want to describe a benefit of the product: Men, imagine never hearing your wife saying, "You never listen when I talk" ever again. Inside are surefire tips that guarantees improved communication between you and your spouse.

                What that does is it actually speaks to the potential customer and promises a solution to a problem without having to make ludicrous claims.

2) Advertising

                The second feature here is the twin tower of the first that together will guarantee improved success. Advertising campaign can be either real or imaginary.

                As discussed, you can advertise a real benefit of the product. The key here is to find one that other affiliate marketers missed and appeals most to your target market. Advertise that benefit in Google Adwords or your website and you are assured clicks as long as you remember the techniques above.

                The secret to imaginary advertising lies in branding. This normally comes in the form of commercials on television but I find that when you have a video or audio on your website speaking to the customer, it will raise your credibility. Moreover, I recently learned that Google has a new algorithm that ranks pages higher simply because the pages have a high media density – audio, video etc.

                The last secret I want to share with you are bonuses. If you have been in the affiliate marketing business for some time you probably have a lot of private label resell rights or products.  All you have to do is bundle the high quality products together into a package that is worth three to four times the price of the product and you have a hard to resist promotion.

Lesson of the day: Differentiate your affiliate promotion from the rest and make your leads' decision process easier by provide more value to them. Become a person of value and you will succeed.