[Day 18] Building a Trustworthy Affiliate Team To Sell Your Products For You
So in Day 17 of the 30 Day Blog Challenge I spoke to you about how you engage your tribe online by building trust & providing value.
A natural part of creating a great community is that they will want to help spread the word about the work you do. They will refer you to people, talk about your blog, about these products and services you have.
They’ll want to step up and be your unofficial sales team – they’ll want to shout about what you do from the rooftops and in turn they deserve to be compensated. This is when they cross over from fans to affiliates.
If you want to exponentially grow your audience and sales of your products and services you can’t do it alone. That’s why you need the power of an affiliate team you love what you do and want to spread the word
Affiliate marketing = Leveraging your traffic & trust into business referrals
It means receiving commissions from products you believe in and would recommend to your customers through a newsletter write up, blog review, or by placing advertising on your site.
On the flip side when it comes to having your own lovely affiliates, it means rewarding people who refer your products and services to others. You can see how I do this with my lovely community members through my Share the Love affiliate program.
I offer a 60% commission if people find the time to share my work with their community – I mean I think that’s very special that people will step up and do that, and they often do after having experienced my work first hand for themselves.
Without them promoting my products I likely would not have those people who click on their link finding out about me, let alone buying from me so I truly value that.
Or perhaps after Day 10 when we discussed the three ways to make money online you’ve considered that you’d be happy to promote other peoples’ work as an affiliate and if you do it well, and in the right way, you can create a healthy form of revenue online.
There a number of different affiliate programs that you can sign up to and promote products they have on offer. The top ones are:
These sites all offer text and image links – with HTML code to make it really easy for you to put on your site or in your newsletter. There’s often a huge range of companies, services and products you can choose to scour through.
It’s up to you find the ones that align best with your values, what you talk about on your blog and that fit in with your business and complement it.
Then there are independent affiliate programs set up by the person that you can join. You will get your own affiliate link and often access to badges, banners and logos to use on your site if you wish. You will also get text links you can use – and HTML code to use to make it really easy to post it on your site.
As I’ve built my business I’ve preferred to work with my people I meet and join their individual programs, where as when I started I used Amazon Associates for recommending books I was reading and Commission Junction for some of the tools that I used as they had their programs through.
The commissions I earn now on tools I recommend, products, programs and having guests through webinars is a substantial part of my online business now where I can earn up to several thousand per month – this has come from leveraging the trust and credibility I’ve taken many years to build.
The benefits of having an affiliate team
Much like Day 16 when I talked about building a team that supports your long term vision, you may not have even got as far as considering what products and services you want to sell, let alone who you’re going to approach to promote them.
But it pays to start early – literally and figuratively. Even if you only have a small but loyal affiliate team to start with is extending your reach and influence.
It’s far more powerful to have people talk about your product or service in a genuine way and personally recommend it, then it is for you to be the sole voice of promotion.
People buy based on peer influence and recommendations. Think about when you have purchased anything before, if your friend has recommend it to you or bought it themselves and raved about it, you’re far more likely to buy it too.
What platforms can you use?
If you’re just starting out here are some tools to consider:
- e-Junkie.com – entry level and basic but works well for $5 per month for selling your digital products and having an affiliate program
- LeadDyno – mid level and up affiliate tracking software & online marketing system starting from $19 per month
- InfusionSoft – has a fancy affiliate tracking and management system in amongst email marketing and sales
So now what do you think of affiliate marketing then huh??? Worth a look?
Day 18 Blog Challenge to accept in 3 easy steps
1. Write a response blog post to this question:
What does your dream sales team look like and how will you ensure they help you build your business?
Top Tip: Feel free to relate this to your Day 17 response on how you’re going to build your community as these very people will also likely be part of your affiliate program or keen to help you promote what you do.
2. Share your blog post response:
Don’t forget to leave a comment below or a trackback to your blog response. Share your post from your own site on social media using #TSE30DC at the end of your tweet or post.
3. Embed the 30 Day Blog Challenge badge in your post:
Choose the badge you most like from right here. Then just COPY the HTML code already pre done for you, and PASTE it into the HTML tab of your post.
Read these resource posts to help you
Getting Started With Making Money Through Affiliate Marketing
5 Steps to Making Loads of Affiliate Sales in Your Blog Posts (including 4 examples) — Think Traffic
What’s next in the 30 Day Blog Challenge?
Click to tweet this: How do you build a trustworthy affiliate team to sell products for you? #TSE30DC
Grab a copy of my Suitcase Entrepreneur book and check out my trailer here.
Follow the 30 Day Blog Challenge Pinterest board
Stay tuned for [Day 19] How to Build Your Platform and Increase Traffic by Working WITH Your Competitors. This is a goody!
Round up of your blog posts today
- Sarah’s dream sales team includes all of the people mentioned in her post. She will make sure they feel valued and therefore more motivated to help me grow my business as we go forward
- Daisy feels having a content schedule and treating it with the respect it deserves is a must. Being supportive and consistent exposure are the other vital points
- Nancy firmly believes that if you want to be mobile in business you need capable partners. She loves taking photos, videos and writing to tell stories for inspiration and entertainment
- Ray writes that one must be as honest and as helpful as possible to one’s tribe. He feels that by being a mini-expert on a product, he’ll have the know-how to ensure his tribe can make an informed decision
- Curt writes, “There’s no better way to sell than through referrals. And there’s no better way to get referrals than to provide incredible value.”
- Paige’s dream team includes a variety of like-minded people who want to help others live happier and healthier lives
- Jessica feels that if you’re looking for broader geographical reach, an affiliate program can help you get it without you having to market your business all over