Affiliate marketing is the undeniable first step to launching an incredibly successful online business. It's versatile and allows great creativity on the part of the affiliate.
But, one of the "laws" of affiliate marketing that can't be broken is PREselling. Basically, PREselling is "warming up" your website visitor to be more apt to click to the merchant site and buy their product, thus earning you the commission. When taken into context with other affiliate marketing "laws", this one is the most important.
Here's why. When a person lands at your site and all you have is a "hard sell" approach (banners, sales pitch, a bunch of links to click on), the visitor is immediately thrown into defensive mode. They are looking for information but are in turn pressured to buy something.
But, when you PREsell your visitor you are cultivating a relationship with words, in the form of web content, that will disarm the visitor, make them feel all warm and fuzzy, and increase the likelihood of them clicking your link to make a purchase at the merchant's site. (Of course this process also works with your own product also).
So, the question that begs to be asked is how do you PREsell? It's not as hard as you think, and anyone can do it.
Ken Evoy explains in "Make Your Content Pre-sell" that it doesn't take a PhD. or rocket scientist to create high quality PREsell web content. Anybody can do it.
In my experience, there are five very powerful PREselling techniques that will multiply your current affiliate earnings exponentially.
Write your web content like you're talking to someone
If there was one "BIG DOG" of PREselling it's to be real. Don't try to use super big words to show how smart you are. You're just making someone else feel dumb. Talk like you would with your friends. After all, that's the goal. Be the readers friend.
Share the problems you've had, how you got over it, what process you took, what product helped you... etc.
This is what people want. Real, relevant and relational information.
One of the reasons that anybody can PREsell is that everyone talks to their friends. Since PREselling is "talking", in essence, reflect your uniqueness and personality in your web content.
Don't Start Out With Unbelievable Statements or Promises
Over the top promises and statements are what the merchant's sales page is for. Not a relationship building, PREselling type web page.
For instance, if you are writing web content for baseball bats, you wouldn't start out with "Amazing New Technology Creates SUPER BATS that hit HomeRuns Everytime!"
But, you might write up a little report on how, when you used a new bat, you were able to connect with the ball much harder, resulting in more base hits. Something like..."New baseball bat helped me raise by batting average by increasing the number of strong base hits."
See the difference. One is FLASH, the other is personal. One that people can relate to that want to raise their batting average.
Stick with one main topic, or keyword
People are trying so hard to optimize their sites for keyword after keyword in order to ensure the highest rankings possible. Thus, they create web content that sound mechanical and unpersonable. Stick with one keyword, and write about it.
Again, using the baseball bat example, I would design my content around increasing batting average. Because while I'm concentrating on that keyword, other are naturally written into the content. I just sound like a regular guy talking about hitting and not a machine.
Sprinkle affiliate recommendations over your content
But don't go overboard. Three, four, five links max on your website will keep the reader much more focused on what you want them to do. Being relationship minded doesn't mean you're a pacifist.
You still want a response from the person visiting your site. But, if you have too many options for a response, the chances are you won't get any. I struggled with this one early in my affiliate marketing career. "The more the better!" was my motto. But, it just didn't work.
When I did a little test on an affiliate site of mine, removing all but four links... three for the merchant and one for a comparable one... the results (conversion rates of visitors to sales) shot through the roof.
A very light sprinkling of affiliate links in your content will help you PREsell your visitor much more effectively than loading it down.
Write your content like you are the person reading it
One of the major downfalls to writing web content is that the people writing it only see it through their eyes. Effective PREselling is looking at your content through the eyes of the person reading it.
Did you answer a question people are asking?
Are you writing on their level? Did you go over their head?
Is it relevant to people's needs and situations?
Do you sound unapproachable and mechanical?
Is the content applicable?
Look at the situation from other people's perspective before being satisfied with the final results.
PREselling is the affiliate marketing Super Tool
In our day and age of people scrambling for the ONE Big Secret, PREselling, while not a secret, is the most important part of your affiliate business. And anybody can do it.
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