Affiliate products make up a large part of my income. They're one of the revenue streams that I use on my websites and I often recommend selected products to the people on my mailing list.
I use them for all sorts of reasons - and money is only one of them. Sure, an affiliate commission will always be worth more than an ad click but that's only the start of it.
I also like the fact that I have control with an affiliate product. When I put up an AdSense unit, I can test different locations, target the keywords on the page, and play around with colors and size. All of that helps me to improve my clickthrough rate. But I can't do what I know would be the most powerful way of generating clicks.
I can't say to my readers: "Click those links. You'll love what's on the other side."
And rightly so. Advertisers don't want people who click their links because they like the publisher - not when they're paying for those clicks. They want people who click the links because they like the look of the advertiser.
But there's an even better reason why I can't tell my readers to click an AdSense link: I don't know whether or not they'll like it.
I have a pretty good idea of the kinds of ads that turn up on my sites but Google is free to change those links at any time. That's the idea. Google will always send me the ads that it thinks will deliver the highest revenue. It's then up to me to make the most of that opportunity.
So I can't recommend the products offered in my AdSense units. I can only make them visible and rely on Google's matching software to ensure that they are interesting to my readers.
The real benefit of affiliate products though is that I get to choose them. I get to try them before I offer them and I get to know the people who created them. If Armand Morin, for example, comes up with a new product then I know it's going to be good. I know Armand and I know how much he helps people. I'm going to take a look at it and it's very likely that I'll use it and recommend it.
If someone I've never met before comes up to me at a conference though and ask me to promote his product, I'm going to look at my shoes. I don't know him and I don't know his product. I can't recommend something I don't know.
When you're looking for affiliate products to put on your site, it can be very tempting simply to choose the items that pay the highest commissions. That's short-sighted. Go for the products you know and trust. You'll get the sales and the thanks of your users.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
September 9, 2009 08:30 AM
Great post. Very true, your relationship with your visitors will make all the difference if you can truly recommend the product rather than saying click here.
September 9, 2009 10:55 AM
Hi Joel,
As someone just starting out I admit it can be tempting to offer "sure-fire" affiliate products just for the commissions. But, as you have just alluded to with this post, if you chase the money nobody will want to chase you...
Paul
September 9, 2009 04:41 PM
The first thing to examine in affiliate marketing for beginners is you must believe in yourself. This is a must! If you don't believe that you can do this guess what...you will not be able to do it.
September 10, 2009 03:38 PM
Great post Joel - couldn't agree more! :-)
September 10, 2009 11:09 PM
Weird. I was going through this dilemma today. Thanks Joel, you've just solved my problem.
September 11, 2009 01:13 AM
It's definitely a good strategy for building trust & credibility, with your customers & site visitors, to promote products that have been created by entrepreneurs whose track record speaks for itself
September 13, 2009 05:54 PM
Joel
You make a great point here. I've dabbled with 'high ticket' affiliate products before getting lured by the big commissions but then not actually being successful with the promos. Having changed my tack to actually promoting products that I know actually work and have used myself I have found much better responses from subscribers and visitors.
I'm a student of Alex Jeffreys and one of the main things I've taken from Alex is about building relationships and trust with my customers which you cannot do if you don't have their best interests at heart and bombard them with numerous affiliate offers.
Thanks for the great advice.
Tom
September 13, 2009 11:23 PM
Joel, I'm new to affiliate marketing, but I've learned that in order for it to be successful, you need to have a lot of website traffic. What is the optimal amount of site visitors for a successful affiliate program?
September 14, 2009 04:20 AM
I think the principle of "making decisions" for our clients applies across to other parts of our business as well. Besides just being able to guess whether our clients would like the ads or products we choose for them, we also probably need to guess what are their likes and dislikes in looking at our business direction.
September 18, 2009 07:59 AM
Joel, even though I agree with your post to some extent, I do have a few differences.You say to only promote those products which you've used on a personal level. But this can only be said of "Make money online" niche. What if somebody wants to promote a product in "weight loss" niche and they are not fat enough to "use" the product for themselves? I guess in such a scenario they have to go with the most popular product in that market since its popularity is good indication of its usefulness.
Please don't consider this as a bashful comment but can you please address on the above scenario.
Thanks in advance