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I was going to save the content from this post and have it in my One Week Marketing Training Center for my members only, but I thought, “This is something we all need to talk about” – so here it is. I’m sure this will bring mixed feelings – and I’m good with that. Different opinions make for good conversation. So let’s get into it…
If you are an affiliate marketer, I’d like to ask you this question:
What is your job?
Think about it for a moment. Think back to when you had a “real” job – that might have been years ago or maybe you still have a “real” job as well as your affiliate marketing business.
When you’re hired for a job, there are certain expectations of you, right? Certain things you are expected to accomplish?
So now that you have taken up affiliate marketing, what’s your job?
I know the immediate answer: To Make Money.
And that’s a great goal (or in my case when I first started: a great hope….lol!), but that’s not your job, is it?
As an affiliate marketer, this is your job description:
1. Gather targeted traffic
2. Get them to the sales page.
At the point they get to the sales page, there’s not a whole lot you can do about making the sale anymore. That’s why a ‘sales page’ is called just that – because it is designed to SELL.
Sure, you can “pre-sell” or warm them up to the sale, but affiliate marketers aren’t really about making the sale. They ARE about getting people TO the sales page.
One of the biggest things I stress to my One Week Marketing members is CTR (Click Through Rate). In other words, of all the traffic to your web page, what percent click through your affiliate link to the sales page?
Over in One Week Marketing, we use free web pages – and most of us are working Amazon products – but it’s still the same concept. Getting traffic TO your web page is all great and good, but if a very low percent of them click through your affiliate link – did you do your job?
I work to help my members to aim for a 50% CTR on free pages (like Squidoo pages) – and that is TOTALLY do-able. Actually, it’s not just “do-able”, it’s very realistic.
People are LOOKING online for things – and they are BIG TIME impatient. If they don’t see what they want – and something to click – they’re outta there and back to the Google search results.
No, they probably won’t scroll to find that random link or 2 that was put down at the bottom of the page. They are going to LOOK and if something doesn’t catch their eye (and their mouse) in a few seconds, they’re gone.
Put something interesting front and center as soon as your page loads with no scrolling needed – something that entices them to click (and no, not a bunch of CLICK HERE!! CLICK HERE!!!).
If you see in your stats, that some lonely link you have wayyyyyy down at the bottom is getting some attention – move it to the top.
Make it EASY for your page viewers to help you do your job.
They WANT to click – they WANT to find what they’re LOOKING for.
Giving that to them is your job. No apologies.
I am an affiliate marketer. That is my job. No apologies.
Thoughts?
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It is often very difficult to explain others what my job is. Affiliate Marketing usually has a “bad touch”, like a scam so I often just talk about my websites and generating traffic 😉 so yeah, you are right – that´s actually my job, getting website traffic
but don’t forget to push them a little.. remember those salespersons who change your buying decision. 😉
Yep – it sure can be tough to explain, but as long as WE know what we do…. well, that matters most.
Your job description is very simple. You are a commissioned sales person for company X. The only difference between you and Willie Loman is that you do your sales pitches through the internet instead of pounding the pavement and going door to door.
Just like most commissioned sales reps you get 1099’ed and have to take care of your own taxes, health insurance, etc…but you also have more freedom in terms of how you actually do your job since you are only paid for performance.
The main difference between affiliate marketers and full time sales reps is that you don’t usually get an advance draw against commissions. But that’s not a huge deal if you manage your personal cash flow well or have a partner with steady cash flow.
Hi Jennifer,
I agree with you. As an affiliate marketer, my job is to get them to sales page. I am currently trying to increase my CTR which is about 35% right now. I’d like to share my tip here. I saw remarkable increase in my CTR on my Squidoo pages after turning off Text Link Ads. Newbies should take it into consideration.
Thanks,
Sana
I bet that did help – thanks for sharing!
Just wondering if you could explain why turning off Text Link Ads works to increase CTR? Also, I currently make about $15-20 a month on Squidoo and enjoy being able to see how many people visit my lenses every day. I would love to be making $50 a day, but not sure how to make that happen on Squidoo, lol! Any ideas??? Thanks.
One thing you can do is to repeat what you did to make you that much, and keep repeating it until you’re satisfied with your earnings.
Less clutter = improved CTR
that’s what I was trying to say. Keep your focus either on affiliate links or on other advertising programs.
Oh Sorry, I didn’t mention that I was talking about getting more clicks on your affiliate links (if you are promoting any affiliate program through your Squidoo lenses). If your main goal is to make more sales, turn off Text Link Ads. If your main focus is on earning from Squidoo (as a Squidoo partner), just try to get your lenses rank well in search engine to get more traffic and that will be fine. I am an affiliate so I focus on getting more clicks on my affiliate links than on google adsense or text link ads. Thanks.
Oh Sorry, I didn’t mention that I was talking about getting more clicks on your affiliate links (if you are promoting any affiliate program through your Squidoo lenses). If your main goal is to make more sales, turn off Text Link Ads. If your main focus is on earning from Squidoo (as a Squidoo partner), just try to get your lenses rank well in search engine to get more traffic and that will be fine. I am an affiliate so I focus on getting more clicks on my affiliate links than on google adsense or text link ads. Thanks.
So when you say you’re an affiliate and trying to make sales through your links on Squidoo, you are actually referring them to a blog or website that you created, or a blog or website that someone else created that you are working with? If it’s the latter, then I’d be interested to know how you go about finding good people to sell as an affiliate for? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer,
As usual, I am always learning new things from you. My “job” today is to go over some of my older lenses and spruce them up and increase my CTR.
Sana’s suggestion above to turn off text link ads, I will test that out too.
If I haven’t told you, I love the G+ group you created. It is great to be able to talk with you and work with others using OWM.
Have a great day.
I’m loving it, too, Monna! It’s great to be able to interact with y’all that way.
Good question Jen, and I agree with your description.
But my ‘job’ just for today, is to keep my focus and not be distracted.
Eh, so why did I open your email?
Maybe it’s because I like what you have to say!
John.
Oh dear – sorry, John! Didn’t mean to disrupt your job for the day 🙂
What I do on my blogs and sites is I put a gentle/subtle reminder why they need to click the banner to solve the problem they hate. It’s a pain coming up with so much in so little space, but that’s where the art form of marketing comes in.
Refreshing read!
Nice way to put it, James – even if they’re just looking to buy something, it still is solving some sort of problem for them.
Hi, I am a new marketer, trying to make a go of affiliate marketing. I only have a small list, to date, of 126 people, so I feel that I can’t bombard them with emails. Getting more traffic is my goal. The emails that I have sent out only have a 2-4% ctr. Not good. Great blog Jennifer
Louise 🙂
Hiya Louise =) Sounds like you’re off to a good start to me. 126 people is 126 more than you had when you started, right? =)
Hi Jennifer,
I’m a little confused. You said in this post that over in one week marketing you are focusing on Amazon products, but how are you focusing on Amazon products if Georgia is now not allowed to have affiliates with Amazon?
Sorry for the confusion, Lisa. That ended up NOT happening to Georgia Amazon associates. Even tho the state did pass a nexus law, Amazon didn’t give us the boot.
Excellent advice. Unlike our offline counterparts (Commissioned Salespeople) as an affiliate it is not our job to sell but rather to help our visitors make a buying decision in their favor.
I like what you teach Jennifer! And I like that it is centered around free website. Having a good call to action up front with that link that seem to be working can certain help get that click through. I am enjoying your new MMO site! I am just slow about it. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer,
Is there any particular reason that we are mostly sticking on to Amazon when we deal with Squidoo? Is Squidoo sort of averse to other networks (Clickbank etc)?
As always, awesome post; Thanks.
Other affiliate networks work well and are perfectly fine (as long as within Squidoo’s TOS). Amazon products are just super easy to convert.
I agree with the driving traffic to a sales page as being my job.
I also consider the people that are visiting – does the page give them exactly what they are looking for? Does it help them in some way?
I guess that is – by definition – what “targeted traffic” is, but it is a major consideration when putting up a page, and seems to keep me on track. =)
Hi Jennifer, hope you are well. Like my other jobs of chef and personal trainer, I treat affiliate marketing the same, yearly business plan even though it is really only part time. Because I keep a focused plan, I make decent money, especially around Halloween which I have stayed focused on for the last 3 years.
It’s my job I suppose, to keep people, my websites and social media updated with fresh interesting information whether on costumes or valentines day etc. staying fresh and interesting has a great ctr for me.
Hi Jennifer, I read this today from Rosalind Gardner (www.netprofitstoday.com), an affiliate marketer/mentor/teacher whom I trust and respect. It’s confusing. I was wondering your opinion? I condensed but basically summarized the article here:
Bye Bye Squidoo By Rosalind Gardner 4 Comments
I received a ‘telling’ notice from Pepperjam today which alerted me to changes in their list of publisher promotional methods.
Take a look…
“Today, we have updated the publisher promotional methods. Going forward, the categories will be:
Blog
Comparison Shopping
Coupon/Value Proposition
CPA/Sub-Affiliate Network
Direct Link
eBay
Email Marketing , etc. etc. (long list here).
The following categories will be removed:
Co-Registration
International Traffic
Online Mall
Pop Up/Pop Under
Search Engine Marketing
Software
Squidoo
US Traffic Only
If any of the above promotional methods are listed in your account, they will automatically be removed.”
See the differences between the current list and those that are being removed?
Other than the geographic distinctions, I’d call the list items that are being removed ‘useless marketing tools’, i.e. Squidoo pages.
I’d add WordPress.com and Blogspot blogs likewise — which Pepperjam fortunately never listed as affiliate promotion methods – thank goodness.
Seriously, if you are still using Squidoo and do NOT have your own domain to market affiliate products – don’t even pretend to be an affiliate marketer….
(My note, I am not a OWM owner but read your emails and blog all the time. From what I believe, Squidoo should only be PART of an overall strategy for affiliate marketing, but it sounds like she feels like Squidoo is pretty much just worthless, and it sounds like Pepperjam Network feels the same way).
I hope you will be able to let us know your thoughts. Are ONLY free marketing methods pretty much dead or are they headed in that direction? And if they are not, why do very successful people like Rosalind Gardner feel that they are? Thanks! 🙂
From what Ive heard and read after that original post was made, Squidoo is still fine with Pepperjam – they just want you to choose ‘website content’ as the promotional method.
The source for that is here:
http://hq.squidoo.com/forums/topic/heads-up-for-pepperjam-affiliates/#post-99181
Squidoo is fine.
Thanks PoyPieGirl! I really got a lot of information out of your blogs and off Squidoo! I want to try affiliate marketing to make money, but it’s like I need someone to “push” me forward to do it! All of this is REALLY NEW TO ME! I have written about five pages of notes and printed out God knows how many pages to go back and review! My head is going around in circles over all of this!! I guess I will give it a go but I’m not exactly sure when:/
Keep the good info coming!!! It REALLY helps! Thanks!