How To Use The "Orange Clothes Secret" To Create An Avalanche Of Affiliate Profits

Power Affiliate Diaries
By Ewen Chia, CEO, Midas Touch Marketing
StuffYourInboxWithCash.com

I’m not sure how many of you are parents but when you’ve a toddler at home, there’re plenty of things he or she can do that’ll surprise you.

Bear with me here as there's a powerful concept to the story which you can 'steal' to increase your affiliate profits dramatically.

Here’s what happened...

We’ll about to hit the town for a nice night out and my son Clayden (who is 2½ years old) ALWAYS gets super excited when he knows he’s about to go out.

Normally his mum will get his nicest clothes out and place them on the bed before changing him, so there’ll *always* be his clothes there on the bed before we go out.

That's the way it is.

Now picture this...

This time round, I was asked to change him and sure enough, there was a nice set of a bright orange Harley-Davidson t-shirt and shorts right there on the bed...So what’s a dad to do when he's been told to change him?

That's right, I went right ahead to put on those bright orangy clothes on Clayden.

But the next thing I knew my wife was screaming at me!

“Why did you made him wear orange??!”

Wait dear, didn’t YOU place those clothes there? I asked.

Chuckle. It seems she DIDN'T.

Clayden was the ‘cuplrit’. He was just so excited and impatient about going out that he took the initiative to get out his own choice of clothes (or what his little fingers could grab) and place them on the bed, just like his mum would...



Now here’s the thing...

I assumed my wife had placed those orangy clothes there when I saw them, just like all the other times, and more importantly, I CONSUMED and ACTED on this assumption.

So how does this apply to YOU selling more affiliate products and cashing in much more affiliate checks than you normally would?

What I’m about to reveal to you now is both simple and more powerful than at first appears...

I’ve applied this myself many times but have never thought much of the principles involved until the episode with the clothes that is :-)

Here’s the "Orange Clothes Secret" to making more money with affiliate programs:

This technique will allow your prospects to consume your recommendations and assume they already own the products, leading to a much higher chance of purchase.

You can call it 'affiliate psychology'.

It'll also ensure more of your emails get through the filters and skyrocket your clickthrough rate at the same time.

This is how you can apply the technique when you're promoting affiliate products to your list...

Place your entire endorsement copy on a web page and send visitors to the page, instead of selling in your email.

Next include eye-catching graphics and screen captures of the affiliate product (I use Tech Smith's SnagIT) prominently on this page and describe in detail how you have used the product and how it has helped you.

Entice your visitors with the product's benefits and involve them actively in the process by using words like "imagine...", "what if..." etc. You can also ask targeted questions to enhance the involvement process.

To encourage clickthroughs to the affiliate link, use words like "download", "own", "attain", "discover for yourself" etc. You should also use an exit pop-up to YOUR affiliate link to bring up the page even if they should leave.

Once you've set up your endorsement web page, simply write a short targeted email to excite your list to click through and visit the link.

That's it - simple.

It's not rocket science but it produces massive results once you try it. Taking this powerful approach to marketing affiliate products encourages the consumption of your endorsement and the strength of your copy can cause your visitors to 'assume' they already own the product, thus skyrocketing your response and conversion rates.

Give the 'Orange Clothes Secret' technique a fair try and dare I say, you'll be shocked at the increased results :-)

Your comments are more than welcomed...

Hope you find this useful, till the next post...

The 'Midas Touch' is Yours!

Ewen

Affiliates - Do You Really Know How To Presell?

Power Affiliate Diaries
By Ewen Chia, CEO, Midas Touch Marketing
StuffYourInboxWithCash.com

Preselling is both an art and a science. You hear the importance of preselling mentioned frequently, but no one tells you how to do it.

I hope to shed some light on this topic in this post today.

What type of content is suitable for preselling? What you should focus on in order to turn a prospect into a customer?

These are important questions to ask. The real issue comes down to determining where the prospect is in the buying process and what they need in order to make a decision.

==> Start By Evaluating the Merchant

In order to presell effectively as an affiliate, you need to evaluate how good of a job the merchant does at selling. What are the merchant's strengths and weaknesses?

Some of the most common merchant copy errors you'll find are:

• Nature of the product is ambiguous
• Copy is poorly written and sparse
• Copy focuses too much on features, not enough on benefits

Just put yourself in the customer's shoes ask yourself the following questions: “Do I understand what this product is? What it does?”, “Do I instinctively trust the merchant?”, “How do I feel about this offer?”.

The answers will point you to the gaps you, as an affiliate, need to fill in during the presell process. You won't be able to please everyone, but you'll be able to write copy which “sells” the way you'd like to be sold to – and this is at least half the battle.

==> Pay Attention to Conversion Data

Once you have your first round of presell content in place, it's time to begin testing and tracking.

You'll be looking at several factors:

• On which day of the autoresponder sequence did the majority of prospects convert?

• What is the open-rate for all days in the sequence (regardless of conversion)

• Is there a point in the sequence when a noticeable percentage of prospects (who did not convert) stopped viewing your emails?

Here's a sample scenario...

Imagine you have an autoresponder sequence which lasts for 7 days.

Your conversion rate is much lower than you would like. You find that of those prospects who do convert, the majority of them are converting on the third day. Meanwhile, all others are ignoring the messages or dropping off the list.

This a cue that your content is failing to grab the majority of your prospects' attention right off the bat. The first two days' messages aren't strong enough.

At this point, you'll either need to re-write the first two messages in the sequence or take things up a notch and use day three's copy as the first message in the sequence – then re-write the copy for days two and three.

Then, you'll watch your data again. See if those changes hold attention for a longer period of time and watch what happens when the prospects hit the untouched messages in days four through seven of the sequence.

Each cycle will reveal to you the weak spots in your presell. Each presents an opportunity to further tweak your copy until you see improved conversion for the whole list.

This point may come at any time in the sequence, but the important thing is that your numbers show a majority of prospects opening your messages and a conversion rate up into a profitable percentage.

You might also want to experiment with how you deliver information. For example, you can test the response to a free e-book (containing presell content) on conversion rates. Also, test the impact of that e-book by offering it at various points in the process (on list sign up, on the second day, etc).

==> Experiment with How You Convey Information

At times you may have more than one idea in mind for how to approach the presell.

You might have one set of copy which focuses on a 'story-telling' approach, and another which focuses on facts, benefits, freebies, etc. If this is the case, don't be afraid to test both methods by splitting your leads into two lists in order to test the response to each method.

This approach is beneficial especially when you aren't familiar with an industry, and aren't sure what your prospects want to hear. You will find one list outperforming the other, though, and this will give you a lot insight into the market's mindset. You can adjust your approach accordingly from there.

==> When In Doubt, Investigate

No clue where to start?

Spend some time researching all of the merchant sites in your industry and drop in on any related message boards or chats you can find. This will give you a peek into the language used by your prospects.

You might be surprised to find phrases and jargon in use that you weren't aware of before. You can also get a feel for the market's mindset, daily concerns any potential objections they harbor. For example, you might notice some threads complaining about the price or quality of a product similar to yours. Bingo! This is a potential selling-point or psychological trigger you can use to your advantage.

==> Final Points

Your job as an affiliate is to presell.

Preselling works when you know how to do it, and falls flat when you don't. There's a lot more to it than just dumping some mildly entertaining content into an autoresponder and hoping for the best.

Effective preselling requires forethought, planning, research and experimentation.

Master all four of these steps and those paltry commission checks will be a thing of the past...

The 'Midas Touch' is Yours!

Ewen