Ah affiliates… the elusive goal of every online business owner because an active network of affiliates is a proven way to drive traffic to a website or salespage and increase sales. Think of how profitable some of your online efforts would be if you had a continuous flow of new visitors to your online business every day. With the right offer, sales or subscriptions (depending on what your goal is) could go through the roof!
A few of my clients have been looking for Joint Venture partners and affiliates for their various offerings so I’ve been doing a little research to see if there are creative and out-of-the-norm ways to increase affiliate partnerships. Here are three strategies you may not have considered in your quest for affiliates.
1. Surf Your Way To Affiliates
Have you ever stopped to read the salespage of one of your competitors in your niche? I’m sure you have, at one point or another, stopped to read their pages for copy and the strength of their offering as compared to your own. But have you ever bothered to take note of the testimonials that are featured on the page? It’s common practice for salespages to include testimonials to lend legitimacy to their products. If you’re lucky, the testimonial includes enough information about someone to help you track them down. Some testimonials include a website. Just visit their page and look for contact information and get in touch with them to see if they would be interested in your product or service. Yes it does take a bit of leg work but if you can find a few affiliates this way, it’s well worth it.
2. Get Out and About
Okay so for someone that runs a virtual business, this may be an odd recommendation, but a great way to find affiliates or JV partners is by attending live events. I’ll be honest and admit that I haven’t attended a live event before but plenty of my clients have and many of them come home with a stack of contacts for future partnership opportunities. Live events often have many built in networking opportunities: dinners, pub nights, and other events that last into the wee hours of the morning, long after the main events of the day are over. Be sure to attend one or two during the course of the event. You may only come home with a new friend but you never know when that relationship will develop into something more. People that know, like and trust each other are much more open to finding ways to work together.
Want to learn more?
I did a quick search through the Clickbank marketplace to find some training for you. I haven’t personally used these products. I own Russell Brunson’s Affiliate Evolution but I don’t think it’s available anymore. I hope you’ll be able to pick up some valuable training from one of the options below:
Affiliate Alert is an affiliate marketing course published by Ron & Rick Davies that shares their strategies for how they built their affiliate businesses. This course may be geared more towards building a business as an affiliate marketer but it could contain some strategies on how to leverage affiliate networks like cj.com or clickbank.com. Affiliate marketers (which is how i’m defining people who’s main source of income is affiliate commissions) typical scan affiliate networks looking for great products to promote (oops, I guess that could have been included as a strategy above LOL)
Millionaire Society is a private society of millionaires who’s only goal is to teach you every single thing you must know to build your own 6 or 7 figure online business.
Do you know about Lynn Smith’s ‘Joint Venture Women’ program? I’m an affiliate — here’s the link to find out more: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1430271 — I thought it could be a good tie in with what you were writing about here 🙂