10 unusual affiliate marketing tips you can use today
Most people get the basic stuff. See how many of these tips you didn’t know already
This article contains several of my affiliate links.
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Tip #1 — Focus on one niche
It took me way too many years to learn this simple tip.
Focus is everything. There’s only one other thing that is just as important as focus and I’ll get to it.
If you spread out too soon, too early, think of it this way.
Let’s say you have one hour daily for your business. If you’re trying to handle six niches, it means that you have 10 minutes for each of them.
That’s not enough time to get a look at the products you promote, think about what to write about them etc.
If you focus on one thing, you have 60 full minutes and that’s enough time, daily, to work on one product at a time.
Tip #2 — Never ignore a bad feeling
I’ve found that intuition is an important part of business.
Too woo-woo? I don’t think so. There may even be an explanation behind intuition that I’m not aware of. But if a marketer approaches you with his new products and invites you to promote it, listen to your gut feeling.
Is something wrong that you don’t see?
Then say No thank you to the offer. Why?
Because your reputation is at stake.
Tip #3 — Fool me once…
Don’t ever fool your subscribers.
The old adage says, “Fool me once, shame on you.”
And that’s where it ends. Your subscribers won’t let you fool them twice.
They will smell a rat the next time you promote something they have a gut feeling about.
Tip #4 — Promote what you use
Sometimes, I’ve seen great products and gotten review access and really liked it.
But for some reason I wouldn’t use it myself. I’ve always only gotten mediocre results with those. I suspect that my subscribers could tell that I wasn’t completely on fire about the product.
You get the best results by promoting products you use yourself.
Of course, there are exceptions.
Like I use this awesome French web host, it’s perfect… except for it being French and my readers are English speakers.
And I use a self-hosted autoresponder that you have to be somewhat geeky to use. For me, it’s perfect. It does a lot more than Convert Kit and I’m in full control.
Tip #5 — Write to one person and be one person
You might think that when you write an email or a blog post, then you will have hundreds of readers.
And hopefully you do.
But guess what? They aren’t all gathered in a hall somewhere, reading your text on a huge screen.
So write to one person, because only one person will read your text at a time. Even if two get together to read it, they will still be one in their own minds.
And what about you?
Are you one or many?
Unless you have a partner, I would skip the “we” and “us” when you’re writing about yourself. (Unless the “we” includes your reader.)
I think I’ve always had this principle, which makes me wonder what got into me at the bottom of my first ever Medium article from February 22, 2018:
Tip #6 — Sharing once, sharing twice… sold to the gentleman over there
You know what most affiliates do?
The ones I see requesting to promote my PLR will often say they have huge lists and when you check their stats, they have 0.008% conversion rate and a 16% refund rate.
There are many reasons for this.
One of them is something even the big affiliates commit. And that’s where small affiliates have a chance.
Do this one thing and you can beat the big ones on the leader board. I know, because I’ve done it many times.
Share the product many times.
Not just using the same email over and over again, but by looking at different angles every time.
If a product has 7 advantages, share at least 7 emails or posts about it.
Tip #7 — Play it again, Sam
You know another big mistake most affiliates commit?
They promote a product during its launch period and then never again.
Silly, stupid, dumb, waste of money and opportunities.
If it sold well during launch when you were up against a multitude of competitors, then it will sell amazingly well when you’re on your own.
Tip #8 — Write — even when you don’t feel like it
After I neglected my first Medium account and forgot about it, I came to Medium again and by mistake created a new account.
This one.
And my first article here was about what to do if you had to write an email and didn’t feel like it. It’s from February 25, 2022, so almost on date four years after the first one.
Write — every day preferably. That’s how you get the big results.
Tip #9 — Dare to be picky
Obviously, you should only promote good products.
But sometimes, vendors will ask you to promote their good product. And you’re still allowed to say No thank you.
Why would you do that?
Well, sadly, today a lot of courses are video courses. That’s nice and easy for people to glare at instead of reading those weirdly shaped black marks on paper.
But videos take time. A lot of time.
Do you have plenty of time at your disposal? Then there’s no need for you to thank no. But if you are busy and don’t want to spend 24 hours a day working, then dare to say no if a course just seems to take too long for you to go through.
Skip going through it and promote it, you say?
Nah, I didn’t hear that, did I?
Tip #10 — Get your own link-shortener
I bought a domain with 3 letters and 2 in the extension.
And I bought a script for it that gives me a link shortener and tools like what you see in paid services like LinkTree. It’s a one time payment (and yearly for the domain).
It has the advantage that I can always remember my affiliate link, they are short, and I can see stats and all.
Also, if the vendor changes the link, you can easily go in and change it in one place. Othewise, you would either have to change it everywhere you’ve shared it (which is often impossible) or lose a lot of money when people no longer can buy.
You can grab it through my affiliate link here: https://clq.cx/urlshortener
It’s one of the best investments I’ve ever made and it’s much better and faster than having WordPress with a plugin like Pretty Links.
Bonus tip — Do it faster
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