Let’s look at examples of how “low-CR affiliates” create
negative mindsets by making how-you-reach, what-you-say, or how-you-refer
boo-boos. We’ll begin at the top…
1) How to Reach Your Visitor...
Free-For-All Sites (FFAs) are a great example of how not to
reach people. For the most part, FFAs
have become so seamy and useless that no matter what you say, you’re doomed from the start. I once made a request to all 5 Pillar
Affiliates for FFA success stories... not a single success story! I won’t bother to ask again.
Compare this with how smart and open-minded your visitor
feels when she finds you via a Search Engine!
2) What to Say to Your Visitor...
Don’t write a site purely devoted to “hard-selling” your
merchants’ products. Imagine a visitor who hits your site and reads an
immediate sales pitch. That person will
resist because she does not know you.
Then, if she clicks to your merchant, she gets another sales pitch on
the site.
Never devote your site to one company’s product line. No matter what you do, no matter how sincere
you are, this kind of approach always ends up “smelling” like a sales
pitch. It simply makes no difference
that you honestly love the products - your visitor will mistake your devotion
for selling. Remember, she doesn’t know
you!
It’s far better to develop a concept that relates to that
company’s products and to other products from other companies that are
complementary. Develop related content
that PREsells. Then “get the click”
through “in-context” text links.
3) How to Refer Your Visitor to Your Merchant...
Banners, as we discussed earlier, are the best example of
how not to refer your visitor to your merchant.
In plain and simple language, people feel “pitched” when they click on a
banner. And people who feel “pitched”
are difficult to convert into a sale.
Now for a critical Action Step...
Review your site or whatever other means you are using to
reach, talk to, and refer visitors to your merchants. Put yourself in your customer’s brain. What will she think, how will she feel, at
each of the 3 major steps from above?
If you’re doing everything perfectly, congratulations! You must have a high CR. If you don’t have a
high CR, or if you see some big mindset mistakes, consider how much higher your
CR would be if a visitor…
• found you in a bona
fide manner (ex., as a result of doing a search on a Search Engine),
• became “your
friend” (or your “trusting admirer” if you do a truly awesome job!) because you
provided excellent content
• and finally was led to a context-appropriate
recommendation. (There will be more on
recommendation vs. sales pitch shortly.)
Key learning point?
Always consider how these actions affect your visitor’s
mindset...
1) HOW YOU REACH your visitor, and…
2) WHAT YOU SAY to her, and…
3) HOW YOU REFER her to your merchant.
Get inside your visitor’s head. Realize how she will feel each step of the
way. Whatever you do, consider the impact on your visitor - if it does not
make her more “open to buy,” don’t do it.
PREselling is really all about selling yourself (i.e., your
credibility) to your customer, every step of the way. You reach your targeted traffic in a proper
fashion, you deliver valuable, appropriate, editorial content, and you
recommend merchants to your visitor after she has come to respect and like
you. Your CR will soar.
Why does PREselling work so well?
A sale via any affiliate program is really a two-step
process. It requires the delivery of two
“Most Wanted Responses,” yours and your merchant’s.
As an affiliate, what is your Most Wanted Response
(MWR)? No, it’s not to get the
sale. That’s the second step and it's
also your merchant’s MWR. Your MWR is to
“get the open-to-buy click” (i.e., your visitor clicks through to your merchant
with an open-to-buy mindset).
Writing to PREsell does not require genetic talent. It’s not
a “gift.” Writing to PREsell is a skill
you can acquire. Make Your Content
PREsell! (MYCPS!), the only book of its kind on the Net, shows you exactly how
to do it. Learn how to...
1) Write to communicate.
2) Develop your own “voice” with flair and substance.
3) Spin your site/biz/self into a unique position.
4) Honestly convince people to trust and like you.
Everyone, regardless of what they do online or offline,
needs to know how to write effectively. For more information about this free,
must-have resource, please visit…
http://mycps.sitesell.com/
Let your merchant’s site do its job and get the sale.
It’s a two-step process that builds to the sale...
STEP 1 You PREsell to
get an open-to-buy click-through to your merchant.
STEP 2 Your merchant
gets the sale.
So, whatever you do, however you do it, it should always
pull your visitor one step closer to delivering your MWR...
Get an open-to-buy click through to your income-generating
source! Whoops! I was just about to move
on to the next point. Good thing I heard
you asking...
“Ken, if I leave it up to the merchant's site to get the
sale, I still don’t see how I have any influence on the Conversion Rate. I'd much rather sell the visitor on my own
site.”
First, let’s make sure we have our terms straight by
examining a real case study. Elad Shippony, from Israel, is an excellent
example of an infopreneur. He is
creating fun and entertaining content to drive traffic from the Search Engines,
and then monetizing that traffic, without selling a product or service.
http://case-studies.sitesell.com/infopreneur-elad.html
PREsell effectively, and your CR will zoom. But if it reads like a “hard-sell sales
pitch,” you’ll quickly lose credibility with your audience.
On the other hand, let’s say that you do not have a
mega-content, ultra-high traffic site.
You really love SiteSell products and that's why you’re so proud to
represent them. After all, you’d never
want to just “push stuff” on people, products that you do not believe represent
true value-for-dollar.
Redundancy = Turned OFF customer = LOW CR.
But if you develop great content, it will lead to the click. You become a friend making a recommendation
rather than a stranger making a sales pitch.
And if you create a truly great site, you’ll actually become a trusted
expert making an endorsement.
Recommendation = Turned ON customer = HIGH CR.
In other words, don’t push your visitor to the click. Make her want to click. It makes all the difference if your visitor
feels that it’s her idea to deliver your MWR (the open-to-buy click).
Another question?
Geez, I was about to grab a coffee.
Fire away!
“Can you give me another example of using content to
PREsell?"
Sure. Let’s say that
you love Make Your Words Sell! (MYWS!), the perfect bookend to Make Your
Content PREsell!. Your plan is to create
a Net marketing site.
Whoa! My first
recommendation...
Do not create another Web marketing site. There are zillions of them.
However, if you can develop a unique twist in the way you
present high-value Web marketing information and build at least 30 quality
content pages about this subject, then go for it. But don’t limit your monetization efforts to
PREselling Site Build It! exclusively.
Instead, diversify.
For example, let’s say you create a content page about “how
to write persuasive sales copy on the Net.”
Within that page, include in-context text links to your Top 3 books
about copywriting.
Add Make Your Words Sell! (a free book)
… and include a #2 and a #3 recommendation. Why?
First, this approach gives your page extra content value --
it shows visitors that you have their best interests at heart. Second, it adds extra credibility to the #1
choice (ahem!). And third, it gives you
three possible links for your visitor to click upon.
Include your favorite book about writing “offline” copy,
too. Naturally, it’s an affiliate link
to one of the online bookstores!
It’s a WIN-WIN-WIN situation for you, your visitors, and
your merchants. Now, please think about the following for a moment...
Why would I, a merchant, recommend that you not create “yet
another Web marketing site,” and especially not one that is dedicated to
selling Site Build It!?
It’s because I know you’ll waste your time. The two-step SELL-SELL does not work. Period.
Sure, you’ll get a few sales. But
you won’t make enough money to stay motivated to build your business. I’d rather give you a far more powerful,
successful approach…
http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/
…and have a smaller piece of your larger and more successful
attention!
Bottom line?...
If you want to create and build a site that is related to
Net marketing, take your time and do your homework. Find a new concept, or a unique twist, or a
trend that you think will become important, and be the first one to do it. Do not be a “me too.”
Better yet, find your own unique concept.
And where do you find a great concept for your site? Inside you!
You do know stuff other people don’t... things people would
pay to know. You might have learned it
“on the job” or through your hobby.
There’s a good chance that you don’t even realize what you know. It’s often right under your nose. But, as you’ll see in DAY 2, everyone is an
expert about something.
Here’s a real concrete, non-Web-marketing example that will
succeed...
It’s all about creating a Theme-Based Content Site that is
loaded with Keyword- Focused Content-Rich Pages. Your theme?...
You love concrete.
Yes, cement! It’s been your
hobby, your passion, for years... Concrete statues. Concrete painting. Decorative concrete. Concrete in the
garden. Repairing concrete. The various types of concrete. Hand trowels. Things to do with cement
blocks. Concrete trade shows. Concrete and swimming pools. Concrete molds. Cleaning concrete. Ready mixed concrete. Concrete counter tops.
For this example, I had to brainstorm topics for concrete. I
know nothing about it. I chose
“concrete” because it was the first thing to enter my head. But I could develop topics about concrete
forever. (There is more about
brainstorming and developing high-profitability topics later in the course.)
Anyway, let’s say that you decide to create a Theme-Based
Content Site that is all about concrete.
Your home page explains how your site is the site for everything
concrete, from structural to esthetic.
Of course, you create high-value, content-jammed Keyword-Focused
Content Pages. For example, your page
about concrete statues explains all about how to make striking statues for the
home and garden. You could even expand
it into an entire “Statue Section,” with a page on the history of concrete
statues and another one about how to market and sell the statues that the
visitor makes.
The main point, though, is that you create truly excellent,
high-value content that attracts and delivers what your readers sought at the
Search Engines, “warms them up” and increases your credibility…
C T P
You also weave relevant, “in-context” text links right into
the content (i.e., your recommendations
• Books about the
topic (ex., concrete statues if that's what the page was about)
• A garden supplier
for concrete molds, trowels, etc.
• A concrete supplier
• Consulting services
-- your own, of course!
See what’s happening?
When you write about a niche that you know and love, the content is
easy. I’ll show you how to attract even
more targeted traffic by ranking well for the Search Engines (Search Engine
Optimization) later on.
By providing great content, you PREsell your reader,
increasing your click throughs and your CR.
And by monetizing through related and excellent affiliate programs, and
other appropriate monetization models, you develop multiple streams of income
from one site.
This brings us to the bottom line of this DAY...
If you’re drawing targeted traffic to your site... and if
your site is getting a great Click-Through Rate (CTR) to the merchants that you
represent (and your other monetization sources)... and if you are converting a
high percentage of them into sales...
You are following the roadmap to becoming a high-earning
affiliate champion!
Let’s summarize the whole point of PREselling with this
question...
Which would you respond to?...
A stranger with a sales pitch?
Or… A knowledgeable friend making a recommendation?
Before proceeding to DAY 2, please complete your DAY 1
Goal-of-the-DAY, and take note of your Ongoing Goal...
Deepen and focus your understanding of this material. Re-read it once per week for the next eight
weeks, monthly after that. As you
progress through DAYS 2 through 10, it’s going to be easy to lose sight of the
“big picture” presented today. And there’s another reason to re-read
regularly. It will mean more and more to
you as you gain each DAY’s new perspective.
And with that, it’s on to DAY 2….
Time to begin the blueprint for your Web site. Take the first step by brainstorming your
Site Concept…
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