The Changing World of Affiliate Marketing

Everytime I turn around it seems like the world of Affiliate Marketing is changing.  Each affiliate & marketing program always seems to be evolving for good or bad.  The most recent change I have been dealing with is with SFI.  They made a rather siginificant change to their program’s infrastructure about a month ago and it’s taken me a little while to verify how I felt about it. 

In the past this program dealt with a hierachy of affiliate levels and each affiliate level was based on the number of affiliates you were able to obtain and promote to the level of Executive Affiliate or higher.  The problem that I faced and I’m sure many other affiliates faced were the amount of new affiliates that would come in and do nothing.  As the saying goes, a lead that produces nothing is worthless.  So SFI recently switched over to what they refer to as their Versa points system.  Through this system you accumulate points based on various activities around their site, sales of products, and sponsored affiliates who have completed a variety of tasks.  This opens up a better way, in my opinion, to be able to promote within their Affiliate program.

SFI also recently launched what they referred to as a co-sponsorship program, where if you are in the top 200 affiliates by Versa Points each month, you qualify for this very lucrative offer but co-sponsoring a number of affiliates that came into the network.  This can open up additional commission opportunities and really makes SFI very profitable for it’s affiliates if they take full advantage of these new programs.

I have to say after taking  month to look this over before making a decision I must say I am pleased with these changes and look forward to utilizing them to their fullest.

What Happened to Customer Service?

No matter where I go these days, I’m always so surprised at the lack of customer service in so many service industries. It seems in this day and age, there are many people out in the business world that do not truly take pride in their work, no matter what it is. Case in point, today my fiancé and I decided to go out to lunch at a local fast food restaurant. We went inside and there wasn’t a line so we were able to order our food quickly. She ordered her 1^st and the cashier, rather than waiting to take my order as well, disregarded that I was even there to go ahead and start filling her order. I know if I tried to give her my order while she was distracted a mistake could happen so I patiently waited for her to finish what she was doing. She finally stopped and took my order but while she was attempting to fill it, one of the drive thru employees demanded that she take a bag of food outside to a waiting car and simply wouldn’t take any sort of delay as an excuse to not comply. While she was gone, another employee attempted to finish filling the order after waiting for several minutes for someone to do so. We had ordered 2 hamburgers along with our drinks and side items. The employee that was attempting to fill my order placed a 3^rd hamburger on the tray. I politely advised that we had not ordered that and it might be for the customer who came in behind us. The employee apparently frustrated for having to fill in, snapped back that the cashier and rung up the 3^rd hamburger on our order. I decided not to argue the point further with her and she indicated we should take it and she would provide the money back for the extra burger. Needless to say, once I had taken the food tray and sat down as she had requested, I never saw her again.

 

It’s these kinds of experiences that make me question the training being provided to employees in regards to good customer service. I’m the kind of person who will fill out a comment card when I’ve had a bad experience and even when I’ve had a good experience because I think its important information for a company to have. I will mention in this case, the comment cards were nowhere to be found (figures). This experience shows the power of how bad training on the part of a company to inspire their employees can lead to poor service and poor comments from its customers.

 

Where did the company fail in this regard?

• Distracted employees – The full attention wasn’t placed on the customer. This can cause mistakes that can be very costly and can even result in loss of business and revenue.
• Misdirected stress & frustration – Never allow your frustrations to bubble up and strike out at a customer. This again can cause poor service and will likely result in the loss of repeat business
• Do what you say – Always fulfill your obligations to a customer. Nothing will upset a customer more than empty promises.

These pitfalls of bad service can play out in any business situation, even an online one. Pay attention to prospects and customers and listen to what they have to say. Always respond quickly and correctly to their inquires as the longer it takes for you to response, the less likely you will be able to win them over in the end. If you indicate you are going to provide assistance to them, make sure to follow through as if you don’t you will end up with more problems than solutions.

Remember the old adage, The Customer Comes 1^st!

Quantity & Popularity Does Not Necessarily Equal Success

In a recent online article I read a little while ago (http://tinyurl.com/ns32yo) , it mentioned that recent research into the online social communities showed that while these communities are growing in size and popularity, only 33% actually trust their online friends. This brings to light one very important point, quantity does not equal quality. You can have 100 online friends that you are constantly bombarding with information regarding products and services through blogs, emails, micro-blogs, statuses etc., but if these online friends who receive this information don’t trust you then what you are doing is all for naught. Now how do you go about combating that fact? The key is going back to my earlier post on the Art of Selling where you have to develop that relationship. If you are out on Twitter and are basically just trying to build up as many followers as you can to try and increase your advertising base, the amount of people you are going to have to have will be tremendous. On the other hand, if you take a handful of online friends and actually take the time to get to know them and build that relationship, I would suspect that your success rate will be much higher with few people.

It reminds me a great deal of Banner Exchange sites. You constantly see them touting the fact that you can drive huge traffic to your website through their services and there are plenty of people that pay through the nose to get their premium services. However, when you stop to think about it, a banner exchange is simply that, people swapping advertisements with each other. So let’s say you have an affiliate program you are marketing and you use a banner exchange, you sit there for hours and hours flipping through website after website of other affiliate marketers showing off their websites, but you’re never really ever hitting your target audience. Yes you get great hits to your site and it looks good on paper but your actual success rate will be near the bottom.

Again the key here whether it’s using sites like Twitter and Facebook to get your message out or you are using a Banner Exchange service, the end result you want is quality not quantity, because without quality you won’t get the actual referrals and sales you are looking for.

Internet Marketing & the Art of Selling

Over the course of many years working in the Internet/Affiliate Marketing business, I have found somewhat of a constant that many of the affiliates that sign up for various work at home programs are looking for the quick fast way to make money but along with that, they want to do it without much work involved. Now I suppose there are plenty of businesses out there that can cater to these kinds of people but to me, it makes me question the legality of the program involved. To me, an affiliate program is a business and you really have to treat it as such. With any business, there is selling involved; either selling of a product or a service but selling nonetheless. You essentially have to win over that prospective buyer to purchase that product or service. Many people who get involved in Internet/Affiliate marketing have little to no sales experience but that’s not necessarily needed. Experience comes with time, the biggest step that a person needs to be able to make is their desire to succeed and in order to do that, they have to be able to:

• Talk to strangers
• Build a relationship with that person
• Persuade them over to your way of thinking

That in essence is the art of selling and it really doesn’t matter what kind of business you are involved in, these 3 points are key to the success of any business.

Talk to Strangers

This is probably the most important point, because if you can’t talk to your customers, then you are absolutely no use to them. If you’ve never had to deal with strangers before in a business setting it can be rather intimidating, especially if that customer is someone who is, let’s say, blunt or rather direct. The basic principal to keep in mind is not to take things personal regarding your conversation with the customer.

Build a Relationship with that Person

Any sort of selling involves building a relationship. After all, you are asking a person to trust that the product or service you are selling is what they are looking for to meet their needs, whatever that need may be. In most cases, a person will always be skeptical of someone who is selling a product to them as the mindset can be one of “they are just selling me what will make them the most money”. So the next key point is to build that trust by being open and honest with your customer and finding out exactly what their need is and finding the right product or service to fill that need. By doing this and building that positive relationship you are likely to earn repeat business which is an important key to success.

Persuade Them Over to Your Way of Thinking

Persuasion is a powerful selling tool as you want to be able to persuade a customer to purchase from you rather than your competitor. So you need to convince the buyer as to why you are the best person to purchase from. This goes back to the relationship point. If you build a good relationship from the start of your conversation with the customer then, persuading them to buy will be much easier. It’s also important to remember to close the deal with the customer, when you get to that final point. Closing the deal can be as simple as asking the person for their payment. I can recall my 1^st full time job out of college. I went to work for Montgomery Wards selling electronics. My 1^st day on the job the department manager was discussing the position and providing me with information on how to sell since I had never done it before. He then stopped during the conversation and asked me if I had a dollar on me. I checked my wallet and I did at the time. He asked me for the dollar which I in turn gave to him. He then smiled and asked why did I give him the dollar and I replied, because you asked me to – BINGO, Welcome to Sales!

Now the points I have listed above are primarily used for face to face selling or even phone sales for that matter which may not necessarily apply to your Internet Marketing or Affiliate Program, but the essence of selling is still the same whereas emails can take the place of face to face contact and phone calls or even your own website could be built in with logic to try and steer a customer towards a purchase, but keep in mind the ultimate goal is to build that relationship with the customer and keep them coming back to buy from you over and over again.

So good luck and happy selling!

 

 

If you have questions regarding the information contained within this blog entry or site, please feel free to contact me at ross.boyd@xperiencesuccess.com

Utilizing Lotto Sponsorship

A marketing method I have utilized in the past is online lotto sponsoring.  I have found this to be a great way to build an affiliate team.  The key thing to remember with marketing your business opportunity is to pick the appropriate target audience.  To me advertising through an online lottery system seemed to be a great avenue to do just that.  People who are using online lottery systems are obviously looking for a way to make money and to either replace or supplement their income.  Therefore you’ve got a great target audience in this type of environment. 

Through my own experiences I have been able to increase my affiliate sign ups by 20% or more using online lottery sponsorships.   It’s definetely allowed me to expand my business overall and help me achieve my goals.  If you are interested in online lottery sponsorships, I would recommend <clicking here> for the website I currently use as they have a great lotto sponsorship program along with a variety of other marketing methods varying in price and size.

The Google Crackdown & What to Look For In a Business Opportunity

I came across an article today regarding Google’s crack down on its AdWords accounts. Apparently Google is attempting to eliminate or at least lessen the amount of scams out in Cyberspace that utilize its name. Apparently a big one of these is Google Money Tree. I haven’t come across this one myself but it appears to be similar to a lot of other scams out there – the promise of large sums of money in little to no time. The problem with this is, those types of programs are like Unicorns & Fairies. I’m a firm believer that if you want to make money, you have to understand that it is going to take time, dedication, and perseverance to make it happen. You can’t simply sign up for a program, especially an Affiliate program, and assume the bucks are going to come in the next day. You’ve got to work at it, advertise properly, and learn the ropes if you are new the process. In my opinion, it can take upwards of 3-5 years before you really start to see your business take off.

So back to the Google Crackdown… Be very careful what services you are attempting to solicit on their site. While your link may not be directly involved with a scam site, if the business that is being promoted is in anyway affiliated with one of these scam, you run the risk of having your account suspended which could cause you headaches as well as a loss in valuable advertising. It’s also a good idea before signing up for any sort of program to really get to know they are all about. Be sure to contact them and ask questions. If they are try to avoid answering you or are evasive, then they are probably not a good bet for a business opportunity. The ones that are, will be upfront and honest with you. These are the kinds of programs you will want to be involved in as they usually provide plenty of support and training to help you be successful because they know you are the key to their success.

Here are some of my key tips for what to look for in a business opportunity

• Does the program offer products or services to sell?
• Is there a monthly fee to maintain your status with the business?
  • If so, is that fee reasonable for the benefits provided?
• What kind of training or support is offered?
• Look for online reviews of the opportunity through search engines

Many times each person’s viewpoint on an opportunity is different, but the key thing to remember is, if it’s an opportunity that indicates there is no selling and all you have to do is sit back and make money, my advice is walk away. The old adage still holds true – “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.” The opportunities I have listed here on this site are programs that I have researched and/or have been involved in for some time and meet many of positives of the criteria listed above, so if you are looking for a good business opportunity, be sure to look them over. If you have recommendations of your own, be sure to let me know and I’ll take a look at them and offer up my opinion.

Forum Marketing & Spamming

I came across an interesting article today regarding using Forums as a method of internet marketing (http://www.startupnation.com/articles/9463/1/forum-posting-undergod.htm).

Somehow I find this a very difficult kind of marketing for me as, in my opinion, there is a thin line between providing useful information while promoting your product and service and being labeled as a spammer.  Spam comes in all shapes and sizes these days and it seems many sites that allow user posted information always have some sort of wording about spamming.  So the question is, how do you market your products on forums without becoming a spammer?  Well this article really makes a great deal of sense once I got into it.  It makes mention of building relationships with people through the use of forums.  Answer questions and basically become a powerful presence.

To me this almost makes it into a word of mouth sort of advertising as eventually people start coming to you where you can drop a subtle advertisement here and there for your website, product, or service.  This has really made me have to rethink this process and see how I can incorporate it into my own marketing strategy.

Welcome to Xperiencing Success

Hi there and welcome to Xperiencing Success, the thoughts of an Internet Marketer.  I am using this blog to share my thoughts, experiences, and ideas of my life and times with Internet Marketing.  I have been involved in Internet & Affiliate Marketing for several years now and have seen many different types of programs; some which seem good and others that appear to be nothing more than people moving money around from one person to another with only those at the top of the food chain making the bulk of the profits.

I hope you will find this blog informational and hopefully sometime even entertaining.  I welcome comments, questions, and opinions so please be sure to share them.

I hope you will enjoy this peek into my life while I make attempts daily to Xperience Success!