Affiliate Workshop

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Affiliate Marketing - putting together all the pieces

On Internet Marketing we sell our own products or others products. And the product can be a physical one, a digital one, or a service.
In all cases we need to create a Website: a classical one, or a blog, or a membership. For simplicity I'll call it Website.

And we end up with a procedure of releasing the Website to the public.

We also know that in addition to a Website, we need an autoresponder service (usually aWeber) and some work to do on autoresponder part to correlate all the pieces, links, and make autoresponder to access different pages of the website correctly, in a specific order.

Look trivial, but it is not, the most important part is to make autoresponder to talk with our Pages, and this is the part that in some cases is missing form seminars, e-cources and so on.

Doesn't matter what you sell the procedure to launch a product is the same with small differences.
I take examples from a product I just launch MC-eCovers, more detail on a lens I created to pre-sell this product.

Prerequisites:
  • I presume at this point you have a product to sell: yours or affiliate product
  • You have a domain and a host
  • You have minimum a WYSIWYG HTML Editor and/or
  • A software to create Websites, my recommendations are:
    • xSitePro for any kind of Sites(it is expensive but is one time buy and you gave a handy tool for the rest of your life) or
    • YourSqueezePage3 (software to easy create just squeeze pages, actually is a cheap membership which let you use their software as long as you are a member)

If after reading this lens you still have questions, please write them on comments and I do my best to answer all of them

Plan For Product Launch 

Website is a generic name, actually we need to create a chain of different pages under the same domain:
  • It is mandatory to have:
    • A squeeze page
    • A landing page
    • A thank-you page
    • A download page
  • And is optional to have:
    • An already subscribe page
    • An One Time Offer (OTO) landing page
    • An Affiliate sign-in page
    • A bonuses Page, usualy we put bonuses on the download page, but you can have reasons to create a separate page for them

In autoresponder part we need:
  • Mandatory:
    • A new list with verify opt-in
    • Minimum 2 follow-up messages
    • A Web Form for your squeeze page
    • A couple of Broadcast messages dispersed on a couple of days
  • Optional:
    • you can replace some autoresponder default messages with more personalized messages (it is not mandatory but highly recommended), or with website pages

The tricky part is not how to create each piece separately, but:
1) which is the best order to create them and
2) how all the pieces on Website part will communicate with the pieces on autoresponder part.

I'll address both issues. And again, my way is not the single way, but is a performant and less time consuming way.

Pieces On Website Part 

First, we need to create the - Thanks You - page.

After you created you upload the page and also the PDF (if you are selling an eBook) on your host in your domain


Even if look odd, please bear in mind, this is the first piece of the puzzle

This is what your potential customer will see after he/she has opted in to your list in your Squeeze page. There are two types:
  • If you are selling an affiliate product, you redirect to the Affiliate Link you got from Clickbank or elsewhere. In this case your potential customer is automatically redirect to the merchant's sales page via your affiliate link, and no additional sale page must be created
  • If you sell your own product, you must create a customize Thank-You page in which:
    • You thank to your potential customer
    • Remind him that he must confirm his email
    • Eventually you list the bonuses here.
This is an example, a Thank-You page I created for MC-eCovers (in this case my product is a service):

A little more info here, and I close with a remainder that they have to confirm email, and I give them info where they can find me if they need me. It is a mistake to live in your castle and never be accessible to your potential customers. This is trust building, you are a human being, you put a picture of yourself, and you are at their services. The customers what to know a little about whom they are dealing with.


In my case I didn't put the bonuses here. The Thank you page is very simple.

At this point you have a Thanks you page. you upload the page and also the PDF if you are selling an eBook, on your host in your domain.

The second step is to create your squeeze page, and upload the squeeze page, and pictures on your host in your domain.


Note: This part can be accomplished after you did some work on your autoresponder which I'll explain in the next module. At the end you will have other module with the flow of events. At this point we work on the independent pieces, and the fact that I establish an order is as I don't want you to get confused coming back more to same task to update.

The Squeeze page is the first page the customer will see, a place where you put an opt-in list to build a list of prospects. You don't put a lot of details, eventually some benefits, as the bottom line is to convince them to buy, but the main reason remain to acquire names and email.

My example:



I have:
  • A compelling headline
  • I didn't have a time-sensitive offer (I have this in the page they have to pay)
  • A have a clear offer
  • A call to action
  • I have an explanation of my privacy policies.

This is all you need, simple and clear page.

The third element on Website part is to create a custom download page.


This can be a simple download PDF link, you can add bonuses if you want, and you can customize and monetize as in your case the customer is already committed and he already paid in merchant landing page if you are an affiliate.

I'll give you my example which is a little unorthodox because I divided the info in a static part (which is in squeeze page) and the pay part which involves a choice between 2 packages now and more packages later, this choice is in download page.


Because my potential customer is committed in this page, I comment that the bonuses he deserved are in a next email, and I have a link for a page I created for bonuses in that email.

Those are the pieces we need in Website part, I'll continue with pieces in autoresponder part, and finally I'll create a flow of events as they evolved.

Pieces On Autoresponder Part 

Go to aweber and first create a new list.



It is a good habit to have a separate list for each product your sell.
This is the process:
Click on My Lists
==>Click on List Settings
====>Click on Create a New List, you get a form to fill in:
  • Give a name to your list
  • Write a short description
  • Fill in - From eMail (as you want the customer to see it!)
  • Company name or your name
  • Website URL (this is the URL of your Squeeze page)
  • The system will create automatically a unsubscribe line which will go at the bottom of all your email follow-ups and broadcast. This way a customer can subscribe anytime.
At this point you have a new list created for your new product.

Customize your Confirm email.


This is the first email customer will get after sigh-in in your Squeeze page
It is a simple email created by the system but you have the permission to customize some parts of it.
It is a thank you, and please confirm your email, this will permit us to continue to send you information.
Note: The customer must click on confirmation LINK, if he doesn't confirm the entire process stops.

Now we must create minimum 2 follow-ups emails, which will be transmitted automatically at the interval you requested.


Click on Messages
==>Click on Follow-up
====>Click add new Follow up message:
You write your first follow-up message and save.
This is the first message the customer will get after confirming his email address.

In a nut shell: we say thanks for requesting our report/ebook/services, this is the URL to download or this is the download page and we give them the URL of the download page we created.

In my example I send them to my download page in which the have to chose the package, pay.
In other cases, the download page contains a download button, bonuses etc. you can customize this page to suit your needs and you also can monetize this page. I don't advise to monetize Squeeze page, that one must stay as simple as possible.

====>Click add new Follow up message: to create the second Follow-up message.
Write the second follow-up and save.
Usually this is a message in which you repeat the direct link to PDF, or link to your download page "just in case you miss it".

In my example I send them to my bonuses page.

We must create a Opt-in Form, the system will generate the HTML code we need to put in Squeeze page..



This is the process:
Click on Web form
==>Click on Create a Web Form, now you have a form to fill in:
  • Write Form name
  • The system comes with a default URL, to look professional, replace with the URL you created for Thank-You page.
    • ***)
  • Fill in an Already Subscribe page if you have one
  • You create the form as you need and SAVE
  • Click get HTML code
  • Put the HTML code in your Squeeze page.

***) This is why you need to create first the thank you page, now you create the form, and last you create the squeeze page in which you put the form. This way you don't come many times back to update some pieces.

The Flow of Events 

Now we can create a flow of events with both website work and autoresponder work.


I use RED for Website work, BLUE for autoresponder work.

Pay attention to this flow! If you understand the logic of this one, you can start tomorrow to sell yours and/or affiliate products.

Create your Thank-You page.

Upload your Thank-You page to your host on your domain.

(Upload the PDF URL if you sell your eBook)



Create your New List in aweber.

Customize your email on aweber.

Create first Follow-up message on aweber.

Create second Follow-up message on aweber.

Create your opt-in form on aweber.

Get HTML for your opt-in form , (use java-script form)



Create your Squeeze page and put your HTML of your form in it.

Upload Squeeze page to your host on your domain.

Upload pictures in same folder on host.

Create Download page, you can put a direct link to the PDF, and add other offers: bonuses , memberships, e-courses



Note 1: If you sell an affiliate product, you in general don't need to create Landing Pages, Loading pages, the merchant provide for you. But you still need an WYSIWYG HTML Editor to change them based on the license you have from the merchant.

Note 2: In my example, I didn't create a landing page because the process of the service is too simple, and this is why my pay button (via PayPal) is in Download page where they choose the Package. in other instances for my own products, I'll create a Landing page in addition to Squeeze page.

Note 3: Some people have just one page combining Squeeze page with Landing page in just one page. For all intend and purposes of an affiliate business, you need a squeeze page for your list and then send customers to landing page of the merchant. Some time the customer will end up sign-in 2 times, but this is it, the good customers know the process and they will do it if they have an interest in the product.

I hope I was explicit enough but if you have questions use the guest book, please.
I'll publish but I'll continue to update this lens.

Who is Michey? 

I got Giant 50 status on JJJ 1:
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Lensmaster Michey has been a member since April 21 2007, has rated 998 lenses, favorited 1,365, and has created 59 lenses from scratch. Michaela Cernescu donates their royalties to Squidoo Charity Fund. This member's top-ranked page is "FTC New Rules and Regulations". See all my lenses

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by Michey

  This is Michey, an Internet marketer, Digital Product writer, Web 2.0 enthusiast.

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