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Affiliates, JV Partners, Tele-Summits and Alliances to Attract People to Your Website

 

This section covers three different kinds of alliances:

  • Affiliates – (for income) where you agree to pay people a commission for sending you clients. You only pay after someone pays you (and if you offer a 30+ day guarantee, generally you pay the affiliate after 30 days);
  • Joint-Venture Partners – (for income and list-building) similar to an affiliate arrangement but more involved, where you agree to partner with one specific person to provide clients, content and/or support in selling a specific program or product created by one of the JV partners or by both partners (often without a written agreement, but for more involved arrangements you will have a written agreement that spells out what each partner is responsible for and how the money will be divided – usually 50/50), and
  • Tele-Summits – (for list building) where one person (maybe you) organizes a group of speakers on related topics to present, usually in 1-hour presentations and often one following the other (although it could be spread out over several days) – where every participant promises to promote the Tele-Summit to their own list, thus causing a large combined list of attendees for each speaker, from the combined lists of multiple speakers… Speakers usually offer something free to get the combined list to opt-in (provide their email address) in exchange for something free. Once you have their email addresses, you could send emails promoting your own products and events. The Tele-Summit’s host will get the entire list of everyone who signed up to attend.

Affiliate and Joint Venture commission could be anything, but is generally 50% on digital products (ebooks, video training, etc) and 10-30% for training.

Of course, the higher a commission, the greater the incentive for the Affiliate or JV partner to send you clients. A $4-10 commission is less enticing than the possibility of $250-$2,000 per sale, which is why the most active Affiliate and JV programs involve some training or coaching program where the price is $500-$5,000.

Still, when you have lower priced products, Affiliate Networks may be ideal marketplaces for you to generate income and sell larger volumes of your products.

 

Affiliate Networks

Online Affiliate Networks are available to promote your products and services through larger numbers of marketers. Affiliate commissions through these networks are generally in the $5-$20-per-sale range, but could sometimes be significantly higher.

Here are some of the most popular Affiliate Networks:

LinkShare (www.linkshare.com/advertisers/affiliate/) is the largest affiliate network with over 10 million affiliates. It offers a stable and robust platform, excellent support and easy international commerce. With over 2,500 affiliate programs, they let you choose between plugging your affiliate program into their system (customer service, payment, etc) or your managing any and all specific aspects of your affiliate program yourself.

Commission Junction (www.cj.com/) is the largest affiliate network in North America (although they operate internationally). Owned by online advertising platform ValueClick, Inc., they provide affiliate, media, and tracking services and offer a self-managed or company-managed option for your affiliate relationships. Besides their pay-per-action affiliate program (you get paid when someone buys), they also offer a PayPerCall program to help ensure Affiliates get paid commission for the leads they generate for online and offline campaigns.

ShareASale (www.shareasale.com/) is one of the top rated Affiliate networks for reputation, security, ethics, customer service, and ease of commission payment… with over 2,500 merchant programs and featuring such brands as HootSuite and PS Print.

ClickBank (www.clickbank.com/) is an Affiliate network for digital products (e-books, software, and membership sites). They claim to offer up to 75% commissions on its tens of thousands of products. Commissions are paid weekly, and direct deposit is available to its affiliates. They have a high rating with the Better Business Bureau but limit your access to Affiliate information to keep you hooked on their network, which has riled some Affiliate marketers. Still, they are a valuable platform, especially for people new to Affiliate marketing.

JVzoo (www.jvzoo.com/) is a somewhat newer player in the Affiliate arena. Besides offering a wide range of mostly digital products (e-books, software and membership programs) they promote featured products heavily to their massive email list.

Amazon.com (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/) has one of the largest and most diverse affiliate programs available, featuring the full array of over a million products available on Amazon.com’s network. They are a pay-per-sale affiliate program.

PeerFly (https://peerfly.com/) is a popular Pay-Per-Action network (paying commissions for sales and leads) offering thousands of merchant programs from around the world.

 

ClixGalore (www.clixgalore.com/) is an Australian Pay-Per-Action affiliate network, offering various types of programs, including PPM (pay-per-impression), PPL (pay per lead), PPS (pay-per-sale), and PPC (pay-per-click). Many of their programs pay in US dollars. Some well-known brands that use their affiliate program include Bluehost, Time Life, Trend Micro, Citibank, and Fox Sports Shop. They also offer a two-tier network where, by referring other affiliates to the network, you can receive a portion of their earnings.

For a few more affiliate networks, here’s Online Bluebook’s List of the Top Affiliate Networks: http://mthink.com/affiliate/

 

Affiliate and JV Tracking Systems

Whether working with Affiliates or JV partners, you will need a system to make sure you know which clients came from which Affiliate or JV partner, so you can pay them properly.

People with a limited number of Affiliates or JV partners will simply set up a separate sales page for each affiliate or partner, sometimes even having a separate item number for their product, to indicate which sale came from which person.

More conventional Affiliate tracking systems allow you to create a unique “affiliate link” for every Affiliate and partner that gets signed up – complete with an easy Affiliate set-up process. Then, whenever one of their people clicks that Affiliate link, they are taken to your website or to a specific sales page, and a computer cookie is attached to them. If they buy something, that cookie alerts your Affiliate system which Affiliate that person came from.

Affiliate systems generally integrate with your shopping cart (payment collection system) so whenever someone buys, a tally is made of how much commission needs to be paid for each Affiliate.

Many shopping carts, such as 1ShoppingCart, have Affiliate systems already built in. Otherwise, you could typically pay about $300-500 for your own Affiliate tracking and management system, with some offering monthly pricing.

Here are a few of the more popular Affiliate tracking and management systems (that generally integrate with most shopping carts):

 

Here are a few more advanced (and higher-priced) Affiliate Systems:

  • www.myaffiliateprogram.com/ – clients includes Discovery Channel and Dish Network as clients – to get pricing requires an appointment
  • www.directtrack.com/ – clients include Travelocity, Lifelock, Lynda.com – to get pricing requires an appointment

 

Affiliate systems generally have an easy set-up process, where people wanting to become an Affiliate could sign themselves up, and where all Affiliates could sign-in and visit an online dashboard to see their commissions and other relevant information.

Most Affiliate systems let you pay different commissions for different products and for different people. They also let you pay a commission just for a single product, for all products purchased during a limited time (say, within 60 days), or for the life of the customer – for as long as they buy products and services from you.

Offering to pay a commission for-the-life-of-the-customer can make your offer even more attractive to a potential Affiliate or JV partner, but only a few people offer this.

 

Getting Affiliates and JV Partners Excited About Your Product or Service

There are three things a top-selling Affiliate or JV Partner wants:

  • PRODUCT: A product or service that makes them look good to their audience (where the presentation is professional and the product makes sense for their audience),
  • COMMISSION: High commissions (not just percent, but actual dollars – how much will they earn if enough people buy), and
  • CONVERSION: A product that has enough people actually buy it.

 

PRODUCT

  • Are you offering something that does not compete with their products?
  • Is the value of your presentation good enough that even if no one buys, the audience will feel they got real value?
  • Does your product make the Affiliate or partner look good to their audience, that they are offering or aligning with such a product? (offering products by Chicken-Soup-For-the-Soul author Jack Canfield or motivator Tony Robbins could boost your credibility even if you make no money).

 

COMMISSION

  • How much does the Affiliate or partner earn every time someone buys something?
  • Do they earn the same amount for every product, or will they earn more for certain products than others?
  • How many customers need to buy for the Affiliate’s income to be significant?
  • Does the Affiliate or partner get paid on just one product, on every product bought in 60 days, or for every product this customer will buy from you? (Remember, the percentage could be significantly lower for later purchases… but it still sounds great for an Affiliate to know they get paid for the life of the client)

 

CONVERSION

  • Does your product and offer have a history of success, where people have bought it?
  • If yes, what is the conversion rate (what percentage of attendees have actually purchased)?
  • Can you prove that somehow – with screen captures of statistics on number of attendees, etc (even with key information blurred out)?
  • NO CONVERSION TRACK RECORD? … NO PROBLEMIf you cannot prove your product and offer have high conversion, be honest. An experienced marketer will often work with you if they feel your offer can be valuable to their audience.One marketer with a sizable responsive (solid history of buying) list said,“If you offer me 100% commission for a limited test, if I like your product and offer, I’ll send it to a limited part of my list to see how it converts. Once it converts well, I’ll send it to my entire list for the regular commission — plus you’ll be able to use my conversion numbers to get other Affiliates and JV partners to also sell it to their lists.”

Of course, the more dollars an Affiliate will receive, the more committed they’ll be to selling your products and services to their clients and lists. That’s why offering commission for-the-life-of-the-customer can be a valuable strategy for some marketers.

 

A Brief Story About Marketing Through Affiliates and Partners

Steve Harrison had a list of 80,000 authors, speakers and consultants. Brendon Burchard, when he was starting out, approached Steve, asking him to promote Brendon’s $5,000 weekend training program to his list. Steve was initially concerned about selling someone else’s product to his list of fans. After all, he’d spent years of tender loving care to create a list of loyal and responsive fans.

Once he determined that Brendon’s program was excellent, he agreed to try a promotion. So Steve sent a few emails to his list, letting them know about his upcoming interview with Brendon Burchard, and why it would be interesting to them.

Although Steve never confirmed this, it appears that Brendon agreed to pay Steve a 50% commission for everyone who bought.

Steve did two 1-hour teleseminars to his list, where he interviewed Brendon on a phone interview. Then, after an hour of great content, Brendon told everyone about his training program, and sent them to a page where they could buy it.

After just two 1-hour teleseminars, 200 people agreed to buy.

Let’s do the math here.

200 people
X $2,500  (50% affiliate commission)
$500,000 → to Steve + $500,000 to Brendon

 

I remember Steve Harrison showing up at the first day of Brendon’s live seminar. He seemed to be watching the quality, and making sure the people who signed up were happy enough that they would NOT be asking for their money back.

Attendees were delighted with Brendon, and Steve seemed to be pinching himself that just a few hours of work would net him an easy half-a-million-dollars.

Since then, Steve has continued to promote Brendon’s programs several times a year. My guess is Brendon probably pays a lower percentage, now that his offer has proven to be such a great moneymaker

The point is this.

Even if your program and offer are just a tiny percentage of Brendon’s, partnering with someone to sell your product or service could be a real win-win-win for you, the Affiliate and the audience.

And most importantly, once you get just one success under your belt, partnering with others could be much easier.

 

Marketing By Your Affiliates and Partners

Some Affiliates will add your product to their website or catalog. If there’s any way you could get them to feature your product, in a newsletter or on their website, that would certainly be better.

Regardless of whether you are selling a low or high-priced product, the best situation is when the Affiliate or partner agrees to send emails to their list, either promoting your product or promoting a free webinar about your product.

Second best would be inclusion of your product or free webinar in their newsletter.

People with a large number of visitors to their website or a large number of members in an online program are often receptive to outside content providers – guest-speakers and guest-bloggers offering content that could be valuable to their audience.

This is a win-win-win. The person with the large audience gets content that makes their site valuable, while their audience gets valuable content and you get exposure to new potential clients.

The content could be text articles, or telephone interviews, or webinars with slides or visual content.

The standard format is where you provide your content:

  • in a 1-hour webinar (online seminar with slides or visuals) or teleseminar (presentation or interview over the phone), followed by a brief commercial for your product or service, or
  • in a written article, with a link to your website and perhaps even an offer in your biography at the end of the article.

Besides offering your product or service, you may want to offer their audience something they could get for free by visiting your website. Then, have them opt-in (give you their email address) to access the free content, thus capturing their email for future promotion.

 

How to Find People With Large Audiences and Lists

To find people with large audiences who may be interested, besides meeting them at networking events, you may consider doing a Google search of topics that your audience would also be interested in. Then, look at which websites come up on the first page of the Google search, both the organic search sites (the ones that Google shows) and the paid ads at the top and the right.

People listed in these areas did not get there by accident. These are often people who are effective marketers, with good sized lists.

Among these high-ranking websites, see if they have a membership sign-up box somewhere prominent on their website. If they do, there’s a good chance they have plenty of people on their list.

The contact information for the website’s owner is generally in the ABOUT section of the website. If you cannot find their contact information, try doing a WHOIS search. Here’s how:

It will often tell you the name, address, phone number and email address of the website owner. You’ll probably want to send them an email and not call them, as many people become concerned that you found their phone number.

When emailing them, get to the point quickly and briefly:

  • Ask if they would be willing to chat with you briefly;
  • Compliment their website;
  • Ask if they ever use or have considered using guest-speakers or guest-bloggers;
  • Explain your expertise or subject you feel would resonate with their audience; and
  • Give your contact information.

You’ll be surprised how often the person will agree, and be appreciative, especially if you are true to your word and provide content their audience will value – and most importantly, that will make them look good.

If you have experience doing this with another website owner, give that person as reference.

Also, if you are offering to be interviewed, be prepared to offer the full package, to make it easy for them to say yes. This includes:

  • an ad or email they could send out to their list;
  • an overview of what you will cover and questions they could ask you during the interview if you are willing to be interviewed;
  • contact info to the presentation:
    • a call-in telephone number if you are suggesting a teleseminar using www.FreeConferenceCallHD.com for example – which is totally free –
    • or a web platform if you are offering a webinar, such as:
      • GoogleHangouts – free but could be complicated if you have no experience with it;
      • Instant Teleseminar – free for 20 days then $60-a-month – where you can talk and show slides;
      • WebEx and GoToMeeting – higher priced but offering full webinar experience showing your computer screen real-time.
  • A sample of your freebie and program if available;
  • An affiliate commission, where you would pay them a certain percentage for everyone who says yes (this greatly helps, but is not always required);
  • A website “buy” page where people will be directed to buy your program or get your freebie.

Providing content to people with large audiences could be a powerful, no-risk and low cost way to quickly expose hundreds and thousands of prospects to your product or business. There is little or no up-front cost, beyond an affiliate fee which you would pay after-the-fact. (If you have a guarantee, you’d probably pay them their commission after 30 days).

If you are interested in exposing your product or service to large numbers of prospects, offering free educational content to people with large lists is definitely something you might want to consider.

 

Networking With JV Partners Who Have Large Lists

One of the best ways to find Internet marketers interested in Joint Venture Partnering is though JV events and a JV community. These are events and online communities of people who have paid to be part of a large group of people willing and seeking to JV with others.

The largest of the online communities is JVIC (Joint Venture Insider Circle), founded by Rick German and Milana Leshinsky. Where both depended on JV partnering to build their Internet lists and ultimately, their Internet fortunes, Rich and Milana have been able to amass more than 500 people, with lists of zero to 5,000 people, with a few having a list of over 100,000 email addresses.

JVIC provides extensive training and networking opportunities, through live events, a private Facebook group and an online networking process. If this is interesting to you, sign up for one of their free webinars to learn more:

http://jvinsidercircle.com/

 

Tele-Summits

Lastly in this area of affiliations is tele-summits. A tele-summit is an informal arrangement where several people do 1-hour telephone interviews or presentations.

Tele-summits work best when there is a specific theme and not just a random group of speakers. That theme could be relationships, Internet marketing, retailing, weight loss, religious or spiritual areas, government contracting, etc.

It is generally pretty easy to get speakers for a tele-summit because each speaker is given access to a larger audience to tell their story to. This is because, every speaker is generally required to promote the summit to their list. In this way, five speakers could potentially bring an audience five-times larger than any one speaker.

There are instances where a famous person could be included in a tele-summit even though they would not be required to promote the summit to their list, because of their name recognition. But this is the exception. In general, every speaker is expected to promote the summit to their list.

If you are creating a tele-summit, there’s typically a 1-2 month lead time, allowing every speaker enough time to create their offer and to promote the event.

You’ll need an opt-in page where people will provide their email address in exchange for information on how to access the tele-summit.

These email addresses typically go to the person who sets up the tele-summit, who will send out autoresponder emails to remind people who signed up of the upcoming tele-summit.

A schedule of autoresponder emails can be as follows:

  • Everyone gets an email immediately as soon as they sign up with:
    • instructions on how to access to the summit,
    • a link to the summit and to www.time.org with a reminder to be on time,
    • a schedule of the speakers and a reminder of their credentials and topics, and
    • a reminder to tell-a-friend, with a link they could use.
  • Everyone gets an email reminder, with all the access information:
    • 1 week before the event,
    • 2 days before the event,
    • 1 day before the event,
    • 6 am Eastern Time the day of the event,
    • 1 hour prior to the event,
    • The start of the event,
    • The day following the event if there are recordings available.

There is usually an agreement stating that the person hosting the tele-summit owns the content from each of the speakers.

Often, speakers will offer something free and valuable as a way to capture as many emails as possible. The tele-summit may have a link that sends people to an opt-in page or the speakers will suggest listeners go to a certain page to gain access to the freebie, with that being an opt-in page to get their email in exchange for the freebie.

Tele-summits can be an effective way to get a larger-than-normal audience to hear about your product or service, by pooling resources with others, so you all benefit.

 

SEE ALSO

Posting Articles on Partner Websites and Newsletters

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If you’d like details about another Website Magnet — click on a link below

How will you bring “qualified” prospects to your website or web platform?

Search Engines | Social Media | Directories | Press Releases, PR & Articles | Blogs | Posting Expert Comments on Forums | Article Directories / eZine Directories | Video and Blog Sharing Sites | Articles on Partner Sites / Partner Newsletters | Affiliates / JV Partners / TeleSummits and Alliances | Emails / Email Newsletters | Banner & Text Ads | Webinars / Teleseminars | Viral Marketing | Tell-A-Friend | Promotional Marketers | Offline Marketing