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Yes, there are good and bad ways to do affiliate marketing.
Shortcuts are – in general – not good. But every now and then there comes a tool or a technique that allows you to cut down on the amount of time you have to spend to create content and follow-up emails.
I already discussed the usefulness of Commissionology – but if you had to combine it with this tool…
It can make things very interesting indeed – especially if you hate writing, or you struggle with a language barrier.
An underestimated affiliate shortcut: Jack Jacker WP plugin
Firstly, what does Jack Jacker do?
Jack Jacker allows you to place a ribbon ad on top of ANY page – without using iframe structuring. And that is the crucial part. Let me explain:
With a normal iframe structure, your whole “page” consists of only the top part (the actual frame). The rest just happens to be showing as if through a window. But with Jack Jacker, it actually creates a whole new page on your blog which contains all of the data from the original page, yet retains your advertising ribbon on top.
So – how do you use it?
Well, you simply find a piece of information that your target audience will find useful or valuable. Then you create a new blank page on your blog. After that, you create a new “Jacker” in the plugin settings panel.
You can set the message, the colors, and where your ad should point to. And then you add the URL of the page you want to “jack”.
If you now go to the URL of the page you created, it will show the “jacked” page with your ribbon ad on top.
But here’s the kicker:
If you share that link on social media, it will show up as being shared from the original website (as long as they have all their social media meta tags in place).
So although you have a link pointing to your own domain, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter will create a “card” which doesn’t show the link, but it shows the original domain on the card.
Why is this so important?
It allows you to piggyback on the authority and credibility of the source. For instance – if you sell something like debt restructuring services, you may want to point people to research about the severity of debt problems in your country. You appear to be sending them to a totally impartial page with undeniable information by academics. And on top of that information (which highlights their problem), you have a prominent text ad with a solution.
And you can do this without looking like a spammer.
So what can you do with it?
Well, there are three ways in which to use it:
1. Use it to monetize other people’s content – as mentioned above. However, you may want to be selective about whose content you use – more about that just now. Piggyback on authority- and even viral content to place your ads in front of many people – without writing a single paragraph.
2. Use it to build a list – even if you don’t have a blog. Instead of sending people to an offer from the (“jacked”) page, you can send them to a squeeze page. You don’t even have to host the optin page yourself – you can create one inside your autoresponder service (several services allow you to create a standalone optin page).
The visitor sees your link on social media and decides to go and read it. He or she becomes aware of their problem, for which you then provide some free information in the ribbon ad.
But due to the authority of the site, you get more visitors than you would have received to your own blog, and more visitors are likely to take action because they trust the source of the information.
3. Use it to offer bonuses for affiliate products. Imagine sending paid traffic to an affiliate product – especially a high ticket item. You can paste your bonus offer right at the top of the page, increasing the probability of a conversion.
Lastly, a word of caution:
Before you start using any site as a source of information or news to distribute, please read their terms of service. Some websites have explicit rules against framing their content, or to use it in any way to monetize it for your own gain.
Technically, you aren’t framing or stealing their content – but the Law is a complex thing. So I would suggest taking some time, and identifying a few good, trustworthy sources that you can use over and over again.
For a start, government sites usually don’t have any restrictions – because the information on there is considered to be in the public domain.
In conclusion:
Jack Jacker is a nifty tool which, if used correctly, can help you to accomplish quite a bit. If you apply your mind and start using it along with say, popular hashtags on Twitter, you can drive a substantial amount of traffic without even having to worry about having a big audience of your own.
It’s worth a look – even if you do create your own content.