While most teachers of internet marketing will teach you to create your own products, because “that’s where the real money lies”, they neglect to tell you one single thing, which can have a huge impact on the way you choose to do business – possibly forever.
In fact, this one single thing, if used correctly, can enable you to make more from affiliate sales than you would ever be able to make as a product vendor.
Ironically, this same “little thing” is the exact reason why people sell affiliate products at the start, and not their own:
Credibility and/or authority.
You see, when you create and sell your own products, people have to be convinced that you have what it takes in order to create those products. They have to be convinced that you have the expertise to create what you offer them.
But if you are an affiliate…
You can piggy-back on the authority and credibility of the creators of the products you want to offer to your audience.
You may want to read that sentence a few times, and consider the immensity of the implications…
Let’s say you subscribers get two emails, the first of which is for your own product:
Email number one reads:
After more than six months in the making, loads of hard work and endless hours of research, my first product is finally ready for launch. It will solve “problem X”, at the special launch price of only $xxx
Email number two reads:
Tony Robbins just dropped the price of his “Become a life coach” course by 50% – but the discount is only valid for the next 24 hours. You may want to hurry.
Now…
Even though the course from Tony Robbins costs a lot more than the product in the first email, most people know who he is, and what he has accomplished in life. For the people who know him, it’s not a question of “can I trust this guy to offer value for my money” – but a question of “can I afford it?”
So – what happened?
By merely mentioning the name of someone who is well known in your circles, and who has already established authority to a global audience, you have eliminated the need for having to do so (for yourself/your own product).
In addition to that, you have saved yourself the trouble of creating your own product, copywriting for the sales page, setting up a payment and delivery system, having to deal with support issues, or paying a lot of money to have any or all of these done for you.
Fair enough – depending on your niche, the vendor may not be very well known. But if he or she has a proven track record, you can write a blog post about the product, and highlight his or her past achievements, and even curate some positive mentions you found online. And instead of trying to make the sale in the email, you can send your subscribers (or social media audience) to the blog post.
In fact…
There are many internet marketers who do just that. These people, known as “super affiliates”, make BIG money by ONLY promoting affiliate offers.
The big thing about doing only affiliate marketing is that you have to choose your offers very carefully. Every offer has to have some “wow” factor, meaning it has to be a great offer, from someone who either has a lot of clout, of from whom you can paint a picture of being a respected authority.
In addition to that, you will of course have to look at the price point of the product (not much point in selling 100 items of a $7 product, when you could have sold 20 copies of a $100 product.), and you will have to consider whether it is a good fit for your audience.
What’s also nice about this is the fact that, when you are able to become an affiliate or JV partner before a product launch, you can start generating excitement and anticipation among your subscribers, building on the past successes of the product creator.
For instance – if you tell your subscribers that Frank Kern or John Reese (the first guy who did a million dollar launch online), they KNOW that whatever is coming will be brilliant. Many people will be sold on the name of the vendor alone.
So – why not use it to your advantage?
If it makes it easier to make money, and it means less work and stress…
It makes perfect business sense.
In conclusion:
If you still have any doubts, consider this…
You buy a can of Coke or Pepsi from a tiny corner store just as easily as you would buy it in a department store on your way out.
Why?
Because you trust the name and the track record behind it.
The bottom line is this:
When you are “the guy with the tiny corner store” (no credibility), you can still make a lot of money by selling the right stuff. From the right people. It won’t matter if you don’t have a fancy store.
And THAT is the real magic of affiliate marketing.