Technology Toolkit

Sure, things are tough on the economic front. Anyone trying to sugar coat the realities of the current economic downturn is fooling him or herself. In fact, things may get worse before they get better. Those are the facts, plain and simple. The solutions are not so simple, however.

What does all of this mean for affiliate marketers? It means that when the going gets tough, the, well, you know the rest. Now is the time to work and promote your affiliate business more. There are two reasons for this. First, there is more competition for those customers willing to spend some of their money. Second, you can present yourself as a viable business still operating to these customers.

Wishing for better times won’t bring those better times here any sooner. You will have to work harder and smarter this year at affiliate marketing. With that in mind, here are a few tips for business building in tough economic times:

Get Reviewing

One way to get the word out about your products is to write product reviews. You can employ product reviews on your website. Here you give details, details and more details about a specific affiliate product. These reviews go beyond basic generalities about a product. With these you give your experience with a product, how it performed in different situations.

You can also add snippets of customer testimonials in your reviews. People love to read unbiased user testimonials and how products benefited them. Parts of a case study can also be part of a product review.

Your article writing for your article marketing efforts can be product reviews. These will be non-promotional reviews, which compare a handful of similar products. You objectively present the features of yours and other products. You educate your target market and indirectly promote your product in this type of review.

Get Talking

Spread the word on the street and on the Net concerning your business. That means talking up your affiliate products and affiliate opportunity to people you meet. Without pressuring people or talking about it at inappropriate times let others know what you’re doing businesswise. Someone you meet during the course of your regular day may welcome your affiliate product or affiliate income-earning opportunity. You will never know unless you present it to them.

Participate in social forums. Some affiliate programs find their best conversions come from meeting others on forum sites. Here, you interact with others who already have an interest in topics associated with your affiliate product. It’s up to you to talk to them in a casual way on these topics. You then offer suggestions as to how your product or service may help them. It’s network marketing done efficiently.

Get Leveled

We mean this in a good way. Consider multi-level products. You can sell a prospect on a free or low-cost basic version of your affiliate product. This is especially applicable to software products. Down the road, you can sell your customers on an upgraded version. This is the version with all the extra features and benefits.

You can obtain high levels of sales for the premier version this way. You already have a customer who took advantage of the basic version. You pre-sold them on this higher-level version. You are now asking them to upgrade and enhance their user experience. This is often a better way then trying to sell them the premium edition first.

Get Linking

If you have not yet engaged in link and banner exchanges, this can be your year to try it. Register your site with a central exchange organization. You will then receive HTML code, which you insert into your web pages. You display banners and text links from other sites. You gain credit for displaying these links. Consequently, other sites must display your text links and banners. Exchanging links to promote traffic is mutually beneficial to all who are part of the exchange.

Don’t forget to engage in article writing and article marketing. It still is an efficient way to get your links out onto the World Wide Web. You build credibility as an affiliate marketer and build trust with your niche market through article marketing.

Watch Your Back

Again, we mean this in a good way. Here, you want to engage in back selling. First, market a core product or set of products. Next, begin regular communications with your clientele who purchased these products. Let them know other complementary products, accessories or services related to your core offerings. This is a great way to grow affiliate product sales. If they like your core products, they may well find your back-sell products equally useful.

Don’t let tougher economic times stop you from promoting your business. Use the many tools available to you to promote your affiliate business this year. Yes, the tough get going, and they’re tough to stop as they watch their sales grow.

Finding and maintaining a downline team is one way to build your affiliate income faster. With a quality team in place, you can put part of your affiliate program on autopilot. Your team is doing some of your work for you.

However, there is work you must do to get them to this stage. The returns, in terms of increased income, are worth your investment in your team. Therefore, here are five things that successful affiliate mentors know about maintaining a downline:

They know that Regular Communication is Key

There is much competition out there in affiliate programs. It’s not enough to encourage someone to join your downline and then leave them to their own resources. The best affiliate programs encourage communication between program managers, team leaders, and downline members.

You as a team leader or mentor should communicate regularly with your downline. When you do, two things happen. First, individual members will recognize that you have an interest in their success. Second, they will then work harder for themselves, of course, but also for you. The result is a growing business for both of you.

Strive to communicate with your downline members once a week. This will probably be via e-mail. Of course, you can intersperse other forms of communication as appropriate. Choose to communicate, and make it a scheduled event like any other affiliate marketing function.

They Know that Downline Members Want and Need the Latest

Again, it bears repeating, there’s a lot of competition in affiliate programs. You deceive yourself if you think your downline are not involved in more than one program. You also deceive yourself if you think they are not looking constantly for the next great program.

How does this affect you? It affects you in the sense that you have to remain relevant to your downline team. That means passing on information regularly to your team.

Do you know of a good article-marketing program your downline should check out? Then pass that on to them. Do you have article writing and article submission software they may find helpful? Pass that along too. Are their reports on product upgrades they should know about? Send them along.

Keep your downline in the know so they don’t pack up and go. You lessen affiliate marketing attrition when your downline sees you as their best resource.

They Know That Pie In The Sky Promises Diminish Credibility

Don’t fall into this trap as an affiliate mentor. Present your opportunity to interested individuals realistically. Yes, trumpet the benefits of your program. Alternatively, make it clear that your program requires sustained effort. Let each person know that your program is not a get rich quick scheme.

If an interested party asks you why your program pays less commission than another, answer them truthfully. Let them know why you feel yours will give them lasting earning power though. Don’t evade questions or shade the truth. Give the facts; let them decide. This ensures they will not have unrealistic expectations of your program.

Promises made that are unachievable can do you much harm. Word will get around that the best affiliate program out there isn’t yours. That can definitely hamper your income growth.

They Know That Downline Members Are More Than Commission Statistics

Do you find yourself looking at tracking statistics for dollars earned via each downline member? There’s nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is when you fail to see the human being behind the statistic.

Sure, you want a downline to help you make money. Your downline wants a downline for the same reason. What does that mean? It means that you have shared goals. It’s as if you are members of the same company striving to sell to further corporate goals.

In essence, you are part of the same organization. Treat your downline members as a human resource manager does. See the individuals behind the numbers and converse with them accordingly. This can even be on matters unrelated to affiliate marketing. A quick e-mail asking how things are and encouraging feedback from them works.

They Know That a Certain Amount of Attrition Is a Fact

Therefore, they keep a pipeline of prospects. This is being realistic. They know that no matter what they do some downline members will leave. This causes an affiliate leader to be always recruiting. You will maintain a significant downline team if you do not rest on your laurels. Plain and simple, always be on the lookout for new members to help you grow your business.

To succeed as an affiliate marketer and mentor consider the above points. Reevaluate your take on each of them and adjust your approach to them accordingly. In doing, you will build a downline that’s inspired to stay with you for the long haul.

When it comes to mentoring, affiliate marketers sometimes preach the party line without practicing what they preach. These mentors pass on advice to their downline. This is advice that the mentor received from their affiliate program manager. They tout this advice as gospel and encourage their downline to put it into practice.

Their downline, in turn, implements these marketing tactics with enthusiasm. They feel that if the advice came from their mentor it must be gold. This whole process works well if the affiliate mentor has a thorough knowledge of what they are teaching their downline. The problem comes when an affiliate mentor preaches marketing advice without really knowing the ins and outs of what they preach.

What happens next is the worst thing that can happen to an affiliate mentor. This is when a downline member questions their mentor for more in depth knowledge of the topic preached to them. This is when the mentor cannot answer them or intelligently convey to them more advice or tips.

They have not put into practice themselves the very things they are teaching their downline. They are at a loss on how to teach further their downline on a marketing tactic. They now appear as less than professional to this downline.

An affiliate mentor caught in this trap will lose the respect of their downline team. Those new to affiliate marketing who are open to advice from others can quickly become discouraged with a program.

If not discouraged they will probably not seek help again from an affiliate mentor who failed them. This in turn can lead to problems down the road for the affiliate mentor who decides to hold training sessions with their team. They may find attendance or interest for these meetings to be wanting.

It’s all because the mentor no longer leads from a position of credibility. The mentor may now appear to his or her downline as one who is inexperienced and learning on the fly. That’s why it’s important for anyone aspiring to mentor to become well versed in affiliate marketing methods.

To be a successful affiliate mentor you must understand affiliate marketing from two perspectives. The first is from a general Internet marketing perspective. The second is from your particular program’s perspective. When you understand and practice the methods of each yourself, then you can successfully teach.

Consider Internet marketing in general. It’s imperative you become knowledgeable, through practice, about the main ways to promote a business online. This means you study search engine optimization, email marketing, article writing and article marketing. It also means studying link exchanging, newsletter marketing, how to use reciprocal exchanges and social forums. These, and more, are all typical ways to build an online business.

However, you do not stop at learning the basics of Internet marketing. You must now consider your particular affiliate program in all its uniqueness. This means knowing and using your affiliate product. It also means bringing yourself up to speed on the specific marketing initiatives of your program.

The best affiliate programs have a wealth of resources that they offer program participants. To mentor effectively you must familiarize yourself with these resources and use as many of them as is possible. You then teach your downline the methods you actually use and try. As you learn more, you teach your downline more.

The key is not to try to appear as knowledgeable about a method when you haven’t implemented it yourself. There is nothing wrong with telling a downline member that you cannot vouch for a program method until you study it further. Of course, you now have to take the time to study it further.

Whether a general Internet marketing method, or a specific program initiative, take the time to learn. If you are new to forum searching and posting, don’t try to explain this to your downline until you give it a whirl. Once you can talk intelligently about it, begin to teach your downline. You will teach with more confidence and appear as a trusted authority to your team.

Practice what you preach when it comes to mentoring. Make sure, though, that you do the practicing before you preach. When you do, your downline will take what you teach to heart. They will then implement the methods you teach, to theirs and your success.