Affiliate Marketing 103
Posted on August 27, 2008
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Erik here. This week we have been discussing the ins and outs of Affiliate Marketing.
There are three basic steps to becoming a successful Affiliate Marketer:
1. Find great stuff to promote.
2. Set up the technical stuff.
3. Drive traffic to your affiliate links.
This is the third post in the series: how to drive traffic to your affiliate links.
In this post I am going to skip talking about blogging, social networking, article marketing, and all the other things you already KNOW you should be doing…
(Seriously, these methods work… you really should be using them)
Instead I want to talk about an underground traffic method (that most people ignore) that has REALLY worked well for me.
Forum Marketing.
And this isn’t your grandma’s Forum Marketing, either!
Forget wasting time trying to post helpful answers and building up a reputation…
And forget adding your redirect links in your signature and waiting around for people to notice them and click on them.
This is a little trick introduced to me by a guy named Eric Farewell and it works like a charm.
Here is what I want you to do:
1. Use Google to find five forums related to the topic of the product you are promoting.
- Make sure they are active forums, with tons of posts and threads.
- Make sure there is a link that you can use to list all the current members.
- Make sure there are at least 20 forum members with over a thousand posts.
2. Create an account at the first forum on your list.
3. Post a thread in the “Introductions” area if there is one… and introduce yourself.
4. Post two or three helpful answers or posts about your topic. No more than that.
5. Use the “List Members” feature to find those top posters again… and select 1-3 people that have over a thousand posts BUT ARE NOT moderators or administrators.
Find people that have a ton of posts but NOTHING in their signature.
6. Send them each the following private message through the forum:
Hi (Name)
You seem to be quite active (and respected) on these forums… so I wanted to shoot you a PM and introduce myself, and also offer you a proposition:)
(Put something here about the topic of the forum, your interest in it, etc. etc.)
Would you be interested in placing one of my links in your signature? I would be willing to pay you to do so…
And of course, you are welcome to review the link to make sure you are comfortable with my ethics and the information I share.
Anyways, nice to meet you and please let me know.
Cheers!
(Your Name)
(Your Email Address)
7. Repeat these steps for all five of the forums on your list.
Most of them will respond. A few may be ticked off, but most of them will be really interested…
After all, this is space that they never considered could make them money before!
Work out deals with those that get back in touch with you.
I have a few of these in place right now that cost me $50 bucks per month, and a few that cost me $100…
Either way, it’s a very quick way to have your link appear at the bottom of 1,000 plus posts on a highly targeted forum with very little work.
Forget “being helpful and gaining trust and credibility” when you can just piggy-back off the trust and credibility that someone else has already built!
I will have another one of these “underground” traffic methods to share with you tomorrow.
I hope that you have found this series of posts useful…
Feel free to post comments!
To your success,
Erik
Comments
8 Responses to “Affiliate Marketing 103”
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Hey Eric!
Just wanted to say that after reading this new post, I feel like an idiot for taking days to post on forums when I could have just as easily done the above steps in about an hour.
Great info and thanks!
Chris
Erik Awesome idea, never thought about that.
But I do have a question, as I didn’t know you could do that with an affiliate link? I thought it had to be your own website/product to get others to post for you like this.
and would you have to pay them up front before they add the signature line? As the affiliate links you had us set up are via clickbank?
Laura
Hi Erik,
I swear man, you’ve done it AGAIN… where do you get all your amazing ideas?
Every time we think we’ve heard it all - you come up with something cool that isn’t horribly expensive and sounds VERY effective.
Thanks for sharing!
Donna
Hello to all
Erik,
This is awesome. I think that it is wonderful and my ind is actually screaming with ideas on how to get my links on someone else’s signature. I realize that paying them will usually work, but some of us do not always have any money to get this going immediately. And those of us that may find a way to “scrape it up” may be compelled to spend on ourselves first with the money it generates. Is it not safe to say that it is possible to generate a response this way and it will at minimum pay for itself, as well as, increase your name so when someone sees it later they have that feeling of “hey I know that name hmmm..” anyways thanks for letting me ramble.
Mike G
Thanks for sending me the credit bro
I’m so glad you’re using it successfully!! It’s been a huge winner for me for years now, and I’m glad to see it’s working for you as well
MikeG:
Your absolutely right that there is no guarantee that it will generate a positive response… but switch the link if it isn’t!
Just forward your Domain to something else.
It’s a great way to quickly generate some immediate traffic…
Of course, you have to track the results to make sure you are in the black:)
Erik
Eric:
Of course, my friend:)
Hope you are well, speak soon…
Erik
Greetings,
Sir, thank you for this information as finally I have some insight and direction on where to start marketing. Thanks and blessings to you.
W