Affiliates Who Fail To Plan Are Planning To Fail

One of the biggest downfalls of any affiliate marketer starting out has been (and always will be) a weak foundation. What exactly does that mean? Specifically, it means that most affiliates get into this game based on a recommendation from friends. Maybe they know someone in the Industry and the hype makes their ears perk up. Maybe, they have seen a TV commercial or an advertisement of some sort that has led them on the ultimate search for affiliate riches.

Whatever it may be. Whatever it is. I can tell you after a half-decade of being an affiliate marketer, a lead generator, an affiliate network owner, and now as an Agency owner, I see this every day. The amount of full-time, successful Affiliate Marketers with thriving businesses are few and far between. Most of them struggle daily just to create a landing page, or maybe convincing ad copy to get clicked on. Maybe they have a tough time with their traffic source because of a failure to communicate. Heck, most starting affiliates don’t even have the cash flow to accurately project and/or estimate a consistent campaign flow from paying for their traffic to receiving their revenue.

It’s not just sad. It’s damn near demoralizing. The reason I say this is because Affiliate Marketers are some of the most innovative minds I’ve ever had the pleasure of understanding.

Let’s start with foundation – What I’m talking about here is planning. There is a lot to consider when it comes to planning an affiliate campaign. Unfortunately, in a world filled with close-minded, unrealistic people with the attention spans of a fly, they are easily persuaded with the enormous amount of dis-information regarding affiliate marketing.

So allow me to get extremely brutal for a minute. If it seems offensive that would indicate you’re bitter about the truth. If you have that “AHA” moment, then congratulations, you get it!

During World War 2, Winston Churchill said something I’ve kept in my mind during EVERYsingle affiliate campaign I’ve setup myself (personally) or had the opportunity as a Media Specialist to generate awareness, leads and/or sales for. Churchill said: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”

As an affiliate you should come into a campaign with that exact mindset. A plan to win and  not just the idea of succeeding.

I’m going to give you a SUPER-QUICK and EFFICIENT plan to win. For free. No selling you, I don’t have to. I’m going to give you a very simple CPA offer promotion plan right now, today that I’ve used on every single offer I’ve ever promoted as an Affiliate, Lead Generator, Affiliate Network Owner and Ad Agency Owner. It works when you follow it step by step.

Step 1. Promoting An Offer:

1. Speak with your Affiliate Manager they know what’s hot on the network
2. Gather your creatives, landing pages, imagery and assets for the campaign
3. Pick your traffic source, understand the creative options you have available to you
4. Write your ad copy, build out your landing pages, setup your tracking
5. Start testing a few variations of ads and landing pages
6. Watch your CTR and cut your crappy performers (You want a high CTR anywhere you advertise, this will get you cheaper clicks)
7. Refine your image assets/banners, refine your ads, cut the shit, optimize your ROI and prepare to scale
8. Find a backup offer or two. Organize and project your cashflow. Your payments for traffic plus the revenue you’re generating

Step 2. Start Scaling

1. Circle back and speak with your AM, Be proactive and check on your quality of leads/sales
2. Speak with your traffic source Representative. Gather insights and data on your campaign. Negotiate pricing on traffic if you can.
3. Track, refine, optimize and start scaling
4. Start a new campaign with the same offer but different angle
5. Get a handle on this traffic source, ensure profitability and “squeeze the lemon”. – Take advantage of the traffic source from all angles.

Rinse and repeat. Simple as that. Anything more or less means you over-analyzed, over-thought or didn’t follow step by step. Most affiliates have that brain fart that causes that idea of “I’ll try something a little different” or “I got a better idea” and they fuck it all up. If you’re short on cash starting out, you really can’t afford to burn cash on that idea you may think might work better. As a starting affiliate, you’re better off teaming up with an experience Affiliate Manager who’s ran traffic themselves successfully and knows EXACTLY what to tell, show and teach you to scale your business. Unfortunately, in this Industry, those are extremely few and far between.