You may share this document as long as you don t make any changes to it and leave the links intact. [Sara Young is the mother of 7 kids and the owner of MarketingWithSara.com. She has sold over $2 million worth of products online, and has taught her methods to thousands of students. Sara is best known for taking big subjects like affiliate marketing and product creation and breaking them into little doable steps that get her students results. For more helpful content from Sara, sign up to her mailing list at MarketingWithSara.com ]
Introduction One of the most common questions I get from my subscribers is: Why isn t my website making money? I feel like I m missing a piece of the affiliate marketing puzzle I ve answered this so many times that I decided to write this report specifically for affiliate marketers on what to do when your website (or other property) isn t getting the results you were hoping for. (And yes you ARE probably missing a piece of the puzzle, and that s EXACTLY what this document is about.) Keep in mind together with this report, you will still need a step by step plan on how to make money. This is less about the actual plan and more about what to do if a proven plan for affiliate marketing is not working for you. The report is divided into two parts: Part 1 Mindset read this carefully to make sure you have the correct mindset for being successful in affiliate marketing. This is important!
Part 2 Action steps take these steps to figure out what is stopping you from earning commissions... so you can fix the problems and turn your duds into commission magnets. The action steps are the meat of this report, and I highly recommend you follow them for any online property you have that is not making you money. Before we get started, let s clarify two things: Clarification #1: Many times in this report I use the term property. Here is what I mean when I use that word: A property is a web page or a piece of online content (text, video, or audio) that you own or control. For our purposes, since we re talking about affiliate marketing, you should be able to put an affiliate link on your property. Some examples of properties are: Blog posts Web pages Free reports
Posts on Facebook pages or in Facebook groups (where allowed) Posts on Web 2.0 sites like Tumblr and Blogger Slideshows shared on slide share sites YouTube videos So when I say the word property in this report that s what I mean. (With some minor modifications, you can also apply what is written here to more complex schemes, such as having an opt in form and marketing to your list) Clarification #2: This report assumes you already know at least one tested and proven method to make affiliate commissions. It is NOT an instructions manual or step by step plan on how to earn affiliate commissions, but rather a guide on what to do if you follow a good plan and still do not succeed. The purpose here is to pinpoint exactly WHAT piece of the puzzle you are missing, and WHAT you need to improve to finally see those commissions rolling in. If you want a good plan for earning money fast (within hours)... and scaling it up to 6 figures as an affiliate marketer, check out my Income Steps Academy course.
Part 1: Mindset In order to be successful you MUST have the correct mindset. So let s start by making sure you ve got that right. #1: Believe That It's Possible In order to succeed with affiliate marketing (or anything else for that matter) you MUST believe that it is possible. That you CAN do it. If you are not sure you will give up too easily. You will find yourself jumping from project to project, and not actually succeeding with anything. But if you KNOW that it IS possible for you to make money then you will keep trying until those affiliate commissions start rolling in. So... How do you go from being a non believer to a believer? Here are some suggestions:
Follow Successful Marketers When I got started I used to watch successful people and say to myself: If they can do it, so can I. And even though I didn t make money for a while, I kept saying it to myself: If they can do it, so can I. Do the same thing. Keep saying it over and over to yourself. If others are making money with affiliate marketing so can you. Hang Around the RIGHT Forum (or Facebook Group) Another thing that helped me when I got started was to hang around a serious forum moderated by a successful marketer where I could see ordinary people go from nothing to making money. It gave me hope and made me believe that yes ordinary people can do this. Warning : make sure you pick the right forum! Stay away from places where the blind are leading the blind. Instead, look for a community that is moderated by someone who is already very successful. You will probably have to pay to join, but it s worth it. If you happen to own any training that includes an active community (there are a number of those for example Income Steps Academy) take advantage of it!
Make Small Wins Nothing beats making that first affiliate sale and earning your first commission. The moment you finally make money even if just a little that is the moment you realize that it CAN be done. So do whatever it takes to make that first sale. Get quick, targeted traffic (see below as well), make that first sale... and then you will KNOW that you can make a lot more. #2: Don't Give Up When you are working on a project, don t expect it to become a success right away. It CAN happen. But sometimes it takes time because sometimes there will be obstacles stopping you, and you will need to remove them first. Think of affiliate marketing as a river flowing downstream. When there are no blocks, the water will stream smoothly, and you ll make sales. But when there are big stones in the water, they will form a dam and stop the water. If the water doesn t flow you need to find the blocks and remove them. As soon as you do that, the water will start flowing.
That s how it is for affiliate marketing. If you are following a tested and proven process (like the one in Income Steps Academy) you should make money. If you are not you need to analyze the situation and remove the obstacles. As soon as you do that, the commissions will come flowing in. Which brings me to point #3: #3: Look At It Logically If you create a website (or another online asset), and it doesn t make you money, look at it logically... analyze the different parts and fix what isn t working. Keep doing that until you start making money. Let s analyze the process of making affiliate sales from an online property. Here is what it looks like: Traffic Source > Property > Store > Sales In other words:
You need a traffic source to send people to your blog, site or page. You need a property that s where your visitors will go when they arrive from the traffic source. You need an affiliate link which take your visitors from your property to a store or sales page. And last you need that store or sales page to convert your visitors into customers, or sales. Yes, you need sales : ) When everything flows smoothly from traffic source, to your property, to your affiliate link, to the sales page, and to the final sale you will earn commissions. When you don't make money (or not as much as you want), then something is wrong in at least one part of this process. The rest of this document part 2 will show you how to analyze the different parts of the process and see what is blocking you from making sales.
Part 2: Action Steps Now it s time for action. What should you DO if you are not getting results from your properties? Below are 6 questions you need to ask yourself. For each one if the answer is no then congratulations! You have found an obstacle to remove (I ll tell you what it is). If the answer is yes you should move to the next question: Question #1: Do You Own a Property? This is pretty obvious but needs to be said. You can t make affiliate commissions without putting your affiliate links out there. And to put your affiliate links out there, you need an online property. As I said in the introduction, a property is a web page or online piece of content that you own or have control over. Some examples of properties are: Blog posts Web pages Free reports Posts on Facebook pages or in Facebook groups (where allowed) Posts on Web 2.0 sites like Tumblr and Blogger
Slideshows shared on slide share sites YouTube videos If you don t have at least one of those properties already (with an affiliate link), you need to create it to make money. If you do move on to question #2. Question #2: Are You Getting Traffic? There are many ways to get traffic to your property, but you need to focus on one at a time. Because if you put all your energy into one traffic source you are much more likely to succeed. But if you spread yourself thin, and focus on more than one source at a time, you are likely to get confused and overwhelmed... and eventually quit. So here are traffic sources that are working well right now. Pick one and focus on it: Free traffic from Google (SEO) Free and paid traffic from Facebook
Social traffic from Forums, Blogs, Google Plus, Twitter, Pinterest, and more Solo Ads And more Any traffic source that is tested and proven will work. If you are not getting traffic learn to master one of the above. Because without traffic you will not get commissions If you ARE getting traffic, move on to question #3: Question #3: Are You REALLY Getting Traffic? I can t tell you how many times people insisted to me that they were getting traffic, when in reality they did not. That s because they were using tracking software that does not filter bots and spiders. (Bots and spiders are computer programs that crawl the web and read web pages for various reasons. These computer programs will NOT buy from you and do not count as real visitors.) To get a true picture of your visits, it s much better to install Google Analytics or a similar reliable program (there are a number of those available, some free to use).
So go ahead and install such a tool. Then re check your traffic. Now ask yourself: Are you REALLY getting visitors? If not go back to #2 and start getting real traffic. If the answer is yes move on to question #4. Question #4: Are Your Visitors TARGETED? Ok, so by now I assume you have good tracking software. The nice thing about these tools is that they tell you a lot about your visitors. For example: What is their location? This is important. If you are selling products to the US market, yet your visitors are all coming from India, then you have a problem. They are not going to buy. What are their interests? If your visitors are coming from a weight loss blog yet you are selling golf equipment, then you are not going to make sales
(unless the blog post they are coming from was talking about golf ). You want to make sure that the people coming to your property are the IDEAL candidates for buying the product you are promoting. And more important you want to make sure that the product you are promoting is IDEAL for the visitors of your blog. That s why I always recommend promoting popular products that are already selling well. So who are your visitors? Are they targeted? If they are not go back to #2 and get some targeted traffic. If they are move on to question #5. Question #5: Are Your Visitors Clicking on Your Links? You need good tracking software for this too. Many of the popular link tracking tools will count bots and spiders (see above for an explanation on what these are), giving you an inaccurate picture of who is clicking on your links. So, assuming your software is good, check to see if people are clicking on your links.
If people are not clicking on your links, you should do the following: Make sure your offer is perfectly matched to your audience. You want to promote products that are ALREADY selling in your niche. Do some research, and check what people are buying, and promote that. Make sure you have a visible text link to your offer that your visitors can see without scrolling. Make sure your link includes a good call to action (click here, buy this, etc), and a good reason for them to click (a special discount, price comparison, etc). If you ve got all the above, people SHOULD start clicking on your links. And that is when it s time to move to question #6: Question #6: Are You Making Sales? This is the most important part and where the money is. Because sales = commissions = money in your pocket : ) So if you are making sales at this point great!
But if you are NOT making sales, then the first thing you should do is go back and double check that there is 100% congruency between: Your traffic source (and what they are looking for) Your online property Your affiliate link and call to action The store you are promoting The sales page of the product What do I mean here? There should be a PERFECT MATCH between what your visitors want (based on your traffic source)... what they were promised in the link that brought them to your property what your property is about what your affiliate link promises... and what the store or sales page of your product gives them. The message in all these places should be as similar as possible, and speak to the true desires of your visitors. Is that the case with your property? Check that. And if necessary fix it to the best of your ability.
Another thing to do is check your affiliate links. I had a student who was getting clicks but no sales because her affiliate links were not working. As soon as she fixed them she started making money. At this point you should have removed all your obstacles, and sales should be coming in. However, if after all this, you are still not making sales, it s possible that the sales page for the product simply doesn t work. If you can connect with other affiliates and compare notes to see if that is the case. If not then simply try another product, another store, or another sales page.
Summary That s it. This is how you turn duds into commission magnets. Remove the blocks, and the commissions will flow in. What I like about this method is that the answers to the six questions are all measurable and quantifiable. That means that you can t fudge here. Either you are getting visitors or you are not. Either they are coming from the right country or not. Either you are making sales or your are not. So if you ve got affiliate marketing duds instead of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing what went wrong, you can carefully analyze what is going on and pinpoint the obstacles that are blocking your commissions. And once you ve done that, you can focus your effort on learning the one piece of the puzzle that you are missing in order to overcome each obstacle. And that was the purpose of this report : ) To summarize, here is what you need to do: 1. Ask yourself the six questions. 2. Figure out where your obstacles are and what your personal missing piece of the puzzle is.
3. Go get yourself that puzzle piece by either researching online or joining my training. 4. Watch your commissions start flowing in. Happy marketing! Sara Young
Where to Get More Information: Income Steps Academy a step by step plan for earning your first income within a few hours and scaling it up to 6 figures. Marketing With Sara my blog (sign up to my mailing list and get more great content straight to your inbox).