When it comes to using the Product Launch Formula process to run the most successful launch, one of the keys is to recruit your competitors best affiliates for your own affiliate program so you can have other people sending you their best customers who then buy your product.
The hardest part of this process is recruiting GOOD affiliates who know what they are doing, who have an email database, and who are prepared to add you to their mailing schedule.
That’s because the top affiliates aren’t just sitting around waiting for opportunities. They don’t have to, because so many great opportunities come across their desks every single week.
So if you want to build an affiliate program that’s full of serious marketers who have a proven track record, and who know how to drive targeted traffic to your product launch, you’re going to have to go out and compete for the attention of these in-demand professionals.
These affiliates will already be making tons of sales for your competitors, and you’ll need to recruit them and get them to do the same for you.
But how?
Let’s start with 5 great ways to find your competitor’s most valuable affiliates…
1. Look For Product Reviews And Pre-Selling Content
The first step is to search Google for the names of your competitor’s products along with search terms such as “review” or “comparison.”
The reason is pretty clear: affiliates are most likely to be the people putting up product reviews and comparisons, and that makes this a quick and easy way to find those affiliates.
TIP: By doing this, you’ll also know which affiliates are good at search engine optimisation (SEO). If the same affiliate is able to hold multiple key rankings for a range of competing products, that’s a pretty good sign they will be able to drive traffic your way as well.
You’ll want to do is search Google for the titles of your competitors’ lead magnets, as well as the titles of their articles, blog posts and their other content. You could search for excerpts out of articles that link to the affiliates main content.
Where do you get this information?
One good way to do it is by joining your competitors’ affiliate programs, because you’ll have access to the promotional content they create for their affiliates. Then you can search for the titles and excerpts from this content to uncover affiliates who are actively using that content to promote offers.
And checking our your competitor’s affiliate programs will also give you insights into how you can make your own products and services even better. The fact is the best affiliates go where they are rewarded the most. And if your offer is absolutely crushing it, they’ll naturally gravitate towards you anyway.
Because being able to create irresistible offers is so important to the success of your launch and your business’s future, I’ve put together a Free Cheat Sheet that shows you the 3 Steps to creating the perfect offer. To make sure you don’t miss anything as you develop your offer, Click Here
And now that you’re logged into your competitors’ affiliate centers, you’ll also want to check out this next idea…
2. Check Your Competitors’ Product Launch Leaderboards
Here’s a quick and dirty way to know who your competitors’ BEST affiliates are: look for the people who win their affiliate contests.
Of course you’ll most likely need to be a member of your competitors’ affiliate programs to get access to this privileged information. But once you’re in, you should be able to see leader boards for both past and current contests. If you compare these boards across a range of competitors, you’ll see which affiliates consistently promote product launches and drive sales.
3. Join Affiliate And JV Facebook Groups and Forums
The next way to find your competitors’ affiliates is to visit the places where they all congregate online. In other words, participate in the affiliate forums and social media groups.
Specifically:
• Go to Facebook and use the search box to uncover groups using words such as “affiliate”, “affiliate marketing”, “jv”, or “joint venture”.
• Search Google for affiliate forums. You can search for terms such as “affiliate marketing forums” and “affiliate discussion”, “JV forum” and “joint venture forum”.
• Look for joint venture networks. Again, use Google to easily uncover these platforms in your market. For example, “stock trading affiliate network.”
Once you find these platforms, join the biggest and most active ones. Then follow the conversations to get an idea of which affiliates are promoting which offers, and which affiliates tend to be the super affiliates in your niche market.
4. Follow The Flow Of Money
Another way to find out who’s generating the big sales for your competitors is by checking to see who is running ads for them. If an affiliate is consistently placing paid advertising for a product, that’s a great sign that they’re making money with those ads.
Here’s how to find these advertisers:
• Search Google for your competitors’ product and brand names. You’ll naturally find reviews and other content using this method (which is very helpful), but you’ll also be presented with text ads. These ads may go to lead pages if affiliates are using a two-step advertising process, or other content that’s designed to get you to click through to the merchant’s site. But whether one-step or two-step, this strategy will give you an idea of who is promoting what in your niche.
• Check niche sites that accept advertising. Then take note of who’s placing the ads, because these could be your potential affiliates.
TIP: Sometimes it’s hard to decipher an affiliate link to know who is behind it. Here are two tips that might help:
1. Check to see if they are using a redirect URL. Many affiliates redirect their affiliate links through their own websites. If they do, visit the domain to see if it’s clear who owns it. If not, run the domain through a whois search such as www.whois.com.
2. Run a search for the affiliate link (or even just the affiliate ID). If it’s an affiliate who is direct linking, then search for that link in Google. If the link isn’t a tracking link, then there’s a good chance the affiliate has used it in other promotions, such as on his own website or blog.
Next idea…
5. Keep A Record Of The Highest Selling Products
The idea here is simple: some of the top product owners in your niche are often your competitors best affiliates too. That’s because these vendors have used product launches and paid advertising to build big email databases of prospects and customers.
You probably already know some of the top sellers in your niche, and some of your biggest competitors could become your top affiliates. Once you draw up your list, you can add to it using these two tips:
• Check marketplaces such as Clickbank.com and JVZoo.com. These affiliate marketplaces often rank products based on popularity, so it will only take you a few minutes to determine which are the best-selling products in your niche on that platform.
• Use JVNotifyPro.com to keep track of the big product launches. The marketers who are rolling out the biggest launches will probably also have the biggest customer lists in your niche.
There you have it – five good ways to find your competitors’ affiliates. If you use all of these methods, you’ll be able to easily uncover all the super affiliates operating in your niche, as well as dozens of other really good affiliates who can help you build sales in your product launches.
Which brings us to this important question…
So, How Do You Recruit These Proven Performers?
As we’ve discussed, these top affiliates get a bunch of great promotion requests crossing their desks every week. That means that just saying, “Hey, wanna make some great commissions?” isn’t going to get their attention.
Because of all of this competition, you need to have a standout product and create what Jeff Walker calls a “Crushing Offer” before the top affiliates will promote for you.
Here are tips for making it happen…
Build Relationships With People In Your Market
People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. So when an affiliate gets two identical offers from two different vendors, the odds are they are going to join the vendor they already know, like and trust. That’s why it’s a good idea to build relationships first before beginning your recruitment, especially when you’re trying to recruit super affiliates.
Here are three tips for building these relationships:
• Do something for the other person first. For example, if the person has their own product, sign up for their affiliate program and make some sales for them first.
• Interact with them online. Make helpful, thoughtful comments on their blog that help their community. Connect with them on social media. Send an email to them to talk about a recent newsletter issue or blog post. The point is, just start talking to these potential super affiliates so you get to know each other.
• Make a name for yourself in the niche. If you create great products and build a good reputation for yourself, people will naturally start approaching you. They’ll know you and trust you through your authority and reputation. This means you don’t need to necessarily go out into the niche and invest a lot of time building one-on-one relationships, since everyone will be eager to work with you when you approach them, but it will take time to achieve this for yourself.
Next up…
Give Your Competitors Best Affiliates Free Access to the Product
You should never hesitate on this point. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling a $17 ebook or a $997 home study course that’s shipped to the customer’s door, you MUST give your potential super affiliates access to the product.
First, any affiliate with their salt isn’t going to promote a product without reviewing it thoroughly themselves. And secondly, since you are approaching this potential affiliate, you need to give them access to the product as a gesture of goodwill.
Don’t make your potential affiliate ask for it, and certainly don’t expect them to pay for it. Just send access at the same time you’re sending your recruitment email.
Which brings us to the next point…
Offer Your Affiliates Something Extra Special
If your goal is to recruit the top affiliates in your niche, it’s a good idea to give them special perks that you don’t offer everyone else. This includes benefits such as:
• A higher commission rate
• Exclusive bonuses for their customers
• Exclusive discounts for their customers
• Special personalised landing pages
• Instant commissions, daily commissions or weekly commissions
• The opportunity to promote the product before everyone else
• Higher commissions on upsells and backend sales
To get you started, here’s an example of the email you might send out to a prospective affiliates (especially ones with who you’ve built a relationship):
Subject: New product – Thought you’d like to hear about it first…
Hi [First Name],
I’m just about ready to launch a new product, and I wanted to be sure you heard about it first. That’s because I think it’s a great fit for your audience, and I’m also offering a special commission rate if you come on board to promote.
The product is called [name of product], and [describe in a sentence or two what the product does – in other words, why would this person’s audience want this product?]
Here, you can check it for yourself: [download link to entire product]
Right now the sales letter is pulling a [%] conversion rate in our initial testing, so this is already proving to be an in-demand product that gives you the potential for a lot of sales.
And here’s the best part: you’re getting a special “inner circle” commission rate of [%] – that’s a full [$amount] in your pocket for every sale you make.
What’s more, you also get [insert any other perks… exclusive promotional opportunities before the affiliate program is open to the public, special discounts, etc].
I’ve taken the liberty of setting up your affiliate account. Here’s the info:
[affiliate link]
[affiliate log in info]
Once you log in you’ll get access to all sorts of emails, articles, banners and other ads and creatives you can use to promote this product.
We’re launching on [date] – are you in?
Let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything I can do for you to make promotions easier…
[sign off]
P.S. This is going to be a big event… I hope you’re a part of it!
A Few Parting Thoughts
If you’ve always wanted to enjoy the benefits of a big product launch (including a big list-build, massive exposure, increased authority and huge profits when done right), or you just want just get the increase in sales that only a really good super affiliate team can deliver, then finding and recruiting the best affiliates in your market is the key.
And finding your competitors’ most productive affiliates and persuading them to promote your product launch too is a fantastic way to do this is.
This crash course has given you the exact step by step plan for doing that. So what’s your next step?
Get started and work through each step to start finding those affiliates, because recruiting just ONE top affiliate could add hundreds of prospects to your email database and thousands of dollars to your launch profits.
That means the sooner you get started, the sooner you could have a big JV launch under your belt, which is the perfect springboard for building a profitable, long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family that will allow you to prosper for many years to come. To learn more, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.
Talk soon,
Rocky
P.S. Being able to create a Perfect Product is a great start, but you also need a way to generate sales in a consistent way. Running a Product launch is a proven way to not only build your list, but generate Social Proof and make a large number of sales quickly. To learn how to launch your product successfully, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.
PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:
1. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. List Warrior will show you a proven way to use free software to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here.
2. How To Create The Perfect Product
Creating a product that is perfect for your audience does not need to be difficult. How To Create The Perfect Product shows you how to build high value products your audience will love one after the other. Click Here.
3. How To Attract Buyers To Join Your Launch List So They Can Purchase Your Perfect Product.
Once you have created your Product Launch List and your Perfect Product is ready to go, you need to attract people into your world so they can buy from you. One Minute Free Traffic gives you a proven way to attract buyers with ‘Automated Traffic Machines’ so you can send those people to your optin page, your sales page, your Facebook Group or anywhere else you choose. To learn more Click Here.
And don’t forget to check this out 🙂
How to Earn $20 in 20 Minutes With Any Topic, Niche or Hobby
Disclaimer: If you purchase PLF through my affiliate link I may receive a referral fee from Jeff Walker, however you will pay no more to purchase the program through me than if you went directly to the Product Launch Formula website. If you would like my personal help as you create your first launch using the PLF process, check out my PLF Bonus offer here.