Article Marketing

Affiliate Business Tips07 September 2011

Why you must presell

The number one strategy to increase your affiliate sales is preselling.

Before we begin, we need to first define what preselling is. Well, it is an art. And it's also a science. The goal is to get your reader prepped to make a purchase. Then you send them to the site that sells what you've prepared them for. When done correctly, your reader will not even notice.

The gist is that you give your reader some useful information. And give them a link to the product you're preselling. In just a minute, I'll explain exactly how to presell. But before we do, you need to know why it's so important. Just a few of the reasons you want to presell.

Preselling creates trust - And gaining the trust of your readers helps them want to click your links. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you'll earn.
Preselling is disarming - Nobody likes to be sold something. By not doing that to them, your reader is less defensive. This means they are more open to what you're saying. So your content get absorbed.
It preps them to buy - Now they're open to hearing what you're telling them. And in turn, they're open to other messages, as well. For example, the sales message on the page you're linking to. Sending them to the sales page in this state makes them more receptive to the actual pitch.
It increases your sales - Now your reader arrives at the sales page in a buying mood. With a feeling of trust and openness. The only possible result is more sales!
It increases customer satisfaction - People like to make their own buying decisions. Versus being pitched or convinced. So they are happier with their purchase.
Your profits go up - Happy customers ask for refunds much less often. Which means you keep more of your affiliate commissions.

The need to presell is clear. You increase your profits. And produce happier customers. It's a win-win-win!

OK, so how do you do it?

Now you know whey preselling is critical. And I hope you're resolved to being preselling, too. So, it's time to break down how it works. Remember, there are two components - art and science.

Part 1 - The art of it

First, you have to gain the trust of your reader, so they let their guard down. This can only be accomplished by providing actual value in the information you’re presenting. Now, providing enough info to be useful, but still making them want more - that's the art of it. So you send them to the product website with a hunger for more of what the product provides. Plus they're not guarded, so they're more open and likely to purchase the product.

It's also a science

You also have to include some very specific things.

One of these key elements is the presentation of the information. You need to know where you're going before you begin. Your end goal is to make a sale of the product you're preselling. How can providing information accomplish this goal? One way is to give them enough info to whet the appetite, but not enough to satisfy it. The second way is to provide all the information and let your reader discover how hard it is to actually implement it. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

You also have to link to the product you're promoting discretely. Instead, you use a direct link to the product website. When you do this, you're click-throughs go way up. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? There's a trick to make this work... You use an image tag to cookie your reader before they leave your site.

Next, you want to make sure you're linking on related words and phrases. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for. And when the words are in context like this, it makes perfect sense for your reader to click them.

Using this system, you're virtually guaranteed to increase your affiliate business success.

Now for the bad news...

It's extremely difficult to do this correctly. Let's look at the skills required to pull it off: Awesome content. First of all, you actually have to write great articles and give value to your readers. This means you have to be able to write well, and have enough knowledge to be useful. Writing to presell. First, you have to give good information. But, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader. And still leave them wanting more. Or make the information so overwhelming they realize they can't do it on their own.

Picking products. You also need to determine what products you'll be preselling. Even if you get the article written. Your efforts are completely wasted if you don't pick a winning product.

Techy stuff. And finally, you need the technical know-how to embed your image tag and make sure you get credit for the sale. This is fairly simple – you use a 1 X 1 image and set the “source” to your affiliate link. (But if you do it wrong, you won’t get paid for the traffic you send.)

In closing:

Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Using these techniques will increase your affiliate sales by 500% or more! It’s absolutely critical to do this every time – and to do it correctly. Take action now. Make the extra effort required to propel your affiliate business to the next level.

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