How To Stack Up The Most Money In Your Affiliate Business

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Greg: As a kid, I remember Mum rubbing Savlon onto my bloodied elbow after falling out the tree in the garden.

“It hurts!” I whined.

“That means it’s working,” Mum said knowingly.

Sometimes what’s good for you hurts a little too. And that’s how we feel about this post. It’s brutal.

Brutally honest.

Not the merciful honesty, where somebody points out you have a hair hanging out your nostril just before attending a critical meeting. No, we’re talking about the in-yer-face kind of honesty where we deal out the nitty-gritty facts.

It’s fierce. It’s frank. It’s transparent.

And we can almost guarantee you WON’T be happy about it.

In fact, we’ve been holding off publishing this post for quite some time now, hoping somebody'll do the dirty work for us. But, so far, no one has. So, out of respect to you, we want to deal you the truth.

Here goes…

You know how you’re interested in having an affiliate business?

You understand it’s the best lifestyle business model?

You know it’ll allow you to escape the time for money trap and have all the freedom and flexibility you’ve always craved?

Plus…

You’re super keen to be emotionally free, geographically free, and stress free…

BUT… you’ve twisted your brain in a bend to grasp how the financial freedom part actually works? How the figures stack up? And can you make it work for you too, right?

Good… everyone else is wondering the same thing.

We wanted to know how the numbers stack up when we got started back in 2009 too!

So, Let’s Start With The Basics And Build From There…

(If you already know the starter stuff, simply skip ahead to the bit where we talk about the money metrics)

But, if you’ve got any nagging doubt about what affiliate marketing is AND how it can give you back control of your time and allow you to be your own boss (when you have the right focus and the right positive attitude), check out this 5 part blog post series.

OK. Moving on…

ALL affiliate business models revolve around you building an email database, or email subscriber list (same difference). The MAGIC is, your email subscribers need to be quality targeted people who have a problem you can help solve with one of the products you promote as an affiliate. Make sense?

In addition,

You know the people on your email list have that ‘gripping’ problem because you referenced it in your ad! It’s what attracted them to you in the first place.

Why Gather People’s Emails?

The reason why you build an email subscriber list of quality targeted people’s email addresses is because… they’re HUMAN, so they won’t make a split-second decision to buy from a complete stranger. So you need their email address to keep in touch with them, to help them, to relate to them, so you’re no longer that complete stranger to them.

They’ll need influence and information to believe the affiliate product you’re promoting is a good fit for them.

They’ll want guidance, direction, and help from someone they have an affinity for. And that requires a boat-load of content, a titch of humility, and an ounce of persuasion.

They’ll react favourably when you demonstrate you care about providing value to them. You do that by being consistent with how you deal with them, over time. When you consistently show up in their email in-box – they know you’re reliable, you stick around, and are a helpful resource.

Reality is…

Sadly, many affiliate marketers don’t get this point 🙁

Many marketers are like that annoying guy at the party who you form an instant dislike to.

The guy who turns up – a total stranger, stands in your personal space, talks to your face (while seedily casting his eye round the room for his next culprit) and says: “buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff”! Blah Blah Blah!

You aint ever gonna buy that guy’s shit because he’s annoying, he doesn’t take an interest in who you are and what you really want, and he doesn’t even listen to you. Ever experienced someone like that?

Creepy, hey?

It’s the same as going up to an attractive person and asking them for a date, then asking for their hand in marriage in the very next sentence. Relationships don’t work that way. They never have and never will. There’s no time spent getting to know and understand each other. No time was invested for little favours, little buy-ins, little wins of trust.

(we dated for 6 years before our wedding day… some take longer, some take less time – but it still takes time building a relationship)

You know,

Affiliate marketing is about building relationships too – relationships with quality targeted email subscribers who need the affiliate product you promote. Once you’ve captured their email address, you can stay in touch with them by email. Then, slowly but surely, you’ll email the right information to build sufficient trust with them, to enable them to accept your recommendation (your affiliate product) is the solution they’ve been looking for all along. Simples.

Working The Numbers – How $1’s Stack Up

There’s a universally accepted statistic – across all niches, and all marketers, in all parts of the planet – that each email subscriber is worth, on average, $1 per month to you in affiliate commissions… WHEN you email helpful content REGULARLY.

That’s $1 per month per email subscriber – earned as a simple affiliate marketer – no matter how you attract the prospective customers, no matter what email database software you use, and no matter what affiliate product you promote.

BOTTOM LINE:

If you don’t believe each email subscriber is worth $1 per month to you – affiliate marketing aint the answer to your prayers and you may-as-well close this page and stick to the time-money exchange trap!

[IMPORTANT TO NOTE – this $1 per month isn’t even relying on you having an integrated suite of products to promote!] More on that shortly.

How To Earn $10k Each Month

It stands to reason, to earn $10k a month revenue, you need at least 10,000 people’s emails on your email database if each email is worth $1 per month. Yep?

Fact is…

… most people overlook, or fail to consider, the price to acquire people’s emails in the first instance.

It requires an investment in paid advertising.

Which involves placing pay-per-click ads with third-party ad platforms like Microsoft Bing/Facebook/Youtube.

When you amass subscriber emails by doing pay-per-click advertising, you can expect to pay roughly $1 per click – again, another industry standard metric.

$1 per click means the ad platform charges you $1 when someone clicks on your ad.

The link in your ad automatically redirects the visitor to your subscriber capture webpage, which is a relatively static webpage where the main functionality is for the visitor to enter their email address, which is then automatically stored in your email database.

Automation stuff like that is what makes the affiliate business model a lifestyle business model – ‘cos it’s hands off – so it keeps on working when you’re not!

In essence,

… most subscriber email capture webpages have an average 20% conversion rate when you target quality people with the right message in your ads – put that another way – one in 5 visitors to the email capture webpage will enter their email address on that page.

When the ad platform charges you $1 per click, it means you’re paying $5 in advertising to acquire 1 subscriber’s email address because the ad platform charges you per click and not per new email address. Capeesh?

BUT… when you understand each email subscriber brings in $12 per annum in revenue, on average ($1 per month), you’ll happily invest $5 in advertising to capture their email address, won’t you?

Because it’s 140% return on your investment (ROI) for the first year.

Which is better than a kick in the teeth!

Figures Get Real

140% ROI in your first year? That’s phenomenal!

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a minute. Let’s talk worst-case. Let’s get real.

Unfortunately, we made little ROI on our first 1,000 subscriber emails 🙁 which really and truly made us doubt ourselves, question what the hell we were doing wrong, and wonder whether $1 per email subscriber per month was pure BS!

Here’s the scary part:

We weren’t getting $1 clicks nor 20% conversion rates either. Why? Because we were still learning the psychology behind what makes people buy and what pushes people’s buttons. That’s the skillset to be learned here. It took us a while to ‘get it’!

If you’re anything like us, truth is, your first 1,000 subscribers will likely cost you $10+ in ad spend to gather each person’s email, which is a $10,000+ investment. Simply For Your Marketing Education. It’s something you ought to get your mind around from the outset, but stick with us, as the story gets better… a LOT better.

Great Expectations

You’re building your business for the long-term, and understand no business is highly profitable from day 1, right?

So let’s project forward how your advertising and email list building metrics will likely pan out…

Let's Cut Through the Confusion With All This

Get the Clarity and Support You'll Need to Start a Thriving Affiliate Business

DISCOVER:

• $350 in Affiliate Marketing Training for FREE (There's No-one Else Offering This!)

• 30 Days Unlimited Access To Our Digital Skills Library Also FREE! (To Max Your Internet Skills And Have The Right Know-How)

• How To Access A Wealth Of Affiliate Insights And Training Materials You Can Experience For Yourself (To Confirm You Have What It Takes)

• How To Immediately Access Your Own Personal Mentor Who'll Be There Every Step Of Your Journey (To Make Things Stress-Free)

• How To Access Module 1 Of Our Step-By-Step Get Started curriculum – Introduction to Affiliate Marketing (Know Exactly Where You Stand)

CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT

1,000 – 2,000 Lovely New Email Subscribers To Help, To Educate, To Inspire

Building from 1,000-2,000 email subscribers (remember these are real people to get to know) will probably cost anywhere between $5 – $10 per person’s email.

2,000+ will likely still be $5 – $10 per subscriber email…

By 3,000+…

…you’ll have likely ‘cracked this nut’ and ought to have your subscriber cost down to $5 per email or a bit less – simply because you’re becoming more skilled at attracting the right quality of person, more practiced at the ads platform, and more comfortable with consistently committing your ad budget.

The Tipping Point

You’re now seeing a tipping point – where you have a break even ROI and can cover your costs and steadily increase your ad spend to grow your email list.

Now’s the time for rapid scaling up your subscriber generation.

The easiest and smartest way to scale fast is by having a higher ROI per customer eg: $3 – $5 – $10 – $20 – $50 per subscriber per month rather than the industry standard of only $1 per month.

Seems obvious, doesn’t it?

A higher customer value means you can spend more per email subscriber to acquire a customer – and there’s a LOT more wiggle-room to accommodate mistakes, while you still generate income and SCALE UP.

Which is why…

… you need an integrated suite of products to promote as an affiliate.

Forging Ahead To 3,000 – 5,000 Email Subscribers

You’re still investing $5 per subscriber in ad spend.

And starting to see consistency on your ROI and subscriber generation.

Aim to generate 20 subscribers a day, which is 600 subscribers per month.

600 * $5 per subscriber means investing $3,000 in advertising each month.

With an ROI of the industry standard $1 per subscriber per month you’re breaking even (3,000 targeted people’s emails are worth on average $1 each per month),

BUT… with an integrated suite of products which returns an average $500 per customer, on the lifetime value of that customer, your scale begins to shift – upwards for higher returns.

Building Beyond 5,000 Email Subscribers

Still investing $5 per subscriber in ad spend.

Now you’re making money.

Generating 30 subscribers per day, which is 900 subscribers per month.

Daily ad spend of $150 a day = $4,500 going out each month.

$5,000 ROI per month ($1 per subscriber) in commissions.

Paying you a net profit of $500 per month as you build.

Business Is Booming With 10,000+ Email Subscribers

Still investing $5 per subscriber in ad spend.

Generating 33 subscribers a day, which is 1,000 subscribers a month.

Daily ad spend of $166 a day = $5,000 a month.

$10,000 ROI per month ($1 per subscriber) in commissions.

Paying you a net profit of $5,000 per month as you build.

BUT remember, these numbers are still based on the industry wide standard of $1 income per subscriber, per month.

However, you have an ace up your sleeve!

What if you could leverage an integrated product suite?

How Does An Integrated Suite Of Products Maximise Your List Building Investment?

We’ve hinted that promoting an integrated suite of products returns you an average $500 over the lifetime value of a customer – which is CONSIDERABLY MORE than $1 per email subscriber per month.

But, what’s an integrated product suite and how would you spot one?

Take Apple for instance: they have an integrated suite of ‘lifestyle’ products extending from ipods, Apple watches, iphones, and macbooks up to large desktop iMacs. Having a cohesive product suite is important because there’s a variety of price points, across a variety of stand alone products, so people who love the brand and what it stands for find it tricky to stop at buying only one product – we own 2 ipods, 2 iphones, an ipad, a notebook, and a macbookpro!

Which means IF you could promote Apple’s products as an Apple affiliate (which you can’t), the lifetime value of each customer you refer is maximised, because…

… people who buy one Apple product generally go back for more – and you’d earn affiliate commissions on all the life time purchases of each customer you refer to Apple. Hope that makes sense?

But guess what?

Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy together have an integrated range of education products for customers to select from.

Individuals and small businesses can chose any (or all) step-by-step digital marketing programs offered by Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy, depending on what they want to achieve in this phenomenal digital age. This integrated curricula also has a strong lifestyle brand – just like Apple.

Affiliates who promote Digital Experts Academy products can earn a substantial income from anywhere in the world there’s an internet connection. For example, the lifetime value of each customer to us, given the curricula we’ve invested in, is $1,000 per person…

…so we’re giddy with excitement to pay $5 in advertising to gain a quality targeted email subscriber when we know, on average, one in every 50 people will become a customer.

Consider the potential return here.

Do the sums.

Would you happily trade Facebook or Google or Youtube $250 for $1,000 too?

That’s a whopping 300% ROI – over the space of 60 days. That’s right – most customers make a buying decision in under 60 days.

Round that up to an annual figure and you’ll be ‘wetting your pants' too – 1800% ROI. Crazy, huh?

Compare that to 0.5% interest on money in your bank account for one year!

(We were speaking to a lady the other day who was chuffed to get 5% interest per annum on her money in the bank – we had to burst her bubble!)

Let's Cut Through the Confusion With All This

Get the Clarity and Support You'll Need to Start a Thriving Affiliate Business

DISCOVER:

• $350 in Affiliate Marketing Training for FREE (There's No-one Else Offering This!)

• 30 Days Unlimited Access To Our Digital Skills Library Also FREE! (To Max Your Internet Skills And Have The Right Know-How)

• How To Access A Wealth Of Affiliate Insights And Training Materials You Can Experience For Yourself (To Confirm You Have What It Takes)

• How To Immediately Access Your Own Personal Mentor Who'll Be There Every Step Of Your Journey (To Make Things Stress-Free)

• How To Access Module 1 Of Our Step-By-Step Get Started curriculum – Introduction to Affiliate Marketing (Know Exactly Where You Stand)

CLICK HERE TO CREATE YOUR FREE ACCOUNT

What Work’s Involved? What Do I Need To Learn? What Am I Prepared To Do?

Here’s what separates the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, the entrepreneurs from the opportunity seekers.

Here’s where you gotta roll up your sleeves and put in some effort and energy – like you do to build any business.

So what skills do you need to build a subscriber email list and build a relationship with those people?

For starters, chose which ads platform you want to master – Youtube, Facebook, Microsoft Bing. Pick ONE, and stick with it till you can place ads in your sleep! Get the best training, learn how to write compelling ads, and understand what’s going on the in the heads of your target audience. (Six Figure Mentors education can help you with all that).

Next – Find Your Voice.

Whatta we mean by finding your voice?

It’s got nothing to do with how your voice sounds, any accent you may have, or the extent of your vocabulary. Nup!

Finding your voice means finding your confidence, strength, passion to nurture your targeted email subscribers by providing helpful information, inspiration, and leadership.

So, maybe it means having to ‘get over yourself’, OWN what you already know, and liberally SHARE what you know with your email subscribers.

Do things like:

=> shoot video

=> publish blogposts

=> post on social media

=> write broadcast emails

=> do Facebook Lives

=> hold Webinars

In other words, provide value, offer insights, share your opinion, deliver inspiration, and solve problems your subscribers are experiencing.

It’s all about them and NOT about you.

Finally, of course, promote your affiliate offers to your email subscribers too, as that’s the only way they’ll get the depth of solution they’re looking for… and

… it’s the only way you’ll maximise your ROI per customer 🙂 Yes?

Sadly,

(Often, the people we coach with their marketing are reluctant to promote offers to their email subscribers, which beggars belief, but was the same for us back in the day. The source of their reluctance to sell is usually down to not liking being sold to themselves, not wanting to come across as a douche bag, or issues surrounding having money – which are all mindset matters whch can easily be rectified 🙂 )

But… I've NEVER Done Anything Like This Before…

We hadn't either when we first got started – we were an Accountant and a Project Manager who didn't ever know what an Entrepreneur was, let alone think like one.

Guess what?

We learned.

And you can too – even in your spare time.

You never walked before you took that first baby step. You never got a job before that first paid employment. You never asked someone on a date before you popped that first nerve-wracked question!

There's always a first time for everything.

Just to be sure, we have some test questions for you:

1. Can you copy and paste text from one spot to another?
2. Can you send an email (this post'll be obvious why)?
3. Can you search Google and Youtube for answers and information (proves you're resourceful)?
4. Do you have a willingness to learn a new skill (like you did at Uni or when starting a new job)?
5. Do you have a winning can-do mindset (as in, you're ripe and ready to transition from an employee to an entrepreneur)?
6. Do you have a burning desire to succeed (so, you're happy to set goals, avoid procrastination, and Follow One Course Until Successful, i.e.: FOCUS)?

How did you score?

6 out of 6?

Congrats. You've got what it takes to learn affiliate marketing… in your spare time.

Find Your Marketing Budget

The other stumbling block some people trip up on, is they lose patience with their restrictive marketing budget. Obviously $2k a month is going to build your list faster, and you’ll see results quicker, than $500 a month. So, boosting your ad budget calls for resourcefulness.

What’s within your power to increase your marketing budget so you build your email database quicker – before you run out of patience?

Seriously, put some thought into this…

Here are some ideas:

• Invest your disposable income

• Lower your overhead and adjust your lifestyle – make lunches, eat out less, quit smoking/drinking/gambling, cancel non-vital subscription

• Get a second job

• Drive for Uber.com

• Let your 2^nd room on Airbnb.com or couchsurfing sites to help out tourists

• Get a full time lodger/room mate

• Get a business partner with money to invest

• Have an Idea eg: provide a service, freelance on upwork.com or freelancer.com

• Refinance your home to invest in your business

Frankly,

GET RESOURCEFUL

There’s no alternative, is there?

We’re not proud of the fact we built websites for people, and helped clients attract their own email subscribers, so we could boost our marketing budget – for us, it was ‘needs must’ as we had to make our business work for us!

The BIG takeaway here is:

Let Your Current Pain Drive You Towards Your Freedom Goal, Then Let Inspiration, Purpose, And Impact, Drive You Towards Your Digital Life

Last but not least,

EVERYTHING we cover in this post, is taught by Six Figure Mentors. EVERYTHING.

No stone is left unturned. (and they provide the online tools you need to make it happen too!)

It all depends how badly you want to quit exchanging your time for money. Do something you're passionate about. Grab back control of your time freedom.

>> Stack up the money in your affiliate marketing business <<

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