Note:  The following is an article that I co-wrote with my buddy, Michael Rasmussen of Affiliate Launch Blueprint.  Michael is my #1 affiliate and has single-handedly sold over 200 Membernaire memberships, sold over 400 Affiliatenaire memberships,  sold out a $497 eclass, sold out a resale rights license offer and much more.  Check out his new Affiliate Launch Blueprint for his step-by-step system on how he’s the top affiliate for MANY people … even starting from scratch.

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According to Dictionary.com, the word “increase” means “to make greater, as in number, size, strength, or quality.”

There are a variety of ways you can “make greater” the size of your affiliate checks.  If you want to increase your commissions, here are ten things you can do…

1. Provide Evidence Of Results.

Nothing will boost the sales of an affiliate promotion like showing proof that the product actually works.

For example, if you’re promoting a product on how to make money with Google Adwords, then take the time to use the strategies in the course, and document the results you’ve achieved out of studying the program.

Maybe you had a low clickthru ratio before, but now your clickthru has more than tripled. Well THAT is worth talking about. Take before and after screenshots of your clickthru, so that people can really see that it works.

The web is full of marketers who make empty promises that can’t be backed up. Stand out from the crowd by showing your readers that what you’re saying actually IS true, and then prove it.

2. Choose Products With Backends.

You can make great money promoting a product with a single offer right up front. But it’s usually much smarter to promote products that give you the immediate opportunity to make more money on every single sale.

That means products with good built-in upsells and one-time offers. That way, you can make easy additional money when some percentage of front-end buyers grab the upsell or one-time offer.

Another option is to promote “residual” income generating offers such as membership sites or other subscription programs.  In doing this, you’ll earn commissions MONTH after MONTH for as long as the referred customer remains active, as opposed to simply getting a one-time commission.

3. Presell With Great Content.

A pre-sell page provides some information about a product before making a recommendation. The technique works like a charm, because it can put a prospect in the mood to buy-it softens him up before he hits the sales page.

Let the sales page do its job (making the sale), but get your prospects ready to buy first. That can boost your commissions instantly.

Whether you write and distribute ezine articles, post materials to your blog, create video tutorials or some other form of providing information that “points” toward a product or service that you’re promoting, by offering great content up front, you can easily warm up your readers.

HINT:  The very article you’re reading is an example of this in action.  We hope by providing great tips up front that you’ll consider the offer we make at the end in our resource box.

4. Ask For A Higher Commission.

It never hurts to ask, especially if you have a reasonably large list. You’re going to be sending a significant number of sales to whatever product you promote, which is definitely worth something to the product creator.

Ask him if he’ll bump your commission percentage past a certain number of referral sales. If he’s smart, he’ll do it, because you both win.

Think of it this way:  if you’re currently getting 50% and you commit to long-term promotion for the product creator if he bumps you to 75% … what does it hurt him to grant the request?  Nothing!

In fact, he stands to gain 25% profit every time you refer a new sale for him long-term.  That’s 25% he wouldn’t have received if you were NOT promoting him.

5. Protect Your Reputation.

Here’s a “no-brainer” for increasing your affiliate commissions: stop promoting garbage!  Stop taking advantage of your contacts!

You should protect your reputation as an affiliate at all costs. Always review the products you promote ahead of time.  That’s right, either buy them as a customer or obtain a complimentary review copy from the creator.  Make sure you thoroughly review the offer and make sure it is HIGH QUALITY before you send out a notice to your contacts.

Be selective about what products and services you promote.  Resist the urge to simply promote the latest “big thing” just for the sake of earning commissions.

If you become an “offer harlot” who simply sends out mailings for every new thing without investigating the quality of what is included, sooner or later you’ll end up with a list that is either not responsive … or not existent!

6. Repeat Your Promotions.

One of the biggest mistakes that we see happening with affiliates is simply this:  they promote something and then move on to the next offer of the week.

Big mistake.

The most successful affiliates do MULTIPLE promotions for an offer.  They send out a mailing.  They send out a follow-up mailing.  They post to their blog.  They distribute ezine articles.  They buy ads.

In other words, they GET BEHIND THE PRODUCT and they continue promoting it as long as it remains profitable for them.

One of the best things you can do to increase your affiliate commissions is to send out a follow-up email 24-48 hours after your initial notification to your list.

7. Create Original Marketing Materials.

Every good affiliate program will provide you with marketing materials such as ezine articles, blog posts, rebrandable reports and so forth.

While these are certainly a good start and you should use them, don’t stop there.  Remember, EVERY affiliate has access to those materials and THEY will be distributing them as well.

If the offer you’re promoting is a good one (and it should be, or don’t bother promoting it at all!) then invest some time in writing ezine articles, blog posts and even short reports that provide useful content (see #3 above) while promoting the offer as a featured resource.

Not only will you separate yourself from the “cookie cutter” affiliates out there, but you’ll also have additional and original materials to continue distributing to your network long after the “buzz” has died down.

8. Learn From Others.

Want to really rack up the sales notifications?  Take a look at what other successful affiliates are doing … and model your own efforts after theirs.

Join their lists and watch how they create prelaunch buzz. Keep your eyes on their subject lines to see how they get attention.

Read their mailings to see how they promote offers.  Review their presell content to watch how they blend information and their affiliate link.

Visit their blogs and listen to their teleseminars and read their reports … study their practices. 

We’re not saying “steal” or “copy” their materials, but rather to look at their MODEL and incorporate their practices into your own promotional activities.

9. Know Your Audience.

An easy way to get extra commissions is this:  find out what your audience wants and offer it to them!

If your audience loves soft drinks but can’t stand orange juice, do you think you’ll do well if you continue to try to sell them orange juice … no matter how good it is?

Of course not.

You sell them what they WANT.

Look at the buying history of your subscribers and site visitors. What type offer do they respond well to?  Do they love ebooks or do they prefer membership sites?  Do they buy low-cost products or do they prefer premium goods?  Do they need a lot of warming up first or do they prefer you “announce” an offer to them?

When you learn WHAT your audience wants the selling is easy.

10. Offer a Buyer Bonus.

You often see this tactic being used when there’s a big,  expensive course being promoted. The courses usually cost over a thousand bucks, and offer a 50% commission, so you can imagine how people would be scrambling to get a piece of that pie.

But you don’t have to limit the use of this tactic to expensive courses. You can do it with any product that you promote.  Let’s say you want to promote a course on how to get traffic through YouTube. You could take the time, and go find 10 great examples of people who are using these techniques effectively, and create a PDF report with information about each person, and what they’re doing to succeed.

A report like this would be extremely valuable, because examples like this are very powerful teaching tools. You could easily hire someone off Scriptlance or Elance, and pay them to create a special bonus like this if you don’t want to do it yourself.

The other reason that this tactic works so well is because you can create your own scarcity on an offer that doesn’t have any.

Sure, they can buy the product anytime, but if they want to get their hands on YOUR special bonus, they have to buy before the given deadline.

So, there you have it - 10 great ways to increase your affiliatecommission checks.

And just to show you that we “practice what we preach”, here’s a very special “buyer bonus” for YOU.

If you grab a copy of Michael’s Affiliate Launch Blueprint through the link below, we’ll give you a FREE copy of Jimmy’s http://www.AffiliatePayraise.com course!

All you need to do is order through the link below and then send your receipt to jimmy@listandtraffic.com. 

Take a look at the Affiliate Launch Blueprint here…
http://www.Infoprofitshare.com/alb.html

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Michael Rasmussen is the creator of Affiliate Launch Blueprint, a set of video tutorials showing how to become a top-level affiliate even if you are starting from scratch! 

Visit http://www.Infoprofitshare.com/alb.html for details.

Jimmy D. Brown is the creator of Affiliatenaire, a comprehensive 52-week, step-by-step affiliate marketing training program.

Visit http://www.Affiliatenaire.com for details.

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