Comments on: How to Use Social Decision Making To Increase Your Affiliate Sales

By: moserw

moserw — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:26:39 +0000

Hmmm. Good idea. Never thought of collating data from the past myself, but you do give some good ideas to work on. Thanks.

By: Cher

Cher — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:13:36 +0000

This seems to be an innovative idea. Thanx for sharing.

By: Brent2

Brent2 — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:56:06 +0000

No one wants to be cheated and we pretty much figure that if a bunch of people bought it then it won’t break.

Which isn’t true of course. Just because a bunch of people own it doesn’t mean it didn’t break on all of them. It just means they whipped out a credit card.

By: Andy T

Andy T — Sun, 04 May 2008 05:55:03 +0000

Human being want to be part of the crowd [to be recognized, they afraid to be left alone] and also want to stand out from the crowd. That is why you can see people buy custom build home, special order vehicle [a lot of make over], designer fashion and limited edition stuff.
It will work when you hit it at the right time only, but not every time.

By: Cavalier

Cavalier — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:55:33 +0000

I never thought of using social proof in amazon affiliate sales links :P But I think it has been used by marketers for long long time, like the whole “Here’s what other customers have had to say about this product..” sections in midnight tv ads (theres nothing better on and the girls selling workout products are hot) .

Anyways I wrote an article on how to use it to attract women, has worked quite well so far.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 03 May 2008 18:38:02 +0000

Darren,

Its really hard to keep up …. I mean with so much quality information and posts on all all good topics I wonder how do you think about all these topics….

Since you are sharing alot of information …. Could you tell us how many of you guys are there in the think tank behind the Pro Blogger

Anyways, Keep up the good work…

Mark

Reply by Lara: Hi Mark, For the most part, Darren’s the one who writes almost everything here. He does have guest bloggers from time to time, and I work on managing comments and some other admin stuff around here. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that he’s always got something so fantastic to write about!? That’s why he’s THE ProBlogger!

By: windyridge

windyridge — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:58:50 +0000

I wrote a short post about flocking behavior which is kind of the same thing. You see I raise sheep so I know about followers.

By: Cookiemouse

Cookiemouse — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:30:42 +0000

The “Join Me” book makes me want to start a similar experiment myself! Is it the wisdom of crowds or the herd instinct?

By: Doyle Slayton

Doyle Slayton — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:14:10 +0000

Thank you so much for the great ideas! Before I could get through the article… I was on the Amazon site… signing up as an affiliate. Thank you for making all of us better!

Doyle Slayton
Executive Director & Sales Strategist
http://www.SalesBlogcast.com

By: Jim Offerman

Jim Offerman — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:31:06 +0000

The RSS counter thing works both ways, doesn’t it… a big number says “hmm, this guy/girl must be credible”… but a small number says “guess no one trusts this bloke”. Of course, it could just mean someone is just starting out, but how can you tell from the number alone?

By: Cindy King

Cindy King — Sat, 03 May 2008 06:44:08 +0000

I agree with Cindy above, trust is also a part of the “join me”.

I haven’t been reading Problogger for that long, but your blog definitely builds up trust in its readers.

This trust did influence me in signing up for the video course. But timing was ripe for me – I might have procrastinated a bit longer, did a little comparison shopping – or I might have signed up anyway, even if there wasn’t this prior trust factor.

But, beyond trust and right timing, there were two other things that got me to sign up immediately:

- The price was right
- A fun factor

Hey, this could be fun to do with others, hear their reactions etc. – the fun factor eliminated the procrastination of putting off something I want to do but never take time to do.

By: Ryan McLean

Ryan McLean — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:24:38 +0000

Great post,
only wish there was a secret way to work out what people want to buy when you first start a blog (which is me) but otherwise you have to wait a year before you have enough data to analyse and create a top selling list
great post though

By: Cindy Szponder

Cindy Szponder — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:54:15 +0000

Hi Darren,

I can say the “join me” definitely worked for me. I’ve developed enough trust for you that when you recommended the web video course I signed up. Looks like a winner, too! Can’t wait to get started on a project next week.

Hoping you have great sleeping tonight!

Cindy

By: Kelvin Kao

Kelvin Kao — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:50:50 +0000

Darren, I actually signed up when it was still a regular link instead of affiliate link. Too bad. I’d gladly click on your affiliate link. Anyway, for me, it was not as much that the idea of a class about videos is sold to me. It’s just knowing the information that a class exists. For example, I wanted to take a voiceover class but I don’t know what instructor is good. So when a friend mentioned that her friend took one and like it, I signed up for that class. It’s the same in this case. At some point I’d have to look for books or DVDs about video-making. So when you, a source I trust, gave information that there’s a class available, it didn’t take too much convincing to sign up. So that’s the story for me.

By: JoLynn from The Fit Shack

JoLynn from The Fit Shack — Sat, 03 May 2008 01:46:58 +0000

Hi Darren, another great post – it seems like you’ve been writing in a much more familiar tone lately, really enjoying them. Have a great weekend!

By: Rob Brydon

Rob Brydon — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:32:22 +0000

I should probably trying to do this because I have started to write a few book reviews.

You really do a service to the community by telling everyone the ins and outs of your experiences.

Thanks

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:11:21 +0000

This is a nice idea, and because I frequently review personal finance books it is only logical that I create a “best business books” post with affiliate links.

By: Hyder

Hyder — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:43:13 +0000

Great post darren! I’ve had some success as well with posts of this type.

By: Del Sauzo

Del Sauzo — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:29:40 +0000

I call it the avalanche effect. That’s what makes alot of things difficult at the beginning. “the higher you go the cooler it becomes”.

I think its nature’s way of rewarding perseverance, you keep putting in and then you get a little response one day and all of a sudden that response snowballs and you dont know what hit you.

I think it’s also like the crowd effect. Maybe human beings feel ( a bit erroneosly) some safety in numbers i.e ‘we can’t all be wrong’, History has proven that notion wrong but….

How else do you explain the ‘explosions’ in social networking sites. One day no one knows anything about them, the next day you’re archaic if you’re not on them.

i think by letting a reader do the review the other readers feel ’safer’, they probably think that if one of their’s feels the book is a good read then it probably will be same for them.

Your post ideas are really good. I love the way you can switch between topics so effortlessly without drawing attention to it.

Really nice post

By: Sandy Naidu

Sandy Naidu — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:29:09 +0000

I guess most of us feel comfortable going with the flow…’So many people can’t be wrong…So why not join them – makes my decision easier and safer’ kind of mentality…Croc shoes I think is one good example…I personally am not a big fan of these shoes but having said that I own a pair…