This sounds like an excellent strategy to use in my market; I’m excited about trying it out!

Amir – Thanks for the clarification and I agree with you, at least in principle.

I think some people can promote affiliate products without ever disclosing the fact that they are paid commissions and still do VERY well – most Internet marketers I know are like this and make a lot more than I do.

I agree with the sentiment though – transparency is important and can be a selling advantage too because trust is a key factor in conversion, especially in jaded markets.

Very interesting post. I do however agree with the story telling tip. It is the corner stone of all successful selling in my opinion.

It truly is an art to tell a great story that sells, but once you master that art… life is good.

Shannon
http://Focused2Win.com

At the end, she asked me – “so where’s that secret they promised?”. I had to explain her that she’s reading an ad and there’s not going to be any secret here. They’re expecting her to buy something.

Different things work, under different circumstances, for different people.

Amir

Thanks for responding to me.

I’m sorry about the aggressive tone of my comment. Your point is well taken. I agree 100% that advertisement based income is very problematic and that creating quality content geared to sell products is a much better idea.

What I tried to say was that in order to be successful as an affiliate, one needs to be very transparent about being an affiliate and to have an edge. I’ve been working with affiliates for a long time (selling my software). The ones who are very successful do that. There are different advantages that they can bring to customers, depending on the situation.

I think that if bloggers want to be affiliates, they should first consider what unique benefits they can bring, giving their visitors a good reason to buy RIGHT NOW and FROM THEM.

Conversational marketing is a great way to reach your visitors (potential customers) on a personal level and build trust – creating the opportunity for a sale. Once you’re there, the final step should provide the drive to buy – that’s what I commented about.

Amir

I don’t like it because I find it insulting. I understand myself enough to know what I may like to purchase and these long letters just keep hitting at the pain over and over again like the readers are emotional cripples.

I hope you or Darren can share proof that the long sales letter is dying!

@Amir – The point this article is making is about using conversational marketing to cut through the commercial noise when attempting to sell something.

Recommending affiliate products and selling your own products are probably the best ways to make money with blogging. As your post shows, using content and stories isn’t hard selling. It provides a background and safe place for the reader to become familiar with the product, and then decide for themselves without pressure if the product is right for them or not.

Just remember to keep your recommendations and products high quality. Excellent post and great concepts to put into practice.

Can you give an example of this at work?

I’m sorry, but it sounds a bit like black-hat marketing MLM marketing. You want to sell something by claiming you’re just ‘another happy customer’ telling about it. Then, you’re going to include an affiliate code in to the product page.

The (very successful) affiliate website I know, don’t hide the fact that they’re affiliated with a product. They’re very sincere about it. Instead, they’re worked out deals with the product owners to give some extra value to the clients – usually in the form of a deep discount for a short time.

Have a look at bitsdejour.com (not my site and not my pal). It’s not a blog, but they do have daily posts about new products – which they sell at pretty high volumes. The added value they bring in are honest reviewes, customer testimonials and huge discounts.

People don’t think they’re just telling about products because they love them. They go there because they know they’re going to find great deals, on a regular basis with honest unbiased product reviews.

Just my two cents.

Amir

Cheers,
Marjorie

I have a free ebook you marketed a few days ago. And I must say I was not really expecting much from that. As any other guy would give tips, I expected some general tips from it and nothing more. But that was I must say, better than my expectations. I keep that as a good reference and read it fully. Good one.

Now, about this post, I am happy that you Aussies are coming together posting in each other’s blogs. I am a big fan of Darren anyway. I must say as you said, I hate teh long pitch pages for each product on sale, however, for a blogger its a good way to monetize his blog with such products, most give wonderful sales commissions. Traffic building is however most important aspect. Thanks for the post, Yaro.

Lenin