The importance of preselling

If you want to make more money as an affiliate, you must presell.

Before we begin, we need to first define what preselling is. Well, it is an art. And it’s also a science. It’s a process of taking your reader and getting them ready to buy. Then when they’re ready, refer them to the product website so they can buy it. And if it’s done properly, the process is completely sub-conscious.

In a nutshell, you provide value. And then refer them to the product website. We’ll get into how to do it correctly in a minute. Before we get into that, you should understand what’s in it for you. Just a few of the reasons you want to presell.

• It builds trust – Readers who trust you are more likely to click your links. And the more traffic you can send to the sale page, the more commissions you’ll earn.
• It disarms your reader – Nobody likes to be sold something. By not doing that to them, your reader is less defensive. Unguarded reading means they’re not filtering what you say. So your content get absorbed.
• It puts them in a buying mood – Your readers are now receiving your message. So they become more receptive to other messages. This includes the sales website you send them to! Sending them to the sales page in this state makes them more receptive to the actual pitch.
• You make more money – They arrive at the product website prepped to buy. With a feeling of trust and openness. This dramatically boosts your sales rate!
• Your customers are happier – People like to make their own buying decisions. Instead of feeling pressured or “sold”. So they are happier with their purchase.
• Your profits go up – A satisfied customer doesn’t ask for a refund. Less refunds means more affiliate money stays in your pocket.

Obviously, it’s important to presell. You increase your profits. And produce happier customers. That’s a clear win-win.

OK, so how do you do it?

You’ve learned the importance of preselling. And hopefully you’re convinced you need to start doing it. You’re ready to learn how to do it properly. Remember, there are two components – art and science.

The art of preselling

The first step is in getting your readers to trust you and open up. 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. That is, they have to be wanting more when you refer them to the product sales page for the product you’re trying to sell. And since they’re more open, they are more likely to make a purchase.

The science component

There are also several key elements that need to be included.

The first is how you present the information. You have to have your end in mind. Your goal is to sell the product you’re promoting. There are two ways to accomplish this with great content. The first method is to provide enough info to get them started, but not enough to finish. The other method is to explain all the details and expose how difficult it is to do what you’re explaining. Either way, the product sales page solves the problem.

But you can’t link to your affiliate link. Instead you link directly to the product sales page. This increases your clicks. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? Well, that’s part of the science of this whole process. You use the “covert cookie” strategy.

You also want to link to the sales page from inside your article’s content. Hyperlinked words are clicked more than anything else. Plus, if you link on relevant words, it only makes sense to click on there.

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

OK, here’s the not-so-good news:

It’s extremely difficult to do this correctly. Let’s look at the skills required to pull it off: Great content. First of all, you actually have to write great articles and give value to your readers. To do that you have to have enough information to be valuable and be able to present it in a useful way. Strategic writing. Yes, you must providing useful content. You also have to present the info in a way that provides real value. And somehow also make them want to learn more. Or make the information so overwhelming they realize they can’t do it on their own.

Picking products. After that you have to figure out which products you want to promote. If you can manage to get the article written well. You’ve wasted all your effort if the product doesn’t sell well.

Technical skills. And finally, you need the technical know-how to embed your image tag and make sure you get credit for the sale. This is actually pretty simple – just embed a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image and set your affiliate link as the “source” of the image. (But if you mess it up, your referrals won’t be tracked.)

Wrapping it up:

Now you know what it takes to be a Presell Pro. Preselling properly will boost your affiliate profits up to 500%! The important thing is to use these techniques for everything you promote as an affiliate. Please don’t be lazy. Make the extra effort required to propel your affiliate business to the next level.

Technorati Tags: affiliate business, affiliate commissions, internet marketing, seo for beginners