what's up everybody Pat Flynn here with
episode 33 through 3 of SPI TV that was
weird I won't do that again
but we're going to extend affiliate
marketing month here on SPI and today
we're going to be talking about how to
find products to promote to your
audience that other people have actually
created that's what affiliate marketing
is all about what's cool is it's cool
because you don't to spend time to
actually create these products and you
can serve your audience with these
products today but a lot of people make
mistakes with affiliate marketing and
the number one mistake is choosing the
wrong products to promote so we're going
to talk all about how to find the right
products resources you can use online to
do that then also how to best sell them
here we go ok so let's figure out how to
choose the affiliate products that
you're going to promote to your audience
and how to sell them - because different
products have different optimal ways of
selling those products not all tactics
and strategies are suited for all
different kinds of products so we're
going to talk about all those things but
first and foremost I just wanted to give
you a rule this is a number one rule
that I mention any time you mention
affiliate marketing and that is it is
easiest and best if possible to promote
the products that you already use that's
where I would start in the search in the
hunt for products to promote to your
audience start with the ones you already
use and whatever niche you're in you
might want to spend a day and just start
to be conscious of and mark down those
things that you use those things that
you use to help you achieve your goals
can help your audience achieve their
goals - well what kind of products are
they well we're going to go through them
right now and again there are ways to
find products that if you aren't using
these kinds of things you can find that
but I would always recommend at least
getting very familiar with those
products using them purchasing them so
that your audience can trust your
recommendation and you can trust that
those products will also serve your
audience in the way that you want them
to also ok first let's start with online
courses this is a quick easy way to find
products that you can promote to your
audience that can really benefit you
because there's often a very good
commission that comes along with them
but again you don't want that to be your
primary goal the primary goal is does
that online course that you were
promoting actually helped your audience
well how do you find these different
courses like I said you want to start
with the products you already use so if
you are in any online courses already
that's where
want to start but there's also a lot of
directories out there that you can use
to find these different courses and
first and foremost I would actually go
into Google to see what you can find so
I would go into Google and type in the
name of your nature certain target
keywords and then follow that up with
the word courses or course or training
course or educational course and see
what comes up sometimes you'll find some
good stuff sometimes you might miss out
completely on that particular search
where I would also go is with other
people in your niche if you're in any
mastermind groups they might have their
own courses that you could promote to I
would start with your network because
you already have that trust with them or
they might have referrals for other
online courses that you can seek out and
potentially vet so that you can then
promote to your audience again again you
don't want to just find a course and
then promote it you want to find a
course see if it's something that would
make sense for your audience and
actually go through that course yourself
or at least potentially get free access
to that course which is often possible
you could reach out to that product
owner and say hey I think your course is
really interesting and I think it would
be helpful for my audience I'd love to
promote it if it's a right fit do you
mind if I get free access to your course
I'm just going to go through it for a
couple of days and see what it's like
before I promote it and I do that
because I don't promote anything that I
haven't used before or haven't checked
out so that's a strategy you can use to
get in tune with an online course or
courses that would then benefit your
audience
Google is where I would start your
network is another place you can go to
and then there are other places out
there like udemy comm and also lynda.com
my n da comm that you can go to start
and search for course providers you
could also become potentially an
affiliate for those web sites too or if
not a lot of times those course creators
on those web sites again udemy comm and
Linda com they'll have their own courses
that they promote on their own websites
too so you can start there now what are
some strategies to help you promote
online courses well there's a couple one
is you want to make sure that you show
and tell people everything about what's
on the inside of that course which is
again why it's really important for you
to get access to the inside so you can
show people and tell people really what
it's all about now there's a few
different ways you can show people you
can show people through screenshots so
they can see the interface that makes
people feel comfortable about that
purchase they're about to make and you
know breaks down those two
dirty Wells - also you can take some
ScreenFlow videos or screen recordings
or some sort of videos to show people
what is on the inside and how the how it
just all works and flows together when
people see what they're going to get
they're more likely to go ahead and buy
it people are often very hesitant to buy
things that they haven't seen before so
that's how I how I would go and promote
online courses that's one strategy the
other strategy which is also really
important is talking about what wins
people have gotten as a result of taking
that online course so it's sharing
testimonials if again if it's you who
has taken that course share that share
your own results but even then even if
you are somebody who has taken that
course and has found success with it
you want to find other success stories
within that course too and share that
through interviews on your blog or on
your podcast or just testimonials or
that's really going to help you and your
audience understand that this is a right
fit for them next let's talk about books
books are a great thing to promote you
could get a small Commission for a lot
of these sometimes a little bit larger
and I'll tell you how in just a second
but whatever the case may be people love
to read books and people love to get
recommendations for great books it
doesn't matter what nature and people
want those book recommendations and you
could recommend them through the
different platforms that you have you
can have your own private book club
through an email list or a private
Facebook group I have that I have one
that is managed through an email list
that has been very good and very fun to
manage and also you know fairly
lucrative - in my recommendations for
those books you can check that out it
actually Pat's book club comm but anyway
books are a great thing to promote how
do you find books well of course there's
books on Amazon that's where most of us
go for books and if you is if you sign
yourself up to the Amazon Associates
program you could promote those books
and earn a commission not just on those
books that you recommend but anything
else people purchase in that particular
checkout sequence - within a 24 hour
period after they click on that
affiliate link that you get from Amazon
- so ebooks can be a great lead into
other commissioned products that you can
potentially earn an income from - and
yeah so that's where I would start
Amazon now I will say Amazon isn't the
only place you can promote books I'm not
just talking about retail books or even
traditionally published books - there
are self-published books that people
promote on
sites that they don't choose to promote
on Amazon because they're looking to
generate more income Amazon is a great
strategy for books if you're looking to
get exposure or some authority and some
of the top rankings and stuff like that
but a lot of people sell books
self-published on their own sites I've
done that before on green exam Academy
com
Nathan berry has done it on his site
he's made over six figures a year over
the last several years by selling books
about design on his website and they
come in different packages and typically
people who do that in charge and command
a much higher price point and as a
result if they have an affiliate program
to go along with it a much higher
Commission to so keep that in mind how
do you find those people well you might
be able to find people based off of
Google searches you can use Google
search again to see who's coming out
with new books you might use your
network - just like before it's going to
be a common theme here throughout all of
these different kinds of products so I
won't Riemann those all the time but
just keep those in the back of your mind
also I would look into iTunes and
podcasts people love to promote
themselves women they have a book coming
out I know because I'm going to do the
same thing on different people's podcast
so you can look through and see some of
the top episodes that are coming out in
your particular niche in iTunes in the
podcast section to see who's actually
coming out with a book author of is a
great keyword to search for author of
that way you'll find the name of that
person and also their book and you know
all that other information you need to
promote it to now what are some specific
strategies you can use to promote these
books that you find well for one I would
read it of course yourself so you know
what you're talking about and I would
also start a discussion with it to
create a blog post talk about a certain
viewpoint that there is in that
particular book and you can you know put
yourself on one side or the other and
then when you do that you start a
conversation with your audience a lot of
engagement and it becomes a great
central hub for this discussion
surrounding your promotion of this book
and of course every time people come to
this page or share it that link is there
that will help you earn a commission -
so that's one way to do it another way
to do it is to try and get access to the
author and this is something that's much
easier to do nowadays probably easier
than any other time in history because
of social media and it allows you to
create these instant quick connections
with these people and
allows you to invite them to answer a
question that you could feature on a
blog post or invite them on your podcast
if you have one and when people hear the
voice of the author and then get
interested in that particular topic
they're going to be more likely to click
through and purchase that book
especially if that person and you
together are able to provide value
people are going to want to pay you back
and actually go through your link to
purchase that book so that's books
number three physical retail products
and these are essentially what comes to
mind are things that you you know pretty
much anything that you can hold that's
tangible that is on amazon.com for
example now I will say Amazon is not the
only place that you can become an
affiliate for to promote these kinds of
products I mean anything from a Noah pen
to a I phone case to a pool I mean I've
seen it all there I mean they have
everything essentially physical retail
products aren't just sold on amazon.com
I know a lot of you might be living in
states where Amazon is not enabling you
to become an Amazon associate or
affiliate and in that case you could go
to sites like and this is going to
surprise some of you target target has
its own affiliate website that you can
sign up for and you can promote those
real up retail products and earn you
know a certain percentage I think 5% on
all your sales which is comparable to
Amazon to check that out just look up
affiliates and Target or Target
affiliate program in Google you'll find
that there and also Walmart some of the
big retailers out there have their own
affiliate programs that we just have to
sign up for them and that's pretty cool
so that that gives you another option so
that's how you can find those products
and again I would start with the
physical products that you use because
that would make sense it would allow you
to actually talk and be honest and
authentic about those promotions but if
you haven't used those products you can
either reach out to those companies to
see if you can get them to send one to
you for free which happens when you when
you have a large audience but if you
don't it won't happen at first but the
best way to promote these physical
products are through video absolutely in
many different formats social media
Instagram for example doing unboxing
videos - and of course YouTube YouTube
is a great medium for revealing the
unboxing of certain physical products
and showing people the ins and outs of
them because like I said earlier people
want to see what
going to get before they end up paying
for it before they buy it and what a lot
of people will do is they'll turn to
YouTube or Google first and type in
review for whatever product and they
will look that up and they will see a
video they want to see what it looks
like they want to hear somebody talk
about it and that could be you so that's
how you can sell physical retail
products and those are the different
places that you can find them next let's
talk about software all of us use
software we might probably don't even
know how much software we use I probably
use 20 30 different programs every
single day this doesn't include mobile
applications too because I have a quick
tip for you in the next section about
how you can actually promote mobile apps
as an affiliate but anyway software you
probably use a lot of things already
that you could promote to your audience
and if not there's a lot of different
ways to find them you could look up
software in Google and find software
that relates to your particular niche
you can also look at the top players or
top influencers in your niche t-this is
something that you could do for all
these things and see what kinds of
things they're promoting too those are
potentially companies that you can get
hooked up with that you could
potentially I say potential a lot
because you haven't done this yet but
you will hopefully for some of these
things sorry those are products and
companies that you could hook up with
another thing you could do is search for
your particular keyword and then type in
software in Google and don't just look
at this the natural organic search
results but look at what companies if
there are any that are paying for
advertising because what happens is
those companies want to get in front of
a target audience they have a product to
promote and they're always looking for
different solutions for doing that so
you could reach out to those companies
and potentially set up a deal and now
now that I said potentially now I'm
going to say it all the time I'm going
to catch myself but I'm not going to
edit because this isn't raw this is a
raw SPI here and you know the only way
to learn over time is just to be
conscious about what you're doing and
stop it so stop it Pat I didn't actually
slap myself I just clap my hands all
right
so software what are some ways you can
promote software that are optimal well
of course showing people what's on the
inside this is a common theme here again
you're hearing this over and over and
over again not because
it's a broken record although it might
sound like that but it's because it
works and this is the strategy that I
use all the time show the insides of it
another thing you could do is create a
bonus to show people how to get started
and running up quickly the order of
words was reared that we're there you
can show people how to get started
quickly with that particular software
while including a bonus hey guys if you
go through my affiliate link I have a
two page PDF file - QuickStart guide
it's going to help you get started on
this particular piece of software
immediately so it's going to answer all
the most common questions it's going to
show you some of your first steps boom
here you go free pdf just make sure you
go through my link send me your receipt
and I'll send this to you or Co Devon or
you can download it here - or however
you choose to do it but that is da bomb
way to actually get people to go through
your link and not everybody else's link
who's sharing that same product as an
affiliate because that's going to help
you stand out that's your voice -
getting people into the fact that you
are there to help them so that's how I
would use and promote software through
bonuses and speaking of software in a
little bit more niche type of way let's
talk about mobile apps a lot of us
probably use a lot of mobile apps during
the day I know I myself use a lot for
different reasons and I've shared these
mobile apps on my website before but I
just recently found out that iTunes has
its own affiliate program so look up in
Google iTunes affiliate program and
you'll get connected right at the top of
that particular search result to the
iTunes affiliate program and you can
sign up for that and you will get paid
again a small commission but it's total
Commission for the apps and also the
music that you recommend anything that
is available in iTunes that's for sale
you could earn a commission from through
iTunes referral program now Google Play
is said to be there's a rumor that they
are coming out with their own affiliate
program too so users like you can
promote all the apps on Google Play -
for you Android users but at the time of
this recording it is not available yet
but it sounds like they're coming out
with it soon so again you might be using
a lot of mobile apps you might be
listening to a lot of music or maybe
you're in the fitness industry and
there's certain kinds of music that you
feel would work best for certain
workouts well here's a link to this song
here's a link for this song by Taylor
Swift remix whatever
have at it next you can promote services
so these aren't just physical products
these aren't just information products
but also services services are a great
thing to promote a lot of times services
don't have open or public affiliate
programs or referral programs so you
have to speak with those companies and
reach out to them if they don't have one
again the thing to do is actually look
at the bottom and look for this language
affiliate program or referral program or
partnership program if you find those
things at the bottom of the homepage
typically that's where you can go to
sign up or get more information about
how you could partner or become an
affiliate for that particular service or
product or course or whatever a lot of
times for services specifically they
don't have that mentioned so you're
gonna have to reach out and explain to
them sometimes they don't even know
because they're you know a lot of
services industry websites are very
archaic and they don't they aren't in
tune with what's available or what
opportunities are available to promote
their businesses so you might have to
educate them a little bit with what
affiliate marketing is but you would
essentially say that you'd be willing to
help promote their product and it's not
a loss of them because you would be
finding people that they wouldn't have
been able to find otherwise and you just
share a cut of the total cost of that
particular service so that's what you
would do the way that you would promote
these services the best way to do it
would be to get in contact with that
particular company like I said and also
get them on a call and record that call
like an interview and you can feature
that interviewed and transcribe it on
your blog or actually on your podcast
another thing to do that you can easily
do with these services is get some sort
of deal you can do this with all of
these other products and I forgot to
mention this right I just was waiting to
mention it here but it does apply to all
these other ones if you get in close
contact and build a relationship with
the owner of these products you could
potentially get a good deal for your
audience whether that deal is some bonus
product that is not offered to everybody
or a discount or coupon code for
something else those are things that
services are likely to offer because
they want more people to coming in to
their business and they know once
somebody uses their service are going to
be likely to continue to use that
service down the road or that's that's
the idea so they're willing to take a
little bit of a loss later upfront or at
least share more of that revenue and
create these bonuses and also who
Hanz to get people into their service
systems and services and then they're
going to make more money over time as
people stick around so that's how I
would go about promoting services and
again trying to get those deals for your
audience up front in similar way
coaching coaching is something we don't
often think we could become an affiliate
for but I know there's a lot of great
people out there who coach we're always
looking for new clients and like with
services you're going to have to deal
with these people want to want to create
certain deals but because coaching
services are often very very expensive
especially with great coaches there's a
lot of opportunity for us affiliates to
generate a big income as a result I've
referred people to certain coaching
services and mentorship programs and
mastermind groups paid mastermind groups
and have earned 500 to $1,000 per
referral and if you have that trust with
your audience and you know that person
is going to take care of your on its and
help them achieve your goals this is a
very easy sell and it's not even selling
at all it's actually just sharing hey
this is a person I know who can help you
they will take you under their wing and
then you get a commission as a result of
course I would always be honest with the
fact that you're getting a commission
but again coaching is another thing you
could think about that you can get a
referral payment for or a Philly
commission for now to finish up again
like I had just mentioned look for
language like affiliate program or a
referral program or even partnership
program on those websites if you're
having a hard time locating those things
you could maybe find them by doing a
Google search and looking for a deep
page within their website too that
mentions or shares that so you could
look up put put in their domain name :
this is in Google put in their domain
name and then : and then any one of
those words affiliate program or for a
program or partnership program and it'll
pull up any results where those words
are all on those website if at all and
if not you're going to reach out to
those people and try to set one up
yourself and I've done that before
people had to turn it on because they
already had one that existed and didn't
have affiliates and I just came on board
and they turned it on for me and there
was another company that I worked with
that actually built an affiliate program
I talked to their web guy their web
developer to help set it up because the
person I was speaking to initially the
CEO had no idea how to
that up so of course I spoke to the
person who would know how to set one up
and I became an affiliate for that
company there too all right I hope you
enjoy that episode of SPI TV number 33
a lot of great information there that's
going to help you hopefully find these
products that you can truly serve your
audience with and again that's the theme
here it's serving your audience and
hopefully I've given you some strategies
to help you do that better now I want to
remind you if you go to affiliate
marketing the smart way con you can
download your free guide which actually
sums up a lot of this information here
plus gives you a few more bonus tips to
selling to your audience and I hope you
enjoy it so again affiliate marketing
smart wacom next week in episode 34
we're going to talk about a specific
product that I promote my website not
Bluehost and how I've been able to
without even sending you any emails
about this start to generate a lot of
income and do it in a very non sleazy
way where it's very much a win for
everybody so I look forward to that
episode until then affiliate marketing
the smart way comm for your free guide
I'll see you next week