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Affiliate Summit Lessons Learned

Monday, February 8th, 2010

posted by MarkLing

Hi Everyone,

A few weeks ago I flew out to Las Vegas to attend Affiliate Summit.

I personally got a lot out of the event because I managed to meet more than 20 people who are making 7 to 8 figures a year online.

What I wanted to do in this particular blog post was simply to mention the top 3 takeaways that I got out of the event...

1. All the super affiliates that I met (7 and 8 figure affiliates) made over 80% of their income from just 1 or 2 niches. These niches varied across affiliates but the theme was the same, super affiliates got to know a niche extremely well and then promoted aggressively using several forms of paid advertising (google ppc, google content, yahoo ppc, yahoo content, msn, natural seo, media buys, pay per view and so forth). Not many did a lot of natural search engine optimization.

Examples of the niches they focussed on include: weight loss, muscle gain, make money online, forex, satellite tv on pc software, anti spyware/adware software, make money (general bizopp), and self help niches.

That's not to say that other affiliates weren't doing well in other niches, but those are the main niches that were mentioned to me by ones who were doing 7 to 8 figures a year.

2. Health and fitness is the biggest niche in virtually every single affiliate network. I spoke to senior staff at a lot of the various networks and most of them said that weight loss and other fitness related offers were the ones that were doing the best for them. The next closest niche was 'make money' market.

3. When done correctly video salescopy vastly outperforms long salescopy format, however it has the potential to backfire so this needs to be tested closely. I will be running my own tests soon (starting in the save marriage niche). Apparently not including a fast forward button on the video salescopy greatly increases sales (again I will need to test this). I'm interested in testing this kind of thing out with affiliate videos. You don't need to be in the video, most of these videos are voiced over with slides.

I hope you enjoy this post, I'm interested in your comments.

All the best,
Mark

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View all 88 comments (Currently displaying latest 20)

By glhyne at 10:02 9 Feb 2010

Great post. It took me a while to figure out that the best markets to go into are the ones with the most listbuilders and the most products to cross promote. I know that videos without controls convert better but I'd like to knw how many potential buyers are driven away before this point. Conversion per click and not per view is the issue i think. From my own point of view, I don 't mind the lack of controls but I need to see the video duration in text.

By Bronnamdi at 10:05 9 Feb 2010

Thanks for sharing this worthwhile information with us. I am in the process of mixing my traffic sources with organic search engine traffic and paid sources like ppc and others but no video at the moment.

Glad to know that even the gurus are also doing the same. In time, I hope that my income will be as large as theirs.

By Ming Jong at 13:10 9 Feb 2010

Thanks for the info!

It is great to know that what are the successful affiliate marketer are doing/not doing.

Cheers,
Ming Jong

By mikeb1 at 14:10 9 Feb 2010

I only use ppc sparingly,and then I look for a niche within a niche,seo is what you need to master when strating out,things like forex are for the big boys,they pay upwards of 10 bucks a click for this,so unless you are already rich forget it,the sharks eat the minnows every time.As for video marketing I like it,seo is easy if you have the right mentor,which thanks to a webinar with mark and a IM colleague I am begining to major in it.

By Viola at 17:08 9 Feb 2010

So if everybody is in the weightloss niche, how does a newbie even stand a chance of getting started and making even a few hundred dollars?

My niche is weightloss and health for the over 40 crowd because of my background and because this is my struggle and focus personally so I thought I combine this with IM and see if I can actually make some money while I am improving my own health..

So far, sad to say, other then some nice comments left on my blog I haven't gotten anywhere. But I know this is just a start and I keep on going.

By dandeluca at 18:03 9 Feb 2010

Thanks Mark, as usual lots of value here. I'll be ramping up my investigation of forex market, since I was thinking of a website for that. I like the idea of ongoing payments! Definitely want to hear how your video testing goes too!

By Graham in UK at 21:53 9 Feb 2010

Hi Mark
Well it just confirms what we all know already doesn't it?
The big boys can afford to use PPC and make loads of money
The rest of us use SEO because we can't afford PPC!
The more advanced are using video which has got to be the way to go
the rest of us are trying to learn about video!
Everything is easy.... when you know how!
regards
Graham in UK

By A2ZAFFIL at 22:58 9 Feb 2010

Thanks Mark for the insight. Excellent for newbies like myself.

By maxwellt at 5:18 10 Feb 2010

Thanks for those enlightening tips. It proves that affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn if you understand the necessary techniques. Thanks Mark

Regards Max Australia

By NETFORCE10.COM at 14:26 10 Feb 2010

Hi Mark,
Very interesting post, specially that they make all their money solely from 1 or 2 niches.
I am very interested in getting more info anout the video sales copy, because indeed it has a lot of viral potential. Also interesting is that they are hardly doing any SEO, but pure PPC...
While I have been working for 3 years on my own SEO program, called NETFORCE10, that will be finally ready by 01 of March 2010.
Hahaahahhaha. Life can be hard!
Thanks Mark!
Without any doubt, AFFILORAMA is the best Internet Marketing Information site on the web.

By drmcneil at 19:51 10 Feb 2010

Great info man. Thanks
DrM

By idleme125 at 22:58 10 Feb 2010

Really good info in the sense that these bighitters are making money in areas available to all. The key note here is the PPC mentioned by Mark. Eventually, you have to spend money on this business and that means advertising with PPC. No matter how these guys tune their marketing methods, it all comes down to spending $$ on PPC. Organic is fine if you want to wait and wait for results and making peanuts a month. I tried PPC last year, the results came fast and was able to fine tune where the money was but it gets expensive. The results are gold in learning where to put your energy in chasing those buyers.

By jimtsa at 1:08 11 Feb 2010

I hate videos that cannot fast forward. It just turn people off.
I think readers are smarter than you think and they dont wish to waste their time to watch a video that doesn't give them the time duration.

By John at 10:55 11 Feb 2010

Thanks for the info,I'd like to knw how many potential buyers are driven away before this point. you know how!
regards

John

Thanks

.............................

plr articles

By Dish Network Cleveland at 19:38 11 Feb 2010

Ah, This is spot on! Clarifies
several contradictions I've heard

By john at 9:44 12 Feb 2010

the sharks eat the minnows every time.As for video marketing I like it,seo is easy if you have the right mentor,which thanks to a webinar with mark and a IM colleague I am begining to major in it.

By Dish Network City of Industry at 17:36 12 Feb 2010

Ah, This is exactly what I was looking for! Dispells
many contradictions I've read

By andyw at 11:04 15 Feb 2010

After reading you blog, Your blog is very useful for me .I bookmarked your blog!
Wishes your valentine day to be joyful!