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It's Saturday, and by golly, other than the gale-force winds that are scaring the you-know-what out of me as I watch the oak trees rock back and forth, the weather was actually very nice today, and we almost hit 70! And still supposed to be nice tomorrow as well, until we drop 45+ degrees early next week.
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Oh well, just means that I need to bundle up for that long commute down the stairs and to the coffee pot every am ;-)
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Yesterday I promised that I would share my opinion on this recent - and disturbing - trend of content creators in our niche dropping the commission rates that they are paying affiliates.
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I probably have a different perspective on this topic than many of you - but I would also venture to guess that I have more experience in this area than the vast majority of people in this industry because not only am I am both a content creator and affiliate marketer - but I also spent more than 40 years working as a straight-commission sales rep.
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To say that I have seen this commission cutting strategy more than a few times is an understatement, and rarely does it play out the way the company thinks it will.
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It always starts with someone in the home office wanting to cut expenses, and increase the revenue - so let's cut the ad budget and get rid of those pesky, lazy salespeople. The bottom line looks better for a while until the company realizes that they have lost some customers, and there are no NEW customers coming in, so sales are declining...which means that even though expenses are down, so is the revenue - and there is no one bringing in new business to replace the ones that disappeared...
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Oh, and where did those customers disappear to? Well, some will be lost to natural attrition but in reality, many of the company's customers have as much loyalty to the sales reps as to the company....and those pesky salespeople will still be selling to those (former) customers - but it will be the company's competitors' products now....
As a digital product creator, I rely on my sales team, aka "Affilates", to spread the word for me, and they deserve to be compensated for their efforts. When sales are down - smart companies hold SALES CONTESTS and offer additional incentives to get their sales teams pumped up and excited. It is not at all uncommon in the IM space to see a big launch with thousands of dollars in cash awards.
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Want to get your affiliates to stop promoting you? Cut their pay, and kill their incentive.
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I have to wonder if these people are also asking their product creators, or VAs or hosting companies to take a cut in pay? I seriously doubt it - so why is it okay to ask us to take a cut?
One person commented that when she had a brick and mortar store she did not care what the competition was selling their products for, she priced based on her costs.
That's fine but if her costs went up - did she ask her sales staff to take a cut in pay? Or tell her landlord she was cutting the rent she was going to pay by 15%?
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hmmmmm......I am betting the answer would be no.
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Affiliates are the sales team that sends you customers and if we don't - how will your bottom line look then?
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I understand product creators have expenses - SO DO AFFILIATES!! I have hosting, and mailing services, and I buy most of the products that I review. It is not cheap being a good affiliate!
The space in my newsletter is VALUABLE REAL ESTATE AND I will use it to get the highest ROI possible!! And that means that if I have a choice between two similar products, one paying 50% commission and one paying 30%....well, you know which one is getting left out...
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And don't tell me what Amazon pays affiliates - those are TANGIBLE products and the margins are totally different than what we have on our digital dust.
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I hate to quote people when I don't have the exact quote handy, but I was unable to find the thread on Facebook when I went back today, but Alice Seba said, roughly, that cutting her affiliates' commissions would be the last thing that she would do when there are so many other creative ways to increase sales.
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And I totally agree - I would rather pay more and make it up in increased volume (hello, Walmart?)
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Ok this is way too long - but as a life-long sales rep that has not been on salary since 1990 - this is a very important issue to me, and I hope it is to all of you as well.
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I am finally making the move!!! I am so ticked off that I kept putting it off because I am really loving the Mailvio platform! It is feature-rich, well thought out, and affiliate marketer-friendly. It lives up to its sales page and much more, and in my early tests with it, my deliverability rates are much higher than they have been in months.
Yes, I am paying more for this than I was with MailPoet - but if I pick up ONE EXTRA SALE A MONTH...I cover that extra cost!! The open rates are so much higher because more people are actually SEEING my newsletter that I expect a significant jump in monthly revenue once I make the full migration.
If you want to check Mailvio out - Neil has given us a 10% discount coupon - just use coupon code: MARCH at checkout.
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BTW - scroll down the page for a great feature comparison chart comparing features with Aweber, Active Campaign, MailChimp and Convertkit ;-)
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Whether you want to use crypto in your business or want a step-by-step guide to understanding crypto better, Kevin Fahey's latest PLR Checklist release is a great product, and seriously affordable - it's under $8 as of this writing!
This is also a product that could be used to drive traffic and build your list because it is such a hot topic and with a bit of optimizing for longer-tail keywords, could be a real winner!
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If you were on our Boot Camp zoom last week - this is the plugin we used for optimizing our articles. While I use the paid "PRO" version there is also an excellent free version.
On the download page, there is also an excellent comparison chart between RankMath and the other leading SEO plugins.
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One thing that most will be surprised at is the difference in the size and speed between RankMath and other better-known plugins!
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This is a fantastic freebie from Sharyn at ContentSparks - download a free "Epic" blog post HERE and this really is an epic bundle too:
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- Nearly 15,000 people per month use the search term "sales funnel", and there are even more variations that will bring you more traffic
- The content upgrade with this blog post (a Worksheet) is quick and easy for people to get value from
- Sharyn even gives you the lead magnet and delivery emails
- You can quickly set up the upgrade as an opt-in inside your post - and start growing your list today!
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This is the latest in a great series of Crypto tutorials from James Renouf and Jeremy Kennedy - I have them all and I am slowly but surely applying his strategies - and they do work! This is a totally new release and one of the easiest and most profitable techniques he has shared so far, leveraging new ways to multiple your crypto no
matter what the market is doing!!!
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This is a MONSTER!!! Truly a year's worth of content for the Personal Development space - if you are remotely interested in this niche (which is one of the most lucrative niches online) you really need to look at this one!
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And now it is time for popcorn and a movie ;-)
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Have a wonderful evening!!
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P.S. You can reach us by simply responding to this email - we actually do respond!! See all of our products or login to your Member's area at PLRoftheMonth.club
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Please note: This is a commercial email, and you are receiving it because you signed up to one of our lists at some point in time. If you don't want to receive our newsletters anymore - just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email. If you purchase a product through a link in this newsletter, we may be compensated for that purchase as an affiliate of the product. Then again, we also include lots of links to other websites and cool stuff for you, just cuz we are nice peeps and that's the way we do things. ;-)
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