Bruce's Golden Goose Marketing Online

Although a lot of affiliates do prefer to start out with the CPA networks and their lead gen or free trial offers, there’s also a lot to be said for starting out with physical products.  Instead of using networks like Azoogle and Clickbooth, affiliates who promote physical products use networks like CJ, Linkshare, and Shareasale.  And instead of using traditional affiliate landing pages, affiliates promoting physical products are more likely to build larger niche sites around several products.

A lot of affiliates shy away from physical products because they believe the commissions are too low.  While that can certainly be true in some cases (especially if you’re paying for your traffic), there are a few advantages that these affiliates are overlooking:

• Physical product sites tend to have higher quality scores due to a larger amount of unique content.
• Physical product sites nearly always get a steady flow of search engine traffic, assuming that the most basic SEO measures have been implemented.
• Physical product sites are very stable.  Instead of offers that rotate on an almost weekly basis, you have real products that can last years with the same links.
• There are a huge number of datafeed tools to semi-automate the process of building sites around physical products.
• Ad networks love ads for “real” products.  When you order a free trial acai berry product or you sign up for auto loan comparison, a lot of people get something they’re not fully expecting (rebills, endless calls from having their personal info sold, etc.).  With physical products, people know what they’re getting and everything is on the up-and-up.

If you’re interested in learning more about promoting physical products, Matt Wolfe’s WordPress Classroom is a great place to start.   By using WordPress as your content management system, you greatly simplify the overall creation and management of your affiliate site.  You’ll not only learn how to earn an income here, you’ll learn to create a stable, lasting source of income for you and your family.

If you spend much time talking to other affiliates, you’re probably well aware of the changes with Facebook’s advertising system.  In essence, they have released a new set of advertising standards that all but eliminates affiliates running CPA offers.  It’s shocking for a lot of people who depend entirely upon Facebook for their affiliate income, but it’s also not surprising.  Facebook is just one of many sites trying to clean up their advertising.  Google, for example, has spent the last year or so banning thousands of affiliates for promoting deceptive products or questionable sites.

So what is an affiliate to do when it seems like the best traffic sources are drying up left and right?  My recommendation involves two things:

Diversify. Affiliates who made all their money from Facebook are hurting right now.  Those who had 4-5 steady traffic sources, however, are only mildly irritated at the changes.  Don’t ever put yourself in a position where you rely on a single company for all of your income.  If you wanted to do that, you could go to a day job   It’s true that most people will earn a little less by spreading things around instead of specializing, but for most of us, a more stable income is better than one that fluctuates wildly and has the potential to disappear overnight.

Go legit. The reason these offers are getting banned from networks is that they deceive, mislead, or otherwise attempt to swindle the customer into doing something they don’t fully understand.  Rebills don’t usually make it clear that customers will have to pay and pay and pay…credit report offers relied on the fact that customers didn’t always know about the truly free credit reports they could get from the government…dating sites often misrepresented their members…financial offers often sold customer data to anyone and everyone who would buy it…the list of shady practices goes on and on.

Given the state of things, a lot of affiliates are now returning to physical products.  Instead of promoting free trials and zip submits, they’re promoting dishes and clothing and electronics.  Because not everyone is letting go of the shady offers just yet, this point in time represents a great opportunity for affiliates to get a head start on promoting physical products before the CPA network affiliates fully migrate in that direction.

If you’re not sure where to begin, Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook is an excellent place to start.  Her guide is extremely long, but it’s also packed with a ton of good information about finding real, long-term success in affiliate marketing.  Check it out here.