About three years ago, Russell Brunson launched his book, Expert Secrets. When he launched this book, he held a contest, and I came in number one as the affiliate for this contest. First of all in order to win this contest, I needed to know some data and some numbers. When I came in number one at that time, I sold 6,000 copies of this book so I had a rough idea, a rough gauge because I had data, and I knew that if I wanted to come in at number one again, there’s a good chance that I would need to sell at least 6,000 books again.

Affiliate Marketing Strategies Revealed

There are three different phases. There is number one the pre-launch, which is the phase where before the launch actually happens, what happened behind the scenes, the strategy behind it, and how I prepared for it. There is phase two which is the launch itself, the launch period, which is a three week period, and the final phase where there is the post-launch.

So based on the previous launch, I knew that I had to sell 6,000 copies on the front end. In order to promote the book, and if people bought it, you would get a commission on the front end. However, you would only get a dollar because there’s hardly any margins on this.

After printing and shipping, Russell probably loses money on the front end. But give or take, the affiliate commission is about 40% on the back end. If a person takes up on the upgrade, if they take up the upsell, you get paid a commission over there as well. I knew that an average cart value, meaning whenever an average person goes to the payout for free plus shipping funnel, is about $50. I knew that if I sold 6,000 copies, just like what I did with Expert Secrets, 6,000 people multiplied by a $50 average cart value is approximately $300,000 in sales. 

In the pre-launch stage, I’m beginning with the end in mind, by understanding my numbers first. I know I need to sell 6,000 books. That results in $300,000 in sales. That gets me approximately 40% commissions. It would be about $120,000. So I knew that in the worst case scenario, the maximum, my break-even point if I were to use Facebook ads or paid ads, I can spend up to $120,000 before I start losing money. If you are promoting somebody else’s product, it’s not just about utilizing this. It’s about utilizing the strategies that I used in this launch implemented in whatever business you’re in.

The next thing I did in the pre-launch is I had to build up a warm audience. I knew when this launch would happen, and if I were to just run ads on the day itself, just like what everybody else is doing, I would have the same result as what everyone is gonna get. Before the launch happens, one of the things that I did is I created a video, and I put it out about three weeks before the launch happened. Three weeks before the launch, I actually dropped a rap video. It got over 1 million views. This video got a ton of engagements, tons of shares, and I even got a lot of different people in this video, including Russell Brunson. I timed this video strategically so that it goes out just before this launch, and the whole purpose of that is to build up a warm audience.

1. What is a warm audience?
   
   A warm audience is people that know who you are, that know you exist, and they’re not watching you for the very first time. If you run ads to a warm audience, your cost to acquire customers is always lesser. I ran ads on Facebook, ran it as a video view campaign to show it to targeted people.
   
   
2. Who did I show this to?
   
   I showed this to people that is into Facebook, Facebook page admins, people that’s in the ClickFunnels community, people that like Grant Cardone, people that like Digital Marketer, people that like Gary Vaynerchuk, and I’m targeting all these people whom I feel would be interested in traffic, paid ads, and my rap video was based upon that.
    
3. What is the purpose of doing that?
   
   The reason why you want to do something like that is so that you can re-target them, which is the key word here. So out of the 1 million people that watched, I’m now going back to Facebook, and I’m creating a custom audience. I created a custom audience of people that have watched this video by at least 50% because I know that if they watched at least 50%, they probably got some entertainment value. They now know I exist, and I’ve established some sort of value and relationship with them. I know that in the future, whenever you develop and give first, whenever you ask for something in the future, it’s always easier. So this is still laying in the groundwork. That’s phase one.
   
   
4. What can you do consistently to build up warm audiences?
   
   The next thing that I did was I started creating videos on my YouTube channel that is all about traffic. Notice how it is actually titled. The entire playlist that I launched with a whole giveaway, every single episode was about traffic. It was about how to get high-paying clients, how to build your list, content marketing, paid traffic, the Dream 100, Instagram marketing, etc. I gave 10 strategies and in total, they were all optimized with the keyword traffic secrets. The reason for that is because I know that at the time of me releasing it, there would be no SEO value, but when Russell releases this book, there would be people on YouTube typing in Traffic Secrets, and this in fact would be an evergreen title because as this book gets out, and if it becomes a number one New York Times bestseller, there would be a lot of people in future that is gonna be searching for that keyword, traffic secrets.
   
   It’s also a long term plan. I am now competing for a keyword that is not yet competitive, knowing very well that in future, when this book launches, it is going to be searched for. So there’s still a pre-launch. At the same time, pre-launch also means thinking about why somebody should buy through you and not some other affiliate. This is especially applicable if you are competing in a space where there are tons of affiliates, so for me, what I did was I created a page that talks about this book and how you would get all these different bonuses, these five bonuses, if you were to get it from me. The way I always think about offers and the way I structure offers is to think about these three components.
   
   First one is DIY, do it yourself, which is always the one that has got least perceived value.
   
   Number two is DWY, done with you.
   
   And number three is DFY, done for you.
   
   If you start increasing your perceived value for a product, programs, and services, always think about how you can include done with you and done for you items as part of your offer. What most affiliates do is as part of their offers, they’re listing a long list of bonuses like some private label, low quality products, etc. Notice I only have five bonuses, but these five bonuses are structured around something that complements the purchase of this book. This book is to do it yourself. Ask yourself what makes a great offer, and how can I have done with you and done for you elements that complements that main theme rather than having 100 random things.
   
   I offered a live event ticket for people to come, learn, and train with me so that I could help them put the strategies in place.
   
   
5. What is a live event?
   
   A live event is more of a done with you program. If they can’t come, they get the live event recordings, and also the checklist on what to implement. I’m also giving out the different systems and processes to automate and streamline traffic better, and I’m also giving out my free plus shipping funnel, a sales funnel, an actual one that has done over a million dollars for me that can be utilized, and these are the keywords you want to use.
   
   Plug and play, copy and paste, fill in the blanks. The words that I just used are words that imply that you have done the heavy lifting for them. You don’t have to lift a finger. That’s what people want. People want the process, the tools, checklist, your script, etc. If you can give them these things, hand it to them on a silver platter, and that is when it implies it’s done for you.

Now during phase number one, one of the things that I did was I was getting people into a wait list first by setting up the page. I started promoting it because I wanted to hit this thing hard the moment the cart opens. During the pre-launch, during this timeframe, we got about 15,000 people into the wait list, and then with all those things, it’s like constructing a building. This is the groundwork. Then we move on to phase number two.

Now phase number two is the launch. Remember the warm audiences from the rap video and on top of all of the other videos that I still have is consistent? We switched on the ads. Our Instagram swipe-ups and YouTube videos were still running. I was still sending people into the wait list. I’m now getting traffic from all these different sources into the launch page. I understood what my endgame is. I knew that my endgame was I should get 6,000 buyers, so 6,000 names in emails that are high quality because they actually utilized a credit card, and I know that from experience, I will have gotten about 30,000 emails of leads that may or may not be qualified in order to get 6,000 buyers. I asked myself, “What am I gonna do with this list during the post-launch? What happens after?” The reason why I can still pay potentially five grand on ads and still break even from the sales, is because I’m still building a list of 30,000 for free. That’s number one. I’m getting a list of 6,000 people for free, number two. 

On top of the events, one of the things that I did was I got Russell Brunson to do a webinar with me and we made an offer, and the way we’re doing it is we wanted to over-deliver, and we’re giving everyone that bought through me in my list to come attend this webinar. We had 8,930 people registered. I know that based on past experience, if I have a $2,000 offer on a semi-warm audience, it’s possible to get a 10% close rate on a $2,000 offer. So 10% of 3,000 people would be 300 buyers multiplied by $2,000 price point. That would be $600,000. What I’m trying to show you here is that the numbers are always in the back end while most people focus on the front end, which is the $20 sale. It is the fact that I’m building a list, a list of leads, a list of buyers, and long term, if you treat your list well, if you treat your buyers well, they will follow you for life, and the lifetime value of that is gonna be way more than just the front end.

In affiliate marketing, if you’re not building a list, you’re not building your own business. Whenever I promote somebody else’s product, I want to support them because I believe in that product. At the same time, I always make sure that I’m building my list. The mistake that many affiliate marketers do is just by promoting somebody else’s product without creating a bridge page, where they capture their details first. The way I looked at it was as a marathon, and on the last five days, the last week, that was when we really ended the marathon with a sprint. That is when we scaled our ads, pushed everything up, and when it comes to phase number two, this is where I talk about the sequencing of launching anything. This could be your own offer. This could be somebody else’s offer. But in the series of emails and in the communication, there’s always three different phases as well.

In your communication, people make decisions based on these three things. Number one is based upon emotion, which is the most powerful thing ever. Why did you buy that fancy watch, that car? Chances are it’s not because of the functionality. Most things that you own today are emotional-driven, which is basically what you need to communicate to your audience if you’re gonna sell better. In my emails, when I was promoting this book, the first phase is always emotion-based. What is the emotion around traffic right now? The lockdown just happened, and more than ever, it’s so crucial to understand how to drive traffic, how to pivot online, how to understand these different platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc. What is that core message based upon? It’s based upon emotion. There’s a ton of fear right now. There’s a ton of panic, and if you want to stay in the game and grow from this time of crisis, you’ve got to understand how to get traffic online.

At the same time, phase number two, the second angle that you want to utilize in your messaging is logic. Most of the time, people would say this. They say, “Oh, I don’t make decisions based on emotion. I’m a very logical person.” That’s also not true. Most people make their decisions based on emotion and back it up with logic. You need to understand your messaging. How can you have logical things in there? Logically if you think about businesses and Facebook right now, what is happening? Why do you want to double down on traffic on Facebook right now? It is because as retailers get shut down, when F&B gets shut down, when most brick and mortar businesses can’t continue their daily operations, the first thing they cut is Facebook ads spent. 

Number two, as people are stuck at home, and their eyes are on their screens, what are they doing? They are just watching and having their eyes glued on social media. So if you think about these two forces, market forces, number one, what has happened to the demand for ads? The demand for ads has actually decreased because business owners are stopping their ads because they can’t fulfill their orders because they can’t open shops. At the same time, what’s happening to supply? Supply, which is the amount of people that are watching stuff on Facebook has actually increased. So logically, what do you think is gonna happen to the price of ads? Logically, what will happen to the price of ads when demand falls and when supply increases? Economics 101, prices will decrease, which is exactly what’s happening right now. So all the more, logically speaking, you should be doubling down on Facebook and understanding how to get more traffic. 

Now the question again, I want you to ask yourself, is in your marketing, in your messaging, are you utilizing these different things in your sequencing of your emails, in your Facebook ads, in your messaging, in your webinars?

The third angle is to always close it out with some sort of urgency. If not now, then when? Why would it be painful if they don’t take action now? I did different prize draws, but that’s all gonna go away after this launch period. I’m taking it away, so that’s urgency, and that’s why you need to act now. So the best way to close off anything is by making it painful if they don’t take action now. I’m not talking about fake urgency or scarcity. I’m talking about a real compelling reason why it’s going to be painful if they don’t take action now.

1. How can you close it off with urgency and scarcity?
   
   It could be a live webinar. It’s happening next week, but if you miss out, then it’s gone. It could be I’m doing this event. There’s a physical capacity to this event. I’ve already booked this place. We can only fit 70 people, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. So what is that urgency and scarcity for you? 

You want to be able to serve the buyers more. All in all, that’s basically what I did. That’s what I did to become the number one affiliate for Expert Secrets as well as Traffic Secrets, these two launches. With planning, understanding numbers, and having the confidence to go in really aggressively because I knew what I was gonna do in my back end to generate $300,000 in sales with about $130,000 in commissions and make all of that happen. These are the behind-the-scenes strategies that I have revealed for all of you. 

Discover my full journey on becoming the #1 affiliate for Traffic Secrets with the exact marketing strategy revealed. What separates top affiliates from the rest? It’s all about beginning with the end in mind. Click here to watch how I will be breaking it all down for you from the numbers, strategies, and process – everything that needed to happen in order for me to come in at #1.