Super Affiliate Marketing Blog

First I just want to start off with this post to let everyone know reading it that there are no secret tips or tricks in this entry. So if that’s all you’re here for, here’s your heads up to leave now. Second, I also want to warn you that this is more of a look into the psychology of marketing online through affiliate marketing, rather than just a how to guide. I’ll try and use some examples, but it may be a bit confusing to some, or even hard to follow, so if you don’t like reading too deep, it’s better you quit now and go elsewhere instead. For those of you who are interested, bear with me, and let’s see if I don’t make a complete fool out of myself with this rather different topic.

For the last year and half I’ve been doing a lot of reading and studying in the dark arts of marketing. In the beginning of my curiousity journey, I more or less just figured I’d touch up on some topics and use whatever I learned to apply to internet marketing. Well, that didn’t go as planned, at all. Instead I found myself getting deeper and deeper in these out of the box sort of creative marketing theories and ideas that began brewing in my head on how to take a rather simple idea of marketing online, and turn it into a tool rather than just an idea.

When I refer to “studying in the dark arts of marketing”, I’m not referring to black hat seo or any type of super gray hat area. The things I’ve been learning and creating my own spin on have taken a profound effect on how I look at target markets and potential customers with whatever offer or campaign I’m running. That doesn’t mean I use this all the time, but more or less on more challenging campaigns. The ones that people say “oh that’s too hard for me” or “there’s no way you can do that”. Those are the best challenges in the world for me, because that’s when the true mad scientist of my inner self comes out to play (in a non-creepy way though).

Almost every affiliate or webmaster I speak with or help out has a one track mind. In their minds it’s all about the following:

1. Find a niche
2. Build a page/site
3. Drive traffic
4. Convert

That’s fine and all, and works great too, but where’s the fun in that? Aside for just fun and challenges, without having a profound understanding of your target market, you are potentially losing out on a ton of would be or could be customers. Even if it’s just a simple blog style site, where a conversion or customer counts as just a clickthrough on your contextual ads. Some people can say that if you use the correct analytical apps on your sites that’s the best data to have. I agree, analytical data is a big bonus to help you out, but it is definitely not the only thing you need, or even the secret to success with monetizing your sites. I see them as what the “depth finder” hardware is on a boat when you’re going fishing, to see where all the fish are in the lake, but that doesn’t mean that you can just toss in any old type of bait and poof, instant fishing success. I’ve tried that, and you get the same damn results as you would just casting at any spot. You have to know your fish in that sense. Alright, let’s take a step back from fishing before I confuse you and myself at the same time.

So let’s say you know your users, and swear by it. For example, you’ve got a blog about designer handbags. Which is a big seller in stores and online, and almost every woman around loves that type of stuff. Great. So you say that you know your demographics and target market. The broad approach would be to target women between the ages of 16-36 in the USA. So you’d probably do some research for the keywords. Well, congrats, because you’ve already failed my test and proved my point that even though this process works, pretty well in fact, you are still losing the upperhand on your potential targeted market. What I mean by this is that in order to gain max profit from your traffic, you have to control them, but in a way so that they feel like they are making the correct decision, and that you are merely just giving them the facts and letting them make the decision on their own, when really, you are the one in complete control. And this is where we come to the topic.. Influential marketing.

What is Influential Marketing exactly? It’s when you use persuasive techniques to control the masses on a broader scale, short of saying “buy this” or “click this”, but instead pushing a crowd or someone to go towards the red door instead of the blue one by convincing them that the red door holds the key to all of their dreams and desires, whereas the blue door is a door to evil and disgusting things, or hell, just say the blue door is the office of the IRS, and don’t say anything about the red door, and I will bet they choose the red door.

Some people may think this is more deceptive than truthful. Well, you’re probably right. It’s definitely not a conventional approach by any stadard list of ethics, but guess what. These are the marketing approaches being used everyday with tv commercials, blog and program reviews, and almost every type of standard advertising within the US. I know this sounds more like a conspiracy theory than a real aspect of marketing, but I can assure you, it works, and it works very well, and isn’t even all that tough to do. There are a few names for this. The best is labeled as “propoganda” or “spin”, because that’s what all of these psychological marketing topics are broken down from. The art of spinning something one way in order to get people to think and believe another. The approach almost everyone uses right now is advertising the red door to get people into that red door. But what if you advertised the blue door as a way to get people to think “wait a second, I know all of this stuff about the blue door, but how about the red door, what’s in there?”… and in turn they think they’ve made the decision themselves to choose the red door, but really, you’ve spun it in your favor so they go that route.

Now remember. No matter what approach you use, nothing is 100% accurate and fail safe. But by adding another level of control in your favor, you can use that to your advantage to persuade your users to make it appear as if they have an option, but really they don’t have much of it.

This stuff may sound very easy as I explain it, but I can assure you it isn’t. I’ve read close to 20 books about it, from authors who aren’t even alive anymore. I’ve tackeled it from so many different perspectives and constantly learn more and more new things, and keep taking those and using them as influencing techniques to my own unique ones. Sounds confusing, I know, I’m semi-confusing myself too just speaking about it, and there were also many days where I felt like I was going nuts from trying to consume so much of this stuff in such a short period of time. Just because I’m 26 years old, have no college education, and a strong dislike for school doesn’t mean I don’t have what it takes to read material that most other psych majors or masters students are learning, because for them, this is just reference, but for me, this is a much more in-depth look into how people work, how their minds work, and how to persuade them to whatever tune I choose for them to follow. That’s why I refer to this as learning the dark arts, because while something like this can most definitely be used for something good, the power it weilds for something bad, well, just look at what happened in Germany in the 1930’s. Well, maybe not that extreme, but if you can get yourself to be a master at this stuff, you can get anyone to do just about anything you like, I kid you not.

I’ve tried some of my less powerful techniques in person, nothing business related, just as a test, and some of the results were unreal. Enough so that I literally felt like some evil wizard with hidden powers. Let’s not forget that traffic isn’t just numbers on your traffic reports. They are actual people, with brains, whether or not they are in control is their problem and can work to your benefit.

For PPC or SEO there are three types of keywords we generally look for. The first is research, which is the most common. The types that would fall under the “broad match” factor. These are people who are either doing research and looking for answers, so of course they will generate the most search volume for a particular niche. The second type is the in between user. These are the “phrase match” with a twist of the “broad match” as well. They are still doing research, but most likely at a more advanced level, still not the best type to attract for conversions, and definitely in need of coaxing and selling. But then you have the cream of the crop type. These would be the “exact match” types. The ones who are in the zone. They are searching for the best deals or better yet they are in the “buy zone”. Not much coaxing or selling needed for these types, they literally have their credit cards out and are ready to do some purchasing. Well, with influential marketing, and some spin, you can turn the first two categories of users into the “buy zone” type just so long as you aren’t overly aggressive or blatantly obvious in what you are trying to do.

I’ve seen this stuff for years. The ebook assholes do it all the time. But their approach is more car salesman or snake oil than true persuasive or influential marketing. Because they just trick you until you read their stuff or go to their seminars. They don’t actually follow through, and they more or less put pressure on you causing you to make a decision you probably don’t want to make. This is not the type of marketing I am referring to at all. Again, you do not want to come off as a salesman of any type. You don’t want to be looked as or thought of as a politician, a salesman, or anything else people make slimeball references to, you want to appear as a saint, as someone who knows their stuff and is respected for it, be as angelic as possible. Never let them know your true cruel intentions of getting them to do as you like or buy or click what you want on your websites.

Alright, I think I’ve typed just about enough of this for now. I can go on for days about this stuff too, because what I’ve mentioned here is just scratching the surface. There are much deeper and darker things I’ve learned and came up with on my own that make this stuff look like kid’s play. All without being aggressive or taking the scam artist approach. I may have to write a book on this stuff someday, but I doubt that!

(let’s see how many new ebooks are launched using this topic too over the next few months)