Today, I want to take some time and educate you about big ticket affiliate programs.
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing successfully for about 10-years now. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I learned about big ticket affiliate programs. Once I learned about this powerful concept, my business changed for the better. My only regret was not learning about them sooner.
In the paragraphs below, I’m going to teach you the ropes about big ticket affiliate programs, so you can objectively decide if this is a business model/strategy that you want to pursue.
Which Business Model Do You Want to Do?
To the best of my knowledge, there are two STRATEGIES a business can use when it comes to pricing their products. First off, they can work on very small margins, but make tons of sales. They could buy a product for $1 and sell it for $2. They could sell thousands, even millions of these products and make HUGE profits.
I call this the Wal-Mart business model. They might make 10-30 percent on each item they sell, but they have millions of customers and they sell billions of dollars worth of products each year.
Why? Because everyone buys shampoo, food, clothes, vitamins, toilet paper, skin care, etc. and they love getting these products at a cheap price. This is a great business model IF you have a ton of traffic, prospects, customers AND mass market products.
The second strategy is to promote products or services you make LARGE MARGINS with. For example, you sell a product that costs you $50 to manufacture for five hundred dollars, maybe even several thousand dollars.
This works very well with NICHE products and SPECIALTY PRODUCTS, but not typically for mass market products. I call this the BENTLEY business model.
Why? Because Bentley cars sell for high six figures, and sometimes seven figures per car and Bentley makes huge returns on each sale. Bentley is in a niche market: people who can afford high end luxury cars.
There are thousands of businesses, both online and offline that use these strategies successfully. Ultimately, you have to decide which business model works best for you. Personally, I prefer the BENTLEY COMMISSION model.
What are Big Ticket Affiliate Programs?
Big ticket affiliate programs are affiliate programs that pay you large commissions. This might range from several hundred dollars to ten thousand dollars or more, per sale.
It might sound hard to believe, but there are lots of big ticket affiliate programs in just about every niche. All you have to do is search the internet and you will find some.
Example Big Ticket Affiliate Programs
Writing from my own experience, here are FOUR big ticket affiliate programs I use and promote myself. Keep in mind that you want to promote affiliate products that are relevant to your niche. These are just examples (from my niche) to show you what is out there.
As a quick disclaimer, I am sharing these programs because I USE THEM and LIKE THEM. I’m not going to talk about programs I’ve never even tried myself.
# 1: Power Lead System
This is the marketing system I use to promote ALL of my online businesses. You can earn up $526 per sale promoting PLS. This service includes capture pages, auto-responders and much more. Check out PLS.
# 2: Wealthy Affiliate
I am a HUGE fan of Wealthy Affiliate. I use their service myself. Wealthy Affiliate is a website service that offers hosting, website builders and a community that actually teaches people how to build a successful website and online business.
Each month someone renews their PREMIUM membership, you earn $23.50, but if someone buys a yearly membership you can earn around $175 in a single sale. It isn’t the highest paying big ticket affiliate program, but it’s good. Real good.
# 3: Top Surfer
With Top Surfer, you can earn up to $109 per sale, which gets paid directly to you. This is a safelist you can use to promote any website.
# 4: Herculist
Herculist is an online safelist, a membership site where you can promote your different affiliate offers. As a Gold member, you can earn 50% on everyone you refer and also earn 50% on every purchase they make on the website. When you refer someone who becomes a Gold Member, you normally earn around $24.50. However, some of the people I have referred have purchased lots of advertising packages and I ended up earning several hundred dollars on those referrals.
Insights
All of these affiliate products cost money to join. That doesn’t bother me though, because it forces you to actually use the product yourself. Also, these big ticket affiliate programs focus on the make money online and network marketing niches: two niches I participate in.
If you do a little research, you can find big ticket affiliate programs online that are relevant to your niche and are free to join. Just visit Mother Google and type in what you are looking for!
Reasons to Promote Big Ticket Affiliate Programs
The # 1 reason to promote big ticket affiliate programs is you can earn huge commissions per sale.
While most internet marketers are busy trying to make money online by promoting Amazon affiliate products or Google Adsense, they are really missing out.
Why? Because these affiliate programs typically pay you $1 or less per sale. That means you have to have a TON of traffic, clicks and sales to generate a full-time income. This is very doable if you have a website that gets several hundred thousand page views per month, but for the average person it is next to impossible to do.
Let me put things in perspective for you. Say your goal is to earn $3,000 per month with your online business. To do so, you have several choices.
- You could sell 3,000 affiliate products that pay you $1 each
- You could sell 1,000 affiliate products that pay you $3 each
- You could sell 100 affiliate products that pay you $30 each
- You could sell 10 affiliate products that earn you $300 each
- Or, you could sell 1 affiliate product that pays you $3,000
All of these methods have their merits, but I would personally rather spend my time selling ONE affiliate product and earning $3,000 per sale. Personally, I don’t think it’s any harder to sell a $3,000 product than a $30 product.
How to Pick a Big Ticket Affiliate Program
So, how do you pick a big ticket affiliate program to promote? These are some things I would personally look for.
# 1: The Value
Value is everything. Just because you wouldn’t spend $1,000 on something doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t. Whenever possible, I highly recommend you purchase the product you are promoting. This gives you a quick idea as to the value it offers. You can also check out testimonials from satisfied customers. An expensive product must provide a TON of value.
# 2: The Marketing Tools
What marketing tools are available to help you promote the affiliate program? Are there banner ads, email ads, link ads, etc.? Is there an affiliate manager who can answer your questions and provide answers to you? Do you get a back office where you can view your stats and sales?
# 3: The Commission Structure
What is the payout for each sale? What percentage, or how much money do you make, per sale? Ideally, you want to earn at least $100 per sale or at least 50 percent of the sale. If you’re selling an item for several thousand dollars you should make at least $500 to $1000 per sale.
Commission rates vary dramatically, depending on the company and the offer. On the low end, you’ll earn about 5% of the sale but, with some arrangements, you can earn as much as 50%, usually when promoting a class or event. There are also affiliate marketing programs that provide a flat rate per sale instead of a percentage.
Source: Shopify
# 4: The Sales Copy
Does the video sales letter or written sales letter actually persuade people to buy? Is it well written? Is it mobile friendly? Is the layout appealing? Does it look professional?
# 5: The Reputation
What is the reputation of the product or company online? How many “scam” articles are there written about it? How many complaints are there? Can people return the item and get their money back if they want to? Are there more HAPPY customers than unhappy customers?
If you ask several people about their thoughts on affiliate marketing, you will get a lot of mixed reactions. The reason why is because some of them have made millions while others have been cheated. Well, it’s our mistake if we don’t check out the reputation of affiliate network/program before joining.
Source: Shout Me Loud
How to Promote Big Ticket Affiliate Programs
Here are some different ways you could promote big ticket affiliate programs.
- Postcards
- Pay per Click
- Blog Reviews
- Video Reviews
- Ezine Advertising
- Podcasts
- Solo Ads
- Safelists
- Banner Ads
- Craigslist
- Guest Posts
- Forum and Blog Comments
- Email Signatures
- Classified Ads
- Sponsored Listings
This is not an inclusive list. It’s just designed to give you a few ideas to consider.
Success Tips
Here are some of my best success tips on how to succeed promoting big ticket affiliate programs.
# 1: Use the Product Yourself
Like I mentioned earlier, it’s best if you use the product yourself. I know that’s not always possible, however, if you have experience using the product or service, you will have a story you can share with others. You will have conviction and belief in the product, and will be much more persuasive when promoting it.
It is not necessary to have used the product in most cases. However, it will be easier for you to recommend something if you have a good knowledge of it and know what you are talking about. Remember, when you are recommending a product you are essentially vouching for it. Your readers trust you and you don’t want to recommend or promote a crappy product that you’ve never actually used.
Source: websavers
# 2: Think Like Your Buyer
Stop thinking like you normally do and put your eyes in the mind of your buyers. Think about what problems they are trying to solve and how might the product you are promoting help them do that.
# 3: Focus on Just 1-2 Affiliate Programs at a Time
Do not go out and promote 10-20 different big ticket affiliate programs at once. That is the recipe for failure. Instead, find 1-2 programs that make sense to you and focus on those exclusively.
Affiliate marketing statistics show that the majority of affiliate marketers (42.17% of them) prefer to promote between 1–10 products. 23.18% of them like to promote 11–20 products, while 14.19% would promote 21–50 products. Only 7.53% of affiliate marketers like to promote over 300 products.
Source: Hosting Tribunal
# 4: Master Traffic Generation
You will either fail, or succeed, based on your ability to send a TON of targeted traffic to your affiliate offer. That is the only difference between a top affiliate marketer and someone who struggles. Find 2-3 ways to get traffic and MASTER those strategies.
Final Thoughts
There you have it folks. These are my insights on big ticket affiliate programs. I hope I have opened your eyes to the possibilities of promoting big ticket affiliate programs. I hope you will take the information in this article and apply it in your own online business.
What are your thoughts? What are your best tips for promoting big ticket affiliate programs? Is this something you have done in the past? If so, leave a comment below and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
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