Promoting Affiliate Products with a Soft Sell
When it comes to promoting affiliate products we are quite familiar with the hard sell. No, I don't mean like used car ads. To me, a hard sell is anything that directly calls attention to the purchase of a product or service. It might be a review, or some comments that encourage visitors to take a look at a product.
These are great ways to promote products and services. They work especially well when our readers trust us. But it's very difficult to promote products and earn trust at the same time. We have been so conditioned to be leery of sales methods, that we will pass them by if we don't already trust or value to person doing the selling.
So how can we promote affiliate products without promoting them? By using what I call the, "soft sell."
A typical soft sell is a narrative. As people read my pages they are getting to know me. And I am hoping that they are getting to like me as well. Because if they like me then they are likely to trust me.
And trust, perhaps more than anything else, is what drives affiliate business.
What am I doing to earn their trust? I am giving them exactly what they went to the search engine for in the first place: great information about their topic of interest.
But as I'm giving them the information, I'm telling them how I learned this information and what resources I use(d) to do or understand what they want.
On a recent post on my site I was discussing the process of choosing profitable keywords. I said, "there is both a science and an art to selecting profitable keywords." My post was about the art of selecting those search terms. But along the way I mentioned several times that the science of keyword research is done for us by tools like Jaaxy.
I didn't encourage them to check out Jaaxy. But did I highlight the word Jaaxy and create an affiliate link? Absolutely! Several times in fact.
Most people will just read by those links. But some will want the science done for them too.
I think that in the early stages of building a site it is important to under-sell. Provide more and better content than what your visitors expect. Do some soft sell. Then as your site grows start with more hard sell. Build trust first. Then sell. I think that in the long run you will be much more satisfied with the results.
Recent Comments
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Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us.
Its always good to learn from people who have success with specific strategies.
-Theuns
Great to see you're trying soft sell. It'll be interesting to find out if links at the top, the middle, or the bottom are most productive. Sadly, I'm one of many that don't do enough testing. Perhaps once my site is up and earning??
Dennis
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Thank you for posting the great advice. I've finally made it to Course 3 and my brain just ground to a halt. Exactly what is the best way to use those affiliate links? Now I have a great starting strategy.
It has worked for me for over ten years. I hope it works for you as well!