No, I'm sure! That wouldn't actually be an issue for me at all. I was only "winding you up", pointing out that strictly speaking it's not absolutely "non-leaky"! I agree that it's not at all the same as having an opt-in there.
No problem, good to have a debate about these things, and get the other's opinion too. I like to question what I am doing, even if I decide not to change anything at the end of it. Anyway I know you have been patiently awaithing this : Here is the details of Regace http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1569568 if you are interested.
i think i'm newbie but i have sometips..i'll choose the product that have ecover..and more important we know the vendor with their photo...it's look good
Ehm, why shouldn't you put your email on the page? To me it's obvious to do so. I've got TONS of sales from people who email me saying, does your product do X do I need Y? Obviously I add any of those objections into the offer later if they are not there already, which they almost always are... And if there is an opt-in, that is BETTER for the affiliate too. Why? Follow up, follow up, follow up. That's the problem with CB... They don't give credit for everything in the sales process... And it's easier to pre-sell the customer on "Go grab that free report/video/download" or whatever... than it is to ask them to whack out $77 right off the bat. With opt-in you have a much longer sales process instead of just a 1-time impulse buy. Of course that's also good for the vendor, but it's also good for the affiliate... - Chris
Chris, I think the issue is trust. If you don't trust the vendor, you may think they'll email their own affiliate link to the list.
Because very few serious, professional affiliates will promote a product with a vendor's opt-in on the sales page. I won't touch it, and neither will any of my successful affiliate marketing friends. Sure, of course. Do this on your own site by all means. Or through e-junkie or whatever else, where you can make your own sales without affiliates. But don't expect serious affiliates to be willing to share that sales page with you. Obviously, of course. But serious affiliates do that with their own list which they build from their own landing page. It's not about "follow-up" versus "no follow-up". It's about "vendor's follow-up" versus "affiliates' follow-up". And you think professional affiliates don't know that and do the same? Obviously. But none of these things is a reason to have a vendor's opt-in on a sales page which affiliates use!! Can I make a suggestion to you? Have two sales pages available, one with an opt-in and one without, so that affiliates can choose which one they use? And then you can say in your marketplace listing (as many people do) "Opt-in free version of sales page available for affiliates". It will make a huge difference. You'll get a lot more affiliates that way, and a lot more sales!
I understand Alexa's point, but I think at the end of the day it's all about trust. I'm going to become a vendor soon and I realize that I need to do whatever I can to keep my affiliates happy - they will be the lifeblood of my business. It doesn't help me at all to screw my affiliates over by stealing a few sales. It will be far more profitable for me to keep them satisfied over the long term. All I'm saying is - if an affiliate and vendor can build a mutually trustworthy relationship, an opt-in form should positively impact both parties.
I look at gravity, but I also try to find quality products - those with good reviews, but I also try to purchase them when possible to review them so that I know I'm promoting a good product - some people hype very bad products up, so you can't trust all reviews that are out there.
It shouldn't have to be about trust. If. as an affiliate, you simply avoid leaky sales pages, you don't have to worry. Trust not needed. Clickbank's system is designed so that contact between vendors and affiliates isn't necessary at all. They don't need to have a relationship at all, let alone a "mutually trusting" one. Any affiliate has the right to promote any product they wish without reference to the vendor. Those are the terms that vendors agree to (and mostly welcome, I imagine) by using Clickbank. I don't mind having relationships with vendors at all, myself, though there's no real need for it. And having such a business relationship doesn't make me any less careful about situations like this. That's why I'm now making a living from doing this. I wasn't before. I admit that I do, too. As an afterthought, just to make sure I keep well away from anything super-competitive with a three-figure gravity. That also helps.
Then you're missing out. Opt-in forms do increase conversions (for both affiliate and vendor). Sorry to hear you don't seem to be able to trust a CB vendor.
I promise you I'm missing out on nothing. I follow up my own opt-ins better than vendors do. Of course they do - they increase them dramatically. That isn't the point here. We're not comparing opt-in with no opt-in (obviously opt-in wins that contest hands down, but that isn't relevant to what I'm saying). We're comparing vendor's opt-in with affiliate's opt-in. No need to be sorry about it. I'm not, at all. Clickbank's system is designed to make that irrelevant, isn't it? When I used to trust vendors, I didn't make a living. Now I trust myself and make a living. I have no problem with that at all, and neither does my bank manager (and neither, by the way, does any serious, professional affiliate!), so there's no point in your getting upset about it! I was formerly an affiliate for 7 different good products all with a vendor's opt-in (and they really were good products, I checked them all myself), and I had reasons to be suspicious about my conversions. And I got talking to half a dozen very successful pro-affiliates in the Warrior Forum and they all (understandably) laughed at me and thought I was terribly naive and gullible. And they were right: when I opted in to all 7 myself, under another name and a different email address, I found 6 of them were stealing sales from their own affiliates. (I know now that this is very common but I didn't know it then.) I don't like those odds. So I immediately took everyone's advice and stopped promoting anything with a vendor's opt-in and picked other products from the 10,000+ available there. Suddenly I was making a living! No need to feel sorry for me, I assure you.
Well done, thats a great story (honestly!), and I've learned a lesson without having to learn it the hard way. Well thinking back I can think of a few vendors that had opt ins, and I am suspicious about how few sales I got, but there you go. I think however a relationship between vendor and affiliates is more important than you might think. I mean I am no expert but surely that is common sense? My affiliates are my sales team, selling my product. A good example of this relationship is today I had 6000 hops from junk traffic. However because I was emailing my affiliates I recognised who it was and asked them to stop. They apologised and are going to implement a landing page. Without that relationship I would be forced to just block the IP address etc. they would stop promoting me all together and that would be the end of it. However it was a genuine mistake and he hasn't done this in the past. So as a new vendor within the first 48 hours building a relationship has helped solve a problem. He was also able to inform me of some specific-sized banners he needs for a promo he is doing, and I can knock them up quickly and give them to him. So I think it can be good news to get chatting with your vendor, but I guess not all of them are very socialable. But then if they haven't got time to answer your email, it probably means they don't care about their product and customer service either. BTW What was the topic of this thread meant to be about again?
Good point, and good example. Yes, I have no problem with such a "relationship" at all, I have it with probably more than half the vendors whose products I promote. Personally, I always try to contact them (in spite of the fact that you don't have to) because I don't promote products I don't own, and that means I've either had a review copy from them or bought it myself anyway - and either way that puts me in touch with them. But I don't use that as an excuse for promoting something with a vendor's opt-in. Good question! Oh yes - "how do you choose a product?". Well, we're actually directly on-topic here, believe it or not (unusual for a thread I'm involved in, I grant you!).
I've always found those the hardest to sell, so I tend to do the opposite, myself, and dig up low gravity, less well-known products in the hope that their conversion rates will be higher and their markets much less competitive. It's working out very well for me at the moment. Good luck!