When it comes to affiliate promotions do you tend to promote big ticket items or small ticket items (or both)?
I ask the question because while at lunch with a few bloggers recently the topic came up and I discovered that the answers to the question varied quite a lot.
- On one hand some bloggers exclusively promoted big ticket items which could bring in large commissions for every sale. They didn’t get many sales but when they did it was certainly worth their while and they saw healthy commissions.
- On the other hand where bloggers who did a lot of promotion of smaller ticket items. They tended to make more sales but the commissions were smaller.
My Approach
My approach is somewhere in between. I don’t base my choice on which products to promote on price – but rather the quality of the products I’m promoting and their relevancy to my audience.
- For example last week I promoted a series of great photography e-books on DPS. Each e-book was only $5 and the resulting commission for each sale was only $1.50 – however the quality of the books was fantastic (I’ve had heaps of readers emailing me to thank me for recommending them) and the number of sales was great (we’ve sold over 2000 of them already). Some of my blogging buddies wouldn’t go near a product with that small a commission but the $3500+ won’t go astray.
- On the other hand I’ve promoted a rang of other products lately including some one product that paid a $20 commission (I promoted it via email as outlined in last week’s post). This product has not sold as many copies (over 400 in a few months) but has brought in double the money (but over a longer period of time).
- As a last example – when I promote bigger ticket items (like membership courses or training programs) for which the commissions can be several hundred dollars per sale the sales numbers tend to be quite a bit lower – but even a small number of them can earn several thousand dollars.
For me promoting a variety of quality products at different price points seems to work well. I find that in doing so I seem to be able to attract buyers at different price points and levels and the commissions tend to add up to collectively be a worthwhile exercise.
What about you? If you’re promoting affiliate products I’d be interested to hear whether price is one of the factors that you consider when choosing a product to promote?
Thanks for laying it out yet again, Darren. I’m just doing Amazon bookshops at the moment. I suspect I’m barking up the wrong tree as I’ve not made a cent!
I worry about populating my blogs with ads as I feel this may reduce their integrity in the eyes of some readers.
However, your ads don’t bother me, so perhaps I need to rethink. Best regards, P. :)
Great post (and these e-books sound awesome!).
I don’t recommend or promote anything that I wouldn’t read, eat, drink, or lie down next to myself. Like you, I value my reputation and name more than anything else.
This was a GREAT idea for a post. So many times I search for a product (usually some kind of vitamin or suppliment) and stumble upon what is clearly an affiliate driven site and there’s always “Their Top Pick” and my thinking always is: is this your top pick because it pays the highest commission or is this REALLY your top pick? On my site I promote what I like and/or what I think my customers would like. Price plays very little part. A lot of what I promote is carried by a few different stores so while I might put the link for the store that pays me the higher commission on top the store that pays me the lower commission is still going to be on the site because perhaps my customer likes shopping there better.
Its all about the product, then commision available, if a product is good enough to demand the price tage and you have relevant website traffic, then you shouldnt have a problem.
The relevant traffic issue needs to bge addressed, if you have a site selling childrens toys, then it stands to reason you wont have banners selling Cartier Watches.
Well this is my first dip into affiliate marketing. The niche I’ve picked is one I know a lot of about and the products I’m trying to sell are cheap ones to encourage more slaes.
I am a fan of promoting a mix, I find it can help stabilise your income rather then having huge months and then very low months. But also opens the opportunity for the big sums to roll in. For me it simply has to be a good product/service I’m promoting, if it isn’t good your conversions will be low regardless of price.
For me, I guess it is quality that matters when promoting affiliate products. I specifically advice my readers to promote products that they have tried and are familiar with rather than promote a product that they know nothing about.
Hi, I applaud your blog for informing people, very interesting article, keep up it coming :)