If you want to increase your Affiliate Marketing earning potential, here’s a hint for you:
Sell More Subscriptions!
When you are an Affiliate Marketer who sells a recurring billing product, not only do you make commission once but you can make it on a repeated basis.
The great thing here is that it becomes like passive income for you because you sell it once and make commissions from it for as long as the customer keeps paying their subscription fee. If you choose a solid programme to sell that really nurtures customer relationships, this could be very profitable.
What Types Of Subscriptions Are There?
- Membership programs through independent companies.
- ClickBank recurring billing information products.
- Kindle subscriptions through Amazon (if someone buys a Kindle from you, you could get a % of every book they buy forever and ever!).
- Create your own information product and offer a subscription!
Note:
If you sell anything that has a subscription you need to be aware that if a customer requests a refund, the refund may be for more than one subscription payment.
Create Your Own Subscription Product
If you decide to create your own information product that has a subscription-based model here are some tips to help you sell more of them and to minimise the number of cancellations and non-renewals:
Avoid Fine Print!
Clearly list the terms and fee structure of your subscription programme. This prevents misunderstandings and can ensure that you don’t have a lot of refund requests.
Communicate Regularly
You don’t want to inundate your subscribers but you want to provide a lot of value. Consider a regular newsletter to keep people utilising their subscription.
Provide Value!
Don’t let your subscribers wonder what they’re paying for. Over delivering on what you’ve promised is the best way to keep people coming!
Incentives / Bonuses!
Consider offering an incentive for longer term subscriptions or early renewals.
Keep Them Interested
The best way to keep people interested is to give them previews of upcoming months so that they’ll keep coming back for more!
Developing longer term relationships with your customers is a great idea and with a subscription model, if you’re selling your very own product you can definitely build trusted advisor status which can result in your being able to sell to your repeat customers repeatedly.
In terms of Affiliate Marketing, subscriptions equate to a bigger ROI for you in terms of the time and effort you spend promoting a product. Why go for a $20 commission just once when you could instead do the same amount of work and earn $200 in a year?
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
That is all very interesting, I had to look up what a Kindle was, Now I know but I had never heard of it before, I gotta have one much better than a book in my bag, less weight to carry around.
Rita
Hi Sean,
Create your own information product and offer a subscription! This does sound interesting. What is an example of a good information product, Sean. Do you know one?
Jill
You could say the YOTA forum or any other paid forum for that matter is an information subscription product.
I’m not sure what sort of subscription products Clickbank has.
When you call up a product on Clickbank, it shows which involve recurring payments by the purchaser. It is listed where you see the grav, the commission % and so on.
It is usually for services and ongoing programs, like coaching courses, or software that is ‘rented’ really.
Hello Sean,
I like the idea of Subscriptions. It makes sense to offer a service of value for a fee. I am not sure how to add that to the idea of our next website but anything is possible. Great tips about making sure the guidelines (and fine print) is as detailed as can be – that will take away the guess work for viewers.
Cheers
Lisa
Hi Sean,
I hadn’t really considered subscriptions but it makes sense. You’ve already sold to them once so if you capitalize on that relationship you might be in for a recurring income. Awesome!
Yes Jazz
They can be quite lucrative. Basically if you have the knowledge of a subject you can sell it as a subscription. The YOTA forum is a case in point
Recurring billing products do make sense as you sell them once but keep getting paid. I have seen alot of them on clickbank, you can actually search for them only in the marketplace and have heard people like Armon Morin suggesting these are a good way to go.
Subscriptions definitely give you a better long term ROI, as long as it is a good product that people stick with.
I guess the only subscription product that I could sell at the moment is a YOTA membership, as I have personal experience with that product and really like it. But I will keep my eyes open to find some more from now on.
I hadn’t considered the affiliate marketing of subscriptions for better ROI. In the past when thinking in terms of affiliate marketing I only considered the one sale/one commission which requires you to continually be trying to attract new customers. Subscriptions certainly make a lot of sense if you can find the right product or develop your own product.
I like the Clickbank products that involve subscriptions – and the fact that they handle it for you.