Other tools, software, and resources
When it comes to any profession just about every master has tools.
A surgeon can’t operate without knives and stitching tools.
Affiliate marketing is no different. Specific tools that'll make life easier and are essential for success.
I regularly use these tools, I've made it easy for you and will vouch for you on all of the following tools.
1. Affiliate Networks – You will need them
Think of an Affiliate Network Marketplace for offers.
Without a marketplace you don’t have offers to promote.
It's free to join and you never actually pay them anything. The networks make a percentage of what you generate conversion wise.
Why ClickBank, A4D, Digi Store, Max Web, Optimize to Convert, and Common Acquire?
There are hundreds, possibly thousands of affiliate networks out there, most are not newbie-friendly.
Generally, if you have no experience most of the top networks will not even consider you.
You end up wasting a lot of time filling out forms, and never get accepted.
Another problem we've run into is, some affiliate networks have kind of a bad reputation in the industry. This has become less and less of an issue over time.
Here are the sign-up links for my recommended networks:
A4D
Digi Store 24
Max Web
ClickBank
Optimize to Convert
Common Acquire
2. Landing Page Builder (Most important)
We have mentioned this there are a lot of options we use:
These tools are a game-changing; we can get campaigns live in a few hours with split tests and multiple landing pages
3. Let's talk about tracking software (Optional)
There are several tracking tools out there. It doesn't matter which one you choose, but you must be able to track your campaigns.
Without tracking, you cannot optimize your data; it's that simple.
You need to know what's going on with your ads from first click you get.
The only way to make money in Affiliate Marketing is when you are able to make data-driven decisions.
My recommendations are Voluum and RedTrack.io
4. Purchasing Hosting (Optional)
We went over hosting earlier. You will need to do this to have your landing pages on the internet in HTML; without hosting, you don't have landing pages. Most campaigns, you will need landing pages to be successful. They are your 24/7 online salesmen.
You can almost always count on higher conversions when you have landing pages; your salesman doesn't sleep, call in sick, or complain.
As I suggested earlier, I highly recommend the VPS from Liquid Web to host your landing pages. We use them and like them. They will be extremely fast, which is what you need to be successful in this business.
I'm sure there are lesser plans, but I currently pay about $250 a month for all my websites. I have a lot of traffic and websites. I suggest learning this as you will need it in your business in the future.
Checking in at the time of this writing, it looks like there's a pretty good plan for around $59 a month.
Cost for essential tools:
Landing Page Builder $97/month
Hosting: $59/month (Optional)
Not too bad to start a business for only a hundred $150 a month!
The significant barrier to entry is the cost of traffic. Buying data is a low cost to enter business with high potential for those who work hard.
Now, let's look at what else you might want.
5. Private Forums - For Some People
It's a forum where other affiliates are hangout.
When you're new, you will have questions, and it's nice to go to a forum and get those questions answered.
There are free forums and paid forums; generally, you can get better quality people on the paid forums.
Good advice is typically not free.
I have not spent much time on the forums, but I recommend them if you don't have a big inner circle of affiliates.
This business can be lonely as well, and you may want to make some like-minded online friends.
The Top Paid Forums
What do they offer?
• Advice and tips from other affiliates.
• Mastermind groups.
• Top affiliates hangout regularly and comment.
• They have follow-along campaigns.
• Case studies of successful and failed campaigns.
Cost: $99 a month
STM is the real deal of people showing you what's working exactly with their campaigns.It's a good start if you can't afford to take a course or other high-level training. I would recommend investing in your education, and a forum is an excellent place to start if $99 is your budget.
6. Outsourcing
My go-to for sourcing is Upwork.
Upwork Marketplace has talented people who can pretty much perform any task you might need.
If you are not a coder or a designer, you can find one on Upwork.
Another option is fiverr.com
The cost will vary depending on how much work you need and what you need.One word of advice is that if you have a project and can afford two people to do the same thing and compare their work, that might give you a better idea of who to work with going forward.
7. Spy Tools
I've already mentioned AdSpy in an earlier section, but other good spy tools are Adplexity, Social Ad Scout, and BigSpy.
I'm sure you've wondered what other affiliates are running. This exactly what a spy tool does; it allows you to spy on other affiliates.
Nowadays, Facebook has made it easy to find an affiliate fan page of an affiliate; you can click on page transparency and see all their ads. It was like Christmas in July when this happened!!
If you're running Native ads you want to get a good idea of an advertorial the landing pages that are working, I recommend Anstrex. Anstrex is a great place to find live images and landing pages. Native ad guys know their stuff with ads, angles, and landing pages but not everything on Native ads will be allowed on Facebook, but it will give you an idea of working campaigns. You will lose a ton of money in a hurry on Native ads if your stuff is not working, so you can bet most of what you will dig up is converting.
Pro Tip: Look for ads running or seen by the spy tool for a while. We know they are working.
You can take the angles, the ad copy, some images if they're not too grotesque, and the landing pages if they are compliant, take them to Facebook, and immediately get conversions.
As far as mobile goes, Adplexity they rule the mobile spy market. If you're running on a mobile, I highly recommend Adplexity.
Your two options as a newbie, I would say Facebook. Do your research on Facebook and find the page transparency section of the affiliates you are looking to spy on, or BigSpy has a small $9 a month program.
Check your news feed for ads; you can save the ads; I have 100's saved.
For example, if you're running a demographic–women who are 50 years old – try to track down a person who is 50 and female and hangs out on Facebook, like your mom, and check out the ads that are getting shown to her.
Pro Tip: The last piece of advice on spying is where the money is made, as I mentioned earlier. My media buyers and I typically spend one-two weeks straight researching an offer before we even think about running traffic.
8. VPN
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.
Have you ever been to another country and noticed that things on the internet look a little different?
That's because the internet recognizes you are in that country.
If you'd like the Spy on ads in another country you need to make sure your browser or IP address is showing up in that country.
International spying is why I would use a VPN as an affiliate.
We can check the offer pages.
Before we run an offer, especially in another country, you're going to want to login to VPN, put yourself in that countries, browser-wise, and make sure your offer shows up correctly with a VPN.
When it comes to security, your ISP or internet service provider, the government, and hackers won't be able to see any of your transmitting data via a VPN.
Plus, your VPN will mask your IP address so the website can't tell which location or what country you are based in. Masking is excellent for advanced spying.
If you want to advertise on a specific website, combine a VPN with an incognito window, and you're free to see what the internet looks like from other countries' point of view.My recommendation is HideMyAss Pro. Most of these have free trials or free versions. If you sign up, you can typically get 30 days for free.
Then cancel and potentially sign up with a different email when you need a VPN, or it's relatively inexpensive to pay for a yearly plan.
9. Translations
If you're running International, we going to need a translation service.
I've used Google Translate for a lot of stuff and it works pretty well, but it's not perfect.
You will want to get somebody with the native tongue to proofread your copy to see if Google Translate was correct.
A service that I like to recommend is called One hour Translate
Make one hundred percent sure that you are getting people who live in that country to translate.
Think about this, if you saw an English ad that had several misspellings and it was poorly written, would you buy the product?
It's the same in every language.
Ensure your grammar, punctuation, and spelling are correct. Proper grammar is important in this business. Check out Grammarly.
Next Actions
So, if you're still reading this and have not completed these steps, then let's get going:
- Get signed up with an affiliate Network.
- Setup page builder ClickFunnels or Groove Pages
- Purchase Liquid Web VPS hosting. If you're ready to be more advanced.
- Join Stack That Money
- Get AdSpy
- Get a VPN, HideMyAss
- Set up One-Hour Translation
- Get an account set up on Fiverr 20% off or Upwork
