Before there was Affiliate Marketing, there was Direct Repsone (homework)

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barman

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This will be my first "contribution" to WF in a while... if ever. I was going to waste time making an ubercamp parody but felt i might as well contribute something useful.

Anyways, affiliate marketing is nothing new. Before the internet it was called Direct Response marketing and it was done through mail, magazines, and so on. There are some legends in this field and this is what this post is about.

"Keep trying something new until it sticks" is the affiliate marketer's key to success motto. This is especially true for Pay Per Click, where the response is about as quick and direct as it gets. You can keep trying for months or even years because there are so many things to try. One of the main reasons your campaigns will succeed or fail is because of the words you use. Why not take a shortcut by knowing what to write when you start?

There are fundamental reasons why people buy the things they buy. Direct response marketers figured this out before the internet became what it is today.

I think its fundamentally flawed that people place so much emphasis on tracking and analytics. Don't get me wrong, they're incredibly important (srsly don't forget to Split Test), but if you don't know how to sell then all you're doing is "polishing a turd." You can start 100 campaigns, choose 10 that work, finally get one that makes you money, but this is more of a machine-gun approach. What if you wanted to be surgical? What if you wanted to only promote stuff you actually enjoyed selling, but couldn't turn them into a profit? Maybe these books can bring you into the black.

The legends of yore wrote some great books on direct response, so here are my recommendations.

Recommended Reading:

Joe Sugarman
I picked up this author's name from another book I read (for the life of me I can't remember the author or title cause I don't have it on me, but it wasn't very good)

Anyways, his book 30 Triggers is a short, great read. It's basically 30 reasons why people buy shit told through a story... you have to think about what he writes but he hits a LOT of reasons why people buy stuff.

Amazon.com: Triggers: 30 Sales Tools you can use to Control the Mind of your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade.: Joseph Sugarman, Ron Hugher, Dick Hafer: Books

I feel guilty doin this, but you can download this book here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XGDAMPI0

He has other books that you should pick up as well:
Amazon.com: The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters: Joseph Sugarman: Books

Robert Cialdini
This dude isn't a direct marketer, but a psychologist ( i think) Anyways, this book is an amazing study into the sub-conscience reasons people do what they do when influenced by another.

Amazon.com: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials): Robert B. Cialdini: Books

Jay Abraham
I don't have any material I can recommend off the top of my head, but this guy is one of the best marketers of all time. He's one of the few people that can actually justify a $5k fee for his seminars.

Amazon.com: Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition: Jay Abraham: Books




Disclaimer: I am by no means an super affiliate, but I am not a gooberaffiliate either. Matter of fact I don't think I have any PPC campaigns going, but this knowledge can be applied to any kind of traffic, even your own products. Take form this post what you wish.


If you learn something or this posts helped your campaigns, let us know.

If you have any other great direct response books or authors to recommend, do it here
 


Funny you should post this, I just stumbled across Influence (my gf had it left over from a high school class) and it's amazing. The chapter on Social Proof is particularly great for affiliate marketing (testimonials, etc) and obviously Authority as well (review sites). Great suggestions!
 
I'd like to add that Douglass Rushkoff is also an amazing read in general, and mentions a lot of things taht can easily be applied to marketing, particularly in his book Coercion.
He's also a good fiction writer.

Funny you should post this, I just stumbled across Influence (my gf had it left over from a high school class) and it's amazing. The chapter on Social Proof is particularly great for affiliate marketing (testimonials, etc) and obviously Authority as well (review sites). Great suggestions!

Then it's REALLY weird that you mention it, because a certain bigwig around here just emailed me a copy of that yesterday.
Read the first chapter only so far, but it seems pretty well written and easy to get my head around so far
 
Alright, to be honest I don't read books. I can't get into them or whatever, blah blah blah. Do reading these books actually help, have you actually seen gains in your income? Or is it just a nice escape from work or what not?
 
Joe Sugarman
I picked up this author's name from another book I read (for the life of me I can't remember the author or title cause I don't have it on me, but it wasn't very good)

Anyways, his book 30 Triggers is a short, great read. It's basically 30 reasons why people buy shit told through a story... you have to think about what he writes but he hits a LOT of reasons why people buy stuff.

Amazon.com: Triggers: 30 Sales Tools you can use to Control the Mind of your Prospect to Motivate, Influence and Persuade.: Joseph Sugarman, Ron Hugher, Dick Hafer: Books

I feel guilty doin this, but you can download this book here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XGDAMPI0

I'm reading it now. (I'm on chapter 6.) Its an easy read and its very insightful.

Thanks
 
Alright, to be honest I don't read books. I can't get into them or whatever, blah blah blah. Do reading these books actually help, have you actually seen gains in your income? Or is it just a nice escape from work or what not?

Joe Sugarman's book is pretty much the definitive sales copywriting guide out there. If you write your own headlines and ad copy, it's definitely a huge push. Great insights into many marketing principles directly applicable to PPC affiliates as well.
 
As an aside.
Direct Marketers track just as much if not more - every offer has a keycode, every list gets refined. I have a stack of DM books on my shelf here, if anyone wants a recc or two pm me.
 
Alright, to be honest I don't read books. I can't get into them or whatever, blah blah blah. Do reading these books actually help, have you actually seen gains in your income? Or is it just a nice escape from work or what not?


Like its been said if you write ad copy, your landing pages, etc, then its worth the reading. I put up a PDF download link for one of the books and its less then 90 pages. So if you can't learn anything that way, well, dunno what to tell you
 
Yes i just went on a little spree too and bought 6 books from this thread and other folks.

Tested Advertising Methods (Prentice Hall Business Classics)

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got: 21 Ways You Can Out-Think, Out-Perform, and Out-Earn the Competition

Coercion: Why We Listen to What "They" Say

How to Master the Art of Selling

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time


Doubt i'll read them all too soon, but nowadays i dedicate sundays to reading and can usually get done a book in a day
 
It's a sales book rather than a marketing book, but a lot of the principles can be applied...

"You can't teach a kid to ride a bike at a seminar" by David Sandler is the most effective selling system I've seen. The stuff on using pain to sell is priceless.
 
Some real classics I've learned a lot from are "Scientific Advertising" by Claude Hopkins and "Propaganda" by Edward Bernays. They are both older than dirt and so are both available for free online.
 
I just finished The 4-hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris. Despite it being a bestseller it didn't appeal to me. He teaches that we should outsource everything and devote the free time to travelling, learning new things and generally do things we enjoy doing. Nothing wrong with that but I think he misses one crucial point - not everyone hates their job.

I just started Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples recommended by a couple of people in this thread. I'm going through the part about writing headlines and it surely is a great read. I already learned more about headlines than from any other internet source.

Any other recommendations anyone?
 
I pretty much eat up anything Dan Kennedy writes... I used his book The Ultimate Sales Letter to write my first offline sales letter. His stuff lately is a little more watered-down but some of his earlier books are filled with good stuff.

I also subscribe to his monthly No BS Newsletter and I've picked up a lot of ideas for campaigns (both online and off) from that. His newsletter has a lot of off line direct marketing examples and that's why I stay subscribed at $40 a month.

The Sales Bible by Jeffrey Gitomer was also a good read that helped me to understand why people buy.

And another good read by Jay Abraham is Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got.
 
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