Discover the secrets to achieving super affiliate status and maximizing your earning potential in the world of affiliate marketing. Learn about the key strategies, tactics, and tools for success in this comprehensive guide to reaching super affiliate success.
9 Secrets to Achieving Super Affiliate Status
One of the best things about being an online entrepreneur is that there is no glass ceiling preventing you from continually increasing your earnings. If you’ve chosen affiliate marketing as one of your business models, you have various levels of success you can aim for – the top of which is super affiliate status.
Super affiliates are those who earn the most for their promotions. That may be $10k a month or over six figures, depending on the niche and size of the audience. Whether you’re already earning well with this business or just starting out, you want to aim for this top tier position because it comes with more than just commissions.
Super affiliates get to enjoy many perks offered by the vendors. Whether you’re promoting digital or tangible goods, you’ll often get access to free products so that you can create genuine reviews.
On top of that, you might get earlybird promotion opportunities before the competition, allowing you to rake in more commissions than your competitors. Some vendors will also create bonuses for you to use, write your emails for you to plug into your autoresponder system and even promote your lead magnet page on their product download page.
Below, you’ll find a strategy that can help you get to this level where you’re being treated well by vendors and rewarded for your efforts by the target audience that you’re catering to.
Create Branding That Reflects Your Niche Authority
When you are setting yourself up for success as a super affiliate in any niche, you want to make sure that you have the best branding to represent your online entity. Branding can be associated with many different things in your Internet-based business.
For some, it is simply a logo that they use in there profiles online in social media accounts as well as for their gravatar on their blog. But it goes much deeper than that. You want to have an overall professional appearance with a specific look for your blog or website.
Sometimes, the branding that you choose, including the images and even the color palette will determine what kind of first impression people have when they glance at the graphics.
For example, if you have a pink hue with a cartoonish female character that is smiling, you will immediately associate it with a fun, feminine persona and brand. You are going to need a header for your blog, and you want all of the other elements associated with your online business to be easily recognizable as yours.
Your landing page and eCover graphics for list building purposes need to match or have the same type of feel to them. Whenever you are creating branding for social media profiles, make sure it matches in both name and look across all platforms.
This is something you need to check before you nail down a specific business name, making sure that it is available on all platforms. Sometimes, it can be as simple as tweaking a phrase by adding or removing the word the.
For example, you might have to choose to be The Keto Guru rather than Keto Guru, or vice versa. Ideally, you want to set your brand apart so that you are not choosing a business name or persona that is too close to anyone else’s.
When you are thinking about the branding that you want to reflect, you’re going to have to consider the domain name that you choose, the personality you want to use to lead your audience, and who the target audience is that you want to captivate online.
You may be able to write a book and self publish it on platforms like Amazon Kindle and elsewhere so that you stake claim to your branding and authority in your niche. Make sure you are also branding your domain URL everywhere possible.
If you hope to achieve super affiliate status, you are going to need the most professional branding possible. That may mean you either study how to create these elements yourself and practice until they are perfect, or you save up the money to outsource to an individual who has the experience needed to create branding components for your goals.
Building a Loyal List Is Key
Far too many affiliate marketers simply rely on the hit or miss organic traffic efforts they implement to help them get sales and commissions. But if you hope to climb the ranks to super affiliate status, you need to not only build a list of subscribers, but you need to cultivate a sense of loyalty from them.
The first thing you need to do is set up an email autoresponder system using a tried and true company that has the ability to bypass spam filters. Choose a company such as AWeber or GetResponse for the best results.
Next, you need to set up a landing page that has high converting copy on it to help convince people to give you their name and email address in exchange for a tempting lead magnet offer.
Your lead magnet needs to hit on a pain point or goal that the visitor has, and should likely be something that they can’t just Google and find anywhere else. Even if it’s the same type of information, you need to put your personal spin on it that will help you get conversions.
Loyal subscribers are those who build a relationship with the list owner. In their mind, they need to see your email communications as something that is meant for them, even if they know others are receiving the same communications.
You want to make sure you are personalizing your emails that go out to your subscribers, both by using their name and also by sharing stories about your own life that are relevant to the niche topic.
The kind of emails that you send out to your subscribers should be a mix of content. You definitely want to be sending promotional emails out to drive traffic to offers using your affiliate link.
But you also want to send access to unexpected content that helps you generate loyalty from your readers. This means, you are not selling to them at all times. You can send a surprise download, such as a free report that comes a bit later than the one they knew they were going to get when they signed up to your list.
You can also include tips and hacks along with your recommendations and other content. Giving them advice about how to solve their problems or achieve their goals will make you a valued authority figure in their inbox.
One thing you may want to do is create a forum, Facebook group, or even set up your blog so that the people on your list are able to interact with one another in comments and threads.
This helps your list members form a sense of community under your leadership, which is important in helping you become a super affiliate. You may also want to create subscriber only gated content that your list can access with a private password that you give them, which the general public does not have access to.
When you develop a loyal bond with your subscribers, they’ll not only trust your recommendations when it comes to products you’re promoting, but they’ll make it a point to purchase through your link over any of your competitors due to the sheer value you provide.
Learn How to Rank High for Buyer Keywords
Another area that differentiates regular affiliates from super affiliates is that super affiliates know to target buyer keywords. Others just download a high volume list of words and phrases associated with a niche topic and hope that whoever lands on their content is in a buying mood.
Buyer intent keywords and phrases are those where the consumer has gone online specifically with the intention of making a purchases, so the wording they use to search for the information they want is more pointed and specific than others just looking to be informed.
There are different types of buyer keywords that you can hone in on. Buyers do search using informative keywords, but they also search using specific transaction keywords and comparison or consumer keywords, too.
Informative keywords are those you used whenever someone is looking for a product based on their needs. For example, someone might type into a search engine: best exercise equipment for elderly woman or best laptop for gamers.
People using these types of keyword phrases are looking for you to clue them into the information about which products would be right for their needs, and why. They want all of the details that will prove to them that you have selected products Based on what they are looking for specifically.
Transaction keywords are used by those who are telling you that they have cash in hand and are ready to spend it. A good example of this would be someone who uses the phrase, buy elliptical online or best deal on an elliptical.
The consumer keywords, which can also be comparative in nature, are used by those who are in the market for a specific product, but they need more guidance on what to buy.
So the keyword phrases they may use might include things like, elliptical features comparison or, treadmill reviews. These are the consumers who don’t exactly know what to look for or what to ask, so they are relying on you to help then make a wise purchasing decision.
You also have or just that show that someone is willing to spend money, but they are looking for the best deal possible. Many consumers have a specific budget in mind, so they may use a phrase such as, best gaming laptop under $1,000.
Or, they may just look for products using budget-minded phrases like, kitchen stand mixer deals. Think of all the different words people might use when they’re wanting to carefully spend money.
Words like “budget,” “affordable,” “coupon code” or “discount” can all be added to the mix. These people aren’t looking for a freebie, but they don’t want to spend more than they have to, either.
It’s not only those who can’t afford to spend more money who use these buyer keywords, either. Many wealthy individuals shop for the best deals because they don’t want to throw away their money if they don’t have to.
You want to excel at meeting the needs of your customers by delivering content that pulls people in based on their specific needs for features, finances and general guidance that you can provide to them.
You still want to use additional keywords that other affiliates are using in their content, just so you begin to rank for a wider variety of niche phrases, but you want to have a strong focus on buyer intended keywords that bring spenders to your website.
Network for Incentives You Can Pass on to Your Customers
We talked previously about the importance of building a loyal list of subscribers. Whether someone is on your list or simply visiting your blog, you want to be able to set yourself apart as a niche leader by securing incentives that others have not provided to the consumer.
There are different types of incentives that you can pass along to these people. For example, sometimes it’s a discount on a product. There are vendors and brands who will give you a coupon code that not everyone is allowed to use.
In addition to a discount, some vendors will throw in an additional freebie, so the customer ends up getting more value out of their purchase than if they simply bought a product through someone else’s link.
Another incentive you might be able to secure for your readers is an advanced purchase. There are vendors who will open up a launch to super affiliates ahead of time so that they are first to be able to offer a product to their readers and subscribers.
If you are a super affiliate, many vendors will provide you with bonus material that you can give to those who purchase through your link. Depending on the vendor, they may create something exclusive just for your list.
You can also network to have a private webinar with the vendor and your buyers, so that the people who purchased through your link get to interact with the product creator and ask questions with you as a co-host, guiding the event.
So how do you go about building relationships with individuals and brands who can help you over deliver to your customers? The first thing you want to do is connect with them on various social media platforms.
You also want to sign up to the list of the person or company that you intend to form a connection with. You need to be able to see how they interact with their consumers so that you are able to propose deals that fit with what they are agreeable to do.
As a super affiliate, you want to make sure you are continually building your list and your social media following into a powerhouse in terms of both the number of people listening to you and the quality of the follower.
Next, you want to interact with the brand or person and engage with them publicly for awhile, showing your support by either commenting on their posts or sharing their content with your followers and tagging them when applicable.
When the time is right, you want to reach out to them directly and introduce yourself in a friendly manner. You don’t want to ask for too much right away, but simply let them know that you appreciate their products and that you will be looking for ways to promote them to your dedicated audience.
Usually, at this juncture, the vendor or brand will respond in kind and offer to support your promotion in any way possible. They may have something specific that they want to offer, or they may just invite you to ask if you need anything.
Make sure you listen to your subscribers and readers to see what they need and want from brands and vendors that they purchase from. If you notice there is a hardship in finances, and the product you want to promote is a little outside of their budget, then asking for a coupon code to bring the price down a bit would be the perfect solution.
Be Very Selective About What You Promote
It’s important, as someone who is striving to be a super affiliate, that you steer clear of any product or vendor who might tarnish your reputation if you promote them. You need to make sure that the brand or individual has a positive reputation in the marketplace.
Don’t just go by the testimonials that are on someone’s sales page. These are often made up, or provided by some of their seedy friends who are also not very reputable themselves.
You’re not only looking for brands that you can promote that have good products. You want to look at how their buyers are treated once the sale has taken place. For example, does the brand or vendor have good customer service in place to take care of your people?
What about how they act as an affiliate themselves? You don’t want to send your subscribers to a brand or vendor who is going to promote poor quality products to them as an affiliate.
Another thing you want to consider, obviously, is what kind of value the product has to your potential customers. You don’t want to be promoting anything and everything, just because it has a good commission level or price point.
If you promote subpar products to your readers and subscribers, the value of your own word will diminish and they will only be burned once before they no longer take your recommendations into consideration.
Another thing you have to consider before promoting someone is the quality of their sales page. There are people who have great information to share, and who do an amazing job creating their product.
However, their sales letter may look as if it came from the 1990s and the copywriting may be a complete miss. If you run into this type of situation, there is a way you can get around it.
You can approach the vendor and let them know about your concerns in a kind way by simply letting them know that you are very familiar with the type of sales pages that convert well with your list.
Offer to set up a sales page just for your list that you can drive traffic to. The vendor simply has to clone their offer and give you the HTML code for the buy button and you can install it.
This will help you bypass their sales page completely and enable you to still enjoy high conversions and sales because you have elevated the quality of the sales page. If they are not able to improve or allow you to replace their sales page, then you do have one other option.
If you feel the product is worth the effort, you can create a bridge page where you do most of the selling and convincing to your target audience on your page. You can even let your audience know that while the product is incredible, you felt the sales letter was lacking, so you wanted to step up and let them know the value of what they were about to purchase.
Using a bridge page, you can also go over any additional information that you feel the vendor or brand has either missed or not done a good job at emphasizing. You can also add information about your exclusive bonus to the bridge page, which can serve as an added element to help increase conversions.
Then, you can add a call to action that tells your bridge page readers to click on the link, scroll directly to the bottom of their sales page, and purchase the product to get your bonus.
One thing you have to consider, though, is whether or not the individual or brand has been accommodating with you as an affiliate. Many newbies may not know how to properly court a super affiliate.
They may be hesitant or feel as if people are taking advantage of them, which is just a matter of not understanding how the industry works. You want to work with people who not only give you good support as an affiliate, but who are capable of supporting your customers, too.
Pay attention to how well or how poorly they communicate with you. Communication should be in a timely manner, within 24 hours. They should be friendly and accommodating.
If you notice that they are ignoring communications or that they have a rude demeanor, you may want to avoid promoting that individual until they get more experience in how to act professionally with customers and affiliates.
When it comes to the bonuses that you consider creating, save that extra effort for when you have a product that needs something more, and which also stands to pay off for you better in the long run.
For example, if you have a product that you want to promote that offers recurring commissions or has a contest associated with it, it may be worth the extra effort to come up with an exclusive bonus for your buyers.
Maximize Your Monetization Efforts
Super affiliates go the extra mile in making sure that all of their online efforts are monetized properly. There are many inexperienced affiliates who create articles for their blog, and forget to include their affiliate link – or only include one link at the very end of the article.
There are many different factors you want to take into consideration when it comes to monetization. After all, the level of earnings that you are striving for is what will determine whether or not you have achieved super affiliate status.
The first thing you want to look at after the quality of the product and all other factors is what kind of commission you will earn from the promotion of a product. You have to look on all levels.
That includes the front end, as well as any and all upsells associated in the funnel of a digital product. If it is a tangible product, you have to think about the volume of the item that you can sell and the commission level that the platform is offering.
Keep in mind that certain platforms, such as Amazon, offer different commissions for different categories. For example, they may pay 20% for Amazon games, but only 10% for luxury beauty items and a mirror 1% for Amazon Fresh orders.
They also have what are known as Bounty Events. This is a form of CPA (cost per action) marketing that allows you to earn a set rate whenever you convince someone to take an action.
That might be signing up for a free trial of Amazon Prime Video. The normal Bounty Rate might be $2 per sign up, but they also have promotional rates that you can earn during certain time periods, where you could earn $10 person up instead.
Getting back to digital products, you may have vendors who are offering different commissions for different levels of their funnels as well. For example, they may have a low ticket front end where they are offering 100% commission, and higher ticket upsells that offer 50% commission.
Once you have achieved super affiliate status, you might be able to negotiate to receive 100% commission regardless of whether or not they are offering it to all of their affiliates.
You also want to know what the cookie situation is. This can work in your favor or against you. On one hand, you want the cookie to last as long as possible if you are the first person sending a customer to a site.
But on the other hand, if someone else has sent that person to the site before you, but your copy is what converts them into a buyer, you still may lose out on the commissions if the cookie duration works against you.
This is why many affiliates prefer it when a vendor uses cookies that attribute the sale to the last click. Cookies typically last anywhere between one day and one month if they are set on a time-based schedule.
On Amazon, you will earn commission on any items that qualify within 24 hours of a customer landing on their side and beginning to add items to their cart. After they check out, the cookie is reset so that if they return to the site later using someone else’s link, the other affiliate will earn from that transaction.
We mentioned previously that Amazon has some built in CPA promotions. As a super affiliate, you are not restricted to simply recommending and reviewing specific products that are digital downloads or tangible items that can be sent to people’s homes.
You can also monetize your online efforts as an affiliate using CPA promotions within your content. CPA marketing is just a form of affiliate marketing, but you’re getting paid commissions whenever someone takes an action and signs up as a lead or takes some other action.
These can be wonderful ways to increase your earnings as a super affiliate because the customer doesn’t have to fork over any money initially. The trial they sign up for is free, and you earn from their interest, not from a purchase.
Anytime you are promoting on your blog, you want to look at these types of offers, in combination with whatever digital products and tangible ones you can recommend to your target audience.
When it comes to digital products, these might be courses that they can download or access online, or it might be tools that they can use. For example, in the Internet marketing industry, you can earn commissions on things like hosting accounts, page builders, keyword tools and more.
Another thing you may want to consider is adding AdSense to your blog or site. These text or image-based ads can help build your income as a super affiliate, even though you’re not earning affiliate commissions from it.
If the content is already there, your utilization of the sidebar, space under the header of your blog or in the content itself can be a great addition to your monthly earnings. There are two more considerations to make when looking at the monetization of your super affiliate status.
First, the platforms you promote on. Remember, Google and other search engines like to see their users being given choices as to where they buy products from. So signing up to places like Amazon, Share-a-Sale and Commission Junction can help you achieve that goal and cater to the needs of your readers, too.
For digital products and courses, you might look into ClickBank, Warrior Plus, JVZoo, Shopify, Etsy and more. Secondly, think about what you can promote that will deliver for you in terms of recurring commissions.
When someone signs up for something like hosting, email autoresponders or even a monthly subscriber box of tangible goods like Bark Box, you can earn steady (and growing) commissions from your one-time sales conversion.
Consistent Content and Communication Is Required
Super affiliates go above and beyond with their content and communication than other affiliates. While many fledgling affiliates are hit or miss with their consistency, super affiliates show up day after day, delivering a reliable form of leadership to their followers.
Your communication needs to be steady and timely across all platforms. Whether you are blogging, posting or sharing on social media platforms, emailing your list, or responding to comments and engaging with your followers – you don’t want to become stagnant and forgettable by your readers.
One thing that stumps many normal affiliates is that they don’t really know how to churn out the level of content needed across all of these platforms. Not including bonuses that they create, they have to email their list regularly, post to multiple social media platforms with a variety of content, create lengthy and comprehensive pillar post level reviews on their blog, and more.
Your list and readers are looking for more than just basic reviews. There are many different ideas you can choose from in order to help you achieve consistency with your content, while still exciting your followers with your approach.
For example, readers love lists. Listicles on blogs perform very well, and are often chosen as Featured Snippets for Google because they are easily skimmed by their users.
So you can create a list of products that someone may need. For example, you might create a list of 27 products a beginner survival prepper needs for their bug out bag. With each one of these 27 products, you can include one of your affiliate links to monetize the content.
Another thing that you can do is create a best of list. For example, the “best of the survival sleeping bags” could be a slant that you use to cater to buyers who have different needs for durability, weather and temperature, budgets, etc.
You can create content that serves as a buyer’s guide, too. Consumer Reports has always done an excellent job of taking this approach to help their readers find the best products for their needs.
For example, they may start with a consumer guide to buying a lawn mower, and drill down on the topic between riding mowers and push mowers, gas or battery mowers, and more.
You may also want to do a comparison review for some of your content. Super affiliates know how to select two products that people may have a hard time choosing between, and then going over the features and benefits as well as the drawbacks to help those individuals make a firm selection.
You can even do a review where you answer the question of whether or not the investment into a product is worth it. For example, if there is a course that is a higher ticket price point, you can cover the product in depth and help people decide whether or not the product is worth the splurge.
Another approach you can take to creating content as a super affiliate is to healthier readers balance their budget for the niche products you are promoting by doing a roundup of the best deals that you can currently find.
These are especially helpful at certain times of the year, such as Black Friday or Cyber Monday events, but they can also take place at any other time of the year if you simply know of a variety of discounts and deals taking place in your niche.
You can create tutorials or step-by-step “how to” lessons for your niche audience, that naturally weave recommendations products into them. For example, you might create a content piece look on your super affiliate blog about how to achieve success with email marketing.
In that piece, you are providing tons of value to your readers, but you also want to include a link to the email autoresponder system that you use and suggest. if they are following along in an over-the-shoulder tutorial, chances are they will sign up for the same system so that they can implement the steps right along with you.
Case studies are also very popular content pieces for super affiliates to use. This can be done very effectively if you either purchase or receive an advanced review copy so that you can go through a course or use a product and implement it in a way that provides you with results far enough in advance that you can blog about it and recommend it to your audience.
You can do a case study in two different ways. You can do a public one that is a little more surface level on the information that you provide, which means it is more vague and doesn’t give away the information in the course.
You can also do a private case study that promises those who purchase the product through your link detailed access as a bonus. There, they cannot only follow along with you as you implemented the product, but they can ask questions and engage with you as well.
You can do the same with masterminds. Mastermind events can be exclusive or public events where you and a few other co-hosts sit down together and discuss a particular product or strategy or niche topic in front of an audience online.
Using this type of webinar mastermind event, you can make recommendations and even list build from this event so that you are capable of increasing your super affiliate earnings at a later date.
You may want to leverage the use of trends and any news that is breaking about your niche topic to your advantage. Stay on top of these two issues so that you are one of the first people blogging about and sharing information on this topic on social media, which can help you funnel more commissions simply because you are being cutting edge and early with your insight.
You can also increase your income by writing content that showcases alternatives to traditional products people are used to seeing others review. For example, there is currently a huge buzz about weight loss injection medicine that is hard to find in pharmacies.
Super affiliates have taken advantage of this situation to showcase alternative supplements that have the same type of effect, albeit slower, and even recommend nutritional programs and meal plans or delivery services that they earn commissions on.
Whenever you are creating your content, make sure you are including tips on how to use the products. It might be something like how to best clean a product if it is a kitchen appliance that you got them to order through Amazon, or it may be a digital tool that you have a tip or hack to share that can help them get the most out of their purchase.
If you find it hard to show up consistently to create the volume of content you need to be at a super affiliate level, you always have the option of reinvesting some of your earnings into your business and outsourcing content creation to ghostwriters or purchasing private label rights (PLR) product reviews to give you a springboard that will shortcut your content creation process.
Market Using a Multimedia Approach on Social Media and Your Site
When you are striving for super affiliate status, you need to cast a wide net where you are catering to the content absorption needs of every possible customer. You don’t want to limit yourself just by utilizing one form of media.
Each individual has their own personal preferences and skills when it comes to creating and consuming content. You may excel at writing content, or you may be horrible at it. You may be wonderful with video creations or graphics and audio, but not so good at text content.
The key is to make sure you are using all of these media formats to attract your target audience. Text is definitely going to be the foundation for your blog and some of your social media platforms.
You can use free tools such as Grammarly to help clean up any errors that will reflect poorly on you as a content creator if your writing skills are not up to par. You can also hire an editor to go over your content and polish it up before it is published.
You need to be using certain graphics within your content, whether it is to break up large blocks of text on your blog or to use on social media so that it shows up in the feeds of individuals and brings more attention to your posts.
You can monetize images that you include on your blog by hyperlinking them to the product. You can also use alt tags that will help search engine bots and visually impaired individuals understand what your content is about.
Use tools like Canva to create social quote posters, infographics and other images. You’ll need images to use on Pinterest and Instagram anyway – in addition to embedding them in your blog posts and using them on other platforms like Facebook, where they’ll stand out in the feeds.
You can also use Canva to create slideshow presentation images and then use a tool like Camtasia or CamStudio to make a screen capture recording and turn it into a produced video that you upload on YouTube, with links back to your landing page, bridge page or directly to the product you’re recommending.
You can also use short form video of a few seconds to a couple of minutes on sites and apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Snapchat and more. These take very little effort, but do require consistent uploads.
Extract the audio (or record new audio) to use as a podcast to increase your position as a niche authority figure and ultimately, a super affiliate. Your podcast can be anywhere from 10-60 minutes long and you can do it daily or weekly and cater to the needs of your audience with an interactive approach, allowing them to call in and ask questions.
Pay Attention to Results to Increase Your Income
Lastly, a super affiliate never sleeps on information. They are highly in tune with how their audience is finding them, how they respond to the content they put out and the strategies they use and where they stand amid a growing number of competing affiliates.
You can elevate your earnings simply by knowing this information and using it to create more of what your audience enjoys. If you’re lagging behind others, you can conduct research to see what your competitors are doing to rank higher or earn more than you are and then apply some of the best strategic tips to your own marketing efforts.
Start by gathering data about incoming traffic to your affiliate blog. You want to know how people are finding your content – on which platforms and what keywords they’re using.
Any information you can find about the demographics (such as which geographic location) can be helpful in tailoring your content to your readers. Next, look at where your blog post reviews are ranking in the SERPs (search engine results pages).
If you’re being outranked, find out why. If you’re climbing the rank, spiff up your content even more to help you achieve top spots. You might discover certain posts are performing very well, while others are not on page 1 of the SERPs, so you can update the blog posts to help them improve.
Then see what you can discover by looking at your email autoresponder data. Most companies give you a great deal of information, such as your open conversion rate, your unsubscribe numbers, information about how many people clicked on your links and more.
You can split test emails to your audience (and even split test your bridge pages) to se what helps you convert at a higher level so that you are able to achieve super affiliate status.
Becoming a super affiliate is not an overnight accomplishment, but it helps when you’re diligent, have a hunger to learn and are confident in your ability to lead your prospective buyers in what will help them the most.
