Boom! What's going on, everyone? It's Steve Larsen, and this is Sales Funnel Radio.
Today I'm going to teach you guys how to win affiliate contests. Not as hard as you'd think.
I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine-to-five to take the plunge and build my million dollar business.
The real question is: how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.
Join me and follow along as I learn, apply and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best Internet sales funnels.
My name is Steve Larsen and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.
What's up, guys? I'm excited for this episode. Okay, two quick things real fast. So you guys saw a little bit ago, I went in and I was promoting really hard the 30 Days book.
I was able to win this affiliate competition, which is really fun. I sold 375 books and got first place. There was an offer created around that. There was a special thing that you guys got from me when you bought the book through my link; I gave a free ticket to the OfferMind event along with a bunch of other stuff. It was really really cool. It was sexy. Very exciting to get that kind of a thing.
Just last week, I threw the event, and what was cool was I knew Russell was selling this thing called 10X Secrets while the event was going on.
Now, I did not have any time to promote Russell's cool thing. I like promoting Russell's stuff, he's got obviously fantastic stuff, obviously. I don't need to tell you that. But I realized, like crap. I don't have time to promote this thing.
Then Miles, he helps run a lot of the affiliate stuff over at ClickFunnels, sends me a message and he goes, "Hey dude, I just want you to know that because of sticky cookies, you are in 16th place. If you get in the top 10, we're going to take you on a private yacht from Miami down to the Bahamas right after the 10X Growth Con in February." I was like, "Are you serious? I didn't know that was the prize. That's crazy!"
It was Thursday night that he told me that, and it was closing in two days. I was like, "Holy crap." And so what I did, and guys, there's a point to the story here and I'm not just like rrrrr. I want you to know the story...
I went in, and I was like, "OK. How can I provide value?"
This contest had already been going on for a week - which means all the people who were really looking forward to purchase, all the people who wanted to purchase, have most likely purchased from the get-go.
Which means I have to sell a portion of the audience that was not planning on buying it. You guys hear what I'm saying? That's a harder sale. I was like, "Oh, crap!"
So what I did is, and this is the big lesson here... I decided, like,"OK, what if somebody bought 10X Secrets through my affiliate link, what problems do I cause for that individual?" What problems does that cause when they buy 10X Secrets? What else might they want to know?
I was like, well, funnels, right?
10X Secrets is all about selling. Russell's the funnel guy, but that product is all about sales specifically. Specifically, stage selling.
When you learn how to do that skill, it's very powerful. It's one of the reasons my funnels work really really well. It's one of the reasons why I do what I do. I can do what I do because I study stage selling.
Funny enough, selling in a funnel is like very similar to selling on a stage. As far as the delivery, they're a little different. The way you speak, the way you present, the way you're talking and pointing and all this stuff. Like that's its own skill set. But the psychology, it's very similar of what you're doing.
So anyways, I was like, well, what else do they need? What else would somebody need if they bought 10X Secrets through my link? "OK, funnels."
Well, I got this cool product called My Funnel Stache.... What if I just let people choose one of those funnels? So every asset I have about the webinar funnel, e-com funnel, supplement funnel, or info product funnel. Whatever it is... there's lots of them.
And I will give them the training on how to build it.
I'll give them the share funnel, so it's pre-built.
I'll give them the email sequence. I'll give them the video that shows them the strategy of what makes it work.
There's all this stuff. I was like, "OK, cool, that's sexy. That's really sexy." But what else?
And I started thinking through, and I was like, "What if I sent out some leftover OfferMind swag to people?" We had some extra swag leftover - and this is the kind of swag we had:
We had a water bottle. This is the famous, iconic orange water bottle that a lot of you know.
A lot of you guys will be on my live funnel builds and watch me, I always have this thing with me. A lot of you guys ask me where I get it, where I have them.
So we talked to Nalgene, and they custom created some with Sales Funnel Radio on the bottle - which is kind of cool.
And so I was like, you get the bottle. (Actually, I can't remember if we did the bottle or not. Anyway, it's part of the swag.)
The notebook - it says Sales Funnel Radio across the top.
The cool branded pen.
I write a lot, probably more than you guys think I do. I listen to books and podcasts, and stuff like that less than you guys probably think I do, and I write probably more than you think I do. There's a big lesson in that.
So anyway, we got this sweet notebook for them, so people can take notes - because I know I talk a lot - and talk fast.
Then there's the famous Capitalist Pig shirt that everyone loves. On the back, it says Sales Funnel Radio.
My favorite is to wear those in airports and busy public places where I get the most dirty looks.
There's the "It's Monday, Baby” t-shirt.
If you guys follow me on Instagram at all, you guys know the story behind this - which is pretty awesome. "I love Mondays! I hate Fridays." I reminded everybody of that on the back. Right? "Woohoo, Fridays suck. But wait for your Monday." Fridays suck, OK?
Anyway, so what I did, is I went, and I said, If you buy, (just follow me on this for a moment.) I said, if you buy 10X Secrets through my link, I'm going to give you the:
#Capitalist Pig shirt.
#Monday, Baby shirt.
#Notebook.
#Pen.
# I'll let you guys choose a funnel from My Funnel Stache.
#I will give you all assets I have around that funnel.
I went from, I think, 1500 in sales, something like that, to 13,000 in sales in two days. And I ended up taking fifth place in the whole contest. Not bad for just swooping in the last few days, right?
I'm excited; I'm going to get to go on a private yacht cruise with the top 10 other affiliates in ClickFunnels. We're going to go to the Bahamas and anyway, I don't know any more details besides that. I'm excited about that!
I used the same principles that got me to be the number one with the 30-Days contest.
If I had planned a whole campaign around it, I actually could have maybe; I don't know, done at least number one, two, or three. I could have definitely gone a few more spaces. It was the last two days. That affiliate contest had been going on for almost ten days by that time.
What I want you to understand is...
I love affiliate marketing, first of all.
Think about this for a moment. Do you think people get more distracted by the creation of the product or selling the product? The creation of the product! All the time!
Everyone I coach, they're like, "Stephen, what products should I sell? What should I do here, what should I do here?" They get so distracted by the making of the thing that they spend almost no time studying and obsessing over how to sell the thing.
What causes money to go into your pocket? Now, obviously, the selling does. I'm not saying to not make a product that's not amazing. But what I'm saying is, "It takes more effort and energy to craft a campaign and a sales message and an event, whether it's online, offline, whatever. Right?"
The feeling of the event. More effort and energy to create a sales message than it does the product. You understand what I'm saying? I'm just going to pause there for effect when I say that. It takes more effort. You should be spending more time creating the sales message, the actual hook, the story than you do the offer. It's not a linear relationship there. It's massively asymmetrical, OK?
And so the reason I love affiliate marketing is because affiliate marketing is amazing training grounds for marketing skills.
If you're like, "Stephen, I've never launched a product on my own... or every time I launch one, it doesn't work very well." Man, maybe take like a step back and go practice some affiliate marketing. That's why I created the program, Affiliate Outrage.
If you guys have ever checked out affiliateoutrage.com, it's a completely free program. I'm not pitching a thing in that program. The reason I made it is because affiliate marketing is like training wheels.
You don't have to go make the product; you don't get distracted by that. All you do is you flex the muscles of how to sell stuff constantly and how to build campaigns around it.
How to actually go sell stuff. How to actually make the dollar turn.
Those are the skills that you actually need to go create.
How did I be number one for the 30 Day book? It's because I know how to market, not just make products.
How did I get number five in two or three days, right before the whole thing closed up? I swooped right in; I was exhausted from the event, "All right, let's just do it." Bam! Number five. How?
It's because I know how to sell stuff.
I'm selling other people's products. You guys would be shocked. My list is not that big compared to the other people that I beat in the actual contest. It really isn't. So how the heck am I still getting top ten all the time? How is that happening? That's like a huge lesson in this.
When we at Traffic Secrets event down in Phoenix, it feels like a month ago now, it was crazy. When we were down there, wow, it was like a month ago. Anyway, when we were down there, Russell said something that I want to recap, so you guys all understand the power of what I'm talking about here.
He said, "Usually you make a dollar per month per person on your list. So just get more people on your list." If you're bad, that's the metric.
When you start to learn a lot of these skills and a lot of things like that, then you start to make two dollars a month per person on your list per month. Then it's three; then it's four.
I think I do seven to eight dollars per person per month on my list. And it's because of how I'm doing it.
Now, I know I'm going to go list build more. I've got cool strategies coming down the pipeline. It's just for me; it's the next phase that I'm going into. I'm always list building. I've got lists all over the place, which is great. Probably too many. It's a little bit convoluted in a few places.
...But what I'm trying to say is like, you have to understand, the reason I can flex these muscles in these different areas is because I know how to make a very attractive sales message and a very attractive offer to pair with it.
It doesn't matter if it's my product or somebody else's.
If I don't control the cart, if you're selling somebody else's product, like a lot of you guys, you're commission-based salesman, you're in MLM or affiliate marketing, right? Does that make sense?
Whatever it is, you don't have control over the actual checkout process.
There are several angles I think of in this scenario:
#What problems do I create for an individual if they buy that product through my link?
# How can I solve that follow up-based problem with a product?
# I could give them that. I have this; I could give them that. I have this; I could give them that.
So now, when they buy through my link, they get all these other things as well. Boom! I just out-valued every other person in the contest.
Multiple times that's how I've done what I have.
It's not about, "Buy through my link." It's about how can I outvalue everybody else who also is trying to give people their link? Does that make sense?
It's a big deal when you understand that, OK?
Because everybody else is promoting like this: "Here's my link! Buy through my link! Oh, man, I got this link, and you should buy through it!" So like, “Why? What's the difference between you and somebody else?”
So what you do is you create an offer around the other person's product. Make an offer around it.
A lot of you guys know the story, right, when I was doing door to door sales, I was going out to this area, and I was ticked. The day before I was not having a good day. It was super hot, and I'm hiding in this McDonald's area. I was selling pest control. It was so hot. I was like, "Maybe I should sneak over to McDonald's that's right there because of the AC?" I wanted to cool off. I walk in there and funny enough, like half the rest of the team is already hiding in there along with my boss. I was like, "Oh that's funny."
This guy walked up to us inside that McDonald's and just asked to buy. He was like "Hey, can I buy?" And we were like, "Yeah." We all stopped for a second and looked around. We were like, "No, you should buy. No, no, you be the one that buys. You haven't had a sale yet today; you go ahead, you get it." We were friends and family.
So finally, my boss pointed at somebody, the lucky person, and said, "Here you go, you take the sale." So they closed the sale, easy lay down sale right there. That never left me, because as we walked out of that McDonald's and we went back to keep selling pest control door to door, I realized that to that customer, there was literally no difference in who he chose.
It was the same sale, right, the same process. We were in the same uniforms. We had the same script. We had the same stupid cheesy jokes in our script. Same fulfillment. There was literally no difference in who he chose.
Guys, affiliate marketing is no different, OK? Which is a huge advantage if you understand this one principle I'm trying to teach you guys right now.
If you just understand that the game is about out-valuing somebody else. It's not about price. They can get the same product from like 100 other people. Tons of other people, OK? Instead, just outvalue everybody else.
So one of the things I like to do, like I was just saying, I like to think through and go like, "OK, what are all the follow up problems that I create for an individual if they buy that product through me, and what can I add in so that they get all those bonuses when they buy through me?"
There was a time when I built 89 funnels two times to fulfill on Russell doing this exact thing that I'm talking about right now. I watched him stand up, and he wanted to promote somebody, it was when I first started working at ClickFunnels. Stu McLaren was selling a program called Tribe. Some of you guys have probably heard of that.
When Russell promoted Tribe, he created an offer. He said, "Hey, when you buy through my link, I'm going to give you this and this and this and this and this and this because I see that Stu is teaching about membership areas which is super cool, well this thing I have goes well with membership areas. And I'll give you this, and I'll give you this, and I'll give you this, and I'll give you this." I was like, “Cool.”
As part of that, I had to build 89 funnels x2 separate times to fulfill and deliver what he had given inside of his affiliate offer. Does that make sense? That's exactly what I'm talking about...
You're just riding on the additional problems that get created when somebody buys a product.
Whenever you sell something to somebody, you're not just solving a problem. You're also creating new problems. Which is fine, it's great. You just solve the follow up ones with more offers, you actually can sell more and make more money.
Does this make sense, what I'm telling you guys? Because I don't want to get like too in the weeds here around this.
The easiest way to dominate and destroy affiliate games is to understand this one principle.
If I have just a little bit of time, I will do what I just said. How can I solve the follow up problems that product will create? How can I solve it with products, and can I bundle it with that person's thing?
So when somebody buys through an affiliate link of mine, I can see it. It's in Backpack. I can log into the affiliate area and ClickFunnels. Boom, I get an Excel spreadsheet of everybody who's purchased from me and then I just email them the bonuses, or email them the ticket for OfferMind like I did, bam! You know what I mean? It's real easy. Super simple.
If they don't have access to that, I just tell them, "Screenshot your receipt and send it over to me and I'll send you the bonuses."
We just did that for 10X Secrets. That's how I killed it. I was expecting to sell like 12 packages. I sold 62, OK? Sixty-two people bought through that link. "Woo! Holy crap, OK?" We're going in, and we're fulfilling, we're shipping out all that stuff and doing all those things the next couple of days here, which is exciting. But that's how; just outvalue the other person.
I love this topic; it's a super fun topic.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to spread your wings and practice flexing your marketing skills muscles where you don't have to work on building the product.
One of the other reasons why this stuff has worked for well for me is I don't like to make a business out of affiliate marketing. I don't. It's like icing on the top. I'm not in the business of promoting other people's stuff. I promote my stuff. So I'm very careful about what I promote.
I only promote other people products when I know they are freaking incredible and they pair well with what I do. You guys get what I'm saying? Don't just go promote a whole bunch of people's stuff. I don't do that. I don't like to do that.
There's a method that I use to go and dominate in the affiliate space:
#Step number one: create an affiliate-based offer - Put their product in your offer and then toss in a whole bunch of your own stuff that you'll give them when they buy through your link. Boom, now you have an offer. You are now out valuing everybody else who's promoting that product.
Number two: Create a story around each one of those bonuses
So I'm gonna walk you through this here real quick, OK. Let me find it here real quick here. I'm inside of my ClickFunnels stuff here.
So what I like to do is I like to create a story around each one each one of the things inside of the offer I created for them. Because now I've got to promote it.
So if I have this cool affiliate-based offer, and I've got all these bonuses that are coming from me, I just got my computer out here, right, oh and this sticker, too, these are cool stickers we've got, barely created for them.
Check this out...
# I'll give you some leftover swag
# I'll give you whatever funnel you want from My Funnel Stache as well as all the assets that come with it.
Does that make sense? That was my offer. So what that means, I have two storylines.
#1: I have a storyline about swag.
#2: I have a storyline around Funnel Stache.
So in my head, I knew, "Well, I've got like two days to promote." (I think I had three.) Anyway, it was two major days, but one was like a half day when I realized like "Oh crap, I should be doing this." (No, I had Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Okay, no, it was three days.)
So what I did is:
#Number one, I was just like, "OK, here's the offer," and I did a post on Facebook. I wrote out the post, and I was like, "Hey, if you guys don't know, 10X Secrets is going on. If you guys want to, here's my offer." I went live on Facebook talking about what they were going to get.
"You're going to get this," and I walked around my office showing them physically what they were going to get. That's very powerful, that's very important, alright? It's a physical aspect to my offer, OK? So I walked around, and I was like, You're going to get:
#This shirt
#this shirt.
#the water bottle
#the notepad
You're also going to get:
#Stuff from My Funnel Stache - the best offer.
So I walked around, and that's like step one. Just announcing the offer. You'll get sales just from that.
#Number 2: I take my Facebook post, the description, and I go, and I send it as an email to my whole list. I remind them, "Look, this is going to end soon."
The next day, (remember now I've got two more storylines.)
>The first storyline was just announcing the offer.
>I have two major bonuses in there which means I have two stories I should tell.
The first story I told was about swag.
#Number 3: I think the story I told was about how the offer of mine came about and why this shirt came about. Especially the Capitalist Pig shirt, right. How that Capitalist Pig shirt came around, and why does that make sense? That's why I did it that way. That's how it worked so well. There was a story about that; it became the story for the next Facebook post.
#Number 4: Then I copied it and sent it as an email with a link to go buy, with a call to action. "First, what you going to go do? Go buy through this link. It's my link. I'm just telling you it's an affiliate link.
Number two, send a screenshot to my team right here of your receipt. Number three, inside that screenshot, when you send the screenshot also tell us your shirt size, your address so we can ship stuff out to you.
Then tell us what funnel you guys want, all the assets for that that I have, and I'll blast it out to you as well. Ready, go! As a reminder, this ends Sunday at midnight, OK?"
Very standard call to action - that was it.
#Number 5: The next day it was Sunday, it was the story about the very next piece. The funnels, OK? I was like, "Well, how do I tell Funnel Stache stories in a way that people haven't heard yet?" So I started looking through assets I already had that I forgot that I had. That the audience will most likely forget that I had as well, OK?
A lot of times, guys, when it comes to affiliate stuff I'm just reusing stuff that I already have. A lot of times I'm not creating things that I don't have. For me, I'm going to spend my creative power on my stuff. However, for affiliate things I can just bundle up cool stuff. You know what I'm saying? So this is the post that I wrote talking about Funnel Stache, I said:
"Here's my client checklist. Some of you guys may have seen this. So here's my client checklist. My early days of funnel building were ... interesting.
I'd take on anyone for any reason. At some point I was building for eight, eight different companies at the same time: skin care, toys, statues, supplements, political stuff. Yup, that was a crazy one. Different programs, et cetera.
I had no filter, no requirements, no qualifiers to work with me. Actually, my only requirement was whether or not someone had money to pay. My friend, that is not good business practice. I was a good funnel builder and hustling hard, but not at the right stuff."
Notice I'm not coming out saying, "Buy through my thing!" There's a story, right? I've told you the backstory. I've told you a wall. Internals, externals, like I'm hitting all the stuff right? So now I'm leading you into a spot where there's an epiphany, "Oh my gosh, there are actual qualifiers of who should be inside of my affiliate stuff."
...Okay, I'm going to go faster here, so this episode is not crazy long. But I want you to see just behind what's going in my head when I'm promoting somebody else's stuff - because two times in a row now, right, number one, I was number one for the 30 Days book and then I just didn't have any time. Last three days I just swooped in and was able to make fifth place - which is awesome.
But there's a method to how I'm doing this, and I don't think people know it. I don't think people are seeing what I'm doing. So what I thought I would do in this episode, is anyways, it's a little bit longer. Hopefully, that's cool with you guys.
So I said, "I was a good funnel builder, hustling, but at the wrong stuff. About two years in, I left college, I became Russell Brunson's funnel builder, and I started creating a checklist of things I needed to know about a company before I ever agreed to build a sales funnel for them. Here is that checklist."
I'm leading with serious value here. Am I promoting my stuff yet? No! That's big.
So then I walk through the checklist:
“There are 11 things that I walk through here. You need to look at this, look at this." I explain why in each one of them. People were like, "Holy crap." It got shared, it got commented on - it went all over the place. It was really really cool, the checklist.
Then I said, "I realize this list leaves a lot of you guys out. I can't build for you, or you're not in a scenario where I get to actually build for you, right? Your goal is to match your funnel building skill level with the correct client for you. So with that in mind, here is my gift to you...
About 12 months before I left ClickFunnels, I started building sales funnels in front of live audiences so they could ask their questions while I did it. The response was amazing. I kept doing it. I now have a collection of the best of the best sales funnels just as we would build them at ClickFunnels. I'd like to give one of them to you."
(... I mean, come on, guys, that's awesome copy. It's amazing. This took me about an hour and a half to write...)
I also want to give you:
#The course on how to build the funnel and why.
#The strategy of when to use it.
#The prebuilt shares funnel.
#The email sequence.
I'm also going to give you guys some of my leftover OfferMind swag.
#The famous "Capitalist Pig" t-shirt.
#The voice losing "It's Monday, Baby" t-shirt.
#Sales Funnel Radio journal and pen.
#I'm also going to pay for the shipping for you.
I was looking at my commissions when everyone would buy one of them, and it's like $118. My guess is it's not going to cost that much money to ship it, and then also less all of the costs of the swag; I'll actually be making money still on promoting this thing.
However, I'm willing to lose a little money to gain speed. Does that make sense?
I'm going to pick up more sales by losing, and I'm totally fine with that, I just wanted to be in the top 10, OK?
"How to get your gift: Simply buy Russell's new stage sales and closer training 10X Secrets through my affiliate link here.
Step number two: send a screenshot to goanswerme.com, which is the support link I have.
Step number three: just tell me your address, shirt size, all the stuff, we'll cover it in here.
Here are some of the funnels that are in there:
#Hiring funnel.
#Auto-webinar funnel.
# E-com funnel.
#Free plus shipping.
#Event funnel.
# Membership funnel.
#Publishing funnel.
#Supplement funnel.
Sound fair? Awesome. Just do steps one through three now.
Russell's ending his 10X Secrets offer tonight at midnight - you have 12 hours left."
Does that make sense?
Fifty-eight comments came in, and people were going nuts and commenting, "Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought. Boom, I just bought."
#Number 6: The next thing I did, which was very very masterful on this, is I exported all the people who had already purchased, and I said, "Congrats " to these people for already purchasing. There's this huge list of people who've already been purchasing.
Huge social proof, right? Same psychology as you would have inside of a funnel. Does that make sense? So that's a huge move, and I do that all the time now. So that people see like, "Oh I'm not the only one doing this."
#Number 7: Then I tag the people who've been buying from me, so it pings them. "Oh, Steve Larsen just mentioned you in a comment." Like, what? They will go to that post. They will read it and say like, "Woo, yeah, baby." Massive social proof. You guys get what I'm saying?
#Number 8: Then I'll take that post and blast it to all my email list one more time.
Guys, that's how I run affiliate stuff. You don't get to sidestep marketing just because somebody else made the product and gave you a link to sell it with. You do not; you still have to create marketing. It's no different than if it was your product or not. Build a campaign around it, OK?
So:
#I told three stories.
#I made an offer.
What did I have? What were the assets I already had that could solve follow up problems they're going to experience when they buy the other person's product?
When they buy 10X Secrets, what are some questions they'll have? Oh, you know what, I know Stephen does a lot of stage speaking. What if I got some cool swag that he has that's left over. Cool. I already have that, awesome, done. Cool. Sweet. I can do a lot of cool things with that already.
What if I was able to send them out some funnels? Boom, done, awesome. "Which one are you going to choose?" Package the offer together.
One story is about the offer itself.
>Next story about the next bonus.
>Next story about the next bonus.
If I had longer, I would:
> Keep adding bonuses and stories with calls to actions.
>Additional social proof.
>Re-downloading the list of people who have bought from me.
>Putting it back out inside the email and inside of the actual comments area of the Facebook post.
>Take that post, push it out in an email.
Over and over and over and over and over. Pressure, pressure, pressure. Boom, here it comes! Here comes the ending, close close close, whoa, right!
And that's exactly how I do it, and that's exactly how I've always done it.
If I had even more time, I would go get Russell Brunson on a podcast, or whomever I'm promoting... I'd start getting that person on publications and interviewing them to make content around it.
You saw me do that with the 30 Days book. That's why I had so much noise.
I put my own content, my own money behind creating content for it. I just want you guys to know more about the affiliate game. It is not, not, not about just grabbing an affiliate link and sending some traffic to it.
Does that work? Sure. Are you going to make a lot of money? In my mind, doubtful.
Build an offer around the product. Build an offer around the other person's product and then go tell stories with a call to actions behind it. Super simple. A really easy way to do it.
I'm nervous to tell you guys this - because I've had a lot of fun being in the leaderboards like crazy for a lot of stuff.
Anyway, very very exciting.
Hopefully, you guys have enjoyed that episode. If you did, please please please go to iTunes and let me know and rate the podcast. That helps me like crazy, helps the show a lot. It really means a lot to me.
Those of you guys who have already done that, "Thank you, guys, I appreciate you guys being in this and watching this episode. Look forward to seeing you guys in the next leaderboards for anything you promote."
Boom, just try to tell me you didn't like that.
Hey, whoever controls content controls the game. Want to interview me or get interviewed yourself? Grab a time now at stevejlarsen.com