Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ
1. Getting Started
1.1 What exactly is an affiliate program?
1.2 What are sub-affiliates?
1.3 Do I need a web site to get started as an affiliate?
1.4 Out of all the visitors I send you, how many will buy?
1.5 How do I get paid once I make a sale?
1.6 What kind of income can I expect to earn as an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate?
2. General Questions
2.1 I think I missed the latest affiliate newsletter or promotion. What do I do?
2.2 Where can I find my affiliate URL?
2.3 Are all of my sales registered on my "sales counter"?
3. Technical Questions
3.1 I've clicked through my special link many times, but it only shows one visitor. What's wrong?
3.2 How will my visitors order?
3.3 How will you keep track of the orders coming from my site?
3.4 How do I unsubscribe or terminate my affiliate information?
3.5 How do I change my contact or shipping information on my account?
3.6 How do I copy and paste the HTML promotions into my site?
4. Affiliate Strategies
4.1 How do I get started with this affiliate program?
4.2 How can I earn the most money with the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate program? What product will generate the most sales and the biggest commission checks?
4.3 I get lots of traffic to my site, but my sales of the course are not that high. What's wrong?
4.4 I have been an affiliate for a month and have not received any referral fees yet. What is going on?
4.5 I would like a copy of the HTML-formatted letter for a recent product promotion. How do I get one?
4.6 Is there a particular type of promotion that's more successful?
4.7 How do I generate more traffic to my site?
4.8 What's an opt-in e-mail list, and how do I build one?
4.9 How do I recruit sub-affiliates?
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1. Getting Started
1.1 What exactly is an affiliate program?
Simply put, an affiliate is someone who sells someone else's products or services in exchange for a commission.
When you sign up for SoccerDrillsTips.com's affiliate program, you receive a unique link that you can put on your web site or in your e-mail messages. Anyone who clicks this link will be directed to our web site. If they make a purchase, you automatically receive a commission -- your share of the purchase price.
1.2 What are sub-affiliates?
With the SoccerDrillsTips.com sub-affiliate program, you have the opportunity to recommend the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate program to your visitors, customers, and subscribers. Every person who becomes an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate based on your recommendation becomes your sub-affiliate. Each time your sub-affiliate makes a sale, you receive a percentage of that sale. PLUS, you continue to earn your regular affiliate commissions.
It's an exceptionally easy and affordable way to maximize your income.
1.3 Do I need a web site to get started as an affiliate?
You don't actually need to have a web site to market our products as an affiliate. Indeed, some of the most successful affiliate marketing strategies -- e-mail marketing and classified ads -- don't depend on your having a web site at all.
However, we would like to encourage you to set up a web site as soon as possible. A web site provides you with a 'hub' -- a place where visitors can get more information about your products, and discover how knowledgeable you are about these products, without having to contact you directly.
If you market your web site successfully, you'll get thousands of people coming to your site each month -- which translates into more sales as an affiliate. So, the faster you set up a web site, the better your chances of getting more sales faster.
1.4 Out of all the visitors I send you, how many will buy?
Many new affiliates wonder how many people it's necessary to send to SoccerDrillsTips.com in order to make a sale. On average, most SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliates earn one sale for every 95 to 115 visitors they send us. Some sites that really perform see one sale for every 33 to 36 visitors they refer to us.
However, to get this kind of great conversion ratio, you really need to give a personal recommendation in order to give the course credibility. In fact, a personal recommendation can increase your referral fees by as much as 416%!
For those of you who may not be aware, these conversion ratios are fantastic when you consider that the average conversion ratio for a web site on the Internet is one sale per 720 visitors!
With that said, we should make it clear that the type of traffic you generate has a direct effect on the percentage of people that buy. For example, if you're promoting the "Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves" course on a site that sells horse saddles, it would be more reasonable to expect 1 sale out of every 1,000 visitors to the SoccerDrillsTips.com site, as these visitors are not targeted (i.e. they're looking for riding equipment, not Soccer Coaching information).
However, if you have a site dedicated to soccer coaches you could expect to see results such as one out of every 100 visitors buying, because they're the perfect target audience.
1.5 How do I get paid once I make a sale?
All payments are made via paypal (mass payment method). Mass Payment allows us to send multiple payments instantly—saving time, money and the hassle of having to individually send funds to every payment recipient. This method is faster than a check since online payments with PayPal’s Mass Payment are instant. Never again do you have to say "the check is in the mail".
As soon as you receive a payment notification email message, you can claim your money by clicking a link in the payment notification email. After that you can electronically transfer your money to a
checking account, send money to friends, or shop online.
So all you need to receive your commisions is an email address and a PayPal account. If you don't have a paypal account yet, you can sign up for a free account here.
We send the payment for sales for the month by the first week of the following month. So, for example, if you make a sale any day in the month of January, your sale will be recorded and your payment sent before the last business day of February's first week.
To see if you have made any sales, log in to your affiliate account (http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/login) and perform a "sales search". If, for any reason, you're over- or underpaid in a mailed check, the difference will be added to or deducted from the following check.
1.6 What kind of income can I expect to earn as an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate?
Currently, a site with a medium amount of traffic receives a monthly referral check between $200 to $400. We have web sites that earn under $100 a month (very low- traffic sites) and others as high as $3,500 a month (popular, high-traffic sites).
The amount you earn depends on the type of people that visit your site, how many visitors you receive monthly, and how much exposure you give your SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate promotions on your site.
Sites that have links to the SoccerDrillsTips.com in many places throughout their web sites do MUCH better than sites that have just one link. The same holds true for people who actively promote the products -- through e-mail marketing, buying classified ads, etc. Exposure is the key to the success of your campaign.
Make sure you spend some time reading the various tips and promotion ideas that we share with you throughout this site. You'll discover the same secrets that our top affiliates (affiliates earning $3,500+ per month) are using so that you can experience the same success. Even implementing just one of the techniques we share can literally double your monthly commissions!
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2. General Questions
2.1 I think I missed the latest affiliate newsletter or promotion. What do I do?
Because we don't keep newsletter releases and product launches to a strict schedule, it may seem like you've missed out on the latest affiliate mailing even when you haven't.
However, if you're certain that a newsletter was released and you didn't get it, you may want to check to see if the e-mail was accidentally filtered to your "junk mail" box. The same holds true if you're certain a promotion was just released to affiliates for a new or updated product.
The best way to stay on top of new product promotions is to log on to your affiliate resource center on a regular basis and make note of anything new that's been added to the product list.
2.2 Where can I find my affiliate URL?
We don't assign a single affiliate URL to you. Instead, we provide a different link for each of the products you can sell. There's also a different link for each of the promotional tools you can choose to help you sell the products.
So, for example, if you wanted to promote both our soccer guide and the sub-affiliate program on the same web page, you'd need to include separate links with different URLs for each product: the guide URL would be http://www.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=000000, and the Sub-Affiliate URL would be http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=000000. Notice that the number "000000" in the link should be replaced by your affiliate number.
These links are available in the affiliate resource center located at
http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/resources/
(you have received your login and password via email when you signed up).
On the left-hand side of the resource center, you'll see a list of all the products available for you to sell as an affiliate. Click on the product name you're interested in, and a list of the different promotional tools available for this product will appear. Select the one you want to use, and simply copy and paste the HTML directly to your web site and don't forget to replace the number "000000" by your own affiliate id number. The URL will reflect both which product you've selected, as well as which promotional tool you're using.
2.3 Are all of my sales registered on my "sales counter"?
The visitor counter records every single person who visits the SoccerDrillsTips.com site by clicking through your affiliate URL. The sales counter records all sales that are made through your affiliate referral number for that month.
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3. Technical Questions
3.1 I've clicked through my special link many times, but it only shows one visitor. What's wrong?
We've designed our software so it only tracks the number of new visitors that come to our site through your link, rather than every single visit. We've done this in order to provide you with the most accurate way of measuring your conversion rates. Here's what we mean:
Say you had 2,000 new visitors a month clicking on your affiliate link and visiting the SoccerDrillsTips.com site. Let's say that 400 of those 2,000 visitors every month visit the SoccerDrillsTips.com site twice (2 times).
After 12 months of being in our referral program, you would have brought in 24,000 new visitors. However, if we counted every visit -- instead of just each unique visitor -- your visitor count would be 28,800 (the 24,000 new visitors plus 4,800 "return" visitors).
Now, let's also say you sold 225 units of a product during that year. Here's how your conversion rates would look under the two different scenarios:
Scenario 1: 24,000 visitors divided by 225 sales equals 105 visitors needed to make one sale.
Scenario 2: 28,800 visitors divided by 225 sales equals 128 visitors needed to make one sale.
See the difference? If we included all of the return visitors in our counts, your sales statistics would be wrong.
Of course, this may raise a new question for you: How do I test to see if my counter is working if after the first time I go through the link, it will not count me anymore?
That's easy. Simply delete all the "cookies" from your browser, and you'll trick our counters into thinking you have not been at the site before. It will count you as a "new" visitor (and you can verify that the counter is working by seeing it increase by one).
Remember, though, that no matter if the visitor is counted as a "new" visitor or if they are a "repeat" visitor and not counted on the visitor counter, your affiliate referral number is ALWAYS coded in all the SoccerDrillsTips.com web pages, so if that visitor orders anytime during the next 3 years, you'll get the referral fee!
3.2 How will my visitors order?
We take care of everything! You just need to direct the visitors to the SoccerDrillsTips.com web site through your affiliate links, and we'll look after taking the order, delivering the product, and providing customer service.
When one of your visitors clicks through your affiliate link, we'll display the appropriate salesletter, where the customer can order directly online, or by mail, fax, or check.
When the customer is ready to order, the SoccerDrillsTips.com ordering system takes over, and automatically processes the order -- while recording your affiliate identification number, guaranteeing that you're credited for the sale.
3.3 How will you keep track of the orders coming from my site?
It's easy! When you signed up as an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate, you were assigned a unique identification number "ID". This unique identification number is included in every URL that you use to link to the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate products.
For example, to promote:
Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves eBook : http://www.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=YOUR_ID
Sub-Affiliate Program: http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=YOUR_ID
If your affiliate ID was for example 450092 the tracking links would be:
Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves eBook : http://www.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=450092
Sub-Affiliate Program: http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/t.php?a=450092
Do you see how, in each case, your unique identification number would appear in the URL? Well, it's this number that we use to track how many visitors you send to the SoccerDrillsTips.com site, and how many sales you refer! We have special software that runs seamlessly in the background, automatically tracking everything without your visitors even being aware of it!
Now, in the case of all the "copy and paste" e-mail promotions, classified ads, banner ads, text links, articles, and product reviews that we provide you with to promote the various SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate products, all you need to do is replace the number "000000" in the links html codes by your unique affiliate identification number.
Also, you can write a personal letter of referral and e-mail it to your customers and subscribers -- or if you write your own text link or article about an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate product to add to your web site -- you'll need to use the correct affiliate URL with your unique affiliate identification number in it, just like we've shown you above.
3.4 How do I unsubscribe or terminate my affiliate relationship?
Because the monthly affiliate newsletters, the updates, and the follow-up e-mails that you receive are part of your actual affiliate account, we need to clarify whether you wish to only unsubscribe from the monthly newsletters, or if you wish to completely terminate your affiliate account.
By only unsubscribing from the newsletter, you can ensure that you stop receiving our monthly mailings. However, your affiliate account remains active and you'll receive any commissions that are generated through your ID number.
By completely terminating your affiliate account, you will no longer be a member of our program and will no longer be tracked or accounted for.
You will need to e-mail us (affiliates@soccerdrillstips.com) to let us know whether you want to unsubscribe from our mailings or terminate your account completely.
3.5 How do I change my contact or shipping information on my account?
If you want to change your e-mail address, mailing address, phone number, company name, or any other information we have on record in your account, all you need to do is login to your affiliate account at http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/login/ and click on "Settings" at the left menu.
3.6 How do I copy and paste the HTML promotions into my site?
We've made available three-minute helping tutorials to help you with every promotion your'll find at your resource center http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/resources/ . In general, you can now add the HTML code for our product promotions to your web site or e-mail campaign with only four very simple steps:
Step one: Copy the code for the promotional material you want to add
Step two: Prepare your site for inserting the code
Step three: Paste the code into your site
Step four: Replace the number "000000" in the HTML code by your affiliate number
You don't have to be able to work in HTML, or even understand it. If you can type, you can add a product promotion.
The only thing you need to be able to do is set up your web editing software so that it shows you both your web page as it actually appears, PLUS the underlying HTML code.
All of the major web editing tools -- including FrontPage, DreamWeaver and GoLive -- have the ability to do this with just the click of a button. Consult your program's online help if you're not sure.
For complete instructions about adding promotional pieces to your web site or e-mail promotion, view the three-minute tutorial that's available for every product.
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4. Affiliate Strategies
4.1 How do I get started with this affiliate program?
To get started with our affiliate program, you need to first decide which product (or products) you want to promote. We recommend that anyone new to our program start with our information products -- the Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves Guide -- as this appeal to a much broader audience, and is therefore easier to sell.
Once you've decided on the product you want to start with, you have to decide how you're going to promote it. We offer a broad range of promotional tools that you can use for free -- including e-mail promotions, informative articles, classified ads, and e-mail promotions.
All of these promotional tools are available in the Soccer Affiliate Resource Center at http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/resources/. They're listed in the navigation menu on the left-hand side of the screen, beneath the individual products. To view a specific promotional tool for a product, simply click on the the promotional tools -- banners, text links, etc. -- that appear right beneath the product name.
Keep in mind that each of the products are individually promoted and tracked, and they each have their own set of promotional tools to choose from. Click on each product name to view the different selections.
When you've chosen a promotional tool to use, right click on the white box that contains the corresponding HTML code for the tool, then "Select All". Right click again and select "Copy", then open up the editing or HTML area of your web site. Right-click in the line of HTML code where you want to add the promotional tool, and select "Paste".
4.2 How can I earn the most money with the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate program? What product will generate the most sales and the biggest commission checks?
Overall, the biggest revenue generator for SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliates is the Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves eBook. Why? Because the market for information on coaching soccer drills and making training fun is quite large. This product is targeted to soccer coaches, parents and players.
So here's what we recommend:
Start by recommending the Soccer Drills & Soccer Moves Guide to your customers and subscribers. You can promote other SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate products in the future. We'll be adding more products on a regular basis.
Finally, a really easy way to increase your commissions is by promoting the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate program. Recruit an army of sub-affiliates to earn a hefty commission on every sale they generate. Simply let your customers and subscribers know about the successes you've personally experienced with the SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate program, and your personal recommendation will attract sub-affiliate sign ups.
4.3 I get lots of traffic to my site, but my ebook sales aren't that high. What's wrong?
Even the most successful affiliates start off small, so don't be worried if your first month does not produce overwhelming results. Getting a site to produce thousands of dollars in referral fees takes a few months of "tweaking" to see what is most effective for your particular site.
For example, our current top affiliate member only received about $150 for his first check, but after working with us to find the most profitable ways to link to our sites, he is now producing referral fees in excess of $3,500 a month.
Frankly, you need a lot of traffic to your site to be receiving in excess of $2,000 every month, but no matter how small your site is, try some of the suggestions located within this site, as these are the techniques that top SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliates are using with phenomenal success!
4.4 I have been an affiliate for a month and have not received any referral fees yet. What's going on?
Before you can start earning significant commissions each month, you'll need to increase the traffic to your web site.
There have been a few people in the past who have expected to earn huge commission checks each month, despite the fact that their web sites were only getting a few hundred visitors each month. The fact of the matter is that if you're not getting many visitors to your site, then you will not get many people linking through to SoccerDrillsTips.com, and you will not make a lot in referral fees.
4.5 I would like a copy of the HTML-formatted letter for a recent product promotion. How do I get one?
If you didn't receive the most recent "copy and paste" e-mail promotion, e-mail us and we'll send you a copy: affiliates@soccerdrillstips.com
You can also get promotional materials by logging in to your affiliate resource center. Login to the resource center located at http://affiliates.soccerdrillstips.com/resources/ and you'll find a list of all of the available materials, click the name of the promotion you want to promote.
If you'd rather write your own letter, or if you need personal assistance setting up your promotion, we urge you to contact our affiliate support team at affiliates@soccerdrillstips.com.
4.6 Is there a particular type of promotion that's more successful than the others?
In our experience, the more successful forms of affiliate promotions are those that either rely on the personal touch (like e-mail marketing), or those that provide a wealth of useful information (such as a product review) about the product.
E-mail promotions are particularly successful because you're sending a promotion to a group of people who are already interested in what you have to say -- your opt-in list. You know that they trust you, and look forward to hearing from you, because you give them really useful information. A personal recommendation to your opt-in list is always your best bet.
Informative articles about the product are also successful. Typically, these take the form of a review from you. Again, you're capitalizing on the relationship you have with your visitors to present them with helpful information that they can trust.
You can either use the prewritten e-mails and product reviews we've put in the Affiliate Resource Center for you, or you can write them yourself. We've also created sometips on writing your own e-mails.
4.7 How do I generate more traffic to my site?
The first step in generating substantial traffic is to submit your URL to the major search engines. You should do this as soon as possible, as it does take some time to start appearing in the search engine results.
If you can afford to invest money in advertising, then the next thing you should do is start experimenting with pay-per-click search engines. They're great for driving qualified, targeted traffic to your web site. To learn more, see below:
Adwords: (http://adwords.google.com)
Yahoo Search Marketing (http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/)
ABC Search (http://www.abcsearch.com/)
Miva (http://www.miva.com)
Another way to generate more traffic is to look for online soccer newsletters or e-zines that accept advertising submissions. If you look carefully, you can sometimes even find classifieds and e-zines that don't require a fee.
If you don't have a lot of capital, with just a little research you can find successful message boards, newsgroups, or forums where you can advertise. When posting to these, contact the host or the administrator first to ensure that they allow outside advertising.
Here's another powerful tip to generate tons of targeted traffic. You can create your own soccer blog. You don't even need to write your own content. You can use the 75+ soccer articles we provide at your affiliate resource center and publish it to your new blog, one article per day, with your affiliate link in it. To create a blog for free in just 5 minutes, you can use Blogger.
4.8 What's an opt-in e-mail list, and how do I build one?
An opt-in e-mail list is a database of e-mail addresses belonging to people who have willingly given their name and e-mail address to you. For example, if you offer a free "soccer monthly tip" e-mail to anyone who gives you their name and e-mail address, those people who responded will become part of your opt-in list.
DO NOT try to purchase thousands of random e-mail addresses from someone who has "harvested" them. This practice is unethical, and in fact, with the recent spam laws in place, you are allowed to market ONLY to your own list of opt-in addresses.
The other thing to remember about your opt-in list is that your subscribers MUST be free to unsubscribe at any time. And when someone asks to be removed from your list, you MUST remove them. But that's a good thing, because it ensures that your list is made up entirely of people who want to hear from you.
While building your own opt-in list may take some time, marketing to it gives you the highest sales. After all, your list consists of people who are already interested in what you have to offer them -- so you don't have to work as hard to make the sale.
Our first recommendation is to ensure your site is up and running. Submit it to the major search engines to get some traffic to your site. Once you start generating some traffic, you can begin working on your opt-in list -- try a pop-up or a major headline on your homepage that persuades visitors to subscribe to a free weekly newsletter or similar offer. Once they have voluntarily given you their name and address, they have "opted in." This database of subscribers is now your opt-in list that you are free to market to.
4.9 How do I recruit sub-affiliates?
The most effective way to recruit an army of sub-affiliates is through an informative e-mail or article that clearly explains the benefits of being an SoccerDrillsTips.com affiliate -- including your own personal recommendation explaining how you have personally profited.
We've also created promotional materials that you can place on your web site to promote the program like banners and classified ads. Remember, many people have never heard of an affiliate program before and may have no idea what you're talking about until you explain it in "layman's terms" and show them the benefits. Simply mention that you've "found a company that will pay very generous referral fees for talking about their high-quality products on your site."
To view the promotional e-mail, click here >>
To view the promotional banner, click here >>
To view the promotional classified ad, click here >>
If you just tell visitors to go to the site and check it out without explaining the benefits of being an affiliate, they'll have no reason to make the effort and click on the link. You have to show them that the program is free to join and will earn them substantial revenue without a lot of work on their part. They get paid for posting a link to us. It's as simple as that!
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