My Slides From "How To Dominate Any Industry Using Affiliate Marketing Skills" (1)
My Slides From "How To Dominate Any Industry Using Affiliate Marketing Skills"
I got a great reception from my talk at AWE this year, so I thought I'd follow Smaxor's example in putting my slides up on STM!
I'm also going to add brief notes about each slide, as they aren't self-explanatory.
Strap in, this is going to be a long one! I'll include some slides that didn't make it into the presentation too but which I think are useful.
The focus of the talk wasn't just on "any industry" - as I mentioned in the talk, I think if an affiliate wants to dominate a non-competitive industry he or she's already got the skills to do that - but specifically on cracking the "impossible" industries. Film, art, music, sports, politics, etc. If you want to be President of your country one day, this is the talk for you.
I've done this. Kind of a lot, actually. I've made feature films, worked with world-famous actors, won and been nominated for awards, founded a gigantic video site, and most recently created the biggest single-player Virtual Reality experience out there. All working in super-competitive industries. I also chatted with other affiliates who've done even more impressive things - nine-figure startup exits, #1 game on the App Store, this kind of thing - for the talk.
The single biggest advantage affiliates have when approaching these industries is that we've already done something that most people consider "impossible" - believed something that sounds unbelievable ("you can make $x,xxx a day online from your bedroom!") and had it turn out to be true. But we have lots of other advantages too...
We have cash. That's not as big an advantage as it looks, because we don't have, say, the $1bn a year needed to compete on even terms in the film industry. But it does buy us time where we can work on our dream project, travel, some expenses, and coaching. All of those are major edges in competitive fields.
Most people tilt really easily - they're very emotionally affected by failure. In industries where you're going to be failing or rejected constantly, that means lots of people quit. If an affiliate was going to quit because of losses, he or she would have done so before reaching success. That means we're much more resilient and capable in these failure-heavy industries.
As affiliates, we're used to starting things fast and in massive quantity. Most people wait, procrastinate, dither, and won't launch before things are "perfect". Leveraging the fact we're used to launching things is huge.
As affiliate marketers, we can, you know, market. It's hard to overestimate how important that is to success in a competitive industry. We can attract Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Leveraging all of those skills gives us a huge leg up.
For affiliates, a launch is test -> review results -> optimise. If you don't have that training, a launch is test -> did it work? -> celebrate or quit. The ability to take something that's started and then optimise to success is incredibly valuable.
Affiliates tend to be lone wolves even as they scale up to big companies. That means we understand accounts, taxes, legal incorporation stuff, operations, and everything else that goes into a business. Most people really, really don't, and that hangs their success attempts up.
Lots of people are good at networking, but affiliates have two specific advantages here. First, we're used to traveling and have the cash to do so - traveling to meet people in the flesh is one of the hidden success predictors in almost any competitive industry. And secondly, we're used to networking with very diverse people from all countries and backgrounds.
Affiliates understand that initial success is the start, not the end, of the process. That's a very rare insight and one that most people competing in these industries will lack.
So now we've covered the advantages, let's look at how we can leverage them - using the structure of an affiliate campaign to lay out how to dominate a super-competitive industry.
First, if we were entering a new vertical as an affiliate, we'd SPY:
Before you commit the resources you'll need to succeed in one of these industries, you should check if you actually want the job that you'll have at the end, and the consequences of that job. For example, TV showrunner looks like a great job for someone who likes making big stories, but actually, it's mostly a job about balancing lots of people shouting at you about their different priorities!
It's also worth checking the physical requirements. Hollywood cameramen, for example, tend to drop dead about 12 months after retirement. Are you OK with that?
One of the affiliates I talked to about this speech is a keen footballer, so I asked him how he'd go about becoming a professional footballer. Without hesitation, he answered "I'd move to the country in the world with the crappest professional football scene". In tough industries, finding soft spots- what poker players would call "table selection" - is hugely important. Do the research before you dive into something that's more competitive than it needs to be.
Complex industries often have byzantine structures where your actual customer is not the person you'd think it is. For example, if you're a filmmaker, your customer is not the filmgoer in the cinema, or even the cinema owner - it's the 400 or so people who buy films to redistribute them around the world. Make sure you're aiming to please the right people.
Finally, once you've identified your market and your customer, you need to have a clear understanding of the benchmarks you need to hit in order for your product to be considered "good". For example, as a novelist, you might think that you need to have great writing to be good - but read the first Harry Potter and you'll see that's not so. You might think you need great plotting - but read some Martin Amis and you'll change your mind. Figure out what your customers actually want and need to say "this is really GOOD!".
Next, after spying, we'd look for a good offer. So:
In this case, the offer's you and your skills. So you need to get good. And this is another advantage affiliates have: we're good at learning and improving. So take "Learning How To Learn", get coaching, do deliberate practise - whatever it takes to get good. It's amazing what you can achieve - one guy got to pro golfer level play from knowing nothing about golf, just by really smart practise over 6,000 hours of play, for example.
I really don't recommend giving things away even if you can afford to as an affiliate. Customers who've paid for your work appreciate it more, treat you better, and become firmer fans.
However, if you're in a niche where it's useful to become known as an expert, consider mimicing the "guru" blogger route - affiliate links to monetise reviews and advice. Works very well in all sorts of industries - there's a well-known cameraman who got where he is today this way, for example.
Here's where I give totally unexpected advice. You might be expecting me to say "copy something that works" or "market-research your product" if you're in a making-things industry like games, film, books, or food. But actually - and this isn't just from my experience but that of people who have, for example, made the #1 spot on the App Store in "Games" in multiple countries - following what you're interested in works much, much better. Even if it's weird. Especially if it's weird. Make something that you'll be happy to have exist in the world even if no-one buys it: it's much more likely that people will buy it too!
Think hard about what the absolute minimum you can do to get to market is, in any of these industries. Read and apply "Lean Startup", even if you're not doing a startup.
Next, you'd start launching campaigns:
Take absolutely massive action. This is something affiliates are used to and almost no-one does. Particularly true if you're in a "being discovered" competitive industry: if you're an actor and you don't have a part right now, create your own! That approach has worked for people like Felicia Day, currently one of TV's hotter actresses, Vin Diesel, and Ben Affleck.
Visibility is everything in almost all these industries. If you're a junior politician, spend half your time doing things, and the other half telling your supporters, your constituents, and the press about them. Same for any other competitive industry.
So you entered a competition and placed fifth? Analyse the hell out of that. What worked? What can you build on? Most people don't use failures to their full potential. Learn and find niches you can exploit. Did your run for Sheriff get you an 85% vote share in the "over 60 women with grandchildren and an interest in handguns" demographic? Great - build on your support in the "badass grannie" demo!
Finally, when you have a success, don't sit back and chill. Figure out how to scale that to 10x and 100x. Most people won't.
A massive business consists of two things: a business model that makes more cash than it costs to gain a customer, per customer, and a huge supply of customers. You as an affiliate have the rare ability to supply the second part. Use that to your advantage.
I chose these slides because they're all people who've achieved "unbelievable" success. But they're just people. In STM we have people who've achieved huge success too. They're just affiliates like you. If they can do it, you can do it.
And that's it! Hope that was interesting! Any comments / questions / thoughts? Post 'em below.
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