Slick The Split:

Transcription

1 Slick The Split: Let's just keep this simple. I have no use for fancy graphics or anything. I am so bogged down in work right now, I really have no business taking time out of my schedule to craft this bonus... but it had to be done. My curiosity was effing with me, and I was itching to share a real-world example of something. This was a test. Now, although there are many factors which will have invariably skewed these results, I honestly don't believe that they are powerful enough factors even collectively to assert anything other than the fact that there was a very clear-cut winner here, provided that making affiliate commissions was the goal. The test was simple: sending traffic to a review vs. direct linking to the offer. First things first, let's share results... I'm first going to show you my results from linking to my product review on my blog. These results are for 10 hours after sending my . My next batch of results will be for 10 hours after the that direct links to the offer. Again, there are many variables to consider, and we will definitely discuss these variables. But for now, let's just look at the raw results. This first screen shot is of my GetResponse stats...

2 In case that's a bit difficult to read, I sent to 4373 people, 278 of whom opened the . Of those 117 people clicked on the link inside of my and were taken to my review. The sales results? So out of the 117 people who were taken to my review (for which I received numerous comments stating that it was absolutely exceptional), 32 actually clicked through the the product page... eight of whom made a purchase. I converted at 25%,

3 had a respectable EPC of $2.06, and earned $65.96 in affiliate commissions. Now remember, the only metric we're really taking into consideration here is my performance as an affiliate marketer. There are many other metrics to consider, such as brand-building, trust-building, the boosting of blog popularity in the search engines, and so forth. The bottom line is that there are many wonderful reasons for me to have sent this traffic to my blog. But in this case study, commissions earned is our main consideration. Alright, so 10 hours later, I mailed out to my entire IM list (everyone to whom I mailed the first message to). 10 hours after doing THAT, here were my results sends, 386 opens, and only 43 clicks. When you send directly to an offer like this, it seems that fewer people click because they know that a pitch is on the other side of the review. So while this received ove 100 more opens than did the first , it actually received about 70 fewer clicks. Interesting. Now again, there are many variables to consider here, the 3 most significant of which being A lot of these opens were from people who already opened my first , perhaps visited my review, and maybe even visited the offer page previously.

4 These people would obviously have very little interest in visiting the offer page again. 2. In the review on my blog, I forgot to mention my bonus (which you're reading right now). The direct linking mentioned the bonus. 3. I did mail at different times of day. Admittedly, my list is more responsive at certain times than others. This obviously makes a pretty substantial difference. So all of that being taken into consideration, these were my sales results 10 hours after sending the direct promo ... The bottom line here is that virtually everything stayed the same! :) The sales did roll in a bit faster using the direct approach, but here's the thing... I have no way of knowing if all of the sales came in FROM that direct promo, if they were residual sales from that first , or if some of my commissions were the result of organic search traffic, as my blog review is ranked on Google page one for a number of product-centric search terms. I could have tracked to gather this data.

5 But I ain't no damned scientist, homie. I'm more of a throw all kinds of flammable shit into the fire... it'll just plain get bigger type of cat. By the way, here are my sales results as of this writing... My conversions and EPC's have actually gone UP. Coolio. Why? I don't know. Luck? I can certainly speculate that some of this traffic has come from those organic search results, and that since these people were specifically searching for Bill Hugall's 'The Simple Affiliate' by name, that they came into the damn thing with pre-existing interest. Who knows? And who cares? I threw three pieces of wood into a fire. Who cares which piece burns hotter? They

6 all work together to achieve the same goal. So that's the conclusion I've drawn, my friend... Should you send your subscribers to a review... or straight to the offer page? If you don't wanna write a review, then the answer is obvious. Just direct link. It ALWAYS works! If you want the added benefit of growing a blog and enjoying some nice organic search traffic, then THAT answer is obvious... write a review. But know this... There is absolutely no harm in doing both. This really need not be an either or proposition. This is YOUR list, after all. And you can do whatever you want with it. My advice: MIX IT UP! Keep 'em guessing. And since I emphatically recommend that every serious online entrepreneur be a highly active blogger, then I would definitely like to see you writing a review or two here and there. When my Shiny Object Lemonade book hits the shelves on September 12, you are going to have your eyes SERIOUSLY opened. I'm going to give you a whole new outlook on your business. It is, in my opinion, some of the most important IM training you will ever receive. A complete paradigm shift if is... and not just in the way you think... but in the actual steps you take and overall business model you adopt. Don't miss it. In any case, I hope that you've enjoyed this bonus. If you were looking for something a bit more scientific, I'm sorry to have let you down.

7 My message here is to take action, not second-guess yourself, and most importantly... If you wanna build a fire, don't analyze every piece of wood in your pile... Just start chuckin' 'em in, baby! Hope this helps, Lee