Welcome to the cyberpunk future of 2017. Self-driving cars are just around the corner. We can teach robots like we teach dogs.

Oh, and affiliates are converting en masse to the amazing, futuristic world of “eCommerce”. It’s an amazing notion: you promise to sell someone something, they give you money, and then you give them the thing!

Futuristic!

ECommerce has been around for ages, of course. But there’s a reason eCommerce is the new hotness in 2017 – dropshipping and platforms like Shopify mean we affiliates can sell our own product almost as easily as selling other peoples’.

But if you’ve been a hardcore grinding affiliate for a while, it’s going to involve a bit of a mindset shift. I’ve done both – in fact, I’ve been doing things that fit under the “e-commerce” banner since about 2 years after the word was coined in 1994.

So, here are 8 things that are very different for an affiliate moving to eCommerce, and how you should approach each of them…

Forget CVR. Think LTV.

Lead gen is easy. You fire an ad at a load of people, some of them think it sounds good, and you pass their details on to the merchant, get paid, and never interact with them again. Everything’s a one-time deal.

But once you have your own product, that completely changes – and for one very simple reason.

By far the easiest person to sell something to is the person who bought something from you before.

You’re not just limited to “one conversion equals 1 payout”. Now, if you find the right people and treat them right, one conversion could equal TWENTY payouts.

The acronym you’re looking for in this new world is LTV – Lifetime Value. That can be many times higher than your initial sale figure, because you sell to people again and again and again.

There are more ways to optimise it, it’s more complex, and it can make you a LOOOOOOOOOOOOT more money.

LTV. Know it, love it, obsess over it.

Upsells Are A Thing.

OK, here’s a simple idea: to increase revenue, find the people who are most likely to buy stuff from you, and sell them stuff.

An ...

Welcome to the cyberpunk future of 2017. Self-driving cars are just around the corner. We can teach robots like we teach dogs.

Oh, and affiliates are converting en masse to the amazing, futuristic world of “eCommerce”. It’s an amazing notion: you promise to sell someone something, they give you money, and then you give them the thing!

Futuristic!

ECommerce has been around for ages, of course. But there’s a reason eCommerce is the new hotness in 2017 – dropshipping and platforms like Shopify mean we affiliates can sell our own product almost as easily as selling other peoples’.

But if you’ve been a hardcore grinding affiliate for a while, it’s going to involve a bit of a mindset shift. I’ve done both – in fact, I’ve been doing things that fit under the “e-commerce” banner since about 2 years after the word was coined in 1994.

So, here are 8 things that are very different for an affiliate moving to eCommerce, and how you should approach each of them…

Forget CVR. Think LTV.

Lead gen is easy. You fire an ad at a load of people, some of them think it sounds good, and you pass their details on to the merchant, get paid, and never interact with them again. Everything’s a one-time deal.

But once you have your own product, that completely changes – and for one very simple reason.

By far the easiest person to sell something to is the person who bought something from you before.

You’re not just limited to “one conversion equals 1 payout”. Now, if you find the right people and treat them right, one conversion could equal TWENTY payouts.

The acronym you’re looking for in this new world is LTV – Lifetime Value. That can be many times higher than your initial sale figure, because you sell to people again and again and again.

There are more ways to optimise it, it’s more complex, and it can make you a LOOOOOOOOOOOOT more money.

LTV. Know it, love it, obsess over it.

Upsells Are A Thing.

OK, here’s a simple idea: to increase revenue, find the people who are most likely to buy stuff from you, and sell them stuff.

An ...