Summary: The best affiliate marketers send their prospects to the vendor's sales page, fully ready to buy. This is called “pre-selling.”

Today you’re going to learn about the final type of article:

The pre-sell or direct-response article.

How to Write a Pre-Sell Post

As the name implies, you use this type of post to pre-sell a product. That means that you’re basically writing a mini sales letter for the affiliate product.

Tip: You should only publish this type of post on your blog occasionally. That’s because a blog full of nothing but ads won’t go over too well with your niche market. If you offer a lot of solid content on your blog and then post a pre-sell from time to time (maybe once a month), your readers will be more likely to read the post – and respond positively by buying the product you’re recommending.

Here then is how to create a pre-sell blog post:

Start With a Strong Headline

What’s the biggest benefit of the product you’re promoting? Whatever it is, that’s what you should put in your headline (also known as “blog post title”).

Examples:

• How to Get a Bikini Body in Six Weeks!

• The Quick and Easy Way to Double Your Conversion Rate

• How to Save $500 on Credit Card Fees This Year!

Hook the Reader

Next, you need to tell a story or otherwise hook your reader by reminding the reader of his problem.

Examples:

• Ask a question: Are You tired of wasting thousands of dollars on credit card fees?

• Share a benefit: Now you too can stop wasting money on credit card fees!

• Tell a story: Joe’s jaw dropped when he added up his credit card fees from last year — $471.77!

Introduce the Product

Next, you introduce the affiliate product as the solution to the prospect’s problem.

Example: “Introducing the Debt Reduction Manual – your guide to getting rid of your debt and those high credit card fees!”

Share the Benefits

Next, you need to provide some of the main benefits of the product you’re promoting. Ideally, you should do this in the form of a bulleted list. That way, even the skimmers will notice these benefits.

You should have already used or read the product, so you know the main benefits. But if you get a little stuck, just read the sales page for ideas. If you’d like to copy any of the benefits directly, just be sure to ask for the vendor’s permission first.

Tip: Some vendors provide affiliates with promotional materials that they can use as they please. If your vendor provides these materials, then you can take the bullet points directly from these materials and copy them to your pre-sell post.

However, please do yourself and your prospects a favor: Modify the copy to make it unique and offers better value than everybody else's copy/pasted post!

Example: Imagine being debt-free in less than a year from now – you can, once you know these secrets!

Provide a Call to Action

Finally, you need to explicitly tell your prospects to click through to the sales page and order now.

For best results, give your prospects a reason to do so.

Example: Click here to order now – but hurry, because the next 50 people to order now will get the Debt Reduction DVD absolutely free!

Today’s task: Write a pre-sell post (you don’t have to post it on your blog yet, since you already have various other posts and product reviews on your blog).

Then keep an eye out for tomorrow’s lesson, where you’ll learn how to start driving targeted traffic to your blog!