"Most Online Businesses leave Millions on the Table Because They Don't Think to Use Offline Traffic Sources"
Offline affiliate
marketing methods can be an excellent way to either start out or to scale up
your existing affiliate marketing campaigns.Â
It might even be better for newbies to start with these offline
affiliate marketing methods because of their cost effectiveness, simplicity and
scalability. Â
For me this all started
with a question to my mind when contemplating my own affiliate marketing
business.
The Question:
After getting some good
results using paid solo adds I wanted to find other methods to scale up that
were both cheap and simple to use.  Then the question occurred to me:
"Are there any good
offline methods for affiliate marketing?"
This question intrigued
me since there isn't much talk about this on the internet, but after doing some
research I found some very interesting and exciting results, which to be
honest, I was kind of tempted to keep to myself at first. Then I
though... nah!Â
The Answer:
There are Five easy and
cheap offline affiliate marketing methods that are actually quite
profitable. Â
Here they are:
1.) Handing Out Business
Cards
2.) Handing Out Flyers
3.) Putting up Posters
4.) Newspaper
Classifieds
1. Handing Out Business Cards
Now don't roll your eyes so soon, though, I must admit I did when
I first heard this, but then I thought about how easy it could be and actually
tried it myself.  I must admit it's not a huge source of sales, but
it does generate a steady stream of traffic to my blog and money site and it
takes zero time.  Just a bit of awareness.Â
So what do I mean?
Well, the only real work is taking your logo and website name and
putting it on a business card with your name and email and of course the site
address underneath.  I'm assuming that you have a site or at least an
amazing landing page.  If not you should see my other article: Affiliate Marketing for Beginners.Â
So you go to the local copy shop, give them your logo and details.  The
cost is cheap, I got 1000 for for $100.  Once they are printed there
really isn't any work to do.  You just carry your cards with you.
Let me explain:Â Â every time you're at a bank you can
leave one of your cards on the counter.  Every time you're in the
super market you can stick a card on the community bulletin board.  Every
time a friend asks why you've been so busy you can tell him about your business
and give him a card.Â
By just carrying your cards with you and paying attention you can
drop them off during your daily routine in places that you think are
appropriate.  If there is an unemployment office near my route and
I'm in the make money online niche I might want to stick my card on some of the
cars or leave it on the tables there. Â
They key is to put them in places that might suit your business, but only when
you are in those places as part of your daily errands.  This
basically monetizes your daily routine.  The fact that you can keep a
stack of them in your car and always have some in your pocket makes this
probably the easiest low cost method.Â
While the disadvantage is that there is a limit to what you can
accomplish with this, it doesn't take any extra time or work, and the effects
of building your brand and online presence will be stronger as time progresses.Â
So this should be the first place to start, and then we can scale
up to flyers.
They key is to put them in places that might suit your business, but only when you are in those places as part of your daily errands.  This basically monetizes your daily routine.  The fact that you can keep a stack of them in your car and always have some in your pocket makes this probably the easiest low cost method.Â
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2. Handing Out Flyers
The natural extension of handing out your business cards is
putting out flyers. Believe it or not this can be a very effectictive
offline affiliate marketing method.  Obviously you don't want to be
one of those annoying people on the street pushing flyers into people's faces.  It's
not effective, it will simply waste your time, and people won't like you.Â
But you can start by posting them at the local community bulletin
boards once a week, on street posts where it's allowed and under windshield
whippers of cars.  Butting them on windshields is powerful since
people will often see it either when they take it off or if they notice it once
they enter the car.  You should probably use bright colors and catchy
headlines or a curiosity provoking image to get the person to actually read it.  Putting
them on windshields takes more work and I am lazy, so I would only do a few
cars in niche targeted locations.Â
Example: if you're in the martial arts niche, you might want to
only do cars outside of a sports center etc.Â
This method can be scaled up very easily since you can pay people
to place the flyers for you in various locations.  So once you get
some sales coming in you can start paying people to do it for you, and then add
new cities and towns.  There is almost no limit to the growth of your
business with this method once it gets some traction.  Make sure to
split test and to track your results so that you can improve your return on
investment.
Â
3. Putting Up Posters
A well placed poster is more powerful than you think, and there is
a whole industry that thrives on this such as www.theposterguys.com.  Using
posters as an offline affiliate marketing method is also pretty cheap.  You
can simply design your poster using a free graphics program such as Canva.  I
suggest making a few different posters and split test them in your area before
scaling up.  Once you've found a high converting poster design you
can take your poster to a local printing shop and mass distribute it around
your city or town.  As with your flyers you should track the traffic
coming from each poster and/or location so that you will know where to focus
you money and time when you scale up.Â
Again, just like with the flyers you can scale up by paying people
to post the posters for you.  Services like 'the poster guys' can
distribute posters over a wide area in your country usually for a very low
price such as $50 for 100 posters.  This method can be very powerful
for getting traffic and sales, but it is even better for long term brand awareness
which most business people know to a very powerful factor in growth, and sales.
I suggest doing this once you are getting a good stream of traffic
from your flyers as you will have gained a better sense of what works and what
doesn't and this will help you quite a bit when choosing your poster design and
which areas to target.Â