AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Today’s episode is all about affiliate marketing.
But, there’s a twist to this episode. I’m going to focus on affiliate marketing even when you have a small list. I have a philosophy around list building. When you begin your list-building efforts, you entire focus needs to be on quality. By quality I mean the way you attract the people to your list.
What kind of content are you putting out there? How consistent are you in terms of relating to them and reaching out to them and building that relationship? It’s all about quality first. Then, when you get the foundation of a quality email list down you can focus on quantity.
I do believe that quality and quantity are both really important. But you’ve got to start with quality. That actually seamlessly works its way into everything you do as you start to grow your list more and more. There is no doubt that as I’ve grown my list I’ve made more money in my business.
I was able to do some really cool things in the beginning even with a small list. That’s why I invited my guest today, Rachel Luna, to the show to talk about her success with affiliate marketing even with a relatively small list. We’re going to talk about numbers, how much she has made with affiliate marketing, and the size of her list.
We’re going to get specific about exactly what she’s done in some of her affiliate promos to see some really big results. We’re specifically going to be talking about one promotion she did recently with Todd Herman’s 90-Day Year.
Many of you know that Todd Herman was my business coach through 2015, the entire year, and I promoted his 90-Day Year with some amazing success. So many of you signed up for 90-Day Year through my affiliate link. I couldn’t thank you enough for that support, and I’m really excited you all are in that program. There was another lady that was a huge force to reckon with during that promotion.
I had not known about her before and then all of the sudden I saw her name popping up on the leader board. I wondered who this gal was that kept popping up on the leader board doing amazing things with her affiliate promo. Then some of my peers started to talk about her. They said, “Amy, you really should talk to her. She has a really small list and is doing incredible things inside the affiliate promo for Todd.”
I wanted to hear more so when I got on this interview with her I quickly realized she is so much fun to talk to. She is incredibly passionate about what she does and takes affiliate marketing (she’s not considered an affiliate marketer) promos with different partners very seriously. There are so many similarities between what Rachel does and what I do inside my own promotions.
What is different is that she has a really small list compared to mine. I have almost 200,000 people on my list. You will hear how many people she has on her list, and she’s still able to see some incredible results.
I wanted to do this episode today to give many of you hope that you do not need a list of 200,000 people to make it in online marketing. You do not need a humungous list to have amazing success but you do need a quality list. So listen closely to how Rachel explains what she does, how she does it, and how genuine she is about caring for those people that have joined her list. That’s the secret to her success.
We also have a freebie in today’s episode. It’s a starter guide for affiliate marketing. Listen closely because I’m going to explain how to get your hands on that once we jump into the interview.
Before we get going, a quick word about our sponsor. I want to thank our sponsor today, 99Designs. I am such a huge fan of this company because they can take care of all of your graphic needs. We are talking logos, social media cover images, website graphics, and so much more. So visit www.99Designs.com/amy and get a $99 upgrade for free.
I won’t make you wait any longer. Let’s go ahead and jump in.
Amy: Hey there Rachel, thank you so much for being here with me today. I really appreciate it.
Rachel: Thank you so much. What an honor for me. Thank you for having me.
Amy: I’m excited. We got to chat a little bit before we went live here. You’re just a little firecracker, which I absolutely love. I know this is going to be a fantastic interview and I want to start at the top. I want you to give us a little back story of when you decided to get into online business. Tell us a little bit about your journey.
Rachel: Oh girl! We don’t have time for all of that.
Amy: Give us the Cliff Notes. Good idea.
Rachel: I am a former U.S. Marine but I always had this entrepreneurial bug as a kid. I had a little sweat shop with my cousins making bracelets. The business was called Beads R US. I remember having a business meeting with them and asking how many each one could make in an hour.
Amy: No.
Rachel: Yes. So I had my own little sweat shop early on. Then I went on to venture with a T-shirt company. Entrepreneurship is really about trial and error and finding your niche and figuring out what you love. I had some ups and downs of what I wanted to do but while I was in the Marine Corps I was part of the Wounded Warrior battalion and launched the regional medical center in Germany.
They were kids, Amy, 18 and 17 years old coming in. It is no exaggeration, they were literally blown up with no legs, no arms. One of my patients that I’ll never forget, Lance Corporal Bial, had his mouth wired shut. He had lost his legs and a couple of fingers. He couldn’t talk, yet I would spend hours with him. To this day, I don’t know how we communicated but we had hour-long conversations.
Having that experience made me feel there is so much more to life and I really have to do something where I am helping people reach their full potential and really exploit their talent. Look at these kids. None of us are promised tomorrow. I had seen a TV show called Starting Over many years ago.
There was a life coach, do you remember Rhonda Brighton? That was my first experience with a life coach. But at that time I was in my early 20s. I figured maybe I would do it later. Then, in late 2005 or early 2006 I was at a crossroads and I had to decide if I was going to extend in the Marine Corps or if I was going to get out. I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, for lack of a better term.
I was overweight as a Marine, which is really detrimental to your career. I was also in debt over $40,000. At the time I was making six figures as a Marine because of where I was stationed, my duty, and stuff like that. That’s very rare, by the way.
Amy: Yeah, very impressive.
Rachel: I had all of these extra pays and bonuses and benefits. But I was still in all this debt so I hired a life coach. She told me I would be an amazing life coach. I thought she was crazy because I didn’t have my life together. How could I help other people?
She said I had overcome so much. My parents died of AIDS. My mom died of AIDS when I was three. My dad had AIDS. My godmother raised me. I was an alcoholic. I had all kinds of eating disorders and had debt.
She said when I got on track people would want to know how I did it and that would be really inspiring to other people. I told her I wanted to work on me first. You have to work on yourself before you can be of service to anybody else.
Amy: That’s so true.
Rachel: We did. I got out of debt in less than three years. I ended up having a stack of cash saved up in the bank. I lost the weight. Since then I have been able to keep the weight off. I don’t do anything special. I love chocolate, I am a chocaholic. I don’t do anything special, but I think it was just the mindset change.
Then I wanted to be a life coach. I did want to help other people. But, as a life coach, I realize there was a certain kind of person I wanted to work with and it was with an entrepreneur because I am motivated by action and results.
Sometimes, in my experience as a life coach, people aren’t so focused on taking action, they are focused on feeling better. For me, I wanted them to feel better AND wanted to take action to get big results. They were happy with mediocre results. I want big. I want you to have the best, most exciting.
For me, working with entrepreneurs was where it was at and I kind of stumbled into that because people kept asking me questions about my business. I am also the genius idea generator. I have genius ideas all the time. I sound like such a braggart.
Amy: I love that you own it.
Rachel: It’s a gift. The only bad thing is that it’s a gift for other people. I have all of these great ideas for everybody else but when it comes to my own self I think, “Hmmmm, what should I think of?”
Amy: What do you do in your business now when people ask you what you do? What is your elevator pitch?
Rachel: I work with women entrepreneurs and a couple of ultra secure male entrepreneurs. We combine my set mastery with business savvy. Because I am a life coach I am going to break through all that garbage, the negative thoughts, the limiting beliefs that you aren’t good enough, it’s not good enough, they aren’t going to like you, you aren’t big enough, all that yucky gunk that goes in our head that stops us from taking action. We totally blast through that and because I just love marketing and business we get down to action.
I ask, “What’s your marketing plan? What are we going to do in these 90 days?” You and I are both big fans of Todd Herman so I really focus on those 90 days. What are we going to get done in 90 days? What does the action plan look like?
A lot of times people don’t know. They have no clue. So I work with them through that. But I think I am a little bit different (then again, I really don’t know what every other coach out there does) because I don’t just give you the plan. That creates codependency and I would love to have income from you for life but that’s not my ultimate goal.
My ultimate goal is that you learn how to coach yourself so that you are a self- sufficient entrepreneur. When the negative thoughts come in you can talk yourself off the ledge and you don’t need to call everybody and their mother saying you don’t know what to do. We get really caught up in asking everybody for their opinion. Then all of those different thoughts and conversations are being entangled with the conversation that’s playing in our head and we have analysis paralysis. We take no action.
That is really where I come in. I really teach you how to coach yourself through your own negative garbage and create plans. I help you to start critically think for yourself and your business so that at the end of our time together you can go and fly and do the most amazing things you were born to do.
Amy: That’s so awesome. I love that. What makes you unique though is that you are a life coach but you are also now an affiliate marketer. I usually don’t see those two together so I think that’s really unique and very smart and strategic. But I want to dive into your exact experience of being an affiliate for Todd Herman’s 90-Day Year.
Before I get there, have you done a lot of affiliate marketing before you did affiliate marketing for Todd Herman?
Rachel: Yes and no. It really depends on what you define as a lot. I had done three other affiliate programs.
Amy: Which isn’t a lot.
Rachel: I didn’t think it was a lot. I wouldn’t call myself an affiliate marketer. Some people do that professionally.
Amy: Yeah, I agree. I wouldn’t either. You have a few programs out there that you really believe in and that you promote because you’ve got good stories with them. We are going to talk about your relationship with the program.
Rachel: Yes, exactly.
Amy: Okay. Good. I want to break it down. We are going to get really specific, what you did and how it worked and what your list looked like and all that good stuff. But I think we can tease our audience a little bit if we start with the numbers. Why don’t you first tell people when you started Todd’s program as an affiliate (you went through the program and we will talk about that) during his launch, how many people were on your list?
Rachel: When I started to promote we had just cleared off the list. That is so scary because you lose all of these people. We had just over 5,000.
Amy: 5,000 people. Okay, awesome. And, how much money in commissions only did you make with Todd Herman’s launch?
Rachel: $53,000.
Amy: $53,000. You have 5,000 people on your list and made $53,000. That’s what I wanted to hear right from the get go because I think there are some people here whose ears are going to perk up and want to pay attention. We are going to break it down. That’s what I love about this. We’ve prepared. We know what you want to know and that’s what we’re going to dive into. But I want to do a quick little plug for the quality of a list.
I’m coming out with a brand new list-building program in just a few weeks and this was timed so perfectly. It wasn’t planned this way, but when I heard that Rachel had such huge success with a smaller(ish) list. I don’t think that’s a really small list, but compared to some of the big shot internet marketers that were also marketing Todd’s program, it is pretty amazing. We’ll talk to you about where she fell in the leader board and all that good stuff.
But, with 5,000 people on her list, it wasn’t a huge list. But, what is so amazing, and I think you have already heard it from Rachel herself, it was a quality list. She cares deeply about everybody on that list. I am sure she has nurtured it. We’ll talk about that. But, to me it does not matter how many people are on your list. To me it matters how you’ve attracted them and what you’ve done once they have joined your list. That $53,000 is such proof of that.
Rachel: Can I just jump in and share that this was my biggest list and my biggest launch. But I had done three others before. At the time of doing those others, my list was 1,000 or slightly over 1,000. With those others I had done $13,000, $15,000, and $10,000 as my commission, my take home, even with a small list of 1,000.
I know that for people listening that have smaller lists, you could still have a five-figure promotion with a small list.
Amy: Let’s talk about that because you obviously went about this launch with Todd with a plan. A lot of people will think it looks pretty easy to promote someone else’s program. You don’t have to do it yourself and that’s really cool. One of the things I love about affiliate marketing is that all of the promotional materials and the entire program are already finished for you. Now you have to add your unique layer to it to make it special.
There is a lot less work you have to do when you are promoting someone else’s program. So sometimes it might look easy. I think you and I will both say it’s not necessarily easy, right?
Rachel: No.
Amy: And we both would never go into anything without a plan. Would you agree?
Rachel: I would so agree.
Amy: We are very much alike in that respect. So let’s talk about it. We talked about how big your list was. We talked about the revenue. But, tell me this, what was your initial revenue goal for the 90-Day Year launch?
Rachel: My initial revenue goal was $14,000. I thought I could do that.
Amy: $14,000. That would have been the biggest affiliate launch you’ve done, right?
Rachel: It would have been right behind my biggest. My biggest was $15,000.
Amy: Oh that’s right. So right there. Walk us through the steps on how you actually made this happen. Let’s just put it out there right now that there were a lot of people marketing 90-Day Year. I was part of it, for sure. You fell in fourth place.
That’s pretty amazing considering that there were some people that had much bigger lists that were promoting this.
Rachel: Yes. That was really exciting for me. I feel like such a dork right now because I felt like all the cool kids on the playground, “Oh, they threw me the ball.”
Amy: When you see your name on that leaderboard, I hate to admit it, but it is definitely a sense of pride, “Yes, I’m in the game.”
Rachel: Yes. And for anyone who is ever thinking about doing an affiliate program, I will say that leaderboard is such a key element because when I saw my name in the top ten for the opt-in part I was like, “Oh, wait a second, I’m in the game? Okay.”
Something psychologically happened to me where I really wanted to give it extra. What ended up happening, just a week before the big kickoff, my website got hacked. Everything I had planned, blogs and everything planned for the launch was gone. I really considered just not doing it at all but Todd, as a good man that he is, reached out and asked if I was on board.
I told him my website got hacked but I would send out a few emails. Amy, I’ll tell you I thought that’s all I was going to do even though I had a plan. But the derailments kind of knocked me off my keels. I sent off that first email which I had taken the time to write really well. I was very thoughtful about it. I was very intentional because I wanted to make sure it was something that would resonate with my audience.
Amy: And the reason you could do that, you went through the program, right?
Rachel: Yes. I have rules for that.
Amy: Let’s talk about that. This is a good time to mention, just real fast, it is so cool that Rachel took the time to create a really cool freebie for this episode. It’s called Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide. I read it and it is so good. She talks about the rules you should have, and we’re going to talk about some of those right now, the rules of actually being an affiliate marketer and setting goals and what you should do before, during, and after. It is a really cool freebie that I want you all to get your hands on.
If you go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/93download you can get your hands on the freebie. Or, you can text 93download to 33444. It is really well written. It is an awesome starter guide for affiliate marketing. Thanks for putting that together.
I totally threw you off. So, let’s talk about that. One of the rules is that you’ve got to go through the program. Right?
Rachel: You have to. You really do. I know I’m sure you do, Amy, but I get hit up left and right from people telling me something would be a good fit for my audience, could I promote it. I used to get really annoyed because I felt like, “Hi, do you know me? Do we have a relationship? No. Bye. Next.”
I am a little brash and abrasive at times. But then I realized everybody’s just trying to get their amazing thing out there so I have hard and fast rules. I will not promote anything I have not personally used. When your audience comes to you and trust you, really they trust us so much, when we give our recommendation they are going to have questions. When they stumble on the program they are going to come to you. If you haven’t been through it what are you going to say, “Oh you know what, it’s a great program for you but I didn’t go through it.”
You’ve got to go through the program. You have to be really up front. I am always up front about what I like and what I didn’t like. I was totally candid with people about Todd’s program and said, “Todd’s personality is a little different. I am bright and bubbly and I know you’re used to my style. He’s totally not like that.”
Todd, if you’re listening, you know I love you homeboy, but this is exactly how I sold him to my audience. I said, “He’s like that really super smart nerdy kid in class that is kind of like, ‘oh my god, you’re still talking’ but you know you have to listen because he’s so smart.”
Amy: Oh my god, I love it!
Rachel: If you really pay attention you will ace the test, right?
Amy: That is exactly Todd. Here’s what I love about what you’re saying. Most people that are listening get it. They know they need to actually experience the program before they market it. The #1 reason for me, and it sounds like for you too, is that out of integrity, you shouldn’t be promoting something you know nothing about. But here’s another reason why, it is like the icing on the cake, you can write incredible emails during the affiliate launch when you know the program inside and out.
Because so much of affiliate marketing is in your list, you are going to attract the people that already like and trust you. You don’t have to do tons of other things beyond email marketing to see some success. One of my most successful emails I wrote during B-School, which is one of my big programs that I promote (Marie Forleo’s B-School) was an email where I explained exactly how I use the program.
I tell them when they get in the program there will be a video about “this” and I took the lesson and applied it “here” and these are the results I got. Then I went into “this” video and “this” is what I did. If you can be that specific people will totally see the program come alive through your eyes and they trust you already and that makes a huge difference. We’re totally on board there. You have to believe in the program, have success with the program, and make it really personal.
Rachel: I’m glad you said that, because that was one of the very first things I did, Amy. I know you wanted to get the nitty gritty and my step by step. One of the very first things I did was create a Facebook group called The Two-Week Business Achievement Master Class Featuring Todd Herman. I put a picture of Todd and a picture of me. I invited everyone on my list to join this and then I did the social media share.
I didn’t run any Facebook ads at this point. I just invited everyone to come into the Facebook group. In that Facebook I set the expectation over the next two weeks. We would do some goal setting. I really spoke about everything Todd was going to cover in his videos. Then I said, “By the way, here’s where you’re going to go to register to get the training.”
I was up front. I said that Todd is my mentor. I gave them the overview and they would go through the videos. Every time content or a video was released I would say, “Awesome, Todd just released the new video. Check it out. Here were my takeaways. What were your takeaways?” I really encouraged them to go through it.
I kept getting them engaged. I would ask who hasn’t watched video #1 and who hasn’t watched video #2, who has questions, did you do the workbook? I would tell them how I worked it out. This helps them get results from the pre-launch content right from jump street. If you can help someone get results right away it is just like with list building with that freebie, if you can help them get results right from jump street they trust you, they believe you, and it also helps them fall in love with the program and the organizer of the program.
Amy: That is such a smart thing. It is so funny that you bring this up. I am going to do that for the very first time with B-School. I am going to do a private Facebook group right before the videos come out. One the reasons I wanted to do it, based on all of the reasons you just mentioned, but I also want to make sure if people know if it’s for them or if it’s not for them.
That’s part of our goal as an affiliate with our own list, to make it really clear whether they are or are not a good fit. I feel a private Facebook group during the launch when the videos are coming out (just to be clear, Todd did a three-part video series and the final video was a sales video and B-School does the same thing) is so smart. You have a relationship with them and they can come to you. I’m betting they did and said, “Hey, this is my situation. Would I be right for a program like this?”
Rachel: Yeah. A lot of people asked me. But even before that, they really had questions about the content and that was great for me. Here’s another thing, when they come to you with these questions about the content, that’s also what you can use to craft your emails to your list, the same issues they are having.
Some people will not join a Facebook group. I actually don’t love Facebook groups.
Amy: I don’t either. They are a lot of work and suck up a lot of time. But there are a few that I am involved in because they are so quality.
Rachel: Exactly. You mentioned on another episode that if you could get in one hour a day you are good. That’s how I feel about my Facebook groups. If I can get in there one hour a day I’m good. But because some people are over Facebook groups but are still on your list they still have questions. Maybe they are not emailing you. Maybe they aren’t reaching out. Some people aren’t outgoing or boisterous like I am so I really wanted to make sure I was hitting their particular needs. I got a lot of content from the group.
Amy: That’s fantastic. That’s a huge takeaway, starting a private Facebook group during the promotional period of the launch, whether it be your own program or somebody else’s program, I think that’s really quality. But I have a quick question for you, what do you do with that group once the promotion is over?
Rachel: I was just about to tell you.
Amy: Oh good.
Rachel: You have to set the expectation. That’s why, in the title, it was called Two- Week Business Achievement Featuring Todd Herman.
Amy: Nice.
Rachel: I was very clear. I let them know. As the free content videos were starting to dwindle down I was letting them know, “This is your last chance, videos are coming down” and letting them know after that day there would be no more support. I left the group up and popped in periodically because Todd does his launches two times a year.
There are still a considerable amount of people that didn’t join that are still in that group. I don’t want to lose all of those people so I’m popping in from time to time and checking in to see how everyone is doing with goal setting and checking to see if anyone has any questions. I am popping in once every two weeks or so just to let them know someone is there if they need them. But, that is also still a pool of people I can reach out to and support for the next round.
Amy: Nice. Even added support they didn’t expect. That’s very cool. I have some really specific questions, one being, on average, how much time do you think you put into being an affiliate for 90-Day Year?
Rachel: I put in hours, girlfriend.
Amy: Okay, so it’s a lot.
Rachel: Yeah, I took it seriously. Again, with the leaderboard, I’m a little bit competitive.
Amy: I have a love/hate relationships with those leaderboards. Sometimes they push me to do things and I wonder if I’m getting a little too aggressive because of my ego or if my list really needs one more email about the program. I am so competitive that I have to put myself in check sometimes.
Rachel: Yeah, and here’s the thing, Nikki Elledge Brown, a guest on your show….
Amy: Love her.
Rachel: She is a really good friend of mine. Nikki and I kept bumping each other out of the ranking and I sent her a text and said, “Lady…”
Amy: You’re driving me nuts!
Rachel: She’s so sweet and gracious. She said she preferred to think of it as each of us elevating each other up to the next level.
Amy: She’s so adorable.
Rachel: Yeah, I was like, “Okay smarty pants.” Now I’ve gotten derailed.
Amy: You were talking about how much time you have put into this.
Rachel: Tons of hours, tons. I took it really seriously. Todd’s launch was also my launch.
Amy: Yes! Wait, this is a huge, huge, huge takeaway. Todd’s launch was your launch. That’s truly my philosophy. If I’m going to do it then this is my launch period and I treat it as my own. That’s a huge takeaway.
Rachel: And listen, those people that become Todd’s people through me are my people. I have to take good care of them. I can’t just throw it at the wall. I’ll tell you, one year I was an affiliate for B-School, the very first year I was even an affiliate, I just threw out a couple of emails. I think I got two people enrolled, total. I made $2,000.
That’s money, Great, I’ll take $2,000. But, to this day I have no idea who those people were. I didn’t take care of them. I feel so bad to this day. This was a couple of years ago. I feel like I let those people down. Probably not, B-School is great and there is a lot of value there. But, just for me and my credibility and my own word, Todd’s launch was my launch. I told my husband, “We’re launching. I’m going to be working.”
Amy: Awesome. It’s like Game On!
Rachel: Yes. There were some nights where there were time differences. I would be up until midnight, past midnight, getting things ready for the next day; especially that last day. Cart-closing day is like pins and needles and stuff like that.
I want to tell you the next thing I did because I think this is really important, especially if you have a smaller list, the next thing I did was decide on the bonuses I wanted to offer. I really took time to consider how much time and energy I could give these people. Last year I was an affiliate for B-School and I did great. We did a little over $10,000.
Amy: Awesome. That’s a lot of money! That is so awesome. I love that you are getting into bonuses. I was just like you, I did my first few and the first time I did B-School I had no bonuses. Then I kind of learned I had to get it together. But, bonuses make or break things. I think our audiences are getting even smarter knowing there are bonuses out there. They shop around to see who has the best bonuses.
This is in your starter guide, I love what you wrote about bonuses. You have a work sheet for them to figure it out. Again guys, its at http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/93download. But tell me again how you decided which bonuses to include.
Rachel: Because this isn’t my first rodeo, I remembered I don’t like Facebook groups. I remembered how much time I had promised my previous groups and I fulfilled those but I was really worn out. I didn’t feel so good because I felt I had given so much more time than the return. I really wanted to make sure it was fair and equitable for everybody.
I did a fast-acting bonus so the first ten people got 90-minute one-on-one calls with me, which is a lot. But I felt they needed that because Todd’s program is so unique and really calls for you to use a whole different part of your brain if you are creative. I wanted to give that support.
Then I thought of things I would have liked to have when I went through the program and what I felt would have really enhanced my experience in the program. Again, it is a great program as is. But, sometimes we want a little more. We are greedy peeps. What can I say?
That’s how I figured it out, what I would have loved to have had and what I wished somebody had given me. I also started thinking about what other people might be offering. I also checked out the competition. I did a little googly-goog and typed in Nikki Elledge Brown Todd Herman bonus, Amy Porterfield Todd Herman bonus, and went through the top ten list of people that were on the leaderboard to see what they were offering and how I could differentiate myself.
Amy: I think that’s so smart. Here’s something I think is a really good thing to understand and remember: Sometimes the first time you market something, especially if you are kind of new in this space (you touched on this a little bit), be careful that you don’t over deliver to the point it pretty much kills you.
You’ve got to remember, when you create bonuses you have to be able to put those together in a certain amount of time because you have to promise them (“Ill give you the bonuses by this date”). I have also been known to give way too many bonuses and then be really frustrated afterwards. I question myself why I did it. Another thing you have to understand is what your audience really wants. You touched on that as well.
For the 90-Day Year, for me, it was the first time I was marketing it. I didn’t know how my audience would respond. They responded amazingly well so I was very happy with the success we did. But, I didn’t have tons of bonuses. But I included a bonus that I knew a 90-Day Year audience, my audience, would want to know. It usually comes back to how I used it and what it looks like behind the scenes in my business.
I think what you did was so smart, where you offered the first ten people a 90-minute call. It is those touch points. They want more of you and how you have applied it and what you would suggest to them more than anything. The biggest gift you can give them is yourself during a bonus, I think.
Rachel: Those snapped up on the first day within the first 12 hours. I couldn’t believe it, Amy. On the first day, when I had already made $10,000 in commission I was like, “Well, maybe I should go for $20,000 instead of $14,000.” Incremental then, on Day 2, I hit $16,000 and thought I should go up. It was building up.
What I did was turn to Lead Pages, which I know you and I both love…
Amy: Love.
Rachel: We love our Lead Pages, guys. I just created a Lead Page landing page for my bonuses. I put up a homegrown video right in my kitchen without makeup. It was poor lighting but it was totally me. I just said, “Hey, what’s up. This is what the program’s about. I’m excited about the bonuses and the first ten people are going to get this, the next people will get this,” etc.
I told them to click on the link and get started. It was totally free and let them know to get the videos. I just kept redirecting traffic to the bonuses. Then, here’s what else I did, I reached out to Todd and asked him (you know, he’s so big into numbers), “I have a group set up. How many people do I need to get in this group for you to do a call with my people?”
Amy: Nice.
Rachel: That’s so big. We both love Marie Forleo but I remember the first two times I was an affiliate I was so jealous. I wondered why she did calls with all those people. I wanted a call. Of course, I didn’t have a list, I didn’t have the clout behind it. I didn’t have the metrics. Todd, being Todd, came back and said if I got 217 people…
Amy: That’s the most random number.
Rachel: He’s random.
Amy: He is.
Rachel: So he said 217 people and I was watching the group like a hawk. Four hours later we were at 190 and I sent him screen shot and said, “190 and climbing. Feel free to start scheduling the call”. I am a former Marine. I am Puerto Rican and a New Yorker. I am a little cocky sometimes. I can’t be humble. I try. But I wanted him to go ahead and get scheduled. He said he knew I was going to do it and said we would get it scheduled.
Amy: Was it a call as a bonus or before he even opened his cart? When did that call happen?
Rachel: It was a before and that’s what I wanted. I wanted people to experience Todd and I together. He is so different than I am and I wanted to put that juxtaposition together for the audience so they could see that even if you aren’t a serious buttons- up entrepreneur, if you’re a little crazy and zany like me, this can still work for you. Don’t be intimidated by the business talk and the numbers and his amazing and incredible vocabulary. You can still do this.
Amy: Cool. So you kind of introduced him to your audience early on before they even had the chance to buy. That is so awesome. So you did emails. You did the private Facebook group. You had Todd actually do a call with your audience. You also did Facebook ads. Is that right?
Rachel: Yes. I did Facebook ads. This was a lesson I learned from a previous affiliate launch. It’s not the best idea, I’m not saying it can’t work but I’m saying what worked for me, it’s not the best idea to do Facebook ads to a cold market during a big launch like that because other people, that everyone else knows, are also doing ads.
I lost money…Not one conversion from any of those ads.
Amy: So you were targeting a cold audience.
Rachel: No. In the past.
Amy: Oh, in the past you lost money?
Rachel: That was a lesson learned. For this launch, I am a little ADD, I apologize, I did Facebook ads exclusively to my warm audience. I uploaded email list that I pulled in. I did ads specifically to my list and I did ads specifically to my Live Page and that’s it.
Amy: I love this. So you ran custom audience Facebook ads to a totally warm audience, which is great. In Episode #92 I just did a whole Facebook Ad Targeting
You went after the warm audiences because your past experience was that the cold audiences, you knew people with a lot more money that were throwing on ads were going after all of the cold audience so the market was saturated, so you stayed closer to home and had amazing success. How much did you spend on your Facebook ads?
Rachel: I spent $428.
Amy: $428 and you generated $53,000. Let’s do that everyday.
Rachel: Could we please? In the Facebook ads I did ads with the image of Todd and I together so that my people could see not just Todd’s face, that might resonate with them, but because they were my people I knew if they saw my face with him it would sort of pair us together and they would have that warm and fuzzy for him as well. It created relatability and association for both of us.
Amy: Awesome. I will say that one thing that’s really cool is Todd was up front with us in terms of what images we could use and what we couldn’t use and not every affiliate launch will allow you to pair your image with them. What was so cool about Todd’s launch is he knew pretty much everyone who promoted really well. Most of the people had gone through the program and he was more than happy to be paired with that person.
I also liked the fact that Todd’s launch was kind of still intimate. I felt like there weren’t hundreds of us trying to promote it. It is kind of like, if you can jump on a launch with a program that you know has done well but is not amazingly huge just yet, there are some perks to that, for sure.
Rachel: I agree. I thought it was really well done.
Amy: Todd did a great job. Huge shout out to that, for sure. Tell me this, out of all the stuff you did…One more time, you did emails, which were really personal and specific to your audience and in your voice and really let people know your own experience and what they can expect as well; you did the private Facebook group; you had Todd; you did Facebook ads. What was your #1 factor that contributed to the success?
Rachel: My #1 factor was giving people my time. I was very generous with my time. I got on the Facebook group. I got on phone calls with people. I got on Skype. When people had questions I really took the time to answer. Todd, I’m sorry if you’re listening, I don’t know if this is allowed, but I took screen shots of what the dashboard of the program looked like just to show them what they get. I broke down the lessons for them.
Amy: Awesome.
Rachel: When I did that, here’s the thing Amy, and I don’t know if that was legal or not…
Amy: I am sure it was. I think they were showing those pictures too. That’s smart.
Rachel: But when I did that it really helped the prospect envision themselves in the program and it gave them a sense of calm. They could see what’s in there. They knew exactly what they were doing. I was taking the time and answering their questions.
Then, here’s what happens, because I was so generous with people and answering their questions, when everyone was talking about “Who’s this Todd Herman” because in a lot of other groups I was in I was seeing people talking about “Who’s Todd Herman” and “What do you guys know about the 90-Day Year?” People were tagging me and saying, “Rachel Luna is the expert at the 90-Day Year, ask her any question, she can help you.”
Amy: Wow. That’s incredible.
Rachel: The other thing I did was write up my 90-Day Year results blog on Lead Pages; again, I didn’t have a blog, my website was completely down. On Lead Pages I put up a blog post with little “buy in” affiliate links all over the place. I shared my results.
When people were talking in all of the other groups about it I said to them, “I wrote a blog about my results.” I told them I wasn’t going to post the link there to respect the rules of the group. But, if they wanted it they were free to message me and I sent them the link. There was an extra step every single time.
At one point I had 50 people asking me for the link in a matter of ten minutes. Copying, pasting, and answering all of those questions took time. But so many people were so grateful because I gave them that time and attention. Then they started telling their friends to go through Rachel.
Amy: That’s pretty cool. I absolutely love that. You became that go-to person because you had put so much effort into this. Going back to where we started, you were in a launch and you treated it as your own. I know I do the exact same thing. The whole month when I do B-School is all about making sure I am responding to people and getting out in front of them and answering their questions. That personal touch made such a huge difference in your overall success.
I am so impressed with what you’ve done. Do you think your success can be replicated so other people that are listening, if they have a list around 1,000 or a little more, what is your opinion about other people doing this kind of thing?
Rachel: I really believe if you come into the game with the right intention and you are really coming from a place of service you will have results. It is almost impossible not to because when you give generously of your time and talent people are so thankful. I’ll tell you the other thing, I was really proactive in following up with people. I am noticing a lot of people are really nervous about direct marketing (the pro term) and reaching out to people and saying, “Hey, did you watch the videos? Did you have questions? I’m here for you. Let me know.”
I did that, Amy. I made a list. When we were getting down to the wire I made a list of everybody I hadn’t yet spoken to from that Facebook group. I made a list of everyone that had reached out to me that I had not heard back from. I want to say at the end of the day there were about 35 or 37 people on the list. I went one by one and followed up with every single person on the list.
Obviously not all 37 people signed up (this was on the last day). I think I had eight or nine more people sign up on the last day from that follow-up list, but just about every single person I spoke to, whether they purchased or not, thanked me for following up. They thanked me for introducing them to Todd. For a lot of them it just wasn’t the right time. But then they asked me to let them know when he does it again because they definitely want to join with me.
I now have a rapport and group of people that know when it’s time again they can count on me and I will answer all of their questions and will be there and support them.
Amy: That’s so awesome. I love how much you care about the people you’ve attracted. That is why your email list is so very valuable and so lucrative for you. It’s because you genuinely care. I want my audience to learn more about you and find out what you’ve got out there in terms of all of the content you’ve created.
I know at the time of this recording your website has been hacked. However, you made the most of that situation. First, tell people where they can find you and what they are going to find when they go there.
Rachel: You can visit me over at http://www.rachelluna.biz. That is because a little 11-year-old girl owns rachelluna.com.
Amy: Got to love it!
Rachel: Her dad said he would sell it to me if I paid her college tuition.
Amy: Wow. Oh my gosh. Smart dad.
Rachel: When you go to http://www.rachelluna.biz you will find a Lead Page. I have totally capitalized on Lead Pages. That’s why I love them so much. It is a Lead Page website, totally built on Lead Pages right now while we get back up and running. There is a freebie there for you waiting. I know Amy will hook you up with the Confident Affiliate Marketing Starter Guide so I would love to see you and would love to serve you and give you some more tips.
Amy: Fantastic. Thank you so very much for being with us. This has been my honor to get to know you a little bit more and talk about all of your amazing success. It only goes up from here getting better and better. I’ll keep watching because I think you are up to some amazing things.
Rachel: Thank you so much, Amy. This is such a full-circle moment. I’ve been listening for a little more than a year and I do want to just say one thing to your audience: If there is somebody that you listen to and you really respect and admire them and you think, “Man, one day I wish I could be on that show,” wherever you’re at, you keep going homeboy and home girl and pitch yourself to that person and just don’t ever put a mask or muzzle on your message.
It’s a full-circle moment. I’m so grateful and thank you so much for having me.
Amy: That means so much to me. My honor as well. Thanks again, so very much.
Rachel: Bye bye.
Amy: There you have it. Isn’t Rachel a little firecracker? It was so much fun getting to know her even more throughout this interview. We talked a lot about list building and I want to let you know I have been creating my very first list-building course. It’s going to be out at the end of January and I’m so excited about it because I truly want to help people focus on building a quality email list that will be incredibly lucrative for their business. This is the area that I talk about all the time and I finally put everything I know about building a quality email list into a program.
Because you know how I do things, I always do free webinars before I launch a program, we’ll be doing free webinars all about list building starting at the end of January. If you are catching this interview in the middle of January you can get on the wait list to get an invite to my first webinar on list building. All you need to do is go to http://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/listbuilding. If you are catching this after January you will likely land on the registration page for the webinar so you can sign up right away.
I just wanted to give you a chance to jump on a free webinar to start learning about how to create that quality list so that you, too, can create some amazing things like Rachel has.
So thank you so very much for being here with me today. Before we wrap up, a quick word about our sponsor. Finally, I want to thank our sponsor, 99Designs. You know when you market online it is really difficult to stand out from all of that online noise clutter. How do you do it? I think you do it through impeccable branding. That includes your logo, your social media cover images, your website, and everything in between. At 99Designs you can get anything designed in just a week for a startup- friendly price.
To give you a little something extra, when you go to www.99designs.com/amy you will get a $99 upgrade for free. That upgrade makes your design contest stand out from all of the others and bumps you to the top of the list so more designers can see your contest. So make sure to check out www.99designs.com/amy.
Thanks again. And as a quick reminder, you can go to http:// amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/93 for the show notes, any links we discussed, and also for that freebie that Rachel created. Thanks again and have a wonderful day. I’ll connect with you again next week. Bye for now.
