Preselling is the art and science of putting your audience in a “buying mood” before sending them to the sales letter for the product you’re trying to sell. It’s an art because it requires careful crafting and an artful mix of ingredients. And it’s a science because there are specific components that must be included in every preselling article.
The Art:
Effective preselling requires gaining your readers trust in order for them to let down their guard. This can only be accomplished by providing actual value in the information you’re presenting. The art of this is to provide enough information to be of value, but not enough to satiate the hunger. That is, they have to be wanting more when you refer them to the product sales page for the product you’re trying to sell.
When you hone your art, your reader arrives at the product sales page in a “buying mood.” Their proverbial guard is down because you weren’t trying to sell them anything – you were providing useful information to them on something they are interested in. And at the same time, they want more. So when they get to the sales page, they read it as an extension of the information you’ve been providing. They’re more receptive to the sales message and more likely to buy.
The Science:
In addition to artfully piquing your reader’s interest, you also have to include several key elements. This is where the art and science meet…
One of these key elements is the presentation of the information. You have to have your end in mind. Your goal is to sell the product your promoting. But how does providing valuable information do this? First, by providing enough information to show what it really takes to accomplish the task or set of tasks described in your article. Then, by offering a solution that makes this work easier, more effective or more profitable.
In addition to setting the stage in this way, you have to link to the product you’re promoting discretely. And effective preselling link is both:
- Hidden and
- In context
Hidden means that you don’t link to your affiliate link. Instead you link directly to the product sales page. But how are you going to get credit for the sale, if you don’t include your affiliate link? Well, that’s part of the science of this whole process . . . you use an image tag to cookie your reader before they leave your site.
In context means that you don’t put a banner image on the page and expect people to click on it. Instead you hyperlink specific words and phrases inside the content of the article you’re providing. People are used to clicking on hyperlinked words to get information they’re looking for, so it’s completely natural for them to click these. Plus, if you hyperlink relevant words to the topic your article is about, then it only makes sense to click on there. For example, you don’t write “click here for more info” – you just hyperlink the words related to your topic.
Putting all of this together creates a powerful formula for success. Look at what you accomplish when you do this:
- You’ve provided valuable information and gained your reader’s trust
- You’ve gotten them excited to learn more about the topic
- You’ve included an innocent link to the product sales page inside the content of your article
- You’ve hidden your affiliate link to remove all resistance to clicking on the link
So what happens is your reader clicks and arrives at the sales letter with an open mind, hungry for more information and ready to have their problems solved. If you’ve picked the right product to promote, the deal is as good as done at this point!
Now for the bad news…
This process is not easy – at all! Think about everything that goes into crafting an effective preselling article:
Good content. First and foremost, you have to be able to write a great article that provides valuable information. Which means you need to be both knowledgable on the subject and capable of writing a high-quality article.
Strategic writing. In addition to providing useful content, you also need to know how to present the information in a way that give value to the reader, while at the same time making them want more. The other approach is to reveal a self-evident problem through the information.
A good example of this is the article you’re reading now. You’ve been given all the information needed to write effective preselling articles, but creating powerful preselling tools is not easy, so you’re more than likely thinking, “I can’t do this on my own.” And the truth is, you’re right, but don’t worry – this entire site is dedicated to solving that problem for you for free!
Product selection. Next, you’ve got to pick the right product to presell. Even if you can pull off writing and great article, all your efforts are in vein if you send your reader to the wrong sales letter.
Technical skills. And finally, you need the technical know-how to embed your image tag and make sure you get credit for the sale. This is pretty easy – you just make a 1 pixel X 1 pixel image with no border and make the “source” of the image your affiliate link. But if you do it wrong, you won’t get paid for the traffic you send. And, of course, you have to know how to manage your blog.
Summary:
Now you’re armed with the information needed to effectively presell. Using these techniques will increase your affiliate sales by 500% or more! It’s absolutely critical to do this every time – and to do it correctly. So please don’t be lazy – make the extra effort it takes to propel your business to the next level.
OR . . . just sign up for free and let us do it all for you. 
If you like this post, please click the “Like” button below add a comment, too! Likewise, if you have any questions, please post them in the comments section.
It is true, Dustin.
Creating a blog is not difficult, but just as you say in the Bad News section, good content, stategic writing, production selection and technical skills are those hard core stuff need to deal with in writing a valuable, information rich blog content.
Yep, and that’s why I created PresellPro for you . . . to solve that problem. Just sign up free and let me do all the hard work.
This looks great Dustin. My question is will this work on any Word Press blog for ANY topic? Or will it only work for Affiliate Marketing topics. That is my question. I just want to know where to apply it. My blogs topics include: dog training, golf, model railroading, comic books, clocks, etc.
Thanks for your feedback.
Fred
Hey Fred,
Currently, we will be targeting the internet marketing niche. But in the future we will be opening this up to other niches.
So right now, you should probably have a blog that relates to this niche or something similar.
The easiest way (by far) to get your domain with WordPress installed is to use a hosting service that does it all automatically.
Here’s a great video showing how to set up wordpress on a brand new domain in under 5 minutes.
Once you have that set up, you’ll find additional video tutorials inside the members area showing how to get your PresellPro account set up to work with your new blog.
Hey Dustin,
Just wanted to say, THANKS!!! I wanted to send you a testimonial but wasn’t sure where to send it. Can you please email me, so I can send this through. This absolutely rocks! I was hesitant at first because it is free and you don’t usually get this type of good service for free. You are one of the few – THKS!!
Keep it coming.
When are you offering this type of service for other Niches?
Nicole.
Hi Nicole,
Thank you very much. I’d love for you to add your testimonial to the Tour or Features pages as a comment.
with all the information i have brought , and stacks of info. in my files i have not got this far with any programm .looking to build on this Dustin.
Well, that must mean that my system is easy to follow and useful.
Keep me posted and let me know if you need any help along the way…
I’m already a member of presellpro and have had some fantastic content posted to my site which is starting to get a steady flow of traffic and the number of returning visits is steadily rising.
I think 2012 is going to a good year for me (and my site http://www.pathtowealth.ws) presellpro is a sure fire winner!
Fantastic Howard. Best of luck!