ACE – Affiliate Cash Machine

Name of the pattern:

ACE
Affiliate Cash Engine, Affiliate Cash Machine

Summary:

ACE is an integration pattern to create autopilot sites that create cash with minimum or no attention of the owner using affiliate programs.

Description:

To create an ACE site you should:

• Find a niche (see marketing research patterns)
• Find ~10-30 or more affiliate offers to promote in this niche
• Create an enticing, interesting mini-article per affiliate offer you are going to promote. That will be your “mini-course”.
• Setup a mailing list/autoresponder for this mini-course. The recommended frequency is every day for the first 4-5 days, and then once every three days to the end of mini course. You need ~10 articles per month. You can start with one month and add articles later to increase the development of prospects.
• Create a simple sales long letter selling one of the affiliate offers
• The main purpose of that long letter is in fact to make a visitor subscribe to the mini course.
• Once a visitor subscribes, he gets the mini course promoting the rest of affiliate offers.
• Send traffic to the site/sales letter.
• Tweak the sales letter and articles to increase conversions.
• Move the more successful articles to the beginning of the mini course.

Variations:

• You can use a traditional site instead of a long sales letter.
  Cons: more effort, less original conversion.
• Use an informational article with name squeeze instead of a sales letter.
  Pro: if done properly, improves conversions.
  Cons: None really, but why not use an informational style sales letter if you really want that approach?
• Converting prospects into subscribers of another mailing list on the same topic at the end of the mini-course.
  Pros: if you already have such a list, you get extra subscribers.
  Cons: the transition should be transparent, otherwise it may be considered spam.
  If you don’t have such a mailing list already, writing new articles will require your attention, which defeats the autopilot feature of the pattern.

When to use this pattern:

When you want a passive stream of income.

With no attention required, even moderate income from an ACE site contributes to the bottom line. All you have to do afterward is to create enough of them for individual niches to accumulate that income into something substantial.

Attribution:

John Reese

Related patterns:

Long sales letter, mini-course, name squeeze, affiliate program, mailing list, continuity.

Related anti-patterns:

Spam, reselling addresses