Any time I want a bit of a laugh, I head over to the spam folder of my business email account...

The messages that land in there are, well, interesting...

It's always from people trying to sell me something.

And they don't go about it with any subtlety whatsoever.

"Your website needs to be optimised for SEO... my rates are... hit reply to hire me."

"Your YouTube channel needs better thumbnails... we'll make them for you... it will cost you this much."

"You need a bigger email list. Get our email lists from any country in the world. Thank us later."

Basically, they tell me what's wrong with my business and my content, and they shove their solution down my virtual throat.

And I hit delete - every time.

As do most of the people who receive these emails, I'm sure.

It's not a great strategy, to say the least...

Sadly, I see many affiliates make similar mistakes when trying to get traffic to their links...

They try so hard to promote products that they completely lose sight of the human being who's on the other side of the screen.

Blasting an affiliate link everywhere without building a relationship first doesn't work.

It just annoys people and makes them swipe, block or hit spam.

I can't begin to tell you the number of random DMs I've received from complete strangers on Facebook who share their link to the latest shiny object...

or the countless YouTube videos I see where affiliates give no value whatsoever but desperately try to pitch the program they've just signed up to (and got no results from yet...)

None of this works.

It's a complete waste of time.

Those making money have understood that they simply need to help people with a problem they have.

We don't buy products because they're amazing... we buy them because they're solutions to our problems.

Seriously.

Take a minute to think about it.

Every single purchase you make is a solution to a problem you have, in one way or another.

And the best way to get traffic to your links is to be helpful.

Instead of trying to convince people to "buy this amazing product!", "download my free ebook!", or "click this link now!", try simply and genuinely helping people with their problems.

Answer questions in Facebook groups (without mentioning your links).

Create helpful content on social media.

Share valuable tips in your emails.

When people see you as someone who genuinely cares and has useful knowledge, they'll naturally want to know more about what you recommend.

THEN - and only then - do you share your affiliate links.

When a relationship of trust has been created, magic happens :-)

And speaking of being helpful... if you're struggling to get consistent traffic to your affiliate links, my "10 Simple Traffic Tactics for Struggling Affiliates" will help you.

It's packed with real strategies I've used personally to generate leads and sales without spending a fortune or spamming people.

I'm giving it away for free. Just click here to get it.​

Happy Monday!

Sophie

PS: notice how these spam emails don't even try to understand what my needs are? They just go in and assume I have a problem with my SEO, thumbnails, email list, etc.

What they should be doing is find the people who actually need help with these things; then give them valuable free tips... and only after that sell them the logical next step.

​My free guide shows you 10 ways you can do exactly that.

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