When you are just getting started at faceless affiliate marketing, it may seem like a total zoo. You may decide to buy one product to start out, but then you are hit with somewhere between 5 and 10 upsells and down cells after checkout.
These upsells and down cells will usually follow what is known as a value ladder. In the value ladder, you start out providing lower value for a lower price and graduate in steps offering higher value with higher prices until you reach the top, which is usually a VIP coaching offer of some sort.
So basically, the more work you want to do yourself and the less coaching you need, the less it will cost you. I tend to be a very stubborn do it yourself person when it comes to faceless affiliate marketing. There are some things I would rather pay to have someone do, but for the most part I tend to do as much on my own as possible.
If you have more time and energy than you have extra money, this is perfect for you. but you do need a certain amount of knowledge to do this.
And that brings me to the biggest and most important caveat in faceless affiliate marketing.
The Biggest and Most Important Caveat in Faceless Affiliate Marketing
Are you ready? Here it is. It is so important I am going to give it its own paragraph.
You must understand, as quickly as possible, what you don’t know. And then you have to find someone to teach it to you as soon as possible.
I have to repeat this: you must understand, as quickly as possible, what you don’t know. And then you have to find someone to teach it to you as soon as possible.
It cannot be understated. It is that important. This was an extremely hard lesson for me to learn because, to be perfectly blunt about it, I really don’t like spending money on business and marketing things.
Ironically, this can lead to shiny object syndrome because we are all looking for a promise that we will succeed. For years, I would buy the product that promised the most for the least amount of money, only to have no idea what to do with it once it got there.
I would buy a product hoping it would follow through on its promises on the sales page, and I would work as hard as I could to try and follow the instructions. I would try to follow along with the process on the screen. But my screen never showed the same things their screen showed. I would always hit a roadblock where it was impossible to continue with their process.
For years, I repeated this pattern. and I never succeeded. I never made a sale. And finally I got fed up. I realized that I would have to have a a lot more knowledge if I was going to make any of the shortcut products work.
I finally realized that I was going to have to learn the fundamentals so I found a coach who would teach them to me. I will tell you about that coach at the end of this piece. But let’s get back to the value ladder.
What is a Value Ladder?
A value ladder is a graduated step approach starting with an inexpensive entry level product and ending with individual coaching. Basically, you start with a low value product for a low price and keep offering higher value products at higher prices until you reach your top value product.
Here are the main components.
Entry level do it yourself (DIY) product, usually $7-$17.
Done-With-You (DWY)product, usually $67-$97.
Done-For-You (DFY)product, usually $197-$297.
High end coaching, from $997-$10,000.
A note on the high end coaching: once they get up into the $10,000 range, they no longer use the “7 on the end” ploy. Some high end products don’t do this at all. They figure if someone is serious enough to benefit from high end coaching, they will see the high price as value and won’t need any prodding by prices that end in 7 or other techniques.
Your Value Ladder Level
So how do you choose which step is appropriate? You assess your needs and go from there. If you already know a lot and want some nice software for a shortcut or you want to learn a new strategy to add to your toolbox, a low end product might work for you.
If you need a little bit more explanation or you are more of an audio or visual learner, then a done-with-you product works well.
If you don’t have time and you don’t want to bother and you would rather think of the big picture while leaving the little details to everyone else, done-for-you products work great.
But if you really want to learn how to succeed, if you really want to give yourself the skills you need to react to any changes in the market, high-end coaching is going to be the way to go.
In March when I finally decided to start this journey, when I was getting ready to get serious, I decided I would seek out high-end coaching. But I had been burned on an $8,000 program already a few years ago and I knew what to look out for and what I actually wanted in a program.
I didn’t want to pay more than $1,000 this time. I wanted to have a situation that was a little smaller so it didn’t feel like a cattle call. I wanted to be able to have personal access to the coach when I needed it, even if it wasn’t in real time.
Most of all, I wanted to be taught the correct skills and given a road map detailing exactly what I need to do if I am going to be successful in affiliate marketing.
Where are you on the value ladder?
If you had to create your own product right now, where would you be on the value ladder? Would you be a $17 entry level product created by AI? Would you be able to create a done-with-you video? Would you be able to create a done-for-you funnel?
Better yet, would you be able to coach someone right now in the fundamentals of faceless affiliate marketing or any niche that you happen to like?
If you want to climb the value ladder and be able to offer your own products someday, you need to become valuable. You need to be able to create the product that you wish someone had created for you when you were first starting out.
This will require actually learning the fundamentals, using them, and then having some success.
Check out Part 2 for the rest of this story.
If you want to start YOUR climb to the top of the value ladder, check out Breakout University here.
To Your Success,
Steve T