Perfect Example of a Good Affiliate Marketing Project

**UPDATE: THE EMPIRE BUILDER KIT IS SOLD OUT**

Today’s the day that Chris Guillebeau re-launches his Empire Building Kit (affiliate link). I’ve known Chris and his work for a few years, have seen many reports of people’s success with his methods for training and educating, and have reviewed the materials for the project.

It’s a project where he teaches you how to launch a new business, be that consulting or a few other categories. Chris has all kinds of materials built into the course, including workbooks, video, and more. From what I’ve sampled, it looks pretty useful to me. Some of it actually helped me rethink what I’d already started to do with my new business.

So, I signed up to be an affiliate for the Empire Builder Kit. I edited my About page to reflect the proper disclosure. I posted this post with a reference to the Kit with the terms (affiliate link) right after the link, and I’m off and running.

The price of $149 is far less expensive than conferences on the topic. The material is mine to keep. The information will be worth much more than $149 once I put it all to use. Thus, I see this as an investment in something I think is valuable.

Small business folks looking to power up their business? The Empire Builder Kit might be the program for you.

Good luck with the launch, Chris.

Related posts:

  1. Interested in Affiliate Marketing?
  2. Affiliate Marketing And Its Bad Reputation
  3. My Worry Reduction Buttons- Affiliate Marketing
  4. Why Call it Affiliate Marketing
  5. Quick Update- I am Now a Rackspace Affiliate

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  • David Siteman Garland

    Fun fact: I really like their site design. Slick.

  • http://www.mindadventure.com/ rob white

    Whenever a program, a seminar, a book or 'anything' helps us to re-think what we are thinking so that we think about it in a more empowering and enthusiastic way – that program, seminar, book etc is worth looking into. good tip, Chris.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Yeah. I know we're not supposed to be affected by that, but we are. And I am. Totally fun site.

    • Anonymous

      Oh, thank you. From day 1, chris has been about the fun factor, so it makes creating delightful designs with him easy. But your props here? Made my day.

    • Anonymous

      Oh, thank you. From day 1, chris has been about the fun factor, so it makes creating delightful designs with him easy. But your props here? Made my day.

  • http://twitter.com/chrisguillebeau chrisguillebeau

    Chris! Wow – thanks so much. I really appreciate your support.

    I read ChrisBrogan.com from 20+ countries a year. Keep up the excellent work.

    And – @David, thanks for the props. For the design, I have to give credit to the magical @reese, who does all my branding.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Update: I made my first sale in under 20 minutes. That's not so bad. : )

  • http://lizburr.com Liz

    At 51% commission for affiliates I feel like it would be better to just have a product priced at 75 bucks rather than 150. But that's just me. You guys are the business experts.

  • http://www.cc-chapman.com/ C.C. Chapman

    Just signed up for this based on trusting in your support of this. It better be worth it or I know who to blame! *laugh*

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    First, the pricing is based on the value, not based on the affiliate cut. You price based on what you presume to be delivering. Every product you buy is priced similarly, by the way. Everything from groceries at the store (with low margin) to books in a bookstore (very high margin).

    Second, if Chris *had* gone that route, and done zero affiliate marketing, he'd have sold about 1/30th of the amount that he sold this way.

    If you attend events, the LOW end of an event is around $295-395. At $150 plus all the extra material, this is a value, saving you travel time, giving you the convenience of learning when you want, and it's vouched for by people who've used it. Events, it turns out, aren't usually vouch-able, because the content changes a lot from year to year.

  • http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

    The Afterthought
    Community management might trump content management, in the affiliate game, as the empty restaurant or coffee shop rules still apply.

  • http://lizburr.com Liz

    I hear you. Still, 51% seems a bit excessive. If most of the profit goes to you and not Chris G, then the real value to the person who put in the work on the product seems diminished. He only thinks it's worth 49% of the final price to him. He thinks paying 51% in marketing is a good idea? So why am I paying the full 100%? My question is with the percentage of the affiliate, not the value of the work, or the concept of affiliate marketing. I get those loud and clear. If the price were the same, but the affiliate got less of a percentage, I wouldn't blink at this.

    I am not sure 1/30th of the price is a fair guesstimate. You have to remember the price would be 51% cheaper, and Chris G isn't exactly a nobody online. That's nothin to sniff at. He's probably going to sell a lot because you are now recommending them and you have a large audience, but would you sell more if the barrier of entry price were lower?

    To be honest, I may have thought long and hard about buying this for $150, but once I realized he's paying out 51% in affiliate fees for something over $100 it makes me wonder what's going on here. 40%, 30%, 20% wouldn't have been so suspicious but 51% sounds a bit strange, that's all. What else do I pay a 51% profit margin on? Certainly not groceries, I would hope, but even so–I NEED food to eat so that's a different type of product, right?

    Aside from that, I suppose I could buy it, then convince 2 other people to buy it, and I'm even. However, that's not how I like to play affiliate games. I recommend things I enjoy, things I think others would enjoy. With it being a 365-day guide and all, would I not have to actually try it out for 365 days before I could convincingly sell and convince others to buy it? I would feel like my integrity is in question if I were to turn around and push this product if I didn't give myself time enough to try out the whole program.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Quite so. I've doubled down on my commitment to content management. : )

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    But that's Chris's choice (how much he cuts). 50% is the typical retail pricing structure, by the way. Walmart takes even more most times to put something on its shelves.

    Chris isn't a nobody, but by opening his project up to affiliates, he gets to use multiple communities of recommendation instead of just his own. 30x the coverage means that much more exposure for opportunity.

    And you neglected my pricing points. The price has nothing to do with what he pays the people who sell the product. Everything you've bought since you were born is priced the same way. It's no different. There's the cost to you and there's the cost of goods, and what's in between is the margin. Because this is a digital good, Chris can cut into his margin a bit more than others, but that doesn't mean the value to you for buying it is any less.

    As for needing to try it for 365 days, I'd hate to see you evaluate a calendar. : )

  • http://mydarabell.com/ Dara Bell

    No it is ok about teaching thing, just need to patient, thanks for tip on Shawn Collins.

  • reese

    The 51% commission has always felt, to me, like appreciation. Appreciation for spreading the word. For helping sell something. For believing in a product. Something extra, that a lot of affiliate programs don't offer. And it's absolutely in line with how I see Chris approach his brand.

    Also? I'm in the course (and I'm not an affiliate, but I am Chris's designer). It's worth far more than the $150 in terms of value, insight, and the detailed, step-by-step process it provides.

  • ClintonGage

    So Chris, et al. I do wonder how many of the posts would still be written if there wasn't an “affiliate benefit” – are this many people really “the guy” or are they the “guy” only when there is additional benefit.

    I'd watch the balance or consider shifting the affiliate content to the ad slots on the site…

  • petershallard

    This is an interesting discussion in terms of “perception of value”.

    When did we decide that our perception of the value of a thing (a course, a product… whatever) has to be the same “perception” as those selling it?

    To adopt Chris's point of view (and I could be wrong here), the EBK offers scalability. By making it accessible to most buyers and attractive to people like Brogan, he can sell many more packs than on his own. He's paying 51% to reach a vastly wider audience and to him, that is probably where the value lies.

    My point of view is that, because of the above, I can grab a kickass course and get the kind of info that would cost THOUSANDS (if it were attained via coaching etc)… simply because the price of MY kit is subsidized by everyone else buying it :)

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    Which? My posts?

    I'm covering affiliate marketing as another form of digital marketing. My company works with companies to show them various ways to use the digital space to build their sales funnel. Affiliate marketing was a $13 Billion industry last year, and rarely gets any coverage from the social media crowd.

    Further, affiliate marketing is a tool that people can use to build their own earnings, so it covers my goals of helping small businesses and individuals in these economically tough times, by showing them another way of adding streams of revenue for escape value.

    Both topics are core and center of what I'm teaching at chrisbrogan.com . Pick any month of my site's archives (to the right of this comment) and you'll see similar blends of posts.

    Or swing into the best of category up top and find the ones you like. Thousands of posts here. It's perfectly fine to skip a few. : )

  • http://www.looble.com/ deceth

    You have only yourself to blame in failure, everyone else to commend in success. This is the only path to greatness.

  • http://www.looble.com/ deceth

    Are you related to Ethan Gage? You know the gambler, sharpshooter and pupil of the late Franklin, who is framed with a prostitute’s murder and who joins Napoleon’s secret invasion of Egypt to unlock the secrets of the Great Pyramid?

  • http://www.looble.com/ deceth

    If so, I need that medallion.

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  • http://www.r4-carta.it/ r4i carta

    This is really great Chris! I haven't used this type of marketing techniques before so its good for me to know about it and how to use it to achieve goal that's really so nice of you.So I will keep close eye on your each new post.

  • Ash

    I'm interested, but the site is sold out. Is he handcrafting these? *confused*

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  • Jason

    I've just made my site public with an affiliate program. I think it's a great example also and the product really helps people and is beneficial, I'm using Click2Sell for my affiliate network: http://www.click2sell.eu/affiliate_page.do?prod…

  • http://www.yuregininsesi.com yuregininsesi

    Chris! Wow – thanks so much. I really appreciate your support.

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  • http://DCincome.com/blog Gerald Cotley

    I impress with this example of an affiliate project.. I think it is good start up project for you affiliate business so starting today we should start learning on it to develop and market our products successfully.

  • http://www.squidoo.com/mark-ling Mark Ling

    that is a solid program that’s for sure

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