As Web 2.0 continues to evolve, so do our chances of meeting people and networking with some real talent. There are a multitude of social sites to apply this strategy to, so just think of this as a “hey, maybe there is life outside the box” kick in the head in an info-product-but-it’s-free-info kind of way.

When the Affiliates Don’t Come to You, Go to Them.

Yeah, I said it. Swallow your pride and go head-hunting. If you’ve got a great product and competitive commissions, go find someone qualified in your niche and show them how to make money in your program. Twitter is all the rage lately, so let’s take a quick look at how easy this is to execute. Depending on the size of your niche, the length of this process will vary.

Start out at  Search.Twitter.com (this link is also found in the footer link section of any Twitter page). This is like Google, but exclusively searches tweets. If you’ve never used this service by Twitter, you need to sit and think for a minute about how powerful it is to find people at any time who are talking about anything in that same moment. That is typically how it is used – to find out what’s hot, what’s being talked about, and who you can communicate with about whatever is on your mind.

What I want you to do is flip the coin. Don’t just look at Twitter as a great place to meet potential clients who share your interests and could likely benefit from your product or service. Instead, find other professionals in your niche who are already offering valuable content to the same people. Here comes the “for instance”…

If you have a product for “[your keyphrase here]“:

1. Do a Twitter search on your primary or related keyphrase.
2. Look for the box in the upper right of the screen subscribe to the query RSS. It will look like this:
   
   This will create an RSS feed that updates every time a new result would show in the search query.
3. Review the results regularly and watch for links pointing followers to related products in your niche.
4. Start networking with the leaders already in your niche who have a decent following but understand that their following might be all fluff and they may not have a “real” list to work with. Take time to see how they interact with others and whether or not their followers respond.
5. Once you’ve felt them out over a period of time, direct message the ones you would like to work with and let them know you’d like to offer them a JV deal that you have determined could be instantly profitable for them based on their following.
6. Get them on-board and help them help you.

I came across this method by accident but I was surprised at how easy and effective it is. Make sure you both use tact and proper social-media-etiquette (don’t spam) to protect your reputations. This will either be highly adventageous for you, or ruin you both. No pressure.

Once you’ve run a successful JV, get a video testimonial from them, revamp your sales page, and it’s off to the races to test your new offer to potential customers and affiliates.

The added benefit of this is you will also have a chance to have your product or service critiqued by another professional in your niche since you will be working closely together and they may be able to shed some light onto why you’re having trouble to begin with.

You’ll be able to quickly sharpen up your product, pitch, following, and “stickyness” of your campaign in no time and start reaping the rewards you’ve been missing out on, all while making your first successful affiliate a partner in crime for a long time to come.

To your continued success.