You have a product that sold well once. Then the buzz faded, the emails stopped, and now it sits on your site like a library book nobody borrows.

Meanwhile your affiliates moved on to the next big launch. Nobody is mentioning what you already have, and every week of silence costs you sales.

Here is the good news. An affiliate contest can wake those sleeping products up, and you do not need to create anything new to do it. You need a start date, a finish date, and a few prizes.

I have been in this business since 2001. I know how much a quiet product wakes up when partners get a fresh reason to talk about it.

In this post you will see the five-step S.E.T.U.P. system for running an affiliate contest that gets your partners promoting again. You will also see the small details that decide whether your contest buzzes or flops.

In This Article...

Why An Affiliate Contest Wakes Partners Up

The idea is simple. You award prizes to the affiliates who generate the most orders during a set period. That is all.

Yet three small ingredients get even busy partners moving.

First, friendly competition. Affiliates love to see their name climb a leader board, and nobody wants to sit at the bottom.

Second, the chance to make more. Winning a prize or landing a random draw on top of regular commissions gives your partners a fresh reason to open their email list.

Third, the deadline. A contest has a clear finish line, so affiliates must promote now or miss out. A contest turns a quiet product into a race with a finish line.

A contest turns a quiet product into a race with a finish line.

If you have ever watched a product gather dust, you can see why this matters. The product did not fail. It lost its reason to be talked about. If you want more ideas like this, take a look at other posts I have shared recently.

Notice what you are not doing here. You are not building anything from scratch. The product exists, your affiliates already know you, and most of the materials are ready. You are adding a spark.

Step One: Select Your Offer

Your first job is to decide what you are asking affiliates to promote, and why it deserves attention again.

Pick a fresh hook for the product. You have five good choices:

A flash sale. A coupon code. A new free gift to go with the product. A new version of the product. Or a splintered product, which is a smaller piece cut from the original.

You can mix them too. Say you sell a sourdough baking guide that has gone quiet. You cut the first three chapters into a short starter guide, then run a 36-hour flash sale to launch it. That gives your affiliates two reasons to write.

Whatever you choose, build new promotional materials and place them in your affiliate center. Think solo emails, an email series, a report affiliates can rebrand, a sales video, and banner graphics.

Pick the hook that fits your product best. A flash sale suits something you have sold for years. A new version suits a product that has aged. A splintered product suits a big course that feels like too much for a newcomer.

The easier you make it for your partners, the faster they will send traffic your way. A partner who finds ready-made emails can promote in minutes, not days.

Step Two: Establish The Rules

Next, write down the guidelines. This step protects you, and it protects your affiliates too.

Start with one important note. Check the laws where you live to be sure you may run a contest of this kind. Then ask a lawyer to review your rules. I am not a lawyer, and local laws differ, so please do not skip this.

Your written rules should answer five questions:

What prizes will you give? Cash, gift certificates, or gadgets all work.

How do you pick winners? Offer three to five big prizes for the affiliates who sell the most.

When does the contest start and end? Give the exact date, time, and time zone, so nobody argues over a sale that lands seconds late.

When do prizes go out? Name the date.

What else must entrants know? Say what happens in a tie, and which clock decides the finish.

Here is how those rules look for the sourdough guide. The contest opens Monday at 9:00 a.m. Eastern and closes the following Sunday at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. The top three affiliates win prizes. Every sale earns one entry into a random draw. Prizes go out the Friday after. You leave nothing to guess.

Here is a smart extra. Add random-draw prizes, with one entry for every product an affiliate sells. Now the partner who makes just one or two sales still has a real chance to win something. That keeps everyone promoting, not only your top few.

Step Three: Tell Your Affiliates Early

Many of your best affiliates plan their publishing schedule well ahead. So tell them about your contest at least six weeks before it begins.

Then remind them often. Each reminder keeps the date fresh in their minds, and it lets your partners start warming up their own readers for the sale.

A simple schedule keeps you honest. Six weeks out, send the announcement. Four weeks out, share a sneak peek of the prizes. One week out, make sure every email, banner, and report is waiting in the affiliate center.

One more tip. Choose a time when no huge contest or launch is running in your niche. You cannot always know, but you can listen. Join the notification lists of the big marketers in your field and become an affiliate for them. You will hear about big events early and can steer clear.

Step Four: Update Your Affiliates Every Day

Once the contest opens, your job shifts from planning to cheerleading. Silence kills a contest, so contact your partners every day.

Here is what to send and share:

Daily emails. Remind everyone to promote, and stress that anyone with at least one sale is in the random draw.

Links to your materials. Point affiliates straight to the solo emails and graphics in the affiliate center, and tell them to use those tools today.

A leader board. Post it in your affiliate center or on a private blog page. If your developer can build one that updates with every sale, great. If not, update it three times a day.

A little drama. When two affiliates sit close together, say so. Let people comment under the board and cheer each other on.

Keep each daily email short. Share the current top spots, link to the board, and repeat one clear action: grab the materials and send a message today. Your partners are busy, so make each email easy to act on.

Think of yourself as the host of a game show. Your partners should feel the energy every morning when your email lands.

Step Five: Publish Results And Say Thank You

When the contest ends, follow your own rules to the letter. Announce the winners on the date you promised and send the prizes on time.

Then thank every single affiliate, not just the winners. People who feel good about taking part will join your next contest. That is how one contest becomes a habit that keeps all your products in motion.

Three Slip-Ups That Sink A Contest

Even a good plan can go wrong. Watch for these.

The first is a vague finish. If you leave out the exact time and time zone, one late sale starts an argument you will not enjoy.

The second is a late announcement. Tell your partners with only a few days to spare and the busiest ones will already have their schedules full. They cannot promote you.

The third is rewarding only the winners. When just a handful of people can win, everyone else quits on day two. A random draw keeps the whole field in the game.

A Quick Recap Of The S.E.T.U.P. System

Select a fresh offer. Establish clear rules. Tell your affiliates early. Update them daily. Publish the results and say thanks.

Pair a contest with a sale or a new edition, and you create interest, excitement, and a real buzz around products you thought were finished.

If you want to go further, the full training behind this S.E.T.U.P. system lives inside the Serious About Six Figures library. It is a monthly membership for information publishers who want to grow past the first product. The module on running a profitable affiliate contest sits alongside the steps for getting other people to send you traffic.

Inside, you will find clear, step-by-step training you can follow at your own pace, so you are never guessing what to do next.

You can see how it all fits together at SeriousAboutSixFigures.com. After one contest, you will know what to do with the next product that goes quiet.

Pick one forgotten product this week and give it a finish line. Write the rules, set the date, and send the first message to your affiliates. Small steps like these bring old products back to life.

I am rooting for you, and I would love to hear which product you choose.

Nick James

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How To Revive Forgotten Products With A Proven Affiliate Contest