There is a tribe that has a special way of catching monkeys. They find a hole in a tree just bigger than the monkey's clenched fist and they put in the hole some of the monkey's favourite nuts.

When the monkey finds the hole, he sticks in his paw and grabs hold of the nut. Now, as he tries too withdraw his paw, he finds that the hole is to small to let him take his paw out without letting go of the nut.

These monkeys become so intent on getting the nut out, that they refuse to let go. Even, when the tribesmen come up behind it and start beating it to death with sticks. They rather die than let go of the nut.

Let us think about this a moment. Why was this nut of greater value to the monkey than any other nut in the forest? Remember, the monkey never actually saw the nut, he smelt it, he touched it, but he never actually saw it.

The reason the monkey held on to the nut was it held a perceived value for the monkey. The monkey, because of the circumstances surrounding the nut, believed strongly that this particular nut had some extra value. He perceived this so strongly he was willing to die for it.

So, many affiliate marketeers, write a review, (usually just a re-write of the products sales-page), put on a link and hope that someone will come along, click on the link and put some money in their pocket.

What this “dead monkey” scenario tells us is, that if you really want to be successful, you must start thinking about how to increase the perceived value of the product you are promoting. There are plenty of other affiliates, competitors out there, trying to push the same “nut”.

First of all you must “target” your customers. You must see things from their point of view and decide what are their main “needs” and how they will use the product. Once you have decided what the problem is, that the particular product you are promoting will solve, you need to find complimentary products that you can give them, as bonuses, if they buy the product through your link.

You are now adding to the “perceived” value of the product you are promoting. This is the key-point, by offering the right related products, you also are letting the potential customer know, on a deeper level that you totally understand their problem. That is why the complimentary products you are offering must be related to the primary problem they are trying to solve. It is no use giving them some random free PLR gift that you picked up somewhere and happen to have lying around on your computer somewhere.

How to put this plan in action? There is a tried and trusted method,

Alright, if you grasp the idea this is how to put it into practice. The main tactic to employ in your sales copy, is to explain why you think they need the product you are promoting. This comes back to understanding the needs of the customer you have targeted. Also, you can only really sensibly promote a product if you have already purchased it and used it yourself.

Present not only the benefits of the product but also the downside. Here is the ultimate opportunity to introduce the bonuses that you are giving away, in return for them buying the product through your affiliate link. You can explain the weakness of the product but also explain how the extras you are supplying them with, will compensate for its difficulties. If it has no major downsides, then offer them something that compliments the product. For example, use your own personal experience of the product to write an easy to follow manual. Something as simple as a set of video tutorials will enhance a good product that is weak on instruction.

This simple tactic of offering related bonus products will increase the “perceived” value of the product you are promoting, while at the same time positioning you higher above your competition.

As we saw in the example of the “Dead Monkeys” all the nuts in the forest are basically the same but through these simple enhancing methods, you have raised the perceived value of your “nut” compared to the ones that all your competitors are selling.

In theory, you can put these tactics into practise by asking the customer to email you with a copy of proof of purchase through your link, (although this does introduce a bit of hassle for your customer), so you can then send them their bonuses. This will work well, as long as you have low volumes of traffic. The trouble is this technique really does work, and work well.

The downside is that you will quickly get fed up with manually delivering bonuses to people who bought products using your affiliate links. Yes, this will increase your sales, but it will also make a TON of work.

If you are an affiliate with Clickbank, which remains one of the most popular affiliate marketplaces, you will have to:

1. Log into your affiliate ClickBank accounts every day

2. Manually email customers their bonuses

Delivering the bonuses and handling the support can be really time consuming and will limit the number of promotions you can handle at any one time. You could, of course, use some of the commissions to to hire an assistant just to deliver bonuses for you.

So, you should be thinking about installing some sort of automatic way of delivering the bonuses from the start.

A more elegant solution is to use a piece of software like the cblist automator which works very well if you are promoting products from www.clickbank.com.

If someone purchases via your affiliate link, the software will verify that you have been credited with the sale, and will automatically send your bonus link to the customer. Better still, send them the link to your optin-form instead. You can ask the buyer to subscribe to your list in order to receive the bonuses. You could use a phrase like:

“Please register to receive further free updates & support”

This will give your customer instant gratification with no extra work on their part, while allowing you to build multiple lists of proven buyers on auto-pilot. You will know that once the customer gets the product and you get your commission that the software will send them your customised email.

In practice, you simply need to understand your customers needs and focus on them. Work to increase the perceived value of the product you are promoting until it reaches the tipping point when the offer becomes to good to refuse.