As soon as you begin to learn about Affiliate Marketing, it is very likely that you will come across a particular variation of it.
We are talking precisely about High Ticket Affiliate Marketing.
It is good that you get interested in this variant as soon as possible, because in my opinion it is the most interesting and effective.
I have created another guide to talk specifically about what is Affiliate Marketing in general (which I still recommend you read after this one), but if the High Ticket version is what interests you most, then stay here.
I am about to show you every aspect and every insight.
Let’s start right away.
High Ticket Affiliate Marketing definition
High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is a type of Affiliate Marketing in which the Affiliate promotes very expensive physical or digital products for very high commissions, at least $100 going up to several thousand dollars per sale.
In High Ticket Affiliate Marketing, conversion rates are generally lower compared to less expensive products, but the efforts are offset by more substantial earnings.
High Ticket vs Low Ticket Affiliate Marketing
The considerations I am about to make apply whether you intend to use organic traffic (by creating a blog, which I recommend) or paid traffic.
Of course, we will also have to talk about the relative costs, and this is where things get very different.
Traffic type
Organic and Paid can work either way, either with High Ticket or Low Ticket products.
Paid remains always more difficult, but costs can vary greatly. If you compete with others on High Ticket products, costs per click will tend to skyrocket (even to tens of dollars per click), as high commissions can support the expense and still provide profit margins.
If you’re not good enough at converting, however, you’ll find yourself running out of your spending budget in no time, without having generated enough conversions to recoup your spend and make a profit.
Traffic effort
If we consider the time it takes to create a blog and related content, and the waiting time before Google starts indexing the site and sending traffic, this does not change whether you are promoting High Ticket or Low Ticket products.
It is always the same.
Even in paid campaigns, the time to set up the campaigns does not change, it is always the same.
But staying on setting up a blog for organic traffic, all things being equal, it is clear that it will be more profitable to convert High Ticket products, with higher commissions.
Conversion rate
It is also true that conversion rates are different, and usually a Low Ticket product sells more easily than a High Ticket one.
But the difference in commissions earned can make all the difference in the world.
Let’s imagine we have 100 visitors a day.
- Low Ticket Item = 10$ price = Commission 10% = 1$ commission
- High Ticket Item = 1.000$ price = Commission 10% = 100$ commission
Imagine that the High Ticket Item converts to 0.5%, while the Low Ticket Item converts to 10%, which is 20 times better (20x).
- Low Ticket Item = Conv. Rate 10% = 100 visitors X 10% Conv. Rate X 1$ comm. = 10$ Revenue
- High Ticket Item = Conv. Rate 0.5% = 100 visitors X 0.5% Conv. Rate X 100$ comm. = 50$ Revenue
With the High Ticket Item you still earned more money.
Now, numbers and situations can change a lot, but you should get the point.
Conversion effort
Reality is not just about numbers.
When it comes to High Ticket products, readers usually need more time and more information to be convinced.
This means a greater effort on your part and higher quality in preparing the necessary content.
Affiliate Program accessibility
High Ticket Affiliate Programs tend to be more difficult to access than Low Ticket programs.
The High Ticket may require more information about your site and your business as an affiliate, whether you already have traffic and experience, and other similar info.
Low Ticket programs, on the other hand, are usually more open to beginners.
Take your time to think whether High Ticket or Low Ticket Affiliate Marketing is your way to go, and how the products you decide to promote might impact your business.
As you can imagine, I’m a fan of High-Ticket, and I think it’s a business on the rise, which is also confirmed by Google Trends data.
Is it a scam? Is it legit?
The High Ticket Affiliate Marketing model is a legitimate model, not a scam at all since it is simply Affiliate Marketing but with expensive products and high commissions.
However, there have been and continue to be several cases of High Ticket Affiliate Programs that claim to be such but are really not at all.
They are actually MLM (Multi Level Marketing) programs, another way of calling Pyramid Schemes, and these indeed are more or less scams in many cases.
These scam programs are usually created to promote courses to earn money online and become rich quickly with some system. They provide many levels, with increasing prices, up to a few thousand dollars.
As you delve into the material you receive, especially promotional with little real course material, you begin to realize that the method of earning that is being promoted is to sell that same course to others, but in order to do that, you must first buy it.
These are the principles of an MLM, and I would stay away from that.
It is more than fair to question whether a High Ticket Affiliate Programs is legit or a scam, or if the entire concept of High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing is scam (is not).
Here are some points to always evaluate:
- Be careful when the product talks about getting rich fast
- There are different levels of buying, and at each level you learn little, because the real “solution” is at the next level
- As you go on, it becomes clear that the main part of “getting rich” is promoting that same course
- It is mandatory to buy it in order to promote it
The last is probably the most important one: with true and legitimate High Ticket Affiliate Marketing programs, you don’t have to pay anything to promote them, nor do you have to buy the product, nor do you have to pay a monthly membership to do so.
How much can you make
Several attempts have been made to give unambiguous answers on the matter of revenue with High Ticket Affiliate Marketing, but it is very complicated, primarily because of lack of data, as many affiliates do not disclose their numbers.
The most reliable result is the one produced by Income School, although the study was done on sites that monetized in various ways, mainly advertising and Affiliate Marketing, so not High Ticket specifically.
The results showed that an average website could expect an EPMP of $30, i.e. $30 per thousand page views.
I believe that in the High Ticket case we can do a 10X.
A website with quality traffic monetized with High Ticket Affiliate Programs can expect an EPMP of at least $300, i.e. $300 per 1000 pageviews.
“Quality traffic” is the magic word here.
What I mean by quality traffic is traffic from users with buyer intent.
“Best web hosting” is an example of a keyword with buyer intent. People who search that way are almost convinced or have already decided that they need to buy a hosting service, they just need to decide which one.
Being able to rank high on search engines and get traffic for that kind of keyword means “quality traffic” and assured high-ticket conversions.
That is also why there is a lot of competition.
In this specific case, we are talking about one of the most difficult keywords in the world.
Pros and cons review
Pros
- Easy to start: it’s the same principles of Affiliate Marketing, so it’s fairly easy to get started
- Higher ROI: You will spend the same amount of time, but on activities that can bring much greater returns
- Sustainability: if you focus some of your efforts on keywords with buyer intent, even with little traffic you can create conversions and thus revenue
- Upsell: you are targeting people willing to spend a lot, so you or the vendor itself have an easier opportunity to upsell
Cons
- Requires specialization: You will probably have to prove yourself an expert to convince users to trust your evaluations and reviews
- Competition: Many of the most famous niches with high-ticket products are almost saturated, so a lot of time should be spent looking for a niche without too much competition
- Accessibility: some affiliate programs may not be accessible for pure beginners
- Lower conversion rates: given higher product prices, it is normal to expect lower conversion numbers.
I am definitely an advocate, but it is still best to get your mind right about the pros and cons of High Ticket Affiliate Marketing before embarking on this activity.
High Ticket niches, products and programs
Here are the main High-Ticket niches where it is common to find High-Ticket products, and some examples of the related High-Ticket affiliate programs.
Health and beauty
Gym supplements, beauty products, special culinary products, this niche is full of ecommerces with expensive products, and most importantly they pay you for returning customers.
Finance and investments
Many people have money to invest and are looking for the right platform or vehicle to do so, even buying gold or other valuable asset or investing in real-estate and other alternative products like crypto. This can be one of the absolute most profitable niches.
Business
People who want to get serious about business and entrepreneurship need several things: courses, tools and platforms of various kinds, and there are many high-ticket versions.
Luxury and fashion
Watches, jewelry, haute couture, you are spoiled for choice, and it is well known that people are willing to spend crazy amounts of money in this industry.
Luxury travel
Hotels or luxury destinations, but also expensive organized travel, private jets, chauffeur services, and so on. You know how people like travel, and it is full of high-ticket opportunities.
Electronics
Cameras, audio equipment, computers, gaming, technology products, home automation, you don’t need me to explain how much they can cost, and therefore how high the commissions can be.
Home and furniture
Home or outdoor furniture, home appliances, air and water purifiers, special products, expensive toys for children, again the home high-end products are endless.
All this is just a taste of all the High-ticket niches, High-ticket products and High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing programs available in the market.
How to start as a beginner
Considering traffic channels and major growth strategies, there are literally dozens of ways to get started with High Ticket Affiliate Marketing.
Is there a better way than others especially for beginners? Is there a superior blueprint for newbies?
The answer is yes.
Over the years I have tried or delved into many of the major strategies available.
The best way beginners can start High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is through the creation of a blog to get organic traffic from search engines.
Blogging is superior to other methods for a number of reasons.
Blogging VS Social Media
Let’s compare it to social media, particularly Instagram.
Working with Instagram to promote affiliate products means constantly having to post new material, because the “lifespan” of your post is quite short before it disappears from your followers’ feeds. As soon as you stop posting, your traffic will almost disappear.
Creating a blog instead, and working with organic search engine traffic, means building an asset that can continue to generate traffic and commissions for a long time, even if at some point you stop posting new material.
However, I am not against social media regardless. On the contrary, they can and should be used, but to support the growth of the blog.
YouTube, on the other hand, is a special case, and I will in fact discuss it.
Blogging VS Paid Advertising
If you are studying Affiliate Marketing, sooner or later you will be attracted to the possibility of doing paid campaigns, particularly PPC campaigns on search engines and social networks.
The reason this will attract you a lot will be one in particular: with blogging it takes time to start getting visibility and traffic, with paid campaigns on the other hand you get traffic right away.
You could potentially create traffic and generate a sale the very day you start.
But there are problems.
First, paid traffic costs, and in the case of High-Ticket products it costs a lot. There are keywords that cost even $50 (or more) each time a user clicks on one of your ads.
Second, there is always very high competition, because the illusion to make money in a very short time always attracts a lot of people.
Third, paid campaigns are complicated, and you have to study and test a lot to learn how to set them up and optimize them.
Launching yourself as a novice, without criterion, into paid campaigns on High-Ticket products is an almost assured recipe for losing money.
Tips and strategies
Here is a selection of tips and strategies to learn how to do High Ticket Affiliate Marketing.
Focus on one thing
As you delve into this world, you are bound to be distracted by hundreds of innovative tricks or strategies that promise you the moon.
Don’t be distracted, concentrate and learn one thing at a time.
Learn how to create a good website.
Learn SEO to get traffic from search engines.
Most importantly, learn how to create quality content, in other words, learn how to be really useful to your readers, especially if you have to convince them to buy expensive products.
Blog and YouTube
Start with a blog, but then, over time, incorporate and develop a parallel YouTube channel as well.
YouTube is very similar to a blog in that YouTube is not only a platform for videos, but is also the second largest search engine in the world.
As with posts, YouTube videos can become assets from which to draw traffic and commissions for months and years to come, as well as support blog growth.
Roundup post
In creating a blog you need to think about different types of content.
There is the informational content with which you will answer doubts and questions, or show how things are done.
There are reviews, and they will be very important, because you can show your readers how useful you can be to them.
But if conversions are your goal, as they should be, there is one piece of content that is superior to all the others.
I’m talking about the Roundup post. I’m talking about that content like:
- 10 best gaming notebooks
- 8 best stock brokers in the US
- 6 best courses for High-Ticket Affiliate Marketing
Roundup posts are very competitive, for a very simple reason: they are the ones that convert the best.
When a user searches for that type of keyword it is because they are ready to buy, they just want to know what the best option is.
Think about and produce all kinds of content, but then focus on Roundups to monetize.
Email list
Building your email list is another strategy you’re sure to hear about, and for a very good reason.
Creating an email list means creating an asset belonging to you that no one can take away, an asset full of people interested in what you want to promote.
You usually start by creating a lead magnet, which is a free product to give away to users in exchange for their email address.
It is usually in the form of an ebook, report, or the like.
Subscribers to your newsletter should then be “fed” with interesting material and content.
Of course, the ultimate goal will then be to promote your affiliate products.
Creating an email list works great in conjunction with the other two strategies below.
Sales funnel
Another very common term you will hear, sooner or later.
A sales funnel is a path divided into several steps. Each step is designed to persuade the user to take an action to move to the next level.
Sales funnels for High-Ticket products are often created with a combination of landing pages and emails. Landing pages are pages on your site that have only one purpose: to get the user to take a desired action, for example giving you the email by downloading your ebook.
At each step, the user begins to receive a different type of email to convince him or her to move to the next level.
Sales funnels can be very effective in those cases where the user needs time to be convinced.
This is precisely the case with High-Ticket products. Being expensive, users often need time and more information to convince themselves to buy.
A well-designed sales funnel can provide them with this, and at the same time guarantee you the commission.
Value ladder
Value ladder is a concept similar to sales funnel.
With value ladder (or sales ladder), the user is persuaded to purchase the final offer by going through a series of intermediate purchases of increasing value.
This works well when indeed the final offer is High-Ticket.
The best thing for us affiliates is that many merchants create their own value ladder, and all we have to do is convince the user to take the first step (for example register to a free webinar, or buy a introductory course of only $20).
Once the user registers on the first step he/she will be considered our affiliate, and everything he/she buys will be recognized to us in the form of commissions.
Best courses and learning material
For me, as explained before, the best thing you can learn to get into the world of High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is setting up a website and work with organic traffic.
There are fantastic courses designed to teach you everything from A to Z.
These are the same ones I talked about in the introductory guide to Affiliate Marketing, you can find more details there.
Here they are:
FAQ
A beginner can do High Ticket Affiliate Marketing, being simply a variation of Affiliate Marketing. However, some affiliate programs may not accept beginner membership given the lack of experience.
Some typical products of High Ticket Affiliate Marketing are jewelry, precious metals, investment services, business courses, luxury travels, platforms or various services with recurring payment (e.g., hosting services).
An example of High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is the promotion of sites that sell precious metals such as gold. A sale can be as high as $60,000, with a commission of 3% meaning $1,800 for the affiliate.
High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is easy to start, as it does not require any special initial investment, just your own time and dedication. However, it is not easy to get traffic quickly, given also the competition.
When done correctly, High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is perhaps one of the most profitable activities in the online marketing landscape.
A commission is considered High-Ticket if it is at least $100, although on average they are higher, by several hundred dollars to even a few thousand.
High Ticket Affiliate Marketing is not a scam. However, it sometimes happens that some manufacturers try to disguise a pyramid scheme as a High-Ticket affiliate program.