Hi again!

Dear friends, 

It’s that magical time of the year again! ⭐️

And magical times are the best for fairy tales. 

Unfortunately today, I’m not going to tell you one, but explain to you how to use the storytelling method in affiliate marketing. 

What is storytelling? 

It’s the method of telling stories to your audience and engaging them. You can use pictures and videos to visualize the story and make it more realistic and interesting. 

As my favorite writer, Stephen King, once wrote; “It’s the tale, not who tells it” - the King is right as usual!

A good story can make you earn more money. And your only job is to tell it. 

Let me show you how to apply the different storytelling methods to tell a good story (and make earnings from it). 

The Monomyth method 

I guess all of you remember the “Lion King” movie - a brave little lion who starts a journey after his father is killed by the evil uncle. During the journey, the lion cub finds some craxy friends and, in the end, he kicks the bad ones and marries a beautiful lioness. 

That here is an example of the Monomyth method - the hero leaves his home, he faces the unknown and after some adventures he has a good ending. 

An example of this method in affiliate campaigns would be:

Hello, I’m Anna and I’m from {country}. Now I’m happy and I have an amazing family, but it’s not always been easy - 2 years ago I was depressed, facing overweight issues and with a very critical mental health situation. A friend of mine told me about this magical product that literally helped me lose 18kg in 21 days.

The Mountain method 

The mountain version is a way of mapping the tension and drama both in the same story. Here it’s not necessary to have a happy ending (but, if it helps, you can put it). 

When using this method in my affiliate campaigns I would write something like this: 

I’m John from {city} and this is my story. I’m blessed with an amazing girlfriend who I met on {dating site xxx}. She’s the best. Everything was fine, but after 2 months I started to have erectile dysfunction. Thanks to her, I never gave up and found {xxx product}, and all problems were gone in just 9 days. Unfortunately, she left me some time after that for another person. Then I started using {dating site xxx} again and now I’m meeting other people! ‍

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Nested Loops method 

This one is a storytelling technique where you lay three or more narratives within each other. 

You place your most important story - the core of your message - in the center, and use the surrounding stories to elaborate and support the main one. The first story you begin with, is the one you finish with. The second story is the second last one, etc. 

Nested loop storytelling example: 

I’m a 40 year old dating coach who helps shy men approaching women. 5 years ago I was a very shy person too, until I met my mentor and he helped me find the dating beast in me. My mentor was very good and dedicated at his job, but unfortunately he passed away last year. His wife decided to move on, left the city and sold me his business - now I’m to continue his job, I know he’s happy watching me from the sky. That’s why I created this dating site, which is dedicated to my mentor, and only today you have the chance of registering for free”.

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The Petal Structure method 

This one is a way of organizing multiple speakers or stories around one central concept. It’s useful if you have several unconnected stories you want to tell, or things you need to reveal - that all relate back to one single message. 

You tell the stories one by one, before returning to the center. The petals can overlap as one story introduces the next one, but each should be a complete narrative in itself. In doing so, you can weave a rich tapestry of evidence around your central theory. Or strong emotional impressions around your idea. By showing your audience how all these key stories are related to one another, you leave them feeling the true importance and weight of your message. 

Let me give you an example of the Petal method: 

An anti-aging cream is the best one on the market. It helps women in their fifties from {country} to look way younger. The first story is about Sophia, a 43 year old single mom who used the product for only 13 days and immediately saw results. The second story is about Anna, a 51 year old woman who spent a lot of money on other aging products trying to look younger, without any result. Now she’s using only {the product} and she is happier than ever! Another satisfied customer is Angela, a 46 year old mother of a 20 year old daughter. As you can see from the photos below [attach proof image], there’s no difference in how their skin looks - if you don’t know that they’re mother and daughter, you would have thought they’re sisters. The final story is about Mia, a 55 year old woman who wanted an anti-aging surgery, but now she tried {the product} and she stopped wanting the surgery. Now, you have some social proof that this cream is a must buy - and, only for your readers, you can buy it with a huge discount in the next 12 hours. 

In Media Res method

Here, you begin your narrative in the heat of the action, before starting over at the beginning to explain how you got there. By dropping your audience right into the most exciting part of your story, they’ll be gripped from the beginning and will stay engaged to find out what happens. 

But be careful - you don’t want to give away too much of the action straight away. Try hinting at something bizarre or unexpected - something that needs more explanation. Give your audience just enough information to keep them interested, as you go back and set the scene of your story. 

Here’s an example of “In Media Res” method:  

“I lost 17 kg in exactly 23 days without any diet or exercises and this changed my life. Before that, my cheating husband left me for his younger secretary.  That’s the reason why I was depressed and gained 20 extra kg way too fast. Do you want to know what happened to my ex-husband? His company went bankrupt, and of course, the young lady found another man. He’s begging me to take him back, but now I look better than we were together, I have a boyfriend and started my own business” 

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Converging Ideas method

Converging Ideas is a speech structure that shows the audience how different strands of thinking came together to form one product or idea. It can be used to show the birth of a movement, or explain how a single idea was the culmination of several great minds working towards a common goal.  

Converging Ideas is similar to the Nested Loops method, but rather than framing one story with complementary stories, it can show how several equally important stories came to a single strong conclusion. 

An example on a betting campaign would be: 

“Me and my best friend made an algorithm that has a 94.3% probability to predict the winner in every sporting event. When we started, I was a simple statistician, and my friend was a developer in a software company. One night, while we were drinking beers, I had an idea to make this algorithm. My buddy said it’s possible and easy, and he coded it for 3 days. During the tests, this little software made us a $586 profit. It was insane. After 2 months we quitted our boring jobs, and now we are able to live our dreams”.

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False Start method

A “false start” story happens when you begin to tell a seemingly predictable story, before unexpectedly disrupting it and beginning it over again. You lure your audience into a false sense of security, and then shock them by burning the tables. This format is great for talking about a time that you failed in something and were forced to “go back to the start” and reassess. It’s ideal for talking about the things that you learned from that experience.  

I’ll give you an example applied to a crypto campaign:  

“I made a lot of money with cryptocurrencies, and I'm extremely rich now. But before that, I lost all my money when I started trading. I even spent 3 nights in jail because  I was convicted of misappropriation. In the prison, I met a guy who explained to me the basics of crypto trading, and he changed my life again. When I quit the jail I found a 6-hour job in a bakery for the day and during the night, started to learn more about it. I found the method that allows me to do crypto trading almost without any risk for me or my investors”.

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Sparkliness method

This one is a way of mapping presentation structures. By doing this, the presenter draws attention to the problems we have in our society, our personal lives and our businesses. The storyteller creates and fuels a desire for change in the audience. It’s a highly emotional technique that will surely motivate your audience to support you. 

My friend, you are reading this article now and think how easy or how hard it is to implement some of these storytelling methods in your affiliate campaigns. 

I can’t guarantee you will make more money if you try them, but I’m sure about this: if you don’t try the storytelling method immediately you will regret it, because another media buyer somewhere in the world will use it successfully. 

The choice is yours - try something new for you and use it successfully in your media buying campaigns or leave money on the table for your competitors. 

 That was an example of the sparkliness method.

That was all for today! I hope you can apply some of the things learnt today in your campaigns. 

We wish you a Happy Christmas with your loved ones ❤️