April 22, 2008
Internet Marketing
Following up to our post yesterday on how to become an affiliate marketer and make money online, we now have the decision on what affiliate marketing niche to conquer.
If you are just starting out, it can be very overwhelming with all of the affiliate marketing offers that are out there. Picking the right affiliate offer is essential to the success of your affiliate marketing business. So, do you pick an offer that is highly competitive or do you pick a niche that hasn’t been tapped into so much?
How To Pick Your Affiliate Marketing Offers
You have basically two choices when it comes to picking an affiliate marketing niche. You can pick a competitive niche that many people are advertising or you can pick a niche that has not been over-saturated. So, you’re asking…which option is the best? There is a lot of debate on whether you should pick a highly competitive niche or stick to something with less competition. I am a believer that you should pick a highly competitive niche when you first start affiliate marketing. There is a reason that certain niches are highly competitive. That is because they make their affiliate marketers money. Isn’t that the end product we are all searching for? I know that’s what I want. I don’t think any of us are in this business just to pass the time!
The key to success in a highly competitive affiliate marketing niche is to think outside of the box. Don’t just throw up some affiliate banners and links and hope for the best. You will definitely fail if you do this. Think outside and do things that no one else is doing. Affiliate marketing let’s your creative juices flow…so USE them!
Try to master one area of affiliate marketing such as pay per click (PPC marketing), search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, article marketing or anything else you can think of. Put focus on one of these areas and become an authority in this one area. BUT, learn the other areas as well. Learn A LOT about one particular marketing method and learn a little about the other areas of affiliate marketing. You want a well-rounded business and by learning all areas…even if it’s just the basics, you will achieve this.
It’s A Fact - You Will Lose Money
This is true. It’s the nature of the beast. Losing money is TOTALLY normal when you are a beginner affiliate marketer…even when you are a seasoned affiliate marketer. It just happens. Lots of hours of trial and error are unavoidable. This is partly why so many people fail at affiliate marketing. They throw up an affiliate offer. They lose $100 in pay per click marketing and they call it quits. If this is what you are planning to do…save your $100. Don’t even waste your time and effort. You need to be prepared to lose money and you need to be prepared for frustration. Sorry if this sounds harsh…but it is brutally true. If you can get over both of these obstacles and move forward, you have a chance. Persistence is the key to affiliate marketing. Be persistent.
Take these tips and run with them. You don’t need to try and build a multi-million dollar affiliate business overnight. Start slow. Learn from your mistakes and when you find a winning campaign, scale your campaign to make more money.
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April 21, 2008
Internet Marketing
So, maybe you want to dive into the world of Internet and Affiliate marketing. People are making TONS of money via the web so why shouldn’t you jump in on this bucket of gold?
It’s not hard to become an affiliate marketer but it IS hard to become a successful affiliate marketer. Hopefully the tips I’m about to outline help you on your way to making money online.
Most people think that you have to have a product or service to make money online. This is not the case at all. All you need is a little creativity, motivation to succeed, a little budget and you too can start bringing in online paychecks.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a form of Internet marketing in which a person drives website traffic to a companies website, product or service and in return they receive a commission for bringing in a lead, sale or even as simple as a click. So, you drive Customer A to buy a Widget at Company XYZ’s website. Customer A buys the Widget for $100. In return you are rewarded $15 for bringing in that sale.
Affiliate marketing can be in the form of an actual sale, just a simple lead or even just a click through of an online advertisement. Each company will set their own commission structure on what they will pay the affiliate in return for driving traffic, sales and leads to their website.
How Do I Get Started As An Affiliate Marketer?
Realistically, you can start affiliate marketing in a matter of days or even a matter of a few hours if you are already familiar with some of the concepts. Here are the three things you need to get started.
- You need to be an affiliate of a company. You can do this easiest by signing up with an affiliate network. I recommend Commission Junction, ShareASale.com, CPA Empire and Never Blue Ads. These four affiliate marketing networks will give you more than enough to get you going. There are many more but utilize these first and expand to new networks as your business grows.
- You need a way to market the product. Here is a post in itself but I will give some basics on how you can get an affiliate campaign up and running in no time.
The easiest way is if you already have a website or blog that receives website traffic. To make money online, you need website traffic. It’s as simple as that. It’s a numbers game. Everything comes down to traffic and conversions and if you have traffic that converts, you WILL make money online. You might even make enough money online to quit your day job and focus entirely on your online endeavors.
So, if you already have a website or a blog, you can sign into your affiliate accounts that we talked about above and find a merchant that sells a product or service that relates to your business. From there you can place their advertising banners and text links and other forms of affiliate links on your website or blog. When someone clicks on the link or banner, they will be directed to the merchant site and this is where you can make your commission if it’s in the form of a sale, lead or click.
A quick tip: If you have a particular web page or many web pages that receives a lot of website traffic, advertise your affiliate links on these first. Monetize correctly and you will be off to a great start.
The next way to promote an affiliate offer is through pay per click marketing. This is a post in itself but PPC marketing is basically a way for you to bid on keywords in Google, MSN and Yahoo and when a user does a search on one of their search engines, your add could appear in front of millions of potential prospects. Google Adwords is probably the PPC engine you should master first. If you can master Google Adwords, you can master the rest. Google is the big dog so learn all you can with Google before you move to the smaller PPC engines. To learn more about Google Adwords, Start Here. Most people fail to learn this information so if you can learn this first, you will be ahead of most of your competition.
Email marketing is another great way to monetize affiliate offers. You have to be very careful not to spam anyone so make sure you touch up on your email marketing etiquette before you begin an email marketing campaign. Email marketing is especially valuable if you already have a marketing list built for your business. Most people and businesses fail to properly monetize their marketing lists. This can be a HUGE earner if utilized correctly.
Develop a website or a blog or both. If I had to pick which one to start I would go with a blog and I would go with the Wordpress Platform. You can realistically set up a blog within a matter of a few hours, even if you have no experience whatsoever. Pick a blog topic that interests you and something that you have a huge knowledge base of. If you are not interested in what you are talking about, the blog will fade and you will not succeed. If you can regularly update your blog with USEFUL and VALUABLE information and content, you are asking for success. Blogs don’t start turning profit overnight but post unique articles regularly and you will soon see the traffic pour in after a couple of months. Just don’t give up. This is the number one reason blogs fail. People will update them for a month or two, they don’t see the traffic they thought they would get and they stop. Just keep posting content. Don’t give up. It will pay off. Once you start receiving decent website traffic, it’s then time to start monetizing your blog with the proper affiliate advertisements so head over to your affiliate network and put up some banners and text links on high traffic pages.
Before you start a website or blog, it’s a good idea to get your own domain name and hosting account. There are free ways of starting a blog or website without these but they will be bogged down with third party advertisements so get your own domain for $9/year and a hosting account for $10/month and you will be MUCH better off. This is a very small investment for the amount of money you can bring in. Trust me on this one.
- A little budget does not hurt. You will need a little bit of money. Most people think that they can get into Internet marketing without spending a dime. While this can be true, it’s MUCH easier if you have some sort of a budget to work with, especially with Pay Per Click marketing. Figure out what you can afford first and don’t go overboard. You can start small and always increase. I do suggest re-investing all revenue back into the business for the first year. Gradually ramp up your earnings. Don’t expect to throw up a blog and the next day collecting checks. It just won’t happen. Be realistic about your Internet marketing ventures. Do you think they built YouTube and Facebook overnight? Not a chance! Take your time. Learn the business. And learn from your mistakes.
There are many great resources out there on affiliate marketing and the majority of them are free. Blogs are a GREAT place to learn so start with them:
Super Affiliate Mindset
Uber Affiliate
Cashtactics
Zac Johnson
These are great resources so read their ENTIRE blogs first. You will come out with a wealth of information on affiliate marketing and also Pay Per Click marketing.
Best of luck and I hope you find your pot of gold online!
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March 25, 2008
Education, Internet Marketing
It’s so tough to pick a career in this day and age and stick with it especially with the way the economy has been. Things are looking down, people are losing their jobs and there’s little or nothing that can be done to stop it without some hard work by good ole’ America!
So, what do you do if you are searching for the perfect career or if you are in college and not sure what you want to do when you grow up? Get into Internet marketing at some capacity. No joke…it is the best decision I’ve ever made (with the exception of proposing to my fiance Wendi).
I don’t care what kind of business you have…automotive, retail, financial or anything else…you can get hit by the recession. So can Internet marketers but the difference is they can pick themselves up much quicker. Internet marketing and website development is an essential piece of every company in this day and age. How many successful businesses do you know out there with no website? Not many, right? Yes, there are a few businesses that are run the old fashion way but the majority of businesses are now moving to the web and what does that mean? MORE INTERNET MARKETING JOBS than there are Internet marketing professionals. There is a shortage of qualified Internet marketing professionals.
There are so many pros of working your way into Internet marketing, I can’t even list them all here. A few of the big ones are:
- You have a skill not many people know much about. This is great for job security.
- Internet marketers get paid well. You can make a GREAT living with Internet marketing. It’s not uncommon to make between $80-$120K with just 5 years of experience. Keep expanding your skill set and you will make even more.
- Internet marketers can work from tree houses if they had to. We are a mobile bunch and all we need is a laptop and Internet connection and we are good to go.
- We can substantially increase a companies revenue and profits with our expertise. Many people do not know that Internet marketing has a GREAT ROI compared to print media and other traditional methods of advertising. If they could only see through the confusion of Internet marketing and give it a try…they would see the light and what it can do for their business.
- Even if you have a full time job, you can still do side Internet marketing projects and make a nice chunk of money throughout the year on top of your full time salary. Now we’re talking early retirement!!!
- It’s an all around fun profession. I truly enjoy it and love to learn new things each day about Internet marketing and new strategies to execute.
- There are not many other professions where you can work 10 hours or so a week and make more than most people do in a month.
If you are seriously considering a career change or if you are still in college searching for what you want to do…look into Internet marketing. I promise you will be pleased at what you find.
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March 23, 2008
Internet Marketing
Let’s face it…affiliate marketing is tough stuff. It takes a rare breed to actually make a living off of affiliate marketing and be able to sustain this income. You need to make a decent amount on your investment in order to come ahead.
Let’s say you spend $500 on an affiliate marketing campaign and you make $750 in revenue. You say, hey…that’s not too bad. Well, now let’s subtract the $500 you spent on advertising your affiliate campaign via Google Adwords or whatever other advertising method you used. You are now down to $250 profit. So, you say, hey…that’s not too bad either. Okay…it’s not too bad but now let’s take out what you owe for taxes. If you are in a middle tax bracket you can take another 30-35% of that $250 profit away for income taxes, state tax, self employment tax and all other little things that eat away at your profit.
So, let’s say 35% is taken away from the $250. That 35% comes to $87.50. Subtract the $87.50 from your $250 profit and you now have $162.50. This still isn’t horrible but you can see where I am going with this. If you merely break even with your campaigns or come out a little ahead, you are still losing money. You need to figure out a way to make a substantial amount above and beyond your initial investment in order to reap the benefits of a true successful affiliate marketer.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a “Super Affiliate Marketer” hold up a check on their blog or website for $100,000 or $250,000 or more. What they don’t mention is that they spend $98,000 to make the $100,000 or $240,000 to make the $250,000. I’m not saying that there aren’t any successful super affiliate marketers our there because there definitely are. I am saying that most affiliate marketers trying to sell themselves don’t mention what they are actually spending on their campaigns to make their profits. If you spend $1.00 and get $1.02 in return. It’s going to take a hell of a lot of dollar bills to make a good living. You better have stacks of cash in the bank ready to use.
I guess…moral of the story is…affiliate marketing is hard and you need to make a substantial amount beyond your initial investment in order to become successful. Best of luck.
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