Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5e

Email Marketing

I included this as a separate section but actually it should be a part of EVERY landing page strategy. If you aren’t collecting email addresses, you are leaving money on the table.

In my main niche, I started with a simple landing page comparison site. I realized that 100 people were coming to my site everyday but I would only get a sale every other day or so. The other 99 - 198 were looking for some general information and weighing their options. So I decided to write a small ebook (less than 20 pages) and give that away. In that ebook, I give them all of the research information they are looking for. I started building a relationship with these visitors. I wrote a simple 2 email, follow-up sequence using aweber. I sent them the ebook immediately and one email 2 days later. That’s it, simiple, it took less than 5 hours to write the book and set up the email sequence and now I average .98 sales a day. I didn’t change anything else!

And that is with only a 2 email sequence. I know full well that I am not taking advantage of the full potential of my list. I have enough content to do a 12 email sequence which would give me more opportunities to “sell”them on the affiliate product. I am satisfied with the .98 sales a day so I have focused on other projects but think about the opportunity that I’m leaving on the table. I average about 20 new subscribers every day! My list is growing everyday.

Are you collecting emails?

Get started! It is simple. I use aweber. They provide great tutorials on how to use the service and even give tips on writing quality copy that converts. I really like their tracking tools. I get stats on how many people opened the emails, how many clicked the links in the email and more.

If you aren’t collecting emails you need to or else you are leaving money on the table.

I hope you enjoyed the post and don't forget to sign up for my RSS feed.


Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5d

Alright, let’s get through this section so we can get to the heart of the lessons. The last few lessons have been extremely valuable but it is hard to see because the topics seem so dry. However, Jeremy Palmer peaked a lot of interest when he told us that he would be giving away heatmaps for his campaigns. People jumped at the opportunity to find out what a successful landing page looks like. Well, that is what I am trying to show you however, if you are new to affiliate marketing it can be difficult to see the value. Hang in there with me.

Shopping Directories
I recently learned that there are lots of affiliate marketers who make a decent living from these sites. Let me show you an example and then I’ll tell you why I don’t like them and also tell you why some people LOVE them!

Great lingerie store (PG-13)

I found this site from reading a blog about successful affiliate marketers. Kirsty admits that this is one of her newer sites but thus far in her affiliate marketing life, she has managed to equal her salary. And if I had to bet, given the list of here favorite markets I would bet that all of her sites are in this style…. shopping directory style.

Shopping directories are definitely a money maker but let me tell you why I’m not a huge fan.

Why am I not a fan?

#1: Commission structures is based on a percentage of sale. Usually around 10-15%. That isn’t much unless you are marketing high-end products

#2: Website design is very complicated. I am pretty good with HTML but designing one of those sites is above my level… way above! And commissioning someone to make one for you (my favorite technique when I am pressed for time) would be significantly more expensive than other landing page styles. I can have a comparison site made in 2 days for $100 where are a shopping directory would run upwards of $300 and take up to two weeks

#3: Complicated PPC campaign design. In order to successfully market this site using PPC you need an intricate campaign with hundreds of keywords for each product. How many keywords can you come up with for “bra” - I can think of hundreds….PG-13 keywords of course!

Why Kirsty Loves ‘em?

Because she is good at them. That is her bread and butter. She started here career in affiliate marketing with this style of site so why not finish it that way.

Because she makes good money with them. I never denied the ability for these sites to make money. There is definitely a lot of potential for profit with these sites.

Because she is genuinely interested in lingerie. If you look at her list of niches, they are all generally related. That means she enjoys these topics and therefore it isn’t really work for her… it’s fun. (get your mind out of the gutter!)

There are hundreds of amazon affiliates who make a decent living from shopping directories. Digital cameras, Flat screen TVs, perfume, DVDs, CDs, bedding & furniture, you name it…. there is an affiliate using a shopping directory to market these products.

While this landing page style doesn’t fit my current portfolio, I do plan to give them a try in the near future. In June I will reach the 6th month (since the restart) mark where I will begin experimenting a bit more. Until then I am sticking with my bread and butter. However, until then…. here are a few considerations to keep in mind if you plan to use a shopping directory:

I’m looking forward to starting one of these sites. I’ve got an idea for a fairly untapped niche but I’m a bit intimidated. For now I’ll stick with comparison and blog-style sites. I don’t want to rush into anything and get my panties in a bunch.

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5c

Comparison Sites

Comparison sites are one of my favorite landing page strategies. Before we get into why I like them so much, let take a look at what one looks like.

The dating niche was extremely lucrative for a lot of affiliates. So when I started doing research about affiliate marketing I looked at those hotly contested niches to find out what the experts were doing.

Granted I had no intention on trying to compete in the dating niche but by studying their landing page design, copy writing techniques and campaign strategy I leaned some valuable lessons about what it takes to be successful at affiliate marketing for FREE.

Here a site that has been in the top 1 or 2 of Google’s paid search for over a year (that is a good sign that this campaign is wildly successful. )

Dating Website Comparisons

Look at the simplicity of that site. Once you have the template, you can duplicate that page for new niches in a matter of hours, not days. As a matter of fact this affiliate has done just that. Take a look at:

Spyware Remover Comparisons

Another over saturated market but it looks like our hero is doing well there too and I’m sure it took him less than 2 days to get these campaigns up and running.

But what about the visitors perspective. Sure it may only take 36 hours to get the campaign up and running but if it doesn’t convert that it was a waste of 36 hours. Comparison sites are designed to capture visitors who are in the buy stage of the buying cycle and present them with all of their buying options so they can make an informed choice.

The last major purchase I made was a flat-screen LCD tv. I searched the internet for hours trying to figure out which brand, which model, 1080p or 1080i, 52″ or 46″, etc. It was a mind-boggling array of options. I read reviews, looked at pictures and checked out prices. Finally I was ready to go shopping (I still don’t trust ordering high-end electronics over the internet yet. I like to touch it, feel it and smell it before I buy).

So there I am in Circuit City with the hours and hours of research I had conducted consolidated onto a little sheet of notebook paper and I begin the hunt for the TV with the perfect specs. 52″ Plasma, 1080p, HD-Ready, preferrably Sony or Panasonic. Simple enough….

I finally found exactly what we were looking for: A 46″ Samsung LCD 1080i. After all of my research what I wanted came down to sitting in front of the TV for a minute and seeing if I liked it. I liked the LCD picture a LOT better, I realized 52″ is way too big for my needs (actually the 46″ also), and 1080p really only matters if you play video games, which I don’t.

So Circuit City gave me the perfect opportunity to look at the features of each TV but also let me experience them for my self.

That is what is great about a comparison site. They give you all of your options in one location, tell you about the features and benefits and even give you the opportunity to check out each site before you decided.

If I were searching for an internet dating platform to use, I would love a site like Dating Website Comparisons. He/She gives me a little info about each site, specifically what they enjoyed best about each one and a ranking of each site. Then I would click on the one’s that sounded most intriquing to actually check them out, coming back to his/her page to go to the next option. In the end, no matter which program I chose, it’s money in the bank!

Comparison websites are perfect for competitive niches where there are multiple merchants with similar products. Why choose only one to promote when you can promote them all!

I love comparison sites and as you’ll see in the case study, they can be extremely profitable.

So it is simple,

Haha, I wish it were that simple but you get the idea. It is an easy process to replicate and scale.

Think Critically

~Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 5b

Location, location, location.

In real estate the absolute most important factor is location.

A business is no different. Pick the wrong location and you could be doomed. Gus’ Fried Chicken in Memphis is world famous for its fresh fried chicken. Located downtown on main street, Gus’ is always packed with locals and tourists who’ve heard the lore of Gus’ Famous Fried Chicken.

The bad thing is Gus’ isn’t really that good. Their sign says it was voted the best fried chicken in the world, which is hard to believe because it isn’t even the best in Memphis. The best is Uncle Lou’s fried chicken. Hands down, no contest, the absolute best fried chicken in the world. Everyone I’ve taken there absolutely LOVES it. In fact the Food Network is doing a special on Uncle Lou’s chicken that will air this summer.

But why aren’t tourist flocking to Uncle Lou’s? Location, location, location. It isn’t downtown like Gus’, in fact is in a fairly unsavory part of town. Therefore his business will never be as successful as it could be.

So as we are planning our affiliate marketing business, choosing the proper location is very important because at the end of the day no matter how incredible our chicken taste, if people can’t find it we won’t make any money.

So let look examine the different location choices for our affiliate marketing business.

Blogs
Setting up a blog is quick and easy. Lately a lot of gurus are recommending using a blog as a first step. Caroline Middlebrook wrote a great ebook on setting up niche websites.

It is a great FREE ebook that teaches you everything you need to know about getting your wordpress niche site up and running.

Here are a few examples:
The Airplane Blog - by Gary Conn
History of Elvis - by Mark Mason

The Airplane Blog is a great example. Notice how Gary uses posts to generate mini-articles. Each post helps build a relationship with his customer and demonstrates his expertise within the industry.

History of Elvis on the other hand doesn’t take full advantage of the blog platform. If the purpose of the site is to sell Elvis memorabilia then I think a more straight forward content site would be more suitable.

Blogs are great for building a relationship with your visitors. By providing fresh content regularly you encourage your readers to stop by frequently. This works well for visitors in the research phase of the buying cycle. For example, buying an airplane requires a LOT of research. So The Airplane Blog provides news, reviews and ads for planes for sale.

Typically affiliate programs aren’t suited for blog-style sites. With most affiliate programs, you want to capture visitors who are in the buy phase of the buying cycle and therefore need a simple nudge in the right direction. For example, someone who searches for “Elvis vintage albums” is ready to close the deal. A simple list of albums and a little commentary about the songs on each album is plenty.

So in summary, blogs are quick and easy to set up and work well for niches that require extensive research before a purchasing decision.

Free Affiliate Marketing Lesson - 5a

The video is taking too long to edit and produce. I only have a limited amount of time everyday to devote to these lessons so I want to make sure I get something out to you regularly so I’m going to have to hold off on the video for a few days until I get the hang of it.

In the meantime, let’s continue on. This is where things get interesting….

Affiliate Campaign Strategy Development
Now that we have set some goals, signed up for affiliate networks, reviewed some offers we are now ready to begin planning our campaign. As I mentioned these lessons will focus on PPC as the main source of traffic for our affiliate site.

PPC is the easiest, fastest way to generate traffic to a website. Ideally, as time progressed we would like to generate some NON-paid traffic in addition to our PPC traffic in order to make our campaigns more profitable. However, when we are setting up a campaign, you can’t beat the speed and ease of PPC.

With that out of the way we have to decide what kind of site we are going to build. Today’s lesson is going to talk about direct linking and how to PROPERLY implement this technique.

Direct linking is simply taking your PPC traffic directly from you ad to the merchant’s site without passing through your own landing page. All you have to do is generate an ad that gets the search engine user’s attention and watch the checks roll in while the merchant’s site does all the work for you.

This technique was affectionately termed Google Cash. Nice!

It was a simple math formula:

(# of Clicks * Merchant site conversion rate) * MyCommision Per sale > Adword CPC * # of Clicks

So for example if I average 100 clicks a day from adwords, the merchant site converted 10% and I made $5 per sale:

100 * 10% = 10

10*5= $50 a day in revenue

As long as my CPC was less than $.50, I would make a profit. The lower my CPC, the more Google Cash in my pocket.

Simple, too simple in fact. Instead of affiliates pre-selling customers and helping boost the merchant site’s conversion rate, affiliate were competing with the merchant for the same keywords hoping to get them for the right price so they could make a profit with minimal work.

Google, Yahoo! and MOST merchant programs wised up to this scam and effectively banned direct linking as a promotional strategy. It is important to check with your merchant before setting up a direct linking campaign as MOST have banned this technique but there are a few that still allow it.

Most recently, Yahoo! through some strong arming from Commission Junction has recently begun allowing direct linking. While I don’t agree with direct linking as a long term campaign strategy, I think this was a brilliant move for Yahoo! With Google dominating the search engine marketing game, this is one way Yahoo! can differentiate themselves.

So the question remains, if this is such a fast and easy tactic, why do I think it is a HORRIBLE long term marketing strategy.

Google Cash is purely a numbers game…. there is no skill involved in monitoring CPCs everyday making sure your scale is tipping the right way. Besides, what a volatile way to try to make a living. Think about it, you are a slave to your CPC. If a few competitors decided to jump into your market, all of a sudden your margin for error becomes even smaller. And what if one day Google slaps you with a $1 minimum bid notice. Now you are screwed.

Techniques like Google Cash were designed for people who believe in the get-rich quick plan. I want to do the least amount of work and make obscene amounts of money doing it!

Get real, the only way to sustain any real income in this business is to treat it like a real business. Real, hard, work…. that has the potential to provide a lifetime of income.

Next I was going to show you a live direct link campaign from MSN that I stumbled upon. In fact that was going to be the basis for the video but the editing was kicking my butt. Anyway, the campaign is no longer running so there goes that idea.

However, I think it is clear how ineffective this technique is for developing a steady source of income.

That is not to say direct linking doesn’t have a place. I still use direct linking in my campaign development. As easy as PPC is at generating traffic, direct linking is equally fast an easy for determining the profitablity of a potential offer.

There is no faster way to gather conversion stats on an offer (I generally like to get 100 clicks through to the merchant’s offer page before I evaluate the success of a campaign). If a site converts well (makes a profit or breaks even) using direct linking with a cost-per-click (CPC) of 10% of my projected commission, then I know it will be lucrative.

Once I’ve selected an offer that I’m interested in, I will slap together a short keyword list (between 10-50), throw up a direct-linking campaign and track my stats for 2 days or 100 clicks. Generally Google won’t realize I’ve broken the rules in that short period of time so I’m pretty safe.

This quick test helps me determine what kind of landing page I will need, how much pre-selling I have to do on my landing page and what conversion rates I can expect from the merchant site.

I know what you are thinking 100 clicks?! Is that really enough to evaluate with? No but I do it anyway and it works for me. I don’t want to spend a bunch of time and money on a campaign so if it doesn’t convert at least 1 in 100 at a break even rate, then it isn’t worth my time.

Yes, I am leaving money on the table. There are a lot of highly profitable offers that WON’T pass my test!

That is fine with me because all i need is 10 that do…. well actually 7 now.

Here are the methods for redirecting:

PHP redirect
This is my preferred technique. PHP redirect allows you to still track keywords while redirecting traffic to the merchant. It’s simple:

<?php

header(”location=http://www.where-ever-you-want-to-send-the-visitor.com”);

?>

  1. Copy and paste that text into a file
  2. Save text file as ORDER.PHP
  3. Upload ORDER.PHP to your root directory
  4. Set your PPC destination url to www.yoursite.com/order.php
  5. Sit back and collect checks until Google Slaps you with $5 clicks in the middle of the night and wake up to an Adwords bill of $500 and $20 in commission

301 Redirects

redirect 301 /order.html http://www. where-ever-you-want-to-send-the-visitor.com

  1. Copy and paste the text into a text file
  2. Save the file as .htaccess
  3. Upload the file to your root directory
  4. Set your PPC destination url to www.yoursite.com/order.html
  5. Order your Bentley

Meta Refresh
Ever see those, “Click here if you are not redirected in 5 seconds”

Those are generally meta refreshes.

<html><head>

<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”0; url=http://www.where-ever-you-want.com/”>
</head>

<body>
please click
<a href=”http://www.where-ever-you-want.com”> here </a>

if you are not immediately redirected
</body>
</html>

  1. Copy and paste into a text file
  2. Save as gettinrich.html
  3. Set your PPC destination url to gettinrich.html
  4. Buy a digital camera to take pictures of you holding your over sized affiliate checks

Again, my favorite technique is the PHP redirect because I rely on PHP extensively to track my keywords and my ROI. I will teach you my technique for keyword ROI tracking later in the course.

I hope you learned a little bit about direct linking and how to use it properly to help set yourself up for success.

Think Critically,

Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 4

Affiliate Networks

There are hundreds if not thousands of affiliate marketing networks to choose from.

My suggestion is to join at least 5 separate networks. Which actually means you need to apply to 10 of them. As a beginner affiliate marketer it is harder for us to be accepted into these networks. They want to know that you are going to perform and since we don’t have any experience, some networks won’t accept us.

Here’s my list of the bread and butter networks (apply to them all):

I was actually turned down by MOST of the networks listed above when I sent in my initial application. The key to getting accepted is to pick up the phone! They will include a phone number in your rejection email, and when the shock of being slapped in the face wears off just give them a call. Here’s exactly how my conversation went with with a nice lady over at Azoogle:

Hello, this is Jane with Azoogle. How can I help you today?

Mike: Hi Jane, I was just calling because I applied to the network and received a rejection notice today. I was just wondering what I needed to do so that when I re-apply I will get accepted.

Jane: Hold on one second while I pull up your application. What was your full name again?

(she searches her records to find my account)

Jane: Okay Mike, it says here that your site only recieves 600 unique page views a month. We generally look for at least 2,000.

Mike: I understand, that makes sense. Well right now I am just getting started, I’ve actually been studying affiliate marketing for about 6 months now and I’m ready to take the plunge. I’ve been through (and I list a few courses I paid for: Affiliate classroom, quit your day job and super affiliate handbook) so I’m anxious to get started. Is there anything we can do?

(don’t be afraid to name drop if you have a relationship with a guru. Just don’t drop my name because that is bound to get you REJECTED!)

Jane: Well Mike, let me talk to one of my affiliate managers.

(pause)

Jane: Mike, I just spoke with Josh who said he’d love to work with you. He will send you an email to confirm your enrollment and here is his number if you have any questions.

Mike: Jane you are awesome, will you have my kids?

The answer is always No if you don’t ask. So don’t just sit there whining about your rejection email, get on the phone and TALK to someone. They understand that you have to start somewhere and if you let them know that you are willing to work hard they’ll work with you.

When I applied to Filinet I didn’t have my own domain. I used my blog as the website on my application and it was hosted at Blogspot. So I went out and bought a domain and CALLED them back and said, “look I got a domain like you requested.” Jackpot, I’m in.

The number one question I hear about applying to affiliate networks is, “Do you need to have a website?” The answer is simple, Yes and No. For some networks you must have a website hosted on your own domain. Other networks don’t mind letting you in without a website. For Click Bank, if you can fog a mirror then you can be an affiliate.

Here is a pretty good list of all of the networks available. Remember there are hundreds of networks and new ones every day! So get out there and start applying and looking at some offers.

Affiliate Network List

Another List without the hyped up copy

The alternative way to finding a network to join is to determine what you want to promote first, then find out if they have an affiliate program.

This is actually how I found my first affiliate program. I picked my niche market first, built a website to provide my market with valuable content, then searched for a way to monetize that traffic. I knew the solution my visitors were looking for, I just had to find out if I could sell that solution to them and make a profit.

I found three options, 1 on Click Bank, 1 on Linkshare and 1 on Share-a-Sale. Then it was a matter of picking the highest quality product (not highest commission). Generally highest commission and EPC is a good way to choose between a couple of option (all else being equal) but in this case, my visitors were desperate for a solution and I wanted to make sure they were happy even if it meant I would make a little less money. The other two solutions were of such poor quality that I didn’t feel comfortable promoting them.

Summary
I was going to make a video showing you how to fill out the application but then I realize that was DUMB. You can spell your own name so you don’t need me to show you how to fill out blanks on a form. However, there will be some video entries in this course because some things are easier explained visually.

Get out there right now and start applying to some networks. Follow-up on all your rejection emails and don’t take no for an answer. Commission Junction is one of the most popular because they have great affiliate managers, great offers and great tools for tracking your campaigns. If you do nothing else today, apply to cj.com (click on the publisher link).

Think Critically,

Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 3

Okay so CJ.com is down right now so I will take a break from working on the case-study for this course and crank out the next lesson.

Selecting Niche Products to Market

I’m not going to belabor the point of WHY you should be targeting niche markets. That horse has been beaten, repeatedly with a bat…. a big bat!

Okay, so we got it - target niche markets….. but what the heck IS a niche market.

I wrote a post while going through the Thirty Day Challenge about what a niche market really is. Go check it out and come back. I’ll be here.

Okay, now that we are on the same sheet of music, how do we pick a niche product to market. Here are 3 separate options:

The Passion Test
I was cruising through the bookstore after a long frustrating day at my 9 to5 looking for some guidance on what I REALLY should be doing with my life. As I was walking to the door a purple book called “The Passion Test” caught my eye. With all this talk these days about following your passion I thought, “what the hell is my passion?”

So I bought the book. The first piece of advice everyone gives you when you talk about starting a business is that you should follow your passion. Sounds easy enough unless you are only passionate about beer and Monday Night Football.

What a GREAT purchase that turned out to be. If you haven’t read it, go by your local bookstore and check it out. Or buy it here on amazon (not an affiliate link). It walks you step-by-step down a path that will help you find your true passions.

I am not big on those hokey self-help books and I really hate ones with exercises and worksheets. However, I gave this one a try (exercises and all). And it was awesome. I realized that I loved computers, teaching people and I really enjoyed marketing. Ah ha, Internet marketing.

I got so wrapped up in trying to be an adult that I forgot what it was like staying up until 4 in the morning learning how to code a video game or trying to hack into government computers or building websites.

So I’m back, and I haven’t been to bed before 2 in 3 months! I LOVE IT! If it wasn’t for eating and the occasional bowel movement I would never leave my desk…. wait there’s also that annoying J.O.B.

Go read the book and come back when you’ve got a passion. Fly fishing? Hunting? Crochet? Underwater basket weaving? It doesn’t matter, what ever it is there is a market there that you can sell products to.

Summary
The Passion Test niche market selection strategy is about finding something that you enjoy and marketing to that niche. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT have to be an expert. Blogs have opened up a whole new world for sharing your ignorance with the world. Just look at me!

Find something you like, talk about what you know and people will appreciate you for it.

Chasing Cool
Another great book (again, not an affiliate link).

*Sidenote - I’m really not using affiliate links just because I don’t use Amazon.com at all. I prefer to actually GO to the bookstore, there something stimulating about browsing around amongst all that knowledge… besides you never know what you are going to find. And like I said, there are a few things that you are going to NEED that I would appreciate you using my affiliate links for but just because I recommend it doesn’t mean I’m trying to make a profit off of you from it. I want my opinions to be completely unbiased.

Where were we, chasing cool is about how fads come and fads go but in the long run you have to focus on long-term relevance. However, taking advantage of fads can been EXTREMELY lucrative for affiliate marketers.

Tickle-me-Elmo was the mother of all kids toys. Every kid had to have one! They sold out of stores in minutes…. MINUTES! And a lot of affiliate marketers made significant incomes off that one product. X-box? PS3? Ringtones? Millions! You too can be apart of the frenzy and cash in on these “cool” products.

Just like “Chasing Cool” recommends, I don’t want to be bothered with fads. I don’t want to spend months working on a campaign to realize that it is no longer relevant, that is is no longer cool.

However, for some the thrill and lure of quick cash is too much to ignore. You choose.

Want to know what’s cool? Ask a 13 year old. You laugh but I garuntee you’ll learn more about what the latest fads are from a high school kid than you will in hour of searching the internet. But if you don’t know any high school kids or have a court order to stay at least 100 meters from them, here’s some resources:

Summary
Chasing cool is all about catching a fad and cashing in. Chasing cool is easy but actually catching up to it is tough. There will be fierce competition in these markets and you never know when they are going to fade but it sure will be a fun ride.

EPC
EPC is an average of the earnings per 100 clicks. This gives you an idea of how much money you can make by sending 100 visitors to their offer page.

Let’s take a look at some and try to analyze what it really means:

Now that down right sucks. 5 bucks for sending 100 visitors…. nah, I’ll pass.

That is MUCH better.

Sounds easy enough, just sort all of the merchants by their EPC and pick the highest one.

Not so fast grasshopper.

EPCs have a tendency to be horribly inaccurate. It is easy for a merchant to manipulate their EPCs in order to entice new affiliates. The only way I use EPC is to rule out a merchant. If I am considering a campaign with two similar offers I will generally take the one with the higher EPC, all else being equal.

I like to stick between $30-$100. And I use the 3 Month EPC, the 7 day EPCs can fluctuate and are the most inaccurate.

Summary
Selecting an offer purely based on EPC is not a very informed strategy. EPCs are notoriously inaccurate but they can be used as the deciding factor between two competing offers. In fact you’ll see in the case-study that I had the option of selecting from 4 very similar offers but one stood out from the rest because of its EPC but I had already selected the niche using the Mosby Method.

The Mosby Method

Choosing an affiliate program to market is very simple. Go with your gut!

I’m not passionate about ANY of the programs I market but I am INTERESTED in them from a marketing perspective. You don’t have to love the subject matter but you have to love the idea of marketing it. Let me explain.

The key to a successful campaign is getting traffic. The key to getting traffic is being creative. When I look at potential offers I think about creative ways to market it. If I can think of something that no one else is doing then THAT is my next campaign.

Take Betty Crocker recipe’s. I read 45n5.com daily but I am not a huge fan of the guy. I read it because I enjoy the frustration. I think he’s a pompous ass who provides his readers with little to no value while continually trying to make money off of them.  However, that is his schtick…. that’s what keeps his readers coming back.

**Again, my opinion is my own based on previous experiences. You should not take my opinion as gospel and come to your own conclusions. (During the Thirty Day Challenge he exposed almost every single niche people were working on, citing it as public knowledge.  True but that doesn’t give him or anyone the right to share that with the greedy, seedy, under-belly of the affiliate marketing community.  Immediately after this happened I had to abandon my niche because the next day there were 4 new people trying to compete with me.  Not cool, really not cool.)

He made a half-hearted, lazy attempt at marketing Betty Crocker recipes. Notice how he chose this campaign…. uh, it’s not a dollar. Needless to say he failed and in the process convinced his readers that affiliate marketing was a waste of time. He didn’t do anything creative. I couldn’t have done any better with that offer which is why I would have passed on it.

I just wish he would have taken the time to research the offer first; determine if it will make a worthwhile campaign, then give it the old college try. His opinion has influence and instead of half-assing it if he would have put a real effort into trying to make it work he would have been more successful.

Here are my criteria for picking a good offer:

Everyone has their own criteria but as a beginner affiliate it is best that we say away from extremely competitive markets and focus on ones with a good return for our time. Find something that interests you that isn’t over saturated and pays well and you WILL make money.

In our case study I will take you through these exact steps as I try to find the niche I am going to use as proof that you CAN make money in affiliate marketing. I will start the case-study lessons as soon as we finish with the campaign development lesson so you can follow along with your own campaign and make money right along with me.

Besides, I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag on our niche too soon because some leech will try to steal the niche from us an ruin the results. It’s inevitable. That is why people are so reluctant to talk about their niche because there are a lot of worthless people out there with nothing better to do than to steal other people’s ideas.

I’m not afraid though, I anticipate it will happen but by then we will have made a few bucks and you will have learned first hand how to make affiliate marketing work!

Till next time,

Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 2

Goal Setting for Affiliate Marketers

There is something about Affiliate Marketing that is…. electric! It exciting, fun and fast paced. I complain about all of the new product launches because there’s a new one every week but in actually I like ‘em. They get my adrenaline pumping again.

Reading those super-long sales letters (is getting a bit annoying) but looking at the amount of money that is possible in this business hypes me up! Isn’t that what we are all here for? To make boat loads of money so we can quit our jobs to do this full-time. That is my plan anyway.

What’s yours? Well, we all know goals must be SMART:

But how does this apply to affiliate marketing? Let’s break each one down.

Specific
You can’t just set a goal to quit your job in 6 months. In order to make your goal specific you have to list out the steps that it will take to get you there. A better goal would be to develop 10 mini-websites over the span of ten months with each one generating at least $35 in sales a day. (10 sites x $35/day = $350/day x ~30 days/month = $10,500/month x 12 months = $126,000/year = quiting your job)

Once you have a firm idea of how your sites operate you can make your goals even more specific. I know that one of my sites converts 2-3% of its visitors and I want to make 2 sales a day from that site so I know that I need to send at least 100 people to the site daily in order to reach my goal. The more you can refine the specificity of your goals, the easier they will be to obtain.

Measurable
This one is a no-brainer for us. It’s all about all-mighty dollar. People do thangs, do thangs, do good thangs with it…. (sorry, Apprentice Theme song break).

Attainable
Attainable means that you set your self up for succes. You are doing the things necessary to bring yourself closer to your goals. The first step is to make a list of the steps you need to take in order to get where you are going. It is a matter of developing the attitude, skills, abilities and financial capacities to reach your goals. The attitude come from you, you have to believe in yourself. The skills and abilities I will do my best to help you with here in these lessons. And financial capacities, DO NOT spend money on unnecessary tools. You definitely have to spend money to make money but you don’t have to spend a TON.

Step 1: finish reading these lesson. Step 2: apply them. Step 3: hire personal bodyguard to escort you to the Gucci store to spend your millions.

Realistic
Here is the tricky part. In order to know what is realistic you have to have some experience. If I believed everything I read then I would assume that I could start raking in $30K/month in less than 3 months. Setting realistic goals is difficult when you first start out but my suggestion to you is to start small. Make it your goal that after you complete this course you will spend $100 developing and testing 1 affiliate marketing program. Then you can reasses your situation. Was it successful? Did you enjoy it? How many times can you replicate that process.

Right now my goal, as I mentioned above is to produce 1 mini-website a month that generates $35/day in PROFIT. I forgot to stress that point. The bottom line profit is all we are concerned about here. You are going to spend money to make commissions so just because you get a sale doesn’t mean it was a success. Base your goals on PROFIT, not sales or commissions.

Oh, and if you are wondering how I am doing. Well I’ve got 2 up so far. One well above $35/day and one at about $30/day. During this course like I said we will be doing a live demo of setting up a program so that will hopefully get me to 3 (I think it will be a successful campaign but you never know until you test). How does and extra $3k a month of residual income sound to you? It’s not super-affiliate rockstar status but it sure is nice.

Timely/Tangible
Timely, obviously we want to give ourselves a time frame for completion. Without putting a time limit on the goal, it will just linger there over our heads mocking us.

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. ~Victor Kiam

Take advantage of this HUGE opportunity. You can actually be implementing everything I show you as we go along. Don’t wait, someday is not a day of the week (unknown author)

The T can also stand for tangible…. you better believe my goal is tangible!

Short lesson to start the day. I will try to get back again later and drop off a few more lessons. We are starting very slow because I want to make sure I give you everything I know about this business. I encourage you to really analyze these lessons so you can start your business on the right foot.

Think Critically,

Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Lesson 1

I want this free affiliate marketing course to cater to the absolute beginner Affiliate Marketer while providing neat tips and tricks for the more experienced guys and gals. If you’ve been in the game a while, feel free to skip some sections. However, I suggest that you read EVERYTHING. It is important to have a firm foundation of understanding so you can get the most out of this course and your career as an affiliate marketer.

Let’s rock!

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing - is a web-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. (Wikipedia)

Traditional marketing is the combination of marketing material development, direct to consumer advertising and a sales strategy. With the birth of the Internet and the boom of internet companies looking to market their products on this new medium, they quickly realized traditional marketing techniques weren’t going to work.

Internet companies can still develop marketing material and produce ads but they didn’t have boots on the ground (salesmen). Closing deals in traditional marketing is all about getting face to face with the customer. And with their customers spread across the globe, internet companies needed to find a way to maximize their reach.

That is where WE come in. When GoDaddy.com wants to spread the word about their hosting plans, why not get someone like me who’s been using it successfully to recommend it to my friends and pay me a referral fee. Referrals are vital to the success of business. The more people you can get to speak highly about your company, the faster it will grow. (See also Viral Marketing)

So there you have it, your first lesson in Affiliate Marketing. Did you miss it? Did you click on the Go Daddy hosting plans link? Don’t worry you’ll see that link again. As you read this course, I am going to recommend some products that I am using. I will tell you exactly how I’m using it and why I think you should be using it. If you decide to take the plunge into Affiliate Marketing and need the tools I’ve suggested then when you use my links, I will get a referral fee.

(Quick Note: I will explicitly tell you what links are affiliate links and which ones are not. I have absolutely nothing to hide; this course is all about full disclosure. The only reason I am using affiliate links at all is to compensate myself for the time and effort it took to put this course together. I am giving the course away so people can learn what it takes to be successful WITHOUT having to spend money. After you understand the commitment, the process and the skills required being successful, then and only then should you spend any money on affiliate marketing.

I will only be recommending products that are ABSOLUTELY necessary. I will not be plugging SpeedPPC, Affiliate Radar or any other super expensive products. Save your money for your campaigns and once you start generating some income, check back with me and I’ll show you some tools you might want to invest in to take your business to the next level. Until then, let’s focus on getting the business up and running.)

It is simple as that. I am an official salesman for GoDaddy.com.

**Random useless knowledge - the adult industry might have been the pioneer of the cost-per-click advertising model. Ahh, leave it to porn to revolutionize an industry. Speaking of which, did you know that the adult industry is also responsible for the disappearance of Betamax. When they decided to produce their movies on VHS instead of beta, the entire movie industry followed. I’m just waiting for Hugh Hefner to decide between Blu-Ray and HD so I can buy a player.

I digress, but I will drop in a few of those useless knowledge facts as we go along. Don’t worry, I will give you fair warning so you can skip them if you like.

There’s one more important concept about Affiliate Marketing I want to touch on before we get into the different models. There are a number of reasons why affiliate marketing is such a great technique for companies to implement including wide spread reach (some companies have thousands of affiates), etc but most importantly is the ability of those affiliates to pre-sell visitors. The goal for my affiliate sites is to establish a relationship with my visitors. I want them to see me as a source of valuable information. Then when I recommend an affiliate product they will trust my recommendation.

For example, I read Seth Godin’s blog daily. I also read almost every one of his books (he writes a new one every week so it’s hard to keep up). After reading his books and his blog I have come to respect his opinion in the field of marketing so if he recommends a book by another offer, I’m all over it. I trust and respect his opinion.

On the flipside (I will bash people, courses, ideas, and anything else I want in this course so be prepared. My opinions are purely my own and should not be used to pass judgment on the character of the person or people involved. They are simply my observations of a given situation.) I also read Anik Singal’s blog regularly. I’m also on his email list, though not because I trust and respect his opinion but just to keep up with the new product launches in Internet Marketing. I’ve been on Anik’s email list for 6 months and I have not received anything of value other than him promoting someone else’s or his next course. Therefore, we haven’t established a base of trust, we simple have a customer-salesman relationship.

To be a truly effective affiliate marketer you must develop that trust with your potential customers. That is a great advantage for the big companies. Instead of combing the reader recommendation archives at amazon.com looking for marketing books, I go to Seth and he tells me.

Affiliate Marketing Compensation Models

Over the years companies have refined the way they compensate Affiliate Marketers. Cost-Per-Click (CPC) models were very popular at the start of the internet marketing boom. The concept was simple, I will pay you a few pennies for every visitor you can send to my site. Click fraud took that model to an early grave. Companies also realize that the few REAL visitors they received weren’t highly qualified visitors. CPC programs are very few and far between these days.

Companies realize it was probably better to just pay a higher commission based on the visitor actually doing something useful like buying the product! Hence the birth of Cost-per-sale (CPS) models. This strategy was modeled after the typical sales-rep commission structure.

For every sale we close because of your referral, we will pay you a commission.

This has turned out to be a very profitable model for both the company and the affiliate. Some companies actually pay you the full amount of the customer’s purchase as commission. Companies who have a significant line of products which they use to up-sell their customers will actually give you the full price of their introductory product in commissions. We’ll discuss some of those products as we get to the product selection portion of the course.

Recently, CPA or cost-per-action models are on the rise. CPA is similar to CPS in that the visitor must actually do SOMETHING other than just click a link before we earn our commission. That could range from entering a zip code, giving up their email address, signing up for a free newsletter, or even a free trial. CPA offers allow the company to collect information that they deem valuable and pay their affiliate a (generally) smaller commission than an actual sale.

CPA is extremely popular in the ring tone market. Go type ring tone into Google right now, in fact just click this link. There are hundreds of people making thousands a month from those sites and the visitor has to do is enter their cell phone number, download a 99 cent ring tone. Some affiliates claim to be making $20/action with ring tones. $20 for simply getting someone to enter their phone number on a website, no wonder they are so popular.

Unfortunately, I won’t get in to CPA marketing very much in this course. While it can be lucrative, the competition is extremely fierce. Also, the marketing methods are very different than what I’m going to focus on here. Don’t worry, I plan to do another course devoted strictly to CPA. For now we’ll stick to my bread and butter, CPS.

I like CPS the best because it is the definition of real marketing. I can throw together one of those ring tone sites in less than 30 minutes, pay $5 per click and pray for the best; or I can find a real product that I believe in, develop an entire community around that product and make money talking about stuff I enjoy.

My CPS sites allow me to market multiple products from multiple different vendors to my visitors. That way I get maximum value from every visitor. Think about it, amazon.com doesn’t just sell book. I go there, read about a book on fitness and decide I need a heart rate monitor; well they’ve got that too. Oh, what about a yoga mat…. yeah, that too. The CPS model enables you to establish your own real business with real customers and real products.

I know, sounds more complicated right? Well it is, so if you were here looking for a Get-Rich-Quick scheme, sorry but you came to the wrong place. Real affiliate marketing is about building a business. You must approach this with the mindset of owning your own successful business or else you will fail.

Just like any other type of business, this is going to require a lot of commitment, there will be failures and hard times but if you are committed to making this thing work and you want to live the lifestyle of an Internet Marketer (like I do) then you’ve come to the right place. Stick with me and we’ll get there.

That’s enough for one day. I hope you learned a few things:

o I am a long winded son-of-a-gun

o Affiliate marketing isn’t easy

o The CPS model can be very lucrative

o The adult industry actually runs this country

So there’s our foundation. The next lesson will cover goal setting and niche market selection. I wanted to do goal setting in this lesson also but I wanted the first lesson to be fairly short and easily digestible. For some of you this was a review and for some it was valuable ground work laying. Either way I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought. Bring on the harsh criticism, I want you to get the most out of this course.

As I mentioned before, with a 9-5, a wife, two dogs and my niche sites I won’t be able to send a lesson every day so I’m shooting for every other day. In order to make sure you get every single lesson as soon as I publish them I suggest you sign up for my rss feed in your in box.

Affiliate Marketing Lessons in Your InboxEnter your email:

 

Think critically,

Mike

Free Affiliate Marketing Course - Starts TOMORROW!

The kick-0ff for this adventurous project is tomorrow.

I am very excited. I’ve got a lot planned for this course. Actually it’s not a course. I feel the word course is beginning to develop a negative connotation. With hundreds, if not thousands of internet marketing courses on the internet it is becoming a bit watered down.

That is why I started this project. When I was brand new to Internet Marketing, I didn’t want a course. I wanted someone to take me step-by-step through their system so I can see it first hand. That is the easiest way for me to learn and I am willing to bet it’s the same for you too.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
~Chinese Proverb

Are you hungry?

Think Critically,

Mike

Next Page →