In case you’re a late comer, here are the first 5 “Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing” blog posts:
- Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Part 1
- Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Part 2
- Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Part 3
- Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Part 4
- Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing - Part 5
In the last post, we discussed Social Media Marketing Basics. So, in this post, let’s go ahead and focus more on true Affiliate Marketing basics… In other words: more about the actual Business of Affiliate Marketing.
As an Affiliate Marketer you need to sign up for some Affiliate Networks. Here’s the best Networks that I’ve found, so far:
Commission Junction
LinkShare
ShareASale
PepperJam
NeverBlueAds
Copeac
And, to help you get started and familiarize a few beginners who might have read one of those infamous ebooks:
I just signed up for NeverBlueAds, PepperJAM and Copeac, and I have to say - I like all them a lot. They’re smaller than the big guys, but they seem easier to deal with “in general”. They’re all different in their own ways and they all have different Advertisers in their Network. Like I said, I just signed up for them all but I’m going to start some new campaigns over the next few days with each one. Definitely sign up for these companies and check them out and get some campaigns rolling!
I find it easy to create new campaigns just by going through the Advertisers inside of Networks. As a matter of fact, you can quickly find a niche within these Networks as well by simply going through their lists and seeing who is there, doing some research on a Niche through Google Trends and Nichebot, then moving forward with the best ones.
Now is the time to write down a plan of action for your Affiliate Program. Is it going to be PPC, Article Marketing, Forum Marketing, Blogging, etc?
With PPC - I find that Microsoft AdCenter is one of my favorite PPC Networks when starting a campaign. While it loads somewhat slow, it’s good for Beginners and Advanced PPC Marketers, both. Sign up for AdCenter and you can get $50 in Free* clicks! (* you need to pay $5.00 for a processing fee when you sign up)
Yahoo Search Marketing is another great PPC Advertising Network to get started with as well.
Obviously, Google AdWords will get you the most traffic, though, so I highly recommend trying them all…
What you need to do next is focus on creating free traffic to your sites as well. Article Marketing (or simply Bum Marketing) is my favorite way to get free traffic. Most of my readers here have actually found me through my 100+ Articles I’ve written and submitted to various Article Directories such as EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, etc.
I love creating Squidoo Lenses as well. As I’ve stated, Social Media Marketing can be a HUGE Traffic generating method in your campaigns, so definitely take it serious!
When I first started out in Affiliate Marketing, I would go too fast… I tried building a ton of sites based on different products and hoped that they would make me money. Hmmmm… now I’m trying to go through all of them and rebuild them and tweak each campaign as they made me a total of: $0.00 over the past 5 months…
Focus on working on one campaign at a time when first starting out. Obviously, when you become very good at this stuff you will realize that creating a site a day is definitely possible. But don’t do this when first starting out.
Learn the basics and learn through taking action. Take notes on everything that you do.
Remember that when you create your own Domain (in other words - not a Squidoo Lens, Wordpress.com Blog, etc) to install Google Analytics. Also, try out Google Website Optimizer and see how much of a difference you will get when you change your sites headlines, graphics, optin boxes, etc. ALWAYS tweak and test your sites… you might see a MAJOR difference in the long run… I’m talking a HUGE difference in commissions or optins!
Since we’re on the subject, sign up for Aweber and go through their tutorials and learn how you can start collecting optins, send messages, etc.
If you’re not building a Mailing list, you’re missing out on traffic and cash. You MUST get an optin list going immediately and understand that the money IS in the list…as long as you’re not spamming people with irrelevant junk! Make sure everything you do is relevant… it’s a part of Marketing that will make or break your business. Relevancy means everything in Affiliate Marketing.
Pay attention to what’s happening on your site through Google Analytics and see if any odd keywords appear through Search Engine traffic, and use them to your advantage.
Test, test, test.
Tweak some more… test some more.
Are you collecting those optins? Good! You’ll be glad you did down the road!
If you feel that you are working on a dud - drop it and move on to the next. DO NOT quit too soon - but DO NOT continue for too long.
Really, you should have a list of 10 niches that you want to jump into over the next few months or so… try the next if the first wasn’t working.
Use Microsoft AdLab and Google tools to your advantage.
Tried Nichebot yet? If not, you might be wasting your money on Keyword tools that cost too much? (Nichebot comes with WordTracker and Keyword Discovery tools built in for a fraction of the cost!).
Still taking notes? You’re going to learn a lot from each campaign… you might feel that you know a lot about this business, but you’ll be amazed at what real life results teach you. You’ll feel dumb on some part of each campaign, trust me - we all do! But when the dumb “aha” feelings hit - so does more commissions! So it’s a good thing…
Are you working on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? Don’t just rely on AdWords, work on Natural results as well! I’m still baffled at how many people are wasting their efforts on some websites and not worrying about getting MORE traffic to their sites… same goes for Social Media sites.
Create Video Tutorials or Informational products related to the product and site you’re working on. Offer a free report to collect optins, traffic and even sales.
Part 7 is coming soon, I promise. I am simply using this post as a recap.
I am also working on a Free Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing Ebook that will be in volumes as a step by step guide for the newbies and even more intermediate Affiliates who are struggling with getting sales.
