Are You a Scatterbrained Affiliate?

By Amit Mehta

Let’s say you launch a new AdWords campaign, optimize it and get your affiliate promotion to $100 a day in profit. WOW! That’s $3,000 per month in profit. You’re really excited!

Now, you have two choices:

1) You think to yourself, “Hey, if I do this in 10 different markets, I’ll make $30,000
a month in profit!” You decide to jump into a completely new market, one you
know nothing about, in an attempt to duplicate your success.

2) You think to yourself, “I’m just touching the surface of the income potential in this market!” Then, you decide to leverage everything you’ve learned in this market. You continue to expand your keyword list, take your AdWords campaigns on to Yahoo, and MSN, split test your ads and hire a web designer to make a professional site. You add more unique content to your site to improve your AdWords quality score, rigorously split test your landing page to improve conversions, start collecting emails and building a list.

Now, sadly enough, most affiliates will opt for scenario one, and the following is what will likely happen six months down the road.

Scenario One

This person, basically letting his $100 per day profit run on autopilot, now goes into 10 different markets, unfortunately, they all turn out to be duds (or only temporarily profitable) except for the seventh one, where again, he made $100 per day in profit. 

However, by the time that happens, markets conditions have changed and more competition has entered into his first market. He starts to lose money on his first market. 

Overwhelmed and distracted by all the markets he’s testing, he puts that market on hold and says to himself: “I’ll come back to that later,” knowing full well he never will.

He then gets an email from an Internet marketing ‘guru’ about how to easily make $50,000 a month with pre-fab AdSense templates. 

Again, he thinks, “diversify” and says okay, let me do a little bit of AdSense while I manage my AdWords campaigns looking for a winner. So he devours the e-book, gets excited about it for a couple weeks, sees no results and then drops it.

And so far, in 6 months, this person is still at $100 per day profits, investing half of his/her time into testing new campaigns in different markets (instead of building up the one profitable campaign first) and the other half buying the latest money making get-rich-overnight e-books. Sound familiar?

Scenario Two

As you’ve probably figured out, this is the super-affiliate. Over the next several months, he continues to expand and build up the budding campaign that started at $100 per day in profit. He adds 5,000 keywords to the campaigns, expands on to other PPC search engines and tests out the Google content network. He improves & split tests his site and manages to increase his conversions over time by 50%.

Six months down the road he’s making $1,500 a day in profit from this campaign he started at only $100 per day.

Not only is this campaign highly optimized, it has a broad reach in terms of keywords exposure, search engines, content network ads, etc. This campaign will still be highly profitable, even if a lot of new competitors enter the market or the market enters a seasonal slow down (such as the summer).

Final Thoughts

Affiliate Marketing is about the thought process, NOT mechanics.

After an affiliate newbie has six months experience with PPC Affiliate Marketing, chances are that he/she knows how to setup a Google campaign, conduct keyword research, write a Google ad and select affiliate promotions that convert, etc. 

However, your ultimate success or failure will be determined by the decisions that you make.

Are YOU making decisions like a super-affiliate or an average affiliate?

The Economy and Affiliate Marketing: Should You Worry?

By Kathy Jackson

The U.S. government has finally confirmed what we already knew: the U.S. economy is in a recession. The world economy is in a recession. Homes are being repossessed at an alarming rate. Banks are failing — BIG ones! The Big Three U.S. automakers are in deep financial doo-doo. Is the sky falling on affiliate marketing, too?

How does this brick-and-mortar recession affect business in cyberspace, particularly in the world of affiliate marketing? Well, the world economy is, of course, going to have an adverse effect on the Internet retail market.

If people have less money to spend on nonessential retail merchandise in the "real" world, they have less money to spend on
nonessential retail merchandise being sold on the Internet as well.Affiliate marketers who make their living selling luxury retail
merchandise are only going to suffer. There’s no doubt about it.

But the news isn’t all bad. The sky isn’t falling. First it’s important to get a handle on the REAL facts. With good information, you CAN  recession-proof your affiliate marketing business.

The news screams that unemployment could reach 10 percent, and that’s bad; but that also means that 90 percent of the workforce still has a job.

A single-digit portion of homes are being foreclosed upon; but most homeowners are making their mortgage payments. Some banks are in trouble; hardly all banks are in trouble — just the really, really greedy ones — but credit can be difficult to obtain anyway. Isn’t it fortunate that affiliate marketers don’t rely heavily on credit?

It’s always been true that when a recession occurs, some types of businesses and some people suffer greatly, while others not only survive, but thrive.

Affiliate Marketing Is, by Nature, Somewhat Recession Proof!

Here are some facts:

Those who work for manufacturers and merchants out in the brickand-mortar world can be "laid off." But you are your own
employer. You aren’t going to get laid off; you have a job

Those who own small brick-and-mortar business must depend on walk-in traffic. But as an affiliate marketer, the entire world
is your marketplace.

Your customer base is much, much larger than that of the proprietor of a small real-world business.

Out in the "real" world, rents can increase to the point that a business can no longer afford space to conduct business. But
the price of maintaining your affiliate marketing business address isn’t going to increase at all.

Fuel prices could rise high enough to make it impossible for people to drive to and from a job. But affiliate marketing is
done at home.

All of the equipment needed to conduct an affiliate marketing business is a computer, an Internet connection, a telephone
line, and electrical service. That’s it.

With just those four things and the information that you have in your own mind, you have the ability to earn a living.

For affiliate marketers, the sky is NOT falling. However, you must…

Diversify! Diversify! Diversify!

Relying entirely upon retail sales commissions could leave you in an affiliate marketing bind, because retail sales are very
likely going to decrease.

But as retail sales decrease, other sales are going to increase.

People will still spend money online. One thing that people will buy is information. What kinds of information, you ask?

-Information about money management
-Information about making money online
-Information about debt consolidation
-Information about lowering insurance costs
-Information about saving fuel
-Information about starting their own affiliate marketing business
-Information about online education opportunities

Also, businesses that have an Internet presence are still going to be paying for leads. You don’t have to make a sale to get
paid for a lead.

All your website visitor must do is complete an action (fill out a form or an application) on the vendor’s website for you to make a commission.

-Financial institutions pay for leads.
-Insurance companies pay for leads.

And hundreds of other types of businesses pay for leads. Remember this fact: When consumers "cut back" because of a
recession, they cut back on luxury items — not necessities. If your affiliate marketing business sells ONLY such items as
Playstation 3, you need to branch out and include items that people MUST have. Think food, clothing, health care, etc.

Advertise with Recession in Mind

If your advertising is focused on promoting ease of use or convenience of a product, change the focus of the advertising
and promote such advantages as:

-The payment plan offered
-The ironclad guarantee
-The long life expectancy of the product
-The way the product can SAVE money for the customer.
-Quality, quality, quality!
-Quality coupled with a low price
-Free shipping
-Overall value of the product

When consumers tighten the financial purse strings, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to purchase anything at all. It means that the selling points that will convince them to buy have changed.

The fact is that most people today check online before they make a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store. So, as an affiliate marketer, you get first crack at the customer. Take full advantage of that first opportunity. Hit the selling points that the customer is looking for now BECAUSE of the recession.

Continue to Advertise

The "advertising pays" admonishment of old is still viable today, even in the slowing economy…actually, ESPECIALLY in the
slowing economy!

There’s not much doubt that you are going to be tempted to cut your advertising budget to the bone. That’s a mistake that many
businesses, both online and off, make when the economy takes a downturn.

The marketing budget is usually one of the first things to be reduced when businesses begin searching for ways to cut expenses. But according to research, a marketing budget is directly proportional to a business’s gross revenue.

Basically, what all of the research tells us is that if you cut your advertising budget, you are automatically reducing your gross sales figures.

Therefore, advertising is the wrong place to cut your expenses. Find another way to cut corners. If customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.

Stretch Your Advertising Dollars

You shouldn’t spend less on your advertising through this recession, but you should spend your advertising dollars more wisely. You need to get the most bang for your buck!

Take a long, hard look at your ROI and determine what parts of your advertising are the most effective. Find out what advertising most often converts.

When you determine what advertising strategies are working and which are not, shift your advertising dollars to the most advantageous advertising venues.

You need to go against your first instinct. Rather than cutting your expense, but advertising budget, you need to increase it, if you can. Look at your advertising budget not as an overhead expense, but rather as an investment in your success.

Concentrate effort on boosting the effectiveness of your advertising by doing the following:

-Networking
-Offering customer incentive programs
-Offering customer loyalty programs

Should Affiliate Marketers Worry about a Worldwide Recession?

Well, I’m really good at worrying, so I hate to pass up such a good opportunity. However, I honestly do not think that as affiliate marketers we have a lot to worry about — as long as we make a plan and follow through.

But we DO need a plan.

- We must diversify. We need to represent and promote a variety of products that people NEED, rather than luxury items that they simply want
- We must change our advertising focus to necessity. 
-We must keep on advertising 
-We must make our advertising dollars stretch as far as they will go.

The Outlook for 2009 and Beyond

A few affiliate marketing storm clouds will gather from time to time — remember the CAN-SPAM Act and how everybody was certain it was the end of affiliate marketing as we knew it? 

That turned out okay. CAN-SPAM actually helped affiliate marketers.

I have no doubt that affiliate marketers will face all sorts of "booger bears" in the coming years, but I don’t think that this recession is one of them.

In short, the sky is not falling!

In fact, I believe that this world wide recession can actually become a real BOON to affiliate marketers in 2009 — and maybe even far into the distant future.

About the Author
 
Kathy Jackson is a Texas rancher and a contributing author for several farm and ranch publications.  She is also an experienced freelance writer of email newsletters, review copy, educational materials, and blog posts on a wide variety of topics, including many aspects of online business and affiliate marketing. Internet marketing is one of Kathy’s burning interests. You can read some of Kathy’s articles on the Affiliate .  She can be Classroom Blog at  http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com  contacted via email at jacksokathy@gmail.com

Affiliate Marketing For Beginners

Affiliate marketing for beginners can be confusing and downright costly. But it doesn’t have to be.

Many new people to affiliate marketing don’t know how to get started so they end up jumping in to a program or system. Generally this leads to failure and they’re looking for the next quick money maker. They can spend a lot of money and time on programs that do not work. After they fail or make little money for their effort, they’re ready to proclaim to the world that affiliate marketing is a fraud and scam.

This doesn’t have to be the experience you take away from affiliate marketing. With a little patience and planning, affiliate marketing can be enjoyable and profitable. But it won’t be overnight!

Here are some mistakes I see new affiliate marketers making:

1. Lack of patience: Many people come to affiliate marketing because they heard about someone who’s making $10,000 a week with affiliate marketing. They think “How hard can it be?” They soon find out it’s not as easy as it sounds. Affiliate marketing should be a long term endeavor if you want to make money with it.
2. Lack of focus: I’m guilty of this myself. I’ll start one project and soon I’m distracted by another project. I love to start projects, but I’m not a strong finisher! Pick your niche and stick with it till you’re done. This includes periodic following up to make sure your project is on a long term success track.
3. Lack of funds: I’d say a majority of people starting out in affiliate marketing believe they can get started wtih no money of theirs being spent. Perhaps there are a few who’ve pulled this off, but to have long term success you need to treat affiliate marketing like a brick & mortar business. Capital will help ensure your long term success!
4. Lack of Knowlege: I see beginners jumping into all sorts of programs and systems that they have no idea how it works. All they can think of is all the money they are going to make! Then when they fail or go broke, they want to blame someone else. Before starting any program or system, you should thoroughly research all angles of that particular program or product. Knowledge is power!

These are just a few things I see people doing wrong. I’ve been guilty of all of them at one time or another. Hopefully through this blog I can help you from making some of the same mistakes I made when getting started!

source: http://www.affiliatewatcher.com/affiliate-marketing-for-beginners/

Are You Ready to Make Money This Holiday Season?

The Holidays are coming, is your affiliate marketing program ready? Is your blog or website optimized? It’s never too early to choose new affiliate programs and optimize your site for the Holiday onslaught!

Waiting To The Last Minute Can Cost You Money

I can’t tell you how many people wait until after Thanksgiving to start thinking about the Holiday season and what they should be doing to prepare their websites to take advantage of it. Here’s a little tip: if you don’t have your website or blog ready by Thanksgiving, it’s too late!

Once a year you have an opportunity just like retail shops to take advantage of Holiday shoppers. For some retailers, the Holiday season is what carries them through the entire year. For website owners, the Holiday season is what can make you stand out from a crowd and fill your bank account.

Tips to Take Advantage of the Holiday Shopping Season

Here are a few tips you can use to optimize your Holiday marketing plan and your website.

• Review your affiliate programs - If you had the same affiliate programs last Holiday season, review your data and see which ones performed and which ones didn’t. Kick the low performers to the curb and start looking at new affiliate programs to join.
• Review Past Traffic Patterns- Hopefully you know where your traffic came from last Holiday season. Make a marketing plan to increase this traffic this year. Last year I had one source of traffic that out produced others by 2 to 1 to my Tool site. However, that source was very low converting. I had another traffic source that sent less traffic, but the shoppers converted very, very well. Guess which source I’m going to spend more time optimizing this pre-season?
• Make Changes to your Website or Blog NOW - Don’t wait until the last minute to change up your website or blog if you’re going to. It may take weeks or even a month for the new changes to show up in the Search Engines. It may take that long for a new keyword your trying to rank for to work it’s way up the SERPS. Build links to your affiliate product pages and write articles for article marketing now! Putting it off until November is a good way to miss the money boat!
• What’s Hot and What’s Not? - Have you looked into what the hottest item in your niche is? What’s the hottest toy this year or the one cool electronic gizmo everyone must have? Now’s the time to start optimizing some of your pages for this hot item. One way you can keep abreast of what’s going on is to go to Google and sign up for Google Alerts. Just use your hot keyword and Google will send you alerts everyday on where, and how, this item is mentioned. Trying to push what was a hot Christmas toy 2 years ago is leaving money on the table!
• Budget for a PPC Campaign - If you don’t normally run ads on Google Adwordsor similar PPC programs, you might want to think about it. Google Adwords can do wonders for your affiliate marketing. If you are already a user, plan on budgeting a lot more for the Holiday season, twice the amount your normally do is a good beginning. Remember, this is a one time-per-year deal and you want to take full advantage of it.

source: Are You Ready to Make Money This Holiday Season?

Recently, I asked some of the leaders in the affiliate marketing industry to share their #1 tip on successful affiliate marketing. Below are the best results!

1. Innovate before your competitor does. Do something different. Video, or audio or something! - Jim Kukral, JimKukral.com

2. The best tip I could give other affiliates is to network with others in the affiliate community, such as at Affiliate Summit. I have learned so much from the top leaders in the industry, as well as exchanged ideas and negotiated higher commission payouts. I have also made many new friends that understand “what I do”. - Kim Rowley, Key Internet Marketing, Inc.

3. My #1 advice for an affiliate for success is work around the content they love. Then, to earn affiliate program revenue, test out and be patient. - Ayako Bingham, Buy.at

4. My #1 tip would be to always use the product or service yourself before recommending it to others. It makes you more credible and allows you to experience what it is like to be a consumer, instead of just a marketer. - Connie Ragen Green, EbookWritingAndMarketingSecrets.com

5. Meet people. Affiliates are mostly solitary entrepreneurs whose ideas of social interaction are comments on a blog or forum. Go to conferences, join meet up groups and network. Always have business cards with you and a 30 second “elevator pitch” ready. Build business relationships because they will lead to great opportunities in the future. Nothing beats a handshake. - Michael Buechele, 11|15 Media

6. Always treat your affiliate business like a business and make the proper investments (as opposed to the “free source of money” attitude). I am also a huge proponent of “the niche you love”. - Brook Schaaf, Schaaf Consulting

7. Affiliates have many directions they can be pulled in; to keep it simple I suggest focusing on niche products that you are passionate about. - Stephanie Lichtenstein, Andy Rodriguez Consulting

8. Few affiliates are using video, so you should jump in and fill the void. Your computer probably has the software you need (Windows Movie Maker on PC and iMovie on Mac), so make videos with a digital camera, edit, upload and dominate your niche. - Shawn Collins, Affiliate Summit

9. My #1 tip for success as an affiliate is to not get trapped in the echo chamber of affiliate blogs, newsletters, conferences, etc. You should read everything you can about affiliate marketing, but be sure to keep your own perspective and voice. In other words, don’t let yourself be constrained or convinced by the wisdom of the crowd because success comes from pushing the envelope! - Sam Harrelson, CostPerNews

10. One of the best things any affiliate can do is to always try new things, test new ideas, spend the time to learn not just how to implement new technologies, but how to integrate new ideas that will enhance their core business. However, it’s vitally important to know how long to spend on testing and trying new things and to know when NOT to test new things. The successful affiliate is adept at recognizing when something new is a true opportunity, and when it is simply a distraction that sucks time away from the vital core of their business. - Brian Caldwell, PolarRose.com

11. Stay up-to-date- on the latest trends in Affiliate Marketing. In such an ever-changing industry it can be easy to get behind the 8 ball! - Jen Fluker, MarketLeverage

12. Resist the lure of the easy buck. The money usually doesn’t last, resulting in a cycle that can be tiring and unrewarding way to earn a living. If you find an earner, focus on it, reinvest, and see if you can turn it into something that will last for years. - Scott Jangro, Jangro.com

13. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, use multiple streams of revenue sources on your sites, from newsletters to varying merchants. - Aunesty Janssen, Rolet Internet Services

14. Affiliates as a whole tend to have a reputation for solitude and secrecy, but nothing will help your success more than making real connections with people that speak the industry language, both at live events and in online message boards. - Daniel M. Clark, The Big Book of Spam

Tags: Aunesty Janssen, Ayako Bingham, Brian Caldwell, Brook Schaaf, Connie Ragen Green, Daniel M. Clark, Jen Fluker, Jim Kukral, Kim Rowley, Michael Buechele, Sam Harrelson, Scott Jangro, Shawn Collins, Stephanie Lichtenstein, Success Tips

 by Trisha Lyn Fawver http://www.newedgemedia.com/blog/index.php/2008/11/top-14-tips-for-affiliate-success/