Affiliate Marketing 101

[markus]

If members could add advice here for newbs it will help by providing a place
to refer those new to affiliate marketing to read up first.

Post your favorite tip you'd like to share. We're all newbs at one time...

[e_d]

Perfect your craft of selling to your target audience before you do anything else. Despite the amount of click fraud, adwords is still the best advertising platform on the internet. You can also try mammamedia solutions as I have had great luck with them also. Save up a few dollars to get you rolling ($100-$150) is a good amount to get going.

A noob will most likely not make any profit with this initial amount of money spent. Now don't confuse the message, this does not mean you are going to lose $150 to adwords, it just means you are not going to make any profit, but you may make $70 - $80 in revenue.

The reason I say to start here (and most people will tell you to do pay per click last) is that affiliate marketing is purely about being a salesman. I know, it's not some astounding revolutionary thought, but most people don't see that as the truth. If you can sell it, getting people to see it becomes easy.

Selling something on pay per click tips? Okay sure why not. I mainly do adult affiliate products on adwords and in advertising but it's generally the same all around (adult just makes quicker sales and more money, because like 70% of all internet sales are adult I think). So heres a 10 tips on advertising with cpc, and the pitfalls most people hit:

1. Don't fall for those "make money with adwords" books. Yeah sure it was as easy as they say, if it was still 2004.
2. Try at least 3 different ads for each product you try to sell. Put them all into rotation and make each one be similiar but not exactly the same.
3. Invest in a keyword tool like Rapid Keyword or make one yourself.
4. Stick to keyword phrases that are 3 words or more. Always wrap your keywords with [] brackets and never let them be "general keywords".
5. Don't spend more than you have. Be careful, adwords has put many people in debt, make sure your account is set to have a limit of amount per day to spend. Don't blow it all in one day.
6. Make your own landing page for the product. Don't use the page that is on some affiliate link, there are 1000 other people trying to sell using the same exact page.
7.  Loads of impressions and no clicks means you must re-analyze your keywords first. Is your product really related to these keywords? Are you adding the "-free" to your list of keywords to prevent freeloaders? After re-analyzing these and the same occurs you should re-think your advertisement starting from the top and working towards the bottom. Alter the title first, then the description, then the url displayed.
8. If you can't make one sell after giving it all you have, try a different niche. You should always have multiple niches going to test whether or not your ad writing ability is the problem, or if its the niche. After your ad writing is paying off, stop any campaigns for niches that arent selling. Obvious stuff.
9. Re-invest hard. Super mad about losing that initial investment? Don't worry, it's worth it. Take the money you get and branch out into other areas of advertising like radio, newspaper, magazines. Think about it this way, if you can get someone to buy something with a quick and simple advertisement that they happened to glance at, imagine what you could get if they were FORCED to listen to it or look at it. And just think of the possibilities with social networking these days.
10. Too many clicks and not enough sales. This one can be tricky, as it could just be some competitor that's being a nutsack. Check your keywords and advertisement just as before. Put the price of the product in the ad itself (it will eliminate freeloaders if that's the problem). If it's still happening change the landing page entirely (if it's simple, make it fancy; if it's fancy, make it simple). This simple to fancy trick has worked wonders for me in the past and turns 0 sales into profits very quickly. 

Much of the stuff above is very obvious stuff but for some reason it's the same mistakes people make over and over again. If you get those fancy ebooks this is pretty much what they tell you besides some specific things. Also read the adwords faq and any marketing book you can find (at a library, save your money for the advertising itself). After you can make profits with pay-per-click, start learning about traffic and seo techniques. Good luck.

[markus]

Great first post!!

[e_d]

I would like to add something in addition to the things posted above that I feel is important. Yes, I make a bunch of money on adwords, but when starting out you also need to build a good foundation. I highly , highly, highly, yes, highly to the third power, recommend that beginner start with selling a physical product, like lamps, movies, books, something that the buyer can actually touch. Theres a major difference between marketing e-products (software, ebooks, subscriptions) and marketing physical products (blankets, hats, toner). The difference is that usually people looking for e-products are freeloaders and are looking for information, not for anything to buy. On the other hand, someone searching for "hand knit beanie caps" is more likely going to be buying something. E-Products are the hardest to sell and therefore I don't recommend them to starters, especially hosting plans.

Also don't get caught up in the "dream" that making money with adult is as easy as it sounds. I only started profiting on adwords after a month or two of spending 2 hours per day doing research. It is work, but it still beats the 9 to 5. After a while youll get good enough to where you can setup a campaign and make it profit in about 45 minutes to an hour. 

[niche1]

Nice posts!

A lot of people are unwilling to share their experiences.

How much do you think that you are spending (just an average figure) to make sales?

I think that is one area that many people are really afraid of.......especially with all of the BS claims that you see out there.

Thanks again,

Jack

[xlspecial]

It's not so much what he is spending, but the return on investment that is important.

[niche1]

It's not so much what he is spending, but the return on investment that is important.

You stated it much better than I did. The ROI is what most people are really concerned with.......

It scares a lot of people to think that they will be spending huge amounts of money to make sales, although, I am sure that is not always true.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Jack

[lonmb]

The posts here are great - really informative and helpful. But I think what they really underline is that, like most things, there's no way to get successful without putting a lot of work into it, especially right at the start.

I guess a lot of the attraction of online marketing is this 'earn while you sleep' idea, the thought that it's possible to make money for virtually nothing.

But as the posters have stated, it's probably not worth even starting out unless you're prepared to spend plenty of time, possibly even long days and nights, on research, reading up about your subject, fine-tuning etc. Which, of course, is why most of us are here!

So yes - I suppose one of the most valuable messages to anyone starting out - which includes me - is that it isn't easy, and definitely not a way of making money for no effort. In some ways, it's going to be a lot harder than many other jobs out there, because the responsibility is essentially all yours.

But that's also what makes it seem like a great idea in the first place...

 

[Big D]

What do you guys think about In-house affiliate programs??

[niche]

Affiliate marketing newbies, hmmm what advice
Head down, work hard, make use of free resources, keep at it everyday

First few months will be the hardest because you have no income and are working like crazy
Then it all comes together nicely

Anyway get some free marketing video training at affiliate marketing beginners videos

Just thought i'd give you a head start