What every newbie needs to know about affiliate marketing

Research increases your chance of success
By Dan Lok

Affiliate marketing is attractive to so many people because it solves many business problems. You don’t need your own product, there’s no payment processing, and no product fulfillment. And the income potential is huge.

Put all those together and you have a highly competitive marketing environment.

But there are a lot of things you CAN do to increase your chances of success.

Perhaps the single most important initial activity is research. And what will you be researching?

Not all affiliate products, networks, like Commission Junction, or affiliate managers are created equal. The affiliate manager is the person on the product business side who manages their affiliates, payouts, compliance issues… everything.

So you’ll need to join the best affiliate networks you can find. Just a few include Clickbank for selling informational products, and Commission Junction for selling physical products, subscriptions, etc. There are others but those two are probably the most well known.

Some companies do not belong to affiliate networks. They have a link on their websites and manage everything in-house. If you’re ever considering joining a privately operated affiliate program, just be very sure to do your due diligence with them. They’re basically accountable to no one. And they do know that.

But even within established affiliate networks it’s very important to research potential affiliate partners. Usually information is provided to help make an intelligent choice. You can find data such as affiliate earnings per week, month, or quarter. The better networks provide valuable information like refund rate, info that will give you an idea of how saturated the market is, trend data about popularity, etc.

Simple research

One very simple research device is going to Google, Yahoo!, or MSN and searching for any negative comments about a particular company or product.

You can search for specific comments using quotes. Enter the product or business name and common, everyday descriptions even you would use if you tried the product and didn’t like it.

Try it! You’ll be surprised at what you can find.

If you’re serious, and you should be because it’s a serious business, try contacting the affiliate manager and just ask some good questions. What you’re looking for is response time and your feelings about the reply.

I’ve had experiences in which the email bounced because the affiliate manager’s inbox was full. And an unfortunate dark side to affiliate marketing is that some affiliate managers will be less than truthful. About what, you ask?

Oh, things like how well their program converts. Retention rates in the case of subscription sites. Things like that.

Hey… not trying to discourage you! But you need straight talk about this. You’re about to spend your valuable time and money. So you need to know the truth.

You’ll want to research the compensation plan, or payout. Lots of people love Clickbank because the payout on info products can be excellent. A good rule of thumb with info products is to shoot for $20 or more as your affiliate compensation per sale. There are other factors to consider such as how you’ll be marketing whether pay-per-click, by your own list, or other means.

These are the kinds of things you need to think about.

Don't pay

One important item is this… don’t EVER pay to join an affiliate program. Never! Most are free and you can literally find thousands that don’t require you to pay in order to join. There are some who won’t allow you to join if you’re not an established marketer. But don’t let that discourage you at all. Actually that “could” be a good indication that they’re very serious, have good products, and they treat their affiliates well.

Affiliate marketing can be extremely lucrative if you approach it properly. First, have an attitude that it’s a serious business. You should do that because it IS serious. And that will reflect in your efforts. Secondly, be patient… please. It’s NOT a get rich quick scheme! Approach it systematically and just put one foot in front of the other each day. If you focus, learn, and persist there really is no limit to what you can do… or earn.

reference : http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/603/1/What-every-newbie-needs-to-know-about-affiliate-marketing

The required mindset for online success

How to make $1000 a month online from scratch
By Jay Stockwell

Put simply, for most of you, the biggest hurdle you’ll have to earning $1000 a month online is your own mind. This guide provides a blueprint of practical steps to direct you towards success. However, it’s one thing to say and quite another thing to do.

Most of the time, motivation is not the problem. No, it’s the sneaky mental enemies that you have to watch out for. There are two in particular I’m thinking about.

The first enemy of the mind is self doubt. If we have self doubt, it will erode everything we do. There is a saying I live by that says, “You will go where you look.” This means simply, if you expect to fail, you probably will.

You need to have the right attitude if you want to succeed. I’m very aware that I’m sounding like a Tony Robbins infomercial, but the raw fact of the matter is that your attitude will determine whether or not you succeed.

It will dictate how hard you work, how enthusiastic you are, how willing you are to learn, how persistent you are and how committed you are to succeeding.

The second enemy of the mind that you MUST get a handle on is overcoming distractions. Once you start your little online venture and you start looking around the Internet for information on this stuff, you’ll be presented with thousands of conflicting opinions and promises of easy riches.

Trust me on this, you’re best to ignore the noise and focus on the tasks I outline. Don’t worry, I’ve seen it all. I’ve been doing this since 1999 and have been a driving force behind millions of dollars of online sales. I’ve learned over the years what to focus on and what to ignore.

This guide filters out what you don’t need to know. I would be confident in saying that there's hardly a single online marketing tool or process that I haven’t seen. If it’s not mentioned in this guide, it’s for a good reason.

If it’s not included it’s either too expensive, too time consuming, too risky, too shortsighted or too difficult for someone starting out. The trick is to focus on doing the things I’ve outlined in a methodical way. Most of it isn’t flashy, or tricky and much of it is boring. That’s OK, it’s a tried and tested process that gives you the best opportunity for success.

Action Steps
If you want to develop and refine the right mindset for success in this task, here are a few practical action steps you need to take before you do anything else. Take this seriously. It’s easy to skim over and much harder to make it part of your own mindset. However, it’s fundamentally important.

Here goes. Read slowly and carefully.


Have a Positive Attitude
Ask yourself, “Do I believe I can do this?”

This is perhaps the most important question you need to ask yourself. Most specifically, you need to ask, “If I have all the tools and resources at hand, do I believe that I can make $1000 a month online?”

Be specific. It’s OK to have some apprehension about it, but if you truly believe that you cannot do it, then you won’t. Not because it’s impossible, or too hard. It’s because you don’t have the attitude it takes.

You need to take a deep breath and purposefully state, “I can and will make $1000 a month or more online.” It certainly won’t be overnight. It may take 6 months or more to get there, but if you follow this guide, you have everything you need to achieve this goal.

Now, I can’t guarantee that you’ll do it. It’s not up to me. You need to guarantee yourself that you will do it!

Have a Willingness to Learn
Ask yourself, “Am I willing to learning new things?”

There will be points along the way where you’ll feel a little out of your depth. That’s OK. Just be prepared for the challenge and enjoy it!

Some of you will still be looking for the “Click here and get rich” solution. It doesn’t exist I’m afraid.

Many of you haven’t learned anything new and challenging for years. Get mentally ready for it.

Most importantly, don’t think you have to become an expert on everything. Just become good at the things I mention in the guide and that will be all it takes. I know online millionaires who have no idea how to make a web page. It doesn’t matter. They’ve just followed what they know works and stuck at it.

Be Committed to This
Ask yourself, “Am I committed to completing all the tasks outlined in this guide?”

This means that you will need to trust what I say. The simple fact is, if you’re not willing to complete most of what I’ve outlined in this guide, you will have dramatically lower results. Much of the instruction outlined is designed to have a snowballing and exponential effect.

Be Consistent
Ask yourself, “Am I willing to plug away at this on a regular and consistent basis?”

I can tell you now that one of the most common characteristics of people who have succeeded online is consistency. They are the ones who have consistently worked on the same thing over a long period of time. They didn’t jump from project to project. They just kept working on the same project with the faith that it would work for them.

This is one of the biggest tips I can give you. Write it on your brain like a tattoo.

Focus and Resist Distractions
In line with this, ask yourself, “Am I willing to focus on the tasks in the guide and resist distractions?”

When you start spending more time online, you’ll begin to experience the way the Internet is conducive to stealing your time and attention. One minute you’re researching content, the next thing you know you’ve lost an hour of your time on some unrelated blog. Your time is your most precious resource. Make sure you are working in your work time and relaxing in your recreation time. Don’t let the two merge together to make neither of them profitable.

This rule always trumps the “Have a willingness to learn” rule. Learn as much as you need to and then focus on the application.

Beside your “BE CONSISTENT” tattoo from above, also put “FOCUS!”

Follow the 80/20 Rule
Ask yourself, “Am I willing to focus on the things that will give me the greatest benefit, even if it means that some things are not perfect?”

This is a rule I’m constantly striving to follow. You may know the old 80/20 rule. In this case, it means that typically 80% of your profits will be generated by 20% of your work. Your job is to constantly monitor what you are doing and determine if it is the activities that are going to generate the bulk of your profits.

This guide goes part of the way in helping you achieve this. I’ve deliberately left out lots of things that might be good to do, but when you are time poor, you need to focus on the things that give you the best “bang for buck.”

Focus on Content, Not Technology
Ask yourself, “Am I willing to focus on the content, not the technology?”

This is one of the most important practical things that you need to drive into your thinking every day. I see so many people messing around with their sites, changing their color schemes or trying to make their site look so “perfect” that they don’t end up going anywhere.

Remember, it’s the content that drives the income, not the technology. Think about this. Two people have 100 hours each. The first spent 80 hours making his site look just right and 20 hours on his content. The other spent 20 hours on his site to get it close to right and then 80 hours on his content. At the end of the day, who do you think made more money?

Give me an average looking site with 100 pages of good content over a good looking site with 20 any day.

I’m sure the search engines will agree!

Change Your Mindset
Take this part of my blueprint for success seriously. The more you can master this stuff, the more likely you will be to not only hit the $1000 mark, but go well and truly beyond it.

Look out next week as I uncover, “The Idea”, the practical and step-by-step starting point to help you map out your new online business. Next week is fun and less serious, so look out!

reference: http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/654/1/The-required-mindset-for-online-success