Becoming Street-Smart Start In Affiliate Marketing…
Before we start this discussion, here is a principle, enshrined in King Solomon’s words of wisdom: Its’ application is crucial to your success.
“The shrewd one sees the danger and conceals himself, but the inexperienced keep right on going and suffer the consequences.” – Proverbs 22:3
After reading this post, I am hoping you will become more aware of the traps and pitfalls that await you if you just jump in and start your journey without any guidance. You need to be guided by an expert, a mentor, who can show you how to start affiliate marketing- someone who has had experience in this field to teach you and has succeeded.
Starting a worthwhile affiliate marketing process begins with finding the right tutorial program. Your mentor will have this already arranged for you.
This is the best and quickest way to learn. It is wise to avoid learning by trial and error because it will help you to avoid scams online, and will save time and money.
The Importance Of Mindset
Before you start, there is an important pre-requisite that you MUST adopt before you begin your journey. Do not start without it…
it has to do with your mindset.
If you do a Google search on the failure rate of new affiliate marketers, it gets very real, and this is the answer that you get:
“The allure of affiliate marketing is undeniable; who wouldn’t want to make money while asleep simply by recommending products to others? While this is obviously said tongue-in-cheek, it’s also important to note that as many as 95% of those starting out in this industry fail. ” 28 June 2022
I want you to succeed– so please pay attention and read all the info in this post carefully, absorb it, and apply it in your life.
Make A Commitment
Have you made a real commitment before starting this journey?
…meaning that you have already adopted a mindset of being determined to finish what you start..
. and that after starting to be determined to overcome all the inevitable setbacks and challenges you will need to face and must deal with all the way right to the end.
Failure to work through setbacks, and lacking true grit is the number one cause of such a high failure rate. Success will be an elusive butterfly if you don’t commit and stick to your chosen path. Be warned- if you are lacking in this resolve it is better not to start.
Sadly you will lose the opportunity of a lifetime- you will always be working for someone else instead of yourself. Decide now to see things through and be master of your own destiny. If you gave up easily in the past…
decide now to change and be willing to do the fard yards upfront for the glory of success.
Why Goals are important
This also involves having the benefit and clarity of a clearly defined goal or goals you want to achieve- and being willing to do all the hard yards’ it takes for you to get there. Make sure the goals you decide on are attainable- do not make them too high, or almost impossible to reach. I have another post dedicated to the importance of goal setting to reach your objectives if you need help in this regard.
The desire to simply ‘make more money’ is not really enough motivation to complete this journey. You must have an overwhelming desire to learn how to make it and pay the price by making a real effort.
You already know that nothing worthwhile can ever be gained without real effort. This is the number one basic lesson in life. There are no shortcuts. Yes, you may get lucky, but when the luck runs out what then?
Avoid quick get-rich schemes at all costs!
Yes, you will have challenges along the way, and sometimes you may want to quit. This is normal. Welcome to the real world. It is part of your training. However, the prize belongs to those who will not throw down the gauntlet, to those who grit their teeth and motivate themselves and push through.
If you don’t have this attitude of commitment firmly entrenched in your mind and heart, you will become victim to the many scams and diversions that exist in the online world of marketing- you will be sidetracked to wasting your time, family and money only to be diverted away from what you really want and need to achieve.
Find a Mentor
OK, now that we got that out of the way, and you have committed all sorted under your belt firmly in place, the next step is to learn all about the affiliate marketing way of earning a living. The BEST way to do this is to get/find a mentor who has already completed this journey, one who has made the mistakes before you and had the grit to see it through to completion.
This makes a whole lot of sense to take things to a higher level with your skills, endeavors, initiatives, and motivation.
So what is the role of a mentor and how can he/she help you?
A mentor is someone who has already mastered the art of affiliate marketing and is willing and able to share their secrets and experiences with you to help you reach your goals.
It is smart to have a map or a guide when you venture into unknown or uncharted territory. So here is something for you to think about: almost all entrepreneurs who set out to achieve something worthwhile were guided by someone at some point in time
Have you got it? Good!..
let’s move on.
Become the problem solver
At the core of the most entrepreneurial activity including yours that a mentor will help you with will be the need to solve a problem for someone. No one knows it all. We all need each other at times to lend a helping hand to solve problems that come up against us in our lives. When we learn to do this successfully, we are contributing to someone’s well-being.
We deserve compensation, we deserve to be paid to be able to pay our way and thus be in a position to continue to help others.
When you choose a mentor, please make sure that this person genuinely has your interests at heart. Asking large sums of money upfront for their services detracts from a win-win situation and should put you on alert. They can be brazen, and polished, with expensive boats and cars in the background of their sales videos, unafraid to ask for the cash or to get you to their webinars- but beware!
It stacks the chips too high in their favor.
Greed is rife in the online world- so you better carry out a thorough due diligence and awareness campaign before parting with your hard-earned cash. Be careful not to get diverted by other seemingly easier ways to make money online as you progress with your mentor.
These shiny objects in other directions can derail your efforts big time. Email marketers will present to you an endless array of supposedly money-making webinars and software along the way. Be warned: your email Inbox will be flooded with spam offers of all descriptions once you get on someone’s email list.
Yes it is unethical and it breaks the rules but it is a fact- your email address WILL be sold. You will become known as an online buyer who is worthy to be pursued for the sale of their products- whether their products will help you or not. These vendors don’t care…
they just want to make a profit.
Having a mentor is the best way to avoid being taken advantage of!
How To Detect And Avoid Online Scams – here are 3 categories to train you:
Here is the First one:
Scammers look for people who are looking for quick ways to make money. They use hyped-up words and their sales message is geared to trigger your emotions with promises of easy money with little or minimal effort. They are assertive, confident wolves in sheep’s clothing. They employ skilled copywriters who are experts in crafting phrases and headlines that appeal to the emotions of people with a get-rich-quick mindset.
Here are some examples to help recognize them:
Scam No 1: “NEW! Reach $100,000/yr in 90 days!”
(It reaches the soft spot in your frontal lobe does it not?)
You respond- they take yr email address- get you to a webinar- hype it up and make it seem easy and foolproof- the ‘product’ costs $US 995.00.
BAM! Your money is gone in an instant- and you are faced with the daunting prospect of making it work…all by yourself.
This is definitely NOT a Win-WIN. Rather, It is an “I win-you-lose” scenario.
You definitely need to have internet and marketing experience already to have even a snowflake’s chance in summer to succeed with this. The ability to be able to drive traffic for your website is a weighty pre-requisite skill a newbie rarely has, yet so necessary for any of these schemes. Generally, shiny object vendors gloss over this fact.
Newbies will not stand a chance to make it. These guys are not mentors- they sell software.
But that is not all.
Many of these marketers are expert serial software creators who rinse and repeat this same process over and over again. Yes, they may be successful but at the expense of the unwary.
Think of the disappointment they create for many along the way! This is definitely not newbie territory.
When people have been scammed this way they tend to keep quiet about it- putting it down to a learning experience, only to try another shiny object when a shinier one comes along. It is very unethical to earn a living this way, but ethics generally fall victim to greed and selfishness in our free-marketing Western society- to the detriment of the uninitiated. I hope you get the picture.
A quick dollar seems to blind some marketers as to why ethics is important in business.
So- please remember the formula they often use to avoid being duped:
-Catchy Headline that appeals to a get-rich-quick mindset.
–They take your contact details and then get you to a webinar
–Hype it up with sales talk for an hour or more…
then get you to buy.
– May break up the cost with monthly part payment option/s.
Scam number 2:
This one can come from anywhere: online, offline, simply filling in a form, or simply sending or responding to a survey or some other similar tactic. The aim is again the same: to get your email address and so add it to the proponent’s database. Pretty soon you will be bombarded with advertising from all directions.
Of course, there may be legitimate reasons why you may choose to part with your contact details to someone you trust. No problem with that at all. The point is that you should be aware, street-wise, and in control to avoid being tricked into the smoke and mirror world of online advertising and avoid being exposed to numerous possible scams.
Scam number 3:
This is a Shiny Object scam, aimed at internet marketing newbies:
It (again) starts with a you-beaut amazing can-do magical software at an incredibly cheap front-end price with hyped-up headlines and claims to catch your attention.
Youtube reviews
Being a bit wary at this point, you will probably decide to go to check out some ‘honest’ Youtube reviews of this product.
There may be scores of these zealous reviewers who will tell you all about the amazing the product is- and how it can be yours if you buy through the reviewer’s link to receive their ‘fantastic’ bonuses.
By now if your guard goes down, you succumb to the sales material and enter the sales funnel by purchasing at the low front end. Then it starts: you are subjected to various upsells, down sells, one after another…
very much like when you buy a car and the dealer wants to sell you various (costly) add-on options to fatten HIS wallet
Depending on the greed factor of the vendor the various upsells and down sells may number up to 6 or even more! Again, if you fall victim to this legal form of extorsion and before you know it, you may have been lured into parting with hundreds of dollars worth of possible junk that you cannot use.
For you to have any chance or any possibility of being able to make the software work you need technical skills and hands-on experience with driving traffic.
I have only touched the tip of the iceberg of the scammy things that go floating around in this HUGE sea of shady Internet schemes.
DISCLAIMER: Please be aware- having said all this, that there are many ethical mentors and marketers out there.
Your challenge is to find the one who really wants to help you. This type of mentor has experienced all of the above and more. He/she made a solid decision to swim against the tide to trade ethically in spite of the status quo. Their loyal customers in turn will hopefully continue to trade ethically on the internet. It takes skill and time to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff to find these worthwhile people.
But please keep reading…
Affiliate Marketing Blog/ Content
Notice I mention Affiliate Marketing Blog /Content??
Affiliate Blog/ Content Marketing is a great way to make money online.
Your blogs contain content and content is what will drive traffic to your website. It involves the promotion of other people’s products and services in exchange for a commission. It is relatively easy to get started...
If you know how. However, that is another challenge for most newbies… it is easy to see why they need experienced help to get started in the right direction.
Here is another challenge-selecting a niche. Most people who start out have expertise in some aspects of life- so this is a great avenue to make a start within the process of selecting the niche they are comfortable with or have an affinity with.
You can make a decent income if you work hard and are willing to learn. Contrary to what some people want you to believe, there is a learning curve that must be mastered, but it is not TOO hard if you are consistent and stay focused. To get started, you’ll need to find an affiliate training program that suits your interests and goals.
You can do this by researching different programs online or asking around in forums and other online communities.
All-In-One Step by Step Training
Once you’ve found a program that teaches all the aspects of Affiliate/Content marketing, make sure you complete the training. The training should include step-by-step instructions on how to build up your expertise and express it to the world with your own website- after all, it is the window where you are able to showcase the solution you are offering to help people solve their problems with your services.
If you follow the training, you will quickly learn how to start promoting your products and services as well as driving traffic to your website. Blogging is the slower but organic way to get traffic and it is free.
Granted, it takes time, patience, and skill to create a blog. It is one of the more important skills you will learn. It is a worthwhile long-term strategy. Once created, that content will continue to drive traffic to your site for years.
It is just like a farmer planting his seeds–
so accept the need for patience. Once you start, if you keep on ‘planting’ you will scale up your traffic. Can you see the need for patience? Just a few short consistent ‘planting’ months. When the harvest comes, you will experience the joy of the harvest.
The one secret to it all is finding the right keywords for your blogs. Creating blogging content that many people will read, will enable you to promote your products and services at a low cost.
As you gain more experience, your promotion strategy, (apart from blogging) could be in social media posts or even email campaigns. Carefully crafted Youtube videos also work quickly to drive traffic. You will become adept at a happy mix of all these avenues of driving traffic to your website as time goes by.
All this and more should be covered by your chosen tutorial in great detail.
You’ll need to be creative and interesting to promote your products or services in order to get people interested enough to buy them. You may need to do research for this and also to be observant of what the competition is doing. Refine your strategies if and when needed. This will help your efforts to be up-to-date, fresh, and working effectively.
Of course, you should focus on the strategies that are bringing in the most sales.
When it comes to creating engaging content, there are a few key things to keep in mind.
First, you need to make sure that your content is well-written and easy to read. This means using proper grammar and spelling, as well as avoiding overly long sentences or paragraphs.
Second, you should make sure that your content is targeted to the needs of your audience and is useful and informative.
People won’t be interested in buying something if they don’t find the content interesting, understandable, or useful. Make sure that you are providing value with your content so that people will be more likely to click through and purchase the products or services you’re promoting.
Third, you should use visuals whenever possible. People are more likely to engage with content if it includes images, videos, or infographics. This will help draw people in and make them more likely to take action.
Finally, you should track your progress and adjust your strategies as needed.
This will help you see what’s working and what isn’t. Keeping accurate sales data will provide a metric for you as a reference point for any needed adjustments.
Tracking. When it comes to tracking progress, there are a few key things to keep in mind. You should set up tracking tools such as Google Analytics or a third-party tracking system so that you can track how many people are visiting your website or clicking on your affiliate links.
Then you should track the performance of each of your campaigns. This will help you see which campaigns are performing well and which ones need to be improved. You should track the performance of each of your products or services.
This will help you see which products or services are performing well and which ones need to be improved. You should track the performance of each of your keywords.
This will help you see which keywords are bringing in the most traffic and sales so that you can focus on those keywords in your future campaigns.
What To Look For In An Affiliate Content Marketing Tutorial
Here is a Sample of important topics:
Avoiding the Shiny Object Syndrome, Identifying trips and pitfalls,
Managing your time, Your strengths & abilities, Finding your audience,
Building assets, Building your Website, Social media, Autoresponder,
Creating content, How to find Influencer products, Launch Jacking,
Keyword research, SEO optimizing, All about email action, Blogging,
Correct structuring of content, Youtube video setup, Buying a channel,
-and much more…too many to list
Who Can Benefit from an Affiliate Marketing Tutorial?
Anyone who for any reason is contemplating a career or job change.
You may have lost your job due to the many changes taking place in the business world all over the globe.
You may even be employed at this time…but due to the economic uncertainties, you may be thinking ahead.
..anticipating that if a job loss happens, you will have your affiliate Internet Marketing to fall back on to replace your income. Well done if you are thinking ahead in this way.
This is a wise move.
Perhaps you have lost money due to financial reverses, ill health, fraud or just simply having made some bad decisions. If you need to start all over again and want to be in control without interference from others, then affiliate marketing is definitely for you.
The best course will be the one that works for you- there are many to choose from.
It is always good to have an experienced mentor on your side, one who will guide you and make your journey a lot easier.
But this is where the difficulty begins- it is a REAL challenge to hit the Bullseye right off the bat.
I can help you here.
The first thing to consider is your budget.
Some mentors charge thousands of dollars for their tutorials. Many if not all of them want to be paid upfront. It seems that around $995 is a fairly popular webinar figure, but that is still a LOT of money to part with.
It took me years to find a mentor that I could honestly recommend.
Think of all the skills you will need to master:
-we already touched on Mindset because this is a BIG one. Without going into all the many facets you will need to master, one thing is clear: you will need step-by-step instructions from beginning to end.
What if you found such a mentor? A mentor who opens the door to the initial part of his training for free to prove that he is putting YOU ahead of profits?
Well, there IS such a mentor. In his free trial, you will already learn invaluable stuff you don’t get anywhere else. Here is a list of topics he will share with you as an introduction and free trial to give you the needed confidence to continue your training.
Introduction
Roadmap
Shiny Object Syndrome
Wolves, Sheep, and Heroes
Managing Time Correctly
Finding Your Niche
Niche Deep Dive
Identifying Pain Points
How People Actually Make Money
Defining Your USP
Committing To Your Identify
This is only a fraction of the entire course.
But here is the best part- especially if you are struggling financially.
It only costs you $97.00 (for now) for the ENTIRE course!
Be assured that nothing has been left out in this top-quality A to-Z, zero-to-hero training. It is a complete encyclopedia of information that you need to equip you completely with all you need to know to become a successful affiliate marketing guru.
It will become a monthly subscription down the track.
He explains why he uses this low-cost strategy in the course.
If you have been ripped off by scammers in the past, he even shows you the way to recoup some of your hard-earned money from them.
Find out more: www.newbietoimpro.com