Whenever you see a list of ‘home-based businesses to start this year’, you can almost guarantee that affiliate marketing is going to be one of the main options and this is because it has grown in popularity in recent years. However, as those that have tried it will know, it isn’t as easy as it first looks. Of everyone who starts in the industry, only a rare few make a career from it and this is why I’ve have compiled a list of superb tips today!
Lose The Excuses
Before we go any further, we have to start with the many excuses that exist today. Whether it is ‘I’m too busy’ or ‘I don’t even know where to start’, you need to lose these from your mind straight away because they give you an easy way out as soon as things start to turn for the worst. Over the years, many people have succeeded with affiliate marketing from worse positions than you right now. For example, I recently read a success story on one of the forums about a 52-year old guy succeeding and we I’ve also seen results from those that are pregnant, have full-time jobs, have five children, have no qualifications, and even living in a third-world country.
Always Look For a Solution
One of the best lessons you will ever learn in life, let alone affiliate marketing, is that dwelling on the past will never get results. If there were a way to go back in time and fix mistakes or bad situations, we would all be doing it constantly. However, there isn’t and this means you need to look ahead for the solutions rather than worrying about what has already gone; you wouldn’t drive a car looking in the rear-view mirror (I hope)!
Once again, this leads back to forgetting the excuses. If you can’t design graphics, there is no point repeating this fact time and time again. Instead, you need to find out how to make your own graphics or simply use a site like Fiverr where you can get them made for an affordable price. In life, there are people with no opportunity at all so you should have no excuses entering one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. If you are serious about making money, go out there and make it happen.
You Will Fail
Along the journey you are about to begin, there will be mistakes and failures along the way and this is just something you have to face. However, it is your job to be different; rather than giving up after a month, you will be one of the rare people who rise above the challenge and learns a lesson from the failure. Once this lesson has been learned once, you become stronger and you reduce the chances of it happening ever again.
If you ever need inspiration, think about restaurant owners. Initially, they take out huge loans just to get started. Over the first few months and maybe even years, they work for 16 hours each day before even making a profit. If they can do it, so can you!
One Campaign is Enough
As the great Thomas Edison once said when inventing the light bulb – I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Not only is this quote amazingly beautiful, it sums up the approach you need to take. With a simple search online, you will find unlimited examples of people who lost money over time on numerous campaigns. However, it took just one campaign to right all of these wrongs and get on the right path. Knowing that you are just one campaign away at all times, you can use this as motivation every single day.
ACT
Despite this word being just three letters long, it is one of the hardest things we find to do. When starting in affiliate marketing, we know how it feels but there is only a certain amount of research you can do. Instead of researching the same things over and over again, you eventually have to take the jump and act.
With affiliate marketing, there is no plan to follow which many people find scary. On the other hand, though, you have an opportunity to find success in a way that nobody else ever has. If you have ever watched baseball or cricket, each batter has their own individual stance when at-bat and this is because they have found what has worked for them; this is part of the reason why they have found success. Instead of copying others, they found what worked for them and have stuck with it ever since and this is what you also need to do. Although there are various websites and blogs giving advice, they will never be able to find what works for you as well as you; this is a bit of a mouthful but it is completely true!
Practice Makes Perfect
When you first pick up a guitar, you don’t expect to be able to play it instantly. In the same way, you can’t expect to master affiliate marketing in an instant because it is a skill. As I said earlier, you will keep making progress as long as you are willing to learn from previous campaigns. If you look at the top people within the affiliate marketing industry, they all got there the same way; hard work.
When you launch your first campaign, the likelihood is that it will be poor and you won’t see results. However, you learn what worked and what didn’t for the next campaign. If the next one is a failure also, you go through the same process of learning what was right and what was wrong. Eventually, you will have held on to all the rights whilst correcting all the wrongs.
Opportunities Galore
In the affiliate marketing industry, there has been a huge boost to the amount of opportunities available in recent years. Even when working on one campaign, you will have your manager approaching you to discuss new opportunities. At times, this can be a little overwhelming but you have to remember that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and this leads nicely onto the next tip.
Stick to Your Plan – If you are in the middle of launching a new campaign, you need to set your initial plan and then stick to it. Just as you would with any other campaign, choose where the traffic will come from, set your budgets and timings, keep a journal of how things progress, and have an ultimate goal for the end. Once you learn how to say ‘no’, it will be one of the best things you have ever done!
If you are in the middle of launching a new campaign, you need to set your initial plan and then stick to it. Just as you would with any other campaign, choose where the traffic will come from, set your budgets and timings, keep a journal of how things progress, and have an ultimate goal for the end. Once you learn how to say ‘no’, it will be one of the best things you have ever done!
Choose Your Circle
Furthermore, I also advise choosing a close circle of people to have around you throughout the process. Both in your career and personal life, you will need a close circle of friends that push you forward and keep you motivated. Rather than surrounding yourself with negativity, you and your group can all face your fears together and see results.
Within this, I would also say that you should close the gates a little too. If you are used to trusting everyone you come across, I highly advise closing the shutters because some people will happily use you as a climbing frame to boost themselves up the ladder. Once again, stick to your close group and learn from each other every day.
Bad Influences
When people feel as though they are never going to progress or make something of themselves, they tend to bring all those down around them. If you are nodding your head and can instantly associate this with someone you know, you need to cut them from your life completely. With these negative people, they will highlight your downfalls rather than praising you on the good points and this can be extremely damaging. Also, these people can be found within strangers and some people make a living from scamming people so be wary of who you trust as I said before.
On the other hand, you will also have people who try and get back into your life once you start seeing success. For example, this always happens with lottery winners because people will think ‘I know them, maybe I can get myself back in there’. Whenever this happens, you just need to focus on your own close circle of friends and forget those you left behind. If you haven’t spoken to someone for eight years, there is probably a good reason for this so trust your younger self.
When entering the affiliate marketing industry, you will have to give it all you have. During the limited free time you do have, you will soon find out who your true positive influences are by who tries to stay in contact. While others are out in nightclubs spending money on something that brings no return longer than a couple of hours, you will probably be in the office or in bed getting ready for another tough day tomorrow. When one particularly young successful affiliate marketing expert was asked why he was able to succeed, he told an audience to phone him and ask that question on a Friday night because he would still be in the office making it work.
Quest For Knowledge
Before you even start, you need to have the thirst for knowledge which is something that doesn’t exist within most people that give this industry a go. If you aren’t learning, you are simply being left behind and surely you don’t want this to happen?. From just a few dollars and hours of your time, you could learn lessons from books that will last a lifetime.
After this, i also recommend talking to as many people as you can. If you happen to get in contact with someone who has seen success, ask them questions and make the most of the opportunity rather than letting it go to waste. If possible, find a mentor who is willing to take you under their wing and teach you all they know.
Finally for this section, i also recommend attending as many conferences on affiliate marketing as you can. Once you start to get information from multiple angles and perspectives, you get to learn the industry inside-out. As soon as you have this luxury, you will be in a much stronger position to succeed!
Know Your Demographic
Considering you need to appeal to your chosen demographic, do you know everything there is to know about them? If you lack the knowledge here, how do you expect them to pay any attention to what you have to say? With the most successful affiliate marketers today, they have Facebook groups and scan through forums to learn everything there is to know. Furthermore, you should be looking at the advertisements that are targeted towards this audience to see how they differ to your own.
Continuous Testing
Just as we discussed before, this comes back to the theory of learning from mistakes and wanting to learn as much as you can. As you begin, you will soon find that there is always something to be tested. Whether it is new angles, landing pages, traffic sources, wordings, phrases, angles, perspectives, pop-ups, bidding prices, web hosts, countdown timers, and so much more. As you learn what works through testing, you won’t have to waste time with processes that will fail and you won’t have to rely on new offers and the latest trends.
Competition
At all times, you should be keeping an eye on your competition because this is…well, who you are competing against. If you make more than the competition on the exact same offer, this means that you will see more traffic from outbidding, you can grab the high CTR pages, you will always be more profitable, and you can continue to survive whilst they struggle. According to research, 20% of affiliate marketers make four-fifths of the money and testing allows you to reach the top 20%!
Spend Carefully
Over the years, we have seen many people get excited when their first campaign starts to do well. As their income increases, they treat themselves to a nice car, new house, holidays, and fashionable new clothing. However, the campaign comes to an end or it takes a turn for the worse. Suddenly, their cost just to maintain their lifestyle has rocketed but they have no means to continue paying for it all. After doing well for a couple of months, they end up in debt and go back to the 9-5 job they were trying to escape in the first place.
When the first campaign does well, you will feel good but you need to remember to spend your money carefully. If it all falls down, at least then you will have money saved to continue living until the next successful campaign comes around. Additionally, I highly advise testing more than ever during this phase. If you want this hot streak to continue, you need to pinpoint exactly what you’re doing right so you can utilise it. Rather than just letting it happen, find out why it is happening and it will occur again time and time again.
Be Clever
When a successful campaign is occurring, you have an opportunity to take a couple of risks and this means launching a second campaign as opposed to resting on your laurels. Just because you have had a successful campaign, this doesn’t mean that you are now set for life. Sure, it might mean that you can afford an assistant and a slightly better laptop but you still have to collide with the competition with each new campaign. If you are currently paying out for the minimum web hosting account possible, don’t go out spending all your money on fancy dinners and limo rides. Once you learn to reinvest, you will continue to accumulate income.
Don’t Be Afraid to Imitate – Before we head any further, we are not saying, under any circumstances, that you should copy someone else step-by-step. Instead, you can look to successful campaigns for ideas and inspiration. Back to the baseball example or even cricket or golf, you might start by imitating the professionals on the TV. Eventually, though, you have to innovate and find what works for you.
When building an email list, you might sign yourself up to some popular email lists just to get a sense for the correct style and information. Once you get the right style, you can add your own unique features. Once in this stage, you can use the tips I have already provided such as testing and learning to make sure you succeed for longer than one week.
Be Willing to Adapt
Despite the affiliate marketing industry being relatively young, it has aged considerably. If you were to look back at what worked early on, you could be fairly certain that none of these same tactics work today. For example, the very early landing pages are now very different. Therefore, you need to be willing to adapt as the changes come. If something that worked for a year isn’t now seeing results, always look for solutions as I explained at the very beginning; holding on to the past will get you nowhere.
Conclusion
As long as you are willing to put in the necessary hours, there is no reason why you can’t see success regardless of how many people are now trying. If you work harder and longer than your competitors, you will see results. If I have helped here today, please feel free to share this around and I wish you the best of luck in your efforts!
