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[MrNotAGuru]

Dave, thanks for your reply but I think you may have missed my point.

You are right. There are many mistakes to make for a newbie and even overlooked opportunity's (such as squeeze pages).

But this is precisely what I mean by getting your "feet wet".

"A new person trying to make it in affiliate marketing without a list will
have to rely on advertising, on line classified ads, solo ads, ezine ads etc."

You are absolutely right. But I dont see this as a bad thing.

Its true, Its hard work when you don have a "list". And, had the newbie tried all of these other things they would soon learned this lesson, from experience, but, they would have also learned many other valuable skills.

 I think its good for people to crawl before they walk.

Experience is the best teacher in the world and the more mistakes you make the closer you are to perfection.

Also, what better way for a newbie to make mistakes and learn what works and doesn't work than affiliate marketing?

"some one starting out if they have not done their homework and research will be disappointed."


I agree, you should allways do your homework and learn everything you can beforehand. But I also dont see being disappointed as a bad thing either.

 In the case of affiliate marketing, the main reason they are most likely to be disappointed is because chances are their expectations are so high.

Chances are...they will enter this field pumped up by the latest hype that promises they can make money in their underwear within just  a short time.

However, To the affiliate marketer that is expecting these kind of fast results, I say...expect to be disappointed and expect it many many times. And, when you find yourself disappointed rejoice because, you have just learned a valuable lesson about what works and what doesn't!

In fact...

hopefully you will be disappointed again! And, hopefully this will encourage you to reach even higher than before. Because, The more you are disappointed the more experience you will gain.

Any person that has ever achieved great success has also felt great disappointment. Disappointments, mistakes...they pave the pathway to knowledge and guide us to success.

In the end, the difference between the ones that make it in this game and the ones that don't are... the ones that did...learned from their mistakes and used that knowledge as leverage to climb their way to the top.

They never gave up!

Even with squeeze pages, there are learning curves. Where are you going to advertise your pages? How do you write good ads and test them? How are you going to increase your opt in conversion rate? What sort of products should you promote..etc etc

Anything in this life worth having is worth working for. And Internet marketing is just like anything else, you get what you put into it.

Just my 2 cents


P.S. Note to the newbie...Don't feed into the hype. The guys that make 5-10k a day make it look easy and and it is! Its easy for "them" because they've been at this for a long time. They know this game like the back of their hands. But what a pro affiliate marketer can do in an hour could take a week for someone just starting out.

[Old School]

Jose,

One word and only 1 is the key to making yourself rich online. People read all the BS and try to come up with complicated ideas when really its not hard at all.

Jose, get traffic and you'll make boat loads of $$$$. Don't think about products, niches, affiliate programs, gurus... all of that doesn't mean a damn thing unless you drive traffic.

The question you need to ask yourself is how can I get 10,000's of thousands of visitors a day. Do that and nothing else will matter.

Old School

[Davet]

MR. Not A Guru

I certainly agree with every thing you write you won't get an argument
out of me. In sales every no means your closer to a yes.

I certainly learn from my mistakes. When you fall flat on your face trying
to do something you learn from it pick yourself up and go at it again.

But don't give up. Nothing takes the place of hands on experience.
My reply to your post was apparently a clumsy attempted to give some
pointers to folks who want to give affiliate marketing a try.



Mr Old School
I have some what a few things to say to thee.
Just kidding.

I was a member of Jeff Johnsons Super Affiliate Coaching Club. I don't know
if you ever heard of him but he is a pretty sharp guy.

Any way his thing was traffic, traffic and more traffic. Using black hat, grey hat,
white hat whatever hat linking strategies to drive that traffic to your money
sites.

But, and this is my point that I want to bring up to you. You first have to have
a money site that has decent conversions.

I don't speak from experience. I speak from what I have learned from several
hundreds of dollars worth of training. So please prove me wrong if I am.

I suppose if you get a million hits to any web site no matter how bad its conversion
 rate is your bound to make some sales.
Is this your experience ?
 
Best Regards

Dave T.

[Old School]

You first have to have
a money site that has decent conversions.

I don't speak from experience. I speak from what I have learned from several
hundreds of dollars worth of training. So please prove me wrong if I am.

I suppose if you get a million hits to any web site no matter how bad its conversion
 rate is your bound to make some sales.
Is this your experience ?

If you have the traffic you can always find an offer that converts.

IE: I found a source of traffic for windows and window replacements... I then went searching for a CPA offer and found one for new window quotes, paying $5/lead, put that lead offer in front of these eyeballs. Leads flew in.

IMHO use the other guys creatives and sites... just worry about finding traffic. If you get it you will always be able to make $$$ off it.

[Davet]

Wow what a golden nugget of information !  It makes perfect sense
what you just taught me. Hallelujah brother !

Dave T.

[Old School]

The key is creativity and staying away from the norm.

My mind is running nonstop to think of ways to get traffic... I don't think of what to promote until I see that I have visitors.

Here is the key once you have the traffic. Filter your offers for at least 1K clicks per offer then run the report and find the best offer or best two if there is a 5% differential in conversions... Dump the other offers you have been testing and then direct all your traffic the top one. Although, for some things like the window replacement example above there only might be one offer available... then just take the chance with that.

Here is a simple PHP script for rotating your offers at the beginning. I usually I frame this so that wya networks can't see your traffic source. ALWAYS HIDE YOUR TRAFFIC SOURCE!

Code:

<?php
$offers = array("http://www.offer1.com", "http://www.offer2.com", "http://www.offer3.com", "http://www.offer4.com", "http://www.offer5.com");
$rk = array_rand($offers);
$offer = $offers[$rk];
 ?>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=<?php echo $offer; ?>">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>

Most guru's and marketers say stick with what you know and stay away from the Internet Marketing niche. I say BS... learn how to get traffic and human eye balls and the niche doesn't mean a damn thing.

[Kelley]

What has worked for me is to place free VALUABLE content on squidoo and hubpages. For my icon on all my pages, I use the cover of my book. Then there are links from my profile or from the page itself. I also provide useful, pleasant answers to the many questions that arise.

In the beginning much of the traffic to those pages came from Dr. Mercola's newsletter, so most of the visitors are targeted.

As has been said many times before, customers buy from those the know, like and trust. Because the content on the squidoo/hub pages is so valuable, it has turned into a big increase in sales.

Furthermore, the customers are so appreciative that, despite a recent glitch that has produced a downloading snafu, that often takes a series of emails to straighten out, the customers are courteous and thankful even after the delays.

Slowly, with the continued replies to their questions on the squidoo/hub pages, more and more traffic is coming in from google searches, emails and stumble upon and the like. The idea is to slowly build viral hub/squidoo pages.

The keys are content and courtesy. I'm not snarky there like I am here. 

The best to you.

Kelley Eidem 

[Davet]

hey Jose
What did I tell you. Were just getting warmed up :-)

Kelly, what a great lesson on Squidoo. I've got an ebook on Squido that I've
not began to study yet. Yours is the first proof that I have heard of that
Squidoo actually works !


Mr. Old School

You got me all excited about this new development in my IM learning experience.

Get tons of traffic first ! Worry about the offers later. See what kind of people you
are getting traffic from.

I like it. No, I love it !

I don't know what a script is. Nor do I know what you mean by ( I usually I frame this so
that the wya networks can't see your traffic source.)
But I'm going to copy and save the php script that you gave me so that I will have it when
I learn how to use it. :-)

I don't know jack that is why I love it here. Because of folks like you,  Kelly and Mr Not a Guru
and of course Lisa who share valuable information.

So what I get out of this thread from every one is roll up your sleeves and start getting
your hands dirty.

Best Regards

Dave T.

[gassavers2008]

I find it most helpful to sell a product that you believe in and that help others.   I sell a guaranteed fuel additive that increases gas mileage.   Check out my website and let me know if you have any questions.   See you at the top,

John

[Joetrevison]

Get your own product you can get exclusive rights to some products without paying a dime. If you know 39 of Selling them.  Get a shopping cart and paypay etc and a web site.

[Pete Egeler]

Get your own product you can get exclusive rights to some products without paying a dime. If you know 39 of Selling them.  Get a shopping cart and paypay etc and a web site.

Joe,

What??

Pete

[Old School]

hey Jose
What did I tell you. Were just getting warmed up :-)

Kelly, what a great lesson on Squidoo. I've got an ebook on Squido that I've
not began to study yet. Yours is the first proof that I have heard of that
Squidoo actually works !


Mr. Old School

You got me all excited about this new development in my IM learning experience.

Get tons of traffic first ! Worry about the offers later. See what kind of people you
are getting traffic from.

I like it. No, I love it !

I don't know what a script is. Nor do I know what you mean by ( I usually I frame this so
that the wya networks can't see your traffic source.)
But I'm going to copy and save the php script that you gave me so that I will have it when
I learn how to use it. :-)

I don't know jack that is why I love it here. Because of folks like you,  Kelly and Mr Not a Guru
and of course Lisa who share valuable information.

So what I get out of this thread from every one is roll up your sleeves and start getting
your hands dirty.

Best Regards

Dave T.

No problem. I'm not no marketing guru but my best advice is look offline for ideas and be creative.

I've been around for a long time and I just kinda lurk. Actually, it was Tony who got me started... and I kinda got him out of a bind way back when too 

PS - Joe Trevison's post are the best. I can't get enough. Joe please post more, seriously!


JW

[robertcampbell]

This is a great thread.   Thank you to all.

I have my own products that I sell (a book + a financial newsletter) that I have developed into a full-time business.

Could someone now suggest a few good affiliate programs for me to buy to leverage my income so that other people can sell ** my ** products?

It seems like most affiliate programs are designed to sell other people's products, right?

Please direct me to the best of the best!

Thanks a million.

Robert Campbell
www. RealEstateTiming. com

[workaholicvictor]

hello
           i have a friend who made lots af money in googleadsence and yahoo overture online marketing and it was great.  i think this is the best.
                                                thanka workaholicvictor. 

[AndrewCavanagh]

A first started making a good living online when I sold my internet marketing services to businesses.

What I was doing back then (it was quite a few years ago) was creating online sales letters for business owners selling their products and services.

I started out charging a paltry sum...$250 or so for the first couple of jobs...but quickly realized business owners were happy to pay $1,000 to $2,000+ because they saw what I did as web design and web tech stuff (even though it was really just writing sales letters and putting them on a web page).

Business owners are used to paying web designers $5,000+ for a website that often doesn't sell anything.

My point is that most people live within easy striking distance of local businesses who'd be thrilled to have a website that actually made them sales.

You just need to learn a few basics:

# Putting up and editing a simple website.

# Writing a simple sales page for the product or service the business is selling.

And you need to talk to some business owners who can hire you.

Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh