I see it again and again; affiliates applying for an affiliate program of a merchant I work with.  I go to the application and click on the link to their site that they submitted for review.   I find…… a page full of banners and little or no content.

I do some homework with some cool little tools that I use to evaluate site’s traffic and I find very little or no traffic.   I’m not surprised.  Why would there be traffic?

Would you as a shopper knowingly seek out a page made up of just image ads?

The quality of the merchants you work with doesn’t even matter.   If you don’t offer any reason for someone to find you, let alone spend some time on your site, why would you expect them to act on your ads?

To be a successful affiliate - and by this, I mean someone who makes more than occassional latte’ or beer money from affiliate marketing, you need to add something to the conversation.  Better yet- why not start a conversation of your own?

“Banner farms” or sites made up of just a bunch of banner slapped up on a page - suck

Niche content pages are the way to go - find something you are passionate about, find a domain name that plays into your theme and start writing.   Review products, share your thoughts, share your expertise, react to other people’s thoughts and content - generate CONTENT.   Then, surround your content with ads targeting people who would be interested in your content.

Is your niche content page or blog about raising good Christian kids?   The you should be working with Nest Entertainment and Family Christian and promoting products that help parents raise good Christian kids.   Writing about Homeschooling from a Christian perspective?  You had better be hooked up with and promoting Alpha Omega Publications or Sonlight.

Do you see what I am saying?

Affiliate Marketing has NEVER been about just slapping up some banners and making money.  That is lazy.

Real affiliate marketing is about matching up people who are looking for a product with the product they want - and what better way to do that by giving your shoppers CONTENT to answer their questions and “pre-sell” them on the products that you would like them to buy.

You could also start a community based on your interest.  Chances are that other people have the same interests and concerns.  Let them start the conversations and suggests products and deals while you bring in the affiliate links.  It worked pretty well for FatWallet.com

Affiliate success is work… it’s not overnight.   But if you set out do do it the right way, you will be rewarded.

We’ll talk more tomorrow about pre-selling and reviews and the all important issue of INTEGRITY

God Bless,

Wade

I have been doing a lot of talking with folks lately on how to get started as an affiliate.   What is the best way to do it?  What tools do I need?  What skills do I need?   What does it cost?

I’m here to tell you that anyone out there can get started in affiliate marketing for close to free.  How?

Well, there are a few things that you need to get started in affiliate marketing.

1. a topic or topics that you care about
2. a platform for your marketing
3. a top level domain
4. a method for marketing to your visitors again
5. time to research affiliate offers to find the right ones for your site
6. time to write about your topic
7. commitment to write regularly

You’ll notice that I started with “a topic or topics that you care about.”  I should probably modify this to say a topic or topics that you are passionate about.   What does it matter?   It’s everything. The bottom line is this: being a successful affiliate takes time and effort and if you aren’t working in a topic that you are passionate about, and if you are just in it for the money, you will have a really tough time at putting in the time it takes to get traffic and more importantly, to get the trust of your visitors.

I’m passionate about promoting Christian merchants and building a niche market of affiliates who have access to the audience that the Christian merchants are looking to market to.  This makes it not just possible, but fun and inspiring to get on every day and write something about what I love.

I’m also passionate about food - so launching a site or blog that is centered on food and food related affiliate offers is easy to commit myself to as well.

What is your passion?   Have you studied the topic?  Are you someone your friends would consider an “authority” on it?

This is a great place to start.

Part 2 coming tomorrow - we’ll talk about a platform for your marketing effort that is super easy to get into in terms of both cost and technical skills needed.  We’ll also talk about top level domains and what I really suggest that you invest in one.

God Bless,

Wade

Later today, the folks at Blog Classroom are lowering the barrier to entry to anyone who wants to get a serious education in blogging. They will be launching a payment plan option that lets you pay in 3 monthly installments of $187.00 instead of having to pay the full up front cost.

The total cost you pay in the installment program is a bit more ($561.00 vs $497.00) but that is the cost of convenience and a smaller initial investment.

If you are looking to take the leap into serious blogging for profit, I recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. Remember, there is also a money back guarantee in place here. If you buy Blog Classroom, and actually put their techniques into play and do not receive traffic to your blog, they will give you your money back.

NOTE: making a profit from the traffic you get is up to you and you should know this going in. Whether you plan to monetize with affiliate offers, your own product and services sales, or AdSense, you will need to produce quality content, and work the program to get your traffic.

I am here to tell you that blogging works. I started this site almost 2 years ago, and I wouldn’t have dreamed that I would be receiving traffic in the thousands monthly and would have companies approaching me to advertise their affiliate programs and place their products in my video casts, or that I would have generated enough revenue from the Affiliate Summit affiliate program to pay my way to Vegas.

Get started with Blog Classroom now for 3 payments of $187

If you work at it, it will work for you.

God Bless

Wade

I was just watching some of the videos from the pre-launch of the Blog Classroom.   I really like that they are up to here with this pre-launch.  They are literally taking people from nothing, to having a functional blog with traffic incoming.

I’m  a relatively advanced blogger with a couple of years of experience and good traffic coming to my blogs, but I never fall into the trap of thinking I know all that there is to know.

I get questions all the time on how to get started as an affiliate and I truly  believe that blogging is a  good way to do this.  There are a few reasons why:

1. Blogging is EASY - you don’t have to be a programmer or an artist.  Just write baby
2. Blogging is Google friendly - if you set your WordPress up right,  and you write well, your blog has a great chance of getting noticed by the search engines.
3. Extending your blog is easy- there are THOUSANDS of plugins and themes out there that other folks have created to give your blog added capabilies and different looks and feels.

If you are looking to get started in affiliate marketing and would like to follow my advice to get started by blogging, your best bet is to check out this pre-launch course from Blog Classroom.   They will take you through the basics, and get you blogging with easy to follow videos from industry pro’s like Rosalind Gardner.

Lesson 2 is a good one as well as it shows you how to prepare your blog for the search engines as well.

One thing you may want to do in advance is get a domain registered with a domain host that uses the CPanel control panel like Bluehost.  Bluehost is the host that Blog Classroom uses in the “how to” videos and it’s startling how easy they have made blog installation.   They have some well priced packages as well that will give you all you need to blog away.

Be aware that there is going to be an attempt to make money from you at the end of all this free “how to” content from Blog Classroom.    It may be right for you or it may not.  I do heartily recommend that you at least give the free lessons they are offering your attention as they are really good stuff.

The folks at Blog Classroom have put together a course that will get you through all of the  growing pains that I have  had over the last couple of years of blogging.  Check them out and save yourself some time.

God Bless,

Wade