I am guessing that you became an affiliate of an online business opportunity because you want to make some extra money working from home on the internet. All of us would like to make money working from home and everyone is hearing about how the internet can bring in thousands of dollars. But just like with anything else, there are internet con artists and thieves that thrive on the fact that you are naïve about affiliate marketing.
So what exactly is affiliate marketing (also known as referral marketing)?
An affiliate is someone that sells other people's products or services and gets a percentage of that sale. An affiliate is like a sales associate that gets paid a commission, but you do not work for the person or company, you work for yourself (sole proprietorship). There are many forms of affiliate marketing, and three ways that people start an online business as an affiliate: 1. Join a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company 2. Join an affiliate network 3. Join a company's affiliate program.
There are many money making opportunity/home based business opportunities (that is another way of saying affiliate program) being advertised online. Most people fail at their business because they lack the proper internet marketing training. You see it takes more than just a nice looking website and a professional business name to succeed online - You must know how to promote your business. I mean, what is the use of having a nice website and great products if no one knows that you exist? Most people do not think about the promotional aspect of their business, they just jump from opportunity to opportunity looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The only way to find that pot of gold is to understand that it does not matter what online opportunity you join, what matters is how you market that opportunity and its products.
Before you can start a successful internet business with affiliate marketing, you need to know the basic internet marketing formula. Once your learn how to utilize this formula, it is very important that you apply it to your affiliate business. If you want to be apart of the 1% of successful internet marketers, you must learn and apply three very important principles that all successful affiliate marketers utilize:
1. Build a simple direct response style lead capture (landing) page website
2. Direct your leads to your affiliate site once they opt-in
3. Use an autoresponder system preloaded with quality content to follow-up with your leads
I did not start to succeed online until I applied these principles to my marketing. There are advanced variations to this formula, but you must master the above basics first; and don't worry, it's very easy. The most important thing to remember is to have the two basic internet marketing tools: a direct response website and an autoresponder system. Without these two tools you will succeed just about as much as cutting your lawn without a lawn mower.
Friend, I had been burned so much in the beginning that every time I think about the money that I had lost I get upset. I had repeatedly heard the phrases "the money is in the list" and "the fortune is in the follow-up", but I said to myself that I am not going to take the time out to build a mailing list of prospects. I said this because there were so many programs online that offered me low cost or free traffic to my affiliate site, and other marketing tactics that were much easier to me than building a list. I also got wrapped up in the fact that my affiliate program gave me plenty of websites, so why should I create one? Friend, please, please, please, do not get this mentality; and if you already have it, change it! I know what it is like to be frustrated, broke, and think that you have finally found the answer so you max out your credit cards, spend your car note money, etc. on your internet business thinking that you will make it up and profit by the end of the month...But what really happens is that you wind up having to call family and friends to help you out with your bills because you lost your money on another internet marketing scam.
I have been apart of many internet marketing and affiliate programs, and I have purchased tons of ebooks, software, courses, and seminars. You name it, I've tried it. The point I want to make is that I know what it is like to not succeed and I would hate for you to go through what I went through - please learn from my mistakes.
