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Introduction
Many successful Internet marketers today started out as affiliates of other marketers’ products and offers. In fact, many of those successful Internet marketers today still utilize affiliate marketing in their business models today. Done properly, affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative component of an online marketing business.
However, just as with most elements of an online marketing business, affiliate marketing is only profitable when it’s done properly and with an end goal in mind. The end goal needs to be that you select offers that work well for your list of subscribers, not just promote anything and everything in order to make some quick money. If the product you are considering promoting doesn’t fit well with your list, chances are you won’t make many to any sales. Worse than that, it could damage your reputation and credibility with your list if you promote too many offers that don’t resonate with them.
Many Internet marketers like to start with and continue on with affiliate marketing because it often involves less work than coming up with your own offers. For one thing, you just need to promote credible offers from other Internet marketers. For another thing, most Internet marketers will provide sales material (including sales copy, sales emails, banner ads, etc.) to easily promote their offers. Thus, you don’t have to come up with your own product or your own sales copy to promote it. You also don’t have to support and update the product since it’s not your own product to support and update.
As a result, you can see why affiliate marketing is an attractive marketing avenue for many Internet marketers and why many beginning Internet marketers prefer to start with this avenue first before venturing into creating their own offers. As mentioned above, there is a proper way to enter the affiliate marketing world so that you can be successful at it and earn much from it. This ebook will teach what you need to know so you can be a successful affiliate marketer.
Your Stepping Stone To Online Success
Many successful Internet marketers today started out as affiliates of other Internet marketers’ products. Many of them do this for a number of reasons:
- They don’t have to create their own offers.
- They don’t have to create their own sales copy or marketing materials.
- They don’t have to provide support or update the products.
- They can learn what it is like to sell products online before actually creating their own.
- They can make some money online quickly before they start spending time and money creating their own offers.
All of these and other reasons are key to why many Internet marketers start off as affiliates of other Internet marketers’ products. Internet marketing can be quite complicated and overwhelming to the “newbie” who has no previous marketing experience online. In fact, some online marketers don’t even have previous marketing experience offline, having served in completely unrelated industries. In fact, one noted and successful Internet marketer with his own 7-figure company today was painting houses before he started marketing online. Yes, he also promoted other marketers’ products, and he still does it today.
Affiliate marketing is often a great way for new Internet marketers to learn how to “get their feet wet” in terms of selling online. You can often make money more quickly by starting out as an affiliate, as you don’t have to spend time and money creating your own product. In addition, you don’t have to write sales copy or create other marketing materials for those offers. Usually, most Internet marketers who have created their own offers also create sales material to promote those offers so that it is easier for their affiliates to promote those offers. And, as mentioned above, you can get an idea of what it takes to successfully sell online by promoting other marketers’ products first before creating and selling your own. This can be quite helpful for people who have little to no previous experience selling anything.
Get In The Right Mindset
Many new Internet marketers just starting out and planning to begin with affiliate marketing make a critical mistake that hinders their success, sometimes to the point where they give up. This critical mistake is not entering the online marketing world, including affiliate marketing, with the right mindset.
Unlike the offline world where you have a boss or higher executive telling you exactly what you need to do, when to report to work, what is expected of you, etc., you have no one but yourself to tell you what you need to do and complete in the online marketing world. It’s you, and you alone. If you don’t get completed what needs to be done, there will be no boss to criticize or punish you, no reprimands for being “late to work” or slacking off during the day.
Some people can more easily make the transition from the offline world where someone else directs them to complete the tasks required to doing it themselves in the online marketing world, while others cannot. An important point: If you cannot direct yourself to complete the tasks that are required, you will NEVER succeed at online marketing, including affiliate marketing. You will likely be best-served never entering the online marketing world and instead continue to serve under a boss. You must learn to be accountable for your own actions, including completing what is required of you on a set timetable yourself, if you ever want to succeed at online marketing, including affiliate marketing.
Failure to complete tasks in a timely fashion will lead to your business taking longer to get established or not getting established at all. There are many tasks that need to be completed, many of which will probably not be familiar to you. This means you must learn how to complete the tasks necessary to have an online marketing business, including an affiliate marketing business, and no one but you can actually learn to do these tasks and complete them in a timely fashion. The only person who gets hurt by not learning these tasks and putting them to work for their business is you.
Therefore, you must ensure that you will hold yourself accountable and put maximum effort into your online marketing business. No one else will do this for you, unlike in the offline world. If you truly want to be successful at online marketing, including affiliate marketing, you must treat this business and all the associated tasks related to it as if you were working for a boss in the offline world and that there will be serious consequences if you fail to do these tasks in a timely fashion. Treating this business as anything less than a job that your livelihood depends on will lead to you failing at Internet marketing, period.
Therefore, if you have other obligations – such as family, taking care of an elderly loved one, attending school or have an offline job – you need to manage them while still putting in the required hours and effort at your online marketing business in order for it to become successful. Regarding affiliate marketing, you still have to put in the hours and effort to make connections, pick out appropriate offers in your selected niche, get the sales material, send out the emails, get traffic to those offers, follow up with them, etc. No one will do this for you, and even if your other obligations require time in their own right, in the remaining hours, you must put in the effort to build your online business.
Therefore, if you have to give up going out with friends, spending time with family or elderly loved ones, etc., you must do it if you want to achieve success online. Obviously, you still have to put in time toward your schooling and your offline job, but other activities that are not critical to your livelihood have to be reduced or eliminated in order to give you the time to build your online business. As time goes on and your business is more established, you will likely gain some free time back to spend as you choose while your business continues to work for you, but in the beginning, you must make the commitment to build your business and see it through. Failure to do this will lead to failure online, period.