How come some Internet marketers live the life of rockstars while others seem to fail? As a successful affiliate marketer, you need to be an expert in SEO, PPC, CPA analytics, traffic, conversions, and have an understanding of the best products to sell on the web. Most people new to Internet marketing believe that they can simply start a blog, find a niche, and start marketing. However, since the Google Panda update, the days of easy ranking and traffic no longer exist like they used to. What does work is persistence, commitment, and leverage.
Leverage is key to success in affiliate marketing. Any affiliate marketer worth their weight in gold will have a team of people behind them. Behind the scenes, they will have an outsourced designer, coder, SEO expert, copywriters, syndicators, and a paid traffic expert. Some affiliates may dabble in all of these subjects, but successful affiliates outsource so they can focus on product creation, joint ventures, and marketing. The most seasoned affiliate marketers are masters at building offline relationships and forming joint venture arrangements. It is one thing to generate web traffic, but it is another to borrow traffic or market to another marketer’s email list.
For those of you looking to become affiliate marketers and have no knowledge about it, the key is to get started somewhere. As an affiliate marketer, you can sell products from Amazon or information products. Some people get involved in CPA networks (cost per acquisition) where you can market anything from how-to information, education, insurance enrollment, motivation courses, credit cards, or lead generation. Affiliate marketers can earn commissions for every sale or lead they generate, and commissions vary from 10% to 60% depending on the product.
How Do You Get Started As An Affiliate Marketer?
For many, starting out as an affiliate marketer begins with understanding keyword research and search intent on search engines like Google. Using keyword research tools like the Google External tool is a good place to start. You will want to target keywords that have acceptable levels of competition because if it is too competitive, you will never rank. You will need a blog, preferably on a WordPress platform, and if you are generating leads, an autoresponder. To test your keywords, you can run small PPC campaigns on Google and see if your keywords convert. The goal of every affiliate marketer is to understand which keywords are highly converting and leverage SEO efforts with outsourcing to invest in your organic campaign.
The fastest way to get traffic is to borrow it. Depending on what you are selling, it may be possible to market to other affiliate marketers. If you are dealing with information products, creating a joint venture with an established affiliate marketer could make a lot of sense since they may already have a large list. So, if you are a master affiliate or have your own information product, you can negotiate a shared commission with another marketer, and they will market your products to their audience. This is commonly done with information products via webinars and is a very successful model. Most affiliates starting out will not be in this position, so you might consider leveraging video marketing, podcasting, article marketing, blogging, and paid traffic sources. It is important that as your Internet marketing business develops, you attend industry conferences and events to build valuable joint venture relationships.
Are There Any Shortcuts In Marketing?
Most everything in Internet marketing takes time or money, so I don’t see a shortcut to becoming an affiliate marketing rockstar. It takes years of dedication for most affiliate marketers to gain the necessary skills or have the resources to hire experts who can help in their business. An Internet marketing business is composed of many moving parts, and the learning curve can be complex. That’s not to say that it isn’t possible to have success in affiliate marketing, but it’s important to have realistic expectations of your results. The leverage you create through outsourcing and key relationships will be the difference between success or failure.
What Is The Best Internet Marketing System For Newbies?
I believe that your goal in your Internet marketing business should be to have multiple streams of traffic and revenue. You should have a mix of your own products and other people’s products that you market. Your other goal should be to deepen your understanding of the mechanics of online marketing and, like any smart business person, find leverage by outsourcing and removing yourself from the business as much as possible. There are some systems that can assist you in getting started in affiliate marketing where they will teach you the basics of keyword research, and you can become an affiliate and market their products.
