Getting starting in affiliate marketing?

[Hoofy]

KFC said:

I'm finding that post quite hard to answer honestly without giving away competitive info. In general you can't really hide what you're doing though - anyone can view your source code of your own website. And they can use services like majesticseo.com or ahrefs.com to look at your offsite seo.

Have you considered retiring early and running SEO courses?

[Phateuk]

Without wishing to hi-jack this thread I have a question probably not worth starting (another) similar thread, as there seems to be plenty of experts contributing to this one.

I have several sites, mainly created by me to test/learn new tools or to show prospective employers etc, I've always just put adsense ads on these - not to make me a millionaire, but to simply subsidise the hosting and domain reg costs.

Reading this thread I'm wondering if I could/should be using some sort of affiliate scheme? The sites are low traffic (circa 1k pageviews/month @ ~1% CTR) from which I'm currently making £3-5/month from :P

My inclination is that going direct to a business in the same sector as the content offering ad space with my current pageview count wouldn't get me very far, and using a 3rd party like paidonresults or tradedoubler would yield the same as adsense?

[KFC]

It all depends where the visitors are coming from, and what their intent is.

1000 visitors coming from Google from searches like "buy protein powder" is worth money. Its a valuable topic to begin with, and the search has obvious commercial intent.

If you have 1000 visitors landing on a dozen random blogs covering half a dozen completely different topics, then Adsense is probably your best bet.

[Phateuk]

KFC said:

It all depends where the visitors are coming from, and what their intent is.

1000 visitors coming from Google from searches like "buy protein powder" is worth money. Its a valuable topic to begin with, and the search has obvious commercial intent.

If you have 1000 visitors landing on a dozen random blogs covering half a dozen completely different topics, then Adsense is probably your best bet.

Interesting, 70% visits are from organic search and most visitors view multiple pages per session so definately showing interest.

I understand if it's something to keep under wraps, but have you any experience of the sites I mentioned (or similar)? I must admit I'm a bit skeptical of the claimed payouts and proving the leads etc.. Surely as the website publisher you're just hoping/praying they accurately acknowledge the leads you provide?

[akirk]

running an online business is not fundamentally different to running an offline one - the issue with a lot of these SEO gurus and courses is that it is a set of carefully worded insubstantial claims, peppered with a few nuggest of truth...

ultimately the concept is not hard:
- find something the market wants (where there is a need / desire)
- make it easy for them to find you
- make it easy for them to use you
- supply the need / desire, either directly, or by leading them to someone who can

the problem with many people in this sector is that they don't think it through as a business - they see it as a formulaic approach and therein lies the problem - a formula should work the same way every time - but we live in a world where the variables are constantly changing - Google changes its algorithms - the market changes the websites / tech they are using - the law changes, so needs change - etc. etc. - the clever person in this market is ahead of the curve - and then gets out into something new - the dumb follower spends money buying a course (based on something that word a year ago), then tries it - they are now 2 years behind the curve, they might even buy domains / websites in that industry - all too late, the others have moved on...

view it like a business - what is your asset - where is your market - how are you going to make money - etc.

[gtijon]

Cheers for the advice guys. It's pretty clear the first steps in finding out what works will be googling for financial products, hunting out the high ranking affiliate sites and digging into how they work.

It looks like I could spend a long time reading articles which eventually lead to "Sign up for my webinar!" or skim over those for the basic and dig into real world sites.

[jonamv8]

Interesting thread.

KFC - What networks are you attached to, I used to do this years ago with Commission Junction, Linkshare, Affiliate Window, Trade DOubler

Who are the new boys on the block in this respect or is the above list still relevant?

[KFC]

I use a variety of them depending which sites or niches I'm working in. They're all really much the same; just use whichever one covers the specific merchants you want to use.

[jonamv8]

Is it still the case that certain sectors use a certain AN? Few years ago i seem to call a lot of the finance companies on a single network or are they more spread out now?

[twoblacklines]

stevie985 said:

KFC said:

I've never heard of him, but at first glance it just appears to be another "I make money by telling people how to make money" joker. If these people could do it... they'd be doing it. Not trying to hustle money from newbies offering to teach them to do it.

Similar to what is mentioned in this yesterday:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

are the private forums mentioned worth looking at?

said:

StackThatMoney: The playground of super affiliates. Features detailed guides and case studies. This is a steal at $99 / month.

AFFPlaybook: The private forum of David Ford. The highlight of the forum is their extensive list of custom tools. $63 a month.

STM is great, and mr NGO is a "thought leader" there.

BUT there are two types of affiliate marketing.

1. Where you run a website(s) with info etc with some affiliate links, or you give something away and pitch affiliate links to your email list (Direct Response).

2. Where you don't use a website or list at all and you use landing pages (or even direct link) to paid traffic. This is more akin to media buying. Hit and run - Hit someone with a link to the offer or your landing page for $0.10, and if they buy or fill in a form (CPA) etc you get paid $7.50 This is what STM is all about.

The big money is in the latter, some people make $50k a month doing number 1 but it takes them YEARS and many websites (like private blog sites JUST for backlinks) to get there, whereas some people have hit profits of $10k a week within 3 months with a lot of luck, understanding and capital.

Also I worked out I need £10k just to start CPA. You need to be able to literally throw 3-4k down the drain just to LEARN by DOING. But when you learn and you get $1 in the black you can take that learning and do it in many verticals (different types of market). On top of that you need $100/month Voluum subs, possibly a cloaker depending on your vertical and traffic source, which can cost from $500/m to $25k one off.

Hope that helps.