Famous Bloggers

How To Blog and Start a Business

Home » The Famous Blog » Affiliate Marketing Is A No-Easy Game

Affiliate Marketing Is A No-Easy Game

- by

Affiliate Marketing

Many of us thought that affiliate marketing was very easy to use. I agree with that, but the real process might take longer for you to see results. First of all, affiliate marketing is not an easy game. If you are a beginner or newbie to affiliate marketing, don’t expect that its easy to apply its definition. As an affiliate marketer, it all starts from the bottom and you need to work hard for it. If you take a look at some of the top entrepreneurs in their business, they all started to work hard in order to build their relationships wit their customers. They don’t even think of money first, which may not work without passion and good customer relationship.

If we don’t think of money, what about regaining our profits?

I know that we are in a hurry of making good profits from different affiliate programs, but still we can’t be successful without some passion. If we continue this way, we can say that we’re already one of the 90% that affiliate marketers failed in their careers. In order to be passionate in affiliate marketing, we need to study and analyze about the products offered by an affiliate marketing company. Honest reviews are also good for us to build good reputation to our customers in order to generate sales from them. But how would you be able to generate a sale from your product efficiently? Here are some of my few tips:

* Know the product – this is one of the most important things to know as a marketer. If you promote the product without knowing its functions and features, there is a good chance that customers won’t buy the product. However, if you know about it then it’s an advantage and might give a good chance to generate a sale from your visitors. You may still have a chance to review the product by searching other similar reviews and revise it by yourself. But make sure that your review seems to be honest and ‘catchy” to the customers so that the conversions may go well.

* Know your target – be sure to know who are your target visitors. If you promote the product in a wrong place (e.g., SEO product to a health site), then it is not relevant or they will call you as spammer. The niche of the product and the targeted website must match or closely related, and that’s where you get sales. Traffic is the lifeline of every affiliate marketer who wants to make a living of their career, and they have to do it through promoting it in a targeted site through search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) basis.

*Build your own list – this is very important for an affiliate marketer. We heard the quote about “Money is on the list“ from other top bloggers, which we need to build it on our own. For those who can afford to pay for professional list building, Aweber is the best choice because you can control the flow of your newsletters or broadcasts to send to your subscribers, and with professional web forms as well. But if you cannot afford yet, FreeAutoBot is another good option for those who want free but with limited features. When visitors entered their name and e-mail address to your web form or squeeze page, it means they will always be updated about your blog broadcasts and newsletters as well. It is quite understood that when a visitor subscribes with your blog or squeeze page, they have lots of interests on it and considering themselves as potential customers. Once again, you need traffic to increase the number of subscribers to your blog or website, either free or paid.

The more you know about your product, target and building your list, the more you earn with affiliate marketing and to gain profits as well.

So do you think this is an easy game now?

We’ll, it’s easy for you to read all methods to make money on affiliate marketing, but it’s not easy when you take action. Reading might not help you a lot, because action speaks louder than words. If an affiliate marketer didn’t take action seriously, consider himself a failure. We understand that as a beginner to affiliate marketing, we might fail on every single method we apply. Quitting is not an option for an affiliate marketer once a method fails, it needs him to try again and “think outside the box”. Affiliate marketers starts with failure, and they will continue to improve by learning from their mistakes on different methods that failed them. An affiliate marketer with a positive attitude and with passion will become a winner someday, and anybody can do that by knowing the real game of it.

Affiliate marketing is not an easy game, but it makes you feel better everyday by learning new things until the beans are spilled with success!

About

I am a simple guy but also called as "The Affiliate Marketing Addict". I have been so passionate about this game since I entered the world of affiliate marketing. From a hardcore gamer in my early years, now I'm about to become a hardcore affiliate marketer like the others.

Reader Interactions

Related Posts

{ 43 Responses }

  1. Andrew Thomas says:
    Thanks for sharing your ideas and thoughts. I'd really agree with you that affiliate marketing is really not an easy one, even if you have all methods to make money on affiliate marketing, but it’s not easy when you take action. Looking forward on more of you ideas and thoughts. Cheers.
  2. Mark says:
    Knowing the product is the most important aspect of AM as you mentioned, Jeff. I read so many reviews where the affiliate obviously doesn't know what they are talking about because they obviously haven't used the product. A good rule of thumb: Become an affiliate for a product that you have used and believe in. Thanks, Mark
  3. Kavita says:
    I think understanding the affiliate product or affiliate program is the first step in affiliate marketing. Yes it is not easy to be successful in affiliate marketing. But still there is a tremendous increase in the amount of affiliate programs on internet that creates hope, motivation and passion. Thanks for the article.
  4. bryan says:
    affiliate marketing is certainly no easy work and hearing claims that you can make 124, 870 dollars in a month is bull... with minimal work and effort... etc.. I think being an authority about an affiliate product is much better than just selling it. But I'm sure there're a lot of ppl out there who are just promoting.
  5. Usama says:
    With time, passion and learning everything can be taught. Failure also plays a part in your success but not necessarily. Thanks for the post.
  6. JamestheJust on Elance says:
    I didn't read all the comments, hopefully nobody's said this yet - But affiliate marketing is no different than any other sales, at its root. More than knowing your product, you need to know your competition's - and if you can't out-sell your competitor... Hmm...review site! Sell theirs, too. Anyway, learning the basics of selling before you learn the basics of setting up a site is key to really making it, IMHO. I think too often the cart goes before the horse and people hop online without knowing some real basics, like how to close a sale. Like anything, doing your homework is key to your success - and it goes beyond just one ebook (though I do love ebooks, don't get me wrong - I've read two so far this past year, both solid). You're right in this - it isn't "easy." On the other hand, if you know sales, I think it is easy. Almost too easy. Then you need to learn SEO...which is also easy so long as you read.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Hey James, Thanks for the heads up! But still it's a lot of competition out there, and it needs for us to dominate the competition in order to get some sales. It's not an easy game because we need to work harder for that. If we "jump to our saddle" without knowing anything in terms of proper selling and dominating the competitors, we're a total idiot. Money is not easy right now, as we need to go one step at a time to achieve it.
  7. ZK says:
    Nothing is easy my friend ... even if you want to have your dinner than that will also have several steps. Just go one by one and step by step and you will get the success.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Absolutely right ZK. Nothing is easy on this world now, because "easy money" is for suckers (unless they came from hard efforts, not lazy ones). Easy money schemes like high yield investment programs (HYIP), sports betting, paid autosurfs and money cyclers/doublers are still on the run, but they end up with "hit-and-run" basis. But if we care up trying hard to make money online, it will be guaranteed long-term or might give us a living someday to become real millionaires.
  8. Tinh says:
    I must say that affiliate marketing is a game, yes, it is no-easy game, it is a long process that inpatient bloggers never get success and it is even longer than any other MMO methods :-)
    • ZK says:
      If you want to establish yourself in any kind of business than you will have to invest your time and your money. But once you will established than money will come to you.
      • Jeff Caceres says:
        Right ZK. Time is money, and we have to take action of it. It needs a lot of sacrifice of our time and money to build our own fortune of success, and I learned it when I was in college. Right now I truly understand about sacrificing my own money to invest with a profitable business than buying gadgets or useless things with no returns except "Thank You" from the cashier. Money will come later, and be patient about it. :)
  9. panther says:
    Online marketing is simply a more written form of retail sales. At stores, you shop with physical products to touch and see. Online, it is the words that sell services or products, no physical contact. It's like shopping blind for many people.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      I agree with that, panther. Both online and direct marketing are tough, and not as easy as you think. We'll it's easy for you to read a book about online marketing and thinking about applying it, but taking action is where the real challenge is. You need to build good relationships to your customers first even if they're not interested with the product or service you sell. Relationships are one of the reasons that marketers are successful in their careers, so it's time to increase your own temperature to become successful.
  10. Tixy says:
    Interesting article. I think that key words for any project are: passion and vision. And one has to enjoy what he does. Without that - hard work becomes more difficult.
    • ZK says:
      I would like to add one more thing and that is giving your 100% in the right direction. There is no benefit of doing hard work like pendulum.
    • JamestheJust on Elance says:
      This is totally unrelated, but...nice blog you got there! I'll check it out when I have more time - Photshop tutorials? Who can't use that?? Sweet.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Hey Tixy, Glad that you like my post. You're right about passion and vision, because it is truly required for internet marketers (only for those who are millionaire-thinkers). But don't forget one thing too, which is to enjoy what you're doing. The more you enjoy, the more gold coins will fall from the sky like rain. :)
  11. Pritam says:
    Hi Jeff, Appreciate your efforts to explain the game of Affiliate Marketing. All the 3 points you have mentioned here are general and anybody with a little Affiliate marketing knowledge have the idea of this. Pritam Nagrale
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Hey Pritam, Welcome aboard! As we all know, every game in our business is not that easy. Just like restaurants, internet cafes, malls and other firms, it all starts the hard way. You won't make easy money in the first place, but you can make it if you're successful on it. Always show love and dedication to your business, especially affiliate marketing. Enjoy it even it's hard, a great challenge for us!
  12. Andreas says:
    With the rise of social media and social networking, it is no longer enough to convince the potential buyer to purchase a product with just a plain sales page like before. It is important to establish one as an authority in the field and gain trust from friends, fans and followers in order to achieve substantial sales.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      You're right Andreas. I agree that building relationships with our friends, fans, subscribers and followers is an important key to generate sales to your products. A simple sales page is not yet enough to build residual income, but we need to be connected with other people that has the same interest with our website or blog's niche or product.
  13. Patricia says:
    I hope to be monetizing my site in the next few weeks so this post is very relevant to me at the moment. I will have a mix of affiliate products and others that I will sell from my own site. There is so much hype and empty promises out there about affiliate marketing and how easy it is to make the $$$s that lots of newbies give up before they even get established. Thanks again for a really informative post. Patricia Perth Australia
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Good luck Patricia. Remember that if we want to make a sale of any product, building a good relationship with a customer is highly prioritized. I remember one quote that more than 90% of the affiliate marketers failed due to poor customer relationship and knowledge of the product. Time to take action!
      • Patricia says:
        That's one reason I haven't rushed into it. I am building up relationships with my readers and always answer their questions when they comment on my blog. I also visit their blogs and comment too. It is amazing how quickly we can build relationships within the blogging community and I am finding sites like this not only teaching me but also encouraging my blogging efforts. And you are so right; we have to know our products. That's why I intend to do product reviews for my customers. Patricia Perth Australia
        • Jeff Caceres says:
          This is where I'm lacking, Patricia. Building relationships with the other bloggers is one reason that I don't have any readers in my blog and I'm totally depressed. Now I've learned how important it is to gain good relationships with them, especially in promoting a product. And yes, we need to know our own product in making reviews. You will lose readership if one of the features or anything in your review is a complete false or shall we say "paid review". This is why when I review products from my blog (especially Clickbank digital products), I need to be careful and make sure that I test them out (even if it's a demo version). To be safe, better buy the product and try it out, then make an honest review and share it to other bloggers and visitors. Hope this one helps you a lot, Patricia. :)
  14. samuel says:
    I've just made two affiliate sites. The first has not made a sell in three months, so i made a better selecction. My second site made a sell a week after the launch. I took it as an excercise to learn and see that i can really make money online. That's why i'm developing a more ambitius project.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Hello Samuel. It's normal that you don't made any sale of your product for months. Unless you can think of something "outside-the-box", it will pull the trigger to your customers and they fire you back with some good ol' cash! But good thing that your other affiliate page has made some sales. Bottoms up for that pal! Right now I'm about to do split testing with the offers I choose on cost-per-action (CPA) offers as part of my experiment. I failed many times on different methods I searched on other blogs (some are saturated), but I am still on my knees and light up the torch to try again. Try and try until you succeed.
  15. Dan Lew says:
    Well explained Jeff, it is important to know that it is going to take a lot of effort in the beginning, painful effort, but long term you can sit back and spend a lot less hours.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Thanks man! I really appreciated that. I have studied affiliate and internet marketing for months, until now I'm still studying to earn profits from my respective affiliate programs. I know that this game is a long-term process before I can taste the sweetness of every dollar received. :)
      • ZK says:
        Affiliate is tough and I think somehow this is good for every those people who are here for long run.
  16. Suresh Khanal says:
    Marketting is impossible if you don't know what you are selling and who are your prospective buyers. The great three rules of marketting know your product, know your target and build your own list.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Absolutely right my friend. How can I market my product if I don't know what is it all about? It is an important key for every internet marketer in the world, and that's where they get sales from the customers. It's a challenge for me, and I'm up to it.
  17. Henway says:
    Great points here. Affiliate marketing is definitely not easy at all. It's discouraging sometimes to spend 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, 4 weeks a month building a website and in the end just see $10 at the end of the day... it's important to look at the long-term and see affiliate marketing as an investment. You're building equity in a way.. you're building pages, doing SEO, writing reviews, and then gradually building daily income. Once you build it to a decent level, you can stop doing, and have residual income.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      You know what, I only sleep around 4-6 hours a day. I sacrifice myself in order to be successful in the near future. Not even my parents can't stop me for what I'm doing, because they see that I am truly passionate and dedicated to this game and they see that it's worth for me to know about affiliate and internet marketing. Even I made nothing to affiliate marketing, I didn't stop myself to make my dream come true to become a successful affiliate marketer.
  18. TJ McDowell says:
    Interesting thought - affiliate marketing starts with failure. At least I'm in good company =) Eventually I'm hoping my work will pay off. If not, at least I'm helping my main site out by adding SEO value.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      TJ, Every method I tested on affiliate programs and CPA offers were a failure. Not one of them worked, but the wind won't stop the fire on my torch. I love affiliate and internet marketing, and this is where my passion grows on and on. I'm enjoying it and still I love experimenting my own "outside-the-box" methods. No matter how many times I fail, I always stand on my knees and try again.
  19. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Jeff, As you noted it helps to know something about the product you sell. This establishes authority. You're more likely to buy from an expert opposed to some dude who's just selling a product. Thanks for sharing the clear and actionable tips to becoming a successful affiliate marketer. Ryan
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      You're welcome Ryan. I love to write about tips, strategies, tutorials or anything that can help people out. At least I'm guiding everyone on the real game of affiliate marketing, and it's not that easy. Although it's easy to read and understand, but taking action is where the real challenge for us.
  20. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Certainly it isn't easy @ the start. Once its setup nicely, then you can manage it pretty well.
    • Jeff Caceres says:
      Mani, It all starts with hard efforts, and we need to study hard and take action no matter how long it takes. I did invest both money and time for affiliate marketing, and I know that it takes time to get our return, or even more than that. Just like any other traditional business, it really takes time. Unless there are some methods that can get me good profits in a matter of time, that would be more interesting. But anyway, it's still a hard effort for me.