Reality Check – What Is Reality For Most Affiliates?

I got an email today from somebody I helped out a bit with some technical problems with Linkshare datafeeds. Actually I helped quite a lot and since I can not accept financial compensation for my consulting work at this time, what I told that person, did I find one day a package at my door with some nice business-casual shirts.

A little thank you present for my help. That was very nice. We kept in touch and I received this email today which touched my heart:

I read and read and read, and frankly I’d love to make enough to Quit my Day Job!!!!!!! I still only bring in about $200/month. It’s so frustrating. What are these people doing that I’m not? I devote 40+ hours per week on just affiliate stuff. Do you know what I’m doing wrong?

What about this guy’s book Quit the Day Job, does it actually teach you how to make $thousands per month — (which I deserve – so everyone tells me : ) ) ???? Or is he just selling something. I’m frustrated and $30,000 in debt.

Working hard.

I know that this affiliate is not standing alone and that a lot of affiliates, the majority actually will not make it to the point to be able to sustain their living from affiliate commissions.

I sat down and took the time to write a rather long response with some tips and recommendation, which I am also going to share with the readers of ReveNews.

Here is my response (unedited, except for a few spelling errors):
Note: since I reference often to cumbrowski.com, so I suggest to take the time to read my Editorial Note for the site first.

Jeremy Palmer who wrote “Quit your Day Job” is a good guy and for real. The book is also pretty good for newbie’s and people with content sites such as yourself. I own the book myself and read parts of it.

James Martel’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook and Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook are praised by people I know and trust, but I did not read them myself nor own them.

You might want to have a look here.

There are also some good freebies like fundamental articles and even free full length eBooks.

I would also check out Affiliate Classroom. For $1 for the first month is their not much you can do wrong.

I think it is something like $20 after that, but by then should you have been able to make up your mind about it and if it is worthwhile for you to continue.James Martels Affiliate Bootcamp is pretty comprehensive but pricey though. The good thing is, that it comes in Video, Audio and Print for the people that need to hear and see it and not just read.

I for my part do more search, paid search. It’s certainly something you should at least look into and try. Most PPC Services offer free clicks $20-$100 for new customers. You can find promos here:

Greg Niland (Good ROI) did a very good episode in January which you should listen to. I very good rundown of the basics in 1 hour. It will make your head spin Make sure that you have plenty paper available to take notes. I blogged about it at ReveNews.

Content sites are hard and require a lot of things to make them successful. Picking a niche you like personally is essential or chances are slim that you will eventually make it.

Putting up a site and nothing else does not gonna cut it anymore. You MUST build a customer base. Building an email list and providing good and relevant content via email is essential.

You want to build a long term relationship with people that they come back to you and also refer you to friends and family. Building a customer base is tough and you need to pull all strings available to get people interested in what you do.

SEO, Paid Search to promote YOUR business, Social Media, Blogging/Forums etc. are all tools and methods you should use to make people notice you. I can recommend CopyBlogger.com.

Read the blog and also check out his resources, free eBooks and past posts. A lot of free Gems. Copywriting is an important part for a content site, check out the resources to that here .

I consider the read of books from the Eisenberg brothers a must. “Call to Action” and “Waiting for your cat to bark?” are internet marketing and online conversion bibles.

Regarding PPC check out Brad Geddes Blog eWhisper.net. He made his book available for free. You can download it among other free eBooks to Paid Search here.

Andrew Goodman’s books are the best books on the market to paid search.

His classic (but a bit aged) book “Winning Results with Google AdWords” is fairly inexpensive compared to his constantly updated eBook “Google Adwords Handbook”. You get updates for free for life which justifies the much higher price tag.

PPC is good to promote your own business, but more important is IMO paid search arbitrage. Promoting merchant products or services directly via PPC. This can help to pay the bills while you build the longer lasting customer based business of your own.

Marketing Experiments had some good posts about paid search, which you might want to check out as well.
- Small PPC search engines revisited
- Online marketing metrics
- 90 day ppc plan

Regarding SEO …

I know that it is expensive, but it is the best resource in compact form to SEO I know of. I am talking about Aaron Wall’s SEO Book. I recommended him to make some Pages available for free that people can get an Idea about the quality of his book. He really knows his shit and is also a great writer, but $79 is a lot of money for an e-Book. It’s worth every penny of it, but you find that out after you buy it, which is a bit too late for some potential customers

I bought it a long while ago and it grew over time to actually 2 1/2 books. 1 book with over 300 pages is the core, another one that is already more than 150 pages has interviews with tons of different SEOs and Search Engine Employees and Engineers and a huge collection of tools and resources that are very helpful. A bunch of the resources I have to SEO at Cumbrowski.com did I learn about from those add-on. He also throws in a small guide to PPC as well, so it’s actually 3 books hehe.

A cheaper alternative for starters is “Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day” which is also pretty new and thus not as much out of date as most other books. The “VEO Report” was praised by a friend, but I refuse to buy it. I will review it if I get a copy for free, but I spent already enough money on books just to check them out but not to actually learn much from them. Colin did not send me a copy yet, but I also did not tell him directly that I am waiting for one

The foundation for SEO and PPC is Keyword research. Keep this page handy, which has a lot of tools and services in all shapes and sizes to do you diligence.

And to round my 101 for you up, check the Email marketing resources. There are free guides to how to design a good newsletter, technically (HTML Guide) and content and layout wise.

All is in vain, if you don’t measure success and failure. Here are tons of good resources and services to Web Analytics. A lot are free, others cheap up to the Rolls Royce’s of Analytics

Google Analytics is good for starters and when you get more serious, check out ClickTracks. Clicktracks runs on your computer so you don’t share your data with Google.

If you are sick and tired of reading, check out the collection of Podcasts, Videos and Video Blogs here

Keep this email handy. It’s a lot to digest. Take it one step at the time and be persistent and focused and you will do fine. Internet marketing is full of opportunities, but it is no free ride to endless riches via doing nothing. Anybody who claims that is a liar and does not have your interests and needs in mind but only his own.

That’s it. I wrote it down in one piece and sent it without reading it once. I read it now one time while I made the blog post out of it and bloke up some bigger paragraphs etc. So see it as what it is, a quick rundown of the topic out of my head on the fly. May be it is a good thing or may be it is not. Tell me what you think.

Feel free to share any comments or additional suggestions and recommendations. I am sure that there are plenty of people that would appreciate that. A lot of affiliates are grateful for any help they can get.