Reflecting on 2007… The Law of Attraction in Action

December 31st, 2007 by Melanie

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This is a guest post by Melanie Tan.

Hi all! It’s a privilege to be able to end the year with Amit’s loyal friends and readers. Keeping in mind the spirit and true intention of this blog site, I hope that this post puts you in the right affiliate marketing MINDSET for 2008…

So what has 2007 been like for me in this wonderful world of online marketing? It has been a BLAST! So many things happened. Some of them, quite frankly, I never even thought was in the realm of possibility…

Early in 2007, a client of mine wanted a series of SEO articles that made use of the principles outlined in The Secret. He sent me a link so I can watch the movie online.

The movie blew my mind NOT because I thought I was losing out and was in the wrong mindset but because I never knew how powerful some of my CURRENT habits were. That’s right; I was doing many of the principles in The Secret without even realizing it!

So I began to focus more and ‘fine-tune’ my thinking and business goals and before I knew it… lo and behold…

  • As clear as day, a ‘niche’ presented itself to me and I acted on it. I built a website (I owe this one to Tom), and made it EXACTLY what people wanted. I didn’t market it, didn’t even have time to issue a press release; but since Day 1 of this site being online, I NEVER had a ‘lull period’. There are ALWAYS clients clicking the Buy button and ordering the service provided on that site.
  • In May, I was in Asia and out of the blue, I got invited to Singapore to check out the World Internet Summit. I went and got the chance to meet Armand Morin, Ewen Chia, and other affiliate marketing heavyweights. Personally, the best was seeing Jay Abraham on stage. The guy gets paid thousands of dollars PER HOUR by Fortune 500 CEOs and here I was – front row – listening to life, marketing and business ‘golden nuggets’ of information.

(Side note: I even got into a telephone conference with Jay Abraham months later!)

  • Michel Fortin. Michel Fortin. Michel Fortin.

I know this is a story you can relate to… You’re a beginner and you’re looking up to someone who’s already ‘there’, a mentor if you will (for many of you, that would probably be Amit:). And you really hope that this mentor is a REALLY nice guy; that you won’t be disappointed by the ‘person’ behind the ‘packaging’.

Well, I WASN’T when I came under the tutelage of Michel Fortin, one of today’s BEST online copywriters. For one whole month, I was coached one-on-one by Michel Fortin on just about every aspect of making killer website copy that sells 24/7. I thank Michel for being a great and generous mentor! Thanks to him copywriting clients are pouring in (as well as online sales from our affiliate sites).

  • Google Quality Score changes

For me, quality is ALWAYS over quantity so I never overbook myself with clients. However, when the Google Quality Score changes kicked in and almost every affiliate marketer realized just how important unique and relevant content is… well, clamor for our article writing services went through the roof!

Who am I to deny good mojo?!? Do you really want to say ‘Wait! I need to catch my breath’ or ‘I’m not ready’ to opportunity? Me? I hired and personally trained more writers to accomodate the need.

There are so many more things that happened both professionally and personally but I won’t bore you with all the details. Just focus on the fact that what I outlined above were just some of the opportunities that presented themselves to me. And I truly believe that they were the result of me focusing, working and achieving things that I did list down at the beginning of 2007. So the list above? A bonus from the universe!

And imagine, in between all of these, I traveled, took breaks, and even took a month-long vacation one time!

Through all of these, this phrase from The Secret comes to my mind, again and again and again…

Discover what you really want… once you get your act together… and commit to achieving your dreams… the Universe will bend over backwards to support you.

So don’t say “I wonder what 2008 will bring…”.

Instead, IDENTIFY what you want to happen and say “These are the things I will achieve in 2008…” AND DO THEM.

This is the Super Affiliate MINDSET you need to thrive in 2008.

Good luck!

Melanie Tan heads an online content provision company that provides thousands of SEO articles, autoresponder messages, online press releases, and other e-content annually. She is also a professional copywriter who specializes in affiliate marketing landing pages.

Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset, affiliate marketing | 4 Comments »

Affiliate New Year’s Resolution: More Outsourcing

December 28th, 2007 by Doug

First off, special thanks to Amit for the invitation to contribute a post to his blog. Amit has set the bar high for good content on his blog, and I hope to live up. :-)

I think this is a good follow-up post to Miles’ excellent post. As I read his post I started reflecting on my own business - you know, what I’ve done well, and what areas need improvement.

Well, in my own business there’s one area that could use improvement: more outsourcing.

I know, you’ve heard it before, right? Of course. But it’s true. If you analyze your business and find that you’re single-handedly running the show, congratulations - you’ve just identified your own bottleneck!

If you don’t start looking for ways to outsource some tasks now, eventually it will limit the amount of profits you earn and probably contribute to burn out as you struggle to keep up with everything. If that sounds like you, this post is designed to help you get started.

Where should you start? Website design and article writing.

Website Design

But wait, why would you pay someone to create a site when there are HTML editors available for free? Well, unless you are very comfortable with HTML and you have good graphics skills (i.e., you know Photoshop or an equivalent program), I don’t recommend building a site yourself. Let’s face it, affiliate marketing is only getting more competitive. If you want to compete in most markets today - you’re going to need a professional looking site with graphics - period.

But isn’t that going to cost a thousand dollars or more? I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that you can find people on Elance and/or Rent-A-Coder that will deliver a simple but professional looking site for $150-$250. Additionally, you may be able to reuse the same website template as you tackle other related markets. So, that one time investment may pay off two or three times.

Article Writing

Article writing is another good task to outsource. Whether we like it or not Google has forced us into becoming info publishers. I think Amit mentioned that he’ll have at least 25 original articles on his site before starting a new campaign. I do the same thing. The good news is that it’s not hard to find good article writers on Elance. In case you’re new to the process of outsourcing your article writing, here are some guidelines I use:

  • Start small. When looking for a new provider, I’ll usually start with an order of no more than 10 articles. If the project turns out well, then I’ll try a larger order.
  • Always go with a provider with good feedback. I like to go with people with a 90% or better positive feedback rating.
  • Look for a provider with writing samples. When working with a new provider I like to see a few samples and I look for someone with “SEO” in their description. This indicates that they know how to write good articles for the web (e.g., Good and balanced keyword use in the title and throughout the article body).
  • Only use original content. State in your project description that all articles must contain 100% original content. I’ve never received plagiarized content, but I’ve heard from others that it happens. Picking a good writer with good feedback will reduce the risk.
  • How much should you pay? I generally pay about $10 an article. This seems to be the going rate for my markets. Bonus tip: if the person did a good job with the articles, make sure to leave positive feedback and tip over the agreed price. You want to start building relationships wih your providers.
  • Find 2-3 providers. I like to have 2-3 “go-to guys”. In case one is too busy to take my project, one of my other preferred providers is usually available. I’ve also had providers disappear from Elance for whatever reason. This is another reason to use more than one provider.

Anyway, those are just a few tips and recommendations to help get you started. Of course, if you’re just getting started you may not have the budget to hire anyone at any price. That’s understandable. But really make it a goal that you will start to outsource at the very first opportunity.

If the idea of outsourcing sounds a little overwhelming or intimidating, don’t worry, once you get your feet wet it becomes easier.

Thanks for reading and here’s to a happy and prosperous 2008!

- Doug Partridge

Posted in General Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing | 10 Comments »

Affiliate Marketing: Past, Present, and Future

December 26th, 2007 by Miles

This is a guest post by Miles Baker

Like the Ghost of Christmas Past, I’m going to detail some of my experiences and predictions in affiliate marketing that may sound somewhat like yours. Similar to how Ebenezer Scrooge saw changes he needed to make in his life, you may see some of the necessities of changing the way you’re marketing online. Whether you’re an inexperienced marketer or big-time Super Affiliate, I know you’ll relate to what I’m about to share with you. My hope is you will discover something about your affiliate marketing business and perhaps yourself…

Past:

I started marketing online back in the late 90’s, so I’ve been around a while and have seen a lot of changes take place over the years. Back in my newbie days of marketing I would get suckered into the latest Internet marketing fad over and over again. It seemed there was always some kind of ‘secret’ that if I found out just a simple ‘trick’ or ‘secret shortcut’ I could make thousands of dollars.

In the past I had no clue what I was doing really. I had some basic marketing knowledge, good computer skills, and a lot of determination, but I was young, had little money, and was full of more wishful thinking than common sense sometimes. Without determination I NEVER would have been successful online, and neither will you. In fact, if there is one simple ‘trick’ or ‘secret shortcut’ it’s determination, the unwillingness to quit which goes hand in hand with plain hard work.

In the past I spent an INCREDIBLE amount of time learning. Reading, studying, and experimenting; something we should all do more of. As I look back I see this was something that made me who I am today, but it is also something that I’ve neglected lately.

In the past I was hungry! I would stay up until all hours of the night reading marketing tips and editing my websites. My determination was much greater in the past than it is presently. In fact, perhaps lately I’ve gotten a little lazy with my success. Has that happened to you?

In the past some things were easier (SEO for instance). Some things were harder due to the lack of resources that weren’t available. But if the past has taught me anything, it’s that things will always change and persistence will prevail no matter what may be hard or easy at the time.

Present:

Presently life is good. My affiliate marketing is successful, and it seems there are a gazillion more legitimate resources for affiliate marketers. There’s much more sound advice online, and the amount of misinformation does seem to be dwindling. This is especially true in the presence of the growing social atmosphere of the web, where what you say is becoming ever more analyzed and scrutinized.

Now it seems marketers (most anyway) are really catching on! Not only is information about affiliate marketing becoming more prevalent, but it’s becoming better! It seems every year I’m increasingly surprised by what people have discovered and shared.

As it did in the past, the present is always changing. The way I see it, there wasn’t any more opportunity in the past than there is now, and there will be no less opportunity in the future. People will always be making millions and discovering new ways to do things online. However, the playing field is always changing and we must continually adapt with it.

Recently I’ve noticed the barrier to entry in many markets is growing. For example, it’s not as easy as it once was to set up a website and get traffic from SEO. However, I’ve noticed that with the increase of resources and tools available it’s still very possible to get over that barrier for those who are committed.

Today, there are a lot of new developments and opportunities still waiting to be exploited that haven’t quite found their footing yet. Facebook comes to mind. Can you think of any in your business? Opportunities are here now for those who are looking for them.

Presently it seems we are at the brink of a new age online. There are so many things on the forefront that will change the way we market that those who are presently staying ahead of the curve are the only ones who will ensure their survival as affiliate marketers.

Future:

The future is amazing. It’s profitable, fun, and not to mention the possibility of fulfillment for whatever you want. There are so many new services coming out that I can see eventually the ways in which we are connected will be instantaneous, unlimited, and even larger.

I will lay out a few of my future predictions and ideas about where affiliate marketing is going. If you stay ahead of the curve, keep focused and motivated, and don’t repeat the mistakes of your past, success in affiliate marketing is yours for the taking…

Social networking is going to turn affiliate marketing into referral marketing and it already has. If you want to stay ahead of the game, I recommend building up an audience, allowing your audience to interact, and give them what they want. Think forums, review sites, social user reviews, and other forms of social recommendations. Either you or your website needs to become a trusted authority, expert resource, and dare I say ‘guru’ for your niche.

Thin affiliate sites, affiliate based review sites, and anything with little value is on its way out and always has been. The web is a large place that is very well connected and it won’t be long before the majority sees what the minority (us affiliate marketers) can see, such as review websites only reviewing products to sell to unsuspecting visitors with no actual ‘reviewing’ taking place.

Rip-offs such as fake MP3 and movie download sites, and all other forms of scams are already losing ground. Remember, as we become more connected we all become more informed.

Although neither you nor I can really predict the future with 100% accuracy your best bet to secure your affiliate business is to continually stay on the cutting edge of the present. I know after writing this I will be reading and learning more, as well as setting my 2008 goals for increased motivation. Do the same and secure your affiliate marketing business now before you become a ghost of affiliate marketing past.

Miles Baker is a 10 year Internet marketing veteran. For more information on him visit his website MarketingWithMiles.com

Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 9 Comments »

I’m Off to India for the Rest of the Year!

December 20th, 2007 by Amit

There’s one productivity tip I left off in my last post, do you know what that is?

Taking FREQUENT vacations of course!

This productivity tip works best AFTER you quit your job. LOL

In the spirit of living the Super Affiliate Lifestyle, my wife and I are yet again taking a vacation. This one is more than just a vacation, it’s near and dear to my heart…

We’re going to India for the first time together. We’re going to meet up with family and visit Mumbai (in Maharashtra), Gujarat, Rajesthan, and some other cool places.

Seriously, I’ve almost lost count of how many trips Shilpi and I have already taken this year, here a list:

  1. Bermuda
  2. Alaska
  3. Vancouver & Victoria
  4. Austin, TX (3 times)
  5. Houston, TX (twice)
  6. NJ (twice)
  7. Las Vegas (twice)
  8. Miami
  9. Chicago (twice)

I NEVER could have done this if I was still working a job for two reasons:

Lack of Time : I spend WAY more time traveling than the 2-4 weeks vacation time you get in a job

Lack of Money : I will have spend over $50k traveling (that includes conferences) once I tally in the India trip!?! There’s no way I could even come close to paying for this if I was still working at MIT.

I love traveling, especially to other countries where I can experience different people, cultures, sites, and cuisines (yum!)

Shilpi and I plan on traveling even more in 2008.

So what’s India like?

I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!

PS While I’m gone I’m going to ask some of my closest and very successful friends in the business to do some guest posts. They really know what they’re talking about and have a LOT to share, so stay tuned!

Posted in Industry News, lifestyle | 10 Comments »

Super Affiliate Productivity Tips

December 19th, 2007 by Amit

I recently had the privilege of teaming up with Greg Cesar to work on an exciting project that’s sure to be my BIGGEST money maker to date.

I love working with Greg, he’s the funniest guy I’ve met in this business. Anyhow, Greg asked me a question, that realized I often get asked : “Amit how do you have so much ENERGY!”

When he asked me that I didn’t have an answer for him. Then I really thought it and realized there’s actually a lot of things I do that help me keep my mental and physical energy at a high level throughout the days.

Having a high energy level and mental focus is extremely important, especially if you want to develop the ‘magical’ momentum in your business where your income takes off! :)

A lot of affiliate, especially when they first get free and starting doing the business full time expect that now that they have all day to dedicate to their affilaite efforts their income will explode!

WRONG!

What happens in most cases is that they are actually less productive even though they’re full time their income often stagnates, this happened to me BIG TIME, and I know a number of other affiliate who fell into the same trap.

So what went wrong…? And what can you do to be a Super Productive Affiliate and skyrocket your business??

Here’s the deal : Most part time affiliates are really super motivated by the fact that they hate their jobs and desperately want to quit and do affiliate marketing full time.

Guess what happens when their dream comes true? When they fire their boss and finally walk away from the 9 to 5 rat race to enter the ‘land of the living’?

You guessed it, they loss a lot of their drive and motivate AND since they now have all day to work on their affiliate business (when they only had a 1-2 hr/day before) they have tough time dealing with the transition.

So here’s a list of various things I do to keep my mental and physical energy & focus WAY up throughout the day :

  1. Weekly and Daily To-Do list : I keep a daily appointment calendar where I list 8-12 of the most important things I MUST get done that day and I do them.
  2. Do Top 2 Task FIRST : Do NOT check your email or read the paper first thing in the morning, start your day doing your 2 most important task first. These task should be income producing tasks that will directly impact the bottom line of your business. This one takes some real discipline, but once you get in the habit of doing this you’ll be amazed by the results.
  3. Eat 5-6 meals/day : This will give your body a steady flow of energy and keep you blood sugar level steady, preventing those nasty glycemic spikes in blood sugar that cause fatigue and drowsiness.
  4. Eat a High Fiber Diet: Not only will this do wonders for your health, it will also also keep your blood sugar levels from spiking which screws up your energy levels and metal focus.
  5. Get a FULL Night’s Sleep (7-9 hr/night) : I need around 8-9 hours a sleep a night to be fully rested in the morning. Now this might not be realistic for a part time affiliate, but if you’re doing this business full time it’s a MUST!
  6. Know Your Goals : Write your goals and/or find pictures that represent them. Put these goals somewhere you can see then everyday. DO NOT procrastinate on this.
  7. Outsource Low Value Tasks : Are you spending a good chunk of your day doing activities that can be done by a secretary or VA? This is a big mental energy drainer, if you know what I mean! Find a good VA asap and outsource these tasks.
  8. Focus on Your Strengths and Outsource the Rest : This is a big one, when I started focusing on marketing and ppc and outsourced web design, content creation, and even writing copy my business skyrocketed. Focus on what you’re best at and outsource the rest, as a business owner you need to LIVE by this motto.
  9. Your Work Environment : Make sure you’re working in an uncluttered environment, work on a large desk with lots of space, sit in a high back ergonomic chair. Make sure you have good lighting and are comfortable where you work. Have your own home office, if possible, separate from everything else.
  10. Take Breaks Every 60-90 Minutes : This ones a no-brainier as far as I’m concerned, you need to recharge your “mental batteries” throughout the day to maintain a high energy level. Here’s some suggestions…

Suggested Break #1 : Go to the Gym! Even if you just spend 20 minutes on the tread mill you’d be surprised how refreshed and energized you’ll feel. A great time to go to the gym is in the morning.

Suggested Break #2 : Meditate. In my opinion this is the #1 way to recharge your metal energy and focus. I meditate for 1 hour EVERYDAY, 7 days a week. This has had a huge impact on my personal life and my business.

Suggested Break #3 : Take a 20-30 minute cat nap. This REALLY helps if you’re feeling physically exhausted.

Suggested Break #4 : Any non-computer/non-business activity that relaxes you and preferably involve some amount of physical activity.

Honestly, if you’re one of the many affiliates out there struggling to be productive, it’s going to be really tough breaking old habits.

The sooner you change those old habits and become a Super Productive Affiliate, the sooner your business will SKYROCKET and the quality of your life will dramatically improve.

Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 18 Comments »

Christmas Season is Here…Oh Yeah!

December 16th, 2007 by Amit

I have to admit, Christmas time is my FAVORITE time of the year. I love the opportunity to spend more time with family, to travel, and all that.

In fact my wife and I are going to India this Christmas to visit relatives and vacation. :)

Now as a super affiliate I REALLY LOVE Christmas, because December is by far my best month in terms of sales and profits.

Up to around Dec 14th my sales overall completely sucked this month, I thought to myself : “What’s going on??”

Then today I almost fell out of my chair when I checked my Dec 15th sales stats for just one of my affiliate accounts. Check it out:

big-sales-day2.jpg big-sales-day1.jpg

$14,816 in sales in ONE DAY

I ended up netting over $10k profit, in ONE DAY!

UNREAL!

For all you job people out there, how’s that for a year end Christmas bonus? LOL

What’s nuts is that this is ONLY the beginning, between Dec 20-Jan 1st is really the big time to cash in, when conversions and traffic in a lot of online markets go through the roof!

When you take the time to really build an affiliate campaign, I mean build it solid, with a real site, dozens of targeted landing pages, a massive keyword list, the rewards just keep coming in!

This campaign, that made almost $15k in one day - you know what, I spend a short but intense period of time launching and optimizing it.

Now it’s on virtual autopilot, bring in massive profits, month, after month, after month!

I LOVE THIS BUSINESS! :)

Posted in Industry News, lifestyle | 22 Comments »

A Big Mistake Almost Every Affiliate Makes…

December 15th, 2007 by Amit

There’s one serious mistake that almost every newbie affiliate makes, and I made it a bunch of times when I got started. Once I realized I was making this mistake, I completely changed my strategy to ppc affiliate marketing and my business started to really take off for the first time.

So what’s this one serious mistake?

We’ll let me tell you about a conversation I had with one of my students on a group coaching call just this week.

Let’s call him Joe.

Joe was really excited, he wanted to know how to find a programmer on Elance to build him an affiliate site. He told me how he had found a high traffic keyword that had very little competition for the affiliate offer he wanted to promote.

He wanted to build an entire site around this ONE keyword.

I asked him if he had tested this keyword by just writing a Google ad going straight to the affiliate link (Googlecash).

He hadn’t!

So I asked him : “So Joe, you’re going to hire someone off Elance to build an entire site around 1 keyword that you’re not even sure will convert??”

Do you see where I’m getting at here?

Here’s where Joe went wrong :

  1. NEVER base an affiliate campaign on ONE keyword (or just a few keywords). You’re building your house out of straw, and the big bad wolf (Google and your competitors) can come by and blow your house down!
  2. NEVER assume that because a certain high traffic keyword has little competition that it’s going to be a goldmine. Chances are that this keyword has little competition because : it doesn’t convert OR Google is slapping all the advertisers for this keyword with high minimum bids.
  3. NEVER build a whole site around a niche, an affiliate offer, and/or a keyword WITHOUT first testing to see if the market is viable. Doing a small scale campaign with a simple landing page or just going direct to merchant is a great way to test a market before you go gung ho and build a whole 30 page site for it.

The idea that you need to find all the keywords that have less than 8 ads and bid on them since they have little competition made sense when Google Adwords had first started and there were still a lot of great keywords that most advertisers had completely missed (and very little competition overall compared to now).

Now that Adwords has really matured don’t expect to find high converting keywords that have less than 8 ads (unless Google has tightened the quality score requirements for that keyword).

Here’s my strategy, bid on EVERYTHING, that is, every relevant keyword in your market and see what converts. More often than not, you’ll discover that the HIGH CPC keywords convert the best and usually have the best ROI.

Why is that?

Think about it, keywords are high CPC because they convert well! Advertisers bid higher on keywords that are making money. Now as an affiliate your goal is to have your ads on the bottom of the first page for these high converting keywords, where you’ll pay a fraction of what the advertisers in the first 3 positions are paying. :)

Posted in affiliate marketing | 12 Comments »

Google’s Christmas Present

December 13th, 2007 by Amit

When you start spending big money with Adwords, Google periodically sends you presents, which are usually cool little gizmos of one sort or another.

Okay, I have to admit, my favorite gift from Google is the mini fridge, you can see mine in the lower right hand corner of this picture:

before-trip.jpg

You know you’re a super affiliate when you get that mini fridge in the mail! LOL

Seriously you have to spend some serious cash with Google before they send you one.

Before that Google had sent me a digital photo display gizmo, which I ended up throwing away.

Now just yesterday I received the coolest gadget to date from Google :

google-gizmo.jpg

Do you know what this is?

It’s a 2GB portable hard drive that’s the size of a credit card!

Pretty Cool!

Not as cool as an Amex Black card but I had to spend way more money to qualify for this little Google present than I did to qualify for my black card!

You’d think if you spend over $1,000,000 with Google in one year they’d fly you to their headquarters and throw you a party along with all the other high spenders.

Still waiting on that invitation!

Posted in lifestyle | 17 Comments »

Secrets of the Content Network Revealed

December 11th, 2007 by Amit

The Google Content Network is best described as a powerful mysterious beast that many affiliates fear to even turn on.

We’ll if you haven’t figured it out yet, let me tell you:

There’s a FREAKIN’ FORTUNE to be made on the content network. So ALWAYS TEST IT.

I’ve had a lot of success with the content network and still learning more about it all the time. My friend Geordie Carswell recently wrote a fantastic post about the Content Network, based on Google’s blog post on Content Keywords.

A lot of what Google finally ‘revealed’ about the content network I had more or less suspected:

  1. Google bases your ad placement based on the theme of the keywords in the adgroup (not the individual keywords), so it’s good to have a tightly targeted theme. If you have tightly targeted adgroups then this is not a problem. :)
  2. Broad, phrase, and exact match don’t matter for content, that’s a given based on point #1

It’s reassuring to hear these above points-which I had long suspected were true-from the horses mouth itself!

Now here what surprised me:

  1. Adding duplicate keywords into multiple adgroups to capture a theme such as flowers!
  2. Adding negative keywords, and lots of them.

I wouldn’t recommend the duplicate keyword method unless your content network traffic is converting REALLY well and you’re looking for ways to increase your traffic.

However, adding negatives is a killer idea.

Haven’t touched the content network yet?

Here’s what I suggest:

  1. Get your stuff on Google Search FULL OPTIMIZED first. I mean the whole ball of wax: adjusting bid positions, split testing your Google ads, expanding your keyword list, adding negative keywords, etc, etc.
  2. Use Adwords Editor : Go to the ‘Campaign’ tab and select the campaign you want to switch over to the content network. Hit Ctrl-C (Copy) and then Ctrl-V (paste). This will make a copy of your campaign. Now add ‘-Content’ at the end of your campaign and change the campaign setting so it’s Content ONLY!
  3. Now just upload your new Content campaign to your Google account and let it run . You’re going to have to adjust the bids since the conversion rate on Content and Search are different - even at the adgroup level. Just collect data and made adjustments as necessary.

Do you know what’s REALLY cool about the content network?

You don’t have to worry about minimum bids.

SO SWEEEET!

Posted in Google™ AdWords | 13 Comments »

What’s the Secret to Affiliate Success?…Part II

December 8th, 2007 by Amit

Okay, here’s Part II of the Secret to Affiliate Success Part I post I did.

This time I really want to talk more about scaling and WHY that’s a big secret to success in affiliate marketing. I already talked about HOW last time.

If you really think about it, building scale is an important part of any business. If you own one hot dog stand, you’re very limited in how much money you’ll make in one day, and on top of that it will consume all your time.

So how do you scale a hot dog stand?

You hire out someone to run your hot dog stand, heck, franchise it out, give then 90% of the profits and you take 10%. Now do this 100 times, and you’ll be making 10x more than you were with just one hot dog stand and have free up all of your time (except for possibly training new hot dog stand owners)!

Now you can imagine the enormous time and money it would take to sell a 100 hot dog stand franchises to people and get them up and running.

In most traditional businesses it’s REALLY hard to scale. Even in online businesses, outside of affiliate marketing, scaling can be a pain in the butt.

Think about it.

Even if you’re selling a software product online, how difficult would be to take your company from $1M/year to $10M/year? With 10 times the sales you’re going to need 10 times the customer support, ten times the server capacity, bigger office space, etc, etc, etc.

A lot of start ups go belly up because they face fast growth in the beginning and they can’t handle it, that is they can’t scale fast enough to handle the growth. Now that’s a scary thought!

So what makes affiliate marketing different?

If you take your affiliate business for $500/day in sales to $5,000/day in sales you don’t have to worry about : hiring more employees, getting more office space, or anything like that.

Now the only bottleneck you may face here is your credit card limit, if you want to make $5,000/day in sales you’re most likely going to have to spend $2,000-$3,000 A DAY on ppc to hit that. If you get an American Express Gold card and build up your history you’ll have nothing to worry about (BIG TIP). :)

The ability to easily and rapidly build scale is what makes affiliate marketing a really unique business model.

I mean, what other business can you go into and start making $10k/month profit in within 3-6 months?

Now, last time I talked about how you need to build a team and a system to do the work of building scale in your affiliate business. I realized I talked above most people’s heads, so let me give more practical advice that newbies and intermediate affiliates can start applying right away.

Lets say you have success with dog training, you understand what keywords convert, what copy works. You’ve setup a nice review site, where you review various dog training ebooks etc.

So how do you scale this?

Easy, promote other types of pet training ebooks using the same methodology you used for dog training. You can go into cat training, bird training, etc.

In different markets you need different strategies to be successful. You want to milk one market as much as you can before you go into another market, pet training is a perfect example.

So if you’re just starting out don’t get overwhelmed by Part I of my post, just do this:

  1. Find a good niche, you’ll know it’s a good niche when you start making consistent profits! :)
  2. Build on your success by split testing your landing page, split testing your Google ads, adding more keywords, and expanding your campaign onto other PPC search engines.
  3. Now go into closely related niches (ie dog training, cat training, bird training) and use the same strategy you used in the original niche and duplicate your results.

It really is THAT simple!

Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset, PPC Marketing, affiliate marketing | 14 Comments »

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