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Ever since I start this blog I’ve gotten a lot of flack from people who think I’m absolutely nuts giving all this wonderful information away.

“Amit why can’t you just pitch ebooks like half of the affiliate marketing blogs out there do? Why do you have to give away industry secrets? The increased competition is going to kill us!?!?”

This type of thinking is pervasive in this industry. Everyone is REALLY secretive about their techniques and strategies, as well as the niches their in.

In fact, even some merchants have this attitude. I was about to go into the education leads market, working with some ad agency. I ask them if they could send me a list of universities and colleges they work with, and some other suggested keywords. They basically said they couldn’t share that information because they themselves were bidding on the same keyword!?!? HELLO, are you stupid? I’m a super affiliate here to produce a massive amount of leads for you, and make you money.

Needless to say, I’m not working with them, and they have no idea how HUGE a mistake they made.

Even my mother said I was crazy to reveal my most closely guarded secrets.

I’m hear to say that despite all the naysayer, I will continue to share my insights with the world, and hope to help as many affiliates as possible.

“But Amit, why would you that? Why not just keep all these money making secrets to yourself?”

Here’s why I believe that super affiliates and all successful people should share their secrets:

1. I believe the more you give, the more blessing you get in return. It’s the law of reciprocity, the law of giving and receiving, or whatever you want to call it. There are many ways of giving: your money, your time, your knowledge. This is an age old secret to success, and from my experience it works in amazing ways!
2. I really like helping people and watching them succeed! Once you’ve succeeded, having more success is awesome, however, there’s nothing like the feeling of helping others achieve success as well. And again, this will only accelerate your success.
3. The pie is only getting BIGGER! There are thousands of markets, and millions of keywords, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds every year. There’s enough opportunity out there for everyone to succeed and become a super affiliate.
   

So do YOU have a giving mindset or a hoarding mindset?

Let’s face it, a lot us affiliates are not exactly people persons, let alone charismatic leaders. If you’ve ever attend any affiliate conferences you’ll know what I’m talking about. Many of us are former nerds, some of us are still nerds, and a few affiliates are just flat out scary!

I used to be a total propeller head, a complete nerd, with the broken glasses and everything. It took me years of reading people skills books, leadership books, and working on my self-image before I got out of that phase of my life!

Now, what does this all have to do with having a winning affiliate team? Well, before you try building a team you need to develop some people and leadership skills so:

1. People will want to work with you.
2. People will be motivated to perform and take your business to the next level.
3. You can attract highly skilled and talented people onto your team.

Now think about it, if you’re a total jerk, no one will want to work with you. It also goes to say if you haven’t honed your people and leadership skills your team won’t be motivated to perform to their full potential, and people you find that are really talented won’t stay on your team for very long.

Now if you’re already a born leader, then you’ll have nothing to worry about. But if you’re like most people, somewhere between the Nutty Professor and Gandhi in terms of leadership skills, then there’s huge room for improvement.

And let me tell you, just a small improvement in your leadership ability can make a HUGE difference in the performance of your business team and your business profits.

Here’s 2 books that I highly recommend EVERYONE read:

1. Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell and Jim Dornan
2. How to Have Power and Confidence in Dealing with People by Les Giblin

To go amazon.com and order these books ASAP, or go to your local bookstore or library and get a copies. These books will totally change your business, and your life. I personally read over a dozen books about leadership/people skills and the these two are my personal favorites.

Want some practical tips you can apply right away?

Here’s some killer tips on how to lead and manage outsources/employees you bring onto your affiliate team:

1)Appreciation and Recognition:

The #1 thing employees complain about in Corporate America is lack of appreciation and recognition. Trust me on this, it’s even more important than how much you pay them.

Do you know why I hated working at MIT? Apart from the horrible commute, I really resented the fact that I would work my butt off and get NO recognition or appreciation from my boss. Not a “thank you” or “great job” or anything! I was a pion, a cog in the collective, I felt that no one cared or appreciated what I did, or how hard I worked.

Needless to say I was VERY unmotivated, and hardly got anything done. I spent half my time on Adwords.

So here’s rule #1: when someone on your team does a good job, compliment their work, and be specific about it.

Constantly look for things that your team is doing right and point it out to them. “Hey John, you did a great logo for the site, it’s very professional & you picked a really good color scheme.” “Mary, this is really some killer copy, the headline your wrote will really hook the visitors, keep up the great work!”

Give your team the credit they deserve for all successes. “Jim, thanks to your efforts our site is now generating $2000/day in revenue!”

I’m constantly telling Tom, Melanie, Alin, and the rest of my team how much I appreciate their work and how my success would not be possible without them, and I mean it. Every now and then I send them e-cards to show how much I appreciate them. Have you ever done that?

2) Minimize and Sandwich Criticism:

It’s only human nature, people don’t like to be criticized, but let’s face it sometimes, well I should say, often times constructive criticism is necessary.

First off, criticize only when necessary.

Second off, sandwich your criticism : positive + negative + positive. For example: “Joe, you’ve done an awesome job with the site overall, however, there’s room for improvement in the site navigation, here are some suggestions on we can improve the situation … Also, I love the logo design!” Start with a positive, then add a carefully crafted criticism (always criticize the task, NOT the person), then end with a positive.

3) Have a Clear Vision and Communicate it to Your Team

Do you have a clear vision where your affiliate marketing business is going? Do you have a winning strategy in place? Or are you just aimlessly putting up one campaign after another attempting to make a profit?

People you bring on to your team will know this right away. People want to work with people who are going somewhere in life, who are on the road to success. You could have the greatest people skills in the world, but if your team thinks you’re a sap and don’t know what you’re doing or where you’re going then you’re dead in the water.

You also have to clearly communicate your vision to your team and tell them how they will be part of it. You got have a battle cry! “Hey Team, we’re doing 300/sales a day today, 6 months from now we’ll be doing 600. We’re going to DOMINATE this niche & be the #1 affiliate. All thanks to YOU!”

Here’s a tip: If you’re paying your team a percentage of the profits then they’ll be excited and motivated by your visions. If you’re paying them a flat fee, they may not really care if your business goes from 300/sales a day to 600, after all, what’s in it for them?

Is this whole “building an affiliate business” thing sound a lot more involved than you thought? Yes, it is if you want a long term business that produces ongoing income that increase year after year. And yes, if you want to be able to work less and make more.

The other option is of course the affiliate day trader, does everything himself/herself, that runs a bunch of Adwords campaigns (usually direct to merchant or a simple one page landing page), spends everyday tweaking his cost per click and adcopy to stay profitable. That’s not a business, ITS A JOB!

Building a REAL affiliate business takes hard work and expanding your skill sets beyond just doing Adwords.  It’s NOT easy, but I can tell you the rewards are SO worth it.