Top 10 Ways to Be a Dead Broke Affiliate
April 7th, 2008 by 
Amit
- Don’t stick with one affiliate marketing strategy for very long. Once you’ve tried something for a month with no results try something else. Keep jumping around constantly : SEO, PPC, facebook, article marketing, etc.
- Check your sales stats every 5 minutes, and be sure to agonize about it. If this doesn’t COMPLETELY distract you and suck up all your emotional energy, then get one of those tool bars or alert programs that shows you or beeps every time you have a sale.
- Bid on the most obvious and competitive keywords in your market, then spend 75% of your day checking your ad position for your main one or two keywords vs your competitors.
- Take that last tip to the next level - constantly check if someone is ripping of your website by continually checking the Google search results for those one or 2 keywords your making sales on. If you find someone copying your site, make a federal case out of it, contact Google, your affiliate manager, and everyone you know to complain about it. Be sure to get REALLY emotional about it.
- Here’s a big one : spend 80% of your time bitching and complaining on affiliate forums. If you’re at a loss for ideas, here some popular things to bitch about : Google slaps, why your stats are not showing a sale for the last 2 hours, my favorite : how you think the affiliate network your working with is secretly stealing sales from you. Recommend forum : WickedFire.com
- When you’re REALLY out of things to bitch about on forums start making personal attacks against big name affiliates in the industry. If you’re not sure which affiliates to shamelessly attack, here’s some popular targets : myself, Shoemoney, John Chow.
- Do ZERO market research before launching an affiliate offer, just pick out something that looks good and start promoting it.
- Spend all your time buying expensive information products and ebooks on how to do affiliate marketing. Go through these products and learn everything you can, then sit on your butt. Whatever you do DON’T take immediate action on what you’ve learned. Keep waiting for the right time to get started.
- Have the firm belief that they only reason super affiliates are making big money is because they have some special backdoor deal with merchants, or because they have AMAZING account history so they can buy keywords for 0.20/click that would cost you $1/click.
- Anytime there’s a slight discrepancy between your Google conversion tracking and your actually affiliate sales - let’s say conversion tracking show more sales - make a federal case out of it. Contact your affiliate manager and Google, absolutely demand you get credit for those 2 sales you “lost”. Make sure to spend several hours (minimum) REALLY agonizing about this, and how the world just isn’t fair.
Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset | 
I follow all of those steps perfectly.
LMAO first post of your’s I will actually link 2
Hehe, how often do you check your sales stats? I can’t help but to check it every couple hours.
I’m very new to affiliate marketing and to say I don’t know what I’m doing would be an understatement. I signed up with Yahoo Search Marketing and got a free $100 from Yahoo to test the waters and see what it’s all about (or attempt too). I’ve just been promoting affiliate offers and linking directly to the merchant landing page. One thing I’ve not done (and don’t really know how) is market research. How do you go about doing your market research so you can take a very educated approach to what offers to promote?
I feel like I’m doing everything wrong. I’ve yet to make any money so I assume I’m doing it wrong; wrong offers, wrong bids, wrong keywords? I get some clicks, but not converting.
I don’t mind being honest and confessing that I am guilty of 80% of that or more. Who isn’t or has not.
That’s really hilarious… LOLOLOLOL…and good useful info. Amit
HAHA great post, don’t forget to mention, read your rss feeds constantly so you can get a “tip” on what the super affiliates are doing!
How to be a Dead Broke Affiliate in 10 Easy Steps…
Amit over at Super Affiliate Mindset just wrote a pretty good blog post I wanted to share with you guys.
Top 1……
Great list of things to not do. Unfortunately most people do most of them.
Great list.
#2 & #3 use to be me all day long! I learned (the hard way) not to get caught up in that behavior.
Nice list most newbies do that when they start in affiliate marketing, read, read read and never apply what they learn.
#5 is the best. I read wickedfire when I have been working for a few hours straight and need a laugh. those boys get worked up about some crazy stuff.
Look mehta, i have nothing but respect for you and all your success, but talking about wf like its a piece of shit bro that unnacceptable. Suure you can go to your seminars and you really do have some inspiring words,a beautiful wife.. yada yada yada but you have to realise this, you do have a personal responsibility to directing your church or whatever you call it in the right direction. Now, taking wickedfire.com credibility away and mentioning it as some piece of crap website that you can come to complain, that is unnacceptable. There are legitimate people with problems who actually need help. Marketers out there who didnt start out promoting clickbank ebooks and making mad profit, before as usual they realized the error of their ways cough* remind you of someone cough* any more here.
If youve got the balls you are welcome to chat here
http://www.wickedfire.com/shooting-shit/27393-amit-fucking-mehta.html#post282143
LOL Amit, do we at wickedfire give you too many sleepless nights that you have to be a cry-baby on your blog?
Lol!
I couldn’t resist 2. when I first started out
on this PPC affiliate marketing thingy
I really liked 9. and think it should really
be taken seriously. While it might be true in
a way, too many newbies simply give up trying
because of it.
Whine lots always I have found a good way to make money and friends.
Doug
Wicked Fire rocks, bitch!
Amit,
I’m glad you made this post. Within the 2 and a half weeks a lot of good things have happen in AM. I account that to stop watching the news completely and stop going to certain forums. E-thuggin and tough guy shtick does not belong in this industry, because the same guy talking crazy on the forums about an Affiliate is the same one trying to hang out with that affiliate at the conference.
dude, wf fucking rocks.
I love how you finally took a slap back at WF and all those haters out there.
Don’t forget the newbie affiliate.
Don’t spend any time promoting your site to earn links or build original content. Focus all your time on just putting up 100’s of affiliate banners on one single page site.
As further proof of point #4 & #5, wickedfire members have already started complaining and bitching, just as a result of this post, and me casually mentioning them.
Love it!
LOL
Wickedfire is a piece of time wasting shit, i’ll agree with that.
barman, you forgot to mention it is also the gayest webmaster forum out there.
those wickedfire guys sure are predictable! thanks for the entertainment Amit!
Great Post Amit.
I completely agree on the WickedFire forum. That forum is the biggest bunch of complainers and whiners on the web.
Biggest waste of time I have ever come accross.
So funny that they display their true colors in the recent comments.
Like somehow a threatening loser is going to be able to help anyone. (No thank you!)
The only thing wickedfire can help anyone with is if they want to be a perpetual whiner and make pretend they make money.
Keep up the great work.
I spend 80% of my time on wickedfire and make tons of money. You’re just mad because you’re the laughing stock of your peers because of wickedfire. And because they posted all your landing page sites. And continue to laugh at you.
Hey Nickyshits,
Making tons of money is easy if you’re an unethical blackhat SOB. Do the world a favor and start trying to add some value to the marketplace instead of pollute it.
The last laughs on you btw, if you actually think I make any significant money from the landing pages that are posted on wickedfire.
“Nickyshits” - LOL. By the way, what’s a SOB?
Amit,
Don’t waste your time arguing with these wicked fire idiots. You knew they’d show up once they read this post.
When a guy admits to spending 80% of his time on wicked fire, that pretty much tells you you’re dealing with an idiot.
Notice how we don’t see people from Digital Point or other forums behaving like these morons. Jon must be working some serious Jedi mind trick to have all these minions running around defending his honor.
Thing is, I make most of my money from completely ethical whitehat methods. Maybe you should have RUN A BACKGROUND CHECK on me first….get it?
what are you trying to say nickycakes…. amit needs to check his green card?
No, but for a “super affiliate” he lives in a pretty crappy town on the outskirts of boston. Real ballas live in the city harvard square. Keep it real.
Ouch! You can take it out and put it back in your pants now Nicky.
Nickyshits,
“pretty crappy town on the outskirts of boston”?!?
WTF?
Wrong again. I live on the brighton/brookline border in a pricy condo. There’s multiple Zagat rated restaurants walking distance from me + a Whole Foods just a block down.
Also, will be staying in a luxury penthouse apartment while I’m in Miami & moving to Back Bay next year.
Harvard Square is for students, rich people in Boston live in Backbay, Beacon Hill, Belmont, Brookline, Newton …
You should know, assuming you live near the Boston area, given that I saw you at the PPC Summit?
Brighton and brookline are the ghetto near BU dude. Thats where you go live if you don’t have enough credit to get a lease at a decent apt.
LOL You’re such a joke Amit. Go back to your ebooks and keep your mouth shut.
Yeah.. I think im going to make a blog claiming to be a millionaire too. Good idea.
*ding! *ding! *ding!
That’s the end of round one. Our Judges have nickycakes ahead so far by the score of 4-2 with round 2 to come.
Amit is in his corner getting that left eye looked at while nickycakes has his split lip ice packed.
Let’s listen in on Amit’s corner…
“Amit… stick and move… stick and move! He’s undercutting you… block those jabs.. keep those feet moving!”
Hey Wickedfire people,
Thank you for proving my points in this post, especially #5
LOL
Again, I recommended Wickedfire.com, proof is right in the comments!
Hey, hey wait a minute
Dudes and dudettes your freaken me out here
Top 10 Ways to Be a Dead Broke Affiliate
This is me amit, this is me to a tee - amit was right on the money, leave him alone, see you at digitalpoint
I was trying to become a SUPER AFFILIATE
okay dude, cya at DP
LOL
regarding WF:
mess with the best,die like the rest.
that what happened to you,face it.
Great Article! Im typically one of those guys that reads all the blogs and forums but never posts. I do roughly $300k a month. I find it hilarious that all of these guys have so much time on their hands, especially on WF (which I have recently stopped even reading). Everyone thats anybody in this industry knows the WF guys are just a few penniless scammer douchebags. Lots of us more established affiliates agree 100% with you and are loving watching those guys go down in “flames”.
Keep up the good work!
NewAmitFan
SUPER AFFILIATE Exclusive - NICKYCAKES SUCKS JON’S COCK!
NickyCakes is such a joke.
Funny thing all these guys give you crap when the fact is Jon, the broke “fearless” wickedfire leader who took an ethical stance against super affiliates marketing themselves has in the past gotten dirtier than anyone by trying to charge people for ideas from him. All this tells me is this guy is such a joke he cant make a cent for himself and doesnt have the drive or abilities to do anything for himself.
The only reason he talks crap about REAL Super Affiliates is because hes jealous.
Go AMIT!
GO AMIT!!!!!!!
LOL!!
Apparently this is no longer a blog or site about Affiliate Marketing.
Nickycakes is the short, skinny puke everyone beat-up in high school. Ever seen a picture of this guy? Of course Jon of Wicked Fire is exactly the same. LOL.
What’s the #1 cause of shit talking? Jealously. All of these little WF, DP, (insert forum here) pukes are exactly as Amit described: they are BROKE LOSERS. They are unsuccessful at what they do, so instead of trying to work hard to be successful, they try to hop on the next CPA offer before the other 3,000 pimple-faced 16 year olds hop on the same offer.
Ah, anyways, these guys aren’t worth even talking about. Just stupid kids.
I agree, these WF clones are either stupid kids, or frustrated wanna-bes’ who go at guys like Amit because they know they don’t have what it takes to produce on that level. Hating rich/successful people is nothing new… been going on for a couple thousand years.
Notice “Cakes” calls Amit’s wealth into question based on him supposedly not living where the “ballers” live. So freaking immature and uninformed. It’s been proven that most millionaires don’t live like “ballers”, but a kid like “cakes” who gets his financial wisdom from MTV Cribs won’t ever understand this. (see/read “The Millionaire Next Door, instead of sitting on a forum 80% of your day.)
All you pukes are really doing is circle jerking each other for master-link-baiter award of 2008.
I just happen to like chatting with nickycakes more than the rest of you, so I’m on his side…
Both sides are not losers n this scenario. Amit Mehta sure is a douche with all his gay life style posts, and little quality information - but the fact remains that he makes a killing on the web - so people visit his blog. On the other hand - wickedfire has lot of members which are unsuccssful gay douchebags - and few highly successful members. Where do you think all the wannabes go to for learning - forums - duh!
So, wicked fire and other forums help people in their learning, and for motivation about lifestyle etc - they visit blogs of people like Amit Douche Mehta.
Not saying which one is right, which one is wrong - but just playing it out even for both sides
Link bait, link bait, everybody gone bad
Situation, aggravation Everybody allegation
In the blogsphere, on the forums Everybody dog food
Bang bang, flame war, everybody’s Gone mad
holy shit! This is hilarious. All these douche bags wasting time posting crap just proved Amit’s post that they are stupid.
Good post! The bitching at marketing forums is so familiar.People complain when they don´t see a huge profit the next day when they have just started.A sure way to blow your budget is to buy into every junk and crap offered online and try to do everything at once.Stumbled and Dugg!
one thing to say…
douche bag.
-w.f.
gagan,
same to you…
douche bag.
-w.f.
I was hoping to make some comments over at wickedfire. But those 202 active users are causing the server to be to busy. You don’t need to be a computer or internet guru to know that site is a little mis-managed. Does anyone know what is going on?
@Rec: I do believe that means you have been banned.
Attacking other people may be legitimate if you attack the idea, not the person.
lol yeah if you get ’server is busy’ messages it means a mod there is screwing you around… probably because you’ve acted like a douchebag.
@59 - Yup, when someone is added to Miserable Users List, that is when these sort of things start to happen.
douches all of you!
@amitfan…yes. I told the guy what happened. I deserve to have my backside spanked thoroughly for doing such a thing. Giving out information…what was I thinking.
SlightlyShadySEO,
I have about 10 comments on wickedfire and none of those had anything to do with commenting on anyone personally or indirectly. I was able to get on the site a few minutes today, but it did not last. Sometimes I can’t get on not matter what computer I use (home, work, library, etc…)I guess I was banned because I did not have enough comments. Maybe I should have had more comments. Comments like…
…yeah dude uhh…
…those newbs..yeah…
…We rock yeahhhh…
And what other mindless gibberish those WF guys call conversation. So if I am banned then so be it. I’ve got better things to do. I am guilty of #1, #5 and #7. Today is the last day #5 will be a problem.
Yeah that’s fine. Whatever. I don’t know of your account, and I couldn’t ban you if I wanted to. Just don’t take it out on everyone.
amit!!
LOL
amit!
LOL SHIT
Hate to admit it but I’ve done a few of those things myself.
Thanks for the setting me straight.
WickedFire Members!
I’m a lurker, I get a lot out of the forums. Hopefully i’ll have something not already repeated a thousand times to contribute to the forums.
Amit!
Your blog’s one of my favorites, but I was a little surprised you took a swipe at wickedfire. A lot of what’s on that forum is crap n00bs complaining, but it’s probably the most resourceful website for affiliate and internet marketing that there is. Just gotta sift through the garbage…
I also think wickedfire members are over reacting. The overlying theme here is ‘if you could be doing something productive, don’t waste your time on the easy to lounge around places’
NickyCakes can spend 80% of his time on wickedfire, because he has successful campaigns that are already on autopilot for 80% of the time.
I think NickyCakes would admit that he didn’t start out spending 80% of his time on wickedfire.
Amit,
You don’t truly believe that WickedFire is so worthless. You endorsed Audrey’s recommendation of WickedFire here, buddy:
http://www.superaffiliatemindset.com/so-how-does-a-newbie-affiliate-get-started/
You have a possibly valid reason for bashing WF. But those readers who remember this post, are definitely going to be confused.
Hi Impartial Observer,
huuum… I would hardly call that an endorsement, only in directly. My point was not to say that wickedfire is total garbage, you can get useful info there as on other forums.
Its just that on MOST affiliate forums, including wickedfire, a lot of people spends ridiculous amounts of time complaining and whining when they could be focused on productive income producing activities.
That’s why I personally completely cut off forums. Although I still recommend a good quality paid forum for newbies. You can learn a lot from them.
wow. another major controversy. This season indeed has been hilarious. So many controversies.
Me personally visits Amit’s blog once a week and WF once a week. To be fair WF also has some good info, though majority of ppl there are nubes like ne other forum on the net. That’s the difference between a forum and blog.
Overall at the end of the day everyone is free to have an opinion. Amit shouldn’t complaint about ppl slamming him and shoemoney (that makes him a natural target for anyone who is against shoemoney), also Amit himself is whining abt WF.
Same goes for Nicky and all WF loyals. Dude you people bashed Amit big time always. Now if he subtly bashed WF once, what a big deal. Take a chill pill.
And at the end, I really find it funny, two great internet marketers of different ideology Amit and Nicky doing a public war of word about who is living at better homes. I presume last I had similar war of words when I was six year old.
Agree witrh you nitin, but i would make that when I was 4 years old.
Well, I don’t have the time to go through the whole post right now….but Amit, you’re gay!!
WF rocks, get that?
Dear Amit,
as an avid reader of your blog and a happy owner of your e-books I have some questions for you.
1. Do you believe that affiliate marketing will continue to grow at an exponential rate or is it already saturated?
2. What can small time affiliates do to compete in the ppc market against the big fish who gets a greater percentage of sales prices?
3. Which color do you prefer, blue or pink?
4. What do you like more, rainbows or sunsets?
5. Have you ever been to a bar called The Blue Oyster?
Love and Respect / SuperAffiliateFan
SuperAffiliateFan,
What e-books are you talking about?????????????
This was really fun. Must admit that sometimes a fall into one of the traps listed.
Best regards,
Tommy Swing
Swingmedia
http://www.swingmedia.se/