The New Affiliate Marketer

This lens is going to be my slightly confused, mistake laden, ultimately very teenage approach to affiliate marketing.

It's going to be a journey. A quest to find a way that really is "fool proof".

I'm doing this because I think that you don't need websites like "Wealthy Affiliate" or any books on how to do it. I'm not saying they are bad. I just don't think they are what I want!

I think if you have enough drive, determination and a passion for what you are doing, anybody can make money without paying for the information on how to.

I mean, if the information is so good, why can't they let you have it for free?

If they really do want to help you, the information should be free!

At the end of the day, I'm here to make money, not spend it!

I won't be paying to sign up with websites, nor will I be endorsing any sites that don't help me.

I will keep updating this lens to show my progress and how I'm doing it. Hopefully I will find success, but even if I don't, this lens will provide an insight on how to (or how not to) affiliate market.

Firstly: Who Am I?

As I mentioned before, I'm a British/Irish "dreamer".

Which quite likely makes me, as Dylan Moran says in the video below, "That's still how Irish people are seen. As twinkly-eyed ******* with a pig under their arm, high-stepping around the world going 'I'll paint your house now but watch out I might steal your ladder!'...Which is only half true!"

I have no clear-cut aspirations. I merely hope to have an effect on peoples lives. To make an impact and leave a legacy.

I want to live in a world where you can walk the streets at 10pm and not be afraid of getting stabbed.

I want financial security.

I want a family I can call my own. Not the pathetic excuse for relations I have (or rather don't have) at the moment.

Now this is never going to help me achieve all of those objectives.
And some of them will probably never be achieved.

I can but hope.

But if this lens helps just one person understand that life can be more than getting screwed over by some fat bloke in a black suit driving a Lamborghini, it will be worth it.

Secondly: Why Am I Doing This?

As well as using this lens to promote my own affiliate schemes (and I'm not going to pull the wool over anyone's eyes here, I will be promoting on this very lens) I am doing this to prove that you don't need to be born with riches to obtain them.

I was born in a lower-middle class family with an absent father and a mother whom I have no respect for at all... she currently lives in another country.

Yet I refuse to fall into the so-called poverty trap.

I may be a rebel against the Establishment but it's on the basis that to be the Establishment you have to defeat the Establishment.

I refuse to be pushed around by the powerbrokers. The people with the money shouldn't be able to buy power.

But they can.

And they do.

I left school with 10 GCSE's and enough intelligence to know that things don't always have to be the same.

I moved into a 6th form to study A-Levels and realised that staff show you no more respect as you get older. They think they are above you just because they get a pay packet that says they are.

Money may equal opportunities but how many entrepreneurs have come from nothing? Richard Branson comes to mind. Everyone knows the Virgin label but he is a dyslexic man who started out selling records from a car boot. He had limited opportunities due to his dyslexia (he was poor academically) but he is currently worth an estimated $7.9billion (USD).

If I have to earn millions, or indeed billions, to prove to people I'm not a waste of sperm... so be it.

Finally: How Am I Going To Do It?

To be honest, I wish I knew.

I guess the best place to start is right here. Squidoo.

And I will have to set up affiliate accounts with websites I already use.

There will be no set route towards my objective. If there was I wouldn't be proving anything.

This is just my undirected, uncoordinated journey. Hopefully to success.

I will do what feels right to be more successful.

Nick Cernis (of Todoodlist fame) recently posted on his blog (Put Things Off) how he thinks instead of making plans you should "just launch it".

That's my gameplan. I don't need fancy plans, elaborate designs or anything else! I take my idea and make it happen with as little fuss as possible. As he also posted; "less is best".

Squidoo is the foundations of my project. Without Squidoo this wouldn't be possible.

You get paid for writing about anything!

Build a lens on a topic you are interested in and add affiliate links. It will get you more exposure and drive more people towards buying the products you are promoting.

If you haven't signed up yet; "What are you waiting for?!" Click here to sign up now!

Also, make yourself a Squidoo somebody!

How To Become A Squidoo Somebody!

And you will soon find out that Google *hearts* Squidoo. Do this right and you'll be on the first page of Google rankings!

Remember, that is the ultimate aim. To sell other people's products and earn a commission from it.

Although, make sure your links are relevant. If you are writing about guitars and linking to sports merchandise you won't be targeting the right people and you'll just look stupid!

The Squidoo forum. To me this is the heart and soul of Squidoo. Without it, Squidoo wouldn't be the same.

Critique, ask questions, respond to other people's questions. Whatever you choose to do, this is where you do it for the team. For fellow lensmasters. For the community. For Squidoo.

I think that's the better side of integration. The actual feeling of belonging. You may be able to use this to your advantage and many people would understand your motives. For me though, this is the softer side of the overall objective.

Social Networking.

Two very important words for any affiliate marketer (so I've been told anyway) but it makes sense. Make friends and get word about the products you are promoting out.

There is no more important form advertising than word-of-mouth. I learnt that in business studies!

Plus it's free.

It makes sense to me.

And I have a head start because I already had a Myspace.

Feel free to drop me a line:

Rock_The_Ice's Myspace

Squidoo also links to Myspace by clicking the Myspace tab in the right hand column on each lens! Click that link if you would like to bookmark this lens on your Myspace profile.

Another social networking website that is supported by Squidoo. If you want to add a lens to Facebook just click the link on the right hand side of the lens.

Rock_The_Ice's Facebook

On Twitter, you have a limit of 140 characters. (Like this section; count them if you really want!)

Short, sweet and straight to the point.

It seems that a lot of people believe that making affiliate sales is about loading your lenses with selling points and forcing products upon them...

It's NOT!

I made my first affiliate sale on the 6th May 2008. ($2.57)

It's not a record breaking amount. But it might just change my life. I've now realised that with one lens that is content-rich and with a few opportunities to buy, I can make sales.

I didn't force this lens upon people.

Check it out yourself if you don't believe me:

Mario Kart Wii

This proves my theory that you don't need to try and force sales, you need to leave the door open for people to buy.

I like the analogy that if you leave a small child in a room with a door slightly ajar; inevitably they will stumble through it. That is all you have to do! Leave the door ajar and your visitors will occasionally stumble through and purchase from it.

By providing Amazon modules on that lens I have given my viewers a chance to buy. It doesn't matter then what they buy because they've still accessed Amazon through me.

I'm then not necessarily promoting the product but the website.

If you just stick at it you'll be surprised how well you do!

Hopefully, sometime you'll have so much money you won't know what to do with it! (Like the kitty up there!)

I've realised that many affiliate marketers will tell you to choose your niche. I'm going to go against the trend; don't concern yourself with choosing a niche!

Whilst niche marketing is brilliant for lessening the competition and catering to a specific target audience; I thoroughly believe that writing with passion brings better long term results. Which moves me nicely onto the next section...

I can't emphasise this enough; choose products you care about.

You have to be able to write about your products with a passion. You have to buy able to tell your viewer why the product you are promoting is perfect for them. You have to be able to look at it from the perspective of your *potential* buyer. Would you buy it if you were them?

Even better; own the product yourself!

If you own the product yourself, you can give your personal opinion and give a better analysis of how a product would be beneficial to the person.

The big point; Targeted traffic is buying traffic!

EelKat was the one to make me realise how important this was. Evaluation is key to being successful because you can see what works for you and what doesn't.

She constantly evaluates her sales and has come to some intriguing conclusions as I'm sure you will see in her lens; What people buy and how to get them to buy it from you!

I personally think that the most important discovery in that lens is that people buy high-priced items on eBay but lower priced ones on Amazon. That sure surprised me anyway!

So, pitch to the right people and evaluate your previous successes and failures!

Networking is important so that you can target your audience.

As an affiliate marketer you want to sell products. By networking you can find people who are more likely to purchase the products you are trying to sell.

An example of this is that if I wanted to sell guitar equipment; I would attempt to find people with an interest in guitars or people who are guitarists as they are more likely to buy from me.