What I have learned about Affiliate Marketing and my Six Recommendations to get you Moving Online

When I realized that the answer to all of my problems was to have an online business, the words “Affiliate Marketing” were quite foreign to me. I had no idea about the principle of it, how it worked, or the basics of this particular genre of marketing.

To be honest, I had no clue about much in the online space. I had no idea about general marketing either.

My pain-point was that I had this indomitable need to be able to work from home, from my laptop, and to be “location independent”. I didn’t want anything else, but the freedom to choose how I managed my day. I simply wanted my time back and I didn't want to trade hours worked for a salary.

So what was this Affiliate Marketing all about in any event?

In a nutshell, as an Affiliate Marketer, you sign up to Affiliate Programs and register your intention to promote products. You receive an Affiliate Link, which you include in your online ad campaigns, your blog, vlog, or online shopping site. The customer, who reads your post, clicks on your link, and “voila” you receive a commission.

It seemed to be a stroke of magic that I had come across this potential for an online business.

So, armed with what was going to be my way of replacing my great monthly salary, I started trolling the internet for more information about Affiliate Marketing. Very quickly I discovered that some very clever people had made healthy amounts of money that allowed them to replace their existing incomes!

Here these online entrepreneurs were living their best lives, sitting on fantastic white beaches doing some work on their laptops. In their personal stories, they were telling me all about how they had successfully created so much freedom of time, that they could call the shots as to how they spent their days.

I was hooked! Line and sinker.

The Affiliate Marketing framework in itself is very simple, but the application of it was the biggest hurdle for me. I needed a skill set.

I needed to learn how to make my website visible in the sea of millions of others. I needed to learn how to place adverts in front of niche markets and how to effectively conduct my own research for online marketing.

I needed to learn a great deal. At the same time, I also needed to set aside my inherent skill set, which I had been developing for the last 28 years of being in my chosen career. When I think back, it was ultimately a change of mindset.

I was fortunate enough to respond to an advert that now has me involved in a community of like-minded people. This for me, was first prize because I soon found out that it wasn’t just a new skill set that I needed. I also needed over the shoulder training and recipes for success, that effectively leveled out the learning curve for me. Since I had already given up my steady 9 to 5 job too, earning while I was learning was a massive plus!

The problem really though is that the internet is filled with so much information. For a newbie, or someone with limited knowledge of this space it can prove to be a minefield.

Instead of knowledge being your power, and information being your partner, it all leads to so much overwhelm and self-doubt that taking any action becomes like a horror story.

Fear of making any decision, even with so much information at your fingertips, can literally stop you in your tracks. That was my initial experience.

If any of this sounds familiar, and you are feeling stuck at making your next decision to establish yourself online, here are my recommendations to take you to your next step.

1. If you need skills to bridge the gap between the real world and the digital one, look for a training partner that gives you the basic entry skills to get you moving as quickly as possible; ongoing training is paramount so that you are leveling up consistently, and a group of like-minded people that can support you along the way and who are having the same challenges as you really does level out that learning curve.
2. Check out programs where you can earn while you learn. Be very careful of those marketers who promise thousands in a short period of time too. I am not saying that they are wrong, but when you get to the small print, you will always see a disclaimer that says that results are not guaranteed. Remember, as with any business what you put in, is what you will get out.
3. There are so many Affiliate Programmes out there, so look out for products that you yourself either have knowledge of or for those that you are passionate about. It makes the writing and advertising far easier when you know about and believe in the product that you are selling.
4. An online user is a person like yourself. In the same way that you look for value, be mindful to only provide value to your customer. They are as deserved of it, as you are to being successful in the digital world.
5. When you do find products that you can market as an affiliate, and there are hundreds of them, look for links that provide a reasonable length of time that they will remain active for you. For example, a link that expires in days might not be the best link when you are getting started. Some programs and products have up to a year of validity, so be mindful to read these t&c’s when you are researching your products.
6. Obviously, the commission structure must be something that you can live with too. Be mindful of your advertising budget and those products that might not have you breaking even.

Originally published at https://perpetualpilgrim1006.com.