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Are you looking for a way to make money online?

Affiliate marketing is definitely one of the best ways to do that. Is one of the oldest and most lucrative methods bloggers and marketers use to earn money online. Today affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry and it is expected to grow even more in the next years. After all, online retail shopping is not decreasing but is actually growing at a spectacular pace according to an article published in Business Insider. So, it makes perfect sense to invest some of your time learning how to build an affiliate site. And it is absolutely true you don’t need to spend a lot of money in order to create a profitable online business.

What you definitely need to do though if you want to succeed as an affiliate marketer is to educate yourself. You first need to understand how online marketing works and how to approach your target audience. So, you shouldn’t expect to earn any money right away. There are plenty of information available online about affiliate marketing and how to create your own website for free. Many people are of the opinion that you don’t need to join any training course to learn how to build an online business from scratch or how to use affiliate marketing. You can just do it yourself. All the information are already there.

Although that is true to some extent i disagree with that approach. Not because i am affiliated with a training course or that it can’t be done that way. But simply because if you are new to all this and you have no prior experience in online marketing is impossible for you to correctly evaluate all the available information. I mean you have no filter. How are you going to decide which piece of information to follow and which ones to ignore? And there are a lot of misleading information about affiliate marketing out there. From outdated marketing techniques to scams to pure nonsense about how to earn thousands of dollars in a week with little to no work. There is big chance you will end up getting distracted and going after every new “shiny object” hoping for better results.

In my opinion, if you are serious about building an online business joining a high-quality training course is a good start. It will steer you towards the right direction and also show you all the necessary steps to follow in order to become a successful online entrepreneur. In other words, a training program can help you build a strong foundation and it will save you a lot of time from looking online for valuable information.

Affiliate Marketing Tips You Should Know

There is certainly a plethora of blog posts and articles online offering tips and bits of advice to people who want to try affiliate marketing. I have also blogged about that in the past. In a previous post, i wrote about 10 affiliate marketing strategies that actually work and can lead you to success.

But this post is not so much about what strategies and techniques you should use to increase your sales but it’s more about what to look out for if you are new to all this or if you are thinking about building an affiliate business. And no i am not just going to tell you how you should avoid all these low-quality often fake training programs. You know the ones that have pictures of yachts, mansions and liar jets promising they can make you a millionaire in a month. Of course, all these things are useless and obviously a waste of time and money.

What i want to share here with you is a small collection of tips that in my opinion are crucial for you to know. Things that can help you create the right perception of online marketing and stay on the right track. After all, everything in life is about having the right perception. Building an online business is no different. So, without further ado lets check them out.

1) Overpriced Training Programs

I would like to say right from the start that there are training programs that cost $1,000 or more and they are NOT overpriced. Their prices are actually very reasonable for the training they offer. But i would never recommend them to a beginner. The reason for that is they are not designed for beginners but for marketers that already have some kind of experience and they are willing to spend some extra money in an effort to take their business to the next level. You have to remember though that there is no guarantee that you will see any positive results just because you signed up for a training course. But this kind of programs will not help you if you don’t even know the basics of affiliate marketing. You will not be able to effectively use that information.

So, how much should a training program cost?

An online business that uses affiliate marketing as its main source of revenue shouldn’t cost you more than $500 for the whole first year. There is absolutely no reason to spend more than that unless you want to. Actually, $500 is a lot. It can be done with much less. But that amount of money is more than enough to cover not just the cost of a training course but all the operational costs of an affiliate business site. Hosting, training lessons, a keyword tool and everything else you need to create a fully functional website are all included in that budget. And there is still money left for paid advertisement. You could try to run a small PPC campaign or ads on the social media. And all that without exceeding the limit of $500 per year.

That doesn’t mean you will be spending money for a whole year hoping to turn a profit the next year. Your business can cover the cost of those $500 and make a profit for you during its first year. As long as you are willing to work hard you can make a lot more money in the first 12 months.

Here’s what NOT to do

What you definitely need to do though (at least in my opinion) is to stay away from all those high ticket affiliate training courses. The first reason why you should do that is because they are not really training programs but MLM (Multi-level marketing) schemes disguised as online training centers. If you want to promote their courses you have to buy them first. In affiliate marketing that almost never happens. You don’t have to buy a product in advance in order to become an affiliate. But that’s how typically things work in the world of MLM businesses. And in most cases, the vast majority of people who are involved in an MLM business earn absolutely nothing.

They usually lure people in by offering them a small initial price and without ever revealing all the extra costs you will have to pay for in the future. They dazzle people saying you can earn hundreds or even thousands of $ per month making only a couple sales. Don’t take the bait. That is great for the owner of that program and the affiliate who gets the commission. But it’s not that great for you. You may think you will become that affiliate but like i said earlier the majority of people earn nothing. Unfortunately, you will just keep buying the new training package or level hoping you will make up for the losses.

Second and most importantly is the training they offer is not worth the money. They are ridiculously overpriced and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to spent thousands of dollars in an effort to learn how to build an online business. Their training usually only focuses on how to build an email list and run ads on the social media. Allegedly this is a quick way for attracting leads. It’s not. Nothing will work if your content is not great. And also, they don’t teach much about things like SEO, keyword research, content marketing etc. Plus their training is more about how to market their product and not so much about affiliate marketing itself. So, you will not really learn how to build a business outside their business.

What’s the bottom line?

High ticket training programs will cost you thousands of dollars. And simply because of that i can’t say they are beginner-friendly places to start an online business. It is the wrong way to start an online business. After all, you might even discover later on that affiliate marketing is not really for you. But if you have spent hundreds of dollars in the first 3-4 months after singing-up it’s not going to be that easy to accept you wasted all that money for nothing and walk away. And you will end up spending more and more. Which is exactly what they want you to do.

2) Email Marketing

Building an email list is certainly one of the best tools you can use as an affiliate marketer. It can help you build a strong lasting relationship with your audience and keep your readers coming back for more. It can certainly help you increase your online revenue. You will definitely come across at some point of the very popular phrase “the money is on the list”. Also, building a list right from the start means access to one more extra source of traffic. It is not a good thing to depend on a single source of traffic like organic traffic for example. The search engines are constantly updating their algorithms and your rankings could drop overnight. If that ever happens to you it won’t mean the end for your traffic. You will use your email list to promote your content until your site bounces back to life.

But despite all these great things email marketing can do for you there are a few misconceptions about it. One of the biggest ones is that all you need to do to make money as an affiliate marketer is build an email list. That is not true. It’s an idea that is usually being promoted by people who are selling training courses. This is their way of making things sound easy. They say that all you need to do is collect email addresses. Then you send your subscribers an email with your affiliate links and they buy. And then you just send them another one and they buy again. Of course, that is not how things work.

Email marketing is not that simple or easy. Actually, i believe that out of 100 online marketers only 5 (or less) know how to use email marketing effectively. There is no point having 10,000 people on your list if your open rates are next to nothing and your emails are being reported as spam. Sending people emails won’t help you if the quality of your content is low. If there is no trust between you and your audience your email marketing strategy will fail. Building an email list is not the “magic” solution you are so often told. Building successful email marketing campaigns are very important but it’s not just about the size of your list and bombarding people with emails.

3) Stay Focused

This is one of those things that’s easier said than done. Most affiliate marketers face that problem, especially at the beginning. There are so many things you need to figure out and all this new information can make you feel overwhelmed. You can easily get distracted and caught up in the details instead of focusing on the bigger picture. A great number of people lose focus and give up because they don’t see any results in the first months. But if you stay focused and positive you will get positive results.

Here are a few tips you could use

Create a time schedule and write down in advance the things you have to do the next day

Set realistic expectations and don’t overestimate your abilities

Set goals

Take small breaks. They will help you avoid distractions

Create a routine and stick to it

Carpe Diem. In other words, do something for your business every single day.

4) Be Creative

Your content is the best way you can communicate with your audience. That’s how you interact with your readers and get your point across. So, you should consider creative ways to promote your affiliate links. Even if your niche is in a boring industry (like this one) that doesn’t mean your content should be boring. Provide value to your readers but also look for new marketing tactics to integrate into your own marketing strategy. Make your brand stand out from your competition. A logo, a font, a beautifully designed theme can help you increase brand awareness. People will remember your brand and they will visit your site again.

Also, your content doesn’t have to be just text. Create video tutorials, informational videos, infographics webinars etc. Publish product comparisons and reviews providing your audience with all the information they need to know. Also don’t just copy the techniques other successful affiliates use. Create your owns. Be innovative. I am not asking you to reinvent the wheel here. All i am saying is approach things from a different perspective and don’t just ask people to buy something.

5) Change Is Good

If your marketing strategy is not working at the moment change it. Don’t be afraid to try new things. I am not saying you should go to the extreme and redesign your whole website right from the start. But if the results are not the ones you were hoping for then it’s time for a change. Using the same strategies over and over again hoping for different results is pointless. It will never work. Either the marketing technique itself is wrong or you are not executing properly. No matter what it is you have to do something about it.

Many bloggers and marketers hesitate to do that because they are afraid they might lose their existing traffic or whatever profits they are making at the moment. That’s a mistake. In a fast evolving industry like online marketing if you are not willing to move forward you will fail. New trends and tactics are emerging all the time and if you don’t find an effective way to integrate them into your own strategy you will lose money.

6) Too Many Ads

Affiliate marketing is not about posting your links 10 times in a single blog post. Or placing banner ads everywhere on your site with pop-ups appearing every 2 seconds. If that was the case every affiliate marketer would be filthy rich. But of course, that’s not how it’s done. People don’t pay attention to banners anymore and if your sidebar is full of ads your visitors will leave and they will never come back. Using too many ads has the opposite effect on people. Not only they won’t buy but they won’t even read your content. Nobody really likes sidebar ads. Plus they make your site ugly and you look sleazy.

Your main objective should be the visitors reading your content. Not looking at your ads. You want people to focus on your content. Too many ads will not only distract but also confuse them. Confused visitors don’t buy. They are not going to read your post and they will leave your site without engaging. Chances are they will not even see your Call-To-Action. You will make sales by solving your audience problems. Affiliate marketing is all about the people. You can only turn your visitors into customers through your content. Use your content to make sales not ads.

Conclusion

No one is born knowing how to be a successful affiliate marketer. We all start from zero but what really matters is the will to learn and become better at you do. Taking action is the best way to learn how to earn money as an affiliate. You can spend hours reading how to do it but you will only learn by doing it. You will make mistakes in the process. No doubt about that. But you will learn from them and become better. Affiliate marketing is about being patient and working hard. Everything else will just follow.

If you are looking for a get rich quick method to make online this is not for you. I am afraid there is no such thing. But if you are looking for a way to start your online business you should click the button below and read my review for one of the online marketing training programs

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