Advice for Beginner Affiliates
August 21st, 2009
Posted by: Beau Blackwell, Community Manager
Several times over the past few weeks, I’ve been asked what advice I would give to affiliate marketers who are just starting out and trying to learn the ropes. During my time at ClickBank, I’ve seen many affiliates go from knowing very little about what they should be doing to being extraordinarily successful. While every affiliate’s path to success will be different, as I’ll explain below, there are several general pieces of advice that I think can benefit every affiliate marketer. I hope they’ll be useful in helping you on your journey to affiliate marketing success.
- Treat affiliate marketing as your job- I can’t stress this point enough. While the ultimate goal of most affiliate marketers is to eventually make enough money to only have to work an hour or two a day (and there are many who do), one key to starting off well in affiliate marketing is to work as hard as you would at any other job. The most successful affiliate marketers start out by putting in long hours and doing lots of work on their promotional efforts, both in studying effective methods and actually putting them into practice. If you work 8 hours a day doing affiliate marketing, you’re going to be successful a lot sooner than if you only work 1 or 2 hours a day. Even if you’re doing affiliate marketing part-time, the more time you spend on it, the more successful you’re likely to be.
- Do what you’re good at- Affiliate marketing takes a lot of work, but one of the best parts of being an affiliate marketer is the freedom to choose how and when you work, what products you want to promote, etc. One of the best ways to avoid burnout, especially when you’re not yet making good money, is to choose promotional techniques that fit your personal style. Not everyone is a great writer, or even enjoys writing. If this describes you, you’re probably better off avoiding article marketing, which requires you to write large quantities of high-quality content. If you’re not the most social person and prefer anonymity, you probably won’t enjoy social media marketing very much. Since one of the main reasons for doing affiliate marketing is so you can work how you want to work, it’s important to figure out what suits your style and personality. Your work will be better, and you’ll be more willing to stick with it, if you’re enjoying yourself.
- Recognize that there are many ways to succeed as an affiliate- Since many new affiliates start out by reading books or following programs created by affiliate marketing experts, they think that these techniques may be the only way to make a lot of money and do well in the business. I’ve met many successful affiliates, and they’ve gotten to where they are today by many different paths. What works for one affiliate may not work at all for another, and there are always new tools, techniques, product niches, etc, being developed that can completely change the affiliate marketing game. Never be afraid to branch out on your own or try a crazy idea that you think just might work. Don’t be afraid to fail, because when you make mistakes you’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t, making you more successful in the long run. There’s a lot to learn in the business, so the sooner you start making mistakes, the sooner you’ll start learning what works!
Besides this advice, I recommend reading our Help Center article Affiliate Dos and Don’ts, which offers some more specific advice for working with ClickBank and how to avoid common mistakes.
I’d also like to welcome comments from experienced affiliate marketers who have advice to share with beginners and can offer some encouragement or guidance. Please share your advice by leaving a comment!
About Beau BlackwellBeau is the Client Knowledge Guru for ClickBank and covers the latest trends, tips and techniques for building profitable Internet marketing businesses.
Take a look at these related posts:
- How to Avoid the Most Common Publisher Mistakes When It Comes to Managing and Recruiting Affiliates
- Seven Habits of Highly Successful Affiliates
- Finding Affiliates to Promote Your Product
- 8 Key Differences Between Super Affiliates and Struggling Affiliates
- Why Most Affiliates Fail… and What to Do About It
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I see a lot of good questions and some good answers. But where and how
do you post the vendors sales page, if thats what you do?? Or do you write a “personal message” and post that and if so how and where so you post that? Do you (I) use my opt in page and then on to the vendor??? Its that “where to post that gets me confused”. You have to be out there advertising your product somewhere. So where and how is that done? Thanks, Jack
A good structure or a roadmap to your daily rutines is a good idea…
There are many ways to succeed as an affiliate. Find the way that suits you best and stick with it. Newbies tend to switch from one method to another and wonder why they are still struggling. I was one of them.
Thanks alot for the advice. Am just a beginner so I know have a huge task ahead of me. I have made several sales, which made me feel more determined and take it to a higher level.
You are doing a wonderful job.
Geoffrey
Still impressed by these blog posts and the practical advice you provide. I can’t wait to hit that super-affiliate landmark and truly get there. It’s awesome because I made 2 CB sales after a 2 month dry spell and I know exactly why! I went back to my money page, tweaked it and made even more cash.
Thanks CB!
This is just great espeacialy for us novice people, yhis is truly helpful to actualy learn something from someone that has experience in this line of work. Although i have not made one sale that i know of and feel drained by all the effort i put into promoting products, i will not give up aftert reading these posts i got some incouragement, thank you. maybe i’m doing something wrong or my accounts are set up wrong since i have had my clickbank accounts for a very long time, but whatever it mighy be i can not give up, its still a learning experience. I wish everyone prosperity, wealth, happyness and health.
Thank you:
Yours sincerly Bill Wiebe.
When you develope your own website by using a website builder from someone eles site and have them register it for you; are you still the owner of the domain; or is it own by the company that registered it for you?
Bill, I too have tried to be an affliate but I guess I do not have to smarts to do it. I’ve tried to follow Clickbank’s direction but I can’t seem to get the hoplink to work for me. Sounds like you are having the same problem. What I need is a tutor.
thanks for the good info. Really appreciate it.
Earl A. hello earl i just wanted to say even though you can not get the hop links to work, don’t give up, try to find the problem, fix it, then promote and get traffic. I know its frustrating crap but sometimes that is the only way to learn right?
I personally believe in all method of promoting affiliates. The key to success is to outsource if any method is not your cup of tea. Thousands of helping hands are out there to do any job which seems to you like a painful visit to the dentist .
Hi, I’m really interested in becoming an affliate marketer and it’s something that I’ve been reading about off and on over the last couple of years but I just don’t know where to start. Does anybody have any good advice on how and where to start… There are lots of programs and training systems out there but I don’t want to be ripped off – I just want honest advice
Where would You suggest I go to out source article writing to use with my SEO promotions? I don’t have any writing experience. Right now I just want to concentrate on Keywords and building a website the correct way!
It looks to me like we all have the same basic problem. Where do you start? I can say from experience I’ve put in at least the 10,000 hours of work and studying to learn this Craft/Business and it has been a very daunting task. Some weeks I have spent 10 to 12 hours a day and I’ve learned a lot, but it wasn’t until I actually put some of what I learned into action did ever get any results.
Once I got past all the information overload I wrote 6 articles, and trust me I’m no writer. With a lot of hard work a little luck and some research I submitted my first article. I really wasn’t expecting much but I was wrong they accepted it.
So I submitted the next one and guess what, they accepted it also. I have now submitted all of them and gained an expert authorship status and a graphic to place on my site. Which in turn gives my site trustworthiness and brands me as an expert in that niche, and
two pages on page one of google and all in less than a month from the day I posted my first article.
The message I am trying to get across is take what you have and get started! Make adjustments tweak and learn as you go. Just get going! You’ll never make a cent until you post an article, build a landing page send a email what ever it is…Do It..
Then keep doing it until you get it right…What ever you do, don’t give up you will be successful as long as you keep trying.
Ron, Has a great point just about anything you could want or need for your Business there is most likely a free version that will do just fine until you grow enough to where you need to upgrade to the paid version. One exception in my opinion, own your domain don’t use a sub-domain of a free website or host. such as http://www.freesite.com/mysite or http://www.nocost.com/mysite ect.
I agree with all the points above given. If you want to succeed in affiliate marketing, you need to spend a lot of time working on it when you are a newbie.The reason why you hear some internet marketers claimed that they spend an hour or two hours of work is because they have found a system that work for them. Everyone is different. You have to find out which system work best for you.Sometimes its a matter of combining a few methods. Learn the methods and the most important part is start applying those methods.
I am with GDI right now but looking for another area to pursue. Do does the gravity and $ amt enter the decision as to what to pursue? Also the like option to click I received info about the electronics and digital stuff have the largest commission so it is flooded with people . Appreciate your opinion. Thanks Jack
Sorry! I just started, so don’t have a website. I have no idea how to build a website, either! What I would like to know is, how and where do I post an article or ad for a product? As you can tell, I am not very good at this.
Thanksfor any help you can you can give me.
Marla in Oklahoma
For all your newbies out there, here is a great way to get started.
Find a hot product on ClickBank.com and put a free ad for it on USFreeAds.com.
If you want a free website to start with and fool around with, go to Blogger.com. It is owned by Google. It is a great starting spot, but will not create you a business. What it will do is help you learn to write articles, help you learn about AdSense Ads, and other free SEO traffic, and maybe even help you learn about how you make money, and how you get paid.
In the mean time, learn everything you can about keyword research. It is the key to everything. Also, Craig’s List, Forums, other Blogs, Fivver, and social media have people who can help you with the hard stuff (like setting up a Word Press Blog, writing articles, and other stuff) cheap, or in trade.
If you keep yourself busy with your own products, you won’t have time to buy all the other stuff out there, so you won’t waste your money, your time or your energy.
The whole key to stopping information overload is to keep busy on one thing at a time.
A wonderful saying I have kept for many years is from the Franciscan Nuns. It says,
“If you want to be Free, do one thing at a time, go slowly, and do it well.”
I hope that helps.
Sandra W.
I’ve done well as both an affiliate and a vendor over the years. The biggest affiliate mistake I see is looking for products rather than people. Specifically groups of people.
Once you become people focused rather than product focused, the whole process becomes easier. Rather than promoting a product, you’re helping people find something they already want.
Because you are dealing with the same group of people repeatedly, they get to know and trust you.
Exactly! New techniques & tools are consistently being developed and one should try to keep up with them. What worked yesterday might not work tomorrow but, what is new is new and there can be no denying that. Be one of the first to use them and you could be jumping into a “Pot Of Gold.”
Don’t know about the rest of you but, I search these out on a daily basis!
Maurice
Although I cannot consider myself precisely as a beginner affiliate, I find this article extremely simple and yet very powerful. This recalls me important things to do and others that I must not to do.
Jesus M.
I think all information is important and we can all learn from each other. I’m just starting out in the affiliate program and the hardest thing for me in getting set up is that I don’t understand how I can get that link to my website. I know it’s holding me back from starting. But like someone said, just get started and if it’s wrong, pick myself up and start over.