Work Boxers

No Nonsense General Affiliate Marketing Commandments

by Paul on August 11th, 2004

1. Design isn’t the most important factor. Coming from a web design background this was the hardest thing to admit to myself. I would spend so long worrying about the design of the site, while others were already getting the sites out. Look at Amazon and eBay, they seem to be doing just fine with their crappy design. Sure the design can help the experience, but focus on creating content that enhances the experience first.
2. You don’t have to like it to make money. Many people will tell you that you should only create sites that you have an interest in. I agree that you should create sites that you have an interest in, but that shouldn’t prevent you in creating sites that you don’t have an interest in. My passion at the moment is making money so I look for the best opportunities that are open for me to follow that passion.
3. Give them what they want NOW. When people come to your site looking to buy a product or service they are in the market to buy it now. Don’t slowdown that process with large anecdotes and too many choices.
4. Experiment. Constantly experiment. Dump the niches that don’t work out for you and continuously pound the ones that are making you money.
5. Automate. Automate your workflow as much as possible. If you are handcoding all of your sites, learn to use a CMS that makes life easier. Once you do that you can mass produce and clone your success.
6. Play the number’s game. Direct marketing is a number’s game. The more sites you have the better chance of success you have of making some money.
7. Domains are a commodity. Some people focus so heavily on domains they forgot that they are had for $9/year.
8. It’s a zero sum game. For all the massive winners out there you will find massive losers. This equates to a zero sum.
9. Free search engine traffic is a short-term industry. If you are creating sites that rely solely on free search engine traffic (good luck) then take the money and run. Reinvesting in these sites is almost useless since that traffic will not last forever.
10. Sharing general knowledge is good. It’s good to share general knowledge on how you succeed, but once you start giving specifics to your success don’t hesitate to think that someone won’t create a site to compete with yours and take your money.

This is by no means the only way to go about Affiliate Marketing and I am sure this is the reason some of you out there will disagree with these “commandments”. This is just a general way for people to go about making money. I in particular find it hard to follow these because I love to create sites with value that will last me in the long term. Sites that develop a brand behind them that cause people to link to it.

However, if you are wondering how many people proclaim to be making over 6 figures a year, more than likely they are following these “commandments”.

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POSTED IN: Affiliate Marketing