what's the hardest thing about affiliate marketing

Hi there,

For a step-by-step process, you can check these links out:
Create An Affiliate Marketing Site - Affiliate Marketer Training
5 Ways To Create A Profitable Affiliate Site
How to Create Affiliate Marketing Websites that Run on Autopilot - My Making Money Magazine

Buddy, let me share with you about the first step: Selecting a Niche.
You know, it's better if you select a niche you are most passionate about. Just my 2 cents. You don't wanna wake up everyday doing something that in the first place, you don't love, right?

On Step 2: Writing High Value Content
Yes, it's true that finding writers who keep up with your standards is quite hard. But if you can do it yourself, and devote a couple of hours everyday to write, much better. You can always find superstar writers here in WF, but you can also check out Upwork or iWriter for great writers.

On Step 3: Link Building
Actually, you don't need to initially spend on building your links. You can do guest blogging/posting, forum commenting or use social media to build links. Just make sure your means really allow you to build links.

In every step, struggle can be present. It depends on how you react to the challenge at hand.

Good luck!

If you're looking for guys to do the link building work, check out Fiverr.

However, for added knowledge and reference, you can check these out:
17 Untapped Backlink Sources (Updated)
9 Link Building Resources That’ll Increase Your Search Rankings

I believe that there's no solid system on how you're gonna do Steps 2 and 3, as AMers do it their style. If there's a common system for everyone, AM would just be dull, and only a few would venture on it! So it's best if you add a personal touch on how you'll do these steps. That's what makes you outstanding in this field.

Goodluck pal!

I agree that it's easier to write about topics you're passionate about. However, it also has to be a niche where people spend money. The secret is finding the niche that fits both criteria. Otherwise you'll have a hard time making money no matter what you do.

Personally, I wouldn't buy links from fiverrr but maybe that's just me.

Build a list.

Rose

I would not buy links from fiverr as well. Then again, what do I know?

Btw, nobody have answered my questions about the hardest things about doing Affiliate Marketing

For no. 2 no matter how good is your article and rank on search engine, you'll get less conversion if your readers don't trust you. I suggest to brand your self so with the quality and trust, your products will be get more sales.

For no 3, you don't need DA/PA for your money site. All you need are the buyers with ready wallet to buy your products. Find where they hangout, can be on fb group or instagram. Build your list and relationship with them so if you have some recommend products, they love to buy from you.

Mike,

In my humble opinion, there are two main aspects of Internet based business that are difficult.

1. Traffic
2. List Building

Without traffic, you won't build a list very fast. Without a list, you won't be able to roll out offers and sell very fast. On average, your prospects need to see you or your marketing message about 7 times in the offline world before buying from you. If you're selling online, you can double that figure.

This is why studying sales funnels and marketing your business everyday is extremely important. So, you really need to generate a lot of traffic to your site. Now, which path you are going to take to get that traffic is really up to you.

I know that the real estate crazy-guy Grant Cardone loves Youtube. I think he is rolling out about 5 of those a day. Personally, I think most of them suck, but he's still a smart biz-dude. He knows the more people see his face continuously, the more he will become a recognized authority.

Alex Jones does the same thing, loads of video content, whether you agree with his politics or not is for you, but the Internet is saturated with his video content everyday.

But whatever mode you decide to use, you really need to find the mode that works for you the best.

I think the reason video and webinars are so popular is because it's much easier to create massive amounts of content to get traffic. Of course, their sites are also optimized to grab butt loads of email addresses.

Anyway, traffic and growing a massive list is the way to go. (Yep, I'm the very first to say it on here.)

God Bless,
Elmo

Great thread. You are definitely on the right track.

I think for most is getting steady top quality traffic and learning how to convert that traffic. People need to understand this if they want any chance of success long term.

Getting that funnel up and running with a decent lead capture page


- Robert Andrew

do yourself a massive favour and do NOT do SEO to begin with!

only do that once you've figured out what niche you're going to serve, how they make their buying decisions (you do that with PAID advertising), and only once you know *for a fact* what keywords convert into buyers, THEN, and only THEN may you choose to add SEO as the icing on the cake.

Sadly, most likely you'll get this 'intellectually', and then fall for the lure of 'free traffic', waste a couple of years of your life, only to then discover yourself what I've just told you.

(precisely what happened to me, and countless others;-)

best of luck

Veit

The hardest thing in affiliate marketing for me is, it's hard to convert traffic becomes leads. I have made so many experiments to make affiliate marketing programs become the source of my income. Now, I have my best trick to make it comes true. However, over what you do, the main key is to get the right targeted traffic first.

Simply the hardest thing on affiliate marketing lies in taking on the pivotal role of simply linking up the buyer and the seller. I see that in order to be a successful affiliate marketer, you need to stand out from the crowd because there are so many competitors on the road.
Thanks so much
-Omar

Spend that money on ads. With SEO, no matter how much you spend there is no guarantee you will ever get any traffic.

With ads, you get traffic and quite quickly. It takes learning and testing but it's the only way you can truly have control of your traffic.

You want to find out quickly if your niche and products are going to sell.

One of the best things I learned early on (from Steve Weber) was to fail quickly.

Mike,

The most trivial things for me in affiliate marketing are:

1. Uncovering niches where I can cost-effectively promote relevant affiliate products and services to highly convertible groups of online buyers;

2. Finding and cost-effectively tapping traffic sources that can help me compel those groups of buyers to head straight to my affiliate offers;

3. Creating content that can cost-effectively funnel them from those traffic sources to my offers and realistically convert a significant percentage of those groups of buyers into freemium subscribers and premium customers;

4. Formulating cost-effective test campaigns that can allow me to tweak what I'm doing after analyzing relevant test results; and

5. Scaling up my campaigns and expanding to other viable verticals, all while improving the sustainability of my ventures ...

To be able to do numbers 1 and 5, I do numbers 2 to 4 first -- I want to know certain things about my prospect markets and the exact places where they hang out. This allows me to do the following things:

* Analyze the exact types of products and services to offer them;

* Verify if any viable affiliate offer is currently available;

* Think of the exact types of ads and content that I can create as test materials for realistically funneling them from those traffic sources to my offers; and

* Think of exact types of offers to create for realistically converting them as freemium and premium customers through tailor-fitted offers designed to sell my affiliate offers ...

Yes, keyword research can help in analyzing what certain groups of buyers are looking for, but my objective with keyword research is to know why they're looking for those things. Once I can think of realistic reasons behind their actions, I'd be able to create small campaigns for testing out my assumptions ...

Hmmm... Technically, yes, because you usually need to write a script to create videos. My point is - The exact types of content that you need to offer your ideal prospects and customers might vary, depending on the content viewing preferences of your target audience, where they hang out, how they would most likely react to certain types of content, etc.

I prefer direct ads and advertorials in networks with publishers that operate Web propeties where my ideal prosspects and customers hang out. When it comes to links, I'd go with content placements with strong call to action banner and text links in my target online places and content repositories ...

Hope this helps!

What's the hardest thing about affiliate marketing?

Getting over the notion that there is some magical process you can follow step by step that guarantees success. All you need is the right push-button system.

I don't care how many WSO Gooroos claim it exists, it doesn't.

Once you get past that, and start looking at what your job as an affiliate is, it gets much easier.

Hi Mike,

The toughest part is getting over a belief in scarcity. Or, doing AM from a place of love and fun, versus from a place of fear.

Example; many affiliates fear not having enough time - aka, believing doing the very things that will help you make money will take up too much time - so this fear goads them to create short cuts, leading to days then months then years of struggle.

But if you create helpful content through a blog and through guest posting, and if you comment on top sites or blogs related to your niche, for the fun of creating and connecting, the bonds form, interested people flock to your site (steadily) and the sales come.

Happy Marketing

Ryan

Generating cost-effective traffic that turns a profit.
or
Paying market rates for traffic and having a funnel that can convert it at a profit.

Building a responsive email list.

In the end...ROI

It looks like you have outline one of several ways to do affiliate marketing. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

As for links, why not post on social media and post on blogs and other websites in the same niche.

The hardest part of affiliate marketing is having to fend off all the sexy women that throw themselves at you when they learn what you do.

Newbies like you follow those steps above and never get anywhere.

This isn't 2007 anymore.

You need more than just content and manual back links to rank content.

and if you do focus on that aspect. You better be prepared to do that for 6 months to a year+ before you even see any meaningful results. And even then you'd be lucky to make a couple hundred a month if everything goes right.

I'm sorry to say this, but any newbies reading this... you can't make it in this business half-assing it anymore. The easy times are gone.

You are either all in or don't even bother wasting your time.

To the OP...

What you're doing is not enough.

If you don't have a budget to spend on things like SEO or even better... paid advertising... Just go save up some money and treat your current plan like a hobby where you spend an hour a day writing for your website. You will at least get better at writing and writing everyday is beneficial, but don't go into this plan thinking you're going to make any money. Won't happen.

So prepare yourself for the fact that you won't make any money with this method for a very long time and any money you do make along the way will be a welcome surprise. This way you won't set yourself up for disappointment.

A lot of you have said about how hard it is to get convert traffic into sales. A lot of you mentioned to NOT focus on SEO at the beginning.
Everything you said is a very sounding advise coming from years of experience. So my next question is: IS IT POSSIBLE TO EARN $10,000 TO $20,000 PER MONTH WITHIN 10 MONTHS?

If it's possible, how?

what's the hardest thing about affiliate marketing
Choosing an Affiliate Program because there are such a large number of affiliate programs to choose from and many are structured differently,

be sure you are comfortable with the product you're promoting or selling and you have confidence in the advertiser you are linking to. Check the pages on the advertiser's Web site. If it's something you yourself would never consider purchasing, or it possibly looks a bit unreliable, then chances are your visitors won't be interested in it either. If you're running a content-based site, you don't want to sell anything that might offend visitors or lower their opinion of your site.

The best rule of thumb is to pick affiliate programs look for affiliate programs that are related to the topic.

For example, if your Web site is about registering domain names look for affiliate programs that are related to the topic such as Web site hosting, Webmaster tools and software, Web site templates and so on.

Webmaster tools and software, Web site templates and so on. There is nothing worse than advertisements that stand out like a sore thumb on your pages Even niche sites can find affiliate programs that are a good match



Types of Affiliate Programs

If you join affiliate program you most likely will be placing text links or banners to their advertisers and you'll work on a pay-per-click fee.

E-mail list affiliates promote e-mail newsletters and are usually paid when a person joins the advertised opt-in e-mail list. Being an affiliate of any merchant usually means you are paid a commission per sale on the advertiser's Web site.

pay-per-click affiliate programs pay the least amount, as affiliates are often paid per thousands clicks (CPC).

Pay-per-lead programs are when you you provide the links to downloads, trial offers, e-mail opt-in lists and so on. Depending on the advertiser you may be paid per lead generation or you may not be paid unless the user subscribes and pays for a full service from the advertiser.

Pay-per-sale affiliate programs (also called revenue sharing) usually offer the highest commissions, and you'll typically receive a set dollar amount per sale or a straight percentage of the total sale. Because a user has to purchase something, you may find this program best-suited to high-traffic affiliate sites.

TIP: For more affiliate marketing terms,
see Webopedia's Online Marketing category.

Affiliate Marketing Glossary
above the fold
ad targeting
advertiser
affiliate
affiliate agreement
affiliate link
affiliate program
banner click fraud
click-through
conversion rate
cookie
CPC
eBay Partner Network
page impression
pay-per-sale
unique visitor pay-per-sale
page view
pay-per-lead
raw hits
referrer
traffic sources metrics

I don't get why people start threads with fixed dollar amounts and a tight schedule while not having made a dime yet.

Lets be real. - Dr Phil

While I agree with 1 and 2 I am not big on buying links as to me seo is a gamble--while you may get a good ranking--you never know how long it will last.

Forget about making the big money--and just focus on the basics of writing good content and driving people to your site, either with free methods, social media.

:Once you know your site is converting or you are getting a good amount of opt-in's--I would start focusing on paid traffic.

But, I would only do this when I knew what I was doing was working

Hope this Helps.