Affiliate Marketing Mindset

by tomw
2 replies
I haven't posted here for a long time and for that I apologise.

I recently wrote a few(!) words in order to help point someone in the right direction elsewhere. It occurred to me that, despite being pretty basic stuff, it may be useful for new folks at my favourite marketing community. After all,

words shared shape the world.

Take care. Be productive. Achieve your dreams.

Tom

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It seems that there are more infoproducts on the subject of making money online than copies of Gideon's Bible floating around. Many do a great job of laying down a simple and replicable process. The problem is that most people are too lazy to learn the required techniques and too ill-disciplined to follow the steps detailed therein.

The chances of becoming the next millionaire rockstar blogger are pretty remote. Even more so the chances of an Average Joe building the next Facebook or Twitter alone in his bedroom. Making proper money online isn't about gimmicks, short term quick bucks or shady shenanigans. It is about building a real business that uses the internet as its primary channel.

For leads. For comms. For sales.

That's all there is to it and, although a cliche, it is so true that one must,

'Find a starving crowd and give it what it wants."

There are many ways that one can do this. The problem is that the vast majority of people (both on and offline) get this fundamental step wrong.

They think that what they like/want/need is what everyone else does.
They think that they "know" what everyone else likes/wants/needs.

And act accordingly.

The worst advice anyone can give you about making money online is to "follow your passion" at the outset. I say focus initially on making yourself some decent money. Get yourself a nest egg. Some real security. And then do the things you love. I could tell you about a decades worth of people that have failed at following their passion online that I've known from the good ole Warrior Forum amongst many other places.

The truth is that most people don't actually know what their passions are. Weighed down by existing in survival mode, or simply chasing the materialistic rewards that they are entitled to do for working hard, they lack the required clarity of thought and purpose for soul searching. I genuinely believe that despite what many Gurus advise, it's only when one achieves a certain sense of "freedom" that one naturally turns to introspection. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but we're speaking in generalities.

So follow the money instead!

If you determine;

what people want to buy
how they find these things
where they hang out

amongst other things, you're on your way to having a powerful toolset that can already make you a ton of money and armed with such information simply,

stand open handed in the path of the money flow.

People spend billions online very year, why not pop your affiliate links in front of them and take your percentage? You don't even need to build a website. We didn't for years.

The wonderful thing about the web is that everything (EVERYTHING!) is trackable, measurable, optimisable and in some respects predictable. All of the information you'll ever need to make more money than you can possibly imagine possible is right there in front of your nose.

All one needs is to look, learn, target, deploy. Countless people (more than you would believe) are doing it already and you can do it too.

Of course there are a vast number of ways to make money online. But I've always seen the methods advocated by the Gurus as a simple two way split.

The first is the product-led/creation route.
In reality, this is no different from any other product-led merchant process, on or offline. You sell, resell or create something (usually an info product) and then pursue a career as an information marketer or "infopreneur." But those who follow this path are actually merchants. They market their own product and the vast majority are unsuccessful. There are countless obvious reasons for this and others not so quantifiable.

This route is no different from any other product led venture. It's just that the main channel of distribution is the internet.

In the old days, information marketers used direct mail and press advertising as well as infomercials to sell their wares. Now they exploit the convenience and low entry/marketing/distribution costs of the web.

The second is what I call "real" internet marketing - To pluck money from thin air.
What do I mean by this? I'll explain by example;

when I get up in the morning, I have no goods of my own. No customers of my own. And no leads of my own. I pop up some traffic gateways which redirect prospects that are

ALREADY LOOKING FOR SOMETHING

they buy

EXACTLY WHAT THEY INTENDED TO AND WOULD HAVE BOUGHT ANYWAY

I make a commission and go to bed with a healthier bank balance. I do this by using marketing skills. I haven't had to spend weeks or months researching, developing and writing a product. I haven't had to spend time and money promoting it or writing tedious traffic bait that pollutes the web with useless "articles." I haven't had to deal with customer service, reveal my soul to the world or make an ass of myself on youtube.

I simply go directly to the end process of marketing existing products for which there is high demand.

In many respects, this is more akin to a supermarket business model. They are primarily resellers of other merchants' goods. Usually, they do this on a "sale or return" basis and so it could be said that they have nothing to lose. They make a margin on each sale. Or, for the layman, a "commission." To do so, supermarkets focus upon building their brand and marketing it to drive footfall.

Now take the next logical step…

What if there was a way that the supermarket could communicate with prospects and sell them things without the need for physical premises?

The next logical step...

What if there was a way that the supermarket could sell things without the need to market itself to prospects?

The next...

What if there was a way that the supermarket could intercept prospects on the way to rival stores and make the sale first?

And the next..

What if there was a way that it could sell without the prospect even knowing that they were actually buying from the supermarket?

Welcome to the world of affiliate marketing. This is exactly how one of my businesses is run. I think of it as as a virtual, invisible and anonymous supermarket that ferociously interrupts prospects en route to a purchase, redirects them to my preferred merchants and steals sales from their competitors.

Plucking money from thin air
When we pop up an ad for, say, a mobile phone, it attracts prospects that are already looking for it. This could be in the search results, on a relevant site where the prospect is in research or purchasing mode or anywhere else deemed appropriate by my research metrics. When they click, I interrupt their purchasing process and redirect them to "my" store, or rather my favoured merchant. I am in control of the process. They engage with me, but are unaware of this.

What does this empower me to do?

Measure my ads performance.
Optimise it.
Measure the performance of the ad placement page.
Replace it.
Measure the merchant page conversion rate.
Replace it.
Measure the demographic conversion rate.
Optimise it.
Measure the geographic conversion rate.
Optimise it.
Measure virtually any metric I choose to.
Optimise it.

I determine which merchant prospects are redirected to and, when they buy from the merchant, I make my margin (commission). Just like the supermarket does. However, my only overhead was the cost of the ad. I make money anonymously. I pluck it from thin air. Nobody is any the wiser and...

...everyone's happy. The customer. The merchant. Me.

Remember that ALL business, at the fundamental level, is simple;

supply demand

The problems begin when one tries to;

create demand

This is where most starting out in IM go wrong.

There is no doubt that if one can develop something that creates demand, to innovate and stimulate, then success is virtually assured. Just look at the iPod, iPhone, iPad and countless other examples.

However, there is something else equally as important. ALL business, indeed all interaction between sentient beings, animals, insects, plants, entire ecosystems - and yes, the world of business is an ecosystem - even the physically interdependent relationship of solar systems, galaxies and indeed the whole universe, can be viewed as;

an exchange of value

This is perhaps the most important principle.

Of course the "process," the mechanics of delivering and receiving value, business operation, organisation and resourcing is complicated and intricate proportional to the business' size, scale and reach.

For someone starting out online, regardless of their chosen model, they should initially be guided by only these two fundamentals to be successful:

1. Supply An Existing Demand
2. Add Value


Gurus, wannabe gurus and dilettantes have a lot to answer for in terms of saturating the market and indeed the mindsets, imaginations and motivations of those that want (and often desperately need) to make a living online with convoluted, complicated or just plain wrong complete and utter dross. Often, it's nothing more than expensive, dream-quashing nonsense.

However, unless they make it mindbogglingly confusing, ridiculously complicated and deliberately choose to leave out key processes and vital steps, they have nothing to upsell you.

But therein lies another lesson;

It's cheaper to resell existing customers than to gain new ones.
#affiliate #marketing #mindset
  • Profile picture of the author ExRat
    Hi Tom,

    Glad you're doing OK.

    Retired in the French Riviera eh?

    S'pose it's better than getting retarded in the English Riviera.
    "Three 'B'" equation
    Remember the Golden Rule - 'if it flies, floats or f***s - rent it, don't buy it.'

    Signature


    Roger Davis

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    • Profile picture of the author tomw
      Originally Posted by ExRat View Post

      Remember the Golden Rule - 'if it flies, floats or f***s - rent it, don't buy it.'
      Hey! Hey!

      How the devil are you?

      I'm sure that statement was written in latin above the main doorway at my alma mater.



      Sent you a PM...

      Tom
      Signature
      STOP THE TRAFFIK: PEOPLE SHOULDN'T BE BOUGHT AND SOLD
      Help Us Rescue, Rehabilitate And Reunite Victims With Their Families

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