15 steps to make 2013 your year.

2013 is approaching very soon, it's another year and it's kind of cliché but it's again a chance at a new beginning, what will you make of this year? Will you use it to better yourself or will you just continue going through life as you have for 2012?

Why not put that extra effort and make 2013 your year and come out on top?

Below I have outlined 15 steps that I personally believe will help you with your ventures, this is not a quick get rich scheme or a guarantee by any means, but if you will these steps you will likely dramatically increase your chance of success in the affiliate marketing world.


1. Decide and commit to yourself and your business, decide if you are willing to commit what it takes to become successful and then commit to yourself that you will do this.

2. Set goals for yourself, set a yearly goal, bi-quarterly, monthly, weekly, etc - this doesn't need to be financially related, it can be knowledge, etc.

3. Figure out how you want to learn how to make money, this sounds easy enough but you really have no idea how many times people reach out to me "Chris, help me make money, tell me how to make money", something like this tells me that someone has done no research and put no effort into this. Figure out you desired path so to speak. Figure out if you want to do paid or free traffic, from here figure out the traffic source - eg. ppc, ppv, seo, article marketing, etc, etc. From here pick a specific provider - eg. (for ppc) Google Adwords, Bing, 7search, etc.

4. Develop a plan on how to hit your goals, be specific (eg. Don't say "find a way to make $20 in a week", say something like "start to learn ppc, use 7search to start, create 5 campaigns a day for the first 2 weeks, follow those campaigns, etc)

5. Now that you have goals, a path and a plan. Come up with rewards to hitting goals and meeting expectations, they can be as simple as a dinner out, a new ergonomic mouse/keyboard, etc - this doesn't need to be huge.

6. Research, research, research - when i say research, don't go reading every blog post at shoemoney, john chow, zac johnson, etc - these guys are smart and make a lot of money, but let's face it, not many of their posts actually talk about making money or how to make money. [case in point, a post like this will not help you one bit - RecipeIdeas.net - Free Shirt Friday - ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog , I'm not hating, just stating facts, Shoemoney has tons of valuable information, but also tons of stuff that are just merely for entertainment] Read forums, read blog posts that actually feature case studies, traffic sources and actual affiliate marketing information.

7. Learn your resources - this goes hand in hand with the previous point, take note of where the actual information is and bookmark it, check back for updates and check back to re-read what has already been written.

8. Ask for help. Use your resources that you've bookmarked and ask questions, make sure you're asking educated questions, don't just use "how do i make money", that will get you nowhere. Ask specifics about the post, ask targeted questions that shows that you have an understanding and have looked up information.

9. Don't give up. There will be times where you are on top of the world and there will be times where it seems everything is going wrong. When things look bad, go back over your plan, your goals, etc - re-energize yourself and look at the big picture, a minor setback is just that, it's a minor detail that once you overcome will seem like nothing.

10. Be in this for the long term, don't make poor choices based on the short term. A prime mistake and example that I see 80% of the people starting off with paid traffic do - Don't settle on just direct linking because you think it will be easier, this is a short term trap, start off with learning landing pages and list building from the beginning, your future self will thank you, even if you don't end up using them for every campaign - at least be learning them.

11. Network - talk with other affiliates and up and coming affiliates, work together - don't give away too much information but enough to help them and enough that they can help you.

12. Learn your business partners and those who you have a relationship with, reach out to your AM's, make sure they know who you are and you know who they are, even if at first it's nothing other than just a hello, this will hopefully at least start the relationship. Again, your future self will thank you.

13. Stay away from unethical practices, this seems like a no-brainer but so many people get caught going down this path because it looks "easier", they will spend time and money on how to post "jobs" on craigslist and direct to CPA campaigns, they will spend more time and money then they would on a legit campaign and then complain after a few weeks/months when the affiliate network catches on and doesn't pay. This just isn't worth it, just setup a legit business from the beginning.

14. Don't cheap out, do it properly. I'm not saying blow your whole wad on ridiculous things, what I'm saying is do it right, buy that domain name instead of relying on a free one, buy that hosting instead of trying to go for that free hosting.

15. Never forget where you came from. Once you've made it, don't get cocky, remain a level head and give back to those people and communities that helped you.