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The Affiliate Marketer Rut

by Flathead
16 replies
Hello everyone! I'm fairly new to IM (about a year) and I have directed my attention to niche sites and affiliate marketing, I have made my first few dollars with IM but I seem to be stuck in a rut! I find myself vising the affiliate network sites and trying to build niche sites around the highest converting/best offers on those sites, instead of researching the niche first. Has anyone had success using this method?
#affiliate #marketer #rut
  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    Back in the day I did. Not anymore. There are still people who do this and are successful.

    It is just not my Plan of choice.

    I made good money, but when I was building Sites I relied on Google traffic . And it was just too up and down for me.

    Unpredictable !


    - Robert Andrew
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    • Profile picture of the author Carter Boatright
      Originally Posted by discrat View Post

      Back in the day I did. Not anymore. There are still people who do this and are successful.

      It is just not my Plan of choice.

      I made good money, but when I was building Sites I relied on Google traffic . And it was just too up and down for me.

      Unpredictable !


      - Robert Andrew
      The same exact thing for me. In fact, I'm still earning through affiliate marketing as secondary income, but I don't like the uncertainty of waking up to 0 traffic and 0 sales because of a Google update. It's happened to me twice and getting away from that model to a more long term stable solution is an awesome feeling.
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      • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
        Banned
        I agree with all the above ^^^.

        However you look at it, to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business, one thing's for sure: you're better off with a traffic-generation plan that doesn't depend on Google: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8659398

        .
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        • Profile picture of the author Flathead
          Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

          I agree with all the above ^^^.

          However you look at it, to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business, one thing's for sure: you're better off with a traffic-generation plan that doesn't depend on Google: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post8659398

          .
          Like Facebook, AdSense and Opt-in Email lists?

          Sorry, being fairly new to this, I just want to make sure that I understand.
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          • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
            Banned
            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            A few of the affiliate networks give those stats, I understand they are probably unreliable.
            Yes - I think so. For example, click2sell gives conversion-rate "information" (or did, the last time I looked, which was admittedly a long time ago) but it's trivially easy for competitors to "send 5,000 clicks bought on Fiverr" to someone's sales-page to destroy their conversion-rate, so they don't really mean anything at all.

            I was just trying (a bit rhetorically ) to make the point that you can't usually tell either what's selling well on average, or what's converting well on average, and those averages - even if available - don't need to apply to you anyway.

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            The money I've earned so far has come from a Niche blog, recommending products sold on amazon, giving me commission solely through their associates program. Maybe I'll scale that sort of thing up
            A perfectly viable way to build an affiliate marketing business, for sure. This thread will help you (it's a bit long, but "worth the read"): http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post6608638

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            Does anyone else have success using amazon's associate program?
            For sure.

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            Like Facebook
            I think so. I don't know anything about Facebook other than what I picked up from watching Social Network!

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            AdSense
            You mean AdWords? Buying traffic through pay-per-click? Yes, that's certainly a traffic-generation method, and you can do that in various ways. AdWords (which is the only one of those PPC deals of which I have any real experience, myself) is viable, but it's a big learning-curve, too.

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            and Opt-in Email lists?
            Well, that isn't a traffic-generation plan, really: it's a great traffic-retention plan, though.

            Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

            Sorry, being fairly new to this, I just want to make sure that I understand.
            There are almost countless ways of generating traffic.

            Don't imagine that the division into "organic (SEO) traffic" and "paid traffic" is correct, meaningful or helpful. A lot of people in IM forums talk about traffic as if those are "the main two kinds", but it's nonsense, really: SEO traffic can be either free or paid, and so can countless other kinds of traffic, too.

            The main traffic-generation method I use myself, if you're interested, is article marketing (and that's mostly "free" traffic, i.e. you "pay" for it with your time, effort and skills rather than with cash) - but it isn't for everyone, and I have no idea whether it will suit you or not!

            Good luck!

            .
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

    I find myself vising the affiliate network sites and trying to build niche sites around the highest converting/best offers on those sites
    How do you judge which are the "highest-converting" offers on those sites?

    How do you judge which are the "best"?

    Originally Posted by Flathead View Post

    Has anyone had success using this method?
    Most of my own income comes from ClickBank, where conversion-rate information, and sales volume information, are neither published nor available, so I couldn't use it anyway.

    But also, I don't think other people's conversion-rates would be relevant to my own: it's a reality, throughout affiliate marketing, that different affiliates have hugely different conversion-rates for the same products, according to the traffic sources and pre-selling skills of each.

    I certainly wouldn't want to be promoting things that hundreds of other affiliates are also promoting, though: that feels like "unnecessary competition just for the sake of it", to me.

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author Flathead
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      How do you judge which are the "highest-converting" offers on those sites?

      How do you judge which are the "best"?

      .
      A few of the affiliate networks give those stats, I understand they are probably unreliable. The money I've earned so far has come from a Niche blog, recommending products sold on amazon, giving me commission solely through their associates program. Maybe I'll scale that sort of thing up and put in the work testing instead of looking for that magic product to.promote. Does anyone else have success using amazon's associate program? I've made about $50/hour that I've put into amazon through a couple quick blog posts and social media updates to those posts. It was easy, seemed too easy for me to stick with it...
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    • Profile picture of the author Sid Hale
      Alexa, you already understand this (as witnessed by the following quote) - so this is just to highlight what Alexa said, and to help open some eyes when trying to identify products to promote.

      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      But also, I don't think other people's conversion-rates would be relevant to my own: it's a reality, throughout affiliate marketing, that different affiliates have hugely different conversion-rates for the same products, according to the traffic sources and pre-selling skills of each.
      Every time I see it mentioned... I laugh.

      Published conversion rates are only good IF they are derived from traffic that is identical (or pretty close) to your own.

      Aggregated rates change (typically downward) over time, and are totally useless to an affiliate simply because we have no idea what has been aggregated.

      Has the product just been launched to the affiliate network?
      If so, the current conversion rate is probably as close as it will ever come to representing the potential conversion rate of the sales page itself.

      Even so... this rate may be affected by:
      1. The size of the product owner's list (assuming he/she released to that list before opening up to affiliates),
      2. the product owner's relationship with that list, and
      3. whether the product owner offered a substantial discount to existing customer/list members

      If the product owner has carefully coordinated his launch with a select group of "insider" affiliates, possibly even offering them a higher commission rate to promote the launch, the same factors with regard to those affiliates' lists can boost initial conversion rates even further.

      If the product has been available to affiliates for a while, the conversion rate is impacted by the promotion of less successful affiliate marketers, with smaller lists, limited relationships with their list members, and therefore a lower conversion rate.

      Once a product has been on the market for a substantial period of time, the aggregate conversion rate almost invariably will plummet. The rate of decline is totally dependent on how much traffic was initially driven by the product creator himself and/or the traffic that was driven by that select group of "insider" affiliates (i.e. launch partners). The higher the conversion rate is at that time, the slower it will fall, but the more promotion the product receives from less effective affiliates, the faster it will decline.

      There is no way to tell (from the conversion rate itself) how successful you may/may not be in promoting that product to your own list.

      The typical affiliate is scouring the internet for product to promote, and has probably missed the launch window (1-2 weeks?). The aggregate conversion rate at that time is probably the lowest it has ever been, but may drop even further (i.e. 1 month after launch, 2 months after launch, 6 months after launch).

      The product itself is probably still relevant - hasn't become outdated (although there may now be more competing products on the market), and can probably still be sold successfully to his/her list... but looking at the aggregate conversion rate won't give a clue!
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  • Profile picture of the author Brent Stangel
    I'm still earning through affiliate marketing as secondary income, but I don't like the uncertainty of waking up to 0 traffic and 0 sales because of a Google update.
    You seem to be lumping affiliate marketing with SEO.

    Google updates have nothing to do with affiliate marketing unless your only traffic source is SEO.

    I'm a full time affiliate marketer and I couldn't care less what G does or doesn't do.
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  • Profile picture of the author C G
    I made my first dollar online using this exact same method. That was 5 years ago.

    Why don't you go into product creation? There's must more money to be made. You can still promote affilate products to your list.

    Cheers,

    C.G.
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    • Profile picture of the author Flathead
      Originally Posted by C G View Post

      I made my first dollar online using this exact same method. That was 5 years ago.

      Why don't you go into product creation? There's must more money to be made. You can still promote affilate products to your list.

      Cheers,

      C.G.
      Product creation is on the list of to-do's in the coming months, in the meantime while I'm developing a product(s) I want to build another Niche site from scratch and test a few different things on there. It seems talking to all of you helps me clear up my thoughts and allows me to focus on the next move. I want to create a new site based on something I'm passionate about but I want it to be a completely different subject/industry than I'm already blogging on so I'm reaching different people than I currently am.
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  • Profile picture of the author IM Mozie
    Do yourself a favor, build your list, its the BEST way to no long have to rely on Google. If you'd like, I can send you a free course on list building.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dec Mc
    It gets very hard sometimes and we run into dead ends and road blocks but stick with it and never give up, follow your dream !
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  • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
    If you can find a way to drive a lot of targeted traffic to your site(s) then i don't see a reason why this wouldn't work. You just need to have a complete plan and stick to it. It's not just a matter of building sites, you also have to think about traffic and turning that traffic into sales.

    If you can do that then you understand the fundamentals of internet marketing and that's more than most people know.

    And plus 1 for building your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author IvoryPearl
    I suggest checking out Alexa Smith's post and threads...click on her name above to do that...she seems to really understand this business...so does JensSteyaert. I agree with everyone who gave the suggestion to build a list. Check out other posts to find out more ways on how to build your list.

    Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author samlee
      Yes definitely to build a buyers list from the start if you to build a sustainable and a growing business. To do that you need to create a good sales funnel and then send traffic.
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