Can someone just please clarify the affiliate marketing model?

Hi Alan

There are a few ways to go about this, but here is one way of achieving what you want to do:

1. Find an affiliate offer you like and want to promote
2. Create/source/purchase something related to the affiliate product you selected.
3. Offer the product created in the previous step as a freebie in return for an email address
4. Offer the chosen product as an OTO to subscribers
5. Email the people added to your list with the same/similar affiliate offers

Obviously the devil is in the detail, but in principle this is one way of achieving what you want to achieve.

I hope it helps
Andy

Alan, I'll throw in a few ideas.

With you being relatively new to IM, I suggest a simple model, yet a tried and tested model. Your aim here is to avoid making mistakes and blowing a lot of money on a failed endeavour, and instead, setup a professional business, albeit a simple one for now. Most new marketers, as you can imagine, do it all wrong. And this is worse than it sounds. It means all of those painstaking hours of hard work (the researching and the doing) are all for nothing. What I hope the following will do is give you a certain degree a comfort. If you follow the model I'm going to outline for you, you won't be breaking new ground in IM, but you will at least be making good use of your time and money. Just know this: there are hundreds of ways to structure an affiliate business. This way? Just one of them. (And it avoids SEO, which is really not an ideal place for a newbie to get started, not these days.)

#1 Decide on your PEEK. Before you setup an IM business, you need to keep in mind your passions, experience, expertise, and knowledge. Setting up and running an IM business is hard. It helps to setup the ideal business for you. So. Make a note of your own PEEK.

#2 Does the right audience exist? You might be desperate to enter the sheep farming market, based on your PEEK, but can you find the right audience for it online? Probably not. What is the right audience? Typically, they're defined by a problem or problems that need to be solved. Let us say, for example, that the market for online dating falls within your PEEK. There are dating niches, again, likely within your PEEK, where men and/ or women need to find someone. And make no mistake: it is a need. Human beings are social animals, who need need need companions. You can research audiences by looking at socials (FB, G+, Twitter). Is there interest? Engagement? Big followings? Evidence of affiliate activity? If yes yes yes yes, then you have a likely audience to target.

#3. How can you solve their problem? Understanding this aspect will help you grow your business. And let's return to the dating market. Off the top of my head: single parent dating niche. Thousands of single parents around the world feel the need to find a companion and they need to know how to do it. And again, make no mistake: it actually isn't easy. The industry is replete with useless dating sites, and to a very large extent, an audience may have no clear idea of how to satisfy their universal need. Which is where you come in. You figure out the best way to solve their problem and you package that information up in an eBook. You might even offer the added bonus of videos and a 14-day email series. All of which is aimed at helping your audience. But it also helps you. Helps you attract them.

#4 The squeeze model. You select a relevant domain name, you develop a professional-looking website (mindful of copy writing and design, both of which related to optimization: converting visitors to opt-ins), and you integrate a service like Get Response or aWeber in the form of a simple email form on that squeeze page. You have your opt-ins DOUBLE opt-in and on the thank you page, you deliver your solution (ebook, videos, mention of upcoming email series). All of those items? Monetized. You link, where appropriate, to dating offers. I suggest you use the PPL offers (pay per lead). But, remember, any market and any niche can be covered (not just dating) and many don't have PPLs. Choosing the best offers is another story (research that). But, at this point, you've monetized new subscribers (the freebie), and you can now start to look after them (via email series and broadcasts), whilst also re-marketing.

#5 Use content syndication for traffic. So. You have a website. Engineered to solve problems (and of course earn you money). Now you need traffic. On the back of your website (not linked on your squeeze) you have a blog. You add content to it. But do you promote offers on it? No. You use "content upgrades." Your aim is not to send traffic to offers (which is one-shot deal marketing). Your aim is to COLLECT your audience. And why? Because when you look after people, they'll take action time and time again for you. So what you do is you create content intended to encourage readers to opt-in (content upgrade). And you then syndicate that content so people can find it. Where do you syndicate? Wherever you can, where your target audience hangs out: Youtube video descriptions, forums, groups, communities, Twitter, Tumblr, you name it. And it gets even better. You can hire VAs do to all that for you.

Basic model? It is indeed. But . . . A Passive Business? Pretty much. You do the above right, Alan, you'll have a stable business that can actually be outsourced very easily and run without much intervention from yourself. And, keep in mind, there's only one traffic system mentioned above. Hundreds exist. But that one? It's a good one. Remember: people share good content, and often keep on sharing. Lots of traffic.

Before I leave you to think about the above, here are 2 useful resources:

1. OfferVault.com
2. PeerflyOffers.com

Anyway, best of luck to you!

- Tom

I think its best to do you keyword research and then set up quick one page lading pages with some kind of opt-in incentive.

Then do fast $10 tests via adwords to see if people respond and opt-in. You should get a couple of opt-ins for that amount.

If not then move on to another idea. Once you have a keyword/landing page combination that gets opt-ins then build a site, list and blog around that.

Once they are subscribed to your list and blog via email and social, *then* promote the affiliate products.

Biggest mistake I have made is set up entire sites and blogs around keywords that people don't *really* care about. Testing with an absolute minimum investment is the only way to know.

Thank you all for your clear answers to my question. I shall go away now, ingest and see where to go with it thanks.

Alan

The whole forum is basically about affiliate marketing in one form or another. The questions you are asking have more to do with email marketing. You should take a look around that sub-forum to get an idea.

For a more focused look into affiliate marketing take a look at affilorama by Mark Ling. It is Free to join and it has loads of useful information to help get you started

al

Your in the right spot. Just takes time and persistence but you'll get there.

Affiliate marketing is a simple model because all you have to do is market or send traffic to the offer. You do not have to deal with anything else at this point. After you learn to drive traffic to an affiliate offer and convert that traffic then you can learn more about product creations and all of that good stuff because you will know how to market and then teach and show other affiliates how to do it PLUS if you show your sending traffic and people are buying with EPC's or earnings per click you can get some really good affiliates on board. That's how you can make $500,000, heck a million bucks in 24, 48 hours in this business.