I'm new and want to make some money. How should I begin?

15 replies
Hi guys,

I want to start making some money as an affiliate. But I'm quite new and don't know where to start.

I've read a lot and know enough to understand how the mechanics of this business work. I've seen Clickbank and understand the role as an affiliate.

My first attempt at being an affiliate was promoting a Forex System. I made a blog and wrote a review about it, then recommended people on forums to read my review. It didn't really get anywhere, although I did score 2 sales

As you can probably see. I like to review my products in detail, and only suggest ones that I would personally use myself.

However, I feel as if I don't know where to start. I feel that I don't have a system to follow through. My skills in SEO etc is close to none.

Can you fellow warriors please help out a newbie and point me to the right direction?

What materials should I read?
What packages are must have?
How can I become a successful marketer?

I don't mind spending a bit of money (not too much I guess).

Would something like IMA (by Tim and Steve) be a good place to start?
What other products would be good to increase my understanding?

Thanks guys for helping out a noob!
#begin #make #money
  • Profile picture of the author JohnCitizen
    I'm married with a full time job. So hours is not plenty.

    I'm willing to throw in hours afterwork and on weekends.

    For people with a similar lifestyle, does being an affiliate work?
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    • Profile picture of the author oneplusone
      I've had a lot of success with the review site model, what you've got to do is have a main authority site and give intelligent reviews of multiple products in a niche.

      And you build up a list of subscribers who opt-in to receive your news/updates/reviews via e-mail.

      I don't know much about the Forex market, but what you would do is set up a main authority site then have the permalinks as the product names:

      yoursite.com/product1-review
      yoursite.com/product2-review
      yoursite.com/product3-review

      The SEO tends to happen naturally after the initial push, when you write good reviews the product owners will often link to your site for free for obvious reasons.

      And when you write bad/neutral reviews, you tend to get links naturally from places like forums.

      When the model is implemented correctly, in most decent niches it should make high 5 figures or 6 figures a year, and you can sell the authority website after a couple of years if you get bored of it.

      I personally find it a bit boring reviewing products, as it stifles my creativity but the money is very good.

      Haven't got time to go into all the specifics, but this should give you a general idea of how it is done.
      Signature
      'If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.' Vincent Van Gogh.
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  • Profile picture of the author alcymart
    First, you need to stop thinking in terms of "Making Money"! Find a field, product or service that excites you so that motivation will come naturally.

    I'm an amateur in SEO so that makes two of us...

    However, I can teach you another method of generating traffic, copywriting, color psychology etc... PM me if you need more info or have questions.

    I'll let others reply too cause I know some here have great suggestions when it comes to not knowing where to start.

    Take care,

    Bernard St-Pierre
    Marketing Consultant
    Copywriter/Teacher
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnCitizen
    My apologies. My motivation is to make money, but I'm not as money driven as you may think. I do enjoy reviewing a product and recommending a good product to people who may need it. I find enjoyment in that.
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    • Profile picture of the author petevamp
      Originally Posted by aaron655 View Post

      My apologies. My motivation is to make money, but I'm not as money driven as you may think. I do enjoy reviewing a product and recommending a good product to people who may need it. I find enjoyment in that.
      First things is first. What do you want more. Would you rather haave the money now and never again or do do yo want to have that money coming in every single month; month after month.

      My bet is you want the money to come in month after month. There for your first mindset is that it is all about money is wrong. What you first need to do is build your business. Money comes and goes but if you build a business it will pay you month after month for the rest of your life.

      Now you say you want to make money through affiliate marketing. Ok then here is what I would do if I was you. Build a very simple review site. On that review site place 3 affiliate products that are similar and rate them.

      Now once you have your main page set up it is time to start making it so that you can get a larger reader base. To do this simply add a blog section to that same set. Wordpress is one of the best cms platforms for this.

      On this blog you will simply write other reviews and always having it link back to your main page. Ontop of other reviews you will also add content. With this content you will discus something or give advice about something. Then always make sure at the end of that post you have links to your top 2 products and your home page.

      Then you simply need to build links to your site. As far as seo goes it really isnt that hard to understand. I am not sure as to why so many think it is difficult. For I may not know everything about seo but I know more then enough.

      All you need to really make sure of is that you are using your keywords in your meta title and description tags. Then you also need your keywords on your page atleast 2%. When ever you are building links to your site you want to always make sure that you are linking using your keywords. Place a link in the first 50 words. Bold some of your text on your page.

      Most importantly though always make sure you are creating content for the reader and not just the search engine. This pretty much sums it up in a nut shell for you. So as I said there really isnt much to seo as most think. These are the main aspects to it and that is all you really need to know for starters.

      Now let me ask you this though. Are you going to be the type who doesn't actually do the work and complain about not making any money Or are you going to be the type who actually puts effort in and starts to see money coming ins slowly but surely. There is no magic bullet when it comes to im.

      Well Maybe there is. The magic bullet is simply put in the work and you will be rewarded. Write 50-100 articles in a month or so. Go out and build backlinks to your site. To make it plain and simple "JUST DO THE WORK OR OUTSOURCE IT".
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  • Profile picture of the author ambri
    Aaaron,

    It's good that you are willing to invest to learn and grow and it will probably be needed. But for now I would actually advice you to start with something that is totally free (and which is where I turn to when I need any clarification on any of this) - Lynn Terry's site ClickNewz! Internet Marketing Blog | Internet Marketing blog by Lynn Terry with How-to, Tips, Reviews, Case Studies & Ideas to help you succeed online. Known as the Voice of Integrity in IM… Many also swear by Rosalind Gardners book although I have not read it myself yet.

    And of course - you are sitting on a goldmine here in the warrior forum! Watch, learn and ask.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author cashcow
    As you can probably see. I like to review my products in detail, and only suggest ones that I would personally use myself.
    This is great - awesome! One of the keys to success is caring about the products you recommend, or actually, about the people you are recommending them to.

    However, I feel as if I don't know where to start. I feel that I don't have a system to follow through. My skills in SEO etc is close to none.
    You can learn a lot about SEO here. Start with finding out how to find good keywords for your desired niche. The first thing you want to do is set the mechanics up to collect email addresses so you can build a list. Make sure you pick a niche where you can sell many products to the people on your list to help them solve their problems.

    Once you have your keyword, you probably want to write articles around your keywords and use those article to drive traffic to your review page (or you could use PPC) then on the review page, you could put an opt-in that would give them a free report or free email course that helps them with their problem. Then inside the report/emails is where you lead them further to the product(s) you want them to buy.

    That's just 1 way to do it, of course. You will get lots of advice on different methods but they key is to not get too caught up in analyzing each one - just pick something and take action.

    Lee
    Signature
    Gone Fishing
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  • Profile picture of the author smwordsmith
    Who doesn't want to make money? But there are those without integrity who want to make money and those who have integrity who want to make money PLUS, because they have integrity, help their fellow man!

    Sounds like you fall into the 2nd category. Which is good!

    Making 2 sales through your Forex blog is great. Perhaps you should return to that and work to not only monetize it better but also to get it to the point where you just have to trickle feed it.

    Because you are working full-time and have little time, perhaps it is best to focus on developing your Forex blog vs. dabbling in multiple streams on income.

    Blog content is the key- though SEO may bring them to your blog, the content keeps them there and coming back.

    Re: learning resources- learn all you can about blogging and making money on blogging. Yaro Starak has some good info to start with and it is free.

    There are many successful IM'ers who are very willing to help newbies by providing free content. Ken Evoy of SBI (Site Sell) has some great and free resources on how to write to sell, how to deliver quality, etc.

    If you have a bit more money, and to speed things up a bit, consider hiring a consultant to guide you. The cost is worth it as you will save lots of time and money. The trick is- finding the right consultant!

    I wish you the best!
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    Sheila

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    • You will save yourself 2 - 3 years of heartache and frustration by finding one "method" and sticking with it, no matter what. Focus on 1 - 2 sites for a few months, get them making money. Rinse and repeat.

      Garage Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author JohnCitizen
    Thanks heaps for the great feedback. I'm determined to give this a shot.

    I hope I can get a few more responses. That would be excellent.

    If I had to pay money to speed up my learning and progress, which learning/tools/packages out there would you suggest?

    Also, what's your views on using Adwords vs SEO?

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author paulie888
      Originally Posted by aaron655 View Post

      Thanks heaps for the great feedback. I'm determined to give this a shot.

      I hope I can get a few more responses. That would be excellent.

      If I had to pay money to speed up my learning and progress, which learning/tools/packages out there would you suggest?

      Also, what's your views on using Adwords vs SEO?

      Thanks
      Paid traffic (and this isn't just limited to Adwords) will greatly increase the volume of targeted traffic to your website if you're using it properly.

      The only issue is that the learning curve can be quite steep, and you have to be prepared to lose some money while testing and tracking your campaigns on the way to making them profitable.
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      • My personal opinion is to stay away from paid traffic until you learn SEO. But, if you do get into PPC make sure you proceed very slowly or you'll loose your shirt.

        And, most importantly, have a plan, and work your plan. People fail because they have NO PLAN!!
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  • Profile picture of the author ayomyde
    You should also think of blogging with your main keyword in that niche, doing this consistently will definitely get you free traffic from the search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Originally Posted by aaron655 View Post

    Hi guys,

    I want to start making some money as an affiliate. But I'm quite new and don't know where to start.

    I can give you all the secrets for $97! That is a $10,000 VALUE!!! LOL.

    Best advice I can give you is read up on the forum, you will find many different ways!
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  • Profile picture of the author johnyeo90
    Buy some traffic course because TRAFFIC is everything!
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