Is there really a secret to affiliate marketing?

I am only quessing here, but I'd say this is where you are going wrong:

Based on what you have told us, which is only a little.. so I apologise if I am off base here. You seem to have tried plenty but not really got stuck into one single system of profit generation for your business..

A daily routine of income producing activities is something of a must in any business...

Take a step back from your current action, analyse what you have done so far, then really decide WHAT you want do do with your business and how you want to do it.

I usually recommend that a newb chooses one single strategy, method or plan that has been proven successful for those who have done it before them.. and simply tear it up with massive action.

If you know (i.e. have proof) that something works, then it's best to make a decision on that single business plan and stick to it until the tipping point arrives.

You're gonna feel lost, you're gonna get frustrated, but no more so than you are right now trying to throw clumps of mud against a wall and hoping one will stick.

Pick a plan and execute till your fingers burn...

Peace

Jay

p.s. The secret is ..... There is no secret... just a proven set of skills and principles, that when applied in a massive fashion and correctly.. WILL generate cash into your bank.

Hi Chris,

I started about 18 months ago, but unlike you I have set myself a target of 5 years to make it work. When I started I knew absolutely nothing about internet marketing but finally things are beginning to fall into place.

If I step back and analyze my progress so far, it is glaringly obvious to me that the one single factor that held me back is information overload and focus.

Once I decided to focus on a particular avenue and see it through to a satisfactory conclusion, I then move on to the next.

I have to admit however, that I do still sometimes lose that focus....but beat myself up until I am back on track...this seems to work for me.

Not very inspiring i know, but I hope it helps.

Graham

Jay's right...affiliate marketing is comprised of many subcategories which you would seem to be somewhat familiar with: article marketing, PPC, CPA, and so on. You'll hear it from everybody: find something and stick to it.

A change of mindset is in order as well: you didn't waste or lose any money at all. You made investments. Making a mistake is only a bad thing if you never learn from it.

I would advise picking one form of affiliate marketing that you like and shutting everything else out unless it is relevant to what you are doing.

Sad story Chris. Internet marketing is about working smart and not harder. It can take you years to get things right, you are still in the learning process. Personally i wouldnt recommend the kind of opportunity for people looking to make quick money because you will only end up dissapointing yourself.

You mentioned that you made $400. If you have set up thing right, you should be able to know where that $400 can from. That could be your breakthrough.

There are a lot of marketing methods, some might give you tough time. Myself i disperse article marketing, so i dont do much of it i rather outsource.

Seems like you have great skills, you can build a website, thats nice.

I will give you a little secret about online marketing, stop selling and start giving away something for FREE.

From there visitor can gain your trust and peharp start joining your team.

Hi Chris,

To aide your success and kick start it, I suggest that you apply your skills you've learned online *and* offline. I had the same problems starting out, and I went back to working with Clients who pay a lot more. Keep in mind that there is a huge void between small business and online anything. By helping them you can do much better, and your business costs are much less.

I have worked like this for a long time and it works. I prefer to have 33% or even 50% leads to sales figures than to have results that are 2% or 3% from a opt-in mailing list for example. But, doing both is the best way. Once you have your local client base growing, then turn more to online stuff --preferably with your own products.

Success,
Sam

Chris, sorry to hear. I do have some advice.

1) Dont use PPC unless your market is not saturated. I mean literally, one or two other advertisers maybe. You may not find this with most affiliate programs. PPC is an annoying waiting game, overbid to get the top, when your over 1% ctr begin bringing the cost down slowly while maintaining the ctr. Losing money while you do it. You literally have to be an expert to get this to work for you, that is unless you find a profitable niche (far and few between). My experience is its not worth the effort.

2) Diversify. Easier said than done. Dont JUST do affiliate marketing. Get into advertising or something.

3) Who's making all the money on affiliate programs? The people selling the products of course. Dont get me wrong, affiliate marketing is a great thing and many people succeed. But, what kind of products can you sell? You said yourself your technical AND can write good sales copy (which is rare imo).

4) 4 months isnt enough time to determine if you can succeed at anything online. Hell, find out how long it takes search engines to index and rank your site. Some people may say a short amount of time, if they had short term success, they probably didnt last long.

5) It sounds to me, if you lost 2500$ in 4 months, you are taking big risks to start. Pull back, invest smaller amounts, determine if it worked. If its long term like article marketing, it could be 4 months before you start seeing real results. That is the point of article marketing, correct? It's a one time effort investment for long term benefit. Investment today is x hours, to see results until all those article sites die out (tens of years?), over the course of a year, did that domain make more than the cost of the hosting and domain? Can I duplicate this effort with other products and get similar results? How many sites like this before I can retire?

6) Back out plan, do you have a back out plan for every investment? At what point do you determine an investment isnt worth your money and/or effort?

I can probably provide more, PM me if you find this helpful, but more details into what exactly your doing would help.

You're spending too much money man. Take a few steps back and reevaluate!

It's easy to lose a few grand at first in any venture. In the affiliate marketing space, your best friend should be your affiliate manager. At most of the large affiliate networks unless you're already generating huge numbers you're not going to get much support. Look for the smaller affiliate networks and find an affiliate manager who's eager to help you succeed. Many of the smaller affiliate networks have AM's and owners who are successful affiliate marketers themselves and can give you landers and traffic sources that work.

At smaller affiliate networks the AM's tend to make most of their money on their override or the bottom line. Their job is to help you make more money, now, because that's how they make money. You're not going to find many who advocate article marketing, SEO or other long-term strategies. They will get you up to speed on PPC and point you to good CPM and PPV platforms. You will find some who will give you ad campaigns and landers that work and all you have to do is scale and optimize them.