Lately I’ve been reading around the net and there are a few people that get it. But only a few, it’s a short list.

Before I go any further, this is not a doom and gloom post, not by a long shot.

Also, I am not spouting off about things I don’t know or only making guesses.

I know about affiliate marketing because I’ve learned the hard way, mainly through trial and error since 1998. I don’t say this to impress any one, I only say it so that you know I’ve been in the trenches for a long time.

I also am in no way an expert. There are things I still do wrong and some things I don’t do, that I should be doing.

Clear as mud now?

When I say affiliate marketing is not a long term income, I am talking about the traditional form of affiliate marketing. That is, gathering and sending as many potential buyers to an affiliate program and hoping for the best. Which is how the majority create their income, least they try to.

The problem with this scenario is you send off all your customers, never to see them again. Either they buy or they don’t. Simple enough and probably the reason it’s the popular route. I have to confess, it’s probably the reason why it’s been my plan of attack for some time.

Here’s where the problem comes in…

You work your butt off sending all your visitors to the affiliate program. Hey, this is cool, they are buying, I’m making good money. I like this deal.

Then comes the bad news, your sites are no where to be found in the search engines, for no good reason. Or just as bad, you see your sites on page 2 and beyond. To make matters worse, the same thing happened to 90% of your linking partners. Two major traffic sources down the drain. And here you thought you had an authority site and you were safe. Not so my friend. There is not such thing as immunity even when your busting your butt for the search engines.

Does this happen? Yep. It’s exactly what’s happened to me in the past.

Since I was taking the easy way out, I now had little to show for my work, except for depressing sales stats.

What can we learn from this more than real scenario? Don’t send your visitors away without getting something out of them. At the very least, get them on a mailing list, then send them off. If you have a list, you still have potential customers for the future. Take away the traffic and your still in business.

In addition, you could also create and sell your own products so these customers become your customers, not your affiliate programs customers. Now who gets the back end sales?

Do the above with products that over deliver and your building your own customer base and word of mouth advertising, that will last long after the search engine and link trade traffic vanishes.

Johnny site builder is right behind you in the ranks and might be working a little harder and smarter than you.



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