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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Wow, it’s been far too long since I posted here, my bad.

If you know my background, I’ve basically been an affiliate marketer since 1998. Don’t get me wrong, there are many things about affiliate marketing that I absolutely love, but in the long run it can really stink.

I’ll tell you why it stinks in a minute…

What do I love about affiliate marketing?

First and foremost it can be somewhat auto pilot. What I mean is, you send your traffic off to some one else, they deal with the orders, customers, problems, ect. Your only job is to send traffic. the big picture, you could take as much time off when you want. If your the one selling “stuff” you still need to be on call for your customers. Plus as I mentioned, you don’t have all the headaches.

What’s so bad about Affiliate marketing?

You need to keep busting your butt and you need to keep bringing in the traffic. For the most part your sell something, you get your money and thats the end. So it’s a constant battle. I don’t care what any one tells you, search engine traffic is tough to get and it’s even tougher to keep, any one tells you different is not being honest.

I know from experience, you can not build a website, get links, build traffic, then expect it to make money for you for a long time. Believe me, I’ve tried it many times, I know from watching my stats go down hill, it doesn’t work. It only stands to reason, the search engines are looking for fresh, up-to-date content, why shouldn’t they?

Some would argue that if you pushed programs that pay recurring commissions, such as monthly membership sites

One other little thing, with affiliate marketing, it usually takes longer to get your money. You have to wait for the pay period to end, the program to write your check and the mail to get it to you. The exception is if your selling information products such as $7 Reports, as they pay out instantly through Paypal. A good thing of course..:)

Long story short, it’s hard to build up something that you can step back and take too much time off, unless you hire people to do the grunt work for you ( many guru’s do actually).

It’s not all doom and gloom. Maybe I am just a little jaded today..:)

Affiliate marketing can be a great place to start for those that are new to starting a business on the internet. It’s an easy start because all you are responsible for is sending traffic to an offer. Little mess, little fuss. It’s perfect for getting your feet wet with little to no cost.

The point to my rambling for today is not to leave all your eggs in one basket. I’ve seen many people work for years as an affiliate marketer only to be left with little in the end. While I’ve made good money myself over the years, I’ve also watched my income drop quickly when Google stopped loving my sites.

There is nothing wrong with starting out with affiliate marketing, just remember, keep working on other income streams as you go, build streams that will pay you in the future. Better yet, ones that are not dependent on search engines. Don’t just say your going to do, and never get around to it, that doesn’t work, I know..:)

So maybe now the question is, how and what do you build that will work for you, so your not a slave to your business? You could learn how to build Squeeze Pages that Click to build a list that makes you money are into the future. Take the list building one step further and learn Ezine Marketing Magic and really make your list pay off. Just a couple Ideas. Want more? Let me know.

Think you get the point

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I am totally amazed today, even slightly shocked.

I was working on a new site today and needed some products to fill in until I had my own done and set-up.

First place I stopped was a well know Marketing Guru. When I say well known I mean most people in internet marketing would know the name. Of course I am not going to say it here. I signed up for the affiliate program without a problem, what happened next really surprised me…

First off I made it to the links page, where I wanted to get my linking codes. I couldn’t believe that all the links had XXXX at the end. Since I’ve been in many affiliate programs over the years, I figured out that the XXXX would need to be replaced with my affiliate ID, even though the page didn’t tell me that. What if I was a complete newbie and didn’t have a clue? I wonder how many people use those links and get NO credit for any sales that make. Why wasn’t there at least some text on the page that told me the code would need to be replaced? Just amazing. I did receive an e-mail saying my ID would be sent to me. Why wasn’t that the first e-mail I received? Now, all was not lost, if I needed help with my links I could contact support. Gee, why do I need to do all the work? Oh well, I will find some one else to promote.

The second one was a free membership site I thought was up to par. This one I thought paid on the one time offer. First I had to to really do some searching just to find a link to the affiliate, or so I thought it was to the affiliate program details. I was taken to a page that listed a number of offers I could promote. Naturally the first one was the free membership site. I clicked the banner that I thought was a package to promote the offer, it came up 404, page not found. The other link, a text link went to the membership sign up page, not the affiliate program. Well, not even a chance to promote that one. Once again, I will find some one else to promote.

Moral of the story? If your going to have an affiliate program, make SURE the system works and you make it super easy for people to promote your product(s). Think about it, how much trouble would you go through to promote some one else’s product? Too many other fish in the sea. What about folks that are new and have no clue as to what they are doing?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not trying to slam any one, I was just very surprised. And from a Guru that probably preaches the same things. Well, two marketers lost an affiliate today.

If you do not realize it yet, to get folks to promote your products, you need to make it drop dead easy. So easy they would have a hard time messing it up. Think about it as if your an affiliate.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you think guru status and guru income is out of your reach think again. I just gave two examples of how you can beat two guru’s, with your eyes closed.

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