Aboriginal Buying Group

Affiliate or associate marketing is frequently a difficult business.  We need to know a lot more than we thought when we first entered the field.  The learning curve is too steep for some, and many simply drop out.

The most frequent difficulty among failed affiliate marketing enterprises is buying magical, secret strategies and not putting them into action to test if they actually work.  Some are no more than buyers; they don’t even read the books or watch the videos they buy.  I hope that you are among those who will stay dedicated over the long haul, consistently updating your knowledge base and actually applying what you learn by taking action.  If not, please just stop reading, because you’ll simply waste money, and your business will fail, regardless.  I’m sorry for being so blunt.

There are two resources for affiliate marketers that I include in my recommendations.  One has to do with using a marketing approach using blog entries, not only your blogs and websites but the blogs of many other businesses.  The system is called My Article Network.  Here I’m going to focus upon one use to which an affiliate marketer can put it, although the prior link in this paragraph will take you to a lengthier description of how the entire system works and may benefit you.

If you use the traditional method of article marketing, you write articles and submit those articles to article directories.  With that method, your links are limited to the author’s resource box, usually published at the end of the article.  In the new method of article marketing, you can use the much more effective contextual linking, that is placing your links directly within the content of the article, where they are far more likely to deliver targeted traffic to your vendor’s site.  Furthermore, the top article directories (those with the most traffic, which are most likely to show up in the search engine directories) will not allow you to place a direct affiliate link into even the resource box.  However, this new, vastly improved approach allow you to use affiliate links that will go directly to the vendor, without having to send your traffic to your own site as a costly intermediate step.  You can check it out for yourself by visiting this remarkable unique article marketing approach that will pre-spin your article so that unique versions are distributed to websites and blogs within your niche from their membership of over 10,000 websites.

The other resource is a complete educational system established exclusively for affiliate marketers who are owners of various size businesses as well as those preparing for a career as an affiliate manager.  It is a brand new version of Anik Singal’s well received AffiliateClassroom.  Singal, who was named as one of four Business Week Magazine’s young entrepreneurs of 2008, has spent two years, along with his partner, revamping the critically acclaimed program to make it even more expansive and comprehensive.  If you are truly serious about improving your affiliate marketing business, at least sign up to receive the full information.

If you see simply a squeeze page, that means that the course has not yet opened.  Fill it out to receive updated information, as it is being launched very soon.  If it has already sold out when you arrive, check for a waiting list, and sign up if one becomes available.  Good luck!

By the way, both have affiliate programs, however you must sign up before you get access to the affiliate programs.

Affiliate or associate marketing is often a challenging enterprise.  There is much more to learn than most of us anticipated when we first started.  And the learning curve can be so steep that many simply give up.

The most frequent difficulty among failed affiliate marketing enterprises is buying magical, secret strategies and not implementing them to test if they actually work.  Some are no more than buyers; they don’t even read the books or watch the videos they buy.  I hope that you are among those who will remain committed for the long term, constantly updating your knowledge base and actually applying what you learn by taking action.  If not, please just stop reading, because you’ll simply waste money, and your business will fail, regardless.  I’m sorry for being so blunt.

I want to recommend two terrific resources for affiliate marketers.  One of those is a new approach to article marketing that automatically forwards your articles to many blogs as well as traditional websites, not just those you run yourself.  This system is a very valuable membership site called My Article Network.  Here I’m going to focus upon one use to which an affiliate marketer can put it, although the prior link in this paragraph will deliver you to a lengthier description of how the entire system works and may benefit you.

If you use the traditional method of article marketing, you write articles and submit those articles to article directories.  With that method, your links are limited to the author’s resource box, usually published at the end of the article.  In the new method of article marketing, you can use the much more effective contextual linking, that is placing your links directly within the content of the article, where they are far more likely to deliver targeted traffic to your vendor’s site.  Most of the major article directories will not allow you to use affiliate links in your own resource box.  However, this new, vastly improved approach allow you to use affiliate links that will go directly to the vendor, without having to send your traffic to your own site as a costly intermediate step.  You can get a feel for the whole process by visiting the site for this unique article marketing approach that will pre-spin your article so that unique versions are distributed to websites and blogs within your niche from their membership of over 10,000 websites.

The other resource is a complete educational system set up exclusively for affiliate marketers of various size businesses as well as those preparing for a career as an affiliate manager.  It is a brand new version of Anik Singal’s well received Affiliate Classroom.  Singal, who was named as one of four Business Week Magazine’s young entrepreneurs of 2008, has spent two years, along with his partner, revamping the critically acclaimed program to make it even more expansive and comprehensive.  If you are truly serious about improving your affiliate marketing business, at least sign up to receive the full information.

As I write this, the product has not yet launched, so all you can do is sign up on the squeeze page to be continually updated.  Depending upon when you read this article, it is possible that it will have already sold out.  Check to see if they have established a waiting list.  If so, sign up and hope that a space for you opens.

By the way, both have affiliate programs, however you must sign up before you get access to the affiliate programs.

I’ve learned a heck of a lot about online marketing without any cost.  One of the most important things that I can do now, that I didn’t know how to do when I was starting is to locate useful, accurate information without any cost.  Most newbies don’t know that they can actually find a high quality free course about how to start an Internet business.

Over the years, I’ve gradually shifted my business model from retailing (which I still do) to affiliate marketing.  I realize that in much of that time period I wasted a lot of money.  Now (a little late) I know that there are placed where there are valuable resources about how to become an affiliate marketer available without cost.  And that free information is much more valuable than almost any of the magic bullet product I bought.

I was reminded of all of that this morning.  I received an email from Anik Singal, one of my own gurus.  Singal is about to release his flagship, college level, newly overhauled affiliate learning resource, Affiliate Classroom 2.  This morning he released a new report that exemplifies how the best will often share what they know, and all you have to do is ask for it.

This zero cost report, which is for affiliate marketing businesses is only 55 pages, but those pages are packed with “read and apply” tips that are of value even to old hands like me.  I’m not sure that I’m supposed to reveal too many of the details, but I’m going to pass along some details, anyway.

After some preliminary background information, Singal uses a case study approach.  He tears apart three typical affiliate marketing websites: an opt-in, a blog and a review site.  Unfortunately these sites all shared a common problem–common to them and common to a lot of affiliate businesses–they weren’t making as much money as they should be.

Singal allows us to sort of look over his shoulder as he examines each site, identifies major problems and then makes critical suggestions for specific improvements.  Despite my years of experience and my relative success as an affiliate marketer, I found a lot of his recommendations could be applied to some of my own sites. 

I suspect that once the soon to launch Affiliate Classroom 2 sells out, he will take down the report.  I don’t expect selling out is going to take very long.  If he does remove it, I’ll share a few of his specific insights at a later time.

You may be interested in knowing that Anik Singal was recently named one of Business Week Magazine’s four “young entrepreneurs of 2008.”  Not a bad recommendation for a mentor, is it?