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Publisher-For-You
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Gainesville Florida USA
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Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:22 am
Post subject: How To Tell If You'll Be Successful At Affiliate Marketing
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Here's a little test, that might help you understand whether you'll be successful at affiliate marketing.
Ready? Ok, here goes. Only 3 steps.
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1) Imagine there is no Internet.
2) Imagine you're looking for a job.
3) Are you applying for sales jobs?
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For extra credit, a 4th step.
4) If you answered yes to #3, are you excited about applying for sales jobs?
If you can honestly answer yes to #3 and #4, you've got a shot.
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trafficwave
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Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:57 pm
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I think this is a good point.
I learned years ago that the best way (for me) to provide for my family was to find a job where compensation was based on results. More sales = more money. I stopped punching a clock many years ago and I've never looked back!
At the end of the day, sales is what drives the income.
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Brian Rooney, TrafficWave.net
Email Marketing with AutoResponders
Success Life Network - Unlimited Web Hosting |
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Larry Chamberlain
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:41 am
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There's that Publisher-For-You asking us to 'think' again.
| Quote: | | 1) Imagine there is no Internet. |
Not too difficult for those of us of any sort of age because we can remember when . . .
| Quote: | | 2) Imagine you're looking for a job. |
OK, it's back when, and I'm in need of employment.
| Quote: | | 3) Are you applying for sales jobs? |
That is very probable. I applied for many 'sales' jobs and even managed to land a few. These ranged from selling door to door, retail, office equipment, insurance Etc. Etc.
I was hopeless in almost all cases.
All the enthusiasm disappeared as soon as I was face to face with the prospective customer.
In the dirt world I couldn't sell jack! 
Does this mean that I'm a lost cause for IM 
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Publisher-For-You
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 1:52 pm
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| Larry Chamberlain wrote: | | There's that Publisher-For-You asking us to 'think' again. |
Ouch, ouch, ouchie!
| Quote: | I applied for many 'sales' jobs and even managed to land a few. These ranged from selling door to door, retail, office equipment, insurance Etc. Etc.
I was hopeless in almost all cases. |
Ha, me too! It's 1970, I'm a hippy surfer college boy who is DYING to go to California.
So, I sign up for this job selling encyclopedia's door to door in California. I can go to California I tell my parents, I have a job!
The company will NOT hire hippies! So I get a wig (I wish I was kidding) and hide the mile long pony tail under the wig.
I finally get to CA.
The poor people welcome me in to their homes, introduce me to their daughter, and make me dinner. But no senor, we are so sorry, we can not afford these nice books you sell.
The rich people spit on me, slam the door in my face, and call the cops.
Didn't sell a thing all summer, and missed a lot of great beach days trying!!!
So guys, as you can plainly see, despite what Allan says wearing a wig will NOT launch your online business in to breathtaking profits.
| Quote: | | Does this mean that I'm a lost cause for IM |
Dunno man, you tell us.
Personally, I LOVE to sell. I really do, it comes very naturally to me, and is about all I think about.
But...
I love to sell ideas.
When it comes to stuff you buy with a credit card, I'm still struggling with the darn wig.
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Larry Chamberlain
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:45 pm
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| Quote: | | When it comes to stuff you buy with a credit card, I'm still struggling with the darn wig. |
Does Crown Topper have an affiliate program? 
| Quote: | | Dunno man, you tell us. |
Well, I would say not. In fact I'm going to ensure I'm not.
I am making a bit of an assumption (which one should never do) that the point that you are making is that if you can't sell offline you can't sell online.
Phil, if that's not the topic of this thread I apologies.
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Warburton2
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:49 pm
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Thanks for the thought-provoking quiz.
| Quote: | | I was hopeless in almost all cases. |
Me too! From 1993-2002 I worked in a couple of telesales positions (mostly temp agency positions when I was a student). I didn't completely suck but I was certainly no hotshot.
The one real cold-calling sales job I did (in April 2002)... well, let's just say that I survived three weeks, made one sale and then I had to get the hell out of there. I learned some valuable principles, but I found the work wretched.
What I concluded: I tend to take prospect rejections too personally and then end up beating myself up about it horribly. I couldn't get the emotional distance which is required to have the perseverance to go back and try with the next prospect. (It probably didn't help that I had absolutel no money and that was an unpleasant source of pressure).
But that is exactly why I like Affiliate Marketing as a sales channel. I have no exposure to all the rejection. I don't even have to pro-actively go and sell anything. All I need to do is put up some discerning reviews and let people decide for themselves.
For me, AM is selling for people who hate the sales trenches. |
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Publisher-For-You
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 10:05 pm
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| Larry Chamberlain wrote: | | I am making a bit of an assumption that the point that you are making is that if you can't sell offline you can't sell online. |
Hmm, no, not quite.
Selling online and offline are different in a variety of ways, so one might be good at one and not so good at the other.
I was pointing more towards a passion, a sincere interest, in the process of selling.
If one has that sincere passion, one will stumble around the wide world of selling until one finds one's niche, and then, bingo, it's off to the races.
But, if one isn't honestly all that interested in a selling lifestyle, it's likely to be uphill all the way.
One could still make it on sheer force of will perhaps, though choosing a career one doesn't actually want would seem to defeat much of the point of working online.
Example: I'm a techno-nerd myself and I write programs and build sites even when there's not much chance of income.
Here's A Tip: Both my grandfather and father worked their entire lives in the printing business. Publishing technology is in my genes apparently.
My grandfather, and his father, both self employed. Self employment, in my genes.
If somebody has this kind of relationship with selling, they are probably in good shape.
Trying to say, affiliate marketing is a sales job. Is a sales job what we want? It's good to know the answer to that question.
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 1:53 am
Post subject: Re: How To Tell If You'll Be Successful At Affiliate Marketi
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| Publisher-For-You wrote: | 2) Imagine you're looking for a job.
3) Are you applying for sales jobs? |
Yuk! No. Never. That's not me at all.
Phil, I suspect your view of affiliate marketing is tainted by the "How to make money on the Internet" crowd. Anyone wanting to get noticed and succeed in that field probably SHOULD love selling.
However, there are LOTS of other types of affiliate marketing.
To take a totally different extreme, think of a friendly, helpful recipe site which publishes recipes, has a forum where people discuss recipes, and it earns most of its revenue from book reviews and AdSense.
Or imagine a teenager's bikini site - lots of pictures of pretty women in bikinis, plus a few colorful affiliate ads and AdSense. No hard selling required.
Or think of a price comparison site - a good niche for a techie. Lots of those sites don't seem to do an awful lot of selling. They just present the visitor with a way to compare prices and let the visitor decide what to buy.
Or a review site where the visitors provide the reviews.
Or a travel site in which someone writes enthusiastically about their favorite travel destinations, tours, hotels, beaches etc. There MIGHT be hard selling here, but there doesn't have to be.
Or how about... hundreds of other niches where the key ingredient is simply enthusiasm for the topic.
| Warburton2 wrote: | | All I need to do is put up some discerning reviews and let people decide for themselves. |
Makes sense to me.
If you love selling, consider yourself very fortunate. If you don't like selling, don't worry. You can design your own business to suit your skills and interests. Another option is to hire an employee who DOES like selling.
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Allan Gardyne
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Larry Chamberlain
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 5:33 am
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Reading Allan's post I'm reminded of a quote by ? who when asked for the secret of his success replied "I've never sold anyone anything, I just made it easy for them to buy."
| Quote: | Here's A Tip: Both my grandfather and father worked their entire lives in the printing business. Publishing technology is in my genes apparently.
My grandfather, and his father, both self employed. Self employment, in my genes.
If somebody has this kind of relationship with selling, they are probably in good shape. |
I'm not so sure about genes, but I do think that the kind of environment that you are raised in has an effect.
For example: most of my 'folks' had the attitude of - Keep your nose clean, respect your betters, don't think above your station, shoulder to the wheel.
All good honest folks, salt of the earth in fact. But never would they consider the idea of any form of 'self employment' or 'self determination', that was for other folk.
Has this rubbed off on me? Yes I think it has to a degree.
Ken Evoy often emphasizes that you have got to ditch the 'employee mindset' and be prepared to put in work that will not reward you immediately.
| Quote: | | Me too! From 1993-2002 I worked in a couple of telesales positions (mostly temp agency positions when I was a student). I didn't completely suck but I was certainly no hotshot. |
Telesales must be a killer! You'd need a skin as thick as a rhino I'd imagine
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:52 am
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| Larry Chamberlain wrote: | | For example: most of my 'folks' had the attitude of - Keep your nose clean, respect your betters, don't think above your station, shoulder to the wheel. |
Based on anecdotal evidence, I believe that upbringing plays a huge role in how we approach Internet marketing.
My parents owned a small farm in a place which didn't get enough rain. To survive, they HAD to be frugal. I was taught to be independent and think for myself but I grew up with fairly low expectations.
I didn't know it at the time, but for the first two years that I was marketing online, my expectations were a severe handicap. For example, I created a product and the first price I put on it was at $4.95 and then $9.95. When I started Internet marketing, I didn't promote a good product that was $197 because I couldn't believe that people would pay that much.
In contrast, I know an Internet marketer whose parents are both very successful sales people. He doesn't think about $4.95 or $9.95 products. He thinks in terms of building an online business that he'll be able to sell for millions. That's where his thinking STARTS.
There's such huge difference in approach. You start by picturing an asset worth millions. Then you break it down, step by step what you're going to have to do to achieve it.
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Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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Larry Chamberlain
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 7:05 am
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| Quote: | | My parents owned a small farm in a place which didn't get enough rain. To survive, they HAD to be frugal. I was taught to be independent and think for myself but I grew up with fairly low expectations. |
The independence of thought shows through. I would not have guessed at the low expectations though.
| Quote: | | There's such huge difference in approach. You start by picturing an asset worth millions. Then you break it down, step by step what you're going to have to do to achieve it. |
Food for thought - a banquet for thought in fact
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Big D
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 11:01 am
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Definitely true, you should be sales oriented in pursuing a position in affiliate marketing
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Publisher-For-You
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 3:08 pm
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This is turning in to a wonderful discussion!
Allan, great points as always. I hear everything you're saying, and of course it all makes sense, as your posts always do.
But, respectfully, perhaps you have not addressed what could be the most common form of affiliate site.
That is, the hobby site, that never quite becomes a money making business.
I know for sure this is the most common form of affiliate site on the net, because half of all of the sites online like this, are mine.
A lot of affiliates love the idea of being able to sell, without really having to sell, in the usual meaning of the word.
So they dive in to making a wonderful site all about their hobby.
And after tons of work, their site makes $17 month. Or $17 a year.
What happened?
They were passionate about their hobby, and about having a website they could be proud of, but not about selling.
In the context of an affiliate site, this means....
1) they didn't really bother with SEO
2) keyword research, what's that?
3) they didn't bother to get very many incoming links
4) they didn't bother to pick a niche that is reasonably profitable
5) they didn't do serious research on products in this niche
6) they didn't bother to presell
7) they didn't bother to carefully read Allan's articles, where he explains again and again that all these steps are necessary, if you want to sell much of anything.
Here's an exercise that might help any of us understand what our relationship to a site really is.
Imagine that our job was limited to doing ONLY the 7 steps listed above.
We do all the business parts of the operation, and nothing else.
Somebody else makes the website, gets to be creative, and receives all the credit for how nice the site looks etc.
If this arrangement sounds perfectly acceptable, even desirable, then perhaps we were born to be successful affiliates.
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:45 pm
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Hi Phil, Good points!
Perhaps it's time for a new quiz for potential affiliates with just 2 questions...
1. Are you good at learning?
2. Are you good at actually DOING stuff you learn?
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Allan Gardyne
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Publisher-For-You
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2008 10:58 pm
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| AllanGardyne wrote: | | 1. Are you good at learning? |
Ha, I have a teaching degree, you'll never shut me up now!
Little story. I once had a classroom full of kids who were troubled in some way or another.
One of the kids was a tough little street kid, whose only interest in school was getting in to fights, and things like that. He was about 37 grade levels behind on any academic subject. The class "dummy".
One day I asked him if he'd like to learn chess. His reply can't be printed here in a family friendly forum.
Then I told him chess was about killing the other guy's pieces, and decapitating the king.
Aha! He then rapidly mastered all basic chess moves in a few days, and begin playing and beating everyone else in the class, including me a few times.
Moral of the story, everybody's good at learning things they truly want to learn.
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