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affiliate marketing

Affiliate Marketing – If bullshit was music…

by Damian Saunders on October 11, 2009 · View Comments

Affiliate Marketing is one of several revenue streams in our business, in fact it was the initial source of revenue that allowed us to get CogentAds off the ground, albeit with challenges, without seed capital.

It comes with the territory that every day I’m bombarded by offers for this or that product, promising amazing income (sometimes stated down to the exact cent) with little or no effort, no HTML skills or previous experience required, and the whole thing runs on autopilot funneling massive amounts of cash into your account while you get to give your old boss the bird, spend precious time with your family, and doing the things you love. You′ve seen this stuff haven′t you?

My opinion is that the vast majority of so called Affiliate Marketing "Gurus" are self proclaimed – in other words they are Gurus because they decide they are. That′s kinda contrary to how people have traditionally become Gurus isn′t it? The problem then becomes this: you have these self proclaimed Affiliate Marketing Gurus who′s primary business model is teaching prospective Affiliate Marketing Guru′s to become Gurus and then go on to do the same, which in turn can only, in my opinion, "White Ant" (Termite) the whole model, leading to the so called Gurus conjuring up all kinds of marketing angles, "secrets", supposed competitive intelligence solutions, and other ways of wrapping up the same old content and selling it to you by pulling all your emotional strings then convincing you that you can′t be successful without it.

So, it′s probably a good idea to get some perspective on the reality of the Affiliate Marketing business. It certainly is a viable business model, however you need to go into it with your eyes open.

I was drawn to the 2009 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report mentioned in a post on Missy Ward′s blog. In this report over four-hundred and fifty affiliates were surveyed on their methods, preferences, and strategies. For me there are some particularly enlightening facts that help balance the hype .

46% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $0 – $500 gross (before cost) revenue per month.
21% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $1000 – $5000 per month.
8% of the Affiliates surveyed make between $5000 – $10,000 per month.
17% of the affiliates surveyed make $20,000 or more per month.

The smaller segments fall somewhere in between. The figures are sobering in one way, encouraging in another, but most of all realistic. If you combine this with (and some information in the report about traffic sources and their associated cost would have been good) my assumption that the majority of these affiliates are buying their traffic, or at least a significant portion of it, through PPC (Pay per click advertising), probably with a margin of about 30% (on a good day). That gives you something to consider when faced with the next "sounds too good to be true" offer and it′s promises. You can make good money in this business, but it′s not as easy as some people will have you believe.

It′s obviously necessary to educate yourself on how Internet commerce works, there is definitely a set of skills required to be successful. Seek out the real educators, and avoid falling for offers that seem too good to be true (I still get sucked in occasionally in odd moments of weakness or curiosity).

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Affiliate Elite, Review

by Damian Saunders on November 11, 2007 · View Comments

Affiliate Elite Review, ok, now that I′ve figured how to open this post with my primary keyword, lets get started. I just got myself a shiny new copy of Brad Callen′s Affiliate Elite software. If the twenty three page long sales letter (a brilliant and finely crafted example, designed to mesmerize you into a semi hypnotic state and gently walk you, and your credit card, through the purchase and sign up process) has anything to go by I′m now in possession of a "god like power", about to effortlessly replace my career, and blow my competition out of the water. Awesome!

I′m somewhat cynical about hype and sales letters but I recognize their role in the sales process, the purpose of this Affiliate Elite review is to explore the reality of Affiliate Elite versus the promise and hype.

I′ve been keen to grow my search marketing (what Chris Carpenter′s eBook Google Cash was all about) revenue alongside my website generated income, primarily because search marketing, as opposed to building and promoting a website, offers the most immediate high income opportunity available today, but, it also comes with the risk of doing your dough faster than a Lindsay Lohan trip back to rehab, so I have been looking for an edge, looking for a competitive analysis tool that will take the drudgery out of product analysis, let me know what competition I′m up against, what, and how they′re doing it, and to compete successfully with them. Affiliate Elite promises to be that tool.

In order to do an Affiliate Elite review I, obviously, had to buy the product. My last experience with a hyped up "rock the affiliate world", competition killing, piece of software was a debacle of mammoth proportions, so I′m pleased to say that the Affiliate Elite sales and installation process was flawless, simple, and it worked right away. I′ve used two of Brad Callen′s products, SEO Elite and Keyword Elite, happily, and successfully, over the past two years and I have to say, as far as software, support, and training are concerned, these Guy′s have their act together.

Once you have downloaded the application you gain access to a series of fifteen training videos that, not only show you how to use the system but, provide strong insight into the competitive power you now have at your fingertips. What′s immediately apparent is that a lot of effort has gone into ensuring your success with the software by educating you in the practice and discipline you need to follow to bring in those commission cheques. The best thing is you can continue to revisit these videos while you develop your winning strategy.

Continuing on with the Affiliate Elite review, the software has four "projects".

Project #1: Find Profitable Affiliate Products to Promote: The concept of Affiliate Marketing is a simple one but, the challenge is finding products to promote that you know are going to convert into commission. You really only have control over the referral stage so you want to be sure you are sending your referrals to products that are going to sell, especially if you′re paying to get them there. Affiliate Elite gives you access to the entire Clickbank and PayDotCom databases, more than twenty five thousand, high commission, products, along with the performance statistics you need to determine which of those products are selling now, which ones are worth promoting, and the one′s most likely to earn you commissions right away. Awesome!; The question could be why just Clickbank and PayDotCom? Personally I think that’s a moot point, I have affiliations with several other marketing companies because their products and services suit the themes of my websites, however, my very last sale on Clickbank was worth $US121.00 in commission to me. That′s a very healthy commission, and it came from one sneaky little link in an unrelated article! So, In my mind it′s better to focus in one area rather than add the complexity of multiple companies into the mix.
Project #2: Reverse Google Search: On the Internet the keyword rules, if you haven′t got keyword research and application sussed then you′re in the same position as an unfit climber trying to climb Mt. Everest with bare feet wearing only a pair of board shorts. You′re going to fail.; This project is the Holy Grail of keyword research. I would have paid for this feature alone. Ever since I started working with keywords I thought the whole process would have been a whole lot better if we could just find the keywords our successful competitors were using, if, in other words, the whole process was reversed. Now we can …enough said!
Project #3: Analyze Adwords Competition: Now that you have your list of keywords you can pull out the best ones, run this project, and find all the advertisers, their ads and their landing pages. This is the competitive intelligence that will give you the edge. Not only in terms of being able to quickly mimic the most successful campaigns, but, deconstructing the strategies of the most successful marketers so you have what it takes to be one yourself.
Project #4: Find Super Affiliates: With this project you can use the Merchant ID′s of the top websites for the niche you found in Project #1 to find out who their affiliates are, all of them, including their contact information. Why would you do this you ask? The purpose of this project is so that you identify and contact people who have demonstrated superior marketing skills, Super Affiliates, with the potential of entering into joint ventures or, at the very least, see how they became Super Affiliates in the first place.

So, the question is does this product deliver the goods? Here′s the thing, for the purpose of this Affiliate Elite review the product gets a major thumbs up from me, the information it provides is simply astounding, Affiliate Elite should be a part of your marketing arsenal, but consider this;

If…: X = Affiliate Elite; Y = Your innate intelligence, aptitude, understanding of marketing concepts, tenacity, determination, fortitude, etc.; Z = Time and effort.
Then…: The formula for success with Affiliate Elite will be X x (Y + Z) = Degree of Success

Brad Callen′s Affiliate Elite gives you factor X, an incredibly powerful piece of competitive analysis software that gives you the edge, Y and Z are up to you. Undoubtedly, a significant proportion of the people who have already purchased the product will be expecting it to be some kind of "magic wand" that will do everything for them, the rest will be collecting their commission cheques.

How much does it cost? Look, for what it is it′s very cheap, a one off payment and a small monthly fee, but, this is really insignificant because Affiliate Elite is itself a Clickbank product. The commission you get as an Affiliate is on both the sale, and the monthly fee, and, the way it′s structured means you only have to sell two copies to cancel out your original cost. I’ve already done it.

I hope you′ve found this Affiliate Elite review helpful, I strongly recommend this product, now excuse me, I′ve got money to make.

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Surfing, Affiliate Marketing, and Bohemian Lifestyles

by Damian Saunders on September 6, 2007 · View Comments

Surfing does that to you, surfing waves that is, especially after a long hiatus (25 years), and when you become reacquainted with it again in a tropical paradise where life is exotic, and so cheap you can live like a king. Like thousands before me I was struck with the thought “how can I get to do more of this?” It was June 2005.

Fact is I’d been thinking about it for a long time, and to a certain extent the answer had been staring me in the face.

Over the past couple of years I began to experience a growing dissatisfaction, for not only my corporate management role in a fortune 500 IT company , but the general nature of life in a western city like Sydney. There’s no doubt this is a great place, for the most part we enjoy peace, a healthy economy, an abundance of opportunity, and solid friendships with the people we love. But, the source of my discontent, and I don’t think I’m alone on this one, has it’s roots in the expense of living here, in monetary terms, in the expense of time, wearing our busy lifestyles like a badge of honor, and to an increasing extent, expense to the environment we live in.

My experience in the tropics not only reintroduced me to surfing and friends from the past, I also met my wife and, obviously, her family (there’s a few of them). They come from what we, here in the west, would probably categorize as a poor background, living off the land in what is essentially a subsistence agricultural community. Life is certainly tough for them in some respects, however I have come to appreciate the time I spend in their world immensely, the close knit family connections, their closeness to the environment, children laughing, playing, and enjoying childhood, and most of all the silence.

Not so much an absence of noise, but the absence of the relentless pressure associated with the progress that’s necessary to sustain our western lifestyles, the pressure to succeed, the pressure to make sure we have enough money to retire, the pressure of debt, the pressure of keeping up with the pace, the pressure of ensuring our Children get the best education. You know what I mean, you can feel it if you stop to listen.

So, the question about getting to spend more time surfing started to become multi faceted, more like; how can I spend more time living (and Surfing of course) in a tropical paradise, while at the same time maintaining the level of affluence I have become used to, and use that affluence to provide opportunities, such as education, to people who would otherwise not have them?

The answer, at it’s most generic level, was to create a business that I could operate using a laptop, from anywhere I had an Internet connection.

Not long after I returned from that first trip, and I don’t remember how I was introduced to this, I read Chris Carpenter’s Google Cash . They say that when the student is ready the mentor will appear. While I’ve had many mentors and influences since, this was the one that switched on the lights for me. What became immediately obvious, apart from my obvious inability to see the wood for the trees, was that there was an entirely different dimension to the Internet. It’s a Cash Cow.

Considering my experience, and the fact that the Internet was already an integral part of my life, it made perfect sense that this was the business opportunity I was looking for.

And so the journey began, a journey into web site development, affiliate marketing, pay per click and adsense advertising, Search engine optimization, link building, article writing and publishing, and Internet marketing gurus. So far it’s been a journey of ups and downs, successes and failures, I’ve been surprised by some amazing products, and ripped off by others that promised the earth and then disappointed, I’m certainly not a Guru, but I do have several sites that are generating revenue and climbing their way steadily up in the rankings.

Share with me the insights from my journey, and yours.

Welcome to my Blog.

Update: March 2010 I’m now the CEO and a founder of Cogent Online, currently a $3m per anum business that is growing steadily, I live with my family, and work at home on the Australian coast three hours north of Sydney – a local marine paradise where life is good.

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affiliate marketing