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Affiliate Marketing - Mentorship Request

Marketing, social media, advertising

Steven Parker

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I'm almost ready to start an official progress thread. Since my last few posts of my rise and fall from e-book selling in the 'make money' niche, and losing everything (literally), I have secured a job and getting ready to move my wife and kids back with me in a motel room with a kitchen (it's a re-start).

The job that I have is an overnight desk attendant and I literally have around 6 HOURS a night to be at the computer with full permission to work on my business.

I'd like to begin affiliate marketing to help me get through and moving inside the slowlane. I'm just not sure how to go about it. I don't have money yet to spend on advertising so I'm considering the 'free' route which be building a site around an offer or a group of offers.

But how... what to pick... how to pick... and what type of site... (review, personal, product focused, etc.)

P.S. Please read my last couple of threads to see how I went from the top to the bottom and why I'm a changed man for it (for the better).

Thanks!
 
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Steven Parker

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And this just goes to show you that even people like me who have made tons of cash in the make money niche, don't actually know how to do it outside that niche :)

Truth revealed.
 

Formless

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Go and become super duper useful to @Coalission

I don't know if he is willing to mentor you. But I give my right arm that it's worth trying. Even if it means he drops you a line every 3 months.
 

Steven Parker

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Go and become super duper useful to @Coalission

I don't know if he is willing to mentor you. But I give my right arm that it's worth trying. Even if it means he drops you a line every 3 months.

Formless that sounds like a plan. Thanks for the reference.

(I actually sent him a message before I even posted this thread. I'd love the guidance.)

I've read and learned (and taught) so much information over the years about blogging, niche sites, etc. that I literally need a brain dump and someone who is successful at affiliate marketing to just say, "Do this" "Do that" and I'll get it done.
 
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Phantom309

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I've read and learned (and taught) so much information over the years about blogging, niche sites, etc. that I literally need a brain dump and someone who is successful at affiliate marketing to just say, "Do this" "Do that" and I'll get it done.

I know exactly how you feel. I've racked my brains on this, but I learned I was focusing on the product and not the process involved in affiliate marketing. Now that I've slowly started to learn the process I feel one day I will be successful.

Good luck
 

Steven Parker

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Step 1. Stop chasing money

Yep well if you read my main 2 threads you'll see that I've already learned this lesson :) Chasing money got me to 6 figures very fast for a while, then down to homeless - it's a temporary fix.
 
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Coalission

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I know exactly how you feel. I've racked my brains on this, but I learned I was focusing on the product and not the process involved in affiliate marketing. Now that I've slowly started to learn the process I feel one day I will be successful.

Good luck

Exactly, at the end of the day affiliate marketing is a business like any other, but your business is not the individual products you promote, your business is distribution. Walmart isn't sweating if Nabisco decides to pull their product or if they go bankrupt, because another product will take its place overnight and the money will keep flowing.

Now if you only have one product on your "shelves", then you're basically a salesman for that product, but once you start thinking bigger, and eventually think of ways to add value in addition to gaining distribution for your products, maybe you can get bought out for $900 million like eBates, a glorified affiliate site, just did. TripAdvisor, RetailMeNot, etc. are all basically affiliate sites that add value. You could also go the route Conversant (who owns Commission Junction, an affiliate network) went, and eventually get bought out for $2.3 billion.
 

jon.a

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Formless that sounds like a plan. Thanks for the reference.

(I actually sent him a message before I even posted this thread. I'd love the guidance.)

I've read and learned (and taught) so much information over the years about blogging, niche sites, etc. that I literally need a brain dump and someone who is successful at affiliate marketing to just say, "Do this" "Do that" and I'll get it done.
What exactly would be their motivation for doing that? What's in it for them.
 

CZ_Voyager

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Hi Steven!

How are you? I’ve been doing affiliate marketing with some pauses for about three years. I’m not the right person to mentor someone because I’m not successful yet. But I’ve had some profitable campaigns and learnt a lot from my failures.

I’d recommend you to ignore SEO and focus on paid traffic. There are few different types of paid traffic (PPC, PPV, media buys…). Choose one and master it. Save some money first though. I think you need at least 5-10k USD so you can learn fast and have a room for mistakes. If you need money and want to learn PPC then look up a crowdsourcing platform called Trada. I’ve been working for them for few years. It’s a great way to make some capital and get experience without risking your own money.

Let me know if you have something specific you want to advise on. And read all posts about affiliate marketing on this forum. There’re are some very successful affiliates here. And some of the best blogs to read: http://www.charlesngo.com, http://www.malandarras.com, http://affengineer.com, http://www.andyblack.net, http://shockmarketer.com, http://www.tenscores.com/blog.

Good luck, mate!
 
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Phantom309

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Awesome share @cz voyager. I've been thinking about giving paid traffic a try but wanted learn as much about it as I could before investing in it. I
 

AllenCrawley

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I literally need a brain dump and someone who is successful at affiliate marketing to just say, "Do this" "Do that" and I'll get it done.

Ahhhh... the easy button.

I mean no disrespect as I understand what it's like to start over and the last thing you need is to feel like someone is kicking you when your down.

A step by step, hand holding, do this and then do that is not what you need and is not what a mentor is.
 

AndrewNC

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Ahhhh... the easy button.
I mean no disrespect as I understand what it's like to start over and the last thing you need is to feel like someone is kicking you when your down.
A step by step, hand holding, do this and then do that is not what you need and is not what a mentor is.

Allen has some amazing advice here, and I would listen to it.

Your mentor wont be around forever, and at that point, you are on your own. It might take a little bit more work up front, but I promise you will be better off 5 years down the road if you absorb what Allen said.

1- Have you learned the skills to stand on your two feet when he or she is gone?

or

2- Will you have a dependence on them showing you the way, and be right back where you are now when they are gone?
 
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