I've been interested in affiliate marketing since the age of 12 (yes that's right), and it is proving quite profitable for some. What would you guys/gals recommend I start off with? Bum marketing? PPC campaigns? Clickbank? CJ?
I'd start with organic traffic! It's the most profitable way to market online in my opinion, do some reading on SEO and get started. Best of luck.
I agree, organic is the way to go for a long-term strategy, which would consist of building sites or blogs to promote merchants and build out a lot of good, original content that the search eninges will like. You should join CJ, Linkshare, and Shareasale and apply to all the merchants. Then start building niche sites/blogs or product review sites and place the merchant banners all around the layout. Also acquiring inbound links for good ranking sites is a great thing to start on. The soon you start with organic rankings the better because it takes time to generate a good amount of traffic through natural search. PPc is good if you can make it work and have ROI on it. This is my 2 cents...let me know if you want to discuss further..
Thanks. What do you think of bum marketing and article marketing? It requires no start up costs and all I need to do is write articles and set up a landing/squeeze page. Any advice on that?
I wouldn't suggest to use banners on your sites, you text links instead. I think that link traffic is more targeted and it is converting better. p.l.u.r.
Very good words of wisdom there! I'd like to piggy-back on the matter of organic growth. This is the ONLY way to go unless you want to trade hour-for-dollar. Any smart business person must find ways to invest less time and produce more. You want to aim for residual income which means staying persistent but also having things working for you even when you are not. Now, when it comes to finding niches, I wouldn't worry TOO much for that. If your content is unique and compelling enough, heavy competition just means you'll have market share rather than your own market. True niches don't last long and you want to establish yourself as a Subject Matter Expert in some aspects to build credibility and integrity for yourself. That sort of approach helps make organic marketing much easier. With regards to banners, they're not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, for certain things, banners grab much more attention.. That said, I still like plain text wherever possible. The search engines like it and site visitors can navigate pages easier with more cleartext available to them. We all have our own biases and preferences, I think article marketing is HUGE but some would tell you it's better to create viral videos. It depends what level of commitment you have and how soon you expect result. Like the others have mentioned here, long-term strategies require doing things that bring you organic growth so temper expectations and stick to it! I always say do the things you are most passionate about so you stay driven, even when the numbers do not look like you'd like them to. Oh yeah, when it comes to PPC, most programs barely pay anything unless you have massive traffic coming in. They used to be amazing around a decade ago (I remember when Yahoo would send me checks for over $200 each month for sites I barely maintained LOL) but, nowadays, not so much. Most programs only seem to produce when your content aligns well with what your advertisers are putting up; after all, you only really make money when they get paid (that is, all those clicks can be worth something once they translate into sales). I'd say it's worth it for supplemental residual income but don't treat it like a "get rich quick" scheme (though it can be a play/rainy day fund for you). I find that income opportunities present themselves when you get out there enough. Look yourself up on a search engine. If you have a consistent identity throughout social networking sites, blogs, and the like, you'll want to make sure you manage your identity even better. It's like some say, marketing starts with selling yourself (on a similar note, many of us have an online resume and don't even know it - that is, if you compile all the collective data out there). Well, I've already said too much. Great thoughts here, guys!
BTW, sorry about reviving an old post. I should gotten into posting on here a few years back when I was first told about this site.. In any case, if I find something particularly interesting (and still relevant), I will comment. Now, can someone elaborate on bum marketing/advertising? I've seen the term thrown around a bit but it seems to mean something different to everyone. Just curious what you all think on this and the other items mentioned here. 8)