My Affiliate Marketing story so far...
So how have we been doing?
I have learned absolutely loads since launching this blog last October. This blog continues to dominate all the major search engines but it has been through sheer hard work. You can just type 'bonnies affiliate marketing solution' into the search engines at any given time to see how I am doing that day. I also recommend you look at the very bottom line which tells you how I got there and through which source. This will give you an idea how you can promote your blog or website. It is all very interesting.
It is also very apparent to myself that making money is certainly not as easy as they say it is. I was very lucky indeed to have made my first sale within 3 months. I have read loads of emails from other bloggers who have spent up to 5 years trying to make their first sale.
It was my intention from the start to only promote free or very low cost programs because I know, if you are like me, you do not have hundreds and thousands of dollars to spare. On the other hand, I have found that it is not a good idea to never spend money out because, basically, you get what you pay for and if you never pay anything you will seldom earn anything.
For this reason, I really do encourage updating any free memberships to gain the most benefits to your business. You do not need to spend out an absolute fortune.
I have found out some interesting things from the carefully selected programs that I am promoting.
Annoying though it has been for me, I have been clicking on emails I have been sent, primarily to see what is about and hot If I keep getting the same old stuff coming up all the time then that is the sort of stuff I won't be putting on my blog because people will have been sick and tired of seeing it. I am more likely to put stuff on that has just been launched and we can get in from the start before the market is saturated. The market is changing all the time so I want to make sure I keep up to benefit us both.
A word on some of my promotions:
Viralurl. (http://viralurl.com/millions) This is much more than a link cloaker. If you have read the post about it, (if not, check it out) you will remember I said you can put all your cloaked links on a clipboard. You also get information as to how many clicks you have had on each cloaked link so you get to see which is the most popular. Oddly enough the most popular link was the Viralurl link itself.
a good example:
before link cloaker: (this is my latest 56th cloaked link)
after link cloaker:
http://viralurl.com/millions/sandbox - check it out, it is a very interesting article.
I then delved deeper to see from which source the clicks had been coming.....99.9% had come from 'traffic swarm'. If you check out my blog posts you can click on a banner to sign up for 'traffic swarm', or click the link below. So, now I can definitely confirm that 'traffic swarm' does what it says on the tin. 'a swarm of traffic to your site'. I have also signed up to 'traffic swarm' so I know my advert is being shown from this source also.
I can also confirm that this viral system has indeed sent a lot of traffic to my blog.
Another interesting thing I learned from viralurl is that when I gave a choice for people to either click on to a link to pay full price for a program or a link for a $10 reduction, the most clicks were on the link to pay full price. Maybe I should double the price!
It is so true that people love free info. I found many clicks on links that related to free articles with interesting topics. This really suprised me as it is in my post 'Free links to viral branded ebooks/articles/free package giveaways, etc.' - 16 March '08. which contains many links. check it out. I am adding free articles all the time.
Also in this post you can click on to a few different 'free ad' sites and submit your blog or website to multiple search engines.
What is affiliate marketing?
You can read all about it in one of my earlier posts. There is also a really interesting post where you can link to videos for newbies.
Variety is the spice of life.
My aim was always to bring a huge variety to my blog so there is bound to be something of interest for everyone. There are also video programs because that is the way to go now. Video is now big so I knew I needed to include this sort of stuff also. I realise we need to keep up or be left behind.
As I have said in previous posts, I have done all the hard work, brain storming and mental torture! so you don't have to. I wish I had had something like this....I would have been saved months and months of very hard work and gruelling research.
Affiliate Cash Secrets
This was one of the first programs I put on my blog last October and it is still going strong. I get info. most days in my inbox about this program so it has really stood the test of time. Check out my posting. I am also pleased to confirm that this week (30 June '08) I am continuing to have sales on this product - definitely the top selling product on my blog.
I have mainly stuck to affiliate promoters with whom I have build up a relationship over the last 8 months. You get to trust them so I hope that in turn, you will get to trust me and appreciate my knowledge and hard work to do the best for my blog, you and your business.
This blog started from having been to an entrepreneurs bootcamp in the UK last year so some of my programs are from top internet markers who I was lucky enough to see and hear.
I actually pulled a post within a day of writing it when the program did not pan out and the link I was given did not directly relate to the program. Needless to state I will not deal with this person again as it was impossible to trust them in anything else they were trying to promote. When I got a chance to promote another of their programs, I am afraid they were swiftly deleted from my emai list. This was a shame because I had launched their program, got many hits and wasted mine and other people's time because the link was wrong.
There is probably a good lesson to be learned there.
Anyway, my blog has had a certain amount of success from the start so it is really gratifying to see that all my hard work is paying off.
I will continue bring variety to my blog and will also strive to promote brand new programs.
Do you love chocolate? then check out my Healthy chocolate post! you don't even need to pay hundreds of dollars up front (nothing to pay at all) and hundreds of dollars a month. To date I have had over 300 clicks on this site. It is proving to be the most popular post on my blog. Needless to state you can affiliate to this (free).
So, what is the worse advice I have received so far?
One of the top marketing gurus I deal with suggested joining up to My Space and Facebook and said it was the best way to get your business known. So I did this.....the result being that I had some nutcase contact me who kept on about getting married, having a mother for his kid and that he just wanted somebody to love and to love him. How sweet you may think. But he just kept on saying the same things even after I pointed out I only went on 'there' to market my affiliate blog and that I did not want to get married...etc., (besides the fact I am in the UK and he was in Miami). I also doubted that he was the high powered businessman he made himself out to be because it was almost impossible to make sense of his jumbled up emails.
The experience really shook me up and I immediately deleted my account.So a harsh lesson learned there then.
Beware of offers using 'coupon codes'.
A couple of days ago I was nearly stung for forking out $97 a month. I keep getting offers using coupon codes, saying I could get the item free or for $1. I went through with one as it was for 218 plr articles for $1. I went to the payment page and only just noticed in very small letters that I would be charged for further months at $97. I immediately cancelled the transaction. Now every time an offer from this person comes into my inbox I delete it without reading it. I would delete this person altogether but am an affiliate to one of their products (maybe I should rethink this also - I wll see how it goes).
If you have any 'scams' perhaps you would let me know so I can add them to this post.
Anyway, I hope you will take the time to check out the variety of posts on my blog and would love any good comments from you. It is not easy starting any business so I would appreciate your comments and hope you enjoy reading my blog posts and most of all, that you can learn from it (and earn).
Let me know how you get on.
To our continued success
Bonnie
affiliate,marketing
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