Archive for March, 2010
Learning Affiliate Marketing From Blogs
When you’re learning affiliate marketing, there’s a temptation for many of us to stick with guides or ebooks. Unfortunately, that’s like getting all of your education from textbooks. It just doesn’t do a good job of providing a comprehensive education. Just as with anything else, you need to combine your textbook education with real world experience and current news on your topic. That’s where blogs come in.
Now, before I go any further, let me emphasize that I am not trying to encourage you to overindulge in blogs. Too much is just as bad as too little. Action is vital.
Most affiliate blogs can be categorized into a few groups:
- General Affiliate Talk – These blogs are typically very broad, and they include a combination of personal performance reports, industry drama, and occasional news. Although they’re usually run by a single affiliate and they’re not always very regular, these can be a great source of sneaky tactics and general updates when something huge happens.
- Industry News - These blogs are usually written by multiple authors, and they tend to be updated more reliably than more general affiliate blogs. Often, these blogs are related to industry conferences or magazines with the funding to pay writers.
- Niche Blogs – These blogs are typically like the more general affiliate blogs, but with a narrower focus. Often, you can find blogs focusing on SEO, PPV, PPC, or social media.
To maximize your learning without spending too much time, try to choose a mix of blog types. If you notice a lot of overlap, there’s a good chance that you’re reading too many blogs. You can also try using an aggregator like AffBuzz.com, where popular posts rise to the top and the remainder can be scanned quickly on a single page.
Learn Affiliate Marketing Everywhere
Although a lot of people think you need expensive courses and memberships to learn affiliate marketing, there’s a lot to be learned everywhere you look. Have you ever heard that statistic about how many hundreds or thousands of ads we all see in a given day? Take a moment to think about that as a budding affiliate marketer. That means that every day, you have hundreds, if not thousands of opportunities to learn about marketing from some of the top companies in the business.
Even better, you can learn from sources that aren’t ads. It may not seem immediately obvious, but consider these methods for thinking critically about the way advertisers and marketers connect with their audiences.
- Watch the magazine and newspaper covers. A huge amount of thought goes into covers. What topics resonate with each magazine’s audience? What are the hopes and fears conveyed on the cover? What is the demographic for that publication? And of course, focus on the copy they use to make people pick up the magazine and actually buy. Words can be powerful.
- The next time you’re in a restaurant, take a look at the clientele. Is it a certain demographic? What kind of decor is used? Is it typical of the decor for restaurants that appeal to that type of clientele? Don’t be afraid to start generalizing and picking up on trends.
- Look at packaging. Your landing pages are a lot like packaging. If you notice certain trends for certain types of products or demographics, keep that in mind when you’re making landing pages for those demographics.
The moral of the story is that you should never stop learning. Everything you do is an affiliate marketing learning opportunity if you’re thinking.
Learn to Spread the Word
Although the idea of inventing a valuable new product or service from scratch is certainly a glamorous one, it’s not necessarily realistic. Most inventors these days hold numerous degrees in the sciences, and they make their discoveries at the microscopic level. In truth, one of the best ways to make money online is to take preexisting ideas and give them a slightly new spin. In some cases, it’s as easy as finding an untapped demographic and making them interested in what you’re selling.
Just like with brick-and-mortar stores, market research plays heavily into the development and spread of franchises. The originator of the product or service will trust the company’s branding and reputation to a few select franchise owners, who will in turn spread the word to new customers. Online, this process is known as affiliate marketing. For an upstart business owner, learning affiliate marketing can be a smart, fool-proof way of getting ahead on the Internet.