The Smart Affiliate: Internet Marketing for the Long Haul
To the average affiliate, internet marketing is about fast profits, regardless of how short-term the results may be. That’s exactly why the FTC has been jumping in to police flogs, and why Google and Facebook are making it increasingly difficult to use their advertising platforms. Most affiliates just aren’t in it to generate quality, long-term results.
That said, there’s a lot of money to be made (and gray hairs to be saved) in sticking with a long-term strategy in your affiliate marketing efforts. Next time you want to tackle a niche, don’t think of the fastest way to arbitrage traffic. Instead, think of how you could build a serious resource that would actually impress or help people. If you feel like you need to hide your site from human reviewers or resort to strange techniques to prevent bans, you’re doing it wrong. The point here is to STOP feeling like you’re earning on borrowed time.
But what if your site doesn’t make much money? What if you put in all that time and you’re still not earning much? Here’s the beauty of it – you can ask for help! With a lot of affiliate marketing, it’s scary to do that. Someone could rip off your landing page or steal your keywords. When you create a complex, valuable site, though, you put in a LOT of effort. Even if you show it to an entire forum and ask for suggestions, the odds of anyone copying you are extremely slim (especially since you’re saying it isn’t making money yet!) Even better, your first-mover advantage means that you’re already established in the niche, and competitors would have to work much harder to overtake your progress. You can’t say that about most forms of affiliate marketing. Building a quality site is so much more than just matching traffic to the advertiser.
I’m not saying you should never go for the quick money – but if you want a long-term, sustainable business, you should consider putting a couple of high quality projects on your to-do list.
Have you ever taken this approach? How did it work out for you? Let us know in the comments.