Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

For those who have followed this blog since I began 3 years ago, I am here to tell you that yes, affiliate marketing works.  What's even better is there really is no ceiling on what you can earn with affiliate marketing.  Some say you need a blue print or a plan to follow.  I am not so sure.  Most of what I have created from my intuition has far exceeded any blue print that I have followed.

I have been told so many things about what will work and what won't work til it's mind boggling.  There is always the next best thing to come along and tempt us.  I have been told you must have a list.  I have been told you must have a website.  I have been told you can't make money on Squidoo.  I have been told that to have anything, you must work hard.  So many rules.

When I first started affiliate marketing, I believed all these things.  The fact is, most of them just aren't true.  What I am trying to say is to follow your own path and let go of what everyone else is doing.  I had a little success in the beginning, but it wasn't until I let go of these beliefs of others that I truly began to see success.

It really is up to you and your degree of commitment and how willing you are to learn from yes, your mistakes.  Last month my website was hacked and it is just gone!  Strange thing happened, I focused on Squidoo as opposed to trying to figure out what I wanted to do about the site.  First time ever, my income generated from Squidoo was right at 8 grand.  Not bad for a site I was told would never make me any money huh?

I would say the biggest secret to my success has been to turn those obstacles in my life into opportunities.  I am rebuilding my site and I see a much bigger picture with it this time around.  I really can't wait! 

If you stick this affiliate marketing thing out, be prepared, all the things you will learn, all the people that you meet and of course the money you can make will just blow you away!  Yes affiliate marketing is for real and yes it works!

Adding Clickbank Links In Squidoo

Affiliate Programs are Everywhere

When it comes to finding products to promote online, the sky is the limit. These affiliate opportunities are everywhere. I see many here at Squidoo that use Amazon, but Amazon is just one in probably a million options. Now that I am a full time affiliate marketer, I find myself checking almost all sites I visit for an affiliate program. It's usually all the way at the bottom of a site where you will find a link that says affiliates. I have registered with so many that I have forgotten about a lot of them.

I have recently quit smoking and was googling electronic cigarettes the other day. Practically all electronic cigarette companies have an affiliate program. Best Buy has an affiliate program, how cool is that. Dell you know the computer people, well they have an affiliate program complete with banners and tools.

When I search for affiliate programs, I simply google the product that I want to promote with the word "affiliate" behind it and ta da, usually I find what I am looking for.

Not all affiliate programs however are created equal. I usually check them out before I join one. I search for reviews and take into consideration how professional the site is or is not.

One of the first products I ever purchased and promoted was Pot Pie Girl's One Week Marketing which is why I am such a Squidoo Fan! It works. Another great guide that I am checking out is Squidoo Shortcuts, I have heard great reviews on this.

 

The Truth About Clickbank and Squidoo

Amazon is not the only way to earn money at Squidoo. There are so many digital marketplaces such as Commission Junction, Clickbank, Payloads, E-Junkie to name just a few. Clickbank is my personal favorite. There are endless possibilities. At Squidoo though, I have heard many refer to these digital marketplaces such as Clickbank as taboo. I think it's because many spammers got a hold of it and just used it all wrong trying to make a sale. That's a shame because there is a lot of money to be made at these other market places, including Clickbank.

I was talking with a fellow Squid the other day and his view was that clickbank had low quality products and he wouldn't promote crap. This really isn't true. There are some really good products on in the marketplace. If I am going to promote a product from from this market place, I purchase it and review it first. This way you can have confidence in the products that you promote.

I make good money with multiple affiliate centers. My last paycheck just from Clickbank was just short of 3 grand. I am not writing this to be bragging, I am writing this to hopefully help others make more money by offering quality content when it comes to promoting and reviewing these digital products. If I can make 3 grand now in a two week period, imagine what I will be making a year from now if I just keep doing what I am doing.

Many give up when they don't see fast results. That I believe is the reason most fail with these digital products. I have had one digital product that I was promoting that did nothing for a year. One day I woke up and it seems Google had just found it overnight. There are many factors that play into this and the Google ranking games.

Domain age name, fresh quality content and keyword research and search engine optimization all make a difference in how successful you will or will not be. If you can learn to master these things, you will make sales, that and a little patience.

How To Add Clickbank Links in Squidoo

There are numerous ways to add your affiliate links into a Squidoo Lens. The first and easiest way is by adding the Big Arrow Module in the edit mode. Then you simply copy and paste your link there, give the module a title paste your link and you are done.

Another way is the link module. It works much the same way as the Big Arrow. There is also a reorder option so that you can add more than one link to more than one product. Creating a lens with no valuable content and just links though won't work with Squidoo. They really do want some valuable content. I usually write at least three original text modules with topics that relate to the product and place the link last after my text modules.

There is always the option of linking certain words in your text modules to your hoplinks or other affiliate products with a simple html code. Squidoo does not have a WYSIWYG editor in it's text modules but you can use html instead, creating anchor text links. Simply Google "creating anchor text links and you will find instructions. I can't post the code here as Squidoo reads it and converts it to a link instead of the actual code to use.


Remember this though. Huge caution here. Don't over stuff your links in your lens. This is when it turns to spam. I never link the same product more than 2 or 3 times in a lens. It only takes once to make a sale. Linking to more than one product on a lens though is certainly an option. Always read the terms of service before you create your lens to avoid issues later on. 

Below is a short Video with step by step instructions how to add clickbank automatically using Squiduitls.

 

Marketing Online to Your Local Market

I am an affiliate marketer and most of my money is earned on Squidoo.  Lately Squidoo has been making some changes and at first it scared me.  I had a lens locked and I thought oh my, what if they all were locked and I had to start over.  Silly fear I know, but change happens.  Then I realized something.  I have the knowledge to go out and make money in so many other ways.  The first way I am going to talk about it local marketing.

This weekend I decided I wanted a massage.  I have never had a massage.  I googled Massage, followed by the city I live in.  Boy was I shocked that there were tons of businesses in the yellow pages and other directories, but very few had their own site up.  I don't know about you, but I am more apt to buy when I can actually see where it is I am going, not to mention it's nice to know the prices in advance.  There was hardly nothing there.

Then I thought, wow, I know how to build a one page site for these places and I know how to target keywords and I know about Search Engine Optimization.  So why can't I go out and market this service to small businesses?  Then I found a product by pot pie girl that teaches exactly how to do this.  It's called Power 3 Marketing.

Once you learn about marketing online, there really are no limits to the streams of income you can create.  I am also becoming a distributor for another product that is multi level marketing.  Many do multi level marketing the traditional way, but sharing the opportunity in real life.  Since I am now self trained in internet marketing I can share my opportunity via online and litereally reach thousand of potential customers all over the world.

The moral here is once you learn how to online market, there really are no limits as to the money you can make.  You can have income streams everywhere.

My exciting journey started here with this one product and I will never ever have to work at a JOB again.

So Many Ways to Make Money Online

There are so many ways to make money online.  No wonder the newbie internet marketer often just gives up, it's mind blowing.  I know I myself got so overwhelmed when I began about 3 years ago.  I fell for many many make money at home programs that just weren't really making me any money.  What I am talking about is the standard hyped up programs that promise you riches almost over night.  I didn't succeed with these programs though because I think I just didn't feel passionate about them.  I lost a lot of money.

I do affiliate marketing, but my eyes lately are being opened to many new ways to make money online.  Just a few weeks ago, I needed some fast cash that I could get my hands on pretty quick and didn't want to wait on my payouts on clickbank.  On a whim, I posted a beta testing opportunity to teach others how to do what I do and work from home in your pajamas if you wish.  Wow!  I charged $97 bucks per person and sent out a lesson a day via email.  I had 6 new students within 24 hours.  That's almost $600, not bad.

This is now turning into another stream of income.  I will run one more beta testing and put it all together in pdf or video format and market it.  I will also make it available for affiliates once I tweak it out.  If you are a newbie and would like to be my guinea pig for $97.00 great.  You can send me a message.

The ways to make money online are unlimited.  I know some who make money with Amazon alone.  I know another that writes these short ebooks and published them on Amazon.  I too have a few books on Amazon.  My good friend has a book that he sells there for 99 cents a pop, yet makes about 3000 per month on this one little book.

I have another virtual friend who just writes articles and uses a spinner and submitter software.  He does this for others and charges for the service.  He has more than made up for the cost he spent on this software over and over again.

My next venture is something I found out about today.  It's flipping websites.  Very similiar to flipping houses, but so much easier.   This is something you can do to earn good money in a little as 24 hours.  I trust this as it is endorsed by Jenifer, the pot pie girl.  You can check it out here.  

Speaking of Pot Pie Girl, she is the one that got me into all of this.  I bought her product after many failed attempts at making money.  I implemented it and yes, I did begin to make money via Squidoo.  Squidoo is still my favorite marketing platform, it is so easy.  I did not get rich overnight and I am still not rich yet, but yes I am finally living comfortably.

Below is my recent earnings from Just One of my 27 squidoo lens.  You can learn how to use Squidoo to make money here, but warning, it's addicting!

Weekly Sales Snapshot

Week Ending Gross Sales 2012-03-21 (current week) $780.88 2012-03-14 $1,078.14 2012-03-07 $895.17 2012-02-29 $1,372.48 2012-02-22 $932.51 Daily Sales Snapshot Mon Mar 19 $31.86 Sun Mar 18 $214.13 Sat Mar 17 $91.43 Fri Mar 16 $90.95 Thu Mar 15 $95.24 Wed Mar 14 $257.27 Tue Mar 13 $227.91 Mon Mar 12 $113.29 Sun Mar 11 $39.00 Sat Mar 10 $95.36 Fri Mar 09 $95.20 Thu Mar 08 $359.70 Wed Mar 07 $147.68 Tue Mar 06 $0.00 Mon Mar 05 $158.51

Current ClickBank time: 12:13:15 Current ClickBank date: 2012-03-19 Date account opened: 2009-03-09 Start of this pay period: 2012-03-14 Start of next pay period: 2012-03-28

Yes it took me 3 years, but I am a huge procrastinator.  With commitment and effort, I imagine you will get there much faster

Choosing a Domain Name

In choosing a domain name is a major consideration when doing business online, and it is often one of the first issues to be addressed. While a good domain name won't guarantee success, it can have a positive (or negative) impact on almost every aspect of online business. A "good" domain is one that is easy to remember and minimizes confusion. If you are acquiring a name that has the potential to cause confusion, it is generally recommended that you obtain the most logical variations This often includes non-hyphenated and hyphenated variations, along with words that are phonetically similar and common misspellings. I personally don't suggest the hyphenated ones as it's not something you could blurt out and someone would remember in conversation.

I use godaddy.com which has an affiliate program as well. I should be participating in it, but I haven't yet. For example if you purchase a domain name through my link, I would get paid. Hmmm, I need to add it I suppose. The dot com one is the best if you can get it. It runs between $9 and $15 per year, not bad. The dot us and others are an option and usually are about $5 per year. So that being said, you probably want to create an account at godaddy.

Here is one of my mistakes regarding Domain names that you can learn from. I let one expire once. I had a lot of articles forwarded to it and needless to say, I had to go into each one and edit it and resubmit. A lot of work on my part. I could have purchased it, but guess what? They now wanted $3 grand for it because I had built traffic to it. Ughhhh. If you plan on being famous one day, it's not a bad idea to purchase your name.com. Google evanmarkatz.com and see what comes up. I will be doing this soon and will probably have a blog or my site connected to it. Buying ans selling domain names by the way is yet another way to make money online. Some make a killing doing this.

Another reason why you need a domain name is you will be doing article marketing. The best article sites will now allow affiliate links. The solution is to forward your affiliate link to your domain name and then you can put that in the article and it will click straight to the sales page. Many bum marketers use this technique alone to do affiliate marketing. They just flood the web with articles that go straight to the affilate sales page. It's a pretty easy way to make money but not as effective if they have to go though a site or blog first.

The reason for this is that if it goes to say a Squidoo lens or blog, they get to read more of your material and it builds trust. They are more apt to purchase. The average reader does not purchase from the first click through. I made some money this way, but it wasn't very consistent. I had written about 100 articles linking straight to an affiliate sales page via an affiliate link. It is a good way to start out though. About six weeks ago, I forwarded the domain name from the product itself to my lens. The traffic soared and up it went in the search engines. More sales for me! Had I had to manually go in and change the links in the article to the lens it would have taken hours, maybe a day or so of tedious work. Because I had the domain name, it was a one stop. I hope that did not confuse you. I remember when I first started, for some reason domain names just boggled my mind.

When choosing a domain name, make it as simple and easy as possible. One that if you told someone, "hey you can find me at ___________.com, they would be apt to remember. Mimi Tanner who owns www.getyourexback.com is probably a millionaire.

My Little Squidoo Empire

started here. The rest is history. I am an affiliate marketer and this is where I got my big break, at Squidoo creating lens. My little Empire is little. It is not my sole source of income, but it pays all of my bills. I started with Pot Pie Girls plan, One Week Marketing. The idea is to create one lens per week for a year. That's 52 lens up and running on auto-pilot. Not bad. This is how you make money on Squidoo.

My little Empire though is only 26 lens. Most of them on relationships. The only thing I have done different than Pot Pie Girl really is I didn't just release my lens and let them be. I baby them. I watch them. I check their stats. I look for ways to improve them. My results are not bad, not bad at all. I have 4 of my lens connected to one clickbank account. The results for the last few weeks are below. Pot pie girl says you can make money on squidoo, I believe her now.

Week Ending Gross Sales
2012-01-25 (current week) $825.46
2012-01-18 $734.50
2012-01-11 $508.31
2012-01-04 $643.36
2011-12-28 $412.05

As you can see in 4 weeks they doubled. That is another blog post but it happened because of a coaching course I invested in here.

The fact of the matter is if you tweak your lens a few times a month and ping them, they will rise in the search engines. Check your stats and see what terms are being used to find your lens in the search engine. Incorporate these terms into your text module titles and content and reping. This doesn't take long at all, a few minutes which translates to dollars.

Below is a shot of my dashboard this morning of my top 4 lens which rank for #3, #4. #8 and #13 in relationships.

[Featured! Click for more info.] 4,971 week
236 today $2.44 01/10/2012

[Featured! Click for more info.] 9,991 week
414 today $2.82 12/28/2011

[Featured! Click for more info.] 2,235 week
88 today $0.00 01/13/2012

[Featured! Click for more info.] 1,026 week
46 today $0.00

That's a total of 18,223 visits for the week. Not bad. All of my lens have a rss feed from my blogs in them which also translates to about 7000 visits to my blogs also.

Lens and blogs all have affiliate links in them. The money Squidoo pays I donate to charity. Another important factor that you can play around is the products that you are promoting. All sales pages do not convert at the same rate. I added a high converting product to one lens and my income doubled that week.

Also my lens have attracted the attention of other marketers. I have been paid up to $150 bucks to create a lens for others. Another source of income.

I wanted to post this as some simply tell me that using Squidoo is not wise. Some have told me you can't make money with squidoo. While I do agree putting all your eggs in one basket isn't wise, it sure doesn't hurt me to have a few in Squidoo. The great thing about it is it is so easy to use. Even for the technically challenges if you just follow the step by step guide here.