Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Becoming a Full-Time Affiliate Marketer

by

Q: Shawn, I would first like to thank you for you willingness to share your experience and success, it’s much appreciated. You mentioned not to proceed with your Extra Money Answer blog if you’re looking to get rich, I get that, but I’m looking to reach the point where I can reduce myself to one job (short to medium term) and potentially see affiliate marketing as a full time business some day. Is that feasable? Or should I only expect to make an extra $50-$100 or so a month? I realize I have to put in the time and effort (your information is a great help).

Shawn CollinsA: There are quite a few people who are making their livelihood through affiliate marketing.

However, most people are not at that level, so I created Extra Money Answer to provide a realistic expectation of the potential for an affiliate marketer.

Most affiliates are making $25, $50 or $100 a month… if they’re making anything at all.

The possibility to support yourself with affiliate marketing as a career is out there, but don’t expect it to happen quick or easy.

I would suggest the path I took where I worked for many years at a full-time job and did my affiliate stuff on the side.

This was in addition to a number of other part-time jobs, including freelance Web design, managing some sites for companies, weekend editor of the sports section for NJ.com, etc. to supplement my income.

Eventually, I was able to grow the affiliate marketing activity to be a job by itself.

Video: Becoming a Full-Time Affiliate Marketer

Should Cheating Affiliates Worry About Getting Caught?

by

Q: I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for about 6 months without success, and then I decided to use the products name in my domain for example productnameREVIEW.com and I had great success, but I’m using there Trademark should I be worried as the product I’m promoting says in CJ.com I should not use there keyword in my domain?

Shawn CollinsA: I think you should definitely be worried. You’re violating the terms you agreed to when you partnered with this company.

So, if they catch you, they have every right to suspend your commissions, and not pay you, because you are cheating.

That’s bad business, and certainly not a long term strategy to be a parasite.

If you have no problem being disreputable and to have people not want to work with you, continue down that path.

Or you could operate with trust and honesty, which is what I would certainly encourage.

Video: Should Cheating Affiliates Worry About Getting Caught?

Cost to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

by

Q: As someone who is just starting to learn about affiliate marketing & not yet actually doing it. How much capital should I expect to need in order to have a viable business?

Shawn CollinsA: You can really do it on the cheap. When I started out, my only investments were my domain name and hosting.

You can get a domain for around $10/year and hosting for less than $10/month.

It’s a relatively small investment to enable you to test the waters and see how it goes.

I’ve got a site called Extra Money Answer where I detail the steps that I take to create a new affiliate site.

The time it takes to make it a “viable business” depends on how you define that and how much time, effort, and creativity you’re willing to invest.

Most people will make extra money with affiliate marketing, but those who do it as a career are less common.

Video: Cost to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

Using SEO to Recruit Affiliates

by

Q: I am reasonably new to the affiliates market but the website I work for has a great affiliates programme I want to promote. We have around 80 affiliates now but only 10 really sell. I was initially told that affiliate directories were the way forward but have since read a blog by you thats suggests otherwise. You said at one point that ranking highly in a google search for keywords for your website and the word affiliates is best. How exactly do you achieve this? Our PR rank is 5 which is similar to our competitors yet they rank alot higher than us on these searches.

Shawn CollinsA: For that particular issue, it’s more an SEO thing than an affiliate thing.

Anyhow, one thing I did in the past to enhance the presence of affiliate programs I managed in search results was to create a standalone site dedicated to each affiliate program.

For instance, if the company for the affiliate program is Acme.com, go out and get AcmeAffiliate.com and build it into a resource for that affiliate program.

What I would do was to make the site in the same look and feel of the main site, but the site is all about the affiliate program with details on applying, examples of create, FAQ.

Also, it’s good to include a blog with the latest information on the affiliate program to keep the site fresh and useful.

The naturally keyword rich original content will help you with your search engine marketing efforts.

Another search related technique, though not SEO, is to use Google AdWords or other paid search options to advertise to prospective affiliates.

Promoting an Affiliate Program

by

Q: I am a Merchant and I am gonna launch my site soon. I have two questions first how can i get my name out there so affiliates can promote me, and can I use my web sites built in affiliates program or do I have to use a program like Commission Junction?

Shawn CollinsA: There are a number of ways to go out and promote your affiliate program.

One quick, easy and cost efficient method is to use Google Adwords. Just bid on terms related to your offer with the words “affiliate program” and write an ad pitching your affiliate program.

Lots of people search for relevant affiliate programs by searching on Google.

Make a handful of variations of the ads to test which work best.

Another tactic is to get active in the affiliate marketing community by commenting on blogs (useful stuff – not just to drop a link to yourself) and affiliate marketing forums.

Make yourself available as a resource without looking for anything in return. That sort of help serves as a subtle ad for your affiliate program.

Also, you should have a presence at affiliate marketing conferences.

Phone, IM and email will only take relationships so far – it’s a whole different situation in person, where you can work out special arrangements with big performers, get their candid feedback, and learn some new and better ways to do what you do.

As far as your other questions, if I understand you correctly, you’re asking if you can use software to run your affiliate program, rather than Commission Junction or another affiliate network?

While the option is out there to use software, I would highly suggest you run your affiliate program through a network.

Personally, as an affiliate, I am far more likely to promote a company in an affiliate network. It’s somewhat out of laziness/efficiency, as I do not want to have hundreds of logins.

I’d rather have a handful of accounts to manage my affiliate reporting and other associated tasks.

You may be able to build up a decent affiliate program outside of the networks, but it’s going to be a lot more work.

Making a Full-Time Income with Affiliate Marketing

by

Q: Shawn, I’ve been attempting Affiliate Marketing for 3 years now, and have made 1 Clickbank sale and my adwords account just got shut down for direct linking. Is affiliate marketing something that I can make a full-time income doing? If so, would you care to share any advice on how to do so? I’m not used to not succeeding and I become discouraged at times. Thank you in advance.

Shawn CollinsA: An important thing to understand about affiliate marketing from the start is that it takes a lot of hard work and patience.

I guess you’ve had patience to be at it for three years, but the success hasn’t come for you.

Without seeing your site, I cannot judge what may be wrong with it in particular, but I have a free resource that covers the steps I take in setting up an affiliate site.

The site is called Extra Money Answer, and I am writing it in book form with chapters and sections broken down on the various things you need to do to create an affiliate site.

It covers everything from determining a topic to cover, getting a domain and hosting, driving traffic, and testing affiliate ads.

Hopefully this can set you on the right path. Given that the current site hasn’t worked out, you’re probably best off scrapping it and starting from scratch.

Video: Making a Full-Time Income with Affiliate Marketing

Aggregated Affiliate Stats

by

Q: I’m write a blog and am looking to open an affiliate store which will display products mentioned in the posts as well as other gift ideas. I have relationships with 6 affiliate networks. I am wondering if there is a tool for publishers that would allow management & tracking for all the relationships (dozens of merchants on several networks) from one central dashboard solution?

Shawn CollinsA: I have seen a handful of solutions to aggregate affiliate network data, but there is only one that I have used, and that’s AffMeter.

AffMeter has dozens of networks available through their software.

Features from the service include the ability to find top revenue generating and losing merchants, exporting reports as XLS files, receiving daily email alerts, and seeing your statistics in USDs, Pounds, AUDs or Euros with the Affmeter Currency Converter.

Many affiliates cobble together a manual solution, such as entering the data into a spreadsheet, but that can be a big task if you’re promoting a lot of affiliate programs.

Promoting an Affiliate Program

by

Q: I work for (plug for company name removed), we got our affiliate program up and running, thanks to insights from you and many other affiliates, its got amazing payouts, you can get 20% lifetime commissions. To know more you can go to click 20% lifetime commissions (url to join affiliate program removed). We were wondering how to go about promoting our Affiliate program?

Shawn CollinsA: I’d say using the opportunity to get some free advice isn’t a good way to promote your affiliate program.

If you’re going to solicit me, whether in a subtle or overt way, you should have a relevant offer, and your affiliate program doesn’t make sense for any of my sites.

I would suggest getting immersed in the affiliate marketing community. Participate in affiliate marketing forums, read affiliate marketing blogs and comment on the posts, and listen to podcasts related to the industry and provide some feedback on the shows.

When you post or comment in these ways, you’ll have an opportunity to create some sort of profile, and affiliates will be able to easily find more about you if you’re helping and showing yourself to be a resource in the space.

Also, attend conferences and local meetups, where you can learn more about what’s going on in affiliate marketing, as well as meet and recruit affiliates for your program.

The important thing is to have a presence – affiliate marketing is about relationships and trust.

Targeted ads can help, too. Look into print ads, sponsoring podcasts, paid search, and Facebook ads.

Getting Started as an Affiliate Marketing Newbie

by

Q: I am just a newbie in affiliate marketing. I am one of the persons who have not earned even a cent online but dreaming of earning at least a few hundred bucks online for now. I know many affiliate programs and method is simple – Give them sales and they will give you money. But that i cannot get how to generate those sales. Please guide me.

Shawn CollinsA: I am not sure how long you have been at it, but it can take some time to see your first sale or lead as an affiliate.

I was at it for months before I made a penny.

Gradually, I figured things out. I did a lot of testing over time, and scaled up the number of sites I had.

There are a lot of ways to do it. Personally, I was just churning out a lot of original content.

But you could also use paid search, blogs, podcasts, videos, pay-per-call, etc. Any methods available for marketing online can be adapted by affiliates.

The reality is that some affiliates will figure it out fairly quick and begin generating revenue, while others never earn a cent, because they are unable to draw an audience.

Sit down and think about why people should want to visit your site – be sure you’ve got some unique value proposition for them.

And then you’ve also got to market your site. It’s an ongoing two-step process: give people a reason to go to your site, and then promote it.

Succeeding in Affiliate Marketing as a Non-US Citizen

by

Q: I just started looking into affiliate marketing (AM) a week ago, and I must say it’s pretty scary stuff. I have a look at ClickBank which is supposedly the best and user friendly for newbies like me, but the stuff they promote…….do people really buy those stuff? Or is it in affiliate marketing the products are just secondary to what the real deal is? I’m really confused now but not willing to give up yet soon. I only have 1 question for you, and your site has provided a very insideful detail on AM which I really enjoy reading and will be beneficial to AM rookies like me.

My question – Do I stand a chance to make it to where you are today as a non-US citizen in affiliate marketing? OK maybe a few notches or several notches below, nevermind about how long it’s going to take me. I have the time and I intend to make this the last leg of my money making stunt. I’m 50 now and I live and work in a little place call Singapore all my life.

Shawn CollinsA: There are many opportunities on Clickbank for affiliates, as well as a lot of other affiliate networks.

The thing you have to determine is which niche you wish to promote. Is there is certain topic that is exciting to you that you’d like to make a site around?

Otherwise, you could pick popular subjects and create sites about those areas of interest.

After you have determined the focus of your site(s), you will then seek out the relevant products or services that have affiliate programs.

If information products make sense for your audience, then Clickbank is the way to go for you. Alternately, if you think your visitors would be more interested in hard goods, such as electronics or clothing, then you will end up working with other affiliate networks.

The first step is to determine which product/service you hope to sell. After you’ve gotten started, be sure to test all the time to figure out what your audience wants.