Affiliate Marketing Comes of Age!

Over the last ten years or so we have seen more and more online businesses that recommend products to people in exchange for a fee, called an affiliate payment. This was a great idea as it enabled vendors to get new customers and only have to pay when that customer purchased a product. Today many websites are signing up affiliates to help them sell more of their products or services online.

Like most things, after a while we became used to the idea that people will recommend others people’s products to us. This affiliate marketing strategy has worked for many people, but as an audience we are starting to get wise to these recommendations. How often do we buy something online and when we get it we are not very happy with the result, or worse still feel that we have been 'conned'? I, for one, have purchased many information products, joined membership sites etc, only to be disappointed in what I received and as a result have become quite a sceptic.

So I decided to spend some time and look at what was being offered and what products or services were worthwhile and to try and get an idea of how this 'affiliate marketing' concept worked. Well, I signed up for a number of products and services and privately reviewed them to identify if they were of real value or not. Unfortunately I was not disappointed as my previous findings seemed to hold out in many cases.

I’ve tried affiliate marketing myself and initially found it hard to make any money at all. Indeed I did not even get back what I had invested. Sure, I have loads of ‘free bonuses’, most of them totally worthless and an insult to anyone with even a minimum understanding of the internet.

I did some further research to see if I could identify which people or companies were offering good quality products and services which were worth there cost. What I discovered was that almost all of these people DID NOT try and sell a product or service, rather they offered lots of free information for the potential purchaser to try out first of all. Some even scrapped the traditional ‘long sales page’ and left it to the visitor to sign up to a newsletter or similar, leaving those people to search for how they could buy the products or services available. These people try and make a great impression and build a relationship with the potential buyer, resulting in a level of confidence and trust … and eventually one or more sales.

What was interesting was that the best affiliate marketers rely totally on the quality of their websites, products and services as the main lever to getting more sales. As I investigated further I suddenly started to realise that there was a lot, lot more to affiliate marketing than just recommending a product and sending people to some landing or squeeze page somewhere. I discovered that there is a whole stack of potential methods and procedures that can be used which result in more people buying your products or services.

I’m currently starting a six month, high level affiliate marketing course which looks at the newest ways of selling products online and how to attract huge numbers of people to my specialist websites. This course is now oversubscribed but I will let you know how I get on and what the outcome is.

In the meanwhile I also discovered a fantastic membership site that is operated by one of the instructors on my course. This site has a wealth of information, free of charge, but also much, much more for those who seriously want to make money online. One of the best parts of this membership site is that it is full of video instruction covering every aspect of selling online. As a fabulous bonus all members get free hosting of an unlimited number of websites. That in itself more than covers the monthly fee. I joined because I wanted to find out what was actually being offered behind the scenes, and I have to say I am not the least bit disappointed – it is much more than I expected and I now know that my online marketing efforts will start to produce real results. Best of all these are real people who you can talk too, ask questions and resolve problems.

This membership site was recommended to me by my friend Jamie Okrat who lives down-under, so if you are interested in finding out more then why not go to his site and you’ll find a display add on the front page for the membership site. Well worth a look and it will cost you nothing except a bit of your time.

The potential for selling online is increasing every day, with more and more businesses depending upon web sales to grow their businesses. Jamie wrote a one hundred page plus eBook a couple of years ago which he sold on line for just $9 (US) and he had 15,543 people purchased and download it. Jamie told me that he made more from that eBook than if he had published it as a proper book.

Hmmm ...perhaps it is time to start thinking about doing something similar! :)


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Do Small Businesses Require More Help?

In this time of economic problems many small businesses appear to be suffering badly and some have as a result failed, leaving the owners financially bankrupt. I experienced this a couple of years ago and it has taken until now for me to recover and to start considering where to go from here.

One of the issues was that I did not have the expertise to identify the problems that I was facing nor have the skills or ability to deal with them. When times are hard, those who are not as business savvy as perhaps they should be, are almost certainly the first to suffer as a consequence.

It is often quite easy when looking back on the events to identify what the reasons were that caused things to go wrong; however at the time they remained hidden. Many small businesses in this situation often find themselves up against a financial wall, where they need cash to resolve their problems but are unable to get it and suffer as a result.

Over the years the government and other bodies have formed local business support groups which are intended to help out those that face difficulties and need the advice that is available. Many of these organisations however, focus on the larger small business, those employing ten people or more and ignore or do not have time to assist the many one man outfits that are normally the first to be hit hardest.

I tried Business Link, the Chamber of Commerce and some other organisations but got little in the way of help without spending cash I did not have. Now over two years later I realise that my problems were caused because I allowed my business to deteriorate slowly in the year or so before the failure occurred. I failed to ensure that my business was strong and robust and could weather bad conditions if and when they occurred.

Today operating a small business is very hard especially when economic pressures are being applied. I identified some years ago a concept called Mentor Power, which called upon groups of local small business people to create formal relationships together to assist each other in strengthening their businesses and enabling them to grow in size, turnover and profit. The obvious advantage was that the knowledge, skills and experiences of say ten business owners working together would provide a much stronger management input for all the businesses involved.

When we consider this, we realise that it is far too easy to remain detached from what others are doing and to isolate ourselves to such an extent that eventually we find that we are facing problems that are almost impossible to resolve or live through.

As a result of my experiences I am now looking at Mentor Power again to see if it is a viable business model and if it will provide the support and encouragement that small business owners need in the current and future economic environment. As part of this process I have been looking at other organisations that provide help to small businesses and although generally disappointed I am encouraged by the appearance of a new organisation called The National Alliance of Business Owners which started earlier this year and has grown substantially since. One of the great things about it is that they provide a monthly printed newsletter called Business Success which is mailed to every member. This magazine is full of great ideas and is extremely well presented and worth reading. In addition every member gets to attend a free seminar called ‘How to explode Your Business Profits’ which is held in various locations around the country.

Perhaps the greatest advantage is that membership is currently free to anyone who wishes to join.

Finally it only remains for me to sum up what I’ve already said in a single sentence:-

“If you are a small business then do whatever it takes to grow it so that in the event of economic downturn you survive!”

Regards

Jim

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