What can affiliates learn from Barack Obama

The 2008 election is in the books, and Barack Obama has run away with it by securing 365 electoral votes. I personally didn’t vote in this election, but I am impressed by Mr. Obama’s success with so little experience. If you think about it, Obama passed the biggest interview test anyone can have without really relying on his experience (or lack thereof). For a long time, I have believed that experience is really overrated when it comes to interviews. Having 10 years of experience does not necessarily make you better than a young buck who has only 2 years of experience. But most companies do pay more attention to your mileage during the interview process. In that sense, Barack’s election was a surprise.

There are a lot we affiliate can learn from Barack Obama. He was significantly in disadvantage in this election, yet he beat masters of politics such as Clinton and McCain. So how did he do it? Barack:

• had a great message: having a solid unique message can help affiliates differentiate themselves from others and sell more. Barack sold his case to us with his message of change. If he can do it, there is no reason you can’t sell your affiliate products using the same technique.
• had great determination: Barack was determined to win this election from day one. It didn’t matter that he was an African American. It didn’t matter that he was going against the giants. He never gave up, and that is the spirit that can push regular affiliates to become superstars. If you give up, you have no chance at success.
• had great feel for the game: Barack ran the most effective campaign in recent years. Barack knew who he was going for. He knew the political atmosphere in 2008. He knew folks were hurting and economy was their top priority. McCain, on the other hand, was the master who played the wrong strategy throughout the last 3 months. He spent most of the time attacking and imitating Barack’s plans instead of differentiating himself from Barack, and that led to his downfall.
• had a great team: In order to be successful in any large-scale project, you need to have a great dedicated team. Barack’s team was dedicated to his cause and acted as a real team, and that’s why they won.
• had a feel for innovation: Barack outspent McCain by 4.5 to 1 during this election. How did he do it? He raised money through Internet, Twitter, and other new technologies. Using cutting-edge technologies can often level the playing field and that’s exactly what Barack did. The same concept applies to affiliate marketing too.

Did I miss anything? What have you learned from Barack Obama’s success in this election?

The Real Superaffiliates…

We have all heard of how super-affiliates make millions of dollars every year due to their superior marketing techniques and their vast know-how. But the truth is, the grass is always greener on the other side of the aisle. Most of us are wired in a way that makes up overrate the competition and underrate our abilities. That’s just how it is. The mental part of this business can be the difference between you making it all the way to the top and making just decent money to make a living.

I have been around in this business for a long time, and I have seen real and fake super-affiliates. In general, folks who can’t keep their mouths shut about their business endeavors and keep bragging about their “skills” are regular salesmen and not real super-affiliates. This business is too tough and competitive for someone to show their hands. Affiliate marketing is as challenging as poker these days. If you can’t keep your poker face, you are just a poor player. That’s all there is to it. Can you have one off success? Maybe. But in general, you can’t become a real super-affiliate by spilling your beans.

Have you noticed that all these supposed super-affiliates try to sell you their training products? Isn’t funny how all these folks want to give you a chance at millions? The truth is most super-affiliates have a bunch of folks working for them, and they have complex business blue-prints. It’s possible to make a couple of hundred thousands on the Internet by yourself, but it’s extremely hard and takes a lot of work. Almost all these super-affiliates try to get your e-mail address and sell you a bunch of products that you don’t need. There is nothing wrong with selling things, but promising millions to folks knowing that they won’t achieve it is unethical in my book.

There are real super-affiliates out there. You don’t really here about them, and they don’t go around bragging about their successes. There are exceptions but the majority of super-affiliates don’t find bragging smart. And these folks are just like you and I. They have dreams and fears. They feel joy and disappointment. They may be ahead of the curve but they are not super-human, which is why you shouldn’t give up catching them.

The Concept of Fool’s Gold In Affiliate Marketing World

You may heard this too: “The Instant road to affiliate millions” or “how to make $1000 in on hour.” Anyone who has been in this business has probably had the pleasure of seeing or even buying these training courses. For folks who are not familiar with the ins and outs of affiliate marketing, this business looks like the dream come true for the lazy folks. Con artists keep talking about how you can make millions of dollars by reading an ebook. That’s how they sell stuff. That’s how they con folks.

Any reasonable person realizes that you can’t make a million by reading an ebook and slapping a website on the Web, hoping to make $100,000+ a month. But think about it. How many Amazon products do you have to sell to make that kind of money? Even if you own your product (selling it for $40 a pop), you are going to have to sell 25,000 copies to get to that $1m mark. Now that’s actually easier to do, but can’t be done in 2 seconds. Let me rephrase that. It can be done (folks like John Reese do it all the time), but you can’t get into this business and start making a million.

Do you believe John Reese started making millions by reading ebooks? Guys like that have been in this business for as long as some of us have been alive, and they have found the success blueprint and have mastered it. That kind of know-how is a distinct capability that can’t be duplicated in seconds.

At the end of the day, you should know what to expect before getting into this business. Affiliate marketing folks is not a lazy man’s job. There will be tough days. There will be days that you’ll be bored to death by your daily tasks. There will be days that you won’t make any money, and you still have to go at it full force. What affiliate marketing is not is a smooth ride to the millionaire country. If you set your expectations right level, you will be better prepared to deal with the surprises and headaches of this business. Is making a million with affiliate marketing possible? Yes. Can anyone do it? Absolutely not. Not everyone’s going to get there, but for those who have, life can’t be sweeter.

Prop 8 Succeeds, Get Challenged, Here comes the Opportunity

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t had a day going without hearing about the whole proposition 8. Keith Olbermann probably had the best piece on the whole Prop 8 fiasco, and the whole gay marriage issue is not the issue that I intend to address today. However, if you are an affiliate marketer, that bulb has probably been going off with all this buzz about gay marriage.

Dating sites have been around for years, and dating content sites are still one of the best Adsense paying sites out there. But the whole gay dating market is going to get even hotter after all this. Just a few days ago it came out that eHarmony will allow gays to date on its site: means $$$ for us.

Affiliate marketing is all about taking advantage of opportunities before others do. Now I know the issue of gay marriage is important to many folks, and I am all for it, but you can’t deny the opportunity here to make some big bucks. The gay dating market has been around for a while, but eHarmony is one of the biggest players in this market, and them jumping on the ship can only solidify this niche. And don’t for a second think that those Adsense ads will stop paying less than before. Money is everywhere…

Should You Incorporate Your Affiliate Business?

Starting an affiliate business is very easy. Obviously, you want to make a lot of money or you wouldn’t be in this business in the first place. But at some point in your affiliate career, you are going to have to make a decision: whether you want to incorporate or stay as a sole proprietor.

I don’t know about you, but I got started in affiliate marketing as a one man show. I did everything from web design to logo design to writing content. It wasn’t the most efficient way to do it, and knowing what I know now, I would probably outsource a bunch of those tasks to get more done. But from day one, I made the conscious decision to incorporate an LLC in my state to make sure I treated my affiliate business as a real business.

Based on my experience, it is always better to incorporate. Incorporation helps you:

• realize tax benefits: in some cases, you can get tax benefits by forming the right business entity. Who wouldn’t want to have more money at hand?
• protect your assets: wouldn’t be tough to have everything you have worked for get taken away by a lawsuit? That’s why you should incorporate a business and protect yourself.
• protect your name: a corporation is a real business, and you can reserve and protect your business name by forming a formal entity.
• gain more credibility: before I incorporated my affiliate business, everybody kept talking about how noble my “hobby” was. Only after I formed my LLC that folks realized I was in a serious business.

Obviously, there are lots of other benefits to incorporating your business (try Surprisingly Simple if you are in a hurry). But you really don’t have to be a legal expert to register your business. Thankfully, there are many incorporation services such as Company Corporation that allow you to outsource this process. So, don’t let the fear of being overwhelmed by all the legal stuff stop you from protecting your assets and business.

The Biggest Mistake In The Affiliate Marketing Business

I was watching the coverage of the UFC 90 the other day, and I kept thinking about the rise and demise of Pro-Elite Mixed Martial Arts promotion. For those of you who don’t know these guys, they were the folks who struck a contract with CBS for prime-time fighting, and they used an Internet sensation called Kimbo Slice to push their product. Dana White, the president of the UFC, has often been a harsh critic of the companies that are trying to compete with the UFC. Now if you are just a casual fan, you may think that Dana is a just a tough guy who hates anyone who wants to compete with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It may well be true. Dana is a businessman, and of course he doesn’t want smaller promotions to ruin the business for everyone.

Dana kept telling everyone that the UFC makes it look easy and it’s not easy. Folks made fun of him and called him names for being a jerk. But here are the facts which by the way do apply to the affiliate marketing world as well. You should always pick your battles. In the MMA market, only the UFC is making real money. Everyone else looks at the UFC and come to the conclusion that there is money to be earned without doing proper research.

Getting into a niche without proper research is the biggest mistake you can make in any business. You can look at a super affiliate and come to the conclusion that if they are making money, you are going too. That is not going to happen. These guys have mastered their money-making process. They know more about their business model than you do. They are more familiar with challenges, which is why it’s tough to beat them without proper funds or the right business plan.

That’s were micro-niches come in. Strike Force is another organization that is making it decent in the MMA world without getting crushed by the UFC. They have a unique business model, and they don’t pretend to be the UFC. Going against a 800 guerrilla in a niche without knowing their strengths and weaknesses quickly leads to a good spanking. These guys who are making money are doing something right. Pretending that you are going to make money in a niche just other are is just a false hope (take the credit card niche for instance).

So here is the moral of the story. Super affiliates must be doing something right to earn big bucks in this business. They also make it look easy because they have refined their processes over and over again. You simply can’t get in the business and copy them to achieve their success. You should always do your research and pick your battles. If you have 10 million dollars in the bank, you may be able to challenge incumbents in your niche, but if you are limited in funds or resources, you should pick your spots. By doing your homework, you can avoid headaches and heartaches down the road.

The Truth About Info Affiliate Products

I am often asked about the effectiveness and value of some of the info products that folks can find on ClickBank or over the net. If you read the sales letter of some of these products, you may come to believe that you are going to learn how to make a million dollars by paying $29, $49, or $79 for an digital affiliate training product. But here is my advice to you. Try it but don’t hope for the skies.

Don’t put too much hope in learning much from affiliate training product out there as no one is going to teach you the exact way they are making money. These guys are all great marketers. They give you hope and they use your aspirations and ambitions to sell you their products. But at the end of the day, no super affiliate will teach you the exacty methods he/she uses to make a killing.

Besides, reading books is not going to make you a millionaire. Being practical actually pays here. You are actually better of by using KeywordSpy of Affilite Elite to figure out who is marketing what and how. You can also find out a lot about other affiliates in your niche by using Google search. If someone is advertising on Google, either they are making lots of money or they are burning lots of money. Either way, it helps to see what they are doing.

So here is the deal. Instead of spending your hard-earned money on digital products, invest them to acquire tools that can give you competitive advantage over your rivals. If you have an $80 extra to spend, use it to get a subscription to WordTracker, SpyFu, or Wordze. You get more value from these tools than you ever will from digital “make a million in 20 minutes with affiliate marketing” books.

Should You Allow Your Kid To Start Affiliate Marketing

Should you allows your kids to get started with affiliate marketing early? That’s the question many folks ask themselves everyday. Now, it’s true that there aren’t many kids who want to get started in this business, but I come from the school of thought that the earlier you get started, the better chance you have of succeeding in this business.

Younger kids have a unique look at the world. I remember when I was a kid. Things were much simpler. I could think about all kinds of things without having the worries that I do now as a family man. Besides, research has shown that as we age, we become less flexible physically and mentally. Our abilities deteriorate everyday that passes us by. That doesn’t mean that a 45 year old man or woman can’t start an affiliate business and be successful at it. But it does mean that if they start their business earlier, they will have a better shot at succeeding.

But you think starting in your late teen years is early, think again. The 12 year old Jason has set the bar very high for our kid. I do credit the folks around him to have provided him with the opportunity to realize his potential at such an early age. Not everyone’s going to get there, but Jason’s case can be used as a blueprint to develop other talented kids and help them realize their potential. I know a lot of folks talk about kids being kids, but that school of thought belongs to the last century. The 21st century is the century of innovators. The sooner you get started, the better.

Do you know a young one that is having success in the affiliate marketing world? Please share your stories here.

The Truth About Commission Junction’s Network Information

If you have used Commission Junction, you have probably seen the network EPC numbers that they show you to illustrate the effectiveness of their affiliate programs. For instance, the below program is getting a very high network earning grade from Commission Junction.

Here is how the Network Earnings rating is calculated:

Network Earnings: The advertiser’s network earnings rating shows how the advertiser rates with other advertisers in the network based on the volume of commissions paid. Advertisers are ranked in an “apples to apples” comparison with all advertisers by taking each advertiser’s total commissions (regardless of currency), and then converting that total (if necessary) to US dollars. After each advertiser’s commission total amount has made this conversion to a common currency (USD), the rating is established. The advertiser’s EPC is then converted back to your functional currency (provided it differs from USD).

In essence, you can say that CJ’s network earnings ranking is sort of similar to gravity numbers provided to you by Clickbank (though there are some major differences). Now here is the thing. But these numbers have proven to be not effective when it comes to choosing the right affiliate program. You can log on to CJ and find the program with the highest rating and highest 3-month or 7-day EPC. That doesn’t mean you are going to make a ton of cash.

Using a bar instead of real number for network earnings simply makes the result look less accurate. In addition, unless CJ is comparing affiliate programs “apples to apples” in niches, you are not going to get real useful information from this information. The EPC numbers are also averages really. If you have a master affiliate who’s bringing 2000 sales a month for a program, then average EPC could be overstated.

The data provided by Commission Junction can be used to spot trends, but you shouldn’t make a judgement on affiliate programs by using these information only. At the end of the day, you should be always testing to increase your revenue. Your own data are the only numbers that matter at the end of the day.

Black Ink Project 2.0 Released

Jeremy Palmer is the original super affiliate who has contributed a lot to the affiliate community. A few months ago I had a chance to read his most popular book to date,High Performance Affiliate Marketing, and I have been hooked on his material since then.

The good news is that his new project is out already for those interested. The Black Ink project shows you not only how to make a successful affiliate business, but how to go about doing it in reality. Now the package is great by itself, but you can get PPC Classroom 1.0 with it for free, for a limited time. It’s definitely worth checking out.