How To Find The Right Product and Add Value:

Affiliate marketing has been hot for a few years now. But it’s even getting better these days as people are trying their hands in the industry to find ways to make more money, support their family, and flat out make it (earn enough money to retire early). It may not sound logical, but affiliates have indeed benefited from others entering the market as that has made many merchants to step up and offer lucrative affiliate programs. In fact, if you are a merchant and you don’t have an affiliate program these days, you are missing the boat by a mile.

But where too much good can turn bad and ugly? When you have affiliates who want to make a few bucks but don’t want to work for it. Those who want to give the indication that affiliate marketing is a lazy man’s job. Affiliate marketing is not easy my friend. If you have just started your affiliate marketing journey, and you are already making thousands of dollars every day, then you are a marketing genius. But you can’t just slap a couple of banners on a page and expect to make money. You will not.

What’s more, putting up garbage pages hurts us all in the industry. When people get to those sites and realize that they are dealing with an affiliate, then we all get a bad reputation for it. That’s why a significant number of people rather buy using direct non-affiliate links than going through the affiliate links. Some people just don’t trust affiliates at all. And to be honest, it’s our faults. You should never ever ever promote a product that you don’t know nothing about. Any good copywriter can take a garbage product and market it to the millions. Even if you succeed in selling the product to a bunch of people, the word will come out. We are living in a highly connected world, so you can’t expect to recommend a lousy product and get away with it.

So here is my philosophy when it comes to affiliate marketing:

• It’s not about the money: earning money online is important if you want to feed your family, but you should not put your whole focus just on the money. Don’t go to CJ and search for programs that have the highest 3 month EPC. It’s important to find profitable programs, but choose something that you either have experience about or  know it is a useful product.
• It’s about value: affiliate marketing should be about providing value. If all affiliates focus on providing value to their readers/customers, we all win. Provide unique value and money will take care of itself.
• It’s about hard work: as a full time affiliate, I know how easy it is to get distracted by the smallest things on a daily basis. Distractions will set you back and put you that much away from achieving your ultimate goal. Affiliate marketing is not about being lazy. It’s about hard work. You need to test and retest everything constantly, so if you are not doing it now, you better start doing it before it’s too late. You can’t get lucky all the time.
• It’s about improving: you know what happens if you start staying in once place? You become irrelevant. You become useless. That’s what happened to a few marketers who have chosen not to improve themselves and learn new skills. Thanks to the Internet, you can download podcasts, read blogs and follow the top guys in the industry. Try to learn as much as you can. Don’t get overwhelmed. It’s never too late to start.
• It’s about innovation: being unique pays. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you are marketing a unique product or have a unique marketing technique, then you can expect to stand out. If you copy what everyone else does, chances are you won’t be as successful as you should/could be. Think outside the box.

What are your top 5 affiliate marketing philosophies? Please share them here.