It seems that the VERY popular fashion of article writing is not
unlike real world clothing fashion in that; the same things keep
coming around with seasonal regularity. In fact, more so with
the fast paced development of the ‘home business’ or ‘work at
home’ article topic conveyor.
I’m probably guilty of the above for writing on this specific
subject itself, having seen a few others lament the continual
rehashing of the ‘same ol’, same ol’. Although in my defense,
today’s comment is not so much the same lamentation but, in my
eyes at least, an attempt to put the record straight about a
specific subject, of which I’ve read far too many articles about
recently.
To be fair, I’m sure only good intentions (and a need for
something to write about) are responsible for the latest round
of ‘Affiliate marketing is simple’ and ‘You’ll be earning online
in no time as an Affiliate’ type articles. In so many of these
articles, Affiliate marketing is touted as the ‘way to go’ for
anyone who has a website (or EVEN NOT, which is rubbish for all
but a few).
I currently run seven Affiliate websites, recently ‘trimmed
down’ from twelve because of the amount of time involved in all
that was required to keep each website competitive in the Search
Engines and interesting to visitors, both new and returning,
chasing PR and generally maintaining what have become known as
'affiliate content websites'. Some merchants supply complete
website templates, which are helpful, provided you have total
SEO control, but even so, they are not generally well packed
with content and certainly they don't have 'ready to go' RSS
feeds, news updates, blogs and articles etc. So even though, as
I said, they do help, there is still much to be done initially
and maintained continually to end up with a comprehensive,
interesting and SE friendly Affiliate website.
I had to 'trim down' my activities simply because, even though I
am fortunate enough to be a full time Internet home
businessperson, I did not have the time to keep that number of
websites producing viable ‘income for effort’. When you consider
the amount of work involved in just one affiliate content
website, I’m sure most will understand why I have had to
‘streamline’. At the same time, I hope a realization of the
effort and time involved will also become apparent.
Of course, before we even start any of the following, we assume
we have the ability to build our own websites with a degree of
professionalism and functionality, templates aside. Without
these two aspects at least, anyone who does visit, will leave
shortly after. For the sake of the exercise, we have magically
received the knowledge and experience to achieve this… overnight!
Our website will need to be nurtured through a period of at
least 3 - 6 months of little or no activity (unless we also
happen to be, again miraculously, well versed, experienced, and
game enough to throw money at PPC engines). During this period
we will be setting up and making use of the advantages of RSS
feeds, blogs, content articles (both other’s and hopefully, some
of our own). We’ll be updating and changing things almost daily
in order to achieve some targeted traffic through the SEs, when
we’re finally out of the ‘sandboxes’ etc. While this is all
coming together, we’re spending a lot of time on a link exchange
program (not so much for PR, but because back links are an
important component in the SE results). This needs to be done
manually because the automatic programs do more harm to a
website’s SE chances than help (but that’s another article!).
Slowly, our website is gaining some targeted traffic, the only
kind of any use to an Affiliate website. We may even have
managed a few sales, provided we have, again miraculously
overnight, become confident and made good choices of Affiliate
programs and products around which we have built and nurtured
our website.
The traffic and occasional sale, although exciting to the
‘first-timer’ serve only to create more time consuming work.
These ‘hits’, as we call them, need to be analyzed. We need to
know where they came from, what particular promotional method
brought them to us, what part of the world they originated, the
referring URL if any and so on, so we can concentrate our
efforts in the right places and forego those which don’t seem to
be successful.
No serious Affiliate relies on a single product or program for
an income. We all know about the security and sense in ‘multiple
income streams’? Well, the concept is a very important aspect in
Affiliate marketing., so this ONE website we’ve just managed to
bring to a point where it MAY BEGIN paying for some of the time
effort and expense involved in it’s inception, really needs to
be one of a number for an Affiliate to hope to became
self-sufficient through Affiliate marketing.
Of course, luck plays it’s role in all things and some do make
good quickly and sometimes, one product or program WILL be
sufficient for the desired income. Maybe, with some, the whole
exercise is more a hobby or interest and a little pocket money
to pay costs is all that's wanted. These are all personal
aspects, which are of no consequence. We’re talking about people
who are being told how easy it is to become an Affiliate for
'income' purposes. Having now totally destroyed the Affiliate
dreams of thousands, I will now say that it IS a marvelous
Internet home business model and you can start and progress to
the point where you are making some income, without spending
very much at all. In fact, the only outlay that is absolutely
necessary, in my opinion, is the domain and hosting for your
website. In that respect, Affiliate marketing is TRULY the
'no-risk' home based business model.
Still again, there is much to know about the domain and hosting
aspect of the preparation, which will have consequences if not
considered correctly, before we even think about what I have
spoken about above.
Do yourself a favor if you’re relatively unfamiliar with
Affiliate marketing or even halfway there, get the right advice
from the right sources. The right sources are people who have
been, and/or are doing it themselves and aren’t afraid to
explain that it’s not all that EASY, but certainly possible for
those who really WANT the 'work at home' dream for themselves
and their families.
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