Jason Woods

Earlier this week I had a reader contact me who was looking for some advice. He had been in the affiliate game for the last 5 months and had several failures and was concerned that he had nothing to show for it. At this point he felt he was starting from square one and was really down on his luck. Here’s my response to him and all noobies getting started out in this business.

First thing I’d like to say is don’t get down and out because you feel like a failure. The most successful people in the world have failed a whole lot more than they have succeeded. Failure is part of success and you have to go through it before you can have success. You’re at a point where most people give up and that’s the difference between successful people and failures. They never quit. It’s like learning to ride a bike. You’re going to fall down at first but you keep getting up and try again until you finally do it. At first you will be shaky and after some time you finally are flying down the street with no hands.See my point? So keep your chin up and don’t be like everyone else and keep a positive attitude.

Second, you do have something to show for the past 5 months. It’s called experience and that puts you ahead of many who are just starting out. It took me 2 years before I started to make an income that was substantial. I launched many campaigns and failed many times. I spent thousands of dollars and I chalk it all up to education. Some people spend $50k on a college degree and it’s no different learning PPC. You don’t have to spend that much either but you do have to spend a considerable amount to just get the experience. That being said this is what I recommend.

Set aside a budget for yourself. This is going to be your education fund. All of this money is going to be used for either web hosting or PPC ad spend. I don’t want you running out buying tools or buying expensive PPC learning like PPC Classroom, PPC Coach or the many others out there. They all have value but that’s not what you need right now. Try and set aside as much as you can. I would start with about $2000 initially. If you don’t have that then save up or do whatever you need to get that upfront money.

Next, I want you to log into your favorite affiliate network and pick 5 offers from 5 different niches that interest you. I suggest looking at the big ones too because you’re going to have better chances of success in those niches because they are proven. After you have these go out and look at the various sites on all the search engines in these niches. Make notes of what they are and what they’re doing and what makes them unique. Then pick one niche that interests you most. It doesn’t have to be the biggest one or have the highest payout. Don’t let money be your driver here. Go with your gut.

Now when you’ve selected your niche I don’t want you running out and doing keyword research or designing a site. You are going to take 2 – 3 weeks to research. I want you to subscribe to every blog and forum in your niche. Make sure you read every day and participate, leave comments, ask questions, etc. After 3 weeks you are going to have a pretty good knowledge about your niche and what the main interest of your audience is. You’ll know what sites they like to visit and what those sites have to offer and what they lack.

Now with this understanding you will be prepared to come up with your business plan. You don’t have to be completely out of the box here but you want to either do something that your competitor does but do it better or differently. Then and only then are you ready to start building that site and researching keywords. I highly recommend you start running on Bing or Yahoo first. They are cheaper and a lot more lenient than Google. Keep your daily budget small like $25 or $50 a day. Then test the crap out of everything. Ads, landing pages, ad copy, offers, etc. You might be wondering what if I spend $100 and still have nothing? First off I suggested earlier to pick a big niche and I did for a reason. They are proven money makers so you will be bound to see some conversions. Second, $100 is hardly enough to test with. You need be prepared to go through $500 or $1000 before you throw in the towel. Even then you need to be sure you’ve done all that you could do to test the niche. Now if you haven’t had 1 conversion after about $200 you should stop and think things over a little before you continue.

There’s a lot in my reply to this noobie affiliate and I know it’s not complete, but it should be enough to get anyone on the right track. Once you do these things you’ll be better equipped to ask meaningful questions and seek out very specific advice that you need. Why? Because you’ve been working at it and gaining experience and not going off something you read. Experience is always the best teacher and that’s why I tell noobies to not spend money on tools and software. It takes a lot of work to be successful in this industry and any affiliate who’s been around a while will tell you it takes a lot of time and money to build a successful business.

Related posts:

1. Taking the Plunge
2. Wordpress Affiliate Style: Part 1
3. The Training Formerly Known as Black Ink 3
4. Can PPC Bully Revive My Dead Campaigns? – Part 3
5. Learn From Your Problems