The 7 Truths of Being An Affiliate
by: Niall Roche
In November 2002 I found myself bored and online one
night. I decided to have a look on the web for a way
of making some extra cash. I found something called
an E-book (no idea what that meant back then) called
"1000 Ways to Make Money". I devoured this
book. I found myself more and more excited from the
ideas I was reading. The final money making idea in
that book was "Start a website to promote this
book and make 40% commission for doing so". Great!
A business for me to start doing something I enjoy
- tinkering with websites. I was a happy man.
I bought myself a domain name and some hosting. I
took out all my old books on HTML and got to work.
"I can easily earn a couple of thousand in the
next 2 or 3 months doing this", I thought. "Setup
a website, link it to the authors website and make
money. Easy. The search engines will love my new website
and the sales will come rolling in. I can quit my
job!".
BOOM. 6 months or so later the dream was over. Day
dawned and my eyes opened up a bit. The only money
that had changed hands was money going from my pocket
into someone elses. SEO, PPC, Ebook, Guru, Ezine,
auction, advertise, link, reciprocal, monetize blah
blah blah. These terms swam around in my head day
and night. I stopped and realized it was time to re-evaluate
my new "business". I jotted down some of
the lessons I've learned. I hope you can benefit from
my hard earned experience.
Truth 1
There is no easy way to get rich. It takes work. A
lot of work but it is SO rewarding when you make your
first affiliate commissions.
Truth 2
There are no Gurus. Gurus are the guys who have made
their money and are now going to get even even richer
flogging us the next "quick fix". Somebody
calling themselves a guru is like me walking around
my hometown shouting "behold I am your Messiah".
Yes that would be utterly ridiculous. So is calling
yourself a guru.
Truth 3
There are no quick fixes. I would suggest that you
ignore anybody offering you a quick fix to making
money online - it's a scam whatever they're offering.
Truth 4
If it makes you uneasy then don't get involved with
it. If it looks like a dog, smells like a dog and
walks like a dog.... well...... it's a dog.
Truth 5
There are no quick and permanent fixes to good search
engine rankings. It takes work, good content and common
sense. With the right tools (some of these are free)
and information anybody can increase their search
engine rankings - believe me I'm living proof.
Truth 6
Don't believe the hype. If you read a sales letter
on a website remember that its job is to convince
you to buy the product. As my mother would say "Believe
half of what you hear and none of what you read".
Truth 7
Content is king. Interesting, involving content is
what keeps people coming back to your site. There
are gimmicks that can "generate" content
for you but they have a limited lifespan. If you can't
write content then hire someone who can.
Are you scared now? Yes? Good! At least now you might
realize the simple truth. Affiliate selling isn't
easy. It's a whole heap of fun when it's going well
and totally disheartening when it's not. Just like
a normal, real, honest-to-God business. That's the
hardest lesson to learn folks. Doing business online
is just like doing business offline - ye gotta work
at it.
If you want a good guide to starting your own affiliate
business then I suggest you check out the Super Affiliate
Handbook.
If you're serious about increasing your Search Engine
Rankings then check out Rankings Revealed.
And last but not least if you want solid information
on creating your own cotent then have a look at Turn
Your Words Into Traffic or Create Website Content
Fast.
About The Author
The author, Niall Roche, is owner of Affiliate-Advocate.com.
If you'd like to learn more any of the resources mentioned
in this article visit http://www.affiliate-advocate.com
for reviews of the above.
info@affiliate-advocate.com
