There are many more affiliate marketers jumping into the affiliate marketing scene each and everyday.

Some pick up this opportunity thinking that it’s an easy way of making money online, while many know that it’s an open market where lots of “big dogs” roam. A rather free-for-all competition I would say.

Many are earning good money while most of the others barely have a taste of the pie. Promoting products time after time just to see no sales end of the month. How awful and lousy that feeling can be..

Frankly, I do understand what the feeling is.. I’ve been there, and done that..

Like what I said in my title of this post “Affiliate Marketing can be a waste of time” unless you know what to do and doing it well.

Why is that so?

Most of the affiliate marketers barely learn enough of the basic fundamentals before they dived into it and try to promote madly.

Promotion Ads posted all over their blogs/websites regardless of irrelevancy, money spent and wasted on ppc advertising without proper testing and not driving the targeted traffic.

Things that most affiliate marketers barely do

1. Concentrate on a specific niche market-Don’t go around promoting different types of products to your customers unless you wanna piss them off.
2. Building up rapport-Most people buy from people they trust. Nobody will want to buy what you recommend if they can’t trust you enough.
3. Presell and not Oversell-Think as a customer, sell them the real benefits but not dishonest claims.
4. Test and track your conversions-Will you spend $2 per click for an ad or $0.20 per click? In order to stay in the game, you have to play the game well.
5. Adventurous is a killer-Don’t ever waste time and find undiscovered niches which are not proven to bring you conversions. They are hidden for a good reason.
6. Research with survey-You will never know what your list of customers want or need if you don’t ask.

So do you think affiliate marketing can be a waste of time? Only time will tell..

Big players play their game well..

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]]> http://www.erwintan.com/affiliate-marketing-can-be-a-waste-of-time/feed/ http://www.erwintan.com/make-money-out-of-nothing/ http://www.erwintan.com/make-money-out-of-nothing/#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:10:45 +0000 Erwin Tan http://www.erwin-tan.com/2007/07/20/make-money-out-of-nothing/ Do you think it’s possible to make money out of nothing?

Well.. You never know unless you tried it yourself. Forget about those success stories telling you how many thousands of dollars they have made.

Did they really tell you how much they’ve been through to start earning from nothing?

The easiest way to earn money from nothing online is through Affiliate Marketing

When the affiliate marketing being offered to you, it seem to be too good to be true, it is probably is.
This is not anymore new. You probably have heard or read the same advice over and over again. The growing numbers of affiliate programs, online or offline are all claiming to be the best from all the rest.

Besides that, they will give you an initial impression that you do not have to do more than just place a banner or two to start earning more profits than you could ever imagine. This is not always the case. This may apply to some who have already built up a successful site and a name for themselves. But for most, affiliate marketing needs a little work and time.

Email can be an effective affiliate marketing instrument. If done correctly, that is.

Promotion by means of email is very rampant. But with it comes spam. If you want to use email for your affiliate marketing, you have to be sure that you stand by what you are offering and that you make yourself available anytime for any questions or queries.

It is said that adding article to you r email advertising works really well. Putting up a summary about your product or service that can instantly pique up the attention of your readers works all the time.
This summary should contain a link to an article located on your site. By this, you get to promote your business. You also give your visitors a chance to check out other parts of your site.

The advantage to the advertiser is that they get highly targeted clients to visit their site. These people may even become future customers if ever they find the offers interesting and helpful.

Try to differ from the usual. Be unique.

The many existing affiliate marketing made people already blind to the sales and marketing pitch being presented. You cannot blame them. Imagine yourself being bombarded by these things everyday and you will feel the same.

Squeeze out your creative juices and give them something original enough to stop them from leaving and make them stay to read on. You can try and find a hosting company that can do the job well. Having a great one will make you more than comfortable to offer anything from small to big time deals.
Patience is a virtue in affiliate marketing.

Contact a certain company to negotiate an arrangement if you feel that you are confident enough to generate an amazing number of sales for them. If they seem not interested in what you are offering, do not give up yet. Be patient.

Take into account that these companies are bring approached everyday by affiliates only gives out promises. Most of them cannot deliver what they are saying; thus making company owners wary of which ones to choose.

You can always go the extra mile and implement other techniques in order to get more sales. Once you have done this, approach them again for your services. Chances are, they will be more than willing to get into your affiliate program this time around.

Keep in mind that most types of advertising do not give out results instantly. Putting up a banner for your affiliate marketing campaign and getting it off after a few days should not be done. You may think that they are not being effective or that they are not working. It takes time.

Some of the affiliate marketing strategies that have worked successfully for you may not work the same way on other campaigns. It is worth the try but do not expect for things to turn out exactly.

If you are having continuous problems with your affiliate program, get in touch with the company. If they are committed to their business, they will help you in every way possible on which ones work best. They probably have thousands of affiliates willing to teach you what works best.

Affiliate marketing can be exciting and depressing at the same time. The ups and downs you will encounter is never boring; it will always be a challenge

It all boils down to affiliate marketing being the survival of the best of the best, the smartest and the most patient.

So if you think you have what it takes, just go ahead and just do it!