Affiliate marketing

There are lots of ways to make money on the Internet. None are trivial. None are free. All require some investment - money, work, time - and usually a combination of all three.

The good news is: So does every other money-making opportunity - and many Internet opportunities are cheaper and easier. Just not free - and not trivial.

I agree with many of the gurus: The simplest and lowest-cost way to get started is as an affiliate marketer.

What's that? You become an affiliate for someone who has a product to sell. Essentially, you are a commissioned salesperson.

People who have affiliate programs pay you 30% and up if someone you direct to them buys their product.

Good things about being an affiliate:

* You don't have to produce a product
* You don't have to deliver a product
* You don't have have a merchant account, or collect payments
* You can be an affiliate, usually at no cost, for a number of products
* If you are selective, you don't have to produce your own ad copy, banners, etc.

The challenges:

* You have to find people who might buy the product or service
* You have to get their attention ("pre-sell," as Ken Evoy calls it)
* This takes work.

Now, you can embark on this career with zero cash outlay. There's tons of free information out there - for example, go to http://www.joelsarticles.com and do a search for "affiliate." You'll get back many free articles.

But if you go that route, you will spend weeks - maybe months - floundering around, trying to figure out "which end is up."

If you are serious about checking out this possibility, I recommend James Martell's "Affiliate Marketers Handbook." (Go to http://joelsarticles.com/recommends/Martell to check it out.) It is much more than a book; it is a complete course, that tells you all you need to get started in affiliate marketing.

The price is not cheap; if you are completely broke, or looking for freebies, don't even go to the website (http://joelsarticles.com/recommends/Martell).

But if you compare the cost of this complete course, which spells out in detail the 8 steps you must take to succeed with affiliate programs on the net, to ANY OTHER course or business startup, you will find it is incredibly inexpensive.

Of course, James offers a 100%-money-back 60-day guarantee, and a ton of useful bonuses, so there is really no risk at all to check it out.

This is a start-from-nothing guide; you need not know anything at all about computers, marketing, or affiliates. James tells you everything, step by step.

Once again: This is not free. Don't bother going to http://joelsarticles.com/recommends/Martell unless you are serious about checking out becoming an affiliate marketer.

I'd appreciate your letting me know what you learn, if you decide to check this out. I believe it's a great opportunity and an excellent value. If I'm wrong, I'd like to know. Please write me at joel.orr@gmail.com.

Fatburger closed

I think it's a California chain, obviously named before fat-aversion became a major meme in the public consciousness. But when N'omi and I saw the sign, we knew we'd love it - "fat" and "burger," two of our favorite foods - what's not to like?

And we did. The store was spartan, the burgers made to order, and we quickly got to know the staff. We were frequent visitors.

But we noticed that the place was never full, and we were concerned that the store wasn't doing what was necessary to pull traffic.

Sure enough, less than a year after opening, they closed their doors.

Now, I can't do a full business-case analysis for you; I didn't interview the owners or the managers, and I don't know if there were corporate issues at play. But I can tell you this: We saw it coming.

And frankly, we are not great noticers of such stuff. But a very obvious need of a restaurant is a steady stream of customers. My guess is that they closed because they didn't have that.

That's true of your website, too. You need traffic! As Ken Evoy of SiteBuildIt points out in his simple formula, C-->T-->P-->M - in English, Content creates Traffic; Traffic gives you an audience for Preselling; Preselling leads to Monetization.

Most newcomers to Internet marketing try to build traffic without much thought for content. Then, when they have traffic, they sell, sell, sell.

That approach works - but it is generally expensive (you have to buy traffic in one way or another), and it is hard to sustain (you have not made your customers know you, like you, trust you; you've gone after sales, not customers.)

Personally, I think Ken's approach is more respectful. It doesn't rely on continuous hyperbole, on always manipulating people into buying.

When I say, "Ken's approach," I'm referring to the SiteBuildIt service - a comprehensive package that takes you from nothing to a full-fledged business, slowly but solidly. Visit this link to learn more about it. It costs $300/year - but you will not find a cheaper education in Internet marketing, nor a better one.

But whether or not you decide to try SiteBuildIt, the formula still makes perfect sense. And if you try to shortcut it, you will only get frustrated.

Love to hear your thoughts about this.

We need to keep learning!

I've come to the conclusion that there are about 25 basic Internet marketing lessons. (That's just a guess; I'll make a list for a future post, and see how close I got...:-)) But I have found I need to hear them (as in some "free underground recordings"), read them, and practice them, before I can say I KNOW them.

And many people ignore the fundamentals. Things like the basics of SEO (search-engine optimization). For example, when I see a website whose home page title (the line that appears at the top of my browser) is "Home Page," rather than a keyword associated with the site, I know that the webmaster is ignorant of important principles.

Or when I get a marketing email that's full of language like, "Many of you...," it's a turnoff. The marketer took the trouble to get my first name into the letter - but now they are addressing some crowd, not me sitting here reading my email all by myself.

So I read a lot, and listen to a lot (there's a lot of free internet marketing audio out there), because even if I've heard the lessons before, I need the repetition. And often, I learn something new, or get a new angle on things.

I was talking to an old friend this morning for the first time in a long time. I happened to mention that another friend was using a limited partnership to fund the construction of a very-high-end spec house (~$5 million costs, for a ~$15 million sale). He said, "Great idea! I'm going to borrow it for a project I've been thinking of!"

Bottom line: If you want to succeed in Internet-based business, you have to love learning!

Here's some great teaching you can learn from: Jeremy Gislason, whom I like, and Simon Hodgkinson, whom I don't have any experience of, have given me permission to send out a link to their free 3 hours of audio: http://tinyurl.com/mrd86

The messages include:

• 1: How to become a successful affiliate marketer and how to run your own successful affiliate program!
• 2: Entrepreneurial Mindset and Self Development Sessions
• 3: How to Create & Promote Best Selling Products Online!

These talks are packed with useful information, and they are free.

Of course, they will have an upsell for you - they are marketers, after all :-) - but you are under no obligation to buy anything. And they will also invite you to share the free audios with others.

This is a great example of real value you can find for free on the Web - and a great way to build a relationship with people who will come back for more, remember you fondly, and eventually buy something from you. More than once.

By the way, if you are looking for specific information about any aspect of Internet marketing, please write to me at joel.orr@gmail.com, and I will do my best to find answers for you - and post them for the benefit of all my subscribers.