People often ask what they need to become successful as an Affiliate Marketer or Internet Entrepreneur. The short answer is the right resources, the right training and the right aptitude.
RESOURCES
Resources can be divided into the following main categories:
1. Human Resources (Personnel, Manpower, Temporary Labour, Freelance, etc)
2. Materials (Templates, Graphics, Media, Components, etc)
3. Machinery (Tools, Software, Hardware, etc)
4. Methods (Training, Procedures, Possesses, Work Ethics, Product Creation, etc)
5. Money (Cash on Hand, Available Funds, Financial Assets, Loans, etc)
6. Markets (Potential Suppliers and Customers, Market Trends and Demands, etc)
7. Information (Data, Books, External and Internal Information, Research, etc)
When evaluating a business opportunity, it is advisable to also evaluate it in terms of available resources to get a bigger picture of the business potential. The same applies to Affiliate Marketing (AM), Multi-level Marketing (MLM) or any other Online Business Opportunity.
An easy way to evaluate the comprehensiveness of an Affiliate Marketing training course is to determine what it provides or teach about all the resources required to effectively run an Affiliate Marketing Business. A simple e-book or course about Market Research, Clickbank Products, CPA, eBay, SEO, PPC, Keywords, Finding Profitable Markets, etc is probably just teaching the basic MARKETS concepts of an Affiliate Marketing business, but what about other resources like Outsourcing, Business Templates, Software, Best Practices, Product Creation, Managing Funds or Affiliates, Research Tools, etc.
Even the most comprehensive courses on a specific aspect of Affiliate Marketing is bound to leave gaps in a profitable business model, unless it covers enough ground with regard to all resources needed to be profitable in a certain area of Affiliate marketing. Unfortunately many newbie marketers do not know this and are lured into buying one product after the other just to realize that something else is missing in their business model, or else they are confused as to where it fits into an Affiliate Marketing business.
It is unlikely that every aspect and concept of Affiliate Marketing will ever be covered in one training course, as the field is just too big for a single organization to cover every method or idea, as new concepts surface daily. In order to achieve such a goal, every Affiliate Marketer will have to share all their secrets and tricks, which is highly unlikely as it is the fuel that keeps Affiliate or Internet Marketing in momentum. The general mistake that new Affiliate Marketers make is that they chase these concepts or new ideas without having the foundation or basic Business Model. Concepts, new ideas or opportunities should only be added to an Affiliate Marketing business after having the fundamentals in place. It is of no use baying windows, doors and taps for a house without having a plan and an end goal or objective.
TRAINING
In general, high-end Affiliate Marketing training products typically sell above $2000 while low-end products sell below $500. However price should never be used as an indicator of the quality of a product. Most of the training products partially reveal what Affiliate Marketing is about and a newbie can easily buy several products before gaining enough knowledge to get a clearer picture. Some of the more expensive training products is nothing more than a bundle of low-end products, and the ‘student’ is often left to figure out how to combine or integrate the various concepts in order to become profitable.
That is why many people become frustrated and gives up on the idea, as they don’t have clear objectives and don’t know where to start or where to fit the puzzle pieces. However this can be avoided by appropriate training, proper product investigations and informed decisions. People should ask themselves if they want chunks of information and guess which chunk will complete the picture for them, or do they want as much of the bigger picture as they can get right at the start. For newbie Affiliate Marketers it can be a daunting task and like hunting for a missing link. Then after their first successful sales, they need to discover their weakest business link to improve their successes, and often they do not know how to pinpoint problem areas.
One training product which stands out from the crowd is Commission Blueprint 2 as it covers many areas of Affiliate Marketing; it has a Members Forum and a responsive Help Desk. It is a high-end training product with many tools, information, integrated training, help from peers and the already successful product owners to assist ‘students’ to reach their goals, while it is selling at the price of a low-end product. Commission Blueprint 2 is widely appraised by Affiliate Marketers as the most comprehensive course for beginners to advanced Affiliate Marketers with many benefits; including a once off payment, no monthly fees despite ongoing support, no up-sales or one time offers, etc. This is evident in many online discussions by prospects and those who decided to take the plunge.
Despite having the right resources and training, it is still no guarantee for success if you do not have the right aptitude.
APTITUDE
It will be futile to study becoming a medical practitioner if you hate working with people, medicine or if you faint every time you see blood. No matter how financially rewarding such a career may be, it will be stupid to even try it. So what aptitude do you need to become a successful Affiliate Marketer?
Focus, Focus and Focus: As mentioned above, Affiliate Marketing is a massive field and it may take many months to master several concepts. In order to get started, focus is required and it is best to start in an area where you already have some skills, an area which is interesting and which is rather basic. If you don’t have the tools and skills to build a website, then start with a blog or direct linking strategies. If you like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), invest in the tools and knowledge and become a SEO freelancer or start a Search Engine Marketing Business. Only you can decide what is best for you. Once a specific area is selected, stay with it and do not dwell too much in other areas until your first business area become profitable. If it is not profitable within 3 months, shelve it and only then should you move on to the next. The most common error is that people start jumping from one business area to the next and they become overwhelmed by information and distractions, especially as result of new product offerings after subscribing to a mailing list when the first product is purchased. Stay informed about these new products but do not get distracted or pressurised to buy it, unless you are sure that it will add momentum to your existing business.
Measure and Manage Your Performance: Affiliate Marketing is a real business, and websites or business areas can even be sold, just like any other brick and mortar business. Any business that does not measure its performance is doomed to fail. Many new Affiliate Marketers do not know why their efforts don’t produce results. To measure is to know and guessing can be a very costly lesson (See the Strategic Business Cycle sketch). Therefore any start-up Affiliate Marketing training course should also teach you how to measure your performance using the course tactics; otherwise it amounts to a business gamble. The idea is to measure and track the inputs to your business or process and to determine what produce the best results. This is to facilitate business decisions. The right adjustments can only be made if the end results can be measured after adjusting the inputs.
Willpower, Start-up Capital and the Right Decisions: If you do not have the money or the willpower to succeed with something, then don’t invest in it and stop wasting whatever money you have on cheap things that don’t enable you to achieve your end goal (“Penny wise and a Pound foolish”). If you invest in the right training and tools, you can easily become a profitable Affiliate Marketer with much less than $2,500 and within one to six months (depending on your efforts); however if you invest unwisely and buy junk, it can cost you more than $50,000 and take more than a year, that is if you don’t quit before achieving your goals. Buying ‘doorknobs’ is not going to open doors; ensure that you get the fundamentals in place and only invest in new basic concepts (‘doorknobs’) after achieving success. Affiliate Marketing is definitely a very lucrative business that can be run from home or anywhere else and it can provide passive income, but to achieve anything worthwhile you also need perseverance and to be open-minded. If you believe you are going to fail or succeed, you will. Many kids are succeeding as Affiliate Marketers purely because they belief in themselves.
Education and Experience: Affiliate Marketing is a full time job for many people from al walks of life. Some started while at school while others have resigned from top paying jobs to pursue their dreams as Affiliate Marketers, but in most cases they only became successful after deciding to treat Affiliate Marketing as a real business and invested in appropriate training and resources. Surely you cannot expect to start a real business without investing some of your time and money (‘Time is Money’). The less knowledge and experience you have, the more time you are going to spend and chances are good that you are going to pay for a lack of knowledge and resources through errors, wasted time and efforts. It is therefore advisable to learn the basics by investing in an appropriate training course that teaches a variety of fundamental Affiliate Marketing concepts.
