Let's say we've just signed up as an affiliate for a popular product. Now what?

How you approach this is going to depend on where you are coming from.

1) You might have an existing website and you've just discovered affiliate marketing and would like to implement this on your website. You already have your market and traffic. Maybe… Unless you're just starting out. Then you need to find traffic…

2) You may have a site or several different websites and you want to start fresh and build a new website just for affiliate marketing…

3) You want to do affiliate marketing, but you don't want to build a site… YES, that can be done!

4) You're just starting out and you want to do affiliate marketing and build a website or landing pages to promote the programs… OR you want to build 10 or more websites.

Those are just 4 scenarios… One thing you have to be careful with online is that many people will try to sell you on ONE way of doing things. They will convince you to drop everything and go in their direction.

STOP, you don't need to do what the herd is doing!

Everyone is unique and has a different set up and background… you can build from where you are. It's not what you got or want that will make you a success, it's taking massive action! So take what you have and go from there… you don't have to start over; you don't necessarily change directions… just add another dimension.

Unless of course you realize that you are in a hopeless situation… then just follow your gut. If you think the time and money would be better spent in another direction, then end it…

Again, this is all dependent on YOUR situation. This is not a one size fits all internet. And therefore every "guru" can only give you a plan on what has worked for HIM. It's bad advice to do exactly the same if that's not a market you like or are knowledgeable in!

THE BEST PLACE to be in is where your passion is… working in markets that you are passionate about will give your campaigns and efforts more energy… and you will most likely find it easier and have better results!
OF COURSE learn and emulate what the successful people are doing, but don't get consumed with the "you gotta do this" hype… once you've decided what to do, focus.

The traffic that you get to your pages with affiliate programs need to be as targeted as possible to your content and your content should match your affiliate programs or vice versa.

So you should NOT have people looking for televisions coming to your computer store…

How successful you are really depends on the market you are in and how you are doing compared to your competition. If you have a competitive market like mortgages or school loans (OR Internet marketing for that matter!!), then you need to buckle down because it will be a battle and you are probably going to have to spend a lot of money to make money…

ON THE OTHER HAND… the best thing to do is to start from scratch and research markets to find niches that you can tap into. A niche is simply a market that is maybe unique or on the outer fringe… You can often break down a large market into smaller markets fairly easily.

These niche markets will probably get less traffic, but you will also have less competition.

This is where keyword research comes in. An excellent tool to research with and one I highly recommend is NicheBot…

When we're talking about niches, normally the best niches are those that have little competition in Search Engines or in Pay Per Click Advertising… People search using keywords and keyword phrases. Find the right keywords that people are searching for and you will find a lot of traffic hitting your website… For search engines, that is FREE traffic!

So you use the tool above to find those niches. You plug in a keyword and it will bring up all kinds of results for people that have searched for that word or words in the last month AND it will also give you results for related or similar words and phrases AND it will show you how much competition there is!… cool stuff; check it out…

One last thing before I go… YOU can do well without a website. Many people are still doing this… there were recent changes to a policy at Google that put a damper on things a bit, but it's still alive and well… it's called Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC) and allows you to drive people to a landing page or sometimes (in niches where you don't want to build a list) to a merchant straight away.

Well, I gotta go… I am currently working on several products for the German market. Yes, I finally got started doing things in german - most importantly building a list. It's something I've been preaching for a long time…

People everywhere around the world are looking for a way to generate an income from home - so if your first language is not english, why not create an info product in your native language?

Stay tuned for some more great info to come! And remember… "Action is key!"

If you want to know more about getting focused, taking the right actions and simply getting the key concepts of Internet marketing right, then get a copy of my Revenue Blueprint. It will help you to take the RIGHT actions so you'll not waste months of your time…!!

Tags: adsense, affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliate program, affiliate programs, free traffic, internet marketing, search engines, traffic, websites

Do you even HAVE a strategy for your business?

From my observations, I see a lot of people online that are moving forward without much of a strategy. Or they are stuck using other peoples strategies and don't develop their own based on their needs and abilities.

It is very important to understand that those that are teaching you things online, are doing what they know or have been successful with themselves. It is not necessarily the path for YOU or the only path you should take…

You need to know what YOU want:

• What market do you want to be in?
• What business do you want to be in (e.g. selling physical products, info products or just publishing content)?
• Where will your income come from (what's your frontend/upsell/backend/recurring product)?
• Who will be your target customers and where do they hang out?
• Which methods will you be using to build your list (you ARE building your list, right…?)?

Key strategy: Diversify your traffic sources I use a combination of strategies but the most important one is to focus on list building - this way, you'll never get stuck for traffic… and I strongly use the old saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

I just saw a guy the other day freaking out because Google was wiping out his business… He fell by around 400 visitors to his website per day which crushed his income.

Why? Because he had all his eggs in the Google basket! Google is the type of animal that can make changes that don't make sense, have no ryme or reason, and simply just happen. You may think you have control, but you don't.

That's why you must diversify. Have a strategy that takes into account these type of things… Don't do just one thing… Let me rephrase that… You can do one thing, but make sure that you are covered within that one thing.

For instance if you depend on Google Adwords for 100% of your income, that's fine. Just make sure that you are not doing just one thing within that. Make sure you are not in one market or are driving traffic one way.

Things are changing rapidly

Things are in a continuous state of change online. You must brace yourself for that change. Make sure you have a strategy and you aren't just mesmerized by some opportunity and you lose sight of the big picture.

This is a business not just a way to make some quick cash… it can be, but generally I think most of us want to have long term results and not live on the edge…

So have some sort of strategy in place for your business that insulates you from the environment. You should have a short term, medium and long term strategy and goals. Where do you see yourself in 1 month, 6 months, 5 years?

How are you going to get there - what are your personal/business goals?

There are things I do to make money now, but there are also things that I am building now that will blossom in the future or offer long term stability.

Just sit down for a few minutes and write down some of your goals and what you want out of this business. After you know what you want and have taken into consideration the environment, map out how your are going to get there… every single detail.

If you do this, you will not only find financial stability over the long term, but you will find peace of mind.

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Let me know what you think by making a comment on this post.

Tags: adsense, adwords, google adwords, traffic