9 Step Affiliate Marketing Checklist

9 Step Affiliate Marketing Checklist 

If you were in a really well paid job and had all the time in the world to spend with your family would you really be looking for an internet marketing opportunity?

Heck no!! Right ?

But the economy is such that finances are tight, job security is rocky at best and the future is very unclear.
(unlike Orange, the future is NOT bright)

So you, like many others, are looking to the internet because you have heard of the 'laptop Lifestyle'.

But let me guess.. you have spent a ton of time and money trying to make this 'thing' work and may have bought into a get rich quick scheme here and there along the way, and have got Jack sh!£ to show for it.
How much grief would you have had if your other half really knew how much money you had wasted?

(don't feel bad as we all have a few of these T-shirts in our clothing collections. The time to panic would be when these items are filling up your wardrobe. For the fashion victims who think you need to get a matching bag and shoes to go with the 'I got screwed out of my money' T-shirt let me say STOP!!)

You have probably heard that being an affiliate marketer is the quickest and easiest way to make money. Only problem is that to the masses who have lived life as employee's this sounds like a foreign language. It's probably on par with the kind of response you would get if you asked a super model what their favorite book was. The scene would be like those old fashioned westerns where you see the tumble weed going across the set. 

Having gone through this period of thinking what the F... heck is going on and how do I do this I thought it would be wise to compile A 9 Step Affiliate Marketing Checklist, because even though I have a degree and am no super model I don't class myself as the sharpest tool in the tool box. So even though this checklist was designed to help me I know it can, and will, help every other newbie to internet marketing. 

"Affiliate"?

 Imagine a car sales person (without the slime and cheesy sales pitch) for Audi. The sales person simply promotes and sells the product. They have nothing to do with the manufacturing, parts, service, delivery, costs of that car they are selling. BUT if they sell they make a commission. Same thing with being an affiliate. You promote someone else's product and if you sell it you make a commission. So, being an affiliate is simply a fancy Internet way of saying that you are going to be a commissioned salesperson.

"Marketing" 

Is when you get people to notice what you have. You can have the best product in the world but if no one knows about it what use is it really? That's why marketers get paid an obscene amount of money to market products. Look all around you my friend and you will see you are being marketed to from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep. Affiliate marketing / internet marketing is no different, it just leverages the internet to reach a global audience 24/7.

"Checklist"

A list of Do's and Dont's that can save you from wasting a tons of time and money ... and stop you from getting divorced for not having a penny to show for the hours and money spent being locked away. Here is my checklist for choosing affiliate programs. I hope it works for you too.

9 Step Affiliate Marketing Checklist

1. Think of what interests you over how much money you want to make.

 If your passion is to do with cute furry little sweet kittens, you probably won't do too well with Mixed martial arts, UFC full contact fighting. Start your Affiliate Marketing journey with something you know something about, and once you learn how to promote on the Internet, move on to different products.

2. Do your homework on the product you want to promote.

The main question to ask yourself is this - Is the product you are affiliating yourself with, wanting to promote, something you would bring home to your mum? If not then don't promote it. Don't think about the short term gain, always have a long term view in mind. Look after your prospects now and they will return the favor and look after you, by buying from you again and again. 

3. Don't see failure as failure. 

If you don't make money with your first product, don't give up. Many people on the net are making excellent incomes with affiliate programs. You can too. Just look at the experience as you being one step closer to your goal because you now know a way that doesn't work.

4. Quality over Quantity. 

If you promote a big pile of monkey crap, because they pay high commissions ask your self "what is 0% sales of a product that will pay out $100?" Not only do you make a big fat $0 you also shoot your reputation to pieces. People will see you as the provider of monkey crap, and the last time I checked there wasn't a real demand for that in western society.

5. Does the product actually sell? 

You need to ask how well the product or service you will be promoting 'converts'. Conversion is simply the number of people per 100 who buy something (and hopefully from you). Look for sites that convert more than 2% of visitors every day, not just when a promotion is taking place. If you can find a site that converts over 5% every day then strongly consider promoting them. You can expect this number to range from .5% to about 10%. Anything higher or lower and you need to be careful about them telling you the truth. Also, be aware that 'hot' products convert well while they are hot but conversion drops with time. So be sure to get current conversion figures.

6. Can you make more than 1 sale from 1 customer?

 Do you get paid when someone you refer buys a second product?  People often buy two, three or more products from one site. You should earn commissions for every product they buy. So ask the vendor, the person who's products you are wanting to promote, the question. 

7. Can you earn a renewal commissions? 

If you send someone to a site where they pay a monthly or quarterly fee, do you get paid every time or just once? You should get paid every time.

8. What help you get in promoting people's products? 

Most people don't know, or have the time, to write ads and create banners or graphics. You should expect the program you join to provide these tools as well as some training on how to sell their products.

9. What is the tracking duration? 

 Most affiliate programs track using 'cookies' (and I don't mean the chocolate chip variety) that are set on the visitor's machine. They track who has sent them to the offer.You need to know how long this cookie lasts and if it can be overwritten.  A simple fact of life in sales is that people don't buy the first time, so don't take it personally. If the cookie life is say 10 days and someone you refer buys a 30 days down the road you lose your commission. And you don't need to be a genius to realise that is BAD. It's the same if the cookie can be overwritten. If it can, then someone who first learned about product X from you, but clicks another link to buy, will not earn you the commission you deserve. Again V V V Bad. If you promote Clickbank products you know that the cookie life is 60 days and that Clickbank does reward the last affiliate to promote, not the first. So know that going in and you will be fine.

In conclusion above are 9 tips of my 9 step affiliate marketing chechlist that I have complied with learning and being caught out in this wonderful world of affiliate marketing, so hopefully this checklist can save you a ton of time and money as you follow this 'yellow brick road'.

So good luck to you and remember you may come across the wicked witch of the west along the way, AKA failure and disappointment, but don't let that stop you from getting to the Emerald city 'Dorothy'.