Affiliate Marketing - The SMART Way

In the past year, my business has gone from “okay/average” to “holy crap… I need an accountant!”

I won’t get into figures and “lifestyle” comments, which are usually a little cheesy, but let’s just say that it’s taken some real adjusting and discipline to handle the amount of “influx” that’s been happening, and on a consistently increasing basis.

At 23, I earn a passive (and growing) six-figure income from affiliate marketing, and I do it while travelling the world with my wife.

I’m not being braggy or arrogant, though. I fully realize that shit can, and does hit the fan once in a while. Even the “top dogs” can face-plant every now and then.

And I’m not “above” starting over if need be - but what I can say, with confidence, is that even if that happens - what I’ve learned over the past 9 months will always empower me with the ability to create a truly amazing amount of passive profit from the internet marketplace - in any economic state, and regardless of “trends”. What a crazy thing…

I’m going to tell you what I’ve learned - what I’ve discovered.

And it ain’t rocket science, folks.

But most of you will be disappointed by what’s to follow.

You’re probably all hyped-up right now, thinking that I’m going to reveal some amazing new traffic source, secret money-making method or otherwise some crazy method.

Even though I do have a few tricks up my sleeve - some “confessions”, if you will - that’s not what’s made the REAL difference in my business - the tricks are just a means to the end. (They’re not even necessary for the long-run, whatsoever.)

So here it is - the six figure, life-changing discovery…

JUST SELL WHAT LOTS OF PEOPLE BUY

Now, that’s a popular saying. I think John Reese said something like that once. (What does he know, eh? )But instead of just wagging some intrinsic advice in front of your face and leaving you to your own devices to try and “interpret” it enough to translate the “theory” into action…

…let me break it down for you, step by step, word by word.

And in this case, it actually makes sense to start with the last word in the phrase.

1. BUY

You want one kind of visitor in this business - a buyer.

As nice as it might be to have a “high-traffic site” with some crazy traffic graphs in Google Analytics - at the end of the day, who really gives a flying crap unless they made you money?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not in this business for the charity. I donate my own money as appropriate - but my websites sure as hell better be profitable!

And so I target buyers.

People with credit card in hand, looking for the order form - NOT just “information”.

In terms of building affiliate sites, this means that I focus on product-related keywords and keyphrases. People searching for products do so to research and “make sure” about a purchase decision, in most cases. And some are literally searching for the order form.

A small percentage do so for other “non-buying” reasons, but the majority are either on the verge of buying and in need of a little “push” - or they’re simply looking for the place to insert their CC number because of previous research.

Why it’s not rocket science:

Just build a site that includes info-pages and/or reviews for the popular products in your target niche and make it VERY EASY for the visitor to get to the vendor’s site…

…through your aff. link, of course!

How hard is that???

2. LOTS OF PEOPLE

For the longest time, I truly believed that the only “chance” I had to make a good online income is if I could dominate some sort of un-tapped niche.

Finding a “gold mine” niche that had no competitors.

What a load of crap!

You can make more money on page 30 of Google’s results in a high-demand niche than you can by “dominating” some piddly little untapped micro-niche.

It’s true.

By selling or promoting what millions of people buy, that means that you’re casting your “fishing net” into a lake that’s absolutely TEEMING with fish!

Who cares if you’re only collecting a fraction of the fish that your competition does - there’s plenty to go around.

And if you target the “buyer profile” keywords, than the competition factor is far less of a barrier than you might think, anyway.

I have sites in ultra-competitive niches getting hundreds of visitors a day that are barely even visible in the SE’s - except for a multitude of long-tail & product keywords.

And man, do they pull it down!

So forget what you’ve heard about ‘niche domination’.

Instead, consider the reality of just how possible it is to simply ENTER a massive niche, harnessing the easy traffic due to the sheer demand that exists on the long-tail, the mid-tail, the “product-tail” the “misspelled, unique & crazy keywords”-tail and all the rest of it.

Go after the buyers in ultra-competitive, high-demand markets and just watch what happens when you start building backlinks

3. SELL

I see SO many sites and blogs that could make a KILLING if they would simply place their affiliate promotions more visibly.

But instead, they “hide” all their links at the bottom of their articles.

Or they just get lazy, and put up a banner somewhere - or otherwise “promote” from some dark corner of their site, as if they think that their visitors might get offended if they “over-promote”.

What a sad loss for them.

I jam my promos right in my visitor’s faces. Front and center.

The first thing they see when *ANY* of my site’s pages load is a damn good reason to go and buy something that, in most cases, is what they’re already looking for.

This way, I’ve seen even my “very low” traffic sites make several sales a week - a result of visitor targeting AND effective visitor funneling.

And the profits will explode as your traffic levels increase over time from organic listings.

But you can expect mediocre profits at best if you’re afraid of SELLING.

Try and prove me wrong on this one, and I can practically assure you that you’ll be pleasantly surprised in the process

4. JUST

You know, it used to take me MONTHS to roll out a simple 20-page site.

That’s because I would over-think, over-plan, over-strategize and “perfect” things to DEATH.

I’d have 52 autoresponders lined up, some crazy user-based viral marketing campaigns lined up, and God knows what else.

And in the end - those few alleged “masterpieces” ended up being my worst performers.

Ironically, one of my most profitable sites is absolutely the ugliest, most un-planned DISASTER ever. It sucks. I don’t even show it to other marketers, more out of embarrassment than “niche protection”.

But it’s a classic SEO-friendly, HTML site with targeted title tags, H1 tags and unique content, it sticks the offer right in the visitor’s faces, and it has more than 10,000 backlinks.

(It’s not in the marketing niche, by the way - none of these types of sites are)

So stop planning things to death.

And no, you don’t have to build a list in every niche, and you don’t have to orchestrate some master-plan to conquer your niche in 15 days with the world’s best marketing plan like your favorite Guru.

Screw it.

Just tap into the existing “buyer traffic” and make some easy commissions.

And then do it again and again.

Then - use those profits to start developing your own products, authority sites, etc. so that you can use this kind of “leech” strategy to fund the development of a business with a rock-solid foundation in a matter of a year or so.

All the while pulling down a full-time income, if you take it seriously enough.

And that’s all there is to it.

Like I said - it ain’t rocket science

————————————————–

I’d love to hear some of your experiences if you can relate to the simplicity and POWER of this “discovery”.

Many of you might remember the first part of Allen Says’ ebook (Private Posts vol. 1) where Allen talks about the ideal product types - and warns that many are selling the “wrong things”.

I can say with total confidence - that’s the difference between making a killing, or just scraping by.

If you’re struggling to get by - or if you’re making most of your money from the WSO forum or something similar on a temperamental basis (and be honest with yourself) - then seriously - you OWE it to yourself to try this.

Enter into an actual, high-demand niche with millions of buyers.

Anti-adware, acne removal, weight-loss pills, and so on are a few examples of HUNDREDS of other niches that fit the bill.

Set up a simple site that reviews each major product, with maybe a few articles, etc. Put your affiliate promos in the top-fold of the page, FRONT AND CENTER.

Optimize your pages for SEO, targeting the “buyer keywords”.

And then build as many backlinks as possible - Google “how to get backlinks” to find out more about that.

Work hard, and monitor your stats closely to see what happens when your site gets indexed and your rankings start to climb.

When the sales start to trickle in, reinvest all your profits to strengthen your rankings, increase backlinks, etc. until you’ve got some serious SE presence.

The traffic will be roaring in a few months - and so will the sales, if you’re in a niche full of buyers.

Then - do it again, and again, and again, and again…

It could change your life.

And it’s not rocket-science.

-Chris