Post: #1

Hey is anyone actually living a location independent lifestyle here who makes money online with affiliate marketing?

I am getting into this kind of business but really would like to connect with some one who knows this stuff and would be ready to help me out. I am already "advanced" in this. I know how to make websites. Know the basics of SEO. Am part of some Networks. Atm I am learning copy plus taking a course on tracking and optimization.

The problem is that I have got no one to talk to about this business. My friends aren't into this stuff. Plus a little help and a some guidance from someone experienced in this field would really help me out. So if you don't mind I'd appreciate to talk to one of you guys doing this stuff. Thanks.

Post: #2

I doubt you're going to get a line of guys eagerly PM'ing you to sign up to use their own valuable time to make your dreams come true. Your best chance to benefit from mentorship would be to identify one or more guys in this space and then offer to do the unpleasant, boring parts of their work free of charge. Do that for 100 hours and you'll probably learn a ton.

Post: #3

Well I am also willing to pay if someone has got a course or anything along those lines. My budget is small though.

Post: #4

You can check out Kyle's (ThisIsTrouble) pronichesite course, I think it's pretty cool. In addition to the actual content, he mentors you as well.

Here's the link to it: https://go.pronichesite.com/welcome

I'm on a similar path, and because I have other remote income, if I can just make 1k/month online, I'm pretty much golden.

Focusing right now on solidifying my offline businesses so they can run as smoothly as possible while I'm abroad, increasing my savings, learning about the online marketing ecosystem, launching sites, and creating products, all in preparation for moving abroad.

I could move abroad and stay indefinitely right now if I wanted, but I prefer to do so once I'm running a surplus of 1k or 2k a month while living abroad, so I can keep helping my mom and dad whenever I want.

Post: #5

Suits is spot on with this. A few years ago I got acquinted with a guy who was making his living only on affiliates. He is not a big shot just 5-6mil worth but still he knew a lot. He initially refused my job application and after some time I met him at a meetup. This time I offered my help with something I was better than him for free. After some time he started to give his secrets for free and show how his business was made. It was 90% good content(which he pays good amount of money for copywriting) and 10% black hat. He helped me a lot with my own affiliate.
Anyway my gameplan would be;
* Figure out who you want to emulate
* Offer your help for free and get into his process
* Emulate

Post: #6

There are quite a few threads on this , including this, which would be a good place to ask.

I think Suit's suggestion is good to offer to do free (or paid) work for someone to siphon out knowledge you can use yourself. But also as suggested it's going to be difficult to get that break. A company I was with many years ago had lots of people with web development degrees applying for unpaid internships, but we never accepted any of them as the cost of dealing with the unskilled products of universities would have been higher than any gains.

But I got a lot of my development knowledge in a similar way. The right "mentor" is key. I started at one job where there was zero chance of learning or progress beyond myself maybe lifting the doomed company out of the dirt. If I had stayed there, I could be in an average cubicle job. But I ended up working with a good intermediate level programmer who I learnt more from casually in 6 months than you would paying $70K for a degree. After that I was able to start seeing the method in to the madness of SEO and spotting opportunities.

I am an intermediate level affiliate. Right now I'm busy, but if you have any project ideas I will offer my thoughts on them. It would be a good idea to get a few opinions. With my line I was laughed at in my face and doubted to the hilt when I told people what I was going to do - one of whom owned an online business. So take any input as an opinion. Then, of course, there is the phenomena that most people will not want you to be successful, and if you're northern that will make it even worse.

There are a few avenues you can take, from building a high authority hub to pumping copious amounts of bilge out into the web sewers in the hope you can hit a milllion / year before Google shuts you down. If you're going down more dodgy avenues you will likely loose pretty much everything, or if you have found a nook you can quickly make lots of from a low-quality punt. There was a guy I knew who found one of these real easy gushers in the early 2000s. It pumped up to 350,000 EUR / month of pure profit for years, but within a matter of months it was gone. Few people are likely to hit that and the latest area it seems you could do such a thing is with Facebook spam, with the express permission of Miss Zuck. The company I was with at the time tried to replicate this guy's system, but by the time they did you were no longer able to run that game. So the risk is with getting schooled on black hat stuff is that by the time you've learnt it and poured $ and time into rolling out your warez, it may be shot.

I think the best way to get going out of the gates quickly is some type of content curation, where you enrich content and/or concisely produce information people need to make buying decisions. A good example of this is coinmarketcap.com, a site that gets about 15 million views per day (down from ~45M); and it's just enriched data from a APIs that has become the cornerstone of an new growing industry. Another similar vein is the sites that benchmark ICOs - they go about collecting data from multiple sources and mash it together into something that if not now will probably be worth 7 figures in the future.

A much more simple example is this site. It's just a US government database reproduced verbatim with a Google Map thrown in. Probably getting 20k hits per day, which would probably be enough for a comfortable life in EE.

Most of the underlying data is virtually worthless, but mash and throw it up online and it can be worth thousands or millions. In the case of CoinMarketCap and Geographic their underlying data freely available.

I am in this boat. Last year I found someone to try and sell my underlying data (which is generally not freely available) as I thought we might be able to make $100K/year. Didn't get a sale, though I hope the fruits of mashing it up will eventually net a good few mil.

But if you can:

* Produce a usable site
* Do basic server admin
* Know basic SEO
* Identify an opportunity

You don't need much mentoring. You just need to identify an opportunity, start work and not stop until you've either succeeded or realised it's not going to succeed.

Post: #7

What kind of affiliate marketing are you looking to do? Promoting CPA offers from various networks with paid traffic? Affiliate SEO niche websites? Amazon affiliate stuff? It's a huge and vast industry with many avenues. You can start a Youtube channel or Facebook page in a certain niche and gain a following / do FB ads to promote products / offers if your budget is low.

Post: #8

One thing I find about affiliate marketing is the best marketeres out there are the ones who figure out a method that fits their style and their skillset so the downside to buying a course or hiring a mentor is that your only being trained on one method, could be great for you however could also be great for the person utilizing that method but not great for you.

With affiliate marketing you have a couple different strategies, you can build really good sites and make amazon review stores or faux stores that forward people to amazon or ali, those have never worked for me.

Then you have content marketing ie videos showcasing products, reviews, using products, about an industry, etc, etc, etc.

Then you have email marketers.

Lastly you have people who have mastered PPC adverising and can spend $100 to make $300 in affiliate revenue, this has also never worked for me.

As far as mentos while there are some successful people out there who out of the goodness of their hearts help someoen, more often than not hte people your going to get are not that successful and are kind of blowhards wanting to play expert which is essentially wasting your time.

My suggestion find someone who's making like $500 a week, successful but not hugely successful. Tell them you'll pay them $100 for an hour to pick their brain. Talk to them, see what they're doing, etc and then do it on your own. Do this with a few people so you see a few different strategies and methods.

The best thing you can do however is just setup a blog or some social profiles or a website or a Youtube channel and start doing and see what gets traffic, see what gets clicks, if something doesn't work after a few weeks move on and try something else.

Post: #9

I like just learning on the fly. I started a site and have just learned the different parts as needed. I try to stop myself from going into the weeds and learning all kinds of useless shit that I don't need to. This probably isn't the quickest route but it works.

Once you get going the ideas start really start to flow. One example I have is when I threw up a bunch of content then realized I needed to make the purchase links more visible. I had an idea of where to put them but didn't know how to do it. I thought about paying someone to develop that for me but ended up learning enough coding to get some really cool price tables built that work awesome. The traffic through my site to amazon went up.

I could give you a bunch of examples of determining a problem or a need and then learning those skills to fix it. You can also A/B test different post formats to see which rank and perform better. A lot of this stuff I never would have learned if I wasn't just doing it as part of the site.

There are also plenty of good sites out there to emulate in your niche. A big part of it is deciding what kind of sites you want to build.

I'm no pro so this might not be the best advice ever but it has worked for me so far.

Post: #10

(04-17-2018 10:05 AM)General Mayhem Wrote:  I like just learning on the fly. I started a site and have just learned the different parts as needed. I try to stop myself from going into the weeds and learning all kinds of useless shit that I don't need to. This probably isn't the quickest route but it works.

Once you get going the ideas start really start to flow. One example I have is when I threw up a bunch of content then realized I needed to make the purchase links more visible. I had an idea of where to put them but didn't know how to do it. I thought about paying someone to develop that for me but ended up learning enough coding to get some really cool price tables built that work awesome. The traffic through my site to amazon went up.

I could give you a bunch of examples of determining a problem or a need and then learning those skills to fix it. You can also A/B test different post formats to see which rank and perform better. A lot of this stuff I never would have learned if I wasn't just doing it as part of the site.

There are also plenty of good sites out there to emulate in your niche. A big part of it is deciding what kind of sites you want to build.

I'm no pro so this might not be the best advice ever but it has worked for me so far.

In my experience the best way to drive affiliate sales is to teach someone something. For me it's oftentimes how to fix something. Say for example the volume knob falls off your guitar, you'll probably go to Youtube to see how to fix it. If you could make a Youtube video showing how to fix it, and you link to the part on Amazon or GuitarCenter with an affiliate link to buy the part. That has an incredibly high conversion rate as they now knwo how to fix their problem and where to get the part to fix it.

I see most new affiliate marketers try to setup these bullshit amazon product comparison sites. Maybe some guys do well but typically it just lists the specs of each product, I can see that on the side of the box or the companies site, I dont need to go to bestpetvacuums.com to see that, in my experience that is one of the worst ways to go about affiliate marketnig

Post: #11

(04-17-2018 11:57 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(04-17-2018 10:05 AM)General Mayhem Wrote:  I like just learning on the fly. I started a site and have just learned the different parts as needed. I try to stop myself from going into the weeds and learning all kinds of useless shit that I don't need to. This probably isn't the quickest route but it works.

Once you get going the ideas start really start to flow. One example I have is when I threw up a bunch of content then realized I needed to make the purchase links more visible. I had an idea of where to put them but didn't know how to do it. I thought about paying someone to develop that for me but ended up learning enough coding to get some really cool price tables built that work awesome. The traffic through my site to amazon went up.

I could give you a bunch of examples of determining a problem or a need and then learning those skills to fix it. You can also A/B test different post formats to see which rank and perform better. A lot of this stuff I never would have learned if I wasn't just doing it as part of the site.

There are also plenty of good sites out there to emulate in your niche. A big part of it is deciding what kind of sites you want to build.

I'm no pro so this might not be the best advice ever but it has worked for me so far.

In my experience the best way to drive affiliate sales is to teach someone something. For me it's oftentimes how to fix something. Say for example the volume knob falls off your guitar, you'll probably go to Youtube to see how to fix it. If you could make a Youtube video showing how to fix it, and you link to the part on Amazon or GuitarCenter with an affiliate link to buy the part. That has an incredibly high conversion rate as they now knwo how to fix their problem and where to get the part to fix it.

I see most new affiliate marketers try to setup these bullshit amazon product comparison sites. Maybe some guys do well but typically it just lists the specs of each product, I can see that on the side of the box or the companies site, I dont need to go to bestpetvacuums.com to see that, in my experience that is one of the worst ways to go about affiliate marketnig

That's a good point about teaching and informational content. I'll admit I started out doing mostly product based content. I just picked that as a place to start and went with it. I've turned my focus onto doing informational content recently and know I need to improve in that area still.

However, I do think it is different for each niche. The niche I am in is lacking in product information even from the actual company websites. What they list on the websites must not be enough info for people.

When I browse those forums or reddit communities I see a ton of product questions. People are always asking this vs that questions, or which of these 3 things will be best for this application.

It probably also helps if the niche is something people do for fun and you're not just appliance marketing.

Post: #12

This is turning into a pretty solid thread!

Post: #13

(04-14-2018 05:12 AM)Suits Wrote:  I doubt you're going to get a line of guys eagerly PM'ing you to sign up to use their own valuable time to make your dreams come true. Your best chance to benefit from mentorship would be to identify one or more guys in this space and then offer to do the unpleasant, boring parts of their work free of charge. Do that for 100 hours and you'll probably learn a ton.

This.

Spaniard mentioned me above (appreciated bro!).

But yeah, you won’t find people knocking down your door offering to mentor you for free. Just not how life works. Invest in yourself. It is well worth it to pay someone a few hundred bucks to pick their brain. If I had known this when I started I would have just saved $1,000, bought consultations with the right folks, and saved myself thousands of hours as a result. But make sure you go in with the right questions. Don’t expect them to map it out. Have enough questions to fill whatever time quota you purchase.

But, don’t take this the wrong way, you’ll need to leave this attitude at the door:

“I am getting into this kind of business but really would like to connect with some one who knows this stuff and would be ready to help me out. I am already "advanced" in this. I know how to make websites. Know the basics of SEO. Am part of some Networks. Atm I am learning copy plus taking a course on tracking and optimization.”

Post: #14

(04-18-2018 09:37 AM)This Is Trouble Wrote:  

(04-14-2018 05:12 AM)Suits Wrote:  I doubt you're going to get a line of guys eagerly PM'ing you to sign up to use their own valuable time to make your dreams come true. Your best chance to benefit from mentorship would be to identify one or more guys in this space and then offer to do the unpleasant, boring parts of their work free of charge. Do that for 100 hours and you'll probably learn a ton.

This.

Spaniard mentioned me above (appreciated bro!).

But yeah, you won’t find people knocking down your door offering to mentor you for free. Just not how life works. Invest in yourself. It is well worth it to pay someone a few hundred bucks to pick their brain. If I had known this when I started I would have just saved $1,000, bought consultations with the right folks, and saved myself thousands of hours as a result. But make sure you go in with the right questions. Don’t expect them to map it out. Have enough questions to fill whatever time quota you purchase.

But, don’t take this the wrong way, you’ll need to leave this attitude at the door:

“I am getting into this kind of business but really would like to connect with some one who knows this stuff and would be ready to help me out. I am already "advanced" in this. I know how to make websites. Know the basics of SEO. Am part of some Networks. Atm I am learning copy plus taking a course on tracking and optimization.”

I don't disagree there's value in information but there's 10 con artists out there offering advice who don't even make money doing what they teach so make sure you pick someone who actually does what they say.

The biggest Amazon course seller out there right now, or one of them, has been busted out as having only sold 3-4 shitty products and then has all types of excuses about how that's not his business it's a teenage neighbor etc, etc, etc so there's a lot more garbage out there than there is good info

Post: #15

(04-18-2018 11:39 AM)jamaicabound Wrote:  

(04-18-2018 09:37 AM)This Is Trouble Wrote:  

(04-14-2018 05:12 AM)Suits Wrote:  I doubt you're going to get a line of guys eagerly PM'ing you to sign up to use their own valuable time to make your dreams come true. Your best chance to benefit from mentorship would be to identify one or more guys in this space and then offer to do the unpleasant, boring parts of their work free of charge. Do that for 100 hours and you'll probably learn a ton.

This.

Spaniard mentioned me above (appreciated bro!).

But yeah, you won’t find people knocking down your door offering to mentor you for free. Just not how life works. Invest in yourself. It is well worth it to pay someone a few hundred bucks to pick their brain. If I had known this when I started I would have just saved $1,000, bought consultations with the right folks, and saved myself thousands of hours as a result. But make sure you go in with the right questions. Don’t expect them to map it out. Have enough questions to fill whatever time quota you purchase.

But, don’t take this the wrong way, you’ll need to leave this attitude at the door:

“I am getting into this kind of business but really would like to connect with some one who knows this stuff and would be ready to help me out. I am already "advanced" in this. I know how to make websites. Know the basics of SEO. Am part of some Networks. Atm I am learning copy plus taking a course on tracking and optimization.”

I don't disagree there's value in information but there's 10 con artists out there offering advice who don't even make money doing what they teach so make sure you pick someone who actually does what they say.

The biggest Amazon course seller out there right now, or one of them, has been busted out as having only sold 3-4 shitty products and then has all types of excuses about how that's not his business it's a teenage neighbor etc, etc, etc so there's a lot more garbage out there than there is good info

Oh, absolutely.

If you're gonna pick a "guru", you probably have to kiss a few frogs first.

You should 110% grill the hell out of them and question everything before committing to anything more than an hour.

Post: #16

(04-14-2018 05:12 AM)Suits Wrote:  I doubt you're going to get a line of guys eagerly PM'ing you to sign up to use their own valuable time to make your dreams come true. Your best chance to benefit from mentorship would be to identify one or more guys in this space and then offer to do the unpleasant, boring parts of their work free of charge. Do that for 100 hours and you'll probably learn a ton.

This is actually a really good idea.

Post: #17

So CPA is still good on making money? Ive been told its alot harder and no money anymore in CPA marketing.

Post: #18

(04-25-2018 02:58 AM)nazgul Wrote:  So CPA is still good on making money? Ive been told its alot harder and no money anymore in CPA marketing.

Most are going to fail with CPA stuff. There's a ton of money in it but you actually need to have a good strategy for driving traffic, you need to pick the right offers and target the right audience and its not going to be something that happens overnight. Its a longterm play.

Post: #19

Legit programs to pay for:

Authority Site model

Authority Hacker - https://www.authorityhacker.com/

They have a free podcast, which I highly recommend.

This is the content+seo+outreach model for those who can write and have patience. Rewards are stability and long term income, the possibility to sell your big authority site. Don't underestimate this. In the coming years, the big guys are going to go hard after "review type sites". TheWirecutter.com was an "Amazon affiliate site" bought by NY Times for $30 million dollars.

Skills needed:

- Good, preferably great writing skills

- Ability to research at least at a journalistic level, better yet, ability to read scientific papers, trade papers etc.

- Average to high level of technical competence, preferably with ability to do some coding in PHP and Javascript

- Highly organized, preferably good to great managerial skills to outsource and manage necessary for growth

- Average to Good marketing ability needed to convert traffic into sales

Paid Traffic model

Stack That Money - https://stmforum.com/

Paid traffic forum, mobile, facebook, ppv, pop-up/under, it's all there. This is for those of you who have a more aggressive mindset, spend money to make money, not too bothered by promoting less than stellar products. Can go from zero to hero in months. From loser to Dan Bilzerian in a few years. You can also just end up $10K in the hole with nothing to show. Very social community, have some great meetups and conferences around the world.

Skills needed:

- Good to Great creativity needed to come up with campaigns and ads

- Good to Great mathematical understanding, particularly good intuition in statistics

- High level of self control with money, doesn't go on "tilt" or gets emotional about money, views money as numbers and feedback

- Detached and Dark Triad personality, has a personal moral system, which allows for aggressive sales and marketing tactics

Finding a mentor

Most of you are not going to find a mentor. Yes, you can do that work for free stuff, but it has to be in person, not online. You learn from all the small stuff, to be able to ask someone a quick question, pick their brains. Consider getting an internship or part time job in a digital agency instead.