When mentoring publishers, I am often asked what is the biggest difference between when I started, and where I am at now. The answer, although seems quite simple, is actually what I believe is the key to success in this industry. I’ve been doing online marketing for quite some time (started in 2001) in all the different aspects of internet marketing and became really serious about search marketing specifically about 4 years ago. Below are some points based on my personal reflection between me now and then:

1.) Start campaigns with $1000 to spend, not $100! When I was starting off, I did the common mistake of depositing $100 into my Adwords account, and seeing where that got me. After I blew through the money in an hour, I would freak out and call my campaign a failure. This is HARDLY the case. There is a TON of trial and error in campaigns, especially when starting off. One ad group may get creamed and lose $80, while your other ad group may get a ton of leads for $20. The important thing to realize is that your statistics are worthless unless you have enough data to prove they do or do not work. 20 clicks and no conversions on an offer that pays $50 a lead does NOT mean it’s a failure. What happens if 2 clicks in a row convert? All the sudden your “failed” campaign is a huge success. It is important to make sure your keywords have atleast 70-100 clicks each before you make any decisions. In most cases, this will require more than $100 for your campaign to figure out. I’d say closer to $1000. Once I started depositing more money into my Adwords accounts, I started finding that MOST of my campaigns were actually having some sort of avenue to profitability. I found my converting keywords/ad variation combinations and scaled my traffic. This was only possible because I had put the proper amount of money into trial and error.

2.) If you’re not a designer, don’t create your own landing pages! There’s nothing wrong with admitting that a professional landing page designer is better at designing landing pages than you. Realize this, and accept it. A solid landing page increases your chances at success substantially. If you are truly serious about trying to succeed at online marketing, do it the right way. Spend the $100 and get your page done by someone who knows what they are doing. It could be the difference between your campaign hitting, or missing.

3.) Develop a healthy disregard for money. Don’t stress over a loss. Look at the situation similar to a college education. You are paying to learn. Be sure to reflect on every swing at a campaign, and develop a conclusion from your attempt. Document what you learn. The only way you really lose money, is if you don’t learn something new.

4.) Scale like CRAZY!!! If you find a particular keyword or niche that is working, SCALE! Do not hold anything back. Go after every single engine, every single language possible. Examine new traffic sources. You need to milk every cent of profit from you findings. You will find yourself in regret for not doing this when your niche dies down. Don’t leave a cent left on the table!

5.) Track your results thoroughly! This is the main reason why I made Bevo Media. I always found it a pain to track my results thoroughly, however it is of the utmost importance. I mean much more than tracking your keywords too. You should track your landing page and ad variations thoroughly. I built Bevo Media based on my needs as an affiliate marketer, and once I started tracking my results thoroughly with it, I found it much easier to draw conclusions about the aspects of my campaign that were successful, and optimized from there.

6.) DO NOT GIVE UP! A full time affiliate marketer, may as well be considered a full time ‘trial and error’ expert. 90% of the game is trial and error. Just keep trying different combination of keywords, landing pages, offers and ad variations. You are bound to hit eventually. Use your resources, such as your affiliate managers to let you know what niche is hot at the time. If you have a niche that is proven to be converting extremely well at the moment, then you know it’s working for somebody. It’s just the matter of figuring out the right combination within you campaign!

These are all points that have cost me both time and money to realize, and feel all newbies can get a jump start to success from my sharing. Do yourself a favor and take these points seriously. Don’t cut corners. Affiliate marketing is a dream job, but it’s still a job. Strive to be the best, but you need to earn it first. Lazy people do NOT succeed in life, no matter what the situation is. So work hard and celebrate after!

-RB

Remember how it was like back when you thought that making $100 or $200 per day online was next to impossible? Remember that “wow, making that much or more would motivate me to work and work… and work!” way of thinking which seemed logical at that point?

Well, as most of you will probably confirm, things definitely DON’T stand that way. We humans are an interesting bunch: you’d think that a person who has managed to reach a certain financial goal (let’s say making $200 per day online) would be willing to work like a maniac in order to continue earning $100 per day, $200 per day or whatever but that’s not how things stand. In fact:

Things Will End Up Seeming Boring… FAST!

Ok, you’ll feel all motivated and everything. Great, you’ll continue working like a maniac and making $200 per day for a week. Two weeks, maybe three. But after a certain point, things will definitely start seeming boring and making those 200 bucks per day will end up seeming like a chore. Here’s why:

****you start taking things for granted

****that initial excitement is no longer there

****the financial “shock factor” is behind you, $200 per day doesn’t seem all that impressive anymore

Reaching one goal or another is NOT enough, thinking that you’ll feel happy and just as motivated after reaching a goal and without setting higher ones is just plain wrong. If you don’t see the big picture, it’s just a matter of time until you’ll end up feeling burned out and the most important question arises:

What to Do?

First of all, you need to understand that you have to keep things fun and exciting. Always set higher short-term goals and always be guided by your long-term ones. It’s really not rocket science.

Being an affiliate marketer is tricky because on the one hand, it’s great that you have all of the freedom in the world but on the other hand, things will quickly get out of hand if you don’t organize your time accordingly. If being an affiliate marketer starts seeming like a job, you’re doing something wrong. Not a lot of people have the opportunities we take for granted, most of the people who are trapped by a 9 to 5 lifestyle can’t even understand how someone can make a lot of money yet still have as much freedom as we do.

If you’re an experienced Internet marketer and someone tries to sell you a certain product through a newsletter, you will probably not take that person/product seriously. But the average Internet user is NOT a marketer and that’s definitely something worth keeping in mind.

Most of the people who are selling ebooks, for example, are huge fans of long sales copy. Are all of them idiots? Do they like losing money over and over again? Think about it: the fact that sales letters have been used for a very long time says a lot and it should be obvious that they at least represent:

An Alternative Worth Keeping in Mind

There are lots of examples of extremely successful products which have been promoted exclusively via long sales copy. The world’s most popular copywriters charge tens of thousands of dollars for a lander and yes, there are always people who are willing to pay that much.

As experienced marketers, we might think that those sales letters we come across a lot are pathetic (most of them are) but maybe others don’t consider them pathetic at all. Maybe a lot of people are not willing to buy a certain product unless the landing page contains lots of details about it (something along the lines of “What? You want to convince me to buy your product but are only willing to write a few paragraphs about it?”) and that brings us to the most important questions we, as marketers, need to ask ourselves:

Should I Promote My Product Through a Sales Letter?

It really depends on your niche, on what makes your potential customers tick and at the end of the day, split testing is the only way to know for sure. After you come up with a series of concepts for your landing pages, throw some traffic at them and see what sticks. A lot of times, the results are surprising to say the least.

Just remember to always focus on quality, not quantity. If you have 30 crappy landing pages, all of the split testing in the world won’t help. Always choose copywriters and designers who know what they’re doing (you can definitely tell based on their portfolio or “street cred”) because otherwise, you’ll end up wasting valuable time. After all, is trying to save a buck really worth it if you’d be wasting time which is worth tens or hundreds of times more than what you’d end up saving?

Are you sick and tired of spending lots and lots of time tweaking that $50-$100 per day Facebook campaign of yours, knowing that scaling is almost impossible? Are you sick and tired of resubmitting ads again and again… and again? Maybe you’ve “outgrown” your campaign, if you will.

If you’re spending 10 hours each week working on a campaign which is only generating $350 – $700 bucks weekly even though there are more profitable projects which deserve your attention, something’s wrong. If another campaign of yours (let’s assume that it also requires an investment of 10 hours per week) is generating $3.5k – $7.5k weekly, doesn’t that tell you anything?

Yeah but Profit Is Profit… Right?

Wrong! Think about it this way: by keeping the $50-$100 per day campaign, you’re basically making $35 to $70 per hour and while that’s not bad if you’re struggling, it’s peanuts if you have the ability to run campaigns which make 10 times as much.

You’re only human and as a result, there’s only so much you can physically handle. A lot of people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk would give advice such as “keep all of your existing campaigns and, aside from that, work on new projects as well” but there’s just one small problem:

You’re Not a Robot!

If you’re not careful, it’s only a matter of time until you’ll burn yourself out and that’s just plain wrong. One of the best things about being an affiliate marketer is the fact that you are free to organize your schedule as you see fit. As a result:

**you can work on projects which are worth your time exclusively

**you have the freedom it takes to find the right balance between working and spending time doing the things you love (after all: all work and no play…)

**you’re able to take care of your health as well by not losing sleep as a result of being forced (by your job, for example) to wake up at 6 or 7 am each day (even if you only managed to get 4-5 hours of sleep): come on, what good will all of the money in the world do if you’re a wreck by the time you’re 40?

Seriously, you need to understand that time is your most important asset. You can make 10, 20 or 100 times more money next month but if you waste as little as a few minutes now, nobody’s going to give you that time back.

My buddies and I debate this subject all the time, and I figured I’d bring it out to see what everyone else had to say about it. Would you rather be in the NFL, or be a serious, high revenue affiliate marketer? Don’t laugh, this is a serious debate, and if you think about it, it makes sense.

I will start off by saying that I know 7 people who are currently in the NFL. A few starters, a few guys on the practice squads of their respective team. Many mixed reviews, but for the most part most say the same thing…. being in the NFL isn’t all it’s made out to be. Many face the day to day pressure of being cut, or deactivated from their respective teams, meaning their life goes from riches to rags within a day. It’s not all glamour and glory. Most people in the NFL are not super stars. Infact, the average NFL career is UNDER 2 years! The minimum salary of a person who makes a roster in the NFL is $330,000 a year. Being on the practice squad is a $4200 a week paycheck for 17 weeks. Do the math, everyone in the NFL isn’t nearly as wealthy as Tom Brady or Peyton Manning, but for some reason, the general public see’s players in the NFL as “rich”.

A big time affiliate marketer has the potential to make millions a year. Every single dollar earned by the affiliate, is because of their knowledge of marketing, that CANNOT be taken away at ANY time. I know several people, including myself, who are making a lucrative living, much higher than an average NFL player, doing far less work. I wake up at noon every single day, sit on the beach, drink a Corona, brainstorm, make some phone calls, and THEN go on my computer. There is no one in this entire world, short of God, who can take away my knowledge of affiliate marketing. Their is NO chance of injury, and NO chance of being ridiculed on national TV. Messing up in affiliate marketing is part of the game. If you mess up in the NFL, you may very well find yourself out of a job and humiliated on national TV.

Forbes.com has recently rated an “internet entrepeneur” as the #1 job in the WORLD. This rates above a rockstar and a professional athlete, and there is a reason for this! Being an affiliate marketer is a dream job that allows the best of the best to sit at home, work as they please, and offer the opportunity to make well over the average American salary. It’s the best job in the world, and the reason why I am so thankful for all the blessings that have come my way.

Think what you want, but the next time you start stressing at your favorite sports team…. realize that it’s just a game… and life goes on.

-RB

Affiliate marketing is just like every other industry: you’ll end up doing business with quite a few people, some will stab you in the back and others will prove to be important allies. But how do you treat allies? Let’s analyze two important relationships:

Your Relationship with Networks

You probably already have a network you enjoy doing business with. They always match the best payout a competitor can offer, your AM is extremely responsive and they even send a lot of gifts your way. Sounds like a great situation, right?

Well, here’s when things get complicated. What if another network has a long-standing offer with a certain advertiser and as a result, receives an incredibly high payout compared to everyone else. What if you want to run that offer and your network is unable to match the payout you’d be getting if you were to push the offer through a competitor?

Your Relationship with Business Partners?

Is there someone who has given you valid reason to trust him/her? Have you partnered up on more than one occasion? If so, both of you should definitely appreciate the business relationship but on the other hand, there will also be tricky situations.

What if both your friend and a deep pocketed investor are “competing” against each other in order to become partners and even more so, what if the deep pocketed investor is able to put considerably more money on the table? What then?

Where Do You Draw the Line?

Loyalty is loyalty, business decisions are business decisions and stabbing people in the back is stabbing people in the back. On the one hand, you should obviously not betray the trust of someone close to you or better yet, don’t betray the trust of others in general.

On the other hand, you need to understand that by making business decisions has nothing to do with not being loyal. If another network is capable of offering a significantly better payout, explain that business is business: that you do work with them whenever you can but in such situations, you just have to say no.

The same principle applies when it comes to business partners. If a certain investor (for example) makes an offer you can’t refuse, talk to your friend and politely explain that you’re doing exactly what you would want him/her to do if he/she was dealing with a similar situation: you’re not saying no to an amazing opportunity. Again, don’t make the confusion between loyalty and making bad business decisions because you think you have to. Don’t stab people in the back, treat others exactly the way you want to be treated or even better but don’t confuse loyalty with something it’s not.

Most people are skating on thin ice: on the one hand, they’re banking high 3-4 figs per day but on the other hand, everything can go downhill in a matter of days or even hours. Here are just a few examples:

-the offer itself is shady and you just never know when the advertiser decides to let greed takes over and starts “overlooking” leads or sales like there’s no tomorrow

-the network you’re dealing with is the only one (out of the networks which aren’t private, so out of the networks you have access to) running a certain offer and those folks may also decide to let greed take over at one point or another

-laws which make pushing a certain offer too much of a risk make their appearance: nobody wants to get sued, so it’s only a matter of time until networks and/or advertisers pull the plug

-the only traffic source you’ve managed to make work starts screwing around

Have you ever asked yourself a few “what if” questions? It sounds strange but the vast majority of affiliate marketers would have no idea what to do if they experience problems such as the previously mentioned ones.

What would you do next?

Would you leave everything else aside and spend a few days brainstorming?

How would you put food on the table? Would you rely on savings? How much money have you managed to set aside?

Would you start liquidating some of your assets? Domains? Precious metals?

If so, would you be taking a loss?

What percentage of the money you’ve set aside or the money you’ve secured after liquidating a few assets would you use in order to fund your new project(s)?

Would you just focus on one project or try all sorts of approaches and see what sticks?

Do you have enough time and/or money to fight on more than one front? Or would you be better of limiting yourself to just one project?

Asking yourself some of these questions would definitely not hurt. Being prepared is always something smart. You know what they say, expect the best but prepare for the worst. Maybe you’ll be able to milk your current project/campaign for years to come but what if that will not be the case? Always take as many possible scenarios into consideration as possible because being unprepared is never smart. Never ever. EVER!

Do you think that everything will be just peachy because you’re 100% legit? Well, it would be great if things were that simple but they just aren’t. If you have a direct relationship with the merchant then yes, only your actions and the quality of your traffic count.

On the other hand though, if you’re working with a network, things stand quite a bit differently. For every person who is 100% legit, there are lots of others who send awful traffic and guess what: you get paid less “thanks to them”!

Why?

Well, think about it for a moment. Your relationship with the network is important, right? Networks judge you and increase payouts based on how well your traffic converts, right? OK, then why would things be different when it comes to the relationship between networks and merchants?

Networks (just like you) are judged based on the quality traffic they send. Merchants are not exactly thrilled about losing money and as a result, they carefully monitor the quality of their traffic. And what do you think they’ll do if/when they figure out that a certain network is sending awful traffic their way? You’ve guessed it:

1) They’ll stop working with the network in question

2) They’ll start “overlooking” leads

3) They’ll lower the payout

What Should Networks Do?

Simple: networks should be paranoid! They should do their best in order to identify scammers before they manage to do some real damage. A lot of times, it’s extremely easy to identify a scammer: something as simple as a phone call can be enough. So before you start complaining about how strict one network or another is, think things through from their perspective and from the perspective of the publishers who are currently working with them.

If anything, networks need to become even more selective. It’s not all that hard to identify people who would not add value to a company. Seriously, it’s not. If you want to be a part of one of the top networks, you need to prove that you’ll be able to help them make money but NOT by sending fraudulent traffic their way. They can easily determine if working with you is smart or not by taking a look at one of the sites you own. Ok, maybe you don’t want that. No problem but in that case, you had better have someone who can vouch for you, preferably someone who does a lot of volume with the network in question. Remember: fraud affects YOU and sometimes, even being paranoid helps.

A lot of people think that pushing your own product is the best way to make serious cash. In theory, it all sounds great: you won’t have to worry about networks running away with the cash or otherwise acting shady, you won’t have to worry about merchants pulling a fast one and the list could go on and on.

But there’s more to being the merchant than meets the eye and, while it’s true that you’re eliminating a lot of problems, it’s just as true that those will quickly be replaced by others. Don’t just think that pushing your own product is a piece of cake because it isn’t. In fact, get ready to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.

Work Harder? Seriously?

As an affiliate marketer, you’ve probably built an image of the “average” merchant in your head: those cheap bastards who always want to screw you over. In some cases it’s true but that doesn’t mean that you should forget about the fact that it’s not all fun and games for them either.

Think about it: all you have to do is push traffic to and offer and get paid. In their case, things are a bit more complicated. They have to deal with customers, they have to answer calls and reply to emails, they have to ship the product, they have to manage their relationship with the networks and so on. Again: there’s more to being the merchant than meets the eye.

Is It Worth It?

Only the merchant has enough data to tell for sure. It all depends on your way of doing business. In most cases, the margins merchants have to work with are not as great as you think. Oh and one more thing: sure, you have to deal with a lot of shady networks and merchants but the merchants themselves have a lot of “obstacles” to overcome: leads which aren’t backing out, fraudulent traffic, networks which have never heard about the term “win-win” and so on.

Is being a merchant worth it? For most people, probably not! There’s a lot of work involved and since most affiliate marketers enjoy their lifestyle and wouldn’t be willing to say no to some/most of the things they currently have time for, they’re better off sticking with what they do best. Lots and lots of freedom: doesn’t sound all that bad, does it? Didn’t think so!

If you’re a person with an above average IQ, you probably have several amazing ideas each day. On the one hand, it’s a huge advantage but on the other hand, it’s also something that can work against you if you’re not careful.

No matter how successful or well organized you are, a day still won’t have more than 24 hours and your budget will probably never be limitless either. Yes, it’s true that you need to diversify but that doesn’t mean that you should go overboard. Spreading yourself too thin is just as bad as keeping all of your eggs in one basket.

In Case You Forgot: Focus, Focus, Focus

Most people get really excited about a project at the beginning but end up being distracted at one point or another. The brainstorming process is almost always a lot of fun but when you start implementing everything, things tend to get a bit boring. It’s like that for everyone and it’s perfectly understandable.

While it is understandable, that doesn’t mean that you have to start finding excuses. So you have great ideas? Well, what good will it do if they don’t materialize? Writing stuff on a board or on a piece of paper is great and everything but making money would be kinda-sorta nice too, wouldn’t it? If you always jump from one idea to another, you’ll end up with a lot of “concepts” but no money in the bank. So, what’s the solution?

You’ve Guessed It: Focus, Focus, Focus

Keep your eyes on the prize and be sure to set goals. Reaching a goal always gives you a nice little boost, probably more than enough in order to make it to the next one and so on. Don’t forget to reward yourself, keep it fun!

Ok, so focusing is important. But does this mean that you should let ideas with a lot of potential go to waste? Of course not, be ready to always write a great idea down. Be organized, you’ll thank yourself later on. Notepad is your friend, seriously! Why complicate things? Create a folder, call it “ideas” or something and whenever you think that you’ve discovered the best thing since sliced bread, open notepad or an editor of choice for a moment and let your imagination run wild. Then get back to work, rinse and repeat. That’s really all there is to it.