Bruce's Golden Goose Marketing Online

A lot of people are out there looking for the secret to being a successful affiliate.  They’ll spend thousands of dollars in hopes of finding it, and they read tons of courses and feel somehow unsatisfied every time.  Surely, there must be some piece of the puzzle that they’re missing…

They are missing a secret, but I’ll tell you what it is.  It’s persistence.  We all have obstacles and weaknesses and setbacks, but people who are persistent enough for long enough will find that eventually, they encounter something else – a stroke of luck.  For most of us, it takes a lot of hard work and failure to finally get to the “luck” we perceive others to have found in their marketing efforts.

Some of us have a hit with our first campaign.  Others take 20, 30, or even 50 before we “get lucky” and start to make some money.  The one thing I know for certain, though, is that nearly anyone can make money online if they are truly persistent.  Maybe it will be with article marketing, maybe it will be social media, and maybe it will be PPC – but you won’t know until you start somewhere and give it a serious, honest try before moving on to the next thing.  Too many people drift aimlessly between methods and then give up way too soon.

If you’re still struggling, this is my recommendation – pick ONE course (lots of good recommendations below) and stick with it.  Give it a minimum of 90 days of real effort.  You might even want to give it 6 months if you’re doing SEO, since it takes longer to build momentum there.  While you’re doing that, ignore the blogs, ignore the forums, and just use Google if you have a vital question.  If you don’t get results in that time, it’s probably safe to assume that the method isn’t going to be the best one for you.  Then – and only then – move on to something different.

Great Internet Marketing Courses to Get You Started:

• Super Cash System
• Make Real Money on the Internet
• Copy & Paste Underground
• The WordPress Classroom

If you spend much time talking to other affiliates, you’re probably well aware of the changes with Facebook’s advertising system.  In essence, they have released a new set of advertising standards that all but eliminates affiliates running CPA offers.  It’s shocking for a lot of people who depend entirely upon Facebook for their affiliate income, but it’s also not surprising.  Facebook is just one of many sites trying to clean up their advertising.  Google, for example, has spent the last year or so banning thousands of affiliates for promoting deceptive products or questionable sites.

So what is an affiliate to do when it seems like the best traffic sources are drying up left and right?  My recommendation involves two things:

Diversify. Affiliates who made all their money from Facebook are hurting right now.  Those who had 4-5 steady traffic sources, however, are only mildly irritated at the changes.  Don’t ever put yourself in a position where you rely on a single company for all of your income.  If you wanted to do that, you could go to a day job   It’s true that most people will earn a little less by spreading things around instead of specializing, but for most of us, a more stable income is better than one that fluctuates wildly and has the potential to disappear overnight.

Go legit. The reason these offers are getting banned from networks is that they deceive, mislead, or otherwise attempt to swindle the customer into doing something they don’t fully understand.  Rebills don’t usually make it clear that customers will have to pay and pay and pay…credit report offers relied on the fact that customers didn’t always know about the truly free credit reports they could get from the government…dating sites often misrepresented their members…financial offers often sold customer data to anyone and everyone who would buy it…the list of shady practices goes on and on.

Given the state of things, a lot of affiliates are now returning to physical products.  Instead of promoting free trials and zip submits, they’re promoting dishes and clothing and electronics.  Because not everyone is letting go of the shady offers just yet, this point in time represents a great opportunity for affiliates to get a head start on promoting physical products before the CPA network affiliates fully migrate in that direction.

If you’re not sure where to begin, Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook is an excellent place to start.  Her guide is extremely long, but it’s also packed with a ton of good information about finding real, long-term success in affiliate marketing.  Check it out here.

Having had the opportunity to see a lot of affiliate websites over the years, I’ve noticed that a lot of affiliates have great marketing skills until it comes to their domain name.  Given that it’s such an easy thing to master, I wanted to offer up a few tips that can help you out next time you’re picking a domain for one of your affiliate sites.

• If you’re doing PPV, your domain name is of very little importance.
• If you’re doing PPC, make sure that your domain name (a) conveys professionalism and (b) includes your keywords
• Avoid hyphens wherever possible.  If you must use them, limit it to just one.  the more you get, the more spammy your site starts to look.
• Try not to use “the best” or “top” or “great” in your domain name.  These descriptive words make many users perceive your site as “cheap” or unprofessional.  Suppose you are reviewing anti virus products.  You’re much better off calling your site something like “Skyview Anti-Virus” or “Armored Anti-Virus” (just some random “brand-sounding” word) instead of “Great Anti Virus” or “Best Anti Virus”.  If you have to SAY it’s great or the best, it often has the opposite effect in the mind of your target.
• Don’t go too keyword crazy, either.  AntiMalwareRemoveSpywareFromMyComputer.com isn’t going to look trustworthy to many people.
• If you’re doing SEO, domain name takes on a whole new level of importance.  Pick a main root keyword and make sure it is in your domain name.
• If you are having trouble finding domain names, use a site like DotoMator.com to help simplify the process.  You can enter in two columns of words and then it will match them up in every permutation and show you which are available for purchase.  I have saved countless hours using DotoMator.com.
• Use a good host that protects your domain name once you own it.  HostGator is one highly reputable company you can choose to host a large number of domains for a single low monthly cost.

Feel free to comment with any additional tips you might have!

A little over 5 years ago, article marketing was all the rage.  It seemed like everyone was writing and submitting articles to promote affiliate offers.  Then, other things gradually became trendier.  People wanted to pay for instant traffic instead of putting in the time and effort to write articles and figure out what works.  Article marketing became something that a lot of people talk down about.  It became a sure sign that you were a Digital Point newbie instead of a professional marketer.

To be quite honest, I never understood this.  Article marketing was, and still is, an excellent way to drive sales.  Yes, it does take a bit more effort up front, but it’s also much more stable than most paid advertising.  Articles that people wrote back in 2005 STILL make money for them.  Even if you have only written a handful of articles on one site and you make $50/month from them, think about the long-term possibilities of that.  That’s a $600 annual raise for work you did ONCE and then left behind.  You might have to log in once in a while and change the affiliate link, but other than that, it’s extremely low maintenance.

Now, imagine yourself doing basically the same thing, except with the benefit of a proven system and automated mass submissions.  Instead of $50/month for a few articles, you could be looking at hundreds – and if you’re ambitious, you could write a ton of them and earn thousands.  That’s what Mass Article Control does for you.  It simplifies, streamlines, and automates the article marketing process to take it from a decent side income to an amazing full-time income that lets you pay down debts or simply enjoy your life a little more.

At the moment, the Mass Article Control Blueprint is completely free if you opt into their email list.  I highly recommend that you at least take a look at it to decide if it’s right for you.

When it comes to list  building, it seems like some people are blessed, while others struggle for years with lists that never seem to get out of the 2-digits.  What is the difference between the two groups?

Sometimes, it’s as simple as having the right friends.  If you’re best friends with Frank Kern or Mike Filsaime, you’re not going to have any trouble building an email marketing list.  The same thing can be said of befriending popular web personalities or webmasters in other niches.

Relationship building is extremely effective, and it’s a great way to build your list.  However, we don’t all have those connections, and some of us just aren’t good at reaching the unreachable types.  For those of us who don’t have connections, freebies can be extremely fast and effective, assuming that you have an existing traffic source.  By offering your viewers some kind of free, interesting download, you’ll dramatically improve your signup rate.

That said, I still don’t have the secret to building a great email list.  In my experience, it has always taken a lot of hard work and time to grow a list.  That’s why I was so interested when I saw what Covert Opt-In had to say.  They are giving away top email marketing secrets in exchange for joining their list. From what I found on Google, that includes a host of tips on using social media to grow your list faster than was ever possible in the past.  To get the details, though, you’ll have to join their list.

When it comes to building an income as an affiliate, most of us want to go for the big money first.  We don’t care if it’s a little volatile, we just want to see cash coming in.  Unfortunately (and even some of the gurus have this problem), that means that your income can literally dry up overnight.  Big money that comes fast is rarely stable.

If you want to make a real, long-term business out of affiliate marketing, it’s going to take more than just cashing in on a single lucky streak.  You need to treat it like any good investor would treat a long-term business or stock portfolio.  You need to diversify enough that your business isn’t vulnerable to small, sudden changes that could wipe out your wealth.

One very good way to do that is by creating WordPress blogs on niche topics.  Although the initial time that it takes to build your site and get indexed may be a bit longer than what is needed for other income-generating techniques, the end result is a stream of income that’s low maintenance and relatively stable.

The WordPress Classroom teaches you exactly how to build sites like this.  Although the sales letter itself may seem a little sensational, don’t let that fool you.  Using WordPress to build affiliate sites with real content is not just some get-rich-quick scheme.  It’s a solid method that leaves you with a real asset (quite unlike using PPC or PPV and sending traffic to landing pages).  Even if you never actually advertise your sites, you’ll continue to get a steady trickle of traffic from search engines and social media sites.

If you’re not already diversifying and planning your long-term affiliate marketing future, check out The WordPress Classroom.

Affiliate marketers with their eyes on the long-term picture are keeping a very close eye on mobile marketing.   It’s a huge growth area, and it’s one that very few people have figured out how to monetize.  There are signs, though, that it’s going to be huge.  A very small number of people are already profiting, and a couple of marketers are going so far as to reveal the basic methods they’re using.

Cell Phone Cash is probably the most respected mobile marketing course out there right now.  It’s run by Mack Michaels of the Maverick Coaching system, which is a highly regarded program for internet marketers.  The methods described in Cell Phone Cash are the kind of new methods you’re not going to find on every internet marketing blog out there.  In fact, it’s my respect for the course that keeps me from spilling all the juicy details here.

The next time you’re out, take a look at the sheer number of people with smart phones – the Blackberry users, the iPhone users, the Android users, and so on.  These are the people who form the market, and they’re everywhere.  With the constantly dropping prices on smart phones and data plans, those numbers will only grow.  People today use their phones as computers-on-the-go. In a lot of cases, you’ll even see teenagers running around with fancy smart phones and data plans.

That many people in one place clearly means there’s an opportunity for early marketers.  Have you figured out how you’re going to profit from the mobile trend?

Often, you’ll hear people say things like, “You’d have to be an idiot to not make money with a big email list,” or that you a big email list is practically a blank check.  Neither statement is true, though, as any good email marketing knows.  It can be difficult to strike the right balance with your users – the one that lets you keep their interest while still making money.

If you abuse your email list by being too promotional, you’re going to find that two things happen – (1) Your unsubscribes increase dramatically and (2) people stop opening your emails.  If you push it far enough, you may even start getting spam complaints.

Making money and keeping your list involves walking a careful line.  You need to make sure the content you deliver is consistently valuable.  That means that there should be a good ratio of non-commercial content to ads, and that the information you send is accurate and credible.  If you use junk articles or PLR content, users may begin to doubt your expertise on the subject matter.

If you use a quality email service provider like aWeber, you’ll have access to data on open-rates and click-through rates.  By watching the number of people who open and click through your emails, you can keep an eye on whether you’re losing user trust or composing emails that don’t interest your audience.

Article marketing is not for the weak.  In fact, it’s one of the most grueling methods of affiliate promotion that you can choose – especially without the proper tools.   As soon as you start making even a little bit of money, it’s a process that’s best automated as much as possible.  One of the best ways to do that is with Mass Article Control.

What’s Important in Article Marketing?

• LOTS of content – Mass Article Control lets you spin a single article into 1000 articles almost instantly.
• Submitting to many places – Mass Article Control handles bulk submissions.
• Ease of use – Mass Article Control includes help videos to make it all as simple as possible.
• Avoiding duplicate content – Mass Article Control’s was specifically designed to help you avoid duplicate content penalties.

The software package is so effective because it’s actually two software programs combined for one package deal – an article creator and an article submitter.  If you’re doing article marketing and getting frustrated because your efforts (and profits) are limited by time, it’s time to give Mass Article Control a try.  It’s far cheaper than outsourcing and it’s highly effective.

As with most quality products, there’s a 60-day money back guarantee.  That means that you get 60 days to watch your income improve before you have to decide if you’re keeping it.  With that kind of deal, what’s stopping you?

A lot of new affiliates see the gurus who have done huge amounts of business over short periods, and they assume that affiliate marketing is a get-rich-quick, overnight success kind of thing.  While it’s true that there are a lot of very short sighted affiliates who build businesses that grow and die almost overnight, there are plenty of people in the industry who are focused on building lasting businesses.  One of those people is Rosalind Gardner.

Rosalind is the author of The Super Affiliate’s Handbook, and she’s been in the industry for over 10 years.  Through her focus on building a quality business and diversifying your successes, she’s been able to weather the storms that have brought down many lesser marketers.

Her guide is extremely useful for new affiliates, as it goes over everything from basic terminology to history to big picture strategy.  If you want more from this business than a quick profit, this is the book for you.  If you envision yourself doing this in 10 or 15 years, you should take a break from the one-note gurus and soak up everything Ms. Gardner has to say.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to pick products that work
• How to align yourself with reputable brands and companies
• How to know if you’re right for affiliate marketing
• How to build quality sites that earn money for years

You’ll also get a sneak peek at one of her actual affiliate sites.  That alone is worth the price of the book.  So what are you waiting for – check out The Super Affiliate Handbook today.