A Beginners Toolbox

Dig Out the Tool Box

On this page I want to discuss what amounts to critical tools that every affiliate should consider buying, borrowing, or stealing (Just kidding…well, maybe…  )

When I started on my long, bumpy but fun affiliate road the first thing I stumbled across was a book that saved me many mistakes, provided insight, and generally opened my eyes to the wow factor of the internet and electronic commerce (to say nothing of showing me the pitfalls). After borrowing my friends copy…and then having him come over and summarily take it back (well I had it for three months! ), I finally broke down and bought my own.

The book is "Super Affiliate Handbook" by Rosalind Gardner and my Rating: is well deserved, in my opinion. She speaks in a fluid matter of fact style that feels like a partner but a partner of much more experience!  She is so sure that her book will be of help to you that she has even uploaded her compensation checks, and Federal tax statement as evidence of its content value. If you'd like to read more from her site you can find her here.

One thing that is ill advised and that so many people do anyway, is to just put up a site, put up a few ads, write a few words…and wait for the internet traffic to roll in and make them rich. Sorry. The entire planet would be composed of wealthy citizens if it was that easy. As I mentioned in my previous pages, you need to learn, you need training, and a certain familiarity with the business and it's markets. This can be done in many ways: you can read; you can watch videos; you can hire a mentor, join affiliate training programs; or a combination of some or all of them. For me personally, the Super Affiliate Handbook opened doors. I jumped right in. But surprisingly, there were still gaps in my knowledge because book learning is only part of the picture.

I have found that the ability to join groups of people on-line and throw ideas and experiences around makes all the difference. In addition to this, having structured but self paced instruction modules on everything from pay per click advertising to affiliate membership site construction was the way for me to go. It combined both sight and sound to give me a fuller sense of what I was learning. While I used Wealthy Affiliate, I'm adding an organization here that does this kind of training in spades. Affilorama specializes in training affiliates to be well informed and well armed BEFORE they go after their millions. My Rating: is well deserved and after I speak to a few more people I may give them a full five. If you'd like to see more of Affilorama click here.

Continue to The Action Plans