A Beginner

A Beginner's Guide to Affiliate Marketing Goodness (you can make money on the Internet)

Before we get to the nuts and bolts of starting off in this incredibly rich Affiliate marketing venture, I want to talk just a little about these concepts:

1. Forward Leaning Attitude

2. Objectives, Goals, and Dreams

3. Virtual Real Estate or VRE

Attitude is Key

When you make the commitment to become an affiliate marketer (of any level), you should consider adopting a positive change of attitude. One of the first things to accept is that you will not make 100s of thousands of dollars by putting up a web page and placing a banner ad. Contrary to the expression "build it and they will come," it's up to you to make a quality offering and CONVINCE them to come to your site. Still, you can make money on the internet.

If you are going to succeed, YOU must first believe in yourself, your innate ability to win, and your commitment to press on to the fruition of your dreams. Don't think in terms of fail or succeed, think like the winner you are, the person who is going to create a winning environment that will promote challenge and learning. Always looking ahead, always strive for that next goal, leaning forward and grabbing what is owed you through your effort!

I know of several people who have succeeded as an affiliate marketer. Really, you can make money on the Internet. One person, we'll call him "Ian," had a fairly typical life, an OK job like many others, and your expected number of debts (that is to say, too many). I'd call that a fairly typical life. But never the less he felt trapped. Even though the job wasn't exactly a dead-end, Ian looked down the road of life and didn't see the light of personal achievement. Living wasn't enough for Ian. He wanted to create, be his own boss. He wanted, like many of us, to be proud of himself when he finally died in bed of natural causes.

Ian didn't have allot of spare cash but was able to commit a hundred or two a month toward learning and putting up his site. For him, it was starting small by joining programs like Wealthy Affiliate (For more Information on Wealthy Affiliate, click here –I am STILL a member, its awesome!) to maximize his low initial budget. Ian has been add it for some time now. As he put it, his decision finally led him to his "day job killer." It took him allot of labor to understand where he needed to go and then more time to build the structure of his business model (business speak for how you want to make money) but he is now doing better than six figures a year and on his way. What about you?

Goals and Dreams a Must

"Where do you want to go today?" Its an old Microsoft catch phrase but it applies here. I tell everyone that you MUST start with a dream. Why? Because dreams are not limited or constrained by reality. Dreams represent our ultimate desire or at least our happy "special place." If you can dream that six figure income, that five acre mansion, and that Porsche then you have a destination to build the road of success to. Can you imagine making money and not having anyway to use it? Of course not! DREAM!

The terms "goal" and "Objective" have become synonymous or similar to each other. For our purposes, however, we want to separate them into meaningful ideas. Lets use a Football metaphor: Its simple, the field goal is your final GOAL, the thing that you most want. Moving down the field (challenging yard by challenging yard) is composed of plays or OBJECTIVES to get to your goal. Affiliate Marketing is just like that. Your goal is not to make money (that's still an objective), your goal is to be financially independent.

 Goal: Financial Independence

—Objective 1: Learn About Affiliate Marketing

—Objective 2: Research Market

—Objective 3: Establish Company or Business Face

—Objective 4: Build Website/Promotion Site

—Objective 5: Market/Advertise Product/Service

—Objective 6: Test Strategy

—Objective 7: Refine Strategy

—Objective 8: Continue Market Research, research new markets

Everyone's process is similar to the above but will still vary in many ways. But it highlights the objectives that are similar in all businesses. Remember to have your goal firmly in mind and map out your objectives to get there. That's the real road to independence! You can make money on the internet!

Real or Virtual, its All Real Estate

This is a phrase originally coined by John Reese, a well known Internet marketer.  The idea is quite simple but it's a fairly foreign one to anybody who doesn't depend on the Net for their livelihood. Simply put: your domain i.e. www.john/janedoe.com and all the structure, content, forums, links, and advertising (to say nothing about the hundreds of man hours spent building it) is your virtual real estate. Like any physical business, it is worth a certain amount of money per month, plus an intrinsic value when sold. This is your virtual real estate.

If you extend the idea, its conceivable that you can build multiple domains/sites that also will have their monthly/intrinsic value. As each successful site produces income, your total incomes rises and falls with the perceived usefulness of your combined virtual real estate. Many people successfully operate just one site (and make a pretty penny), but for those who want an empire, remember VRE!

Ok, enough pontificating! If you want nuts and bolts click here!