Lets take a look at how much the affiliate marketing space has changed over the years, and what you can do to set your goals to aim for and ultimately become one hell of a powerhouse or if you’re not a greedy bastard like most of us, aim towards the middle of the market and just live comfortably.
Years ago the choice was simple for us affiliate marketers. We would get offers from ad networks, promote however which way we knew best, collect our monies, and go on to the next offer. There weren’t really many options up until very recently. I happen to believe that with the flood of the ringtone market and some fairly cheap sources of volume traffic, there was a sudden change that we’ve all seen and felt the effects of tenfold at some point in our affiliate marketing or internet marketing career. Instead of just the basic SEO, PPC Marketing, Mailing, and maybe incentive traffic, the choices were fairly limited to those. But over the last year, with ringtones bringing in so many new faces to the space, and cheap but solid traffic sources like that seen in the social network space, affiliates are now moving out of the actual affiliate space and into other roles in which it never moved as fast as it is now.
I’m referring to regular, one year in the game affiliates becoming advertisers, networks, arbitragers, ppc’ers becoming mailers, all of these things that have allowed guys and girls with very limited cash on hand to grow incredibly fast and large, and immediately recognize that the affiliate isn’t the most profitable area to be in. Now that they have the capital to expand into more expensive but much more profitable regions of the industry, they are doing so at an incredible pace. So let’s just take a brief look into what you can do and make if you gave up your affiliate marketer status and traded it in for a new role in the industry.
Affiliate Marketing Profile - The newbies and beginners:
Someone who comes into the game with some knowledge of whats going on and how to make money online, but doesn’t really have the patience or wisdom to make it all that steady just yet. They do however have the drive, and thats all you need, along with some capital investment (not much though). So they spend a few hundred bucks a month, and make a few hundred bucks a month in profit and are content with their efforts. They are also the type that will fail sometimes, but have the balls and brains to get back on their horse and try again. They are avid participants in forums, blogs and social networking sites, and hang on to every word some of the more prolific “web celebs” say as advice. For the most part, this is the largest group you’ll find on the internet, and also the loudest. Their average paycheck per month will never exceed the $10,000 target. But alas, they are content, so who cares what anyone else says. Its a fantastic group to be apart of and you can go through life living fairly comfortably, but on a budget, by staying in this group.
Affiliate Marketing Profile - The middleground and advanced marketer:
This group is very similar to the one above, but they understand that there are bigger and better things to be had with the knowledge they hold. Although they may still not exceed the $10,000 per month cap on their earnings, they are better suited to start giving advice on forums and perhaps start their own blog for more attention and to help them make a name for themselves in the industry. While very few actually build up an audience or fan base, a few of these are able to utilize referrals to networks as an added form of compensation and longterm value for their work on their blog or through forum signatures. This group will start picking up on more advanced techniques of affiliate marketing, and can usually sustain a slightly larger budget than the beginner can. Still though, they are just an affiliate. But they do carry a bit more pull and respect from the networks and their peers than the beginner does. You’ll find many of these guys and girls getting creative and creating their own landing pages or advertisements. Many of them are trusted enough to be given the freedom of hosting the offers themselves (creatives, landing pages, jump pages, etc). They are by no means super affiliates, but they do have a much greater chance at becoming one just as soon as they get that one shot at figuring out the niche or offer that will bring them $20,000 or more in just one month. From then on, they will budget their campaigns correctly and will grow, fast. They understand their place in the industry, but yearn for respect from their peers usually. The quiet, behind the scenes ones will ultimately move up the ladder of earnings faster, but have a tendency to be more active in contributing on forums and comments through blogs by giving back to the community that helped them become what they are today. There are though, those chosen few, who see the big picture and want their place and part asap.
This concludes the Profile of an Affiliate Marketer, and will continue at a later time in a different but related segment when I profile the other, larger and more profitable areas in which an affiliate marketer can grow to.
This blog post is sponsored by the letter 7.
Oh yeah, just to stay true to form, fuck, shit, motherfucker, cock. There.
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