Mark Ling
If you are familiar with affiliate marketing, then you most likely have heard of Mark Ling and his website, Affilorama, a complete suite of educational materials and affiliate marketing tools, as well as access to forums where you meet the other members and share advice (and swap success stories). You also get podcasts from lectures by Mark and other key figures in Internet marketing.
Ling’s journey into affiliate marketing began 11 years ago, when, according to his website, he was playing squash and talking with a friend of his about his new job making $15 an hour. Remember when $15 an hour sounded like a ton of money?
Ling’s friend told him about his new job. He started fan sites for celebrities and earned commissions from Internet dating websites. A lot more than $15 an hour. Mark asked if he could get in on this opportunity, and both Mark and his friend did quite well.
Over time, Mark started to diversify the affiliate programs that he was representing, and now he has dozens of systems that he markets. He has also started to develop products to market toward those who want to use the Internet to grow large incomes.
All of these experiences combined to give Mark the inspiration to found Affilorama.
The initial lessons are free. You do have to register (but what website doesn’t make you register?), but your first exposure to Affilorama won’t cost you a dime.
Affilorama’s tools can take a lot of the jobs that might seem overwhelming to you, at first, and make them seem like no-brainers — stuff you just can take for granted. It’s all important, though. You want to monitor your landing page quality scores, and you want to monitor your backlinks, but you may not be sure how to do those things. Affilorama can help you do all of these and more.
Because while affiliate marketing may sound like a simpler concept than starting your own business, launching it, and waiting for your own products and services to sell, there are a ton of concepts that you have to either master or outsource to someone else who has already mastered it.
For example, while you don’t have to come up with your own product or service, you do have to vet the ones you want to represent, to make sure they are a good value for the niche you want to target. You will still have to build your own website, and do your own market research to make sure you are aiming your promotions in the right direction.
You’ll still have to come up with creative promotions and use the innovations of Web 2.0 tools. Social websites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn provide additional avenues for you to communicate your offerings.
And Affilorama will help you learn how to handle all of these opportunities and put them to use for your business. If you are looking for an affiliate business to augment your current 9-to-5 job, or to bring in steady revenue while you launch your own line of marketing materials, this is one place you should check out.
Will it work? As with every “great offer” you read about online, that’s the million-dollar question. Literally, in this case.
Every website has testimonials on it. So you can’t just rely on those. If you look at online reviews, though, and read about Affilorama, you will find information in more of an objective forum. Contributors to posting websites like WarriorForum have only positive things to say about the Affilorama program. The system has developed a reputation for integrity — but more importantly, for effectiveness. And those two elements are among the highest praise that an online marketing system can earn.
