What I told my buddy yesterday

My friend emailed me yesterday asking how to get started in affiliate marketing. Here’s what I told him (whole thread below):

~begin thread~

Direct linking? Ok, I’d go to Google and type: (some subject matter) affiliate program

examples are:

real estate affiliate program

soccer affiliate program

recurring affiliate program

You get the idea. I’d choose 2-3 of these searches so you have 2-3 markets you’re trying out.

Then I’d join 5-10 independent affiliate programs (that are not part of a network like cj.com or clickbank or whatever) from each of these markets.

Then use Google shadow [you can do this manually too, it'll just take longer] to write ads for them and bid $1 or so as long as you are keeping your keywords really tight (like product name, author name, etc  for now) — be sure the merchant allows you to bid on these

Then turn off losers (100 – 150 clicks, no sales), quickly adjust bids on those that get sales to aim for $1 spent to make $2 ($1 profit). Be sure you have your daily budget set to a number you can afford.

What do you say?

On March 30, 2010, at 4:04 PM, Gxxxx wrote:

Direct linking to start because my knowledge is limited.

Thanks, G

On March 30, 2010, at 3:53 PM, Tim Houston wrote:

yo Gxxxx — are you looking to direct link or build out a site?

Tim

On March 30, 2010, at 3:40 PM, Gxxxxxx wrote:

Hey buddy, I’m trying to get my feet wet with this real affiliate marketing stuff  and I’m struggling to even pick a vertical(s).  Can you point me in the right direction? I don’t know if I should try a dating, scholarship, giftcard, etc vertical.  I’m guessing some are much better than others. Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks, G

~end thread~