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2010 - time for affiliates to start seeing the bigger picture
By Marcus | April 22, 2010
Looking back, 2009 was a very strange year. First of all the global recession took full hold of just about everyone on the planet, and this for me was a new experience online. I expected my income to suffer…or at least for some of my campaigns to slide, but they didn’t. In fact, I was surprised to notice an increase in income over the last 6 months of the year, and I was temporarily confused as to why.
Then towards the end of ’09 we had the issues with the FTC, and the sudden changes that were enforced by Ezine Articles, Squidoo, Google, and many other major players online. Suddenly affiliate marketing had become a tougher nut to crack, and it was THEN that I realized why I had not only survived, but actually grown.
During the early days of my online career I was dependant on free methods of promotion…very dependant actually. But one thing I established early on was that “free platforms” should only be used as a testing ground, and that was a process that I’m now glad I followed. Get something working using a Squidoo lens, Hubpage, Weebly site, or article(s), and then shift that winning campaign on to MY OWN website. – that was my mindset.
Sounds straight forward I guess, but I know for a fact that MANY people stick with the free sites and assume they will always work…if you know anything about Squidoo last year, you will know how dangerous that attitude can be!
And this is where it had become apparent to me that by making the decision to build sites around “working” free campaigns was the best thing I could have ever done. Suddenly Google loved the fact that I’d been building my own sites (even though most of them were very basic), and my search engine rankings and PPC quality scores reflected that. In the meantime, the lazy affiliates who relied on the” permanently free” approach, suffered in a MAJOR way.
So the message I’m trying to get across here is – by all means use free methods/websites to test a potential campaign, but don’t forget that in doing so you are building your income on something that YOU DON’T OWN. What works today might not work tomorrow, so as soon as you get even a hint that something works, make that move.
This is a point that I drive home (among other things!) on my I Suck At Affiliate Marketing website, and if I’m being perfectly honest with you, it’s one of the biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make today.
Now you might be wondering…that’s great, but what if I don’t have the ability to build a website?
I understand that because I felt exactly the same. Html was just one big headache for me, Dreamweaver didn’t make it any easier either, and in the end I opted mainly for self hosted Wordpress blogs. They are so easy to set up nowadays…there are so many nice themes that you can install in minutes, and when all is said and done you don’t need some big flashy site. Kyle at Wealthy Affiliate recently emphasized this when he explained why Google loves his junk websites, and although I don’t ever consciously recall taking his advice on the matter, it’s reassuring to know that I actually got it spot on.
So if you’re an affiliate marketer who relies on the more risky methods of promotion mentioned above…it’s time for you to evolve. I’m with you when you say it’s a big and difficult step to take, but the consequences of NOT making that change would be more damaging than you could ever imagine.
Marcus
Topics: Affiliate Marketing |