I'm just saying what a lot of other people are feeling.
I want to preface what I'm about to say by saying this - I love the affiliate marketing model mostly because it is so easy to do and requires little or no money to get started, but there lies the problem.
Affiliate marketing has its problems and for many of us who have tried this approach to make money online know what they are. Just about everywhere you go on the internet today you will see some type of affiliate marketing advertisement. These ads are designed to invoke an emotional response that relies on one of three things:
1) Desperation - due to the lack of funds as a result of living beyond our means, loss of a job or maybe a medical travesty that has affected your life.
2) Greed - your love of money and the want to have as much as you can because you feel that being wealthy will bring about true happiness and power. You love the fancy cars, the nice watches and the VIP section at your favorite nightclub and you especially love to show it.
3) A better life - you're looking for ways to offer more for your family. A way to add more to your bank account and not rely on your employer, an employer who might not be here tomorrow. Whatever your reasons, these ads can have an alluring effect on the people who see them and the affiliate marketers know it, that's why they use them.
The Danger Signs
There are many red flags to look for when reading an affiliate marketing advertisement. Most of us will agree the signs are obvious, but for someone who has found themselves in a desperate situation, emotionally overwhelmed or just blinded by greed, common sense is sometimes amiss and the red flags are overlooked. What are some of these danger signs:
Guaranteed - If you see this word in any part of the ad other than the part where it says "money back guaranteed", this is a red flag. There are no guarantees in life other than death. I can guarantee that you will die one day and that's about it. If an advertiser if guaranteeing you success with his or hers products, my suggestion is to be cautious, read the reviews and really think about it before committing.
Make Millions of $$$ - This one should be an easy one - move on and don't waste your time. Is it possible to make a million dollars a year as an affiliate marketer? Yeah, all things within reason are possible, but I would guess that 99% of the people who jump into the affiliate marketing arena are making far less than that.
How I make over $10,000 a month - I see a lot of ads from people claiming they're earning $10k-$12k a month from a particular product. Some even show their bank accounts or their marketplace accounts and the large account balances as a means of validating their claims. Let me just say this: As I do believe the earnings are possible, especially for the committed, full-time marketer. I do not believe the majority of the claims. I cannot tell you the number of claimants I've followed up on whose websites disappeared 2 to 3 months after their ad campaign started or after releasing an amazing video declaring to the world this money-making secret they want to share. It's easy to fake the bank statements and their account balances, even if they're logging into the account live on video. I don't know about you, but if I was earning $10,000+ a month (legally) selling a product or service, I don't think I would shut down my website for any reason, even if I had a bad month or two... and neither would you.
Overnight - Another red flag. If they're promising some form of overnight success or any variation thereof like "within 48 hours" or " the first 7 days", the red flags should be going up. Here again, this is just another variation of "guaranteed".
Price - Beware of the price. I understand that sometimes it takes money to make money. There are times when we need the help of an expert or to use the services of a professional who can do it faster or better than I can. But we need to be reasonable and practical with our finances. More times than not I've seen people dump a lot of money into every product, service or feature enhancement they can sink their teeth into in an effort to achieve an impractical goal - making a lot of money as fast as possible. I won't say anymore than this about the price of a product: If the item is priced less than $50 and the majority of the reviews are positive, then go for it. But anything above that amount and especially if it's a monthly charge, you really need to do your due diligence and know what others are saying about the product before investing.
Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam?
Like a lot of things in life, it can be. But there are plenty of quality products out there produced by honest, hardworking people and I wouldn't hesitate a second to buy or even promote any of those products. Therefore, it is important that you do your homework before investing money into somebody's eBook or software or whatever program they are offering. Affiliate Marketing is opportunity for the person who is looking for a reasonable and practical means of earning a secondary income from a home based business.
I Want to Become an Affiliate Marketer
Like I stated earlier - Affiliate Marketing provides an easy and practical means for just about anybody to earn a secondary income from their home. After all, working from home is quickly becoming a normal way of doing business and for the stay-at-home moms or dads, the disabled or anybody looking for a way to enhance their lives, a home based business is a blessing.
You can get started with very little money. I'm talking less than $50. All you really need is a laptop or a PC and an internet connection, which I'm assuming most of us already have. You'll need to build a website and before that you will need to decide on a niche or what your site will be about. Afterwards, you will want to find some products to promote on your website. Sign up with one of the popular Affiliate Marketplace websites and you are good to go.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate Marketing can provide a secondary income and is not a waste of time for the committed person willing to do what it takes to make it work and grow their business. Making $500-$1000 a month is a reasonable goal when first starting out. However, this will not happen overnight. It takes time! You can expect about 2 to 3 months of working on your site, improving the SEO, adding content and writing posts and submitting articles before you'll see enough traffic to your website that can offer a steady stream of income within that range. People are inherently lazy and many times will stop before things get started. Success requires work, otherwise wait for the lottery.
Once your first site is up and running efficiently things become easier and you won't need to spend as much time working on it. Just a little maintenance here and there and submitting new articles at a rate of one to two times a week. At this point nothing is stopping you from duplicating your efforts with a second website. Find another niche that people are looking for and build another site. Your second website might do even better or maybe a little less than your first, but my point is this - Don't Stop! The potential for making a full-time income as an affiliate marketer by adding more and more sites as time and money permits is highly practical. It is not unreasonable to expect to one day be able to surpass the salary you earn from your employer, but it will take some time. If you do your research, work hard, stay committed and set reasonable goals that day will come.
I want to preface what I'm about to say by saying this - I love the affiliate marketing model mostly because it is so easy to do and requires little or no money to get started, but there lies the problem.
Affiliate marketing has its problems and for many of us who have tried this approach to make money online know what they are. Just about everywhere you go on the internet today you will see some type of affiliate marketing advertisement. These ads are designed to invoke an emotional response that relies on one of three things:
1) Desperation - due to the lack of funds as a result of living beyond our means, loss of a job or maybe a medical travesty that has affected your life.
2) Greed - your love of money and the want to have as much as you can because you feel that being wealthy will bring about true happiness and power. You love the fancy cars, the nice watches and the VIP section at your favorite nightclub and you especially love to show it.
3) A better life - you're looking for ways to offer more for your family. A way to add more to your bank account and not rely on your employer, an employer who might not be here tomorrow. Whatever your reasons, these ads can have an alluring effect on the people who see them and the affiliate marketers know it, that's why they use them.
The Danger Signs
There are many red flags to look for when reading an affiliate marketing advertisement. Most of us will agree the signs are obvious, but for someone who has found themselves in a desperate situation, emotionally overwhelmed or just blinded by greed, common sense is sometimes amiss and the red flags are overlooked. What are some of these danger signs:
Guaranteed - If you see this word in any part of the ad other than the part where it says "money back guaranteed", this is a red flag. There are no guarantees in life other than death. I can guarantee that you will die one day and that's about it. If an advertiser if guaranteeing you success with his or hers products, my suggestion is to be cautious, read the reviews and really think about it before committing.
Make Millions of $$$ - This one should be an easy one - move on and don't waste your time. Is it possible to make a million dollars a year as an affiliate marketer? Yeah, all things within reason are possible, but I would guess that 99% of the people who jump into the affiliate marketing arena are making far less than that.
How I make over $10,000 a month - I see a lot of ads from people claiming they're earning $10k-$12k a month from a particular product. Some even show their bank accounts or their marketplace accounts and the large account balances as a means of validating their claims. Let me just say this: As I do believe the earnings are possible, especially for the committed, full-time marketer. I do not believe the majority of the claims. I cannot tell you the number of claimants I've followed up on whose websites disappeared 2 to 3 months after their ad campaign started or after releasing an amazing video declaring to the world this money-making secret they want to share. It's easy to fake the bank statements and their account balances, even if they're logging into the account live on video. I don't know about you, but if I was earning $10,000+ a month (legally) selling a product or service, I don't think I would shut down my website for any reason, even if I had a bad month or two... and neither would you.
Overnight - Another red flag. If they're promising some form of overnight success or any variation thereof like "within 48 hours" or " the first 7 days", the red flags should be going up. Here again, this is just another variation of "guaranteed".
Price - Beware of the price. I understand that sometimes it takes money to make money. There are times when we need the help of an expert or to use the services of a professional who can do it faster or better than I can. But we need to be reasonable and practical with our finances. More times than not I've seen people dump a lot of money into every product, service or feature enhancement they can sink their teeth into in an effort to achieve an impractical goal - making a lot of money as fast as possible. I won't say anymore than this about the price of a product: If the item is priced less than $50 and the majority of the reviews are positive, then go for it. But anything above that amount and especially if it's a monthly charge, you really need to do your due diligence and know what others are saying about the product before investing.
Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam?
Like a lot of things in life, it can be. But there are plenty of quality products out there produced by honest, hardworking people and I wouldn't hesitate a second to buy or even promote any of those products. Therefore, it is important that you do your homework before investing money into somebody's eBook or software or whatever program they are offering. Affiliate Marketing is opportunity for the person who is looking for a reasonable and practical means of earning a secondary income from a home based business.
I Want to Become an Affiliate Marketer
Like I stated earlier - Affiliate Marketing provides an easy and practical means for just about anybody to earn a secondary income from their home. After all, working from home is quickly becoming a normal way of doing business and for the stay-at-home moms or dads, the disabled or anybody looking for a way to enhance their lives, a home based business is a blessing.
You can get started with very little money. I'm talking less than $50. All you really need is a laptop or a PC and an internet connection, which I'm assuming most of us already have. You'll need to build a website and before that you will need to decide on a niche or what your site will be about. Afterwards, you will want to find some products to promote on your website. Sign up with one of the popular Affiliate Marketplace websites and you are good to go.
Final Thoughts
Affiliate Marketing can provide a secondary income and is not a waste of time for the committed person willing to do what it takes to make it work and grow their business. Making $500-$1000 a month is a reasonable goal when first starting out. However, this will not happen overnight. It takes time! You can expect about 2 to 3 months of working on your site, improving the SEO, adding content and writing posts and submitting articles before you'll see enough traffic to your website that can offer a steady stream of income within that range. People are inherently lazy and many times will stop before things get started. Success requires work, otherwise wait for the lottery.
Once your first site is up and running efficiently things become easier and you won't need to spend as much time working on it. Just a little maintenance here and there and submitting new articles at a rate of one to two times a week. At this point nothing is stopping you from duplicating your efforts with a second website. Find another niche that people are looking for and build another site. Your second website might do even better or maybe a little less than your first, but my point is this - Don't Stop! The potential for making a full-time income as an affiliate marketer by adding more and more sites as time and money permits is highly practical. It is not unreasonable to expect to one day be able to surpass the salary you earn from your employer, but it will take some time. If you do your research, work hard, stay committed and set reasonable goals that day will come.
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