Category: Introduction

The Truth About Fads:

Fads come and go. If you can quickly scale up your website and drive enough traffic to the fad offer while it is hot, yes you could make a few bucks, but then it is back to the chase for the next “shiny object”.

Don’t get stuck chasing “shiny objects” you will burn out quickly.

At first I was earning enough to pay for my internet investments, then enough for a night out, catching up on bills and eventually enough to pay cash for a new car. Then moving forward I was able to put 2 children through private school and into College.

Eventually I was enjoying a lifestyle that I like – working from home in my jammies and bunny slippers while being able to travel at my leisure on my schedule. For me it was not a quick and easy win all the time, it took research, testing and perseverance.

My goal with the Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Guide is to give you a head start and avoid some of the mistakes I made along the way. I will give you a plan and the resources you need to accomplish your goals. I want you to succeed as an affiliate/publisher and get to the point where you too can become part of the “Bunny Slippers Crew” 

Early Affiliate Marketing Success Story:

One of the most inspiring success stories I ever read was in the USA Today publication and it was about a man who was handyman, in his late 50s and he was a guy that knew how to fix things.

He began with a simple blog, writing about home repairs. He had ads with AdSense on his website. He was making 120K per year from Google’s AdSense program but his whole goal was to help people with their home repair.

How Did He Do IT?

He spent roughly 2-3 hours a day writing on his websites. By creating content that was genuinely helping people, he earned a significant amount of money. This is not an anomaly, there are several examples in this article from 2007, showing you what others have accomplished as well, following a similar strategy and doing the same thing.

You can read the full article here:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-10-25-retirees-google-adsense_N.htm

How Important Is Your New Business To You?

Keep in mind you have to treat your affiliate marketing venture as a business. If you treat it like a hobby you can expect little or no returns. Most affiliates make less than $500 the first year, but you can do better than that by following my plan and setting goals for yourself. Keep the goals simple and tasks you can complete in an hour.

Understanding Performance Marketing:
Performance Marketing is defined as when the merchant offers you the partner/affiliate/publisher, a commission on a sale or desired action by the visitors you send them. 

From The Desk Of Ginette Degner: Background

Initially, in 1993 when I started in Internet marketing, there were just small companies using in-house tracking to compensate marketers for sending clicks, and then it evolved into being paid for sending visitors that resulted in actual sales. I started out with several small companies that had products I had both an interest in and had developed websites and email lists for specifically. I would contact merchants directly and offer to send them traffic for a percentage of the sales. In some cases, the merchant contacted me to inquire about ad space on my websites.

I originally intended this guide to be a book, but our industry evolves so quickly the book would be outdated in a matter of months. I want to give back and guide people looking to earn some extra money or even just monetize their sites. I will update this guide as often as I can. If you have questions, I am only an email or skype away. oh, and yeah, no charge, no strings, I just want to help you.

A Word About Multi Level Marketing programs:

I checked out the MLM- Multi Level Marketing programs in 1993 and quickly realized they were not for me. I didn’t want to pay a monthly fee for products to be shipped to me while hawking the same products to build a down line. For me, it was too difficult to find a real MLM that I believed in and trust me, I spent more money than I actually made. In my experience, few MLMs can stand the test of time and Federal Investigation.

Initial Essentials To Grasp:

I want you to understand affiliate marketing is not for lazy people. You need to have that drive within yourself to keep going. There are no bosses or deadlines or someone checking in with you to make sure you did your job. You have to do it for yourself.

Your job is Creating useful, informative and or entertaining content and then monetizing it.

• Be sure to make a business plan for your website. 
• Set your goals and work to reach them.
• Create a timeline to show when various goals should be reached.
• Be sure to benchmark each goal on your timeline as it is completed.

Eye-opening Metrics:

Only 15% – 20% of affiliates in any given program actually collect a check every month consistently.

Why?

Usually because the other 85% didn’t know what to do next besides plastering their web page with banners and then they just gave up. They didn’t care about the topic and quit. It is that simple.

I want you to care about the website you build, be proud of it.

I feel it is equally important to avoid the “shiny object” syndrome. Where you have some wild hair-brained idea and you decide to drop everything you are doing and start promoting some fad product or service. The problem with this is that you will not stick with it and do all the things necessary to make a lasting income.