8 Things You Must Know BEFORE You Start Affliate Marketing

When I first began affiliate marketing, I often faced hours and days of incredible frustration. Like many new Wealthy Affiliate members, I wanted results now, and tried to rush through the process. Naturally, this lead to terrible results, and I found myself backtracking and essentially starting my training all over again from scratch.

Before we get going, please note that this is strictly MY opinion based on research and experience. Admittedly, this post will likely be highly controversial and others will disagree. And that is fine. You are more than welcome to add your input and I won’t be offended in the least. Yet, please do me this one favor…

If you do disagree, please base it on actual facts and data, not on what makes you feel good.

I have no interest in debating with someone who’s brother’s nephew’s second cousin from their third marriage read on a blog somewhere that a guy found a Post-It note stuck to his dog’s back that contained the secret to affiliate marketing and he made a gajillion and one dollars in a week. We good? Cool.

So, without further ado, in hopes of helping recent members, here are eight things I wish I would have known before I started affiliate marketing…

Number 1: How Do I Identify the “Perfect” Niche?

First of all, there is no such thing as the perfect niche. It's a myth. If there were one, everyone would be doing it, right?

Nevertheless, you may still find the perfect niche… for you. How so?

A good affiliate niche needs two things: you and an audience willing to pay you.

Think about your hobbies and interests. What interests do you have that others might be interested in? What expertise do you have that you can share? What is something that you always wanted to learn yourself, but never had the time?

Once you have created a list of passionate niches you might like to go into, head of to the Jaaxy research tool and start to run the numbers. Test different keywords within that niche and see if there is a viable market out there for what you would like to offer. It does you no good to create a hundred posts that only four people in the whole world are interested in.

Look for keywords that have high volume search traffic (over 40, but the more the better) and low competition (under 300, but under 100 is best). After you run through about 15-20 keywords, you should have a pretty good idea as to whether you are onto a potentially profitable niche or not.

Number 2: How Many Niches/Products Can I Have On One Site?

My advice on this is simple: One niche per site, but as many products related to that niche as you would like.

A HUGE mistake I made in the beginning, and one I see a lot of new members still making today, is getting lazy and trying to cram everything into a single website. Unless you already have a well-known brand or celebrity status, a so-called multiple niche site generally does not work.

Think about how you surf the web. Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. If you went to a website on, say, snow skiing for example, yet you find that half the articles are software reviews and make-money-online advice, how long would you stick around?

By cramming random niches together in such a way, all you do is confuse your different audiences and, thus, lose them all.

Keep it tight.

Number 3: How Long Will It Take To Start Seeing Traffic?

Perhaps the number one question asked by new members. Everyone wants to know, “where da money at?”

Like many people, I really, really, really wanted this thing to be like the movie, “A Field of Dreams”. I had the misconception that if I built it, they would come. Alas, if only it were that easy. It really does take time. How long?

Well, first, the good news. It normally only takes a few days, or perhaps a week, for a new blog post to get “indexed”. This means that Google has acknowledged that it exists. And sometimes you hit the lottery and, depending on the keyword you are targeting, you may actually rank quickly. BUT…

Here’s the bad news. Based on my research, input from other successful bloggers and affiliate marketers, and my own experience, on average, you are looking at approximately 35 weeks before any post will reach peak traffic. That’s right… almost nine months. Sorry.

Instead of letting it frustrate you, just look at it like it is your child. It takes roughly the same amount of time to form a newborn baby. That’s just nature. So, why should this be any different? Put it out there and let nature take its course.

Write a good quality post, publish, and move on. Control what you can control and forget the rest (more on this later.)

Number 4: How Many Blog Posts Do I Need?

I share with people all the time that affiliate marketing is not get-rich-quick. This is a business like any other, and we need to plan for the long haul. While some people have had success in a shorter amount of time, I always recommend a conservative estimate of one year.

One year is long enough to determine if a site and/or niche is going to be successful. As noted, it will take Google approximately 35 weeks to really rank your posts well, so by the time you reach 12 months you should be seeing steady traffic and making at least some money. Then it grows from there.

But here is the catch: that 12 month “clock” does not start until you hit a certain number of good posts. Any less than that and Google just isn’t going to bother. How many, you ask? I say at least 30.

You should count on writing at least 30 high-quality articles in order to really get some traction on your site.

At approximately 30 posts, Google no longer sees you as a “new” website and will start to pay more attention. And it’s easy to understand why. New sites come and go every day, because most people aren’t willing to put in the hard work required. So, by only looking at “established” sites (i.e. 30+ articles), Google saves themselves a TON of wasted time.

And that’s not that many, really, in the grand scheme of things. If you were to write one article a day, you could hit that in a month.

Now, of course, most of us can’t do one a day. And that’s okay. It’s about consistency. Some of us can only do two or three per week. Others may only get one good article in a week. Or in a month. No worries. Just keep going and don’t give up.

The point is not to make you feel bad if you write “slow”, but to just give you realistic expectations. For example, I just turned 50. Let’s say I was only able to write enough that it took my site five years to get off the ground. So what? Who cares?

In five years, guess how old I am going to be if I don’t build an affiliate business? 55.

And guess how old I am going to be if I do build an affiliate business? Yep… 55.

So, if I’m going to be 55 either way, why would I not keep working on it, regardless of how slow I am? Remember the Tortoise and the Hare. Slow and steady win the race. Slow is okay; just don’t quit.

Number 5: What is Compounded Patience?

What do you mean you’ve never heard of Compounded Patience? Where have you been, living under a rock?

Okay, I admit it; I made that phrase up. lol

What I mean when I refer to compounded patience is that by combining patience and delayed gratification with the power of compounding, much like a bank account, you will eventually tap into exponential growth. Think of it this way…

Why do you put money into savings every month? Because it grows and grows, and eventually pays big, right?

Using two pieces of data from earlier — 30 posts and 35 weeks — consider this. Let’s say you were one of those rare immortals that could actually write an article per day. So, naturally, it takes you one month to hit your 30. Now what?

Put that site on the shelf and let it marinate for 35 weeks.

In the meantime, you do a little research and find another niche you like. Write an article per day and it takes you one month to hit your 30 for that niche. Now what?

Put that site on the shelf and let it marinate for 35 weeks.

And so on.

Can you see now how you could potentially have 12 profitable websites up and running in a very short time? Once you hit that 12 month mark, you are starting to see money coming in from site number one. And in month 13, site number two starts paying off. And on and on and on.

People tend to overestimate what they can accomplish in a day, and underestimate what they can accomplish in a year.

By having the patience to delay your gratification for 12 months, and by tapping into the compounding effect of multiple websites, you can potentially succeed beyond your wildest dreams. Just imagine where you will be in two years. Or three. How about five?

Number 6: How Long Do My Blog Posts Need to Be?

There is a old saying in Internet marketing: Content Is King!

As you might expect, Google ranks great content. It will only rank less than stellar content if it has no alternative. So, what exactly is great content?

Of course, you want content aimed at your target audience. Your articles should revolve around what they are looking for. That’s pretty obvious, right? But in order to determine what will make your content great, you must look at something that may not be so obvious… the competition.

Whenever you begin to write any article, do a search for that keyword. Look at the first page of results you get back. Remember, Google gives us nothing for free.

If you want to be in the Top 10, you have to deserve to be there. No one is just going to give you their spot; you gotta take it from them. So, how do you do that? Create better content.

If their post is full of fluff and information that even the cat knows, then you write something unique that provides real value. If their post is 500 words, you write 1000. If theirs is 1000, you write 2000. If theirs is all text, you add images. If they have images, you add a video. And so on…

You have to do whatever is necessary to create the ultimate resource for your reader. Add bullets. Add handy links. Add a freaking podcast episode where you interviewed the top expert in your niche. Do whatever it takes.

How long does your post need to be? I don’t know… what’s it going to take for you to knock them off the throne and steal their crown?

Number 7: Do I Have to Pay for Ads?

No! Never, ever, pay for advertising your site until you already know if it is a viable niche or you have money to burn. If I had a dime...

Yes, you can pay for traffic to come to your site (I did). And, yes, it can and does really help (it did). Unfortunately, I see too many people spending a ton of money on marketing long before they know what they are doing (I spent waaaayyyyy too much!)

Spending money on advertising is not a golden ticket. You can waste a ton of cash just trying to tweak your offer, and most new marketers simply don’t have that kind of money to burn.

Stick with free, organic traffic until you better understand online marketing. You’ll thank me later.

Number 8: Should I Set a Goal?

Most people have heard of SMART Goals. While it is debatable how effective this system actually is, it is still important that you set a goal for yourself.

Good goals are what drives us. It’s the thing that keeps us up late and wakes us up early in the morning. Your goal should inspire you to do whatever it takes to make it in this business.

A good strategy for making goals is the be precise in some things and loose in others. You must be firm, yet flexible. Here’s what I mean…

For example, let’s say that you set a goal to lose 10 pounds in a month. Contrary to what many people might think, this is actually not a good goal. Losing 10 pounds in a month is an outcome. You cannot control outcomes. There are too many variables.

What you can control, however, is that you will go to the gym every day. That is a goal. You have absolute control over that, because it is only dependent on your decisions and your actions.

Thus, you should absolutely set goals for your affiliate business. Just make sure they are goals and not outcomes.

Your “goal” should not be to have 1000 visitors to your site every month. Again, that’s an outcome you can’t control. Instead, your goal should be to write one article per day. Your goal should be to create one video per week. Your goal should be to communicate with five fellow WA members in the comments, or spend 15 minutes per day in the Live Chat asking questions and helping others out. Those are things you have total control over.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. The top 8 things I wish I would have known before I started affiliate marketing.

Yes, I know some of this can be scary. But I also feel it is important for us to have honest expectations of what this business truly entails. But if you maintain an honest mindset, and you never, ever, give up, I promise that you will be successful… it’s only a matter of time.

Please leave your thoughts and comments below and let me know what you think. Do you agree, or am I unequivocally off my rocker? :-)

Thanks.