The Jeff Bezos Conundrum And Valuable Lessons For Affiliate Marketing

What is the Jeff Bezos Conundrum? It is simply this.

Mr. Bezos founded Amazon in 1995. It wasn't until 2001 that Amazon made a profit. It took him SIX YEARS!

What was Jeff doing all that time? I saw him in interviews back then and he didn't seem to care if Amazon was making a profit or not.

He had a secret weapon that would eventually make Amazon one of the most successful companies in the world. And Jeff, one of the richest men in the world.

Can you figure out what his secret weapon was? And how that could be applied to our affiliate marketing business?

Amazon's main focus was on building traffic and growing market share first. Jeff instinctively knew that once he had created a ton of loyal customers, profits would roll in. And did they roll in?

Why Am I Talking About This?

When I joined Wealthy Affiliate I was oblivious to how this business worked. I don't mean the mechanics of affiliate marketing. It was the perennial question about when could I start to see income rolling in.

Now that I have been a member for several years, I see myself in many new members who have that same question.

There is a great deal of interest in using affiliate links right from the time they build their website. Guess what. My very first website had affiliate links on it. I made sure that nearly all my posts had affiliate links.

The logic I used was, to make money I needed to sell stuff. To sell stuff I had to use affiliate links.

The Painful Lesson

I could have all the affiliate links in the world, but with little traffic how could I make sales? The art of building traffic takes time. For some more time than others.

If it took Jeff Bezos SIX YEARS to draw sufficient traffic to earn a profit who am I to think I can do better than him?

Actually, in affiliate marketing, we can start to earn a profit sooner. Once we have streams of regular traffic coming in.

How To Build Traffic

Focus on understanding in detail who your target audience is. Learn what problems they are facing. Do the research to find out how you can help them solve those problems.

Without throwing affiliate links at them.

Do this by providing helpful tips. Discuss in general terms what kind of product or services they would need. Make your posts as helpful as possible. Provide value!

Write a ton of posts while monitoring your traffic say once a week or even at greater intervals. Do not check your traffic every day.

In the early stages of your website instead of asking your visitors to click your affiliate link, ask for comments and questions as your call to action.

Even ask your readers if they know of better solutions. In this way, you will not be seen as someone just wanting to sell them something they may not be ready for.

Instead, you will develop a reputation of being a valuable resource and not a huckster. When you develop trust, your visitors will follow your call to action.

When To Pull The Trigger

This is different for each person and the niche they choose. Generally speaking, when you have a minimum of 5000 followers and about 100 clicks per post this is a good time to start using affiliate links.

Some niches don't even need this level of traffic. If you are able to make connections with a small loyal following, it is possible to use affiliate links and start earning an income early.

While other niches, like the Make Money Online (MMO), can require a higher level of traffic to get conversions.

The point is your posts must have some level of traffic to be able to make money.

Ranking And Income

When your post ranks on the first page of the search engines that also is a good signal to start using affiliate links.

Landing on page 1 doesn't guarantee anyone will click your post.

The meta tags can also influence a searcher to click your post if those words resonate with them. Wealthy Affiliate training teaches us how to do all of this effectively.

Final Guidelines

Use the training in the Online Entrepreneurial Certification Course as well as the weekly Premium classes run by Wealthy Affiliate's Live Training Coach, Jay Neil to guide you on this topic.

In order to avoid disappointment, don't rush into using affiliate links too early and find you do not get the results you were expecting.

Focus on building a strong foundation for your niche website and you will reap the results you are expecting. This means, following the training, doing the homework, and creating content consistently.

If writing only one post a week is the most you can manage because you are working 60-hour weeks, keep doing this like clockwork. The goal is to write at least three posts a week in order to get results sooner rather than later.

It took Jeff Bezos six years before he earned a profit for Amazon. If you can earn a profit in say one to three years that keeps growing, consider yourself an astounding success.

I wish you much success in your affiliate marketing journey.

Cheers!

Edwin