Mastering Affiliate Marketing Strategies: The Guitarist’s Guide!

byFrankB-1

6.4K followers

Updated 4 days ago

(Title image by DALL-E 3)

Hi WA Friends!

Yesterday, I was playing one of my oldest guitars, a 1970 Fender Stratocaster that I bought as a high school student. It cost a princely sum of $328, including the factory Olympic White custom finish. I bought it from my local music store, where the owner knew my parents well and let me take the guitar home that day and pay him twenty dollars a week!

Although it was already a great guitar, as I got older and more experienced, I realized there were things I could improve. Over the years, I made small changes to make it play and sound better and modified the guitar in several ways to keep it playable as it aged, eventually making it ideal for performing heavy metal music.

During my jam session, I realized how similar the changes I made to my guitar are to how online marketing, especially affiliate marketing, works. Even when you can start with something good, you always have to keep tweaking and improving to get the best results.

So, here are some key things you may want to consider while building and caring for your online business.

Start With a Good Foundation

When I got my Stratocaster, it was already known as a great guitar for Rock and Blues. There were so many great guitars I could have purchased at the time, but I fell in love with the Olympic White Strat with a rosewood neck that my guitar hero, Jimi Hendrix, was playing at the time. There's a very cool photo of him playing it on the Electric Ladyland album.

Electric Ladyland Album With Olympic White Stratocaster

The same goes for online marketing. You need a good foundation to build on. This means starting with a solid product or service and having a clear plan for what you want to achieve. I knew my guitar was exactly what I needed to play music in the style of bands like Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple, and you should also see the potential in your marketing strategy.

In affiliate marketing, this means choosing the right products to promote. You don’t want to just promote anything; you need to select products that are high-quality and relevant to your audience. A good foundation is essential if you want long-term success!

Make Small Changes Over Time

As I played my guitar more, I realized certain things could be improved. So, I started with small changes. I changed the strings regularly, adjusted the string action (height) to make it easier to play, and even replaced the pickups to get a better tone. Each change made the guitar a little better for my particular playing style.

Online marketing works the same way. You don’t need to overhaul everything all at once. Instead, make small improvements. For example, you might update your content to make it more engaging or adjust your website layout to improve user experience. In affiliate marketing, you can experiment with different product links or try out new ways to promote your offers.

Small changes can lead to big improvements over time. You just need to be patient and keep working on it.

Know Your Limitations

I played that guitar so much that over the years that I began to wear down the frets on the neck. Fret irregularities made it difficult to get a good sound without the string buzzing. I knew I wasn’t qualified (back then) to replace the guitar frets, and I couldn't find anyone to fix the neck, so I bought a new one with taller frets and a flatter fretboard. I ordered it from Phil Kubicki, who was a famous guitar builder in California. It took forever to come because he was building a guitar for John Fogerty! Lol 😆

In online marketing, it's important to know what you can and can't do. If your website is having problems that you can't overcome and you aren't an expert in certain areas, like SEO, it might be better to use tools that can get the job done better than you could on your own or hire a pro. Recognizing your limitations can save you time and improve your overall strategy.

Set Yourself Apart From Your Competition

As time went on, I replaced the stock pickups in my guitar with Seymour Duncan prototype Hot Rails and added a mini toggle switch for more pickup combinations. This upgrade made the guitar less noisy and gave me access to a wider variety of sounds that were becoming popular in Metal music. I still have those prototype pickups in the guitar, which I think sound hotter than the commercial model!

In online marketing, standing out from the competition is key. Similar to how my guitar had a more unique sound after the pickup upgrade, your marketing strategy needs to be unique. You can achieve this by offering better content, more relevant product recommendations, or simply improving the user experience on your website. The goal is to make sure your audience sees value in what you offer that others don’t provide!

Expand Your Reach

I replaced some of the guitar's stock hardware with a Kahler locking tremolo system and Sperzel locking tuners with a graphite nut. These modifications gave me better whammy bar control and tuning stability. Now I could do Metal powerchord divebombs without putting the guitar out of tune! 😎

In marketing, expanding your reach is just as important. This could mean targeting new audiences, using different marketing channels, or trying out new content formats like video or podcasts. By making adjustments that improve your reach, you get access to a broader and more engaged audience, the way my guitar became more versatile with those upgrades.

Keep Up With New Technology

One thing I learned with my Stratocaster is that new technology can make a big difference. When I added more modern hardware and electronics to my guitar, it sounded better and became more versatile.

The same is true in online marketing. New tools and technologies are always coming out, and it’s important to stay updated. For example, in affiliate marketing, new tracking tools can help you better understand which products are performing well. things like SEO tools can help you optimize your content to rank higher in search results. And don't forget about implementing artificial intelligence to help you organize your thoughts, do your research, and help write your content. I used ChatGPT to help me add the affiliate marketing similarities to my guitar story.

Change Your Look

My guitar sounded so rad that a friend who was a skateboard freak and serious competitor presented me with a sticker from a company called RipStik. I stuck it on the body of my guitar to make it more appealing to metalheads everywhere, hahaha. We were both amazed at the visual transformation and it made me play more aggressively, too, lol! 😂
Ripstik products are still available today, sold by a company called Razor.

Ripstik Ripster Skateboard

Changing your look in marketing can have a similar effect. Sometimes, rebranding or freshening up your website design is necessary to keep up with the times and stay relevant. Whether it’s changing your logo, updating your color scheme, or reworking your website layout, a new look can make a big difference in how people perceive your brand.

Test and Tweak Constantly

The process of improving my guitars never really ends. I’m always testing out new pickups, bridges, and amps to see what works best with them. All these years later, I have over sixty guitars and a couple of dozen amplifiers, plus I learned how to build, modify, and repair guitars when I did a three-year luthery apprenticeship.

Similarly, in online marketing, especially with affiliate strategies, you need to keep testing what works. It might be adjusting headlines, testing different keywords, or switching up your promotional methods. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Not every change will be a success, but each one brings you closer to the perfect strategy. Like with my guitars, you'll never stop learning how to make things better!

Security

After having a strap come loose while playing a Les Paul, which caused the guitar to crash to the stage floor and crack the neck, I knew I needed a more secure way to hold the guitar. I had the guitar neck repaired and replaced the stock strap buttons on the Les Paul and my Stratocaster with DiMarzio strap locks. This simple upgrade made sure my guitars wouldn’t fall and suffer a similar fate!

Here's a photo of me (on the left) playing at the Mississippi Jazz Club in Rome, Italy, in 1981. The guy in the middle is playing the Les Paul guitar with the repaired broken neck. Lesson learned! I was in my twenties back then. Where did the time go? Lol 🤣

Mississippi Jazz Club 1981 (me on the left)

In online marketing, security is just as important. Whether it’s ensuring your website has SSL certificates, using secure payment gateways, or protecting customer data, you need to have safeguards in place. Just like I wasn’t willing to take a chance on my guitar crashing again, you can’t afford to risk your website or your customers' information. By implementing these layers of security, you build trust and protect your investment!

Return On Investment

Today, a 1970 Fender Stratocaster in mint condition can sell for as much as $10,000 to $15,000. With all the road wear and modifications I’ve made, I could probably sell mine for $3,000 to $4,000. Sure, I reduced its market value, but I don’t regret a single change I’ve made to the guitar. The fun and musical enjoyment I’ve gotten out of it over the years are priceless!

In online marketing, return on investment (ROI) isn’t always just about the money, either. Sometimes, the investment you make in building a loyal audience, providing valuable content, and creating a strong brand is more about the long-term benefits and enjoyment it brings rather than immediate profits.

I didn’t focus solely on the resale value of my guitar, and you shouldn’t focus only on the short-term monetary gains of your marketing efforts. Sometimes, the satisfaction of creating something valuable and building strong relationships with your audience is the best ROI, which can eventually pay big dividends!

Tell Me What You Think

My 1970 Fender Stratocaster has been with me for decades, and it’s improved with each change I made. Do you have something that's precious to you that has been modified to grow better over the years?

How much risk are you willing to take in your business to create the best outcome for you and your readers?

Let me know what you think in the comments, ... AND

Keep On Rocking! 🤘

My 1970 Fender Stratocaster guitar, modified for heavy metal.

Frank 🎸

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