I had some interesting comments when I first started publishing this info on the importance of adding Click References to your Affiliate Links.

One thing some of you may notice is that I don’t always cloak my links… to be honest in my opinion the majority of everyday consumers are not familiar with what is and what isn’t an affiliate link, its only us IMers who really know the difference. So you don’t have to cloak all your links, just thought I would mention that as I am sure someone is bound to ask..

Don’t forget to post your comments below and if you do find this information useful why not share it with others…. go on….

The buzz at the moment is most definitely QR codes (Quick Response).  It will be very interesting to see how these things develop over the coming months.

How cool would it be if we could create our own codes for Affiliate products. For example lets say you placed an ad in a trade magazine or distributed a flyer in the High street or local shopping Centre or Mall, promoting a product you where an Affiliate for and when the code was scanned it also included your Affiliate ID. Could this be the future of Affiliate Marketing for consumer products.

I am sure we will all be watching this with great interest.

Just as a test if you do have a reader on your Phone try this code I created and let me know if it works.
Would welcome your comments.

The thing is if we are creating content which we then publish to the web.. that must mean we are web designers are we not?

OK back to the real purpose of this post.. Way back in the days of dial-up connections when things where much slower on the web and much harder, having a shopping basket on your site was something that people would pay out a fortune to have as a feature on their website. Simply doing it yourself was not going to happen. Unless you studied hard and spent time learning database MSQL PHP in fact back in those days it was CGI Bins in stuff.

However today it is a different story because you can now have a shopping cart with all the features you need simply by pushing a button,… well pushing a button and filling in some boxes.

But wait Mark… I hear you say “why  in the Sam hell do I need a shopping cart” not sure if people say “why in the Sam hell” but I do hear it in the odd film now and again…. OK back to the plot.

In my opinion having an e Commerce facility on your website is a great way of finding out much more about how your visitors interact with your website. And if you do have a physical product to sell then it’s a no brain-er. Also even if you are just an Affiliate for a product adding a shopping cart feature to your website can be very effective indeed.

These three videos where published on Facebook recently, I may be adding to these but I am sure some of you may find them useful.

If you have found the information in these videos useful I would love to see you comments below, also if you want to keep up-to date with some of the stuff I am sharing why not join us on Facebook at the Affiliate Masterclas.

When I started my Internet journey quite a number of years ago I quickly realised that learning to build/create content and web pages was going to be the key to any real success.. Over the years I worked at speeding up the process, I am sure you all know that building content is time consuming.

The problem was how do I monetise it?

One other major factor was how do I find the buyers, and what is it that they want to buy?

Just check out my first video below would love to see your comments. I was just testing it here but there is more you can do with it. Just thought I would use this opportunity to give my old friend (The Tipster) a mention.

GoAnimate.com: Who's the guy they talk about in your office? by Affiliate Masterclass

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

When you start to explore it I am sure you will see he potential it may have, well for a little while until the novelty wears off.. Forgot to say that this is FREE.. but you can get the paid version.

I used something similar years ago called SitePal, it used a similar text video feature, I am sure there will be lots of videos soon on how to use it.. however your comments would be appreciated. Thanks

If you are not familiar with the old system let me briefly explain it to you, what happened in the past..  not that long ago really, but it was a time when the infamous Gurus ruled the Earth..

What happened quite often was a group of these guru types would get together and create  a Buzz about the latest up and coming product, the product creator would offer his/her JV’s and a handful of trusted affiliates a massive commission if they assisted with generating this hype for a particular product.

In return for this hype they would be paid handsomely for getting newbies and other mere mortals to sign up to the subsequent program, by adding themselves to a list…. resulting in 1000′s of subscribers and lots of dollars as a result. It was a win win situation for both the creator and the team of Jv’s and affiliates.

BUT……….. today people are less likely to promote a new product and I think many of you know why? Is it that we are all in fear of it being labeled as rubbish? Because  if it is rubbish you can now be held accountable, not just by the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), but the new power,  the one we are all starting to embrace, quite simply it’s the  voice of social media.

This new power can destroy reputations in seconds. Thus resulting in more people discovering  the UNSUBSCRIBE button. Doing this breaks the chain which means the lower echelons of new Internet marketers never get to hear about the product and therefore there are less sales.

Have you not noticed how quiet things are amongst those we labeled as gurus? (or is it because you to have unsubscribed from the LIST ). mmmmmmmm or are they hatching a new plan?

There will be interesting times ahead, so lets get back to some real marketing… what do you say?

Is the novelty wearing off, are you finding you are spending less time on your profile. I would love to know how much time you devote to Facebook. I was addicted for a few months then I started to realise it was beginning to take over my life, are you a Facebook addict or have you managed to ween yourself of this fascination with the like and share buttons.

Although I can see the point in keeping a presence I am not convinced that it is something I should spend more than an hour on each day. I have noticed a drop in activity from many of the people I connected with in the IM niche, unless it’s me they are avoiding ooooww paranoia is setting in.

Still think this guy sums it up nicely.

Many new Internet Marketers find that there are pieces missing from the puzzle, and continually find themselves getting nowhere fast. After a decade of being involved in this online money making game, I have come to realise that there are still so many good people simply throwing money down the toilet. Mainly because the message they are constantly being subjected to is wrong and in many cases un-ethical.

That’s one of the reasons I started the Affiliate Masterclass, to help people to understand that if they continue to look for the quick fix they will never succeed online.

It’s time to try to set the record straight by showing you that Affiliate Marketing requires much more than basic skills  and  a few affiliates links. Making money online isn’t difficult but it’s not easy either, you simply need to understand that there are primarily three main markets.

IM (Info Product Market)
This is the one the vast majority get drawn in to.  To really succeed in this market you have to create your own product, more often than not one that focuses on one of the main functions that  makes this market tick, i.e. list building, traffic generation, social media, etc,  if you don’t agree with me check your inbox right now and see which of the latest products you are being offered does not included any of these topics.  (if you are still buying these products you need to ask yourself why?). If you have already spent over a $1000.00 you are part of the reason why this market has been so successful over the years. If you are reading this and you are still no further forward than when you first started and looking for the next quick fix you are missing the point.

MLM (Network Marketing)
Sorry but I don’t even want to comment on this one, I simply don’t agree with the way this market gorges on the vulnerable. To succeed in this market you will have to be prepared to build a huge down line. This is just my opinion but when I meet people in this market they always remind me of the used car salesmen, not that there is anything really wrong with them but they give me the impression they would sell their granny if it meant making a profit.

Affiliate Marketing (to the consumer)
OK I may be bias here but this in my opinion is one I feel really comfortable in, promoting tangible consumer products. You simply make money in this market by driving targeted consumers to products they are looking to purchase online. It sounds simple but requires skill to make your living at it, it also requires a knowledge of the product, not to mention a relationship with the merchants or affiliate managers if you want to do it well at this.  However this is something almost anyone can learn, plus it is in my opinion the most ethical, and provides a long term solution to making a living online. Basically that’s what the Affiliate Masterclass is all about. Teaching you how to be a better affiliate marketer.

This video may help to explain. This is just one of the topics covered in the Affiliate Masterclass.

On thing I will need to point out is that when I refer to these type of sites I am in fact referring to Affiliate Websites, most people when they think of an affiliate site they quite often think of the one page website with an opt-in box, or a link to a product. That’s not what I am referring to when I say Affiliate Website.

Before we get to the nitty gritty I just want to explain a few things first.

We must first look at what makes a site an authority, there are many theory’s on this and over the years much has been written on the subject especially in the SEO community. In my opinion most of this is based on commonsense.

I often get asked the question by people on my coaching program if a particular site is an authority site or not. I always answer the question in the same way, for example would you bookmark the site, would you return to the site as a point of reference, was the site easy to navigate, does the site offer more than just a list of products. How long has the site been online, you can find this out by going to http://www.whois.net and see when the site was first registered. Also see how many pages have been indexed by Google and other search engines by adding  site:domainname.com to the search box. This will tell you how many pages have been indexed.

Many affiliate marketers start out by building lots of small sites, some of which are only live for a few months some much less. This is manly due to the way many who are drawn to this “make money online game” often by those that operate on what I refer to as the DARK SIDE,  often resulting in them being totally miss guided.

Before I get drawn off course here I would say that you will never have an authority site if you get sucked in to this world of the one page wonder..

So how do you turn an affiliate site in to an authority site?

First you must be prepared to put some work in. Your site will need to be more than just a bunch of links to affiliate products. If you are are operating in a particular niche think big, for example if you are operating in the baby niche don’t just put in links to products, include content about mother and baby stuff, if you have opinions about curtain topics write about them in your blog, your site should consist of a blog a store element, add a price comparison section, product reviews. Consider adding a directory to your site,  for example why not include links to local businesses related to your niche. Get them to link back to your site. As a minimum requirement you should be adding content to your site on a weekly basis. Keep it fresh keep it current keep it up to date.

Perhaps you are at the point where you have tried almost everything to make money online and so far you have made ZERO. While at the same time spent a small fortune getting nowhere fast.

At this point you often see a statement that says “it’s not your Fault” well actually it is your fault, if I was to gamble all my money on a horse race knowing the odds are never going to be in my favour unless I ride the damn horse myself, I am likely to loose a whole bunch of money, would my wife say never mind darling it’s not your fault? Now I know you know the answer to that one.

The biggest problem many people face in the IM World especially the Newbie info product market, is that they are never really taught anything of real value, just a handful of basics skills, more often than not they are simply sold a dream. If they are lucky they may get to know some of the basics like FTP, List Building, Traffic Generation, WordPress, Facebook etc… but actually never learn any real stuff.  Not many actually progresses beyond that. At best some go on to create a product that guess what………… teaches the basics and the cycle continues. Until people start to see whats happening and STOP!!!!

After more than 10 years watching this market, and yes I have been a victim too, but realised many years ago that to make any real money as an Affiliate Marketer I had to learn a whole bunch of stuff, so at the age of 40 I went back to university to study Marketing, over the last ten years I also learned Web Design, Photoshop, PHP, JavaScript, SEO  WordPress,  CSS, and guess what I am not going to say “I learned all these skills so you don’t have to”, I learned all these additional skills because in my opinion I knew that this was the only way to secure my future online. If you are looking for a magic money button then keep looking.