Q: There seems to be a lot of fast-talking scheisters out there wanting to teach the subject of affiliate marketing. I’m wanting to build a solid affiliate marketing business over time, not a quick cash approach. What’s the best ‘first step’ in learning how to build a solid affiliate marketing business?
A: First of all, I wanted to look up scheister, so I could be sure to spell it correctly.
I checked in with my old, hard cover Webster’s New World Dictionary to get a dictionary definition for anybody not familiar with the term.
So, a scheister is a slag term, especially for a lawyer, who uses unethical or tricky methods. Also described as a pettifogger.
Now I am not familiar with the word pettifogger, but it doesn’t sound like a good thing to be.
As far as the first step in building a solid affiliate marketing business, I would suggest the first step would be to start up a blog.
Just go out and get a hosting account, which can run as low as $7/month or so. Pick a host that will provide a free installed of WordPress, which I would suggest for running your new blog.
You will also need a “theme,” which is essentially the layout of your blog. These are really easy to install on WordPress. There are many available for free.
Plus, purchase a domain name, which will run you about $8/year.
After that, start blogging about am issue to topic that interests you.
Populate the blog with some content, and then link it up to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts.
When you’ve got a week or two of content, start testing out some relevant affiliate offers on your site. You’re not going to see much activity for a while, because you don’t have much of an audience, yet.
But stick with it.
This is a great time to learn, because you’re not investing much money into it. Consider the process an education.
As you’re learning, search on Google for affiliate marketing blogs and forums to interact with others and pick up tips on improving your site.
You can go months with an investment of $50, so it’s a pretty low threshold. Good luck.
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Great advice. Best to start with twitter and facebook, lots of people there, lots of traffic too and eventually you’ll be able to create your own community. In time, you’ll be able to expand on to other social media marketing tools so you can build relationship with others in your niches as well as promote your services or products.
I agree with Shawn, the very first step you should take is to get hosting and set up a blog. Those are probably the biggest hurdles in the very beginning. I know when I started just getting a hosting account was confusing for me. I mean which package of hosting, how many email addresses do you need, what is a subdomain, etc. Get that confusion all out of the way one time and you’ll be set to start setting up a website. Secondly I’d go with a hosting provider that has Simple Scripts or Fantastico, they will automatically install Wordpress on your site with pretty much a click of a button. No database building, ftp’ing, etc. Hope that help.s
Hi Erin -
Agreed, I was just providing the raw basics, because so many folks are coming into it without a clue on what to do to even start a site.
As far as I am concerned, it’s a never ending process of learning from there. I have been an affiliate since the 90s, and I’m always looking for new ways to improve my sites and traffic sources.
Hi Shawn, I read your blog almost daily but missed this one earlier this month. I think it’s a super important discussion.
As an AM for an in-house affiliate program I hear this question all the time. I also see a second question being asked all over the Net much later… “So what was the best “first step” in learning how to build a solid affiliate marketing business?”
Yes the questions are nearly identical. The difference is, the second question is asked out of frustration several months or even a year into a new affiliate’s journey into affiliate marketing. Many people need a step-by-step process were they research and lay out a plan – in addition to using the right tools. If they just “start blogging” they don’t have any direction. Sure, they’re learning all kinds of cool stuff which they’ll likely be able to use along the way, but the problem is they don’t really know where they are going.
If I was just starting in affiliate marketing if someone suggested that I start a blog, get a hosting account and use WordPress, I wouldn’t know what to do after that. What to blog about? Where do I find quality affiliate programs? Are topics I’m interested in something others will be too? And more importantly will my topic have a chance to be profitable?
I think it’s important to back up a little and ask what exactly it is you want to do in affiliate marketing. Do you want to blog without really having a plan? Or build an affiliate marketing business with a well researched action plan? My guess is that the majority of those getting into affiliate marketing need more foundational direction.
Just my .02 cents.
Uh… good luck.
I better make some kind of income or I’m going to evict the fiance.
Good sound advice unlike what you would get from a jewish lawyer, of course there is a lot more to it, but there is nothing like starting out with truthful advice, that leads you to the right path. I would agree that a good business program can be a great help to, in one of these you will find much the same advice only with more detail, where you will learn about pluggins etc, such as Stealth Profit Machines.
It’s all relative – WordPress may be tricky for people just getting into creating an online presence, but compared with writing HTML by hand, WordPress is pure pleasure.
True, although I’d contend that Word Press can be a big hassle. To me it is the equivalent of going into Home Depot and saying, sure I buy and build the shed, only to waste several weekends on the project. I’d just be sure to use a platform that comes with a help desk. Maybe Word Press plus the purchase of a quality theme such as “Thesis” makes more sense, since they’ll provide support, so the site owner can spend time on content and affiliate marketing technique.
PS: Very cool spam filter – “click the biggest number, perfect circle etc.”
Of course, tools don’t create success, but they can make it easier to stick with it if they’re not a hassle.
To focus on the wonders of word press or saving a few dollars on a web host is to miss the point. I would bet that most people fail in affiliate marketing because they don’t understand how to define and build a viable online business. While Word Press is great as a technology foundation, I bet it does not improve the odds of success. I would be that any structured course or program offered by a reputable author creates a vast competitive advantage over an individual that signs up with a host, launches word press and throws some links onto a page.
Yes, there are some skeptics that will say anything you find in a book or other educational product can be found in forums or blogs.
However, it’s not that easy. There is so much information, much of which is incorrect, to filter through, when you’re looking for guidance in forums and blogs.
Glad to help – that’s the best way to approach it (promoting products you believe in), in my opinion.
I agree, Tom – it’s so much easier to give it a shot with WordPress these days.
The learning curve is minimal compared to writing HTML in the past.
I used to hand code all of my affiliate sites, and I am so glad I moved them over to WordPress a while back.
People think of WordPress as a blogging platform, but it’s a content management system, and you can just use the “Pages” part of it, instead of the “Posts” if you wish.
AffiliateSummit.com is powered by WordPress.
I agree with what you have said. I’m working on changing some of my websites over to blogs now. I have a great amount of content on these sites, but I would like for them to get more consistent and numerous content additions that a blog can give them. I’ve just gotten into using Facebook and Twitter so I know that will drive more traffic to the site. Great information here!
Hey Shawn – great recommendations for a beginner. Even if blogging doesn’t end up being the focus of an affiliate’s business down the road, it is a great way to dip your toe into the water and learn as you go – with minimal cost. There are a ton of lessons you can learn from building and promoting your blog that easily translate to other types of online marketing.
I certainly didn’t mean to offend – I also looked up the definition in a couple other places, including Urban Dictionary, and while I saw that the origin was Yiddish, none of the definitions indicated that it was an insult towards Jewish people.
I think it’s sweet that you’ve never heard the word sheister/shyster before. You should probably know that the word can actually be considered offensive toward Jewish people, since many people use it to derogatorily refer to Jews or more specifically, Jewish lawyers.
I agree with Shawn that the key to affiliate marketing is to just get going. However, I never regretted any investment made in education. In general, I found the top courses to be invaluable. They save me months of time in terms of understanding what works and what doesn’t. Just going the GoDaddy route has a 90% chance of failure, since not all ideas for a site concept are create equal. Instead, seek out those in the industry (like Shawn and Andrew Wee), that have taken the popular courses, and see what they say. Here’s a blog post on my experience. I hope it helps – http://www.roguemarketer.typepad.com/making_money_from_the_tra/
You have a great personality and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from you in this video.
I am a writer and I am thinking about becoming an affiliate for a product I believe in.
Thank you for this great introduction.
Hey Tom -
I missed hitting the shift key for that hosting number – it should have been $7/month. All fixed now.
Hi Shawn,
Definitely a solid post for beginners.
To everyone: it’s really not hard at all to get started. And, $47/month for hosting is actually on the high end; you can get started with that for under $10 nowadays, with another $5-7 for the domain name. That’s in incredibly low barrier of entry for anyone.
And as for the content, you definitely need to stick with it, as Shawn says here. You’re not going to see results in a day or maybe not even in a week, but it’s imperative to keep going, otherwise you won’t EVER see results since you’d be stopping short of the point where you’re getting traffic.
Oh, and a last thing: using the plugins on Wordpress like a Tweet button or a Facebook-share button, your visitors can actually drive traffic to your blog FOR you. Social media is so viral now, so you should really capitalize on that for your own blog.
Thanks again Shawn,
-Tom
http://www.5figureaffiliate.com
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