Monday, May 17, 2010

Affiliate Marketing Overwhelm


Feeling overwhelmed with affiliate marketing? It is easy to think that you have bit off more than you can chew, but you really did not.

There is good reason for feeling overwhelmed any time you start anything new, including affiliate marketing. There is a lot to learn. And there is a lot of advice.

This post explores the sources of overwhelm and what to do about it.

Too Much Advice

When you decided to pursue affiliate marketing, you began searching online for information. And you found a lot of it! There is all sorts of information about affiliate marketing on the internet. 

Some of the information is free. Some people will try to sell you some version of a get rich quick scheme. How do you sort through all of the hype?

You can stop the endless surfing by grabbing a paper pad and pencil and do something simple: start taking notes. After you have created a fair amount of notes, sift through the notes and try to make sense of it all. Try to put it into some kind of logical order.

When you are done with the notes. You have to start.

Know Where to Start

Your internet marketing career needs to start somewhere. If you followed the note taking advice above, you have started to consolidate your thoughts and are working through the learning phase of your new endeavor. 

At this point, you have enough information to start evaluating the offers and assistance available to you.

Two sources to investigate are Wealthy Affiliate University and WordPress Goldmine.

Get Support

It can be lonely when you embark on your new internet marketing campaign. You also may be surrounded by plenty on naysayers. 

This is where it is helpful to find a forum community of like minded people. Wealthy Affiliate University and WordPress Goldmine have forums with a helpful community.

The secret of getting out of the beginning affiliate marketing overwhelm is to make sense of the information, find a place to start, and get the support of a community.


Isolation is a dream killer - Barbara Sher
Don't go it alone. Join a community.



Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Ready to Start Affiliate Marketing - Where Are You?


Are you new to affiliate marketing? Have you ever worked for yourself?

Working for yourself can be rewarding. But if you have never done it, you might need to make some personal changes. You may need to change to get the correct mindset to become successful.

Are you ready for change? Here are the five stages.

1. Not thinking about changing

You do not see the need to change anything that you are doing. You think that all you need to do is sit in front of the computer and internet riches will come to you. You might think that you need to make some changes, but you are not ready. It is easier to try something new by using your old behaviors.

2. Thinking about changing, but not ready to try

Okay, affiliate marketing is not working out for you. Maybe you need to do something different, but you are not ready to try. You can see how changing your methods is beneficial, but there are so many reasons why you cannot get there. There are too many obstacles. There is too much to learn, too much to do. There is no time. It is a lot of effort to try.

3. Preparing for change

The message is getting through to you. In order to be successful in internet marketing, you understand that you need to do things differently. You can see the benefits and they are beginning to look more attractive than the negatives. You are starting to do things, the right things. This is the time to learn new skills, set realistic goals and develop a plan.

4. Implementing change

Evolving to here from stage three requires completion of a personal action plan. At this point you are working the plan. Patience is required now because it takes three to six months of work trying to implement the plan. You are developing lifetime habits to help you become successful. Expect setbacks and prepare for them so you do not derail.

5. Maintenance

You have been working your plan for six months and you are beginning to see benefit. The benefits may be small at first, but you are definitely seeing them. You are less likely to slip at this point. Notice what is working for you and do more of it.

You may not see affiliate marketing as a personal growth issue, but if you are struggling, it is probably because you need to make changes. At some point you need the training and to develop a personal plan. It is tough to do it alone. Find the training you need and put together a support group to help you.

If you believe that you are at stage 3 in your affiliate marketing career, need extra training and could use a support community, visit Wealthy Affiliate University to get to the training, help, and resources to become a successful affiliate.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Goal Setting Is Your Success to Affiliate Marketing


Success in affiliate marketing has a lot to do with setting goals and working toward them. It is easy to be overwhelmed with everything that you need to learn and do when you are first starting out in affiliate marketing.

There is a gap between "where you are" and "where you want to be". To bridge that gap, you need set short term goals. There are five steps involved in goal setting.

Step 1 - Identify what you want to have happen
  • What do you want from affiliate marketing?
  • Do you want full-time income, part-time income, work from home, or what?
  • Break the goal down into smaller short term goals.
  • Consider if your goal is realistic. Making $3000 a month may be initially unrealistic, but $100 a month is more achievable and will set you down the path of your higher monthly income goal.
Step 2 - Determine how you will know when you achieve it
  • Identify specific criteria such as making enough money for living. How much is that exactly? How many dollars a month do you need to live?
  • Identify specific, observable behaviors such as every day: I write x number of articles, create x number of back links, run x number of PPC campaigns.
Step 3 - Determine what are you willing to do or give up to become a successful affiliate marketer
  • Are you willing to put in the time and effort into things that are important to do that may not be fun and definitely boring?
  • There are a number of things you "should do", but are you willing? If you are not willing, or ready, you cannot move to step 4.
Step 4 - When?
  • When are you going to start taking action?
  • Achieving a goal requires think about it, planning the steps and actually doing the steps.
  • It is more effective to establish goals for short time frames such a weeks or a month instead of years away.
  • Setting specific time limits for actions is an important form of measurement.
Step 5 - Identify the stoppers
  • What is stopping you? What are the roadblocks ahead? Identify them and plan ahead for them to avoid setbacks.
  • What do you need to take care of today so that you can move forward?
When you are starting out in affiliate marketing, there are three main obstacles to your success:
  • There is a lot to learn,
  • Information overload, and
  • Going it alone.
Not getting overwhelmed, not knowing what to do and having no support are all obstacles to your affiliate marketing success. At Wealthy Affiliate University you can get everything you need to be successful at Internet marketing. Click the link and find out.

Help For Affiliate Marketing Overwhelm


It is easy to become overwhelmed when learning about affiliate marketing. There is good reason for this. There is a lot to learn, everyone, including their in-laws, are trying to sell you (often conflicting) advice. Plus you have never done anything on the web before.

There Is Way Too Much Information

When you decided to pursue affiliate marketing, you most likely immediately began searching online for information. And you found it! There is all sorts of information about affiliate marketing on the internet. Some of it is free, but mostly, people will try to sell you some version of a get rich quick scheme. How do you sort through all of the hype?

To sort through the free stuff, stop the endless surfing by grabbing a paper pad and pencil and start taking notes. After you have accumulated a fair set of notes, start sifting through the notes and try to make sense of it all.

It is Hard to Know Where to Start

Affiliate marketing like all pursuits needs to start somewhere. If you followed the note taking advice above, you have started to consolidate the learning phase of your new endeavor. Now you have enough information to seriously start evaluating the offers and assistance available to you.
Check the online reviews and your notes an choose a good beginner program for internet marketing.

Need Help

It's lonely out there! When you embark on your new internet marketing campaign, you may be surrounded by plenty on naysayers. This is where it is helpful to find a forum community of like minded people. Don't go it alone. Join a community.