64 Lessons To Learn About Affiliate Marketing (Blog Checklist)

Do You Want To Learn About Affiliate Marketing?  I can’t believe I am saying this but I would like to try and teach you.

From a brand new starting point!  So forget everything they’ve taught you already… You don’t have to, but please just start again here and pay attention to learning or re-learning these fundamental things.

It’s like with every subject there are certain things that “seem plausible, but really are not at all”.  Exactly why so many new internet marketers fail before they have even really got to work in the first place.

I personally have had my ups and downs myself.  If truth be told there is still a bit of a way to go before I can really call myself successful. I’m getting there somehow but I think definitely there are some things I could have done with knowing about in the beginning that I didn’t.  

A few important lessons that would have really benefited me before I made all the mistakes that I did.

So, with this in mind here are my 64 Lessons That You Really Should Learn About Affiliate Marketing…

My aim here is NOT to straightaway teach you how to be successful but more so to put you on the right path.

Now Let’s Begin Shall We?

1# – Affiliate Marketing is NOT a sure way to get rich quickly.  If this is the type of thing you are looking for I suggest you should look somewhere else… See my 7 Side Hustles For New Website Owners and Affiliate Marketers Here

2# – To develop a successful online business with blogging and affiliate marketing you should be prepared to work hard for at least 6 months before you start earning any money.

3# – It is estimated that some 96% of new internet marketers give up WAY too early.  For many, they never actually last more than a few months because they are put off by NOT making any money.  Even for some simply not covering their outgoings is enough to put them off for good.

4# – On the other side of the spectrum the other 4% that do not give up in these first few months have ‘Not Surprisingly’ a much, much greater chance of things working out.  

Those that last over 1 year are said to have a 90% + chance of turning this into a successful business. 

5# – The harder you work in the beginning the sooner you are likelier to make your first commission.

6# – Yes, it does help to set targets.  Set goals for content, traffic, earnings, and ‘towards’ the necessary steps you need to succeed.  It may transpire that you achieve these goals.  If you don’t – don’t worry at least you have something to look forward to.  Sometimes just making progress is enough to keep you going short-term.

7# –  After your first 6 months are over to 1 year down the line if things are still not working out it’s possible you are doing something wrong.  Use this opportunity to reassess your previous work and try to spot what mistakes you might be making.

8# – Taking the leap from ZERO to your first $100 usually takes around 6 months but taking the leap from $100 to your first $1000 can happen in just ONE MONTH.

Getting To Know Affiliate Marketing

9# – Offer Value and Good Information rather than trying to sell people products all the time.  The goal is to help people make a decision (yes or no) it isn’t to persuade them to buy something from you.

10# – To be the best at what you do in the affiliate marketing space your first priority needs to be that you offer the best information you can with very clever techniques for sharing your affiliate links, etc.

11# – Although some people might say otherwise as they try to entice you to become their referral – having your own website is an absolute must.  Once you have a good blog set up you will know.

12# – The laptop lifestyle is all great but there are some places where you can’t work from; ie: beside a beach or swimming pool.  Don’t let your laptop get damaged if you are away on holiday – being mobile is a huge advantage productivity-wise.

1x# – Although, Internet Marketing is very hard work sometimes it is the easiest money you will ever make.

Selecting The Right Niche and Affiliate Offers

14# – You definitely need to find a good niche.  You can not just throw random ideas together and expect a result.

15# – For example “Cute Animal Videos” is likely not a good niche but “Ways To Mine CryptoCurrency for under $100” is.  

16# – The consequences of choosing the wrong niche could mean you spend a whole year or even more doing everything how you were supposed to but still have nothing to show for it.

17# – When deciding upon your niche it is always better to choose something you enjoy and are passionate about.

18# – It is possible that whichever direction you go (niche-wise) you can make money but…

19# – If You don’t know how to go about monetizing your niche everything you are doing could be a huge waste of time.

20# – DO NOT be intimidated away by the competition.  Instead, research what they are doing and see if you can do something similar.  I’m not saying to be a complete copycat but look at things like page elements, menus, headlines, etc.

GET INSPIRED!

Setting Up Your Website(s)

21# – Try NOT to get drawn into buying SHINY OBJECTS.  Such as Get-Rich-Quick Courses, Premium Plugins, Services, and whatever else.  I’m not saying to be totally frugal but whilst you are not making money prioritize the essentials and whatever allows you to keep developing your website for as long as possible.

22# – Despite what you might have been told by others creating a website for the first time is easy.  If you have decided upon what you want to do and are ready to begin writing your first bits of content you can create a free website here.

23# – Don’t try to be clever with your design.  The best thing you can do is to have black text on a white background.

24# – If you are just getting started you don’t need to straightaway shell out on a premium theme.  Basic is OK save your money for when you actually have made enough to cover these kinds of expenses.

25# – You will need a paid domain – sooner rather than later.   Get a cheap paid Domain name HERE

26# – Make sure you choose a good domain name that is related to your niche including keywords eg. Golf, Health, Skincare, etc.  Do not settle for variations of the name you have chosen that have hyphens and which are not “.Com”.  Look for other names instead and you can also use a valuation tool to find out how much your domain name is worth before you buy. This can make for a great investment later on if you really know what your doing with building a website  

27# – Other than a Domain You will also need hosting.  Try BlueHost, Siteground, or get Free Hosting with Wealthy Affiliate.

28# – When it comes to Plugins each can have an impact on Site speed. Try to keep plugins to a minimum.

29# – Sitespeed.  Keep below 2-3 seconds loading time because this could mean people leave your website(s) before they even read anything.   Test website speed at GTMetrix.com

30# – On your mobile phone or someone else’s see how your website appears.  Make notes of things you can improve for better viewing for mobile visitors.  

31# –   Don’t be afraid.  Take a good photo of yourself and it to your about me page so people can see who you are.  Avatars are all good and everything but if you really want to build trust with people share a picture.  Here is mine. 

32# – Do not get distracted.  Put the time and effort into work on your own website.  Guest posting is a great idea a bit further down the line but for now just create your own AMAZING content.

Traffic – The Key To Getting YOUR Work Seen

33# – This is VERY important when you get started with a new website.  Focus on new content (for SEO) not finishing an article and trying to promote it for the whole next day on Social Media.  Let Google do its job and just worry about what you are going to write for YOUR next post.

34# – Rather than going to mad sharing on Social Media use tools such as Missinglettr, Buffer, and IFTTT to automatically post on your behalf. Each tool has basic free options.

35# – You don’t straight away need all the jazz that goes with a website right away.  Hold off the Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest accounts, etc. until when you’ve got a bit more work done.  25 posts is a sensible goal.

36# – The main thing to know is organic traffic is something that grows over time.  So, don’t feel too downbeat if things are not happening as quickly as you’d like them to.

37# – Remember YOU are potentially only one post away.  From making the jump from 10 to 100 visitors a day.

38# – Don’t feel too disappointed if not every post on your website brings you traffic.  Some will do very well whilst others will get no visitors at all.  It happens to the very best of us.  Just keep plowing on ahead.  The more work you do the more will reach your intended audience. 

38# – A good point to pay attention to is at first your main goal should be getting new content out.  Once you develop you can begin tweaking your older content based on what you learn from your data.

39# – In terms of goal setting content should always be your focus in the days ahead.  At the very most post once a day (per website) and at the very least post once a week.  Remember you can always save drafts for publishing later on.

40# –  This is probably not too difficult to believe.  The more content you publish the more likely you are to turn your website into a successful business. 

41# – About making revisions to your old content.  This is actually a good idea as it can definitely help bring more traffic in but in your first year instead just focus on publishing new posts.  

42# – Writing evergreen content (content that stands the test of time) should have priority over @newsworthy content.  News articles are all good but save this for when you have developed your website after a good amount of time.

43# – Set up and Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools

44# – Also keep an eye on things through Google Analytics

45# – Use the two tools above to get a better understanding of traffic and data.  Also, submit your new URLs to the google search console and Bing webmaster tools for quicker indexing.  Be sure to add Sitemaps to your website(s) as well. You can find your sitemap in SEO tools such as Rankmath and Yoast.

Monetization With Affiliate Links

46# – Be patient.  As I’m sure I have explained above actually making money from affiliate marketing takes time.  It varies from person to person.  For some, it can be very quick, and for others, it can take what seems like forever.

47# – DO NOT expect to make your first affiliate commission in your 1st week or even in the first month.  I did it lol but was a very long time after that before I made any money again.  

Now I know that I was very, very lucky and this happens to hardly anyone.

48# – Writing Product Reviews is one of the best ways to make easy money and traffic.

49# – Instead of Affiliate Programs that only offer one-time deals try to find programs that offer recurring monthly commissions.  So you can get paid over and over again.

50# – It’s true it’s a lot harder to sell expensive high-ticket products but by comparison, if you are promoting something of lower value it is not that much more difficult.  For instance, making $500 is not 10 times harder than making $50.

51# – Choose your affiliate programs and offers carefully.  Make sure the products you are trying to promote are legit and that the affiliate vendor is the real deal and that they actually pay you.

52# – Try to diversify your affiliate offers so that if something goes wrong with your affiliate vendor at least you have a backup.

53# – Create as many affiliate opportunities as possible.  This is the best way to get rich with affiliate marketing.  It’s all about the numbers.  The more the merrier.

54# – Try to keep a record of everything you can.  For every affiliate vendor, usernames, passwords, and phone numbers if different.  Often you can forget about some things you join so this is a great way to go through and check everything all together.

55# – Make your content unique.  Always try to put your own original spin on things NOT just a typical different spin on something you have read on another website.

56# – Not being an authority or an expert within your niche doesn’t mean you won’t make affiliate commissions.

57# – Unfortunately, yes you will have to pay taxes on your affiliate commissions.  So try to keep a record of everything.

58# – As mentioned you should keep a record of earnings, goals, traffic, etc. but never let it consume you.

59# – Keeping track of things means you can manage things.  Managing things means you can take things a step further.

Taking YOUR Affiliate Business To New Heights

60# – Once you have finally started to make money from one website.  This is a great opportunity to start again with a brand new project.  If you do this properly there really is no limit to what money you can make.

61# – For building scaleability within your affiliate marketing business   Keep doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

62# – For sure you can buy a website ready-made but here is the thing…

63# – It is better to learn how to build a successful website before you buy a website to try and make it successful.

64# – The next step you definitely should consider is successfully implementing Email Marketing.  This alone might just be the very thing that really makes the difference in terms of making nothing and bucketloads of money.

Now That You Have Read All Of This…

How would YOU like to take a chance to make a start on this fantastic training for FREE?

Honestly,  my 64 Lessons To Learn About Affiliate Marketing (Blog Checklist) above should be very helpful for you but if you would like to this a step further the screenshot above is the training that I used personally to develop this website and others.

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For me, it seems like a lifetime ago when I joined.  It definitely felt like a lost cause at times but when I got the chance to become an annual member and as I got more content published I did finally start to see its worth.

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See YOU on the inside! 

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