General Marketing - Affiliate Marketing

I've never really been the type to go in for meeting lot's of people and networking big style are you?

That's not my scene. I much prefer to get my head down and get on with whatever project I am working on with as few interruptions as possible.

However it's not always good to live in a bubble. Most of the time it can be bad for you I'm sure. Working day after day in solitary confinement with just the cat to kick is not good for your mind.

On the other hand constantly getting interrupted when you are right in the "zone" is bad news as well. Website building and marketing is a very labour intensive process and so once you get your train of thought going and in the groove it can cost you a lot of time when you get interrupted.

When I used to work at home I'd often get interrupted just at the crucial train of thought bit and get really, really REALLY irritated and that's what made me realise I needed to get out of the house!

The way to sort this out is to turn off your IM clients whilst you are doing your productive stuff lke writing articles and building new pages and then turn them back on when you don't mind chatting. A lot of people like their MSN or Skype on full time so that it denotes they are "at work". But this isn't really the case. Just being available is not being at work, not in this industry anyway - we work to build websites that make money whilst we sleep - not to be chained to the computer.

So it was that yet another affiliate manager taps me up about the "fantastic" site I've built and any chance of featuring their product on the main page.

Now normally I don't go for giving out my skype and msn address but that reasoning is beginning to go the other way. Here's why:

If you live in a bubble and start working out how you are going to build a site and what to do - how do you have any clue that the end result is going to be a money maker? Sure you might find high traffic keywords with comparatively low competition, but how do you know they are the most profitable?

So who is going to be the person that knows what techniques work and don't work?

Your affiliate manager.

Affiliate managers are a growing breed. In fact I'd guess it's one of the fastest growing recruitment sectors in affiliate marketing. If you work in the bingo or poker industry for five minutes you'll get approached by an affiliate manager who wants your business. It's such a competitive industry that the bun fight is very real and affiliate managers take their job very seriously doing a lot of research to find out which affiliates are doing the leg work to make it happen.

Affiliate managers know what works and what doesn't work. The good ones do anyway. The problem is that like any industry there are always the good and the bad and you only recognise the difference through experience.

So how do you get to know a good affiliate manager?

Affiliate managers get bombarded with requests for info and most often from complete rookies who don't know squat from diddly. The problem for rookies is that affiliate managers are most concerned with the top 5% of affiliates that really produce the goods rather than the 70% who waste their time.

So how do you grab the attention of an affiliate manager?

Nothing comes to anyone in this industry by chance. There are those that have a great idea and hit the market running, but for all of those that want to clone the market leader and get a slice of the pie you have to do the groundwork in the first place by producing a site that shows you have put some effort into it.

Networking with affiliate managers is a great way to find out what products are hot in your niche and what methods are working but to be the beneficiary of any information you have to show that you have put some effort into your business plan and you don't expect it all to just drop in your lap.

In the beginning you get all sort of crap offers like the girl who wants to blow you off on skype. But as you build your foundation and get taken seriously the better offers start to come along. Building a network of contacts is one of the hardest parts of affiliate marketing to do - if nobody knows you are out there then how can they come to you?

The beauty of the internet medium is that if you are prepared to put in the hours, sensible posts on forums and genuine help offered will get you a great deal of respect for your efforts.

How this pays off financially is in many ways subjective but with so many shisters and hucksters all wanting the quick buck anyone who stands out from the crowd can build a long term business and stand head and shoulders above the majority.

Doing the hard work bit is a lot easier than doing the lazy bit. The hard work bit means you have somethng to show for your efforts and you can point to it as your commitment to further development. The lazy bit means if a good opportunity comes your way you won't know how to take advantage of it anyway.

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