Enough Dabbling in Affiliate Marketing
I’ve been dabbling, and I mean dabbling, in affiliate marketing for about 2 years. I have made a whopping $425 in those 2 years, $325 of which came from 2 sales of the Auction Genius Course off my “My eBay Adventure Blog”.
You would think after two years of dabbling in affiliate marketing I would be able to make consistent money at this stuff but alas, “tis” not true. This Affiliate Ground Zero blog is my fresh attempt to focus my spare energy into a few specific affiliate marketing areas, set some realistic affiliate marketing goals and become accountable to them through sharing those goals outside myself. Always a scary proposition.
Of all the different affiliate marketing avenues I’ve tried I would have to say that Build a Niche Store has helped me learn and stick with affiliate marketing the best. It appeals to my technical side, as part of earning money with Build a Niche Store requires learning store installation, keyword research, graphics, web hosting issues and the like. I need a wide assortment of things to do as simple things, like pumping out crappy, over-used content to create MFA (Made for Adsense) websites just to make money is beyond boring to me.
Build a Niche Store also has a huge established user base on the Internet to learn from. The forum on their home page is an excellent resource, albeit most of the users are way beyond my level.
There are also several Build a Niche Store blogs that are extremely helpful. Mark Hansen from “The Niche Store Builder” has an incredibly helpful blog. Forget BANS, if you regularly read Mark’s blog, you will learn most of what you need to know about affiliate marketing from someone who knows what he is talking about and shares that knowledge in an open forum. He is to be commended for the obvious excellence he puts into all of his work.
Another great BANS blog is “Soggy’s”, “Build a Niche Store Blog”. Soggy is another long time BANS user who knows what he is talking about. Soggy can correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m fairly certain I read on his blog that he has quit his day job and is now earning a full time income from BANS and his other affiliate marketing enterprises. One of the best things I like about Soggy’s blog is that he is so consistent in his BANS blogging. I’m sure that personal attribute is the main reason why he has persevered and is successful at affiliate marketing. He posts almost everyday and it seems I learn something with each BANS blog entry. Once again reading Soggy’s “Build a Niche Store Blog” will teach you much more than only BANS related information, as he covers a wide assortment of affiliate marketing related topics. One thing I am curious about is how he came up with the nickname “Soggy”. “Soggy” conjures up all kinds of images in my mind some of which I’d like to get rid of.
The last BANS related blog that is an excellent resource to its readers is Rochelle’s, “Niche Store Strategies”. Rochelle does a bang-up job with BANS “How-Tos” and gives clear, precise BANS instructions I always appreciate and can easily understand. Rochelle is also very open with her blog commentary, something I can relate too, and from reading her BANS blog as long as I have, I can tell she is a determined BANS warrior I can count on to continue the good fight and win. In fact Rochelle’s blog entry for today inspired this blog entry.
Like Rochelle, I am in an affiliate rut where “action” is getting swamped by “learning curves”. At some point learning must give way to action or progress grinds to a complete halt. That is where I am and I can think of no other way right now to get my ass in gear than to set some new realistic affiliate marketing goals and become accountable to them out in the open. Of course if I don’t hit my goals, please go easy on me.
So here goes.
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You might also like these similar posts:
- The Definition of Affiliate Ground Zero
- On The Affiliate Brink
- Shifting Affiliate Strategies
- Small Affiliate Marketing Successes
- Turning Lemons Into Lemonade
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Comments
Hi Mark,
I found your blog because of the pingback to mine (thanks for the backlink, btw). It’s good to hear that I’m not the only one in an affiliate rut, nor the only one motivated to change it. I look forward to reading more about your experiences now that I’ve found your blog.
Rochelle
P.S. (Sorry for not including this in my previous post) Any chance you will add your blog to feedburner so readers can get your posts via email? I find I don’t go back and check RSS feeds but the email option guarantees I’ll see new posts.
You can add your feed at feedburner.com.
Rochelle
@ Soggy
Thanks for clearing up the nickname. I’ll sleep better now.
@ Rochelle
You got it Rochelle, Signed up with Feedburner and think I did everything right. The RSS Feed button is on the sidebar. If I goofed let me know and I’ll fix it.
Hi Mark -
I just wanted to say that I like the look of your blog and that I relate to you and Rochelle both about being in a rut. I have spent the last several days trying to come up with a new idea for BANS and can’t find anything that appeals to me. Must be the dog days of summer.
Sherrin
Sherrins last blog post..Continuing to Grow Your BANS Business
Hi Sherrin,
Thanks for commenting and the compliment! I appreciate it.
You know what they say about ruts…there graves with the ends knocked out 
Ain’t that the truth about “the dog days of summer”. It’s like the brain just decides to go on vacation without our permission. Hang in there though. If your brain is anything like mine…it will get lonely fast and come rushing back to you with great ideas soon.
Thanks again!
Mark
Dave,
I tried to signup for email updates but nothing happens when I click the ‘Subscribe’ button.
Rochelle
Hi Rochelle,
I’ll take a look at why there might be a problem subscribing for email updates. I’ve submitted Affiliate Ground Zero to Feedburner so off the top of my head I don’t know.
If someone knows why this might happen I’d appreciate your jumping in.
Thanks in advance,
Mark
LOL. I got the nickname when I owned an office coffee company years ago. On rainy days I would be soaking wet during running the route. A few customers latched on to this and started calling me soggy. Thus the nickname. also, yes. I am full time at home with BANS and my blog. BANS gets better by the day.
Best of luck and keep your head up!