Affiliate Website

There are literally millions of affiliate marketing websites out there claiming that they hold the secret to affiliate marketing success. So many in fact, that most new affiliate marketers are totally overwhelmed with options. Overwhelmed to the point of never starting at all for some.

The reason for this confusion is that most new marketers are searching for one thing. A PLAN! Simple, sound advice for starting a business venture online. What they find for the most part though, is a mile-long webpage filled with pie-in-the-sky promises, pictures of recent affiliate checks, and YouTube videos displaying various sized mountains of cash.

Setting off the bullshit alarm, as it should, for a large percentage of those who read them. So why do these pages exist in staggering numbers on the web? Because not everyone that reads them has bullshit radar. For a small percentage of the people who visit these websites this sales strategy works. It’s human nature. We are often driven by our senses and pushed to action by images and video displaying exactly what we want to see.

SUCCESS.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve been sucked in by one or more of these websites. I’ve been marketing for close to 14 years now and I too occasionally get sucked in by extremely well-written sales pages. Because I too would sometimes like to believe that a turnkey, magic button, marketing method exists.

Time and time again, experience tells me that this is wrong. So let me say it again, for you and me. There is no plan or package that you can buy, for any price, that is going to make you rich overnight without doing any work. Making a living with affiliate websites is going to require dedication, commitment, and some investment. Just like any bricks and mortar business.

As most of you know, I also own affiliate website design dot com. Where we build custom websites for affiliate niche marketers. Everyday I receive countless phone calls from people wanting to start an online business. But only a few of them ever become clients. About 10%. Why such a low percentage? Because the majority of them don’t like what I have to say. They don’t like it at all when I tell them that starting their new business online is going to take some money. All of the above mentioned sales pages have jaded many of them into thinking that starting an affiliate website is easy. That it should be free, or insanely cheap, to start their online empire.

Unfortunately, that is just not the case. Understand, when you start your business online, you are in fact starting a new business. Just like opening a new store on Main Street. With the same problems, the same risks, and many of the same investment factors. The old adage applies. It takes money, to make money.

Now for the bright side. Starting a business online has one major difference. The amount of investment required. Opening a business on Main Street has an initial cost is much higher than starting a business online. The overhead is much higher. You have to pay rent, utilities, city taxes, and several other things just to get in business. Not true with the Internet.

Rent is cheap online. Hosting your website can cost as little as $10 a month. Building your website is also cheap. The average affiliate website for our clients normally averages around $2000. Which may sound like a lot to some of you. But not if you compare starting the same or a similar business in the bricks and mortar world. It’s very likely that your start up cost for something similar on Main Street will cost you in the neighborhood of $40,000 or more. Thus the appeal of starting a new business online.

The point is that you must be realistic. You must understand that it is going to require some investment in order to be successful as an affiliate marketer. Even if you build your own websites. If you don’t have a few dollars to invest in your business, then save your money and wait until you do. Don’t go off half cocked and get sucked in by all the dream pages promising you success for $99.95. Because had you saved your money, and not bought into all these promises, you’d have had the sufficient capital required for taking a shot at the brass ring.

Stop and count up all the times you bought one of these plans. For many, if they are honest, the real amount of money spent will be well into the thousands.

Make a plan. Then stick to the plan. Decide on the amount you’re going to invest in your online venture. Breakdown the numbers and assign percentages to that investment. Decide how much is going to be allocated for design, marketing, traffic development, hosting, and so on and so on and so on.

Then stick to it.

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