David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

I was reflecting last night on what kind of year it has been for me. December is a busy time of year what with trying to tie up loose ends, make sure websites focus on Christmas traffic, etc. It's also the time when the inevitable New Year's Resolution lists appear mine being no exception.

This got me thinking on who I've met this year, who I've worked with and who I've had the occasional chat with this year. Without realising it I've surround myself with rather successful people (I can honestly say I hob nob with millionaires, which are all real down to earth folk), all of whom are an inspiration. I've chatted with and met fellow affiliates, account managers, merchants and even chit chat with a network Director ;-) mostly care of Twitter interaction. This then got me thinking what can I do to be as successful as them. Here's what I came up with.
 
Budget

First and foremost it helps to have a bit of budget to market and optimise affiliate websites. As regular readers know I'm ticking over and have been for a while but I'm not living the dream. I'm chasing it and slowly but surely things are moving in the right direction but it's taking a very long time. Affiliate marketing is definitely not a get rich quick business, not unless you have a large budget to invest in the right areas to make a quick return.

Regardless of how you start, you need to put aside a bit of cash so you can invest it in your site(s) at a later date. The successful people I know all use professional PR agencies to get on TV, radio, prominent authoritative websites and in magazines. Some also have a crack team of red hot SEO specialists and all either employ people to manage content or outsource it.

Pluck a random successful voucher code, cashback or shopping guide site and there's rarely a day that goes by that one of them isn't in a "top 10" guide for something or other. That's thanks to their PR teams more than anything else. Good PR equals more visitors which equals more commissions (hopefully) which equals more PR. It's a self fulfilling prophecy but it needs to start somewhere.

For most it will take time to save the amount of money required to invest in professional services but for many successful affiliate sites to have PR agencies and the like, it must mean they are worth paying for.

Dedication

I'm a basket of eggs kind of person rather than a one egg man. I'd rather have several things to fall back on than just one site. This is broadly true of successful affiliate marketers too, but to a lesser extent. Of those I've looked at, there's usually a main site that eats up 80% of the time and effort with around half a dozen peripheral sites in various other sectors. Sure some have more and others have less but the fact is they don't have 250 niche websites about turnips!

As such, I'm looking to reduce the amount of sites I own in order to concentrate more on just a handful of sites.

Surprisingly, being successful means you spend more time at the computer. I always thought it would free you to do other things but alas that's generally not true :-( . It does mean you can holiday several times a year though ;-) . As the saying goes, work hard, play hard.

Relationships

Each person has a group of friends, ranging from other affiliates to account managers and merchants. They key to success is being able to surround yourself with useful contacts who you can trust and rely upon fdr feedback, criticism and even the odd bit of back scratching.

In a nutshell...

I'm still learning at this game. Every day I discover something new but it's taken me this long to realise it's not what I know but who I know. These people are an inspiration and are each success stories in their own right, from affiliates who have made their first sale, to affiliates launching huge market grabbing websites. From key contacts within merchants who can help with ideas to account managers there to offer support when you need it.

It takes time to get everything into place and money is, as always, a major barrier but it can be overcome.

Set some goals, find the right people to help boost your confidence and focus on the idea(s) that have merit and potential. Overcome jealousy (!) and understand what makes the successful sites successful.

But most importantly, make some friends. Contact the account managers of the programs you promote, comment on blogs of people you are interested in, follow them on twitter and the like.

It's not what you know but who you know - and you'll never know when they may well come in very handy.

Right, back to dreaming of being as successful... :-D