How did you get started doing Affiliate Marketing?

[Linda Buquet]

What were you doing before you got started doing affiliate marketing? Did you have a J.O.B. and quit to do this full-time? Do you still have a J.O.B? Do you do AM from home or have an office?

Here is a long blog post about me and how I got where I am today:
I am often asked how I got started in the biz. So here is my wild ride to affiliatedom in a nutshell: http://affiliate-blogs.5staraffiliateprograms.com/2005/07/20/how-start-affiliate-marketing-programs/

So how about you??? How did you got started doing affiliate marketing? Did you have a J.O.B. and quit to do this full-time? Do you still have a J.O.B? Do you do AM from home in your PJs like me???

 

[ajaussiemale]

Hello Linda
In reply to your questions,

How did I get started?
I havent yet, but I am out of work because of illness and NEED to create an income of some description.

Did I have a J.O.B?
No.

Do I still have a J.O.B?
Obviously, no.

Do I AM from home in my PJ's?
Ummmmm, sorry, but I do not possess any PJ's.
I do live in Australia, however, and probably keep US hours in my research, so I guess if I had PJ's, the answer would have to be yes,,,,,,,,lol

still-not-able

 

[stephfoster]

I got started because of my job. I did medical transcription at home and kept getting asked how to get started. I was taking a web design class in college at the time, so did my class project on that subject. Things just kind of grew from there.

I quit transcribing a few months ago to have time to take care of my kids and grow my business better, since it finally started earning enough that I could do so.

Can't wear the PJs too long each day! I have an active 3 year old and a 5 month old. The 3 year old always needs to go outside to play, so I have to get dressed. I do a lot of my work in the evenings when my husband is home, since the kids need me frequently during the day. Daytimes are when I pop in to the discussion boards to see what's up, since I can step away from them more easily.

 

[StephenR]

I think I started marketing back in 1988 in the school cafeteria. I would sell Jolly Ranchers (an elementary school delicacy) for a dime a piece....and kids paid in droves. I did this every day and made a small profit. Basically only enough to buy another bag of Jolly Ranchers because I ate half the profits.

After that I moved onto lawn work. I would get as many jobs as I could and then have my friends help me finish them. They were eager to earn some extra money so it worked out beautifully. I did that all the way through high school.

After some schooling in Marketing/Advertising I decided to join the Air Force. My dad was in the Army during Vietnam and I felt I owed something to the US as well.

That was 7 years ago. The USAF has offered me many opportunities and taken me all around the globe but you obviously won't get rich in the military.

I guess about 4 years ago I started looking for ways to supplement my income. Like many of you in the beginning I purchased just about every e-book and marketing tool I could get my hands own....and you know what...they're all collecting dust.

Yes some were good reads but most were just regurgitated material from another marketer. The best way to learn this business is to just do it and TALK to other people who ARE successfully doing it.

Affiliate marketing allows me to do the things I want to do when I want to do them. It's a great business that literally anyone with the a willingness and dedication to learn can prosper from.

 

[Dorian]

ajaussiemale,

I read you post about how to get started in affiliate marketing. Well! Quite often I ask myself where to begin when someone asks me that.

First off you need to develop your why for doing so. Why do you want to get into business for yourself. This is what will get you up in the morning and what will keep you motivated.

Second, build a foundation of affiliate marketing, what it is, how it works and how to make it work for you?

Ask those question on online communities and people are bond to point you in the right direction.

Remember one main think, along the way you will receive many product offers and promotions and I want to strongly recommend not purchasing them unless they establish the ground floor of affiliate marketing. When I look at the material I have and the material that has made me successful it only adds up to $20 worth of products. Although I spent much more on other products they worth not a necessary purchase.

The good material and courses will also tell you how to build your business for free ike free traffic although there are minor business expenses.

I hope I was of help to you. Feel free to visit my profile and ask me a question if something was unclear of you need further information.

 

[cdorob]

If we think Affiliate Marketing on the lowest level (placing some links, but without making a real business from it) then the following must apply as well:

I'm now and Affiliate Manager, but during my early Affiliate Marketing days, I actually started for fun, while working as a Project Manager at a software company. My first site was about aquariums (the site is abandoned since some time now) and I tried to place some Amazon links on it I remember having a hellish time with HTML, and very few leads and no sales. After that, I've started a blog - which really got me into Affiliate Marketing (nothing extraordinary - it got me dinner from time to time). All this during my 9 to 5 job.

Now I just switched places as a Manager, and do what I know best, selling software (through affiliates), but my start in the business was more or less accidental.

I guess a lot of Affiliate Marketers start by mistake and they are not really aware that they are Affiliate Marketers (again if we take affiliate marketing at the lowest level).

 

[income2k]

Started Affiliate program with no luck

I started doing affiliate programs in hopes of quitting my day job as a Real Estate Agent. But I have to admit, I haven't made a dime but spent many dollars. I have no idea, how these so called gurus make tons of money through affiliate programs. I'm still searching because I'm hard headed.

 

[Dorian]

I started doing online marketing because I just feel in love with the business model and how it all worked. I was so new to list building for one and the very idea of it amazed me (and still does to this very day).

I love to be able to have the skills to take a product whatever it may be and market it to thousands of people all done at the comfort of my own home and at the click of a button sometimes.

 

[kbldshmn]

I started a little ebay biz on the side while I kept a day job. I researched a few more sites on how to make money online that led me to Adsense. From there, further research got me to affiliate marketing. I enjoy writing. And affiliate marketing blends money making w/ writing quite well.

 

[Linda Buquet]

kbldshmn saod: "I enjoy writing. And affiliate marketing
blends money making w/ writing quite well."

Getting paid to do what you enjoy doing... PRICELESS!

 

[Dar'ya]

Hello everyone!!!


Frankly speaking, If somebody have told me 6 months ago that I would work as affiliate manager - I'd be surprised!!! I had different kind of jobs : manager of AS,accountant,translator .
I have a 2 years old son - I have no time for searching a definite occupation - just job (Also I was a rare user of Internet!!! what a shame!!!).So my husband found it for me.

Now - I'm fond of affiliate marketing,this is really exciting business & I hope it brings a lot of money!!! But the main problem for me is to create a definite algorithm of good working affiliate system( relations between merchant & affiliate). I've read all these posts on this topic & made a conclusion that most successful people in affiliate marketing are those who have started
it as hobby not like a full time job.

 

[yanbiz]

I have started last summer (2006) because for a number of reasons out of my control (...) I had to do a debt consolidation. It made me angry about money. I first started to see how I could lower my expenses by selling my car, scratch my pennies, etc.

But after all kind of calculation, budget balancing, etc. I started to ask myself, how can I increase my income instead? There must be something on the internet, a part time opportunity, something to do to make a couple of hundreds to fill my bank account and pay back my debt.

I started with paid surveys and tried all sort of things because I'm a believer (and still) and now I am on this forum... Now I plan to leave the corporate world sometimes in 2008. So that's how is started out.

 

[kpfingaz]

How did I get started in affiliate marketing?

Well, lets go back to November 2005 when I read about....

No lets go back to before that, when I was doing MLM in a small country where I live in the Caribbean. The company was Quixtar and like 95% of the people who join MLM programs they struggle and don't make it and eventually quit. I went to all the meetings and got all the books but I didn't know how to market to people so I didn't do well.

November 2005 - I was reading a magazine called Small Business Opportunities Magazine that I had bought about a year earlier and came across an ad that I had seen about 100 times but somehow this time the ad stuck out to me and I wrote down the website address.

I got to the internet cafe the following day to see what it was all about - making money with Google. I later found out that the ad was placed by an affiliate of uhhh...Chris Carpenter? Did I get that right.

This got me into affiliate marketing where my first swing at it was through adwords at which I - as you would expect - didn't do too well.

But from my experience with MLM, I did not quit and I went on to learn a lot of stuff about affiliate marketing. I'm not doing adwords at the moment but will be getting back into it in a few months. Making money has actually come easier to me since I joined...errr....well a membership website that teaches affiliate marketing. So I'm finally learning to market the proper way and actually getting some where.

Before affiliate marketing, I had a job and I still do have a job but it wouldn't be too long before I give that up.

Jay

 

[hk997]

I just joined a few affiliate programs and hope to make a few dollar! the reason I wanted to be an affiliate was because of all the stories I read about these super affiliates who make $10,000 to $100,000 per month, don't have their own products, don't sale, don't talk to anybody, just make a few links to a few sites and advertise! I'm hoping to make 3-4 thousand dollar per month.

 

[Mal Keenan]

I started off marketing around 9 years ago. I hadn't a clue what i was doing when i first started. I have come on just a little since then.

The first program i ever promoted was Smallbizffa and I got $8 for every free member that upgraded. My first clickbank check had me hooked

I used ffa leads to send email offers and they worked quite well. I couldn't do that today nor would I with all the spam issues.

The net has moved on so much since then.

I still continue to use all the basic methods of internet marketing and any new ones that come along. The 'secret' is to do it on a consistent basis. This is where most people fail. If they don't see results in a week or two they give up.

If I had given up all those years ago I wouldn't be working fulltime from home now, obviously

 

[skjes]

I started Internet Marketing by chance 2 years ago but got serious only a few months back. I discovered making my first sale was also by chance as I was just sharing a product to 2 friends and presto one just signed up straight away and I got a sale. Kind of fun though so I thought if I can do more more I will be rewarded even better. Having to juggle with kids and a fulltime job and my IM business is not easy. Only one thing can happen - you reap what you sold. Therefore stay focus and as Linda has said, enjoy what you are doing and remember give thanks always.

Cheers!

 

[karenlim]

My chance into affiliate marketing

I love this thread. It is story telling time...

Like one of the members, I started with MLM first. That is Usana

It was tough and from there I understand about numbers game. To get the numbers I want, I needed more prospects

At that time, my uplines are not strong in internet marketing. So we all end up buying leads. But leads are expensive. Not before long, I realised that this is not sustainable because it also takes time to convert the leads into actual member.

So I decided that 1 key point is I must learnt how to generate my own leads.
One day, I decided to attend Stephen Pierce Internet Seminar and my life was changed since then.


I gained so much knowledge and had so much fun doing internet marketing than MLM. And most importantly, internet marketing allows me to share my deepest passion in a most efficient way to reach out to the world


All these years, I have a passion for self development. After watching the secret, I am also into practising principles of Law of Attraction and wanted to share this as a act to raise the level of awareness in people.


My chance came when Stephen launched a product which helped people to visualize better and increased their focus. He gave me my first footstep into an industry which I always dreamt of.


I am sure everyone deserves to live our dreams. CHeers to all of you!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Wow, such great and uplifting stories and diverse ways of getting started.

Thanks ALL for sharing with us.

Great thread! Keep it up!

 

[Roman47]

Hello Linda!

Quite an interesting thread there! Hmmm...before I joined this exciting world of affiliate marketing, I was actually a full time professor for 13 years in a local university handling engineering subjects!

I decided to go full time in this new found passion 6 months ago. I can say its twice as hard and challenging as teaching but I kinda enjoy it especially when the commissions start to flow!

I still teach part time though and I plan to learn and teach IT stuff such as online businesses.

 

[my2cents]

well I've told this before... way back in 1995 I was one of the first non academics in my town to get access to the net...

all I can remember is I thought WOW! this is neat... I can make a lot of money with this...

I poked around and figured out how to build a website... for an MLM program I was working at the time... an I started to tell people about my website... just as things started to get going.. I received a C&D order from the MLM company... telling my I could only promote the program eyebal to eyeball... (I thought what a waste....)

I started to look for something to sell online... I found an equipment leasing company that was offering 2% commission on all completed leases... I signed up created a landing page and started selling... 60 days later i recieved my first commission check for $1600... I was hoooked.. there was no going back... I worked that 2 years program until it ended... I remember one cent PPC... infact yahoo just recently cancelled my last few one cent campaigns when they upgraded... believe it of not these campaigns were still making me money when they were cancelled...

fast forward 12 years... I now have way too many websites in way too many niches... and I'm still having a great time doing this thing called Affiliate Marketing....