Questions from a newbie

[pce850]

Hi

I am new to Internet marketing and would like to apologise in advance if my questions sound green, naive or downright stupid. I don't have any marketing, programming or any such great Web skills that I'm sure many of the people on this forum have. I just want to know if it is still possible to make decent income through affiliate marketing even for a novice like me. I am prepared to learn and I completely accept that affiliate marketing etc is not a get rich quick scheme. I would be most grateful if you guys could answer the following questions for me:

1. Is there still scope for newbies to make money with affiliate marketing in 2014 and beyond or is it too competitive, difficult and over saturated now? When I say income I'm talking of about $2000 to $4000 dollars a month.

2. Will I need to build spectacular websites with phenomenal seo skills etc in order to be successful or can simple well written blogs/pages be just as successful if there is good content? I enjoy writing and feel that I can write good product reviews.

3. I have little experience although years ago I did run a few forums in which the intention was not to make money but I had a few Google adsense and Amazon affiliate links which earned me very little, not even a few pennies. That put me off ever thinking about affiliate marketing again although granted I had very few visitors. Would my Web page need to pull in hundreds or thousands of visitors a month to make the sort of income mentioned above?

4. Would my Web pages have to rank very high in search engines for me to even stand a chance of making any income? I guess this is very difficult and should a newbie like me not even bother unless I spend money on paid vistors etc?

5. Can someone living in the UK join American affiliate programmes or Amazon affiliate programmes or would I have to stick to UK ones in order to get paid etc.

6. I would really like to living from affiliate marketing, is this possible or has the time passed. Is it foolish for a newbie like me to consider earning well from affiliate marketing or is this just for experienced people who spend lots to make lots etc? What sort of income do people in my position make?

Sorry for so many questions I would really appreciate honest answers as I don't want to be in a position months down the line earning very little and being unable to be a success.

Many thanks.

 

[webDOMinator]

1. There is still plenty of scope and space for new affiliate marketers.
2. That depends on your approach. If you're going to sell things like weight loss, you'll need some blogs, and then to generate traffic to them, etc. Some approaches though you don't even need a website, just some profiles on social networks, etc. In the end, you're not really trying to make some fortune500 website for these people, just give them enough to get their attention and get them to the point of clicking your link. Maybe read some stuff on building blogs with WordPress or even blogger. You'll need to know how to buy a domain and point properly, some of the basic stuff of having sites. WordPress has tons of free plugins that do all kinds of things you might want to use on your site.
3. This fully depends on your approach as well. Your approach before sounded like you were generating some sort of revenue but not enough. Perhaps as an addition to just having the ads, you actively worked to generate more traffic to your forum, your earnings would have gone up. Perhaps having multiple sites, breaking down the main subjects of something into smaller more niche subjects, then generating traffic for each of the sites. Either way, you don't have to go with AdSense or any CPC stuff, you can get into some CPA marketing, and have direct ads your network offers in your blog/site.
4. You're not trying to make a fortune 500 website, or a website that ranks in the top 100,000 sites in the world. If you chose your offers correctly, and offers with good payouts for cost per action, or cost per sale... you could make anywhere from $6 to $50 / conversion ($6 being more like CPA and $50 being more like CPS). If you target the people you send to visit your site, and say only 1 to 2% of them click on one of your ads... then maybe only 2 - 5% of those people actually buy (may be higher for CPA, but lower payout), you can sort of see the numbers you'd need to get to make $100. AdSense normal ratios are somewhere in the $1 / 1,000 visitors range, but your ratio on a highly niche blog/site, well placed ad that has everything to do with the site's content could be higher if you've got higher paying offers. Many affiliates do paid traffic, but there is still the good old SEO and then, ofcourse, Social Networks help a lot.
5. This depends on the network, but from what I've seen, usually networks have no problem accepting people from other countries, as long as proper tax documentation is in place. Aff marketing is pretty international through and through.
6. It's still possible. Things have changed, but the game stays the same. As with anything, if you keep at it and use your imagination, you will reach your goals. There are many methods to choose from, and many offers to sell, so it's best to shop around for a bit, then dive in with something. Give it a little bit of time to generate you a sale or a signup, or even just a hit... whatever the type of affiliate marketing you're doing, however you generate a conversion, once you have one, you know what works. Multiply that. As far as what people make. I've seen people make more than $2,000 / month, and I've seen people only make $300 / month, but it completely depends on you. Use your imagination, talk with more marketers. Explore methods, and something will start working. Think big and you'll earn big. Think small and you'll earn small. Either way, it's still profitable.

 

[pce850]

Thanks for the brilliant advice. I really would like to make at least $2000 dollars steady monthly income which is sustainable. I always get put off by thinking that you need thousands of visitors daily to do well but as you hhave said it is possible without that amount of traffic which makes me hopeful.

 

[webDOMinator]

Thanks for the brilliant advice. I really would like to make at least $2000 dollars steady monthly income which is sustainable. I always get put off by thinking that you need thousands of visitors daily to do well but as you hhave said it is possible without that amount of traffic which makes me hopeful.

No prob brother, we'll are here to help each other succeed